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My Life

Board games

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One of the main activities in our group of friends for quite a long time already is playing board games. And I have also created several Meetups on the same topic. It’s just a great activity and there are so many games to choose from! Sometimes you’d like to play something simple and fun while on other occasions I prefer strategic games where you really have to focus and concentrate. There’s a game for every occasion and every mood :)! Here are some of the games I would recommend if you haven’t tried them already! I also added BoardGameGeek links.

  1. Pandemic – definitely my current favorite game at the moment. It differs from most of the other games since you are actually playing as a team against the game itself.  It’s really addictive and can be frustrating (in a goof way I guess 🙂 ) if sometimes you lose and it’s just a really close call!
  2. Ticket to Ride Europe – a really good strategy game that takes some learning but when you get it you want to play it again and again!
  3. Touche – a fun and easy game to enjoy when you feel like playing something simple
  4. Dixit – brings out the creative side of players. It’s all about pictures and giving hints with just enough information. You’ll get it when you play it 🙂
  5. Citadels – just a great balance between simple and still the possibility to ply out you strategy
  6. Catan – I think this is one of the most known games. Definitely worth trying!
  7. Bohnanza – just awesome fun! And you can learn it in 5 minutes!
  8. Mysterium – somewhat similar to Dixit but still an awesome game on it’s own!

Of course there are several different extensions available for most, if not all, of the games above and there is still a cupboard full of games I have that I din’t mention but I just wanted to bring these out.

I’m actually also working on my own strategic board game. I have had the idea for couple of years but I have now finally taken up the mission to get it finished during this year. Hopefully it goes well! I will write a separate post about it someday soon!

Wish you all the best!

Lauri

 

 

My Life

My way of organizing thoughts

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I’m pretty sure that this happens to  everyone of us once in a while – just too many thoughts running around in the mind simultaneously. Can’t understand where one ends and another starts. Or you happen to catch yourself in the middle of the thought wandering why I’m even thinking about it when I should do something else instead.

Well, I have found an excellent way how to systemize all these thoughts, at least for me. And I’ve been doing it for several years now. Whenever I get the feeling that I need some clarity in my mind I’ll just open Word (or something similar) on my laptop or grab a pen and a notebook and just start writing everything down. It doesn’t matter in what order, are they sentences, just single words, random ideas or whatever. I’ll just write everything down and wont stop before I have no ideas left (for that moment at least 🙂 ). Doing this allows me to make room in my head in order to see the full picture and analyze what thoughts are important and which I should discard. From some of them bigger ideas or goals emerge, some I will form to actions and quite often many will be left just there… on the paper, but not in my head anymore clearing way to more important things. Of course it’s not like on/off button but it really helps. I call them “brainstorms” and I have dozens and dozens of these kind of files. It’s also interesting to look back sometimes and see what were my ideas a year ago and what has become of them since then.

Different activities and senses (writing, reading, hearing and so on) work differently on people but if you like to write things through as I do I would recommend to try something similar. There are probably millions of people worldwide advising to do the same thing (basically like writing a diary) but as usual getting to the actions is sometimes difficult.

One other thing that I started to do last year is that every morning I write down to my notebook the main activities that I have to do during the day. Every once in a while I look at them, make some comments, mark what I have already done and if in the evening there’s something that I missed I carry it over to the next days to come. Once again a good way to keep things focused! And I really like the writing on my notebook, I bought it right away when I saw it!

“Have a conversation with the universe”

mde

Wishing you all the best!

Lauri

 

 

 

 

 

My Life

My favorite TV Shows

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A long time ago I made a post about some of my favorite movies and I thought why not share some recommendations about TV series also. Just to be clear I basically didn’t watch any series (besides Top Gear and the Simpsons) before our trip to SE Asia but there I discovered Westworld and now we (me and Anna) find ourselves quite often spending quality time behind a laptop screen :).  We both generally prefer Sci-Fi related shows (she of course watches several different “beautiful” series also with a lot of romance and drama 🙂 ).

