Friendship Bracelet

To the people saying Humon is passive-aggressive about this:

What makes you think her rage is directed at you for correcting her? Perhaps it's actually directed at herself for making such an unfortunate mistake? Makes sense to me at least.

Besides, she has been stressed out lately, as she writes. Give her a break, will ya.

@EricTheRedAndWhite No reason to be so dramatic about this. She comes across like she's getting pissy over being corrected, as if the people correcting her have committed a grave and terrible wrong. Her reaction is simply laughable.

'@Melkorka' That's how people behave when they are stressed. And that reaction is nothing, I've seen completely obscene reactions in offices, when people after seemingly minor misfortune smash their company laptops on the floor and jump over it raging and start taking their shirts off in tearful rage. And they are not even artists, but office rats, overworked and underpaid professionals with tight schedules.

And when that happens in office often enough, you just calmly watch it like it is an ordinary day, like "Okay, another one is getting one month holiday and we are getting free buns and sodas in crisis meeting, yay!" and after the worst fumes are gone, you get to take him to doctor getting his sick leave and prescription to chill pills, since he cannot be allowed to drive himself in such condition. :D

It's very good to know how to experience what is called a "Good mental breakdown", and here is excellent short animation about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYfQSyDuriA

@real-cool-cat
I can understand that. Being an office worker must be one of the most frustrating and unnatural ways to live there is.

'@Bloodblender' There are different kinds of office work, but yes, it's a lot more mentally stressful than being, for example, working at construction site. Though there you might be working physically hard in dusty environment in really hot or extremely cold temperatures while still sweating the full 8 hours a day in joint- and muscular pain and getting bleeding cuts in dirty hands in almost weekly basis, and if you are very allergic, you may not be able to even visit there.

The term "natural" is a complex philosophical question, when it comes to humans, what is natural and what is not. And is unnatural better when we watch the goals of humanity? There are millions of other living organisms on this planet and only humans wear clothes, go to shower, use deodorant and need sex education in school. And many other things, we live in artificial society, with artificial governance, rules, social norms and eat synthetic food and are surrounded by and even wear synthetic materials, plastic is everywhere and we are vaccinated with synthetic chemicals right after being born. Then again, this was not always the case, but emerged very recently. Humans used to live by the rule "kill or get killed, eat or get eaten", only rule being the survival of the fittest. That's "natural". Sometimes food was scarce and other people could hang a person for stealing food to survive. This was true nearly all of the 200 000 years of homo sapiens history and has changed only very recent times, mostly past 100 years.

Even if we look the closest relatives to humans, what they naturally do... chimpanzee males sometimes rape the females in their tribe. Chimpanzees sometimes engage in organized warfare against other tribes with which they compete for territory. A chimpanzee male, in a moment of rage, sometimes picks up a nearby infant, and crushes his skull against a rock. And they do on occasion engage in cannibalism, in spite of the fact that there is a plentiful supply of food from other sources.

So the term "natural" doesn't by itself mean good or bad. I myself like to think with with more like Friedrich Nietzsche -style scale, instead of good-bad axis, I'd like to use more like logical-not logical or beneficial-not beneficial axis. Things in human life are not getting any more natural, they are getting more unnatural. It goes to all levels of life, including workspaces. We just need to figure out that which of our synthetic and artificial means are the most salubrious to our existence and goals as a species, and keep developing them. Since there seems to be only one apparent "meaning of life" in addition to survival, and that is to develop, to evolve to higher levels. And only us humans can do it. We are related to all animals, even plankton and we share 50% of the same DNA with common garden snails, something like 99% with chimpanzees and all of them and including plants and we ourselves are the part of the same ecosystem, but we are the only ones not bound 100% to our genetic code because of our consciousness and are able to develop. We do what we must because we can. So technically, everything we do, all our chemicals and cities and offices are in a sense "natural".

@real-cool-cat
I am aware of the complexity of the definition of words with such broad meanings, but in this case I think it fits.
What I mean with unnatural in the context, is that humans (as well as other mamals) have developed stress as a survival instinct. It is ment to be used as a power boost when in danger. If a predator sets its gaze on you, and there is no place to hide, you only have two options: Fight or flee. In such circumstances, stress is useful and even necesary. It strikes in, hopefully gets you out of danger, and then you have used it up.
in modern day, especialy in office enviorements, you dont use it up. It just continues to pile up inside, and that is not healthy, especialy for those who dosent exersice.
The book 'Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers' by Robert Sapolsky treats this subject.

@real-cool-cat Yup, and then it's good to take a step back, examine your behaviour and...oh, I dunno - apologize? To err is human, but then you fix your mistakes and move on.

Also, wtf kinda place do you work in? The Drama Factory? O.O

'@Melkorka' I see very little reason to apologize for being a human, especially because some people live in their little superficial social circles with strict social norms that no one is allowed to step even slightly out of, and believe that the whole world is like that.

I used to work in many conventional offices. People there are usually very superficial with strict social norms with neutered speech without any curse words (I sexual intercourseing hate that) or any actual personality. Place, where you must regulate your tone of voice, your facial expressions, the words you use... and even if you are a man, your hair must be always very tidy without exceptions, use hair conditioner for short hair, face perfectly clean, clothes must be spotless and no jeans, shorts, t-shirts or anything like that, you are basically under the microscope below bright white lights and you must not smell like anything even if you have pets. In fact, you must smell like a perfume, but only very slightly, so that allergic people don't start to complain, you must also watch the smell of your breath, eating mint after every coffee and lunch and mind every little thing you do, because everyone is collectively watching your every movement and knows your every habit, even your cellphone ringtone and you must watch not to make anyone secretly hate you by taking the last cup of coffee or anything like that, because people in office are often waiting for a change to complain about the most little thing they can find, like that's their main job. I even got subtle complaint and order to silent my cellphone button-sounds, it is done by saying "You have a button-sounds in your cellphone? Interesting choice". A pretentious asshole-way of delivering complaint and they even consider that as "polite". That's the essence of every office.

