Not a big deal

Ada is not upset and doesn’t mind, obviously.

If there are any typos or text is weirder than usual – sorry, I’m so tired I am not even trying to fix anything, I’d probably just make it worse. Got back from Tokyo yesterday and jetlag is kicking in hard. Still – worth it. I love visiting Japan, always something new to see, experience and eat. I’ll try to drop remaining photos to http://ni-japan.tumblr.com sometime this week, I still haven’t looked through the ones from Kyoto, not to mention other places we’ve visited.

And I’m almost done with the 2nd Mistborn book. The first one was cool, I loved the characters and the plot was very entertaining but the second book… Damn I kept reading and reading, waiting for something good to finally happen but I’m almost done with it and it’s still so depressing I want to throw it at the wall and give it a kick. I hope there is a really sweet and tender ending waiting for me, the amount of angst and suffering was simply ridiculous.

Apart from books – is anyone watching Kiznaver?

39 comments on “Not a big deal”

  1. Dæmon Reply

    I believe you mean, “To shoot” for the third panel, and “the woods” for the last. Also, you could shorten “she is” I to a contraction if you wanted. It flows more naturally to me that way, but I’d at least and a few others first. Good job on the English, though. I admit, I know a lot of others, native speaker or not, who do worse than you.

      • Thursday Violist Reply

        Or…maybe Ada is just showing her distaste for using proper grammar?

    • NotImportant Reply

      Thanks for fishing out the typos, I’ll fix those right away.
      And really, my ability to write/speak in English has little to do with the inability to type and proofread, sigh… Let’s hope I’ll learn one day.

  2. Refugnic Reply

    *Sigh*…just for once I wanted to point them out. 😛

    Either way, I’m a little surprised that Ada didn’t blow up at them, seeing how tensed up her current mood is.
    Though I guess it’s to be expected. When troubled, she retreats to her own little world of thoughts.

    A question though…what’s up with that flower in the last panel? The soldier seems to be surprised to see it.
    Is it uncommon for those parts?

    Or was it given to him by someone they encountered on their route?

    Also…fronting like that isn’t healthy, Ada.
    I’m not saying that the people who carry their heart on their tongue get in any less trouble, but at the very least they won’t ever regret not having said something they should have said while they still could.

    • JW Reply

      I’m not saying that the people who carry their heart on their tongue get in any less trouble, but at the very least they won’t ever regret not having said something they should have said while they still could

      Yeah, instead they regret saying things they shouldn’t have 😛 Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

      (btw I think the idiom in English is “to carry your heart on your sleeve”, not “tongue”. Not sure how the English came up with that. But I guess it’s the same in German as in Dutch.)

      • Refugnic Reply

        Sadly enough, you’re absolutely right about that.

        But then again, if your friends cannot accept you the way you are, they aren’t worth being called ‘friends’ in the first place, wouldn’t you agree?

        And thanks for the reminder. Sometimes I forget that sayings like that can’t be translated 1:1.
        Regarding the ‘how the English came up with that’…well, I can only guess of course, but the sleeve is usually something very visible and also pretty much the first thing you get to examine more closely upon greeting someone (handshake), whereas you actually have to wait for someone to open their mouth before you can ‘see’ the heart on the tongue.

        But that of course is just a wild guess. 🙂

    • Zenanii Reply

      About the flower: I suspect he’s really just looking for an excuse to not have to confront the despairing pair.

      • Refugnic Reply

        Hmm…I guess you’re right. At the very least the other soldier gives the kind of ‘I’m not looking, thus it doesn’t concern me’ impression.

        Damn you, storyteller inside, that you are always looking for a story behind the things you see. 😛

  3. L.s Reply

    ahh back to ada,at long last

    although i think she a bit angst’y at the momnet

    • Refugnic Reply

      No, Teenagers are angsty. Ada’s all grown up, for adult women that’s called ‘angry with her boyfriend’, possibly induced by one or more biochemical processes which are exclusive to the body of females and which men have no means to understand.

