Grrl Power #356 – Ring tone deaf
Sydney’s not really all that offended by Maxima’s ringtone, but she knows an opportunity to guilt someone when she sees it. Not that Lieutenant Colonels usually let themselves be guilted into stuff by recruits, but it’s clear to anyone that Sydney is a valuable asset to the team and Max is okay with bringing her around to a more military way of thinking gradually.
Being reminded of the need for extra gear for Sydney is not unlike the minigun incident. Max does still occasionally have trouble remembering the squishiness of humans.
For anyone unfamiliar with Maxima’s ringtone. I first heard that on Dr. Demento on the radio when I was in high school. I will resist explaining what “radio” is to the young’uns since I know it still exists, but as a medium I think it’s safe to say it is past it’s heyday.
We haven’t seen that blond haired guy in a while. I would link his last appearance, (which was also his first appearance) but the quality of the art is… less good. I also need to name him so he can appear in the Who’s Who.
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I can see Sydney calling Max’s choice of ringtone “irritatingly fair”.
Not “Fairly Irritating”?
Reminds me when I would hear cracks and groans in my old house my sister would shut me up by calling it “Kinda-normal activity”.
“I cooked your food, I cleaned your house, and this is how you pay me back for all my kind and loving giving care? HUH?! Well you just wait, they’ll find you yet and when they do they’ll put you in the ASPCA you mangy mutt!!”
You have not lived until you’ve seen this bit on Ren and Stimpy.
A proper ring tone for Sydney .
OMG! And I actually have it on vinyl! Or at least, my Dad does. On the back is the same song, but in reverse.
I’ve got to admit that Max’s choice of ringtone is not only appropriate, but it also ups her “nerd cred” that she claims she let lapse…
I’ve got a Dr. Demento collection of a 4 CD set, but that’s only because I used to listen to it on radio (before the local station stopped broadcasting it, soooo long ago).
“It’s Funny Five Time!”
Ahh, but the song is old enough that she would have become familiar with it back when she was a nerd.
Not that you can ever stop being a nerd. Maxima is in denial.
Oh come now, Maxima is better then that, clearly she’s roleplaying the serious military woman and doing her best not to break character, true dedication to being a nerd!
Conceded.
Little known fact, the reverse side is the original recording, technically it’s the other one that’s played in reverse.
So for me to hear it correctly, I too must be going in reverse? No wonder I’m not getting anywhere. This explains so much!
what this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L47GQG12WHg
I personally rather like this version. Bit harder, more modern, but still the same song… :)
I could not agree more, all things considered fits perfectly, and it isn’t a bad thing or in a bad way.
Ah yes, the good old days of Dr. Demento.
Ah, that takes me back. Good old Dr. Demento.
Don’t have a lot of experience with Dr. Demento, but I’m a HUGE Weird Al fan, and I know Al kinda got his start on Dr. D, so I’m appreciative.
You’d probably also like Tom Lehrer- he has much the same feel, and a lot of the same brutality of making his point.
It wasn’t kind of, Al flat out got his break from Dr. Demento, he put Al’s first parodies on the air. Tom Lehrer is also great.
…yet another reason Sydney and I are alike. I have that same ringtone set in several of my friends phones for me. Granted, I set that ringtone myself, but still….
Oh, you can set different ring-tones for different people. The wonders of modern technology! Let me know as soon as they can microwave a chicken, and I might buy one.
They make microwaves that can cook a turkey…a full turkey.
And you can microwave baked potatoes now to.
With a phone? That would be so cool… and useful.
Yes with a phone.
But first you have to charge your phone in the microwave.
Also, if you are using a Windows computer, you can connect to the microwave via wi-fi and then change it’s output to cook things faster. First step is to delete the System32 file, because Microsoft doesn’t want people doing this. Then you just search for the microwave on your wi-fi and it will automatically download the program needed to adjust your settings.
Someone went through all those steps and actually finished it. On the phone with the friend who sent him the steps,
“Now restart your computer.”
“Okay, done.”
“How’s it working?”
“Great, actually. I think it’s faster than ever!”
“Wait, what?”
“I have a Mac.”
Last year around the first of April someone posted a story, supposedly from Apple, about an ‘upgrade’ to the iPhone that lets users charge their phones wirelessly by putting it in the microwave. The person who made the ad did a very professional job of it. https://cbspittsburgh.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/bx1o13lceaah7cc.jpg
I anyone wants to try it and let us know if it works, be my guest.
Best.
Troll.
Ever!!
On a planet that boasts a human population closing in on 7-1/4 billion people, there’s just got to be at least one who is gullible enough to try it…even if they’re not so gullible as to actually admit it afterwards.