And when I worked at the most strict office, I still lived in the most notorious ghetto of my city, block of flats with around 100 drunks, where I was the only one who even had a job . So when I came home, I could already tell by the smell that is there yet another bum passed out in the staircase and soiled/wet him or herself. Police, ambulance and mortuary car came by at least weekly and things that was thrown away from balcony was televisions, pets and humans. Bass boost and drunken shouting and screaming was something you could hear there every day and every time of the day. And it was a good place compared to office. With real people being what they are, drunk or junkie or crazy artist lady painting a fresco on the wall with her fingers, using blood from her vagina as paint. But everybody being their real self. What a nerve-relaxing environment compared to neutered-sterile office environment. I even drank booze with my wacky neighbours sometimes in their post-apocalyptic homes. And I could literally drink like there's no tomorrow and throw up from the balcony on bicycles and pass out and nobody made a fuss about it, just offered me tranquillizers and weed, and no one even remembered anything about it the next day. There you were able to live completely free without any judgement from others. Good, honest, fair and real people, not pretentious yuppie office-hitlers. Those were the days. :D

@real-cool-cat Hoo boy, not gonna bother reading that. This whole episode did inspire me to put together a compilation of childish temper tantrums in movies. And yes, if you humiliate and embarrass yourself online with a childish temper tantrum, the best movie is to apologize. If only so you'll stop looking like an idiot.

'@Melkorka' I know I'm prone to write long texts. Sorry about that.

Though I want to point out, that the point of my text was not to debate against you, but to give new perspective to human behaviour, it's natural state, rather than it's current expectations.

But you know, the natural responses of defending "self" or "ego" from outside threats is to cover them up with aggression. Usually people cover their feelings of guilt and shame with those things, anger and agression. I didn't mean to do that. So no need to become defensive. I was just bringing another perspective to a matter, and not attack against you personally, so this time you are the one who needs to chill out and not raise any ridiculously hyperventilated perspectives.

@Melkorka As a norwegian, this is how I react to things. And when I do it, its more of a sarcastic statement aimed at myself.

@Melkorka Should she have reacted quite so strongly? Probably not, but shit happens. Human beings snap sometimes, yes an apology afterwards is preferable but you don't have to make them feel bad just for having a human reaction. And it's not like her reaction is entirely unreasonable. A bit too strong, yes, but at the same time, a lot of people on the internet can be overly aggressive and self-satisfied when it comes to pointing out things that are wrong (or even just that they find wrong). Being corrected? That's something you should try to take in good spirit. Being corrected in an insulting and patronizing manner? Now that's rather more reasonable to get annoyed at. I'm not saying everyone who corrects Humon is guilty of that, probably not even the majority, but when the bad apples come up enough it takes its toll on a person.

Or, to put it another way, we could all do with chilling out a little more. ;)

@EricTheRedAndWhite

No problem about making the mistake, we are human beings. I think she should scratch this one and do it again, corrected.

But above all, I think she needs a hiatus, even if for just one month. It seems she has been stressed for quite some time.

That's great and all but Denmark's phone case is ADORABLE.

@Trashcan haha I didn't notice that

Denmark's cell phone case... <3

@Nebula Yeah I was like why was it Norway's flag? But I guess it's great to be Danish in Norway

@FelneusLeviathan Oh, it is! I lived in Norway for half a year, and I felt very very welcome...

@Nebula they really love each other, don't they? <3

Denmark has the best phone case.

I think it would've been funny if Denmark was building the bridge out of Legos. XD

@Wannabe_European everything is better with mutli colour plastic bricks.

@CharlesXI XD

@VanessaLeskinen they are legos, just they're all white.

@Wannabe_European exactly

@Wannabe_European
What??? They didn't?
I would have expected at least that they paint the pillars large-scale with a LEGO decor.

@Wannabe_European oh my god yes

@Wannabe_European Oh. I thought that's what those white things were! :P

@Wannabe_European
That's exactly what I assumed those white blocks were.

Ahem, it's the other way around...the bridge is on the Swedish side and the tunnel on the Danish side. The reason for that is that it was not possible to build the bridge all the way because it would have been in the way for the landing planes at Kastrup.

Also, this is about Øresundsbron, Store Bæltbroen is entirely within Denmark.

@marbe166 My thoughts exactly. I even had to look it up. Maybe I just remembered it wrong. But yeah, the planes makes it so the danish side had to be low. And therefor a tunnel

Denmark's phone (or phone case) really shows his love (and possible obsession) with Norway XP

I have drivven this route from Denmark into Sweden. What is hilarious is that from the air, it looks like this huge bridge spans the ocean to . . . . . a little tiny island barely big enough to hold the mooring for the bridge. But all these cars and lorries are *magically* appearing out of a hole in the ground going to and fro on the great bridge. Any aliens looking down from outer space would be utterly baffled at the non-logic of this impressive and beautiful scene.

@Danelaw or, you know, they would realise there's a tunnel there. After all, if there are aliens then chances are that they are way more intelligent than us so they would probably realise that stuff.

Haha. I was just about to say it's actually Denmark, who made the tunnel part, but then I saw you had already corrected yourself in the comment underneath the comic. ;) I've seen a quite interesting program about the problems they faced with making that tunnel due to the special stone the sea floor is made of in the area.
(For anyone interested: it's a tunnel on the Danish side, because a bridge would get in the way of the planes from and to Kastrup Airport).

Where can I buy Denmark's phone case?