Many times in my life I have faced this dilemma. People have pressured me to talk more and to go out more, even if I would’ve preferred not to.

Introverts are more comfortable spending time alone, or with 1 or 2 friends. They usually prefer listening rather than talking. They don’t have the energy to be surrounded by people all the time.

I have expressed these feelings repeatedly. And yet, I still have to deal with the same kind of comments:

• “You are so quiet, you should talk more”
• “Why are you so quiet? Are you okay?”
• “You should go out more”
• “Don’t be so shy”
• “SAY SOMETHING!” (literally yelled at me while eating a taco – and I was chewing)

This might not come across as the harshest kind of criticism, but the constant reminder that something is wrong with one’s innate personality is exhausting.

If you have an introverted personality, you might have experienced something similar. And there might come a time when you are faced with the introvert dilemma.

You could give it a try and bring out your extroverted side. It’s okay if you want to become more sociable or if you want to be louder. It doesn’t mean that you are conforming to someone else’s standards. You are choosing what you think will make you grow.

Personally, I’ve never felt the need to change that aspect of my character. I decided that this is who I am and even if my decision is not set in stone, I live by it. If you are content on the introverted side but sometimes need support to embrace it, remember that introversion is a part of who you are.

There are a few other things that I would like to remark:

• If you are not hurting anyone and you are happy with who you are, you don’t need to change.
• You might be quiet, so what? That doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to say. The important thing is that you know it.
• It’s not rude if you don’t want to make small talk, most people would forget about it anyway.
• Maybe you’d rather stay home than go out. That doesn’t make you anti-social, you can still have a healthy social life.
• It’s okay if you need time to recharge after going out with people.
• It’s not okay if people harass you to be more social, even if they have ‘good intentions’. You can let them know that politely.
• Don’t be afraid to stand your ground when you are being pressured. But don’t condemn all attempts to get you out of your comfort zone either.

Hopefully you can find a balance between embracing who you are and accepting constructive criticism. I know it’s a difficult task; it’s been a constant challenge for me.

But ultimately, everyone has the right to make their choices. And it is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are.

(-Felt like Dumbledore for a second-).

I look forward to hearing other experiences. Do you ever get overwhelmed by social pressure? Do you wish you were more of an extrovert? If the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good and kind and brave because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort.

(-I’ll see myself out-).

The post On being an introvert and embracing it appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

Well, some years ago (around 1989) NASA found a way to combat these side effects of house hibernation with simple houseplants. Here I compiled a list of the best air cleaning plants that are also pet friendly!

NASA’s study shows that enclosed spaces like houses, departments and offices are prone to have certain chemicals in the air that may cause sickness or discomfort. These are the three main pollutants that may be harmful for you:

If you spend most of your time indoors you might benefit from one of these plants since they act like natural air filters. They could make your indoor air cleaner since the first day! (And they are all non-toxic, so don’t worry if your cat starts to chew on them).

1. Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)

This is one of the best options if you want to battle formaldehyde -I suggest you put the spider plant close to your pressed-wood furniture or  smoking area-.  Also, isn’t it pretty? If you go with this one make sure to get it with enough root-soil instead of having it growing on water, according to NASA this is the most efficient way to clean air pollution.

2. Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea)

The mighty Bamboo Palm is not a specialist in just one field but showed great performance in reducing trichloroethylene, benzene and formaldehyde and graduated as one the bests of its class for the whole experiment. This one could go anywhere in the house. Or maybe you could take it to your office and place it close to the printer supplies!

3. Gerbera Daisy (Transvaal daisy)

This beautiful flower is not just something pretty to look at,  it is also the best known plant to clean trichloroethylene from the air. You can get rid of traces of this solvent and have a beautiful decoration at the same time! (Remember thought, a potted plant is way stronger than a plant submerged in water).

4. Dwarf banana plant  (Dwarf Cavendish banana)

Maybe you don’t have the space to grow a whole-sized banana plant, but these dwarf version is small enough to fit in your living-room or laundry-room. Banana plants are another excellent way to filter formaldehyde from the air.

Did you know that everyday your plants spend surrounded by these chemicals will make them stronger? They will genetically adapt and get better at using toxic chemicals as food (Yummy, right?)

