Grrl Power #1298 – And it was thiiiis big…
After I drew this page I realized Peggy’s fishing lure would probably have worked a lot better if she’d tied it just below the pommel.
This flashback involve a dirty Peggy wearing desert camo laying on the desert ground and it’s all in a shadow, so naturally it looks really murky. I’m not sure what the solution for that is besides just taking some liberties with the lighting situation. I guess as long as you guys can tell what’s happening it’s fine, but I’d prefer having higher contrast personally.
I have no idea how well sound travels around a moderately rockey bit of desert. On the next page you see that the crash happened near the foot of a valley of sorts, which could help channel the sound I guess. All that’s to say, if I had been 20 feet from an exploding RPG / tail rotor, and the subsequent crash, all of which I would assume would occur at a relatively high decibel level, it seems like that truck vroom vroom might be closer than she thinks. But I’ve never been thrown out of a helicopter because of how much it was rolling. But maybe she was out long enough for the flashbanh whine to fade.
Speaking of which, I think all TVs should come with a mandatory “Flashbang Whine” mute button. All it would do it mute that range of sound. Or just limit the volume to 1/8th the regular volume. It’s so common in shows, like that’s the only sound the gaffers are allowed to use after an explosion? It doesn’t bother me that severely (though the worse my tinnitus gets, the more obnoxious it becomes) but it borderline triggers migraines in the wife. Sure, a couple of kids start flopping around from flashing pokemon lights and now every show and video game comes with a warning, but trigger a few migraines with your squealing audioscape, and no one cares. At least until someone rages out and goes on an axe murdering spree because of it. Which isn’t likely, as having a migraine isn’t conducive to exerting yourself or leaving the house. I’m told. I’ve never had one, but if they’re half as bad as my wife describes, I definitely would have killed myself or someone else long ago.
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Dabbler went somewhere tropical, in a very small bikini. As you might guess, it doesn’t stay on for long, which of course, you can see over at Patreon. Also she has an incident with “lotion,” and there’s a bonus comic page as well.
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Hard agree on the flashbang whine. Whether it’s in a game or a film, they seem to think any explosion is supposed to be followed by “tinnitus simulator 2024.” I say no. If you want to convey it was deafening, at least use some creativity. Muffle the sounds for a while, but don’t make us think “oh god the tinnitus is back” that’s just mean. And got old very fast.
Side notes for the scientifically curious:
* Tinnitus was semi-recently recorded, which means it’s not just an “ear hears things that aren’t here” problem, but a “something is actually producing that ringing sound” problem.
* Also, if you put your palms flat on your ears with your fingers pointing towards the back of your head, rest your index and middle fingers on that big hole at the base of your skull (it’s called a “foramen magnum” which is Latin for “big hole”) and use these fingers to drum lightly for half a minute, it makes any transient tinnitus go away. It can even make chronic tinnitus go away for a few seconds to, sometimes, a couple minutes. There is a theory that it’s because it relaxes suboccipital muscles but the truth is we’re not sure how it does that.
“Oh god the tinnitus is back” is what I said to myself when I used to see Xmas charity Bell ringers outside grocery stores.
Tintinabulitis: Ear damage courtesy of the Salvation Army.
* Tinnitus was semi-recently recorded, which means it’s not just an “ear hears things that aren’t here” problem, but a “something is actually producing that ringing sound” problem.
That is great, that means there could be a surgical option to treat it instead of “your brain is doing spooky stuff”.
…as someone who has had severe tinnitus since 2009, to the point that has severely impacted my hearing, and my mental health, you have my un-fucking-divided attention.
Please provide links. I am so desperate for any relief, that I will cheerfully and eager volunteer for experiments.
Please, for the love of god, please point the way.
I’m assuming they’re referring to this article, which is fascinating!
https://thequietus.com/interviews/lola-de-la-mata-oceans-on-azimuth-tinnitus-interview/
I will say however not every type of tinnitus seems to be recordable, as there seems to be different causes and expressions of it.
