Grrl Power #297 – Morning errant
This page is exists almost entirely due to the fact that when I’m descending in an airplane, I have enormous trouble telling where I am. Mind you this is on the return trip – when I’m coming home to the city I’ve lived in for ~20 years. Obviously I know I’m near and/or heading toward the airport, and sometime I can pick out a massive landmark like a huge mall, but if I’m high enough and can’t read the store names, I’m not positive which mall it is. Also, you’d think one of those big mix masters on the highway would clue you in to which road you’re above, but a sufficiently large city has one every 5-10 miles, so you can guess but you still might be off by quite a bit.
This is mostly my own fault. I mean besides the fact that everything looks different from above when you’re used to seeing it from 6 feet off the ground, but for all the time I’ve spent living in Dallas, I really don’t know it very well. 90% of my haunts are probably within 10 miles of where I live. Once every 3-4 months I’ll wander down into Dallas proper for one reason or another but considering the size of the DFW metroplex I really don’t go exploring a lot. That’s why when I spot a mall from the air “near the airport” I still rarely have any idea where I really am. Sydney’s probably the same way, most of her regular destinations are ~10 miles from where she lives, with the odd trip out further to the specialty game store or a small comic convention in a satellite city. If she wanders too far off her beaten path without a working GPS she can get lost real quick.
That top panel took like six hours. :…..( While I have a functional understanding of perspective, a city scape like that is more or less beyond me, at least making it look convincing. So my solution was to take several photos and stitch them together, then use that as a base to paint from. That’s harder to do than it sounds cause finding aerial photos taken at roughly the same altitude can be tedious, plus most of the pictures I found were either taken smack in the middle of the downtown area, were suburbs with nothing but residential housing, or they were countryside and farmland. Maybe I’m bad at Google but industrial urban sprawl aerial shots all in the right perspective were few and far between. Once I have the reference pictures melded together I wind up fudging a lot of details anyway, but it’s useful to have the base to work from. I do that partially cause I don’t want to just plop a photo in there, even with attribution and permission I’d still want to paint over it, and partially because I want to be vague about what city they’re based in, at least until I decide it’s relevant to the story to establish it. The point is the characters may fly over this exact spot a lot. :)
It occurs to me that I didn’t draw Sydney with a purse. I gave her a little blue one in some of the early pages when she was at the bank but then I completely forgot about it for the next 250 pages. Even though she doesn’t carry cosmetics around with her, it seems unlikely she’d be able to get by with just a phone and wallet in one pocket and keys in the other. (And The List in her back pocket) Yes, if she was only running to a grocery store and back maybe, but she’s leaving her apartment for the day. Very few women are so minimalist. I don’t blame them. If I could carry around a purse like thing that was acceptable for a man, I would fill it with all kinds of garbage. The perfect example is a shoulder bag I bought for carrying stuff around conventions. It’s exactly the right height and width to fit an iPad, but obviously it’s deeper than that with three separate zippable compartments. Now it has, in addition to a small sketchpad, some pencils, a phone charger with 4 separate USB outlets on it and the appropriate cables attached, and a small stack of the postcards I use to pimp the comic (perfect for a convention naturally), it has every adapter known to mankind so I can hook the iPad up to any video display, with the possible exception of UHF. The bag is now weighs 18 pounds. Oh, also one of those very small screwdrivers with all the interchangeable heads stored in the handle. Because I’m a guy.
March snuck the hell up on me. :P I seriously thought there was like a week left in February. :/ Edit: The vote incentive is finished finally!
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Grizzly Barry is going to need some Charmin.
But the woods are very far away.
Maybe he has some woods in the back of his chopper? We don’t know how big it is.
If he happens to be in the woods, a handy-dandy bunny rabbit serves the same function…
A bunny rabbit? You barbarian! Everyone knows a goose’s neck is much preferable!
Okay, so what if a bear has a more adequate supply of rabbits in the woods than he would with geese? Geese hang around lakes mostly, but rabbits are everywhere.
What is a “big mix master on the highway”?
I’ve never heard that expression before.
I’d guess an onramp/offramp intersection. They can get fairly Gordian knotty depending on how many roads are involved.
I’m just guessing, but he probably means one of those big freeway interchanges with all the different offshoots for changing highways, or one of those big clover-shaped exchanges some places have where two highways meet.
Or a giant hip hop deejay standing on the road.
I hate getting around Dallas.
Where the freeways mix together. Usually upwards.
AKA a spaghetti junction
Now I cant stop thinking of Good Omen with the interchange in the shape of a evil magic rune.
That’s not merely an interchange, it’s a highway circling the city.
Just remember, driving along it is like rubbing a galactic prayer wheel. For evil.
That sounds like you read Good Omens.