      On that note, as yet another useless piece of trivia, do your characters actually have periods NI?
      They should, seeing how they’re human(oid) and all that…at least that would explain why Ada’s currently ‘slightly out of it’…well, the story with Sofia and Robert behaving like a little puppy chasing after her are probably better reasons, but in my opinion she’s overreacting just a wee bit.

      • NotImportant Reply

        Seriously Refugnic, a girl doesn’t have to be on her period (or right before it, more likely) to get angry. More often than not you wouldn’t even notice that kind of thing, not everyone is a slave to their hormones. Overreacting in certain situations is more likely a character trait, not hurting uterus. I suppose nature couldn’t give guys a better excuse to dismiss girls’ emotions, sigh…

        • L.s Reply

          frankly it couldn’t, but i lean toards the “men are all scum” explanation

        • JW Reply

          not everyone is a slave to their hormones

          And those who are, I’d hazard to guess, are in majority male. Or at least testosterone-driven behaviour has had more noticeably deleterious effects om society (like tanking the global economy with overly risky investments).

        • Refugnic Reply

          You didn’t answer my question though.

          Besides, as a matter of fact, EVERYTHING in our bodies and our selves is a result of biochemical processes going down.
          Anger, happiness, lust, frustration, they’re all just different electrical impulses and biochemical processes, triggered by various external stimuli.

          And I did state that she has a fairly good reason to be pretty pissed, even without the aforementioned.

          Regarding ‘dismissing girls emotions’…while I cannot speak for men in general, but I hate subtext.
          Got a problem? Say it to my face instead of dropping hints and then getting angry that I don’t pick up on them.
          Sure, I may not always understand the reasoning behind a demand, but if you want something for me, the chances of actually getting me to do it are far higher if you just say it straight out instead of just ‘hinting at it’.

          A good (albeit obvious) example: ‘The trash is getting pretty full again.’ <- In this case the subtext, or much rather the demand, is obvious: 'Take out the trash please'.
          But why can't you just say that instead of stating something I can see for myself just fine but decide to not act on in the first place, because for me the trash isn't full enough to warrant the way down to the garbage container just quite yet?

          Who invented the need to be indirect and complicated in the first place anyway?

          Okay…now, back to 'slave of their hormones'. We're all 'slaves to our hormones'. If the right ones fire, rational thinking goes straight out of the window.
          Some have developed a better control over these than others, and yes, estrogen appears to be easier to control than testosterone…or much rather, it doesn't cloud rational thinking as much as testosterone likes to do.

          Correct me if I'm wrong.

          Either way, overreacting is not necessarily a 'character trait' (yes, there are drama people), but much rather a reaction to something bad happening (thus the name: 'Over-Reacting'). And quite personally, having a little first hand experience on how it feels if your abdomen is just about ready to split (obstipation – don't ask), going through pain and then having to deal with life’s shit as well…overreacting is just around the corner.

          Seeing how I’m in the company of smart people here…what is the point of those cramps a girl goes through once a month? Is it nature’s punishment that she didn’t get herself pregnant (which basically just delays and sums up the pain for 9 months…) or something?
          Sometimes nature just doesn’t make sense.

          Oh and regarding ‘men are all scum’…in that case, girls are all overemotional, fussing over every little thing and have absolutely no understanding for technical or mathematical processes whatsoever.

          Now…would anyone else like to support any of these horrid generalizations, which just aren’t true?

          Finally: No, of course not, but generally ‘Angst’ is more defined as a hormonal thing combined with insecurities stemming from a changing body and, since she’s out of her hormonal years (a.k.a. teenager age), it’s…let’s say less common to find it in an actual adult.
          Not impossible, but far less common.

          And regarding the boyfriend thing…I’m not sure about that…this may be a thing of different viewpoints.
          While Ada may consider Robert as ‘her boyfriend’ (especially after that sweet scene under the tree), Robert on the other hand may view them as ‘good friends with potentially more’.
          Also, to return to the context of the matter at hand: For Ada, in my opinion, Robert is ‘cheating’ on her by going after Sofia instead of staying with her, while, for Robert, it’s simply not a big deal and just a matter of courtesy.

          Or something like that.

