There are some characters that I don't really care about. At least if I think about them from a character development perspective.
Although I'd probably get along well with those "characters I don't care about."

And on the flip side, a lot of my favorite characters probably wouldn't care about hanging out at all XD
And some of my favorite characters I would probably find really weird if I were in their company (Tamaki from Ouran High School host Club, if he went into "host mode").


Grizzly bears

Kitchen Table Wisdom

I just read a really good book called "Kitchen Table Wisdom." It's a doctor writing about the lessons she's learned from her patients.
There were a few points that I thought would be fun to discuss a little.

Love vs acceptance
So, you'll sometimes run across people that are trying to earn the love of someone else. Like people trying to prove themselves to an overly critical parent.

The only thing you earn this way is acceptance, not love. You can't earn love, because love is unconditional. Some people get the two mixed up. Love is so much more than acceptance.

There's also a difference between attachment and commitment. Attachment is superficial. It's habit, fear of change, or sometimes even greed. If you're attached to someone, it's not a deep connection. But if you're committed to someone, that is a deep bond.

Sometimes you get stuck in a job that you're not thrilled with. But while you're there, you might as well do what you can with it. Find meaning in what you're doing. You can learn something even from crazy jobs. Though sometimes you might not know what you learned until after you've moved past them.
This also helps you feel more comfortable where you are, until you can move on.

(Shining shoes)

Tell your stories. People are made of their stories. Share them. And listen to people that want to share them. You don't have to interrupt with your own stories. Sometimes all you need is someone to listen. So you know someone cares.
You can learn so much from listening to others. Elders especially are filled with stories and wisdom.

Help people. It's easy to ignore the problems everywhere. At the very least, start by holding doors open for people who could use an extra hand.
But really, wouldn't you want someone to help you if you needed it? Be that person for others.

Don't treat people like strangers. Treat them like friends!



There's some weird belief that doctors can't show emotions to their patients. Not only can this make them seem cold and distant, but it's horrible for the doctor's mental health. People have to release their emotions sometimes. Especially when they're dealing with so many illnesses and deaths.
And doctors have to show compassion to their patients. If they treat patients like robots, it's not good for the patient either. When people are recovering from something tricky, they need all the help they can get. Not only with physical aspects. But they need the love and courage to go on emotionally.
Doctors have the expertise, but they also need the compassion.
If a doctor believes in you, that can have an amazing ability to help someone recover.

We need to let doctors stay emotionally healthy. It's too easy for them to break down. Our society is kind of terrible to doctors. They have to work crazy hours at a very difficult job. It can wear them out physically and emotionally. We trust our lives to doctors, and yet the system keeps them in bad shape. They're making these important people have a hard time making important decisions and diagnoses.


And remember, with every ending, there is a beginning. You can't have one without the other because they cause each other. When you're facing a tough end, remember a new beginning has started somewhere.
It may be hard to see it at first, but it will make itself known eventually.

Wildlife Expo

I went to this really great wildlife conference. I've been waiting to post about it until they got more of the videos on their Youtube channel. Animal conservation groups from all over the world come to talk about their efforts. And they sell beautiful stuff made by the locals (if people are starving, they're not going to care about helping wildlife. So you need to help the locals too).
I'd heard about this conference before, and it was exciting to be able to go to part of it, even if I only got to the last half.
The talks I saw were so well done.
There was a trio of talks about womens' empowerment. The lion part was my favorite.

Women Empowerment


Jeneria, as you can see, came out in this beautiful African outfit with the beaded collar and everything.
And look at how cute his socks are! With little pandas XD

(Sorry, the photo sucks. I had bad lighting).

Here are the other two womens' empowerment speeches.





And the elephant talk was awesome too.



And here's a talk I caught the tail-end of


If you can, see if you can help support any of these groups. You can donate, or even just buy from their shops.

Shield

Heheh. A couple days after the Pokemon Shield game came out, I tried out the gigantimax battling for the first time. And on my third giant battle, a shiny Vullaby popped up.
I didn't expect giant shiny Pokemon.

I guess it's too early to know if shinies are more popular as gigantimax, but they can definitely occur!

Microsoft Sucks

I feel like complaining.
A couple months ago, I brought my laptop in to see if they could help me fix something.
They didn't fix it. Instead they screwed it up. The battery life is about half what it was. I it drains more power somehow?
And they also made it so that I can no longer use Microsoft Word or Excel on my laptop.

I spent a very long time talking to Microsoft trying to get them to fix it. After all, I'd bought and paid for Miscrosoft word and Excel for my laptop. Despite that, they basically told me that I'd have to buy it again. And wasted a LOT of my time in the process.
So thanks a lot, computer place, for screwing up my laptop in the first place. And Microsoft, you suck.

So basically I can't write whenever I'm away from home and my desk computer.

The Royal Daulton Music Hall

The Mary Poppins sequel was okay.
But I was so ridiculously happy to see an animated chapter. It's been so long since Disney has made an actual cartoon. I was so sad and disappointed when they trashed their beautiful animation department.
I love many of the digital animations. Heck, my favorite movie is a digital animation. But I think good old cartoons are my favorite form of animation.
All those poor cartoonists thrown out on the street. TT^TT

Anyway, the animated portion of Mary Poppins Returns made me so happy.
Shamus was adorable.


And the background animals were so cute!
Look at the baby giraffe with a lollipop! The long giraffe tongue! (Giraffe tongues are 18 inches, by the way)


Here are some more~

(The stork has a little baby stork in a bundle XD )

Dark Phoenix

I think this is the first X-Men movie I didn't see in theaters.
But I did watch it on the plane to Florida.

It was underwhelming, but that's what I expected.
Professor Xavier was a disappointing leader. But the X-Men have always gone up against danger. This was the first time they complained about it.
The team had all the same dramas they've been having in the other new movies.

Nightcrawler was kinda useless for most of the movie. Then suddenly some random person died. I don't think he was any different than any of the other people who had already died. But Nightcrawler suddenly became a crazy knife-wielding assassin. It was really weird.
And I usually love Nightcrawler. TT^TT


And Mystique usually looks so awesome. But her makeup looks kinda cheap this time.
No Hugh Jackman cameo, which was disappointing, but not unexpected.
And we didn't really see any of Jean's loving side. In X-Men 3 you could see the good Jean trying to break free. But there was none of that in Dark Phoenix. You never saw any of the loving Jean.

And as usual, the timeline never lines up with other movies. In "Days of Future Past," Jean is alive as an audult. Ugh.
--_--

Yeah. The first two movies were so important to me. It's sad to be less and less interested in the new ones.

The Woman Who Loves Giraffes

A few weeks ago, I met the person who literally wrote the textbook on giraffes.
Her name is Anne Dagg. And she's the second person to ever study animals in the wild (after a study that was done on deer). She studied wild African animals before Jane Goodall did.

There's a new documentary about her, called The Woman who Loves Giraffes.

Even though she had a great education and field experience, since she was a woman she never got the jobs she deserved. For example, getting a proper job at a university she worked at.
Luckily that university has tried to make amends (several decades later). They now offer a scholarship in her honor. A human rights scholarship that gives $8,000 a year to a female student.

I went and saw the documentary in the theater, and there was even a discussion afterward with the filmmaker.
So that was cool!
It was a good documentary, and I'll add it to my recommendation list!