And that junction looks horrendous. lol
Yea, I remember laughing at that cartoon, and thinking of Good Omens, when I did.
Mind you, I see that the XKCD explained community has missed an interpretation, on the bottom of the three intersection designs. The “Rotary Super Collider”. The strictly visual one. The design has an “S” shape making it very much like the Super Man logo. Given the name, I doubt it is a co-incidence.
I remember an old cartoon, not quite the black and white era, but pretty old, where the character is lost in one of those exchanges, and keeps driving past the same hotdog vender at the side of the road.
You think that’s bad? This reminds me of an xkcd comic: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/253:_Highway_Engineer_Pranks
Oops. I meant to click on your comment, to make my reply about the XKCD. Leila Drake must have subliminally distracted me with her pretty avatar. Bright shiny objects can… ooh, what is that over there…
Complicated highway interchange?
I think this is a very nice one.
Here is it on google maps. There are a few parts that lead directly to a parking structure (Frankfurt Airport) without escape (you have to drive through).
that juction is scary and psichedelic O.o
We have some nice ones near me (see the first 4) although the majority of our junctions look like the 5th – a sliproad leading to a roundabout.
I actually go past each of these on my commute to work.
lets try that link again:
https://i.imgur.com/Lymi9s2.jpg
“Mixmaster” is actually a Dallas original, just like “Metroplex”. the term was coined with reference to the central interchange between Interstate 30 and Interstate 35E at the southwest corner of downtown Dallas.
This nightmarish interchange (it’s in the process of being completely revamped – the $798 million Horseshoe Project) is unique in a number of ways, not the least of which is that in the center of the intersection, the north-south lanes of Interstate 35 are BETWEEN the eastbound lanes of Interstate 30 and the westbound lanes of Interstate 30. Additionally, there are not ramps between all the directions – drivers who want to get from eastbound I-30 to southbound I-35E, or from northbound I-35E to westbound I-30 have to use a side street.
The term has become somewhat generic over time. The above interchange is now usually referred to as “The Dallas Mixmaster”, and there is also a “Fort Worth Mixmaster” (predictably, at the interchange of I-30 and I-35W), and I’ve heard the term used without the proper article to refer to any large highway interchange.
This shouldn’t be confused with the “High Five”, which is a remarkbly well-designed interchange recently built between Interstate 635 and US Highway 75 in North Dallas. The “High Five” is an interesting work of design, given that the tallest ramps are 12 stories high, but the traffic flow through there is actually pretty good, especially considering the incredibly crapy cloverleaf interchange it replaced.
And for those who might be curious, here is the Dallas Mixmaster (from Google Earth, by way of the Horseshoe Project page)
Trying again, hopefully without HTML fail.
Meh, I’ll just link it.
https://www.celestialdrive.com/images/dallasmixmaster.jpg
Yikes. That does it, I am never driving in Dallas! Mind you, I would probably avoid driving anywhere in the USA.
By the way, the best tip I can give for ease of linking is to bookmark this webpage:
https://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_links_w3schools
That way, whenever you wish to change a web address, into a word, or phrase, you can do so very simply. Just copy and paste the desired URL from your browser over the one in the example. And then overwrite the “Visit our HTML tutorial” with text of your own.
On it’s own, that is handy, in saving having to remember the format correctly, and/or avoiding typos. But, even better, just hit the “See Result” button, and it will apply the HTML code and you will get to check that you did it right.
You will even be able to test many of the resulting links, by clicking on them. Simple web-sites and photos will display, so Wikipedia is fine. Sadly YouTube is amongst the applications which will not. But, even so, you will still get to see if the code converts cleanly into the word(s), even if you cannot test that it actually then links.
It is also worth bearing in mind that GrrlPower uses slightly different HTML code. Not that it affects that particular usage. But, if you want to use the sandbox to test other things, like those shown below the “Submit Comment” box here, then it may work differently. For instance [spoiler] is not recognised by that.
the mousetrap
Grizzly Barry suddenly doesn’t feel any need for his morning coffee today.
Given the remote location, I had inferred the site of the superbattle was away from the city somewhere, though from the traffic report it sounds like it was off of one of the cities trunk lines.
Dallas is one of the most spread out flat cities in America. The city proper i
Stupid submit button. :-/ The city proper is HUGE.
Yep. I live in the City of Dallas, but i don’t even live in Dallas County (The area where I live is called Far North Dallas for a reason). Dallas extends into at least two neighboring counties (Denton and Collin) and I think more than that.
The scale of the DFW Metroplex is rather mind-boggling. It’s larger than quite a few countries–and not just island micronations, either. It’s got more land area than Israel or Belize, for example, and a larger population than Ireland or Denmark. (Israel is actually more densely populated on average than DFW, though.)