Anyways – I will rank them in my preferred order although in some cases it’s really difficult to rate one on top of other. I also added IMDB links to all the series. Here goes!

  1. Planet Earth and Planet Earth 2 – these are in a totally different genre compared to all the others in the list but they will take you on an incredible journey through various beautiful places on our (only) planet. This is a MUST watch for everyone who… well actually for everyone who lives on Earth to be honest :)! And of course legendary Sir David Attenborough and the magnificent camera work. It literally took them years and years to complete 6 episodes. You can find an interesting article about it here.
  2. The Grand Tour and “Old” Top Gear – well it’s just really really good entertainment and a good example about how the people matter, not the show itself (hinting to Clarkson, May and Hammond). Of course in several occasions they go a bit too far but that’s just a part of it. Definitely would recommend!
  3. Black Mirror – Just superb and really makes you think about how technology will affect our future! I wrote a separate post about it, you can find it here.
  4. The Simpsons – it’s a classic, probably no comments needed :).
  5. WestWorld – there’s also a separate post about it, link available here.
  6. Dark – this is really an atmospheric series that revolves around time travel but with it’s unique style. And when there’s time travel involved it’s always interesting and thought provoking! What happens if I go back in time and stop my grandfather meeting my grandmother… (Which I of course would never do even if it would be possible 🙂 )
  7. Stranger Things – this is one of those hit series at Netflix but with a good reason since it’s really awesome! There were only a few episodes that lacked the quality compared to others but generally it’s really well executed!
  8. The Crossing – although this show is also very Sci-Fi related it concentrates more on the characters and human relations/behaviours in complicated situations.
  9. Altered Carbon – this is once again a really thought provoking series about what is consciousness and what makes “us” us. What would happen if we could just trade one body or “shell” for another and make unlimited copies of ourselves… but enough information, go and see for yourself :)!
  10. Lost in Space – this one mixes a “family show” with Sci-Fi, aliens, spaceships, psychology, relationships and much more. But it does it well :)!

I hope that you found some value in the list if you’re interested in these kind of TV series and you’ve been thinking about watching something new. I personally cannot wait already when there will be new episodes released to all the series mentioned above!

Feel free to share your own recommendations about some shows that you have really liked!

Netflix and chill everyone :)!

All the best!

Lauri

SE Asia

What to bring along if you’re going to SE Asia for half a year

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From one side there are quite many things you have to bring along if you’re going so far away for such a long time. From the other side if you’re not going in the middle of nowhere then you can still get a lot if not most of the things locally. We will be travelling with our backpacks and it’s just not possible to pack half an apartment along. So if maybe someone is also planning to go travelling soon here’s my checklist of what (at least at the moment) seems to be reasonable to pack before heading out. Feel free to comment if you think that I’ve missed something :).

Documents

Passport, ID-card, Driving license, Several copies of passport, airline bookings, insurance papers, Visa documents, accommodation papers

Means of paying for expenses

Bank card, local cash

Technical equipment

Laptop + mouse, E-book reader, Wacom pad for drawing, GoPro + accessories, small Bluetooth speaker, DSLR camera + accessories, ID-card reader, extra cell-phone for local internet usage, external storage devices for photos and videos, headphones, travel adapters

Clothes etc

Comfortable sneakers, flip-flops, swimming gear, shirts; socks etc, jeans, lightweight towel. Most of the clothes in this case we will get locally :).

Other equipment

Big packback, small backpack, hygene+shaving products, sunglasses, Lonely Planet guides (nowadays there’s a huge amount of info online but it’s still to have a few good “real” books), playing cards, sunscreen, lots of sunscreen, resistance band for home workout, different medicaments

Of course the truth will be prevailed when we’re actually there. Then we can see what we forgot and what we dragged along with no reason.

SE Asia awaits!