          • NotImportant

            Ouch, it’s been a while since anyone posted a lengthy comment like that. And to be frank for a moment I thought you were angry with me because of the form of your writing: “Got a problem? Say it to my face instead of dropping hints and then getting angry that I don’t pick up on them.” I only realized you are not addressing anyone in particular when I reached that part about the trash ugh. Anyhow – I am also a direct person, maybe even to the point of fault. There is value in subtlety as well, won’t you say?

            I did not answer the question – I see no reason why those things would be altered. Yeah, they get hurt, they get hungry, can get pregnant, have periods and generally are still burdened by all the pleasantries of life.

            And about hormones, girls and periods: I am well aware that hormones play important part in our emotions, valid for both males and females, but just imagine how frustrating it would be if someone assumed you are always angry on Mondays (hey, Monday is a terrible day of the week, perfectly valid assumption) and every time you were upset about something that person would pat you on the shoulder and say: ‘ah, I see, bad case of Monday’ and that’s it. He or she doesn’t care anymore. Your problem is something trivial, escalated by the Monday rule. Effectively you are being ignored on Mondays ಠ_ಠ
            I’ve never got PMS so my opinion is biased, maybe other girls really DO get extra annoying at times, I wouldn’t know.

          • Refugnic

            Aww, you know you’ve missed it. ;P

            Either way, my apologies if my writing gave that impression. The tone of voice gets lost ever so easily in text-based communication.
            The first thing you need to do if you go around demanding more honesty and openness in the world is to stop being insulted or offended by every little thing.

            So no, I wasn’t offended by what you said. Much rather I felt it necessary to clarify to my statement, seeing how it wasn’t fully understood as I had intended it to be.

            If people are scared of the reaction, I like to point to the saying ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’
            That alone would save a lot of unnecessary chatter in the world in my opinion…but all that sugarcoating and then being disappointed if the other doesn’t pick up on the bitter core in the middle of all that sugar is just…bleh.

            There’s a value in just about everything. Decency, discretion, politeness, etc.
            Someone once said that ‘lies are the glue that keep society together’ – However that’s only true because people don’t take to criticism and ‘the opinion of others’ too well, much like a child takes a bitter medicine better with a little sugar added to the mix. (Yes, I’m freely quoting Mary Poppins)

            But why is that anyway? If everyone in the world was honest and meant well, there wouldn’t be any need for ‘politeness’ and being all complicated in our communication.
            I wonder what a world, where everyone always told the truth (and people would be fine with it) would look like…? (I know for a fact that there’d be a lot less lawyers and politicians, that’s pretty much for sure. :P)

            Okay, enough of that…thanks, that’s what I thought. 🙂
            Often in storytelling the writers seem to forget that their characters are only human and, as such, are inconvenienced by the very nature of humanity more often than not. A good example is the need to pee. Sure, you can hold it for a while, but battling for days on end without ever needing to sleep, eat or a potty break? Fat chance.

            Heh…’Tell me why?! I don’t like Mondays…’
            Monday isn’t any less or more terrible than any other day of the week. It just happens to be the day after the weekend.
            Assume that there wasn’t a free weekend, how terrible would Monday be then?
            However I do get what you mean.

            Every now and then you’re simply out of it.
            Because something is weighing on your mind, because your child has kept you awake half the night (or any other reason why you didn’t sleep enough/well), because some hormones are dancing tango in your veins…there are a myriad of reasons.
            Usually, when asked what’s wrong, you yourself will more likely than not just wave off and say something like ‘Meh…it’s Monday, what do you expect?’, just as another way to say ‘I don’t feel like explaining it in detail.’ while trying to be funny about it.

            If someone ignores you because of ‘Mondays’ (or PMS or whatever), he doesn’t really care, that’s right, because he assumes that it’s just something that’ll pass by itself soon enough.
            However that doesn’t stop you from laying down your case, stating your reasons as to why you are angry with them (or something else) right there.
            Does it?