If Sydney’s city is DFW, or a fictitious city of similar size, it provides some perspective on her navigational issues. Imagine flying in a helicopter over Jerusalem and being told to find the sushi bar at 138 Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv. (That would be analogous to a fairly long, but not unheard-of, commute in DFW.)
Addendum: I don’t think there is an intersection of Parker and Main in DFW, which either suggests Sydney’s city is someplace else or that DaveB wasn’t kidding about his own navigational issues. :D
Could end up just being a fictional city.
“Metroplex” is pretty much a Dallas/Fort Worth term, so it’s hard to imagine it being anywhere else once that has been thrown out.
There’s at least one major road named Parker, and every suburb in Dallas has a Main Street somewhere. So there could well be such an intersection somewhere in the Metroplex, but I’m also not aware of one. It’s also possible that Sydney’s version of DFW has some different street names than ours.
Looking at a map of dallas, I think it would have been most amusing for her to be asking about the intersection between main and exposition ave. :)
He he. But getting it wrong, by just one intersection, could lead to a nightmare!
Maybe it’s just me, but when I use Google-maps or something similar I love looking at the display for a top-down direction, and I’ve never had trouble translating an aerial view into movements on the ground. All those years in the Boyscouts reading maps and stuff helped develop a good innate sense of direction, and I’m confident that if I suddenly developed the ability to fly I could puzzle my way to most places I needed to get to within 100 miles in fairly short order.
That was my thought too. I suppose it would depend on how much time Sydney spent on Google Earth/Maps and at what angles.
Remember that ADHD isn’t so much “Thinking outside the box” as “Ooooh, Look at that box over there.” Even if Sydney consults Google maps regularly, she’s probably too distracted to study them.”
Ok, good point.
This isn’t the first place I’ve seen this trope though. And while I certainly understand that expecting things to look exactly like a nice, neat, orderly map from the air is probably pushing it, being unable to follow a set of directions or go to a place you visit regularly seems like it’s stretching things a bit.
That being said, if Sydney is lost, maybe it’s because she’s looking for Archon HQ and not the comic-book shop.
Especially when you can fly down to look at street signs and communicate with passersby. (or stop at a gas station and buy a map ;D )
Okay one question. Who the heck is flying the Helicopter???
The guy in the left seat obviously, Sir Not Appearing In This Comic.
And how is he listening to road traffic from a tablet that isnt plugged in to his headset?
I rather got the impression that he was giving the report, not listening to it.
Is that a common thing in America, people flying over the city to see trafic?
Cause in Europe we have automated systems or cameras detecting those
It was. Haven’t checked this trend recently. Its possible automated systems are creeping in to major cities.
It still is.
BTW I love that this comment is coming from Opus. :-)
given that there is no one to his right and you can see the left side window syd tapped on in the first chopper view, (and the guy is able to lean up to the left window with out interference,) grizzly is the only person in the bird. the only person in the bird is sitting in the middle checking data and making a news report tells us that the computer is flying the chopper aka autopilot.
That’s actually the right side window Sydney is tapping on. Look at the mic on his headset. That’s a clear indicator that he’s looking to his right.
The mic comes on the right side when he’s facing us, so it’s on his left. Since the mic is not drawn over the side of his face, he’s turned to the left, so that’s his left window she’s hollering through.
The mic is on Grizzley’s left (our right) so Sydney is at HIS right side window.
Mmm. I do not think that the mike has any bearing, as it is unchanged between the two panels. And would look the same regardless of which window he was peering through. I had discounted the possibility of Halo being on his right, as we can see that window clearly, in the penultimate panel. And there is no sign of her. Yet we can hear her thumping, at the end of that panel.
Because that “TUMP TUMP” was on the right of the panel, I took it as coming from that side (ie his left).
That said though, looking at the final panel in isolation, there is nothing to indicate that it is not the side to his right. In fact the positioning of the ‘slider/catch/handle’ would actually support your assertion. Although the other side of the aircraft could have a similar arrangement, but with that feature on the other side of the divide. So it is not conclusive. But it is suggestive.
If we look at it that way, we can take the penultimate panel as being in a transitive state. It is depicted at the beginning of his speech bubble (when Halo would not be visible) but, by the end of it, she will have moved into position, and started tapping. So the positioning of the “TUMP TUMP” would only be relevant in a time perspective and not as a spatial reference.
Its half of the equation as the mic is clearly wrapping around his head on HIS left. The other half is where the handle appears on the sliding panel in the side window. That sliding handle appears in the half the sliding panel that, when closed as it is, would be the half towards the back of the helicopter. If he was looking to HIS left then that handle would be on the other side of the frame piece in the middle. As Peter says below another piece of evidence is the location of the front window in the last panel relative to all of this.