That is, until it becomes reality. It’s actually not that far from possible- you just gotta faraday-cage protect the rest of the phone, I think.
A traditional Faraday-cage would not do the trick, as x-rays can pass through them. They are designed to block particular electromagnetic frequencies (electricity/lightning) which x-rays fall beyond.
You would need to make it out of something with smaller gaps than the normal cages (or a material with a similar result). Or perhaps just use the normal lead protection which radiologists use. But that would be more of a box than a cage.
A device called a rectenna (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectenna) is designed to convert RF signals into electricity. It was originally proposed in the 60’s and 70’s as a method of receiving power from orbiting solar collectors. It is now commonly used in RFID readers to power the tag’s onboard id chip.
This is to Yorp…
Yorp… Am I right in interpreting that you think that microwave ovens work by sending X-rays into the food……?
Uh… You know that microwave ovens use microwaves (which are radio waves with a wavelength roughly around the 30 cm range)… right? X-rays are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths waaaaaaaay shorter than those of the radio waves used in a microwave oven… X-rays have wavelengths between 0.01 nanometers and 10 nanometers… We are talking of a difference of up to 11 orders of magnitude, here…!
X-rays are very penetrant, microwaves not really. You can shield against microwaves rather trivially; to shield against X-rays you basically need a lead sheet.
… You don’t really believe that microwaves use X-rays to cook food…… Right?
Heh, yea, I am very much aware of the difference between microwaves and x-rays. And have discussed properties of both, in these forums before, in depth. Unfortunately I made a typo when I googled the comment I was replying to. Normally I only have a (severe) problem with pronouns. But, once in a while, it extends to nouns too.
So I was thinking microwave but typing x-ray. Hence my reply is a nonsense, as it was based on the results I got from that. Unfortunately, once my brain gives me a false pronoun/noun it just looks right to me. It is not like if you see something mis-spelt and you go ‘something is wrong here’. Mentally I was associating all the properties of microwaves but the word was replaced by x-ray.
Sadly the google results were very short, highly consistent, and did not elaborate overly. So I just accepted them, and moved on. Had they been more in-depth I might have realised that they were not talking about what I had in mind.
So whilst it is true that X-rays are not blocked by a Faraday cage, it is not the case for microwaves. In fact microwave ovens act as Faraday cages, specifically because they do block them.
I am very familiar with that problem, from (as a typical example) having a long conversation about somebody, only to have the person I am talking to finally realise that I am saying one name and everything I am referring to must be another person completely.
If I had been a bit more thorough in re-reading the initial comment and contrasting it to my reply, I may have spotted the substituted word, and realised the error. But failed to do that.
So, yea, my bad.
I suspect that the reason why the substitution occurred was because of the thought I had about radiologists. So x-ray probably popped into my subconsciousness at that point ‘if lead stops x-rays it should stop microwaves too’. But my brain then decided to pull the noun switcheroo and I failed to elaborate that point in my reply. Had I done I would (probably) have realised the error.
The grill you see in the front of a microwave oven is a form of Faraday cage that is designed to trap microwaves. The holes are large enough to let visible wavelengths through, but microwaves are too big to fit through the holes and bounce back inside.
It really depresses me when my brain pulls it’s name-substitution trick. Well, it does it all the time. But I have a variety of precautions which help me catch an error. The Who’s Who, for instance is a god-send. But when one slips through the countermeasures it reminds me that I cannot trust my own mind. Not a nice feeling.
Happens to me all the time as well Yorpie: brain is ‘thinking’ one thing, but fingers end up ‘typing’ something else :(
You can also “hard boil” an egg in the microwave. Since microwave (& even conventional) ovens operate slightly differently at different altitudes, 1:30 timing is recommended at sea level, while 2:00 is needed at 5000 feet.
If you are going to try that I would strongly suggest putting a pinhole in the eggshell before you begin. Otherwise the buildup of internal pressure will result in a rather impressive, but very messy, explosion in your microwave. (a ‘hen’ grenade?)
Pricking the shell will not help. It will still make a mess out of your oven. You can rack the eg and pour it in a cup and it will still explode in the micro. Place a heavy lid over the cup and it will keep most of the egg inside and the result is quite delicious.
Some say that if you break the yolk the egg won’t explode in the micro. I’ve never tried that so I don’t know if that’s true. Besides cooking is more fun with explosions…
Actually you CAN hardboil an egg in the microwave. It just takes certain steps. :)
https://www.wikihow.com/Hardboil-Eggs-in-a-Microwave
Yeah, when I was working in a restaurant (my earlier years), there was a cook there who could & did successfully cook eggs in a microwave…But it took a precise cooking time set on the microwave timer; there was “window of time” that only lasted a very few seconds, between not-undercooked & exploded.