            And my wife is being doing pretty well with that herself…however don’t address her when she’s hungry or sleepy. That’s a bit like dancing on a minefield.
            Though, to be honest here, I’m not at my best behavior while half-asleep myself. 🙂

          • JW

            generally ‘Angst’ is more defined as a hormonal thing combined with insecurities stemming from a changing body

            To be honest, I’ve never heard it defined anything like that. I’ll go with something more like “a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish”; insecurities about a changing body can be one cause for that, but so can losing your job, a breakup, a midlife crisis etc. It’s pretty common, imo.
            BUT, I’m not a prescriptivist, the boundaries of what a word means and which context they’re associated with can be different for everyone, just as long as it generally gets the point across.

            Sometimes nature just doesn’t make sense.

            (un)fortunately it doesn’t need to. As long as traits make it to the next generation, nature doesn’t “care”.
            Though, I suppose it could just be nature’s indirect way of telling guys to “go talk to someone fertile”.

            There is value in subtlety as well, won’t you say?

            Definitely. But only when it works. It can work better in some cases than being blunt, because it’s less confronting, but can also work less well when it’s just not picked up. Or even when it is being picked up, because it’s not actually that subtle. Saying “the trash is getting pretty full again” would probably trigger me to stubbornly not do anything about it for at least a while. At least give me the delusion it’s my idea.

          • JW

            But why is that anyway? If everyone in the world was honest and meant well, there wouldn’t be any need for ‘politeness’ and being all complicated in our communication.

            Sounds boring. Well, granted, just because there wouldn’t be a need for it wouldn’t mean we can’t do it anyway. And you’d need still politeness, because people can be honest, mean well, and still disagree and want to murder each other.
            Most conversation is contentless anyway, it’s just social grooming; like http://www.surlyqueen.net/loas/2016/05/19/684-catching-up/

            I wonder what a world, where everyone always told the truth (and people would be fine with it) would look like…?

            There’s a movie about that; and then one guy invents lying and gets rich and powerful 😛 (But it’s a comedy, so he learns to be responsible about it and all ends well.)

            Often in storytelling the writers seem to forget that their characters are only human and, as such, are inconvenienced by the very nature of humanity more often than not. A good example is the need to pee. Sure, you can hold it for a while, but battling for days on end without ever needing to sleep, eat or a potty break? Fat chance.

            On the other hand, the banalities of life don’t make for interesting reading. So unless it has an effect on the story, you don’t want to write every few pages that one character or other went to take a wee.
            I bet that in real-life historical battles lasting hours or days, people would just shit and pee where they fought if they hadn’t a moment to step away from the fight. I think that’s what astronauts and tour-cyclists do as well. Do I want to hear about that in a story? Probably not. Maybe put it in an appendix for the curious.

          • NotImportant

            If kids knew about those, I wonder if they’d still think being an astronaut is cool.
            JW you have my official encouragement to imagine everyone in the comic in NASA’s space diapers (ノ・∀・)ノ

          • Refugnic

            Now that last one just made my day, JW. Very well done. 😀

            You’re right of course, unless they pee themselves because of fear or something, it’s generally something omitted, however, at the same time, it must not be forgotten either. It may well happen ‘off screen’, but it needs to happen nonetheless, even if the reader isn’t told about it happening explicitly.

            I guess what I’m trying to say is: The characters need some down time every now and then or else bad things happen…or much rather need to happen, unless you don’t care much for the believability of your story and characters.

            I’ll be honest once again: For me ‘Angst’ is ‘Fear’, but that’s because ‘Angst’ is the frigging German translation of the word ‘Fear’ and for some reason I’ve never ever managed to fully wrap my head around what the heck it’s supposed to be in English and every single example I came across, it either appeared in the process of courtship or in the process of establishing the social peckorder (a.k.a. humiliation/mobbing) of pubertal children, which, as it so happens, are mostly female.

            I will admit that I haven’t really put a major effort into finding out an exact definition, but putting a label on feelings is difficult to begin with…simply because they are just a wee bit different for everyone, just like everyone reacts a little bit different to the same stimuli.

            As an example: Usually, when a fire breaks out, everyone tries to get outside outside, because they fear getting burned and/or dying.
            Perfectly natural survival instinct.
            However there’s still nutcases who actually go in despite the obvious danger.
            And it’s not even necessarily professional firefighters (who are equipped and trained to do just that), but sometimes it’s a father trying desperately trying to get his child out, while another father just cares about saving his own hide.