So Sydney is on HIS right for sure. Invisible pilot (sounds like a super name) dude is on his left.
Well if we were looking from behind Grizzly we would see the right side window like that but there seems to be no space behind him so I have to say that is the left side we see. Maybe the seats can move forward or back and the pilot is all the way forward.
The fourth wall has absorbed the seat and surfaces behind him or if you prefer he leaned a tiny bit forward in shock and the camera lens is the chair.
If that was the helicopter’s (not our) left side then the wall behind him has a window. (the cloud from the window with Sydney continues in it) But we can see from the earlier panel that the wall behind him seems opaque. IF that was it’s left side then the handle on the sliding glass panel in the middle would be in the back half of the window so it could mirror the right side. If that was its left side he would have had to lean forward across the pilot to see her up close like that.
If it is the helicopter’s right side then everything makes perfect sense. He turned to his right to see her at the window nearest him.
I glide corrected
For me it was the fact you can see the front windows on the left side of the last panel as well as the window and door fixtures.
Considering I do all my navigation using 10,000 feet mode on Google Maps w/satellite view, I’d be willing to try my hand at high altitude navigation.
Must be a big city if the ARCHON building doesn’t stand out. That’d have been my first task.
Actually, since she can fly, shouldnt ARC provide (at some point) some aeronautical navigation courses and a dedicated paper/plastic map? (You know, air zones/flight corridors/restricted airspace, you cant just jump into a plane and go Weeee i wana go thataway without a radio ! , at least where i’m from thats the fastest way to get two jets flying delta with you and asking you to land, that or getting to see a jet ferrying himself somewhere else REALLY fast REALLY close xD)
I delieve all that stuff was either on the bracer data pad which she forgot to charge or in the neck band that she’s not wearing. She’ll get her gear down to a routine in time.
*believe :-P
Actually she is wearing the neck thing. But that’s only comuncator and passive thing, the actual computer is in her Pip Boy
Yes, that will all be part of her training.
How small an object does radar even track before they just dismiss it as a flock of birds or something? She probably masses less that some tight flying wings of geese. Maybe with her shield up she becomes much more visible? Unless it just absorbs/dissipates some kind of energies rather than do a straight reflect then maybe it would be a slightly stealthy shield?
I imagine that there is a difference between the resolution that civilian and military aircraft/instillations use. I would guess Halo would have too small a radar shadow to be noticeable on the former. But she is bigger than some missiles, so I am sure the military versions would pick her up just fine.
I could see ARCHON itself developing some odd systems capable of knowing she was a human in flight but wouldn’t even other military users be hard pressed to tell the difference between an unshielded and soft body/clothed flying Sydney and a tight flying flock of geese or other birds.
Between her small size and soft surfaces I would think they would have to have had experience with supers recently to not simply dismiss it.
True, I was forgetting she does not have nice radar reflective metallic coatings. You know how easy it is to mix up Sydney and Maxima, after all. ;-)
Radar will just pass through human flesh and not bounce back. Of course if you are close enough to the emitting antenna you might cook yourself depending on the power of the radar.
Thank you.
But it also begs the question: If Sydney has her shield up, does radar reflect from it? Of course, the shield should deflect the radar if it’s at dangerously high levels, up close.
But would it deflect radar if she’s far enough away from the emitter that it’s not endangering her?
Will the Pep Boys definitely an android device. I can never keep mine charged either.
Pip boy
Well she did probably leave it on all day without charging it.
She didn’t recharge but she got it halfway through yesterday (in comic time) afternoon’s press conference (after a lunch, foiled bank robbery, the interview with arc, the noodle incident, the meeting her new teamates, and the fitting). That puts it on par with my LC l34c but behind mom’s LC l39c, my iPad mini, my sisters iPhone 4, my Brother in laws Galaxy S4, and my former brother in law’s 3g iPad 2 & iPhone 5s.
And that day lasted an entire year.
It’s probably a custom OS, made by Leon
Far faster & easier to get something up and running using building on a stable open source frame fork. In his shoes I’d fork Android kernel and apply my own security and user interface layers. In later revisions I’d deal with the issues which Bugdroid has yet to address.
I forsee a Sydney ADHD moment where she makes her own rooftop street signs with spraypaint and hopes noone notices.
+1
Obviosly thats what the PPO Orb is for
I think Apple Maps has already recorded some images of Sydney’s attempts to tag landmarks with the PPO.
https://resources0.news.com.au/images/2012/09/21/1226478/687680-amazing-ios6-maps.jpg
Heh. That would be fun.
“ARCHON —————->”
“PIZZA SHOP”
“THIN ROOF, DO NOT LAND”
She’d remember the thin roof, it’d be the one with the hole in it!