I have a bad case of tinnitus to my left ear thanks to an inner ear infection that left me mostly deaf in that ear, AKA ringing in the ear, it’s common for anyone not wearing hearing protection. Ask any combat vet or a gun enthusiast, go to long or completely not caring result in tinnitus. ANY sudden and loud noise leaves your ears ringing. I was surprised that someone thought of adding that effect, most likely a vet or a miner. Plus, they had to include a sufferer of tinnitus to get the tone and effect right, the only thing is mine pulses, like I’m hearing my own heart pulse, but it’s too slow. Kinda like an old freezer pump parked on my left shoulder. Just try to sleep with that noise all the time…
huh, it actually did make it go away for a couple of seconds. I have chronic tinnitus.
Mixers require a base tone, be they electric or flesh, otherwise what are they using to convert? The 455 khz circuit in a common am radio was just a mixer tone. I read some years ago that the mixer tone for human ears was 15000 hz, and the mixer was getting the audible sound into a range the cochlea fibers would detect. Can’t imagine that tone cycling a few hundred hz up and down would sound very nice. Be like “waa aaa aaa aaa waa aaa aaa aaa” all the time.
I went completely deaf in my left ear overnight about two years ago: EXCEPT for the tinnitus which I’ve had for the last 30+ years.
That tinnitus noise got even worse than it had been. (No, the doctors had no particular explanation.)
I hear that, after weeks of tests and such, they suggested a hearing aid… it’s only been a yea and a half for me, but I understand how it’s maddening. I dread being in a totally quiet room!
Obligatory small pickups vs chickens tariff mention, aka, why you can’t buy an actual new small pickup in the US for cheap.
I was looking to buy an actual work truck a while back, and actually got a little pissed when I found out I couldn’t get one without special ordering. Literally the only things available at the time were massive 4-door “suburban assault trucks” with undersized beds that were so ridiculously massive they required a step ladder to check the oil, or undersized trucks with tiny engines. A Toyota Hilux diesel would have been absolutely perfect, but no, we have the 25% Chicken Tax, and millions of dollars in
bribescampaign contributions paid to politicians by US auto makers to keep it in place.*… or slightly smaller “mid-sized” trucks with tiny engines.
I’m not even a truck person and I get pissed off that it’s so hard to find a truck where the bed is longer than the cab. That’s not a truck, it’s a van with a back porch.
Buy old. 90s and older trucks can still be found in good condition.
There is a whole industry keeping these trucks on the road.
As for new trucks I guess there is a lot more profit in selling a pimped out land yacht than a plan jane fleet truck. Living in North Texas, I’ll grant an air conditioner is a productive option but you cant even get a base model unless you are buying in big enough quantities to make a fleet purchase. I suppose part of this is driven by the soccer moms driving 3/4 ton four wheel drives to the grocery store. Locally there is a pretty big business in aftermarket pickup beds. You can pick up a new pickup bed for near scrap metal price. It’s just hard to reconcile the idea of a 75-80 thousand dollar luxury ride with the phrase “work truck”.
Why would the manufacturers have made trucks better suited for work in the 1990s than now, considering the import tax was imposed in the early 1960s? Was it the result of attempts to evade the tariff and the resulting lawsuits lasted until then?
The “soccer moms driving 3/4 ton four wheel drives to the grocery store” is the result of the unceasingly increasing regulations arounds car seats for children.
Legal car seats keep getting larger for a given height (increased safety!) and must be used for older children (which makes them *much* larger).
Weird regulatory games the auto industry plays with the EPA. Small trucks are expected to conform to increasing expectations for fuel economy and emissions. The auto industry managed to carve out exceptions for vehicles of increasing size. It’s cheaper to make a bigger engine than a more efficient engine, and the resulting (larger) vehicles can be sold for a higher price. Cash Money.
