Insider Volume 23 Issue 13

INSIDER 15.1.2021 | VOL. 23 | ISSUE 13

STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK

STAFF

EDITORIAL

Editor in Chief: HUGH CLACK

LIDIIA BENKOVSKAIA

JOONATAN BERG

IKRAM BECHARI

EVA MOROVSHCHIK

AVE-LIIS KOOBAK

MARIAN KEINAN

VLADA POLISHCHUK

MERVEILLE BIVU NDONGA

PHONE +358 44 702 8758 WEBSITE insider.xamk.fi EMAIL insider@xamk.fi INSIDER STUDENT MAGAZINE South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Paraatikenttä 7 45100 Kouvola INSIDER ISSN 1457-1587

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EDITORIAL Hello dear readers and happy new year!

We are back again, and, we as Insider Writers, didn’t forget you. All of the team prepared plenty of articles for you to read and to enjoy.

Well, here we are again, returning to “the new normal”. I’m sure that all of us are overwhelmed by the fact that we were obliged to start over our studies digitally instead of face-to-face lessons. In Kouvola, it was planned that we were going to go back to the campus, but suddenly the decision has changed because of the sudden rise in infections’ number in the Kymenlaakso area. Enough talking about the bad vibes, and let me tell you more about this week’s articles.

In the reviews section this week, you will find Ave-Liis’s book review, which is “Sincerely, F.S Yousaf”. It’s a beautiful poetry book that I highly recommend to read.

Next comes Marian’s article that represents her year of 2020 in pictures.

Then, we have Merveille’s article, where he talked about the new year’s resolutions and gave us some motivation for 2021. In the same category, you will find Vlada’s article where she spoke as well about the new year’s resolutions.

For the recipe category, you will find two articles this week. Lidiia gave you the Jelly Juice recipe. And I shared with you an exceptional one, which is the Mug-Cake recipe.

I have one request this time, dear readers, please don’t hesitate to write us feedback and comments because it will help us develop the magazine’s content.

Well, that was all for this time.

I wish you all a pleasant reading!

Written by Ikram Bechari

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2020

IN PICTURES The year 2020 was a year that will be remembered by most people.

The world stopped and people were left confused.

It was a very challenging year for many and for example new students had to adjust to their schools in a different setting.

However, we also want to remember the good things that happened in 2020. From the small moments of being able to go for just a walk in a forest to seeing your healthy parents for the first time in weeks. We are darkness and we are light but so is the universe from which we came as Joshua Cintron said in his famous quote.

Let's remember the year with pictures.

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"Fragments"- series of paintings

IN PICTURES

"We are the darkness we are light, but so is the universe from which we came..."

Written and photos by Marian Keinan 5

RECIPE Juice Jelly

Low-calorie and tasty dessert - juice jelly. It will take about an hour to cook and solidify. Any juice you love will do - just a couple of glasses. Jelly can be garnished with fruits and berries.

Ingredients: • Juice - 2 Glasses (orange, peach, pineapple, etc) • Gelatine - 25 g • Sugar - 1 tsp Servings: 4 Instructions: 1. In a saucepan, combine two glasses of your favourite juice with gelatine. Leave for an hour to swell the gelatine. I have orange juice, so my jelly will be yellow. But you can use any juice you have in your fridge.

2. After an hour, add a spoonful of sugar to the juice with the swollen gelatine and send the pan to the fire. Stir the jelly with a wooden spoon until the sugar and gelatine are dissolved. Warm up, but do not bring to a boil!

3. Remove the pan from heat. Pour jelly into the molds rinsed with water. The bottom of the mold can be laid out with berries or fruits. Due to the fact that I am using orange juice, I will lay out a couple of orange slices. First, I remove the skin and select the bones. The work is painstaking, but it is very pleasant to eat peeled fruits in jelly! I fill the molds with the mixture and leave to cool at room temperature. Then I put it in the refrigerator until it cools. Before removing the jelly molds and the refrigerator, I tighten them with transparent cling film.

4. Select the jelly from the mold (dip the mold in hot water to make this easier). Colored juice jelly, served with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream, looks beautiful.

Bon Appetit!

Written and photo by Lidiia Benkovskaia

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2020

The social media of XAMK

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eSports Game Ecosystem 01.09.2019 _ 30.04.2022 7

MOTIVATION Proud of you!

Before starting the new year, I want to write to you and tell you how well you have succeeded.

at every class and exams or I’m going to make my business plan. And then some longer-term goals like I’m going to travel the world before I start a As everyone knows, the last year was not easy, family, I’m going to publish my book or I’m going and I don’t know what you’ve had to experience to start my startup business. besides the pandemic, but you have survived it.

So be proud of yourself.

And yes, there must also be dreams and goals that scare and feel big. But still, they have to be At the start of each year, I make a small recap of realistic. the past year.

In it, I examine how the year has gone and whether I have achieved the things I had set for myself.

At the same time, I set goals for next year. E.g., for last year my goal was to get an upper-level education and to drink more water daily. Plus, many personal goals.

"Goals need to be realistic otherwise it is difficult to achieve them."

I will end this writing with a small poem from “familyfriendspoems” and wish you a Happy New Year. May your year be productive.

Poems about Dreams and Goals Life is filled with Dreams, Dreams which give our life meaning and inspire us to change. We dream about change and improvement, we set goals, seemingly impossible goals, goals which challenge us, and we dream about the future, when we will reach our goals, when our lives will change for the better. Without our dreams, Life and humanity would be hopelessly dull.