Actually, as the city now has at least four people that can fly, and could get more, rooftop advertising could pay off!
You forgot the most important one,
Mama Boolang’s ——>.
I hope that traffic reporter can read lips.
It’s a good thing Sydney’s not a guy (just a tomboy). Real guys never ask directions…
More evidence of my gender fluidity. I’m more than happy to ask if I can’t find something.
First of all, fun comic! As for the aerial perspective, I think a lot of the perspective with regard to where you are in Dallas from above depends greatly on where you grew up / spent most of your time. I generally have very little problem with determining where I am on flights in to Dallas, because I grew up in the outer suburbs northeast of Dallas, and these are almost always the areas I go over when flying in. All you need to do is pick up one location, and usually the rest fall into place.
Need to learn what a collective looks like, and a cyclic. Looks like he’s in a fixed wing that’s making helicopter sounds.
Nope. Looks like a helecopter to me. That fuselage doesn’t look anything like a fixed wing aircraft.
Ahh, cartoon physics. Like, when the helicopter makes WUP-WUP sounds to simulate the air blowing but Sydney’s hair stays in place like a calm spring day less than ten feet under the helicopter blades…
:-) I don’t mean to be a hater; this is a funny comic.
Oh, she’s got her shield up. I didn’t notice that. Sorry!
Sydney may be safe, but I am concerned for the helicopter rotors.
Surely Sydney will be careful…
Oh Crap.
The Syd’s gonna hit the fan…
I’d thought that the “blue purse” was actually the store’s money that she was supposed to deposit.
…Wait, she never finished her deposit! The comic book store’s gonna go out of business! NOOO!
And her CAR is still at the bank! Oh man, the shit’s totally gonna hit the fan soon, isn’t it?
Nope, Dave has confirmed that the bank deposit was handled between the action. She may get a parking ticket for the car. Or, alternatively, she might have picked it up, on the way home. Perhaps literally.
Parking Ticket, meet Leon. It was nice knowing you while you existed.
He works for the cops, I hardly think he will get up to criminal activities, just because it falls within his capabilities.
Yeah, because cops never fix tickets for each other!
/s
also, her parking tag expired in 2011 – which was yesterday morning, if I recall correctly.
Oh, I did not realise they had arrangements like that. I remember seeing the things on the windshield, but just took it to be road tax/vehicle registration type stickers.
It was also blue. If you go back to when she gets out of her car in preparation to going to eat lunch at the spicy restaurant you will notice that the “bank bag” has shrunk to half size and grown a thin shoulder string. It never makes it to the bank as far as I can tell. It seems to be something mostly left in the car with some odds and ends she occasionally likes to have. I’d do that with my backpack sometimes. Pack it with everything I might possibly need but then just leave it in the car if I was just making a quick stop. If I was say staying in one place for hours it would come with me. Other times I have no back pack set up like that. Guess I go through periods of neediness or something…
I have a bag like that. It is awesome for when repacking things, to fit into the guide boxes, they have for airlines. The ones which ensure that your luggage will fit into the compartments. It can concertina to half it’s size, specifically for that purpose.
That’s not what a pun is…
Bleh, stupid javascriptless reply button! This is what happens after you’ve reformatted your hard drive…nothing works like it used to until you get it all fixed.
It did rather have me wondering what I might be missing. Other than the Bugs Bunny reference (albeit that his was to the city, rather than a street). Sadly my French is lacking, so I do not know if there may have been some wordplay going on with that.
What are you puntificating about?
IF we are seeing Yorp being taken for walkies then this must be relatively close to the shop. I wonder is she has forgotten about talking to her business partner completely yesterday and today just like she did her parents until someone mentioned them?
Wow, if that helicopter moved suddenly and Sydney didn’t react fast enough…
At least she has her shield up. I can’t wait for someone to drill that into her in training.
The helicopter is probably light enough to lift with her light-hook in the event of blade vs shield issues. I think we can take it as a given that energy shield > spinning helicopter blade.
Assuming he isn’t killed by shrapnel bouncing off her shield.
Then she uses flyball + Lighthook to gently lower the helicopter. No shield. Could be a danger if your newly minted super drops her shield while there is still the potential of debris in order to catch it fast enough. But even if it goes perfectly well, he didn’t die at first etc… , then this would still be pretty bad press on her first full day.
From experience, while very few women go some where without a purse, many still do, and it seems to me like Sydney is the type to do so. About the only time I go somewhere with a purse is when I’m on my period. Otherwise, keys and wallet in one pocket, phone in the other, and time to go. Purses are for carrying makeup and toiletries and maybe a book if I have to wait somewhere for a very long time.
I pretty much always have a backpack, because I’m a (male) student.
Seriously, it’s reached the point that I worry without a least a few kilos on my back, because I think I’ve forgotten something.
