So, last week I bought myself a Chromebook. This is not going to be one of those reviews where I convince you to buy it now, but my own personal experience based on a few days.
Firstly, this was not bought to replace my laptop. In fact, I'm thinking of ditching it for a gaming or high powered desktop after university while staying faithful to an over 15 year relationship with Windows PCs.
I have switched from a 15.6" laptop to an 11" Chromebook to be used while on the go. That means that I find the keyboard a little small, but still workable. I would also say that the touchpad is delicate (it is way too easy to switch lines while typing by accident) and can be compared to a Macbook.
As this is my secondary 'laptop', I don't need it all the time. But dropping documents into Google Drive means that I must be connected to the internet for the files to save and simultaneously appear on both devices. Although it is great to simply connect before leaving home, then do all my work on the go without powering off and open them again when I get home to find the new versions. The battery life helps with this. With my wifi off, muted volume (I won't need sound if I'm listening to my phone on the train) and no bluetooth (seriously, who still uses that?), I have found that on 88% battery, I still have almost 12 hours left. Obviously, the more processes happening, the shorter the battery life. But that also means I won't need to charge it during the day if I make sure I have enough before leaving home. It also makes my bag lighter whilst walking around.
I have a HP version of this, bought on my university campus (they overcharge on everything and I paid £250 for it) and I have no problem with a lack of USB slots (2) and an SD card slot. I can even plug in a HDMI cable for presentations.
Lastly, as this has turned into an amateurs review, it's super cute in size. It fits snugly in my handbag, and I barely notice the weight gain.
I do like this Chromebook, but not as a primary device. It works great as something portable and light, without the pricetag of a Macbook. You also shouldn't expect too much from it, from what I can tell, it's basically a tablet with a keyboard (not detachable), a fast startup time (less than 10 seconds) and the processing power to do the things adults do most often, which is check emails, write documents and surf the internet. Depending on the brand and model, the RAM and memory will vary, but I'm sure that's nothing an external hard drive will fix. Maybe don't expect Photoshop too soon though.
Anyway, I'm travelling tomorrow so if I have anymore to add after a proper use, I'll add it at the end.
Unconditional love,
Cazzie x
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Thursday, 29 January 2015
A Little Something / University Advice and Review
I came to university to discover who I am, to procrastinate whilst accumulating a huge debt, and to find my purpose in life. This is what I've learned over the three years:
Well, we all know I'm failing terribly at my subject. I do much better at academics (somehow, considering I have the attention span of a sieve), and hate my course. I don't know if I should pursue my current aspiration of being a social worker; to help kids in the care system. This is based loosely on the experience of having a foster sister for a few years.
The debt. Why, oh why did I pick the expensive way through life?
I can't spell. In fact it's getting so bad I'm worried that I could be dyslexic. Thank goodness for spell check!
Love life: Let's not delve into the past, but embrace the, oh so confusing, present. I have a major crush on a girl in Florida... I am sleeping with my best guy friend. He doesn't want a relationship due to having major commitment issues, but I've accidentally grown to love him. THERE, I SAID IT! I can't make my heart choose, there are issues with both of them and they each know of the other and how I feel.
Then a friend confessed her crush for me over tumblr. I mean, if she told me in first year, maybe something would have happened?
And the past is an icky place.
Happiness: as a group project, we launched ProjectHappyUK. It's our way of spreading awareness of mental wellbeing within students, who often get stressed. We also worked in partnership with UMHAN, a charity that specialises in this. We did this by making a series of videos, holding bake sales, and giving out hugs and business cards with positive messages on them.
Unfortunately, being bipolar, I have become extremely depressed. I had a very long positive period, and so I am worried about the duration and severity of this episode. It's a shame it had to happen at the end of this project, but I should have known it would creep up on me.
Anime is a great time waster.
Coursework should not be done in the last couple of weeks, but it will be.
Decide on a final project at the beginning, not in the middle when you have no hope of changing it. (This was due to my depression, and lack of general motivation).
Friends don't last forever. But they are always there if you want to reconnect. Also, you will become close to someone during Freshers, and barely speak to them again afterwards.
First impressions are not your only chance. Heck, I told my current lover that I'm a lesbian so that nothing would happen between us, that didn't go to plan.
