In Steven Universe, when one character's having a problem with another, eventually they manage to work it out. For example, when Ruby and Sapphire are having a fight. Steven's afraid that he did something wrong that made them mad at him. And Sapphire starts crying when she realizes how they were affecting him. 

Unfortunately in my experience, a lot of the time if person A says that person B hurt them in some was, B just gets angry and defensive.

I've been avoiding my emails all day because I wanted to enjoy my day off as much as I could. But I'm almost out of day, so I guess now I have to check my emails... If they're professional and mature about it, everything should be fine. I just don't know what to expect anymore. I wonder how likely it is that I'll get a nice reply. Maybe there won't be anything. Maybe we'll talk about it tomorrow instead, which I think would be better. It's easier to communicate some things face to face. 

Anyway, the moral is try to communicate. Try to do so with cool heads. If you're having a problem with someone, you should tell them. And if someone tells you that they have a problem with you, try to figure it out.

And now I drag myself off to deal with my problem.

 Maybe I've had no ideas for blog posts this month because I've been stressed at work XD  

I've never had so few ideas for my blog. I've got one day left to write four posts, which I doubt will happen. I've already stretched the posts out, using some of them to vent. Although I do feel better after shouting out to the randomness of the internet.

Address the Stress

 Jeez, I feel like I just threw down the glove at someone. I've mentioned being stressed two posts in a row (sorry XD ) and I've been trying for a while now to figure out the best way to address it without doing so in anger. I have no idea if it came out as just an angry response, but it was something that had to be said. Whether or not I wrote it in anger, people will read what they want into it. I've already learned that.

Thinking of what to say is stressful on top of the stress of the problem. Now that I've said it, there's a little less stress. I just have to wait and see what happens.

I guess I have more reason than most to be stressed. The last time I sent an email telling someone about something I wanted them to change (for example, asking a best friend of 15 years to be a little less fierce while analyzing my stories) the person receiving the email suddenly seemed to decide that she hated me (It's hard to imagine one person treating another that way unless they hated them).

Maybe a professional setting will lead to a less dramatic response. 

This post was supposed to be about how to face stressful problems with someone at work. It's turned into a vent, which probably isn't surprising. Either way, I've said what I had to say and now I just have to wait. 

Without letting the wait mess up my weekend. @_@

Pokémon Masters

There's a spin-off Pokémon game called Pokémon Masters that I've been playing. You can team up with characters from all of the proceeding games - gym leaders, elite four, and other notable characters. 

You can talk to your team members and they have all this sappy sweet stuff to say to you. But work has been really stressing me out the last few weeks. And I find that these sappy words from computer characters are cheering me up a little. It's feels bizarre. But they have done studies where people can be cheered up by inanimate objects, so it's not unusual.

You can team up with the villains too. Like Giovanni. Why are Giovanni and Mewtwo a team? Mewtwo would never form a bond with Giovanni! But the pair is so strong that I use them regularly. And I also feel weird leveling them up. Because making Giovanni stronger just feels like it's asking for trouble XD

Lysandre is the villain from the X and Y games. He owns a cafe. It blew my mind when Lysandre offered to make me a cup of coffee. That seems like it would get a super awkward response like "I don't drink coffee (but I'd be too scared to drink it anyway)." 

 I haven't been able to find the pen for my drawing tablet. Argh, I'll bet anything that someone was messing with my stuff and moved it. I've looked in every pen area I can think of. I wonder if someone tried it, thinking it was a pen without ink, and threw it away...

There were several digital art projects I wanted to do. And it's an old drawing pad. I don't know if I can get a replacement that's not worth more than the pad itself. And the laptop is old, so I don't know if I can find another tablet that will work on it. I tried a different one, and it messed up the laptop. 

Argh. I hate that photoshop doesn't let you buy the product anymore. I'm not going to pay every month for something that I could have just bought. I hate this trend of getting a different subscription to everything. It's terrible. (I want to buy the movie Wolfwalkers, but there's no way to do that. I'd have to pay for Apple TV over and over every year to watch it, instead of buying one movie. There's nothing else on that subscription that I care about).

Anyway, vent. I'm stressed. @_@

Newspapers

Pacific Grove is this pretty town next to Monterey. I picked up one of their newspapers to look at an article about monarch butterflies. I don't read too many newspapers, but I know what they look like. And Pacific Grove's newspaper felt so much more intimate than any other paper I'd seen. It must be because it wasn't from a big city. 

They had a section for people to submit poems, and discuss trees and stuff.

It was refreshing. I felt happier just looking at it XD

All the Best Nerds

I haven't even started writing yet, and I'm already afraid that this is just going to be me talking about nerdy characters. 

At first I wanted to say that I was glad that there are some great nerd heroes now (me being the nerdy bookworm I've always been). But then I realized that I just have a certain definition of "nerd" in my head. A long time ago, their equivalent of a "nerd" would have been something very different. Maybe bookworms like Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Shizuku (Whisper of the Heart), Bastian (Neverending Story) and Hermione (Harry Potter). 

Of course writers love to write about bookworms. And yet when I think of them, I don't think they're nerds. Maybe a character needs to be a little more quirky? I don't even know! 

These are characters that I do consider nerds. And many of these guys are among my favorite characters! 

Connie (Steven Universe)

Hiro Nakamura (Heroes)

Kipo, Lio, and Song (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts)

Flik (A Bug's Life)

Hiccup (How to Train your Dragon)

Dave (Sorcerer's Apprentice)

Peter Parker (Spider-man) And it occurs to me that Dr. Octavius fits here too. He only has a few minutes screen time before his mind is stolen away, but he is nerdy in that brief span. Tell me that this isn't a conversation between nerds: 

Dr. Octavius: Did Edison sleep before he turned on the light? Did Marconi sleep before he turned on the radio? Did Beethoven sleep before he wrote the 5th?

Peter: Did Bernoulli sleep before he found the curves of quickest descent?

Honeylemon and Wasabi, and some of the others (Big Hero 6)

Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Tombo (Kiki's Delivery Service)

Onoda (Yowamushi Pedal)

Riley (National Treasure)

Many of these characters are from very popular movies or shows. Disney, Steven Universe, Ghibli, etc. When I was a kid, there weren't really any nerd heroes (at least not the kind I include on my list). I think the oldest character is Flik, who was more of a quirky inventor. It sort of makes sense, since what makes someone a "nerd" would evolve over time, so I'm thinking of the current type of nerd. 

I'm just glad that there are so many great nerd heroes now (as I've said before, I relate to Connie more than I have to any other fictional character). 

And this doesn't even count scholars or scientists like Grace Augustine (Avatar-though she does have her nerdy moments), Casey Newton (Tomorrowland-she's also somewhat nerdy), Emmett Brown (Back to the Future) or Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist). Though Dr Alphys (Undertale) and Milo (Atlantis) are pretty nerdy too.