There are Hiluxes that sell for 12k-20k in other countries. Using more materials and resources to make a larger truck “cheaper”? Economy of scale vs Asian manufacturing? I’m doubting your conclusion that ignores the market impact of tariffs.
Those kid seats fit just fine in the average cross over (today’s version of a small station wagon). If anything they are easier to deal with than a honking big pickup. As for the suitability for work it is all about sales. The trucks are popular. Unstable gas prices cut into sales a bit but people like big trucks as a status symbol. Status symbols sell a lot of expensive options like sat-nav and heated leather seats. It’s not so much that you couldn’t get a fancy truck in the 90’s it’s that you can’t get a truck on a budget now. The automotive industry has always been about the upsale. It just seems that trucks have been an area of focus for the last couple of decades.
Yeah, another odd conclusion, a child seat that should fit in the back seat of a compact car requires seating for 8 somehow, yadda yadda, can’t be tariffs. Misunderstanding of tariffs seems to run rampant. US companies/importers pay the tariffs, and pass the cost on to customers.
Dacia dosen’t sell in US and the market for simple without option affordable work vehicles is lost for the small pickups.
The European option is also closed in US.
Even if it was 1 meter shorter than the hilux
A “work truck” is a big four door crew cab with a six foot bed. That’s my Chevy 1500/Silverado 4×4 used on my small farm that doubles as a school bus for the grandkids. Good for pulling small tree stumps, hauling trash and other farms stuff. Out here in the rural you see trucks of that sort up to the 3500s and they are all work trucks. Typical for yard work landscapers who usually have a crew of three to four, pull a trailer with a riding lawnmower or two with additional equipment and mow an acre or two in half an hour including trimming. Don’t appreciate the bigotry against big trucks and get annoyed when I see it.
Some people need/want an 8ft bed. My dad was one of them, he needed to be able to haul sheets of plywood/drywall and be able to close the tailgate to keep his tools in. I have a 4×4 crew cab with a 5’7″ bed.. after compressor rack and tool box I literally have a 3′ bed left. I can barely haul a set of tires for my own truck in there. I also have an 18′ flat deck trailer, that seems silly to use to haul 3 sheets of plywood with.
And some of the new trucks are stupid high, like mine isn’t that high, I offroad it to the point where I get it up on only 2 wheels, but I don’t want to lift it even as a lower stock height 4×4 there’s a few places I’m too tall to go as is. But it’s not bigotry, it’s a “that won’t work for my use case scenario” thing. If a jacked up 3500 dually on 40″s works for you, yay you. I view it like EVs.. an EV would work great for my mom, just won’t work for what I use my truck for.
Point is different people need different things from their “work truck” and those who need an extended cab actual long box (8′ not 6’7″) or similar do have a hard time getting them.
Some people don’t need a bus with an open trunk and 3 feet of clearance, some people actually need 1 seat, and actual hauling space, you can also drive to the store without getting a 2nd mortgage for the gas bill.
No one is hating on yard crews, they just want the freedom to buy the right tool for the job.
For my first vehicle, I found a guy who lived just outside of town who imported kei trucks from japan and modified them to be road legal in Alberta (mostly involving adding lights). The Suzuki Carry I bought from him was a hobbit beast. 657cc engine, but geared so low that it could do just about anything except drive fast. 90km/h (~55mph) was about the max it seemed comfortable. But it had a 6′ x 4.5′ box with fold down/removable sides and I was able to haul a quarter yard of sand without issues.
Good news! It’s possible that starting in January we’ll see 100-500% tariffs on basically all imports into the US. Much like what happened with the Chicken Tax, these tariffs will make all imported goods extremely expensive and drive the US economy into a tail spin, but I’m sure it will be a major driver of innovation and capitalistic spirit, causing the US auto industry, and all other industries, to step up and start producing at 500% greater rates and doing far more innovation so that they can satisfy the market. At which point the invisible hand of Adam Smith will cause them to drop prices so that we are living in a utopia of low-cost and American-made goods!