It's not a New Year's promise because they are less likely to stay.

Goals need to be realistic otherwise it is difficult to achieve them. If you tell yourself that this year, I will become a millionaire and you have a few hundred euros in your bank account and no plan, that is not a very realistic goal. Or is it?

So set some small goals like for e.g., in 2021 I’m going to start walking more, keeping track on what I eat, seeing my family more often, trying my best 8

Written and image by Merveille Bivu Ndonga

NEW YEAR

New Year reflections Life experience accumulates every year and sooner or later leads to a rethinking of your life path. Therefore, I would like to talk about how often our negative thoughts subsequently destroy our plans and ourselves.

Last year, one of the problems was negative attitudes in my head, which of course were based on failures that left their mark on my life. Many of us assume the worst ahead of time to keep ourselves from disappointment. For me, negative thinking was not a problem then, but a conscious choice. I did not notice how much it affects my plans and me, because I thought that I was just making my life safe.

One of the problems I have faced is that the brain is focused only on avoiding bad experiences, so it is unable to think about other tasks, such as the next steps to achieve a goal. You become a kind of pessimist who does not even try to find a solution to the problem but is pre-determined to fail. From this comes the loss of creativity, of course for people of the creative profession, where quick non-standard solutions are needed, this is a huge stress.

Also, your brain is overworked when you constantly expect "a blow from life". You think too much about the possible negative consequences. This affects memory, the ability to reason clearly and logically.

Plus, not suppressing pessimistic thoughts can lead to a dwelling on them. Everyone is familiar with the situation when you cannot sleep or concentrate on work due to the fact that various nonsense climbs into your head. This results in constant tension and stress, which have a negative effect on mental and physical health.

I have often come across the “self-fulfilling prophecy effect” when everything bad that you expected to happen comes true. After all, you expect that everything will go badly, you behave accordingly, and this is how it happens. This closed loop leads to thought disorder, which, in turn, provokes depression.

Negative

thinking

hurts

by

everything else. It is worth avoiding destructive negative attitudes that prevent you from learning a lesson, finding positive sides in what happened to you, and moving on. In this new year, everyone has a new opportunity to change their lives for the better. Perhaps sometimes you make obstacles on the way to your goals. It is never too late to get things right.

Written and photo by Vlada Polishchuk

overshadowing 9

RECIPE

Lazy Mug-cake Hello dear readers, this time, I want to share with you a recipe that I call THE LAZY MUGCAKE. This recipe is for any lazy person who wants to get some made home sweet quickly and easily.

You need two essential things to prepare the mug-cake: a medium-sized mug and a microwave.

Ingredients: • One big spoon of butter • four pieces of chocolate, you can use any kind of chocolate • two to three big spoons of sugar, any type of sugar • One egg • Two big spoons of flour • Pinch of salt Optional ingredients: • chopped white chocolate (that is what I prefer) • nuts How to prepare the mug-cake?

1. Start by melting the butter and the chocolate. Put them together in the mug and microwave them for 1 minute.

2. Give them a good mix until you have a homogenized liquid.

3. Add the sugar and the salt and mix again.

4. Add the egg and mix.

5. The last step is to add the flour and mix until you have a homogenized texture.

In case you want to use the chopped white chocolate and the nuts, put them in the mug, give them a mix, and then put them in the microwave.

I personally cook my mug cake for 1 minute and 30 seconds at the highest temperature. The more you cook it, the more the texture is dry. However, the best texture to get at the end is moist mug-cake.

Enjoy your mug-cake and watch out your mouth from the burn because the mug-cake is hot!

Written and pictures by Ikram Bechari

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BOOK REVIEW STUDIO 123

Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi 15.1-21.1.2021 STUDIO 1 RISTO RÄPPÄÄJÄ JA VÄÄRÄ VINCENT (S) | 11€ | 1h26min Fri-Sun 14:20 PERUNA (7) | 12€ | 1h49min Every evening 16:00 STUDIO 2 AALTO (7) | 8€ | 1h43min Thur 14:15 TUNTURIN TARINA (S) | 12€ | 1h17min Fri-Sun 15:30 Mon-Thur 16:30 STUDIO 3 AIKA JONKA SAIN (7) | 11€ | 1h44min Fri-Sun 14:00 FALLING (12) | 12€ | 1h52min Fri, Sun, Thur 16:00

Sincerely, F.S Yousaf

This book was written because Yousaf wanted to propose to his love. He read the letters she had written for him and in them he found the proposal and at the same time his muse to write these poems. These poems truly tell the story of how much someone can mean to you. It carries out messages of positivity, hope, and most of all, true love.

I don’t exactly read a lot of poetry on my own, but this one caught my eye a long time ago but people hyping it on the internet. It took me a while to get it but now I don’t regret it at all.

I could relate to some of the poems and I really hope all that have read this book, have felt the same. Yousaf has painted beautiful pictures by words. It’s really easy to understand. It made me happy reading that someone could truly affect someone else this way.

It’s such a beautiful book and the cover is beautiful. I love the aesthetic.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes love poems and letters!

TOVE (12) | 12€ | 1h56min Sat, Mon-Wed 16:00 KARALAHTI (12) | 12€ | 1h57min Sat, Mon, Wed-Thur 18:10 PALM SPRINGS (12) | 11€ | 1h30min Fri, Sun, Tue 18:10

Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more

Written by Ave-Liis Koobak

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