It’s handy though, there’s so much I can put in it.
Of course, Sydney is on her period…
Speaking as a woman who never carries a purse:
1) Generally, all I need are my wallet and keys. I will also carry a paperback book if I’m wearing a jacket, or a backpack if I need to carry more.
2) Tampons can be strategically stashed in desk drawers, pockets, etc. Or you can use a diva cup and never worry about it again.
Diva cup?
A wonderful form of internal ‘feminine protection’ that’s basically a rubber cup used to catch the menstrual blood. All that’s needed is to periodically take it out, clean it, and reinsert it. It’s wonderful not having to worry about running out of pads or tampons.
Thank you for sharing. >faint<
“Goes thru eddie’s pockets while he is unconscious.”
I’m so glad that for men, bleeding is something that happens only on special occasions, and isn’t a regular event.
I love this group.
And we love you to death to.
Well, Mr. Vest DID ask…
O.o
Spot on!!!
As a pilot this is exactly the problem when you go flying. It takes years to be able to star piecing together what different roads are and landmarks from the sky. Civilian pilots (the good ones) have GPS, road maps and aviation charts to be able to figure out where to go.
I can see what you are thinking!
Can you see what I’m thinking?
https://heavy.com/comedy/2011/11/the-sexiest-x-ray-photos/
I don’t know if this would deserve an NSFW notice, but…
Psst, how much for the set?
…
…
…they’re all free at the website…
?
(oo)
Hardly. There is no indication that the content is available for free download. And piracy does have it’s price.
Not that I would actually want those. They are far more useful, where they are, to be linked to, when a laugh can be had.
Besides which, paying would be out of the question, as all I have is this bone!
Well, think about something else ’til it goes away. Maggie Thatcher should do the trick.
*waits for random boner joke/pun/reference*
Random boner joke/pun/reference.
Make no bones about it.
The rest gets a bit gay though…
Gilgamesh? Now that’s real “old school.”
(sings): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLi55MV04a8
I should hope so. I am sure Baron Wulfenbach would insist on only using tutors drawn from the oldest, and most respected, institutes of learning. Such as the Transylvania Polygnostic University.
Input from a female: I usually just carry with me phone, wallet, keys, stowed in various pockets. When I want to carry more, I carry a messenger bag for notebooks, laptop etc. which a lot of my friends do, male and female. So maybe not as rare as you think :-)
That said, there’s always that one friend who has 7 purses to go with every outfit, that altogether cost more than my truck…
My main problem is, I can drive just about anywhere within the 10 mile radius, but I couldnt even begin to give you directions. I just visually know where to turn, not have the road signs memorized.
I disagree that today’s traffic is ‘pretty clear’, especially around the airport. After both the press conference and the following mega-fight afterwards the area near the airport will be jammed with cars and taxis due to incoming flights carrying reporters from around the planet. (And if this the right universe, someone named Clark from ‘The Planet’)
Also, the media want to give a sensational name to everything. If the restaurant is (was) anywhere near other stores the fight will be called “The Brawl at the Mall’.
“The super fight at the OK steak house”
We actually have a restaurant chain here called Golden Corral, and they have a program to support the military. https://www.goldencorral.com/military/
Max could have made her reservation there if she knew the fight was coming.
P.S. Good luck getting any another places to accept reservations from ARCHON in the future.
Ehhh, the reason why women carry purses is because our jean pockets are relativity tiny and since we have to carry a bag around to compensate for the lack of pocket space we carry a lot of crud with us because we might as well be prepared for various eventualities. Sample purse contents with some less common items: Stain remover pen, Wallet, Chap Stick, Liquid Bandage or bandaids, Medication, Eyedrops, Sunglasses/Glasses Case, keys, pocket knife, phone, (phone charger), deodorant/perfume, kleenex, earbuds, music player, coupons, receipts, pen ,pencil, writing pad, nail clippers, tweezers, duct tape, wrappers from candy, a small snack bar, self-defense weapon of choice, hand sanitizer, hand lotion, wipes, a drink if large enough, removed jewelry, hairties, small umbrella and or poncho, sunscreen, bug spray, and stuff you don’t want to put (back) in your wallet right away.
The tiny pocket thing makes sense (and would infuriate me) Sydney looks like she wears guys jeans, cause they’re relatively loose and have big pockets, front and back – only cut around the hips and crotch for a woman. She must have found one brand that does that and bought a week’s worth all at once.
I’ve known several women who have gotten away with relying on real pockets rather than accepting “stylishly” useless ones.
Of course, the law of stray objects pretty much insists that the bottom of tubey is going to quickly become an assortment of pens, papers, and other mcl detritus that sounds very much like what Zombified Cat has described as the contents of a purse…
With the cosplay make up case suggesting that is one of Sydney’s hobbies, she can probably sew pretty well. She could just buy guys jeans and alter them for comfort.