(cf: Poe’s Law)
More like murphy’s law and principe of Dilbert
Small cars -> not in modern US where 5 m long (16’4″) is small
European medium sized cars are bout 15’4″ 1 feet smaller than a US small car.
and 5.11 width is average
For a Dacia duster pick-up it’s a 165 cm about 5’5″ bed with 1 100 lbs of weight but it’s a 14’3″ by 5’11 vehicle… and 4×4 is available.
It’s an european pickup made by Dacia in Romania , Dacia is a subsidary of Renault Group …
Price new 26 615 euros without VAT – about 28 800 $ – for the 4×4 version
Migraines can be pretty bad. I’ve got lucky with them, I get the flashing lights, the increased sensitivity and the headache, sometimes a bit of numbness down one side for a few minutes, very rarely get sick with them. The worst part for me is less how painful they are and more the fact that over-the-counter painkillers don’t stop the pain, they just reduce the duration from around seven hours-ish to about two or three hours.
Still, could be worse. They run in the family, my brother got six in a row, day after day after day at one point.
Complex migraines here, flashing lights numbness downs the left side and can’t speak for the next thirty minutes if it is bad the rest of the day, really bad the rest of the month.
I don’t get migraines but I do get stress headaches which occur at the back of the skull where it joins with the spine. Like you, OTC painkillers do nothing. I’ve had some unused prescription painkillers like Vicodin or Tylenol 3 or 4 that were never used for the original reason, and those have helped at times.
I’ve had migraines most of my adult life, always behind the left eye, nausea, light sensitivity, balance, etc… I had to get a medication for it, it’s called Sumatriptan, it takes about 2 hours to kill the headache, and forces me to “take a nap”, but after I wake up, the headache is pretty much gone. I’ve been on it just over 12 yrs, it really helps. However, do NOT share it, if someone takes it that isn’t a true migraine sufferer, well, it’s risky. It’s an actual heart medication. It’s the side-effect that helps stop the migraine.
Yeah, it can cause strokes if overused. I’ve never had them bad enough to need it, but my wife does. She’s changed to the somewhat safer Zolmitriptan, which is specifically for migraines.
They tried that on me, it didn’t help much. I have a family history of heart attacks and strokes, my 90 y/o father has a cow valve and a pacemaker/defib installed. Migraines are often triggered by stress, and with the number of minor blockages they found in me, I understand why.
I have had a permanent headache for the last 14 months, luckily it is usually low level background pain, but it frequently gets worse as the day progresses, turning into what I have been told is called a stress headache (I was calling it a pressure headache, as when I tensed up my body and increased my blood pressure, it would get worse), and has turned into a migraine on occasion. The neurologist has no idea what the problem is, after x-rays, two MRIs, and an opthamologist consult. All he can offer is various symptom relief methods, none of which has done anything so far.
Well the most common cause for that is a calcified disk in the neck, I had to get one removed and those vertebra fused. I lived with that type of headache for 5 years. I still do, the fusion only stopped it getting worse, and gave me back feeling in my arms. But a minor blockage in a critical artery can cause that as well, or so I was told…
My mate called it a “rollux” because the flaming thing was so prone to rolling
A strong or somewhat magnet is very useful to carry. I carry a couple in a foam box in my bag when I go out. I also carry a bit of cord, string, or just a charging cable.
There are times I think Syd really needs more lessons on the actual life of a soldier in certain regions
Sydney is more adequate to a Ramstein based , US soldier if (he or she) listen an engine noise after an accident than of an US on a Afgan base …
I had my first migraine when I was 7. At that age, it feels like you’re dying. Since then, I have had the knee-jerk reaction of wanting to thump anyone that refers to migraines as just ‘a headache.’ That includes various employers, people who seem to think that taking a day sick with a migraine is a personal choice. I’m not even kidding; I had a written warning for absence, and the wording had the issue down as a behavioural issue. Unfortunately, the stress from all that resulted in more time off… eventually resulting in a full breakdown…
I know exactly how you feel.