Well, now you are ready to go and get the plant that better suits your needs. Remember that I’m only listing pet-friendly houseplants (I consulted aspca.org to make sure they were non-toxic) but if you don’t a have pet you could check other houseplants also recommended by NASA. Here you can read the complete report for more information, it’s very interesting!

Will you get one of these plants for your house or office? I’m still counting how many gerberas I can fit in one house…

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If you answered YES! to one of these questions, this collection of Overwatch inspired outfits might be perfect for you…

As a little girl I always chose videogame characters based on their cuteness. It would always be Princess Peach in Mario Kart, Chun-Li in Street fighter and always the prettiest pink Pokémon in my team. Of course, with time I’ve learned that it’s not fair to dismiss ugly or unstylish characters since true power comes from within. It’s also so much fun to kick someone in the face with Dhalsim.

Even though my taste in videogame characters has changed (-a little-), there’s still a special place in my heart for cute designs, nifty outfits and cool backstories. That’s why when I got Overwatch it was so difficult to stop staring at the characters and actually play the game (so many skins to look at!).

This post is dedicated to those like me, with a special appreciation for character design and cool outfits.

Mercy:

“Heroes never die.” Mercy is a medic and scientist, therefore one of the coolest characters. This outfit was inspired by Mercy’s Valkyrie suit, with winged accessories and a chic white coat. It might be missing a skirt but that’s just to embrace the videogame character look. Purple eyeshadows add an extra mature touch to achieve Mercy’s sophisticated appearance.

image credit: blizzard

Tracer: 

Tracer’s outfit is a mix between a pilot and a runner. She’s young and playful so I pictured her real-life outfit comfortable and somewhat stylish. Bright running leggings and sneakers combined with a leather jacket (with patches) was my pick. Also, a pixie haircut to fully pull it off.

image credit: blizzard

Pharah:

Pharah’s style is polished (literally) and rather elegant. She also seems proud about her Egyptian roots. I decided to go with a blue jumpsuit accessorized with gold Horus themed jewelry. Black eyeliner in Horus style and ready to make justice rain from above.

image credit: blizzard

Mei:

I think Mei might be wearing more layers than these. I gave her a big jacket and Uggs since that’s basically what she wears in the game. I also added two more layers of clothes: a cozy sweater and a t-shirt from a climate safety organization (350). Mei thinks our world is worth fighting for and she fights to preserve the environment. She also seems like a friendly girl and wears a pretty hair piece.

image credit: blizzard

You can also check the outfits on Polyvore if you want more info. I wish I could get Mercy’s whole look! Do you have a favorite Overwatch outfit?

The post Overwatch Inspired Outfits (Part 1) appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

Click here to get the high-resolution smarthphone wallpaper:

Click here to get the high-resolution desktop wallpaper:

Enjoy!

The post Free Wallpaper: A book is a dream appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

1. Get DailyLit

DailyLit is a website that sends you short installments of literary classics to your inbox so you can read in your phone without downloading the whole book (perfect if you wanted to read The Count of Monte Cristo without actually carrying the 1200+ pages mastodon in your bag). This service is free, you just provide your email to create an account and you can start searching the catalog full of free books by authors like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Jules Verne as well as contemporary novels by new authors. DailyLit offers a great opportunity to those who want to read more classics but are discouraged by the huge size or are concerned about getting rapidly bored. Here you just open your daily email and read for 10-15 minutes every day.

2. Download Audible

Audible is an audiobook service by Amazon. Here you cand find a large selection of audiobooks from any category and download it to your phone or tablet so you can listen at the gym, while you run around the park or during your daily commute. If you want to try this service you can sign up anytime and get your first audiobook for free (just remember to cancel your membership at the end of the month so you don’t get charged for the next month – they’ll let you keep the free book!).
3. Make a to-be-read list

This one might seem obvious but I have learned that having a TBR list helps me recover from a book hangover way faster. Take all the books on your list that you were planning on starting (-like two years ago-) and pile them together in a visible place. That way you’ll be ready to take one as soon as you finish your current book (and MAYBE while you behold the ever-increasing TBR pile you’ll start working on your shelves’ read/unread ratio).

4. Read more than one book at a time

Have you read a book that you really wanted to finish but you got stuck in that chapter or in the middle of that boring never-ending scene? (-Who is John Galt’s speech?-) Reading multiple books allows you to jump into another one when you lose the inspiration to keep reading. The trick here is to combine different genres and sizes, if you are reading a big non-fiction book about science combine it with a light comedy fiction. If your hardcover of Don Quixote won’t fit in your purse (or the prose is too much some days), read The Time Machine or Rossum’s Universal Robots, both are short science fiction reads that you won’t easily mix with the region of La Mancha.

