Too Much Work

I've been reading Bakuman. Which is a manga about the process of making manga.

And it's reminded me of some things I've heard of, and witnessed.

In Bakuman, the characters dreams are to become manga artists.
Except because of the way the system is set up, being a manga artist seems like a rather miserable way to live.
Manga artists have to spend so much time working on their story to meet deadlines that they don't get enough sleep, and can't do anything besides work on manga.
That is not how people are happy. That is how people get sick.
Although it has let people accomplish some amazing stuff (sometimes at the cost of a shorter life).
Spoilers.
Which is exactly what happens in Bakuman. The guy works so hard that he makes himself sick. And even in the hospital, he won't take off time to work on his manga.
By the way, his uncle died because he worked too hard on manga.
It's not manga that makes them sick, obviously. It's the system that gives such short deadlines. And it depends on the area too.

I haven't finished reading yet, so I'm not sure the full message they want to get across. The characters want to change the manga system, but they don't seem to mind the fact that they work themselves sick... even though that should not be a normal thing.

People are not built to spend their entire lives sleeping and working. They need to get out and do stuff.
And yet certain industries and places don't seem to care. They expect the people who work for them to be robots.

There was a documentary I watched about how people have happy lives. And a lot of it hadhto do with NOT working too hard. People need time to socialize. They need to keep ties with family. They have to hang out with friends. They need to go for walks, or do something fun, creative, and different.

I wonder if there's some way to make companies understand this...

Creativity

I can finally do creative stuff again. TT^TT
I'll finally be able to work on Evva's story some more. It's been ages...

Actually, I still need to work on my project too.
Now that I'm through the busy-ness of last week, I can get on that. Again.
Even though they were supposed to give me more information about what to work on next... I've got a while to wait before I know how my exams went too.
(Still on the endless process of sorting the 5,000+ photos from my trip, though I've accomplished a lot already).

Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy what's left of my summer vacation though, without too much more insanity from school.

Share the stickers~

I really hate wasting stuff. I hate throwing things away if they still work.
So, it's fun to see how things get passed along.
For example, at the humane society where I volunteer, there's a drawer full of stickers. People have random stickers sitting around that they don't want anymore. So they bring them in. And then us volunteers get to raid the stickers.
I found a sheet of Last Airbender stickers! Whoo!
Plus there are lots of cute animal stickers.

Also, if people have random snack items sitting around they they won't use, they bring them in and share them with everybody. Cookies, chocolate, ex.

So, find creative ways to pass along stuff you don't need anymore. Don't send it to the dump.
Especially considering all the research I had to do for my exams involved seeing how much resources go into creating all our crud.

All Done

Well, I got my exams turned in Sunday morning.
So I spent all of yesterday doing creative projects which I haven't been able to touch in a couple months.
And I can start writing again. TT^TT

I'm volunteering at the ranch camp this week. So that's fun, although I'm tired too. I'll have to go to sleep soon.

Although I'll have to start working on more grad edits soon.
I really hope they're satisfied with those exams. I worked my butt off on them, far more than I should have.

Final Day

Okay, it's the last day of exams.
Tomorrow morning, I will be free.
Ugggh, I'm so sick of this chair though. My butt hurts. TT^TT

Question 1 Done

Gonna post here, mostly for stress relief.
I finally finished question one. It took me day and a half.
For a single question.
There are six more questions.

So, I'm pretty positive (I'm pleading that it's so) that the other questions should be much much easier.
Because I am not working at a sustainable rate, if I want to finish these exams on time.

I Guess I'm Not Surprised

Almost through my first day of exams.
There are six questions. And I've spent all day on the first one. Although I think this should be the hardest. I hope...
Jeez, they didn't say they'd have a huge math equation I'd have to plot out. It's taken me all day to dig out all the bits of data I need.

Also, reading through the exam questions for the first time, I saw that they're messing with me again.
I had a very specific list of sources to use for the exams. But I definitely need more than the hundreds of pages I've been reviewing. So, I've gotta track down extra sources...

Stronger Than You

So, my exams are coming up tomorrow.
Or so I've been told.

I've been re-doing all the studying that I did before my trip.
And I thought I'd share some of the stuff that gets me pumped up during these endless study sessions.
A good distraction (as long as it doesn't steal your whole night) and a good way to get your excitement going, so you can get through that next batch of articles.

By the way, spoilers coming up. For both Undertale, and Steven Universe.

I'm getting quite an extensive playlist of Undertale songs and animations.
I listened to this one a few times, because the Lyrics were awesome, and it's about one of the most intense battles in gaming (Despite the fact that I'm voting for the player to lose every time. Go Sans!).



For some reason, I thought that these were just lyrics someone had put to one of the Undertale soundtrack songs.
Even though I have the soundtrack and have listened to it many times.

A couple weeks ago, I started watching Steven universe.
Yeah, I'm always super late to jump on band-wagons.
Two evenings ago, I was watching one of the episodes, where a bunch of the characters were prisoners on a spaceship. When one of the characters started singing, I thought it sounded like an Undertale song. But I figured it must be coincidence.
Until Garnet started singing.



Totally unprepared for such a freaking awesome battle montage, set to a song that was already super intense for me. It was like a punch to the chest.
Holy heck. It only took me a couple episodes to think that Garnet might be my favorite character (I never know for sure until I'm pretty much done watching something) but this fight scene seals the deal.
Garnet is freaking awesome!

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening watching the fight scene, and listening to Undertle versions of the song.
Over and over.

I also found these




So, yeah. It's good to get pumped up, but you may not want to spend the whole evening on it.
Oops.

Pokemon Go-ing

So, there's a big fuss all over about Pokémon Go.
I was excited about it too.



But I ended up being disappointed. And not just because of all the glitches and bugs that still need to be worked out.
And how there is no explanation of how to play.

The game is extremely limiting.
A lot of people live in areas that have few Pokémon and no Pokéspots, so they can't get items, or level up.
There aren't any Pokéspots near my house that I can walk to. There was one the first day, but it was gone when I biked past today? I have no idea why.

And the second reason it's limiting is because it's supposed to use huge amounts of data. So, a lot of people can't play until the next month comes, when their data for their phones will be renewed.
In my case, I don't even have a smart phone. I don't need one, can't afford one, and I don't even want one. So, I've been playing some on my Mom's iphone, which she doesn't use that much. Except her data plan is very small. And if I use up all of her data, she will probably kill me. So, I can't really play the game much.
Even though I've been a dedicated Pokémon fan forever.

Not to mention all the news stories about people putting themselves, and other people, in danger by not paying attention while they play.

So, yeah. I'm disappointed. This game seems to work really well for specific people.

I feel really behind in Pokémon Go. Sigh.

Being American

While in Italy, someone who lived there was talking with a couple people in our group (He was American, but had lived in Italy for many years).
He said that Italians really like Americans. Probably because of all the money tourists bring in. So, when there was the big financial crisis, the Italians were sad because there weren't as many American tourists. Heheh.
But they are also impressed by how generous Americans are. In Italy, people are more concerned about family, and not so much other people.

Actually, that's not what I wanted to write about.
It's something else he said.
When America elected Obama as President, some people in Italy cried. They said that only America could elect a colored president, after having such a history of racism.

So, that was one of those things that made my day a little brighter. I hadn't thought about what other countries would think of the election.