In my case, I got lucky. I started having severe migraines when I was 16. Only my mother could relate, as she was (and still is) suffering from them. I kept having migraines and the occasional blackout, once a month, like clockwork, up until I was about 30. Had brain scans, MRI’s, tilt tests, you name it, couldn’t figure out the cause (found other stuff wrong with my body, no cause for migraines and blackouts). I was so scared of the blackouts that I habitually refrained from driving, for fear of having one while behind the wheel.
Then, one day as I was washing my teeth, the wisdom tooth from top left simply… fell off. Turns out it was rotting from the inside since it came out, and the dentist never picked up on it (I changed dentists after that). I went to the hospital, had the root removed surgically (fun times!) and bam! migraines and blackouts stopped.
I went to my GP and asked “do we think… that maybe… just maybe… the wisdom tooth could have caused all that?” and he went “unlikely, but not out of the question”.
Never had a migraine ever since, so I count my self lucky. But every now and then I call my parents and my dad says that my mom is in bed “with a headache again” and it just rubs me in the most wrong way it can possibly rub me.
similar thing here, had migraines for years no idea why. wisdoms ( which i had always known where impacted ) started hurting one day so i made an appointment and had em pulled. While they arnt gone completely, they have certainly lowered in intensity and frequency since then
Ah, one of my favorite phrases. “Better have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.”
I agree with that, I also live by the question isn’t if you’re being paranoid, it’s are you being paranoid enough?
I hear you on the “need it / want it” saying. My friends have commented once or twice (always in a nice way) about the fact that I carry a backpack everywhere. In the backpack is:
wallet
earbuds (bluetooth)
earbuds (wired)
pen
hand sanitizer
rags (used as extra padding for the laptop section of the pack)
[glasses cleaning cloth — currently missing, needs to be replaced]
thin but warm shirt
bandage scissors
reading glasses (last time I got new Rx, I couldn’t bear to get bifocals; I’m going to go get them now)
week’s worth of medication
very basic medical kit (two sling-bandages, bandaids, Benadryl for anaphylactic shock, neosporin, latex gloves)
N95 masks
napkins
2 Clif bars (I semi-regularly forget to eat and only notice it when I start shaking)
I’ve used every single item in that list multiple times or I wouldn’t continue carrying them.
I kinda thought she was trapped underneath, but to the side of the wreck…assuming a roughly, uh, torpedo-shaped outline(why not helicopter-shaped, brain? because brain brains as brain brains!) of an oblong body, a bent “shaft” of a tail and blocky scorpion stinger steering doohickey, I imagined her as being trapped somewhere towards the front of the vehicle…and we can see that she’s mostly laying on sand which suggests her surviving parts are outside but out of the sun’s direct path, but her leg is stuck between the heli and…I figure either rocks in the ground, hard-packed earth if this is a transition zone, or bits and pieces of the heli itself… Unless she’s somehow been completely enclosed, and unless either she’s stuck at an unusually steep decline(like, so steep that the only thing keeping her from sliding down the sand away from the helicopter is her leg, and if that were the case then her plan for the rifle case would probably be FUBAR simply because the case would slide down the hill) or the sun is still/already low in the sky OR it’s night, then any areas that are more elevated than she is would be lit noticeably brighter by the sun, including parts of the heli, and since it’s a wreck, perhaps it’d be reasonable to assume there may be, ah, “pieces missing” that allows for a small number of beams of daylight of various sizes?
Also, “trapped under a burning fuselage”, but fire? Where fire? But fire also make light which make contrast. Fire also make smore, which is tasty, and human smore, which is acquired tasty!