5. Look for inspiration

Sometimes it’s not that we don’t have the time or that we lack resources, it’s simply the absence of inspiration to start reading. You can love reading but maybe other activities are getting in the way (and with other activities I mean checking social networks and watching videos of puppies learning to walk -you’re welcome-). There’s a cure for that, though. I love following book-centered accounts on my social networks so they will load my timelines with book news, reviews and pretty images. If you are in need of some bookspiration I recommend checking out some of these accounts on Instagram, Twitter and Youtube:

• @abookishloveaffair, @sammyreadsbooks, @readsleepfangirl, twirlingpages and @librarycutie are some of the prettiest accounts I’ve found on Instagram, they post daily bookspiration, cozy images and book challenges that the whole community can take part in, just adding the #hashtag to your posts.
• Twitter is a nice platform to keep in touch with book bloggers and stalk their interactions with other bloggers so you can follow them all. Some recommended accounts that link to book reviews, giveaways and book memes are @Monica_Wilcox, @HowlingReviews, @Magic_Kitten and @startingtospark.
• If you would like to watch book reviews on Youtube here are some accounts to follow (most reviews are YA), abookutopia, LittleBookOwl and EpicReads.

6. Join Goodreads

If following strangers on social media wasn’t enough to make you read, you could join Goodreads and add your friends to follow each other and look at their TBR lists, favorite books and shared book quotes. This service is completely free and is compatible with Facebook and Kindle. Goodreads also offers thousands of book reviews written and voted by the users, annual book challenges and lists of recommendations on different themes.

7. Download the Kindle app 

If you don’t have a reading tablet but you have a smartphone, tablet or computer, this app is what you are missing in your life. The Kindle app can be used in almost any device, it’s free to download and it can sync between devices to keep your bookmarks and highlights. The Kindle catalog is almost as complete as Amazon’s itself, offers all the best-sellers at competitive prices and has a catalog of classic books going from $0 to $1. I use Kindle for desktop to read during my lunch break sometimes and also have the app on my phone in case of an emergency (looking at you, dentist’s waiting room).

8. Make a routine

Now, this one might seem like the most trite advice but hear me out, have you ever been in your bed all cozy and then remember that you forgot to brush your teeth? And then you hated yourself because you had to get out of bed to brush your teeth or it would be impossible to sleep? (-I hope I’m not alone on this-). The same happens when you are regular at the gym and then stop going, or when you watch a show every day after school and then they cancel it. Routine makes us comfortable and gives us control of something, go read every day or every other day, but do it. Always before bed, always on your way home, on your ten minutes before class starts or during your lunch break. If you power through the first few days the rest will be easy.

9. Get a subscription box

If you, like me, have a large pile of unread books and stare at them while thinking “I have nothing to read” we might have a lot in common. The best way to cope with this reading bump is to find a way to create a connection with a book and with other readers. You could join a book club (or create your own!), this will give you a deadline to finish the book and will generate interesting conversations and it’s also a great way to make new friends with the same interests. If you don’t have the means to join a traditional book club, you could get a subscrption box. If you subscribe to one of these services they’ll send you a surprise book and bookish goodies every month, which later you can discuss with other subscribers that got the same book. You can check UPPERCASE, Owl Crate and The Book Drop if you are interested in getting some book mail.

10. Make the most of your idle time

In engineering idle time is synonym of non-productive time, a.k.a waste. I’m a firm believer that time enjoyed was not wasted, but more often than not we spend idle time checking our phone or watching netflix just to fill out the gaps between activities. With a little help from the resources mentioned above you can make the most of your free time (and your non-thinking time). You can listen to Audiobooks or Youtube book reviews while washing the dishes, running on the treadmill or driving. You can read on your computer while eating your lunch or take out your phone during a long line at the grocery store and read a couple of pages. You can make it a routine to read one chapter of a book while drinking your breakfast smoothie and I promise that the next time you get to a bookstore you’ll recognize all the best-seller covers from all the bookish accounts on your social networks.

And that’s it. Hopefully some of these tips will help you achieve your reading goals, are there any other resources you would recommend? Let me know in the comments !

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