Being bisexual is complicated, only for explanations. Even at university, many people don't know what it is. Then again, they confuse bipolar disorder with schizophrenia.
Love comes in many forms, and even if the words are not used, there are other ways of showing it.
You pay for damn prescriptions. No more free healthcare for you.
Depending on how you manage your money, and how much you get, your student loan will be a blessing at first, before you realise how much everything costs.
During the most stressful year of university, you will probably have to work as your loan gets cut. Well done SFE, well done. With added stress, I now have less time.
You will not party as much as you thought in your following years.
Running away seems like a good idea at first, until you realise you won't have a degree until you actually finish your course by SUBMITTING EVERYTHING! You might have to repeat your last year. (Genuinely thinking of going to Europe until after my deadlines, maybe Amsterdam or Sweden.)
You will ignore all the advice blogs out there. Even this one.
Know your housemates before you move in, because finding a new place mid-term will make you enemies, and poorer, with added stress.
Costa and Starbucks are expensive if you buy them before and during every class. Stay away or make your own to bring in. Travel mugs are really cute, convenient and cheap in comparison. (They also make quirky vases if you get unexpected flowers.)
Being healthy isn't easy, but buying ingredients instead of ready made meals will MAKE you healthier.
Graduation will be worth all the hard work and stress. And university is a lot more fun than the working world (at least the first two years are).
This was really long so I'll stop now. I seem to have moved on from what I was originally going to write, but that's just how my brain works. Oh, go follow me on tumblr now :) details in the top right.
Well, we all know I'm failing terribly at my subject. I do much better at academics (somehow, considering I have the attention span of a sieve), and hate my course. I don't know if I should pursue my current aspiration of being a social worker; to help kids in the care system. This is based loosely on the experience of having a foster sister for a few years.
The debt. Why, oh why did I pick the expensive way through life?
I can't spell. In fact it's getting so bad I'm worried that I could be dyslexic. Thank goodness for spell check!
Love life: Let's not delve into the past, but embrace the, oh so confusing, present. I have a major crush on a girl in Florida... I am sleeping with my best guy friend. He doesn't want a relationship due to having major commitment issues, but I've accidentally grown to love him. THERE, I SAID IT! I can't make my heart choose, there are issues with both of them and they each know of the other and how I feel.
Then a friend confessed her crush for me over tumblr. I mean, if she told me in first year, maybe something would have happened?
And the past is an icky place.
 |
| Sometimes, I wish I had joined Mike at MU. |
Happiness: as a group project, we launched ProjectHappyUK. It's our way of spreading awareness of mental wellbeing within students, who often get stressed. We also worked in partnership with UMHAN, a charity that specialises in this. We did this by making a series of videos, holding bake sales, and giving out hugs and business cards with positive messages on them.
Unfortunately, being bipolar, I have become extremely depressed. I had a very long positive period, and so I am worried about the duration and severity of this episode. It's a shame it had to happen at the end of this project, but I should have known it would creep up on me.
Anime is a great time waster.
Coursework should not be done in the last couple of weeks, but it will be.
Decide on a final project at the beginning, not in the middle when you have no hope of changing it. (This was due to my depression, and lack of general motivation).
Friends don't last forever. But they are always there if you want to reconnect. Also, you will become close to someone during Freshers, and barely speak to them again afterwards.
First impressions are not your only chance. Heck, I told my current lover that I'm a lesbian so that nothing would happen between us, that didn't go to plan.
Being bisexual is complicated, only for explanations. Even at university, many people don't know what it is. Then again, they confuse bipolar disorder with schizophrenia.
Love comes in many forms, and even if the words are not used, there are other ways of showing it.
You pay for damn prescriptions. No more free healthcare for you.
Depending on how you manage your money, and how much you get, your student loan will be a blessing at first, before you realise how much everything costs.
During the most stressful year of university, you will probably have to work as your loan gets cut. Well done SFE, well done. With added stress, I now have less time.
You will not party as much as you thought in your following years.
Running away seems like a good idea at first, until you realise you won't have a degree until you actually finish your course by SUBMITTING EVERYTHING! You might have to repeat your last year. (Genuinely thinking of going to Europe until after my deadlines, maybe Amsterdam or Sweden.)