You can see the wreck in panel 5 of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1296-assets-include-sand/
It’s lying on its side, top towards Peggy, bottom away from her, cockpit off to the left and Peggy’s leg is trapped under the upper side of the fuselage, towards the rear of the cabin and aft of the rotor mast.
@Dave: I agree with you on the contrast issue. I find a lot of movies and shows unwatchable because they didn’t light the scene properly, so everything becomes just dark blurs on my TV. People say, “But it’s more realistic,” but I disagree. People who haven’t filmed anything usually don’t realize that a camera, even a properly adjusted one, has a harder time seeing in the dark than a human eye does. I think a dimly lit scene with high contrast is more realistic than a dimly lit scene with little to no contrast; because that’s how my own eyes see IRL.
I’ve always had decent night vision. In dark areas, color fades; not completely gone. But, the B&W vision compensates, so I see in higher contrast, just like films used to do. So, based on my own eyesight, I believe low level light with higher contrast is actually accurate.
Common cameras have way less dynamic range than eyes, but mostly because the camera have to present what it sees on a display. Just stand inside a fairly dark large church with pretty mosaic glass windows illuminated by sunlight, and try to take a picture that looks the same as what the eyes can see. Taking a HDR picture just makes it look weird and flat, but that is partially due to display issues. How much contrast and brightness do the display have? The camera won’t know and tries is best to more or less squeeze that it sees. And that is why movies and TV series look too dark and with too little contrast. It’s a camera AND display issue, presenting information to the eyes, instead of the eyes seeing it live. And the area surrounding the display/tv and how bright it is plays a huge difference in what the eye see. If you’re looking in a dark room or brightly lit livingroom is a whole heap of difference.
I’ve had to watch movies on my TV with all the lights off if the scene is dark. It’s not just that the lights wash things out, there are reflections of the lights from the surface of the TV.
This is why old B&W movies look so good and the detail is so clear, the lenses and film were designed to work with the ambient light much differently than modern CCD cameras do, or even older colour films, the range of depth and contrast is much better. Digital is great for creating things in SFX and much more convenient for space telescopes and the like, but not nearly as good for capturing what is really there the way the human eye sees it. A well composed and developed B&W film shot of the inside of a cathedral will be much more realistic than a digital one.
Regarding the Hilux check out Top Gear for an episode where they see what it takes to kill an original Toyota Hilux.
My dad managed to get himself a Hilux, and he absolutely LOVES it. It sounds like a cute little bumblebee other than being in a small town and them being pretty rare in our area, I don’t think he had much trouble getting it. Of course, he didn’t buy new, and we’re in Canada. Not sure if we have an equivalent to the “chicken tariff” up here.
Reading that there’s someone that never had migraines when I have a few each week it’s like hearing that there’s a percentage of the population susceptible to brain freeze while other are inmune.
Try to identify you triggers and avoid them as much as possible.
Contact a neurologist specialized in pain management and migraines as soon as possible.
There are treatments, mostly the “triptan” family of medication, and injections of codeine + morphine in a specific nerve at the back of your head.
There are support groups on the internet where you’ll find migrainous people that will help you, if only because they know and understand that horrible pain that drives you crazy.
I’ve been suffering from migraines for the last 45 years, I know, too well, what they are. See my way too long post when it’ll show up …
As someone who has a pretty good case of tinnitis from many years of turbines and explosions, and who has also worked with ‘flashbangs’ or ‘distraction devices’ as the book called them, the most annoying part of those is that while they’re technically ‘safe to use indoors’ and we did, they blank out your hearing for a few seconds, allowing you to be entertained solely by the tinnitis symphony…I have a distinct four part non-harmony with one noticeably louder than the others.
“…the US has, in fact, knowingly exported Toyotas that could now potentially be in the terrorist group’s fleet. In April 2014, a report published by Public Radio International announced that US State Department aid sent to Syrian rebels included 43 Toyota trucks.