Relax on the no-purse thing, Dave. One of my cousins has been purseless for 20+ years, and a friend of my mom’s has been doing the same for nearly as long. The trick is remembering to empty your pockets every night. No, wait, the trick is to wear stuff with pockets, then remember to empty them at night…something like that!
I have found study of Google maps satelite view helps with the birds-eye view. Not a lot, but some.
very funny, she should have taken that left at Albuquerque. I see what you did there, though it would have been funnier if she was nibbling on a carrot while she was flying.
You should make those 6 hours count, and make a high resolution wallpaper of the top image. Make it a companion to the “joy of flight” image. :-)
I wish I remembered how I noticed your comic to begin with. Maybe the Top Web Comics list. I think it was right after the fake bank heist. Anyway, the initial appeal was the comedy and the characters, not the artwork. It was good enough that it didn’t turn me off.
It’s safe to say that the drawings improved a lot through the earliest pages. By the time I came aboard, however, you seemed to have settled in the current style. I can’t really point out any specific way you have improved after that, but then, I’m no art critic.
What I *can* say is that it happens far more often nowadays that I just stop and enjoy a piece of artwork for the art alone.
Anyway, Dave, I hope you manage to get a printed book, eventually. I’ll order one the moment it is announced.
I am reasonably confident that I could navigate my city from the air – but only because I spent several years as a delivery driver and managed to cover most points of it. At least I could get from my home to my work (which is what Sydney seems to be attempting).
Of course in almost all the flying dreams I have had, I sucked at flying, so I’m not confident I could actually travel…
Yea, I’m pritty sure I’d have no trouble either.
But I live in Europe, where the cities aren’t build like a gigantic uniform grid, which makes it much easier to find things
Arianna’s probably going to give Syndney flak that she’s not wearing her superhero colors.
Those colors
being
…
black & blue?
She doesn’t have colors.
At most she’d have a military uniform
We have seen Archon uniforms back at the press conference. I suspect their working clothes might look like BDUs but not necessarily in a camo pattern.
I always imagine that super-heroes that could fly would have to spend time consulting a map and setting a compass bearing before flying off for long distances.
For short distances, I suppose you could try using a map. It would probably be easier than using a map to navigate while at ground level.
DaveB, I can see where you (& Sydney) might have trouble recognizing your city from such a different perspective. Nothing to be ashamed about. I don’t have that trouble because I don’t live in a large city by any means; this place isn’t big enough to deserve any suburbs. Viewing from the air, one major highway & one major river…Right! From that, I know where everything else is. but if I were far enough away from that area, like out flying over county roads & such, I’d be just as lost as Sydney is (Missing that left turn at Albuquerque gets the better of everybody, even if they have a map with them). ;)
That 1st panel looks great…Whatever time you spent to get it to look that good was not wasted at all. When I was younger & drew stuff, I hated backgrounds too. That was before there was any effective Internet where I could easily get aerial photos of anything. It’ll take time, but the more you can build up on your library of “stock photos” the easier & quicker it’ll get.
“(And The List in her back pocket)”
And the pen! She’s just gotta have the pen to write with too!
When you mentioned her that “little blue purse” that Sydney had when she went to the bank, we all took that as being the comic store’s deposit pouch. I only saw one small, blue handbag when she went to lunch before going to the bank, but she didn’t even take that one into the bank with her.
Since her car got left at the bank when Max hauled her to Archon & I didn’t see it anywhere when they were all at the restaurant when they got attacked …Whoah! Did Sydney leave it in her car overnight?!
All in all, I wouldn’t sweat over that handbag any, Dave…Being a tomboy-type, it actually seems more natural for Sydney to not carry one around, except on very rare occasions.
And last but not least…In panel 4, is that Yorp & the same gal in the background?
Woooo! Yorp has made another cameo appearance!
I am as happy as a puppy swimming in a basin full of scooby snax!
Sooo…..Is that gal your “steady?”
(wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
As if I would let just any girl put a collar and leash on me!
You sly dog!
:D
No attempt to be a shill, but I really like my Maxpedition Jumbo E.D.C. Versicolor. It’s manly enough and I can throw a bunch of geeky stuff in it.
That river looks pretty big, so it is a much better landmark than those street signs or that water tower. If she knows a couple of crossings, it should be easy to get back to familiar part of town.
Couple of times a year I’ll climb the mountain that is about a half mile from my house. When I get to the top, I look for my house and even after 30 years, it still takes me a minute or so to find it. Everything looks so different.