You will ignore all the advice blogs out there. Even this one.
Know your housemates before you move in, because finding a new place mid-term will make you enemies, and poorer, with added stress.
Costa and Starbucks are expensive if you buy them before and during every class. Stay away or make your own to bring in. Travel mugs are really cute, convenient and cheap in comparison. (They also make quirky vases if you get unexpected flowers.)
Being healthy isn't easy, but buying ingredients instead of ready made meals will MAKE you healthier.
Graduation will be worth all the hard work and stress. And university is a lot more fun than the working world (at least the first two years are).
This was really long so I'll stop now. I seem to have moved on from what I was originally going to write, but that's just how my brain works. Oh, go follow me on tumblr now :) details in the top right.
Unconditional love,
Cazzie x
Friday, 2 January 2015
Sunday, 28 December 2014
Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun (Seasons 1 & 2)
How can something be so beautiful and so sad at the same time?
These two series follow on from each other fairly well, and even the episode number (in the anime, not as listed) follows on in ascending order. It's as though the series was supposed to be one long one, but they decided to put it in two halves (I have not read up on this, nor know the actual reason behind this decision).
The story follows Shino, an apparent pre-pubescent boy, and his childhood friends, Sousuke and Hamaji. They were orphaned due to a terrible incident in their village five years prior, and stuck together as family, the only survivors. With strange ties to the church, a lack of memories of the past and demonic powers, this story covers it all. Some things are not even revealed until the very end, so it has plenty of questions to keep you watching.
I found it really intriguing, there are hints to keep you guessing but it is also pleasant to watch by just going with the flow and not thinking too much. I would also call this a casual anime, you get obsessed with watching it, but you don't feel the need to watch every episode in succession (it came out a year or two ago, so I watched it when I had the time, instead of making time for it).
If you liked Spirited Away, Fruits Basket, or any other anime with spirits, demons and all things legendary, then check this out. You won't regret it, that is my personal guarantee.
Unconditional love,
Cazzie x
These two series follow on from each other fairly well, and even the episode number (in the anime, not as listed) follows on in ascending order. It's as though the series was supposed to be one long one, but they decided to put it in two halves (I have not read up on this, nor know the actual reason behind this decision).
 |
| Shino. |
 |
| Hamaji. |
 |
| Sousuke fighting himself/ other half. |
Unconditional love,
Cazzie x
Saturday, 27 December 2014
Trinity Seven
Probably the worst anime I watched this season, not for the storyline, but purely for the ending. Like, I just went to check on extra episodes and remembered that it is finished. I only watched the last episode a couple of hours ago. It needs and better ending, I feel like there are too many questions left. Like, [SPOILER] was that really his cousin or is she made up and his memories manipulated? Either way, it wasn't explained properly, maybe it was the subs, but it was probably the story.
"Everyday is a normal day in the small town where Kasuga Arata lives; however, everything changed on the day of the Black Sun, and following it, a magician appears before him. The Black Sun caused the Breakdown Phenomenon which destroyed the town where he lives. Because of this, his normal life was artificially reconstructed by a Grimoire that his childhood friend had left. Just what is the purpose of the magician coming to the town? What will he do with the Grimoire's keepsake?" (animeultima.tv)
Everything was coincidental, as expected, and Arata is the typical pervy schoolboy. Suddenly he gets landed in a school of female mages and his life changes forever. Not only is he clueless about his new life, but he is also extremely powerful.
Don't get me wrong, the series was great, panty shots actually fit the story and I liked it. But the ending ruined it. Go check it out and see how much you like it.
Unconditional love,
Cazzie x
Grisaia no Kajitsu (Fruit of Grisaia)
NO, THIS CAN'T BE OVER!!!!
This is a series that I loved so much this season, and I am truly sad to see it go. Apparently there is a second season, so I will be eagerly awaiting this. It was a Visual Novel first, so I need to read that now, and if anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know.