At the time, the Hiluxes were meant to support the Free Syrian Army, serving as “force enablers,” with the ability to house crew-served machine guns or other types of military equipment, Oubai Shahbander, a Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, told Public Radio International. It’s unclear where the vehicles are now.
In general, exporting cars from the US is an easier process than most think. Used cars are often sold in auction fashion, meaning the highest bidder wins. Within as little as two transactions, IS could have trucks from the US in their possession.
For example, a Texas plumber’s truck made headlines last year when it appeared in an IS video. The plumber lost track of his truck after he sold it to a used car dealer. But the company’s name and phone number painted on the side of the truck made it easily identifiable when it appeared in the video, carrying gun-wielding extremists…”
I can pretty much tell when there has been a Copart auction in Oklahoma City, Dallas or Ft. Worth. There will be convoys of wrecked but drivable cars headed south to Mexico. There will be strings of three cars with the best pulling two more with bumper hitches. They come out west to catch US HWY 283 which allows them to go all the way to the Mexican border without having to mess with the interstate system. I’ve spoken with them when they stop at the local gas station. There is usually at least a couple that speak English and they have always indicated that they were headed to points south of the border. There are lots of sorts of damage that while repairable, usually result in the car being written off by the insurance company. I’m told that this is in part due to the insurance companies’ unwillingness to accept the liability of putting the repaired car back on the road. Apparently this is not a problem in Mexico. This is also where a lot of your used school buses go.
For me, the big issue is that the voices are always so subdued, almost muted, while the sound effects are made as loud as possible.
“Whisper whisper require close captioning mutter.” BAM BAM BOOM BAM BAM BAMBAMAMAMMAM!!! “Whisper muted whisper…” BAMAMAMAMAMAM!
CUE THE LOUD MUSIC, EPIC LOUD! SUPER LOUD, ROCK CONCERT FRONT ROW LOUD… NOW have a few characters whispering super quiet WHILE THE MUSIC PLAYS SUPER LOUD!!!
Yeah, that’s a peeve of mine also. Also, sound leveling feature never works.
Suggestion for showing shadowed scenes in the future. Instead of making an entire panel murky, have light shadow patterns across the scene, and actual shadows being darker than normal. The pattern can be abstract like wandering zebra strips instead of a specific object making the shadows.
Peggy, that’s the second time you almost got stabbed by a blade! Plus if it hadn’t been blocked by the chopper blade, that case might have knocked you out again. I do get it, a “might die” vs “will die” situation there…
I still think Max will save the day in the story, Peggy did say she visited her in the hospital after this event, told her jokingly to “walk it off” that was mentioned back when Peggy was talking to Sydney after Max yelled at Dabbler in the shower after Sydney punched her, early in the strip. Sydney noticed Peggy’s running leg and spare and asked and Peggy told her, then freaked herself out saying things that might have pissed off/insulted Peggy.
The Toyota Hilux models you’d see around were kinda like the AK-47. Easy to maintain, durable, and could run while full of sand and mud. It’s kinda par for insurgency and low funds militia. Anything else turns to scrap, so it’s survivorship of equipment bias. Things that aren’t durable, or have fiddly maintaince with exotic parts supply chains, don’t last.
In places with a lot of sunlight and little vegetation (including rocky deserts and beaches) the ground tends to get hot from the sun and produce a layer of low warmer air, which refracts sound away from the ground. Realistically, I would expect that hearing that engine means the truck is quite close.
DaveB, no, actually, it wouldn’t be better to tie the wire to the pommel end. The midpoint tying site actually would allow the weight of the hilt and pommel to provide just a little bit of cantilever leverage. If it were tied to the pommel, the whole knife would have simply levered up and slid off the backside, because there wouldn’t be enough of a counterweight. The quillions / crossguard might work as a sort of “fish hook” effect, except the knife would need to be perpendicular to the case, but it’s going to fall parallel-flat most of the time.