Yea, I have extremely hilly terrain around my house. And you can get to some vantage points, of the village, where you have no idea what part you are looking at. If you find a building your recognise, you can contextualise it. Without that though, you just have to keep going until you find something that does look familiar.
A lot easier to do with a village than a city mind. I can understand Sydney’s problem.
Water courses and road crossings really are a big clue though. That said, I note that Dallas has a lot of water features on it. So if she is simply not familiar with that bridge, then it is again no use to her. Whilst I know all the major bridges in London, I am sure that there are others that would give me no clue. Especially if you are seeing it all from a totally unfamiliar angle.
This reminds me of another challenge with navigating Dallas from the air.
The city is FLAT.
Dallas is out in the middle of the sprawling prairie. Water is pretty much the ONLY terrain in this city. Outside of downtown, we don’t even have many tall buildings.
If you’re not familiar with the layout of the city, or not high enough above it to see two or three of the major highways, there aren’t a lot of obvious landmarks to go on.
I think id I’d do OK, but I’ve lived here all my life and have always had a fascination with maps… so i know the city layout very well.
Actually quite a few tom boyish geek girls / women are minimalists when it comes to purses either that or alternatively we carry backpacks, (for the same reasons that you carry one to conventions). I personally hate purses and carry a small Nintendo DS backpack, it holds my I.D. and debit cards along with my check book, some pens / pencils, and actual cash if I have it. You know, the one meant to hold little more than a DS and a selection of video games, (which it also holds quite nicely by the way). If I need something bigger than that, I carry a backpack. It has plenty of room for sketchbooks, pens, pencils, erasers, and any little odds and ends I might need. Since I’m allergic to makeup I never got into the habit of wearing it so don’t carry it or other typically girly stuff.
So while reading Dave’s comment I realized that I had never noticed the little blue purse at all because it looked like a smaller version of the bank money bag so my mind had dismissed it as some oddly arted incarnation of same.
Dave says it was used at the bank but I don’t think it was. The only place I see it was when she got out of the car to go eat lunch that day. Its tiny and seems to stay in the car all the time (she didn’t have it on the way to the car from her comic shop). I’m thinking she mostly relies on what is in her apparently full sized lady jean pockets (good buy there) and the tiny purse is just for certain occasions when she thinks it is useful to have a few wet wipes, chapstick, mini bottle of “Death by Sauce” sauce or whatever (put it in a spray bottle and you wouldn’t need mace).
If it really bothers Dave that she doesn’t have a purse or fanny pack but those don’t seem her style then perhaps he could have her purchase an upgrade to “Tubey” in honor of her new superheroine life. A poster tube carrier with pockets and such on the side. A Utility-Tubey! (seems like something Bat-Man would carry if he had as many balls as Sydney right?)
https://www.portfolios-and-art-cases.com/xp-tc8537.html
or if your willing to change it to square this one has more pockets.
https://www.draftingsteals.com/document-tube-storage-square.html
Or just make one up that looks more like the original Tubey but with pockets. So since we now know that Tubies come with pocketses Sydney has no need for an additional purse. She can get a new Tubey with so many pockets that it can not only store her odds and ends but maybe some super utility stuff besides her balls. PROBLEM SOLVED! (if indeed there ever was one )
I live in the country so I bet it would be much easier to navigate if I was near home. For instance there are some huge trees right behind my childhood home on the only hill in our tiny town. See them for miles. Anything that isn’t a landmark is a crop field.
Also you would think if she purchased a *gasp* ordinary paper road map the pattern of the roads, especially the larger highways, would bear some resemblance to someone who can hover in midair with it. (shield would hold it from blowing away and she could even stretch it out on the inside surface of the shield if its small enough).
How good is Sydney at locating north from just the sun and such?
Hope she doesn’t get in trouble for flying in commonly used airspace without her device on.
But in real life, roads aren’t colour coded for your convenience!
I’m not sure asking the helicopter guy will help Sidney very much. Just last year the news helicopter in my home town couldn’t find the intersection between two major roads (They could find one, but they couldn’t find where it connected to the other).
Well, if Sydney still has not found her way, come nightfall, she does always have a fallback option.
*Sniffle*
What is this a reference to? I know it must be some twisting of Peter Pan’s “Second Start to the right and straight on till morning.” but I don’t know your version.
Oops, a slight misquote. It had been a long time since I watched it. “Take the second star to the right and straight on ’til morning!”
In memory of he who has passed on to the undiscovered country. “So this is goodbye”
Can’t be said enough: he lived long and prospered.
Interestingly enough your original post’s version comes up a lot in google. Maybe mankind unconsciously knows the REAL way to get to Neverland…
I would like to think so. Despite pesky pattern matching tendencies.
“I seriously thought there was like a week left in February.”
I know that feeling. Even on leap-years February is still the shortest month of all.