"Mihama Academy—on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-cum-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree. Whatever the circumstances behind its establishment, Mihama Academy is at present home to five female students, all with their own reasons for "enrollment." For better or worse, each girl has established a routine obliging of her current situation; life moves at an idle, yet accommodating pace within the walls of Mihama. Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome? And in the first place, just who is Kazami Yuuji? While the true nature of the "job" he is wont to alight to at the most haphazard of moments remains shrouded in secrecy, one thing is for certain—his encroachment upon the quiet orchard known as Mihama Academy will prove itself momentous in one way or another. And of course, one cannot discount the possibility that perhaps Yuuji himself carries the weightiest past of any of the students..." (From animeultima.tv)
This is a series that I loved so much this season, and I am truly sad to see it go. Apparently there is a second season, so I will be eagerly awaiting this. It was a Visual Novel first, so I need to read that now, and if anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know.
"Mihama Academy—on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-cum-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree. Whatever the circumstances behind its establishment, Mihama Academy is at present home to five female students, all with their own reasons for "enrollment." For better or worse, each girl has established a routine obliging of her current situation; life moves at an idle, yet accommodating pace within the walls of Mihama. Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome? And in the first place, just who is Kazami Yuuji? While the true nature of the "job" he is wont to alight to at the most haphazard of moments remains shrouded in secrecy, one thing is for certain—his encroachment upon the quiet orchard known as Mihama Academy will prove itself momentous in one way or another. And of course, one cannot discount the possibility that perhaps Yuuji himself carries the weightiest past of any of the students..." (From animeultima.tv)
Even after watching this, I am not too sure of what is was truly about, but it was entertaining. I love how less than halfway through the series, we begin to find out why the girls are at this school, or in better words, what is wrong with their past. The last 'story' is the longest, spanning 3 or 4 episodes but it is very in depth and quite emotional. It's not a mystery that you can simply predict, but little hints here and there are provided (not enough to piece anything together) but the full story is explained. Yuuji's story is interwoven and explained piece by piece throughout the series.
The title is subtle yet truthful to the series, where the girls have fallen too far from the tree in which they were grown, they are not doing or being what is expected of them.
I really do recommend this series, if you do not watch anything else from this season, this is the one. I don't want to spoil any of the series, so I shall stop here.
Unconditional love,
Cazzie x
Friday, 26 December 2014
Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji (Wolf Girl and Black Prince)
I haven't posted over Christmas as I went to see family for the week, which means I caught up on my anime today and I am writing the posts now (they will be uploaded over a couple of days).
Firstly, this is the most beautiful ending to a series I have seen in a while, no loose ends, no real questions (that bothered me) and it all wrapped itself up nicely. Being a comedy and reading the synopsis before starting the series, I was skeptical.
"The story centers around Erika Shinohara, a vain 16-year-old girl who tells her friends about her romantic exploits, but she actually has no boyfriend. She claims that a handsome boy in a candid photo is her boyfriend, but it turns out that boy is a schoolmate named Kyouya Sata. She has no choice but to make him her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, Sata may look like a sweet person, but he is actually an ultra-black-hearted sadist. Sata takes advantage of Erika's weakness and treats her like his dog." (From animeultima.tv)
Firstly, this is the most beautiful ending to a series I have seen in a while, no loose ends, no real questions (that bothered me) and it all wrapped itself up nicely. Being a comedy and reading the synopsis before starting the series, I was skeptical.
"The story centers around Erika Shinohara, a vain 16-year-old girl who tells her friends about her romantic exploits, but she actually has no boyfriend. She claims that a handsome boy in a candid photo is her boyfriend, but it turns out that boy is a schoolmate named Kyouya Sata. She has no choice but to make him her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, Sata may look like a sweet person, but he is actually an ultra-black-hearted sadist. Sata takes advantage of Erika's weakness and treats her like his dog." (From animeultima.tv)
It reminded me of the film Easy A with Emma Stone, except Erica wanted everyone to know about her fake boyfriend. She is really relatable, in some aspects, but is a typical girl. She wants to impress some new friends, and her lie just gets bigger and bigger, but I found that even though she is the main character, the story actually focuses more on Sata. He is the heartthrob of the school, and every girl wants him, but he is not interested in anyone.
If you want to watch a light hearted comedy, with plenty of character development, this is for you. Also watch if you like Baka no Test, shame there's no cross-dressing though.
Happy Watching.
Unconditional love,
Cazzie
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