            Same stimuli (danger + child in peril), but one decides that their own life is more important than that of the child and the other one would rather die trying than just running away.

            And I’ll stop now before getting away from the topic even further. My apologies.

          • JW

            JW you have my official encouragement to imagine everyone in the comic in NASA’s space diapers (ノ・∀・)ノ

            Sometimes I wish I could draw.
            Just imagine the scene way back with “Fluffy” (the demon) running around the camp chasing people while wearing a “Maximum Absorbency Garment” (and you gotta love the way NASA names things). Not that demons would need one, I think, but hey, you said everyone 😛

          • NotImportant

            Demons in diapers… Makes you wonder if few people would actually die from laughter. Just imagine that one which was as tall as the skyscrapers… in a stadium sized diaper ಠ_ಠ

          • JW

            I’m not sure they’d die laughing, but it would probably confuse a few people enough to delay them fleeing for their lives for a few moments. It gives a different meaning to surprise attack.

      • JW Reply

        Teens don’t have a monopoly on angst.
        And to the best of my knowledge Robert is not actually Ada’s boyfriend (other than in the sense he’s a “boy” and a friend). I mean, I think they’re an OTP, but that only comes to fruition after they’ve defeated the legions of hell.

      • antrik Reply

        @NotImportant funny thing is, I read somewhere (though I haven’t bothered to check primary sources), that scientific research shows no indication whatsoever of any actual hormone changes happening in the pre-menstrual phase of the period, that could explain the purported mood swings… So the whole thing is in fact just a cultural creation! A case of self-fulfilling prophecy, more specifically: since everyone *believes* that women are particularly moody during that time, many women actually feel they can get away with acting out their frustrations more than they would otherwise allow themselves to; thus reinforcing the myth…

        (That means though that women, on the large, are just as guilty of it being used as an excuse as men are…)

        Also, my impression is that it’s mostly an *American* cultural creation. At least personally I have no recollection of ever seeing it brought up outside of American pop culture.

        • NotImportant Reply

          I haven’t bothered checking the research but I do experience mood swings and they are accurate and sharp enough to actually predict what will follow. They are also absurd enough for me to completely disregard them as “not my real mood”.

  5. JW Reply

    Apart from books – is anyone watching Kiznaver?

    Not yet. Is it any good?
    The premise seems vaguely interesting, but it didn’t really jump out at me. So typically in cases like that I’ll just wait till the end of the season and check ANN to see how favorably it was rated.

    • NotImportant Reply

      Interesting enough to make me keep watching. Animation and visuals are a bit like Kill la Kill. Maybe it’s just that I didn’t find anything better this season heh.

      • JW Reply

        I haven’t started watching it yet, but “Re Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” seems interesting, and seems to get good ratings.
        Come to think of it, so far I’ve only started on ‘slice of life’ type anime from this season (like “Flying Witch”). I always find those relaxing and mood-lifting, but they rarely amaze.

        • NotImportant Reply

          I had little time for anime because of the master thesis and exam, trip to Japan was hectic as well so I only picked one hah~ But I was interested in “Re Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu”, will probably watch it at some point. Also had my eyes on “Koutetsujou no Kabaneri” for the visuals.

          • JW

            Looks promising. I’ll probably pick it up at the end of the season. (Frankly, I’m still in the habit of waiting till all episodes of a series are available, from the old days when you had to hope the fansub group you depended on would last that long)

            Come to think of it, did you have time to watch much anime last season?

          • NotImportant

            Not really, why? Damn I don’t even remember what I watched last season… Life was hectic. Still is, in fact.

          • JW

            Well, mostly I ask because last season’s “Boku Dake ga Inai Machi” was one of the best anime I watched in recent history. And if you by any chance you like that sort of thing, I’d hate for you to miss out on it.
            (No rush, though. It’s not like there’s gremlins running around eating all the anime of bygone days and you’ll be unable to watch it somewhere in the future.)

  6. Blob_Cake Reply

    I am that guy in the fourth panel, immersed in that little flower…

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