I wanted to see if anyone would bite on that bait, so I greatly exaggerated the cooking times…On purpose…
You’re a bad, bad, bad man.
Baaaad.
Funny practical joker, but bad :)
But can it cook a whole turkey in less than a day?
can it text?
…But it isn’t Sydney’s ringtone set, it’s Max’s ringtone set FOR Sydney (which then, logically, makes you more like Max, poor fellow).
I fail to see how being more like Max would be bad. Super strength and speed, invulnerability, amazing figure…aside from the gold skin that’s not a bad deal.
If your name here suggests your actual biological gender, maybe having Max’s figure would not be something to aspire to…Everything else would still be okay though.
Eh. I feel like most straight guys, if given the body of a hot lady, wouldn’t be too entirely put out by it. Especially if the figure was ‘no maintenance required’ like these Supers seem to be.
Well after the first few hours exploring the new chassis
Yeah, the first few hours are always the best…But like most guys who grew up as guys, the first onset of menstruation would leave a lot of us cringing in the closet with a gallon of ice cream.
No, the first few hours will be spent curled up in the foetal position wondering where their dick went to, then another few hours crying to their best friend (while fending off said best friend who is attempting to get into their pants)
I’m open minded. While I wouldn’t want to go through the current steps of hormone therapy, surgery, counseling, and whatever else it takes for trans people to visually look the way they feel they should (seriously, I hear its a lot, and anyone willing to go through the time, money and effort of it has mad props in my book)…while I wouldn’t go through it, if there was a way to instantly transform into a cis-woman, I have to admit I would be curious enough to do that if for nothing else than scientific reasons. I’ve always been fascinated about the psychological, non-obvious biological and sociological differences between men and women. However, its very hard to fully comprehend those differences unless you can fully put yourself into the other’s role, something we currently can’t do in medical science.
If one day they figure that out and need voluntary test subjects (as long as there is less than a 2% chance of death and disfigurement), I’d volunteer just so I can experience the other side of the gender roles and gain a much deeper understanding of the human race and the interactions between them….
…but yeah, as a straight male, you know what the first few hours are going to entail.
You know that there’s a counter to that ringtone don’t you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m138-Fn5Tw
Well, I do NOW, yeah…
and a counter to the counter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiHKOLiCG4
XD loving both!
Can remember that song from high school :D
Don’t believe we ever got Dr. Demento back then, just the song
Is the song in reference to Sydney, or what will happen to Maxi after a few weeks :D
Yes.
Yeah, that was out on a compilation album my buddy had back in the 70’s.
originally released in 1966
I first heard it on the Gong Show.
I just kinda… know it. Not entirely sure how I know it.
Both.
Maxima definitely has a sense of humor. Now I want to know what ring tones she uses for the other members, maybe DaveB can put it up as a play list.
Seconded, but I’d rather have those ringtones revealed in-comic than in a playlist… ;)
I’ll first that second.
I will 3rd that 2nd
And I’ll give that quadrapalegic a fifth…a nice bourbon, perhaps.
As they say:
“I’d rather have a free bottle in front of me…
…than a pre-frontal lobotomy!”
[https://www.google.com/search?q=prefrontal+lobotomy]
Well, we know that Arianna’s ring tone for Max is Darth Vadar’s theme.
At the time, I just figured that was Arianna’s own ringtone. As a commentator, elsewhere for today’s comic, suggests it would be most appropriate for her. Albeit that it would be more in character for Maxima to set it for Arianna’s incoming calls. But vice versa clearly works too. :-D
I’m wondering if it’s the standard Imperial March (most likely), or the rather nice Imperial March done by Metalica that Daniel the Human has as his standard SMS tone…
Omg, I love all of this. Especially the reaction on Maxima’s face while the ring tone is going off. :)
You had named him Brad in those first few comics, Dave.
And panels 6 and 7 made me laugh.
Yeah, I was went back and looked he is actually named, but in Dave’s head he’s probably just too annoying to remember :)
Was about to point that out too as I remembered Joel calling him by name, even if I forgot what it was so I looked but yeah, Brad has a name already :3
And you loved Brad.
jntil uou got drunk and wrapped Brad around a tree.
And now, your insurance company is denying your claim saying it was pre-meditated murder in the kitchen with the hentorb.
I’m just going to call him Beady – for his beady eyes.
it could be B.D.
for Brad Douche
(it’s pronounced Doosh-ay)
Don’t try to frenchify your name, douche boy.
Just like that old English show, “Keeping Up Appearances”, with ‘Hyacinth Bucket’ (pronounced Bouquet) :D
Is it just me who wants to see Frosted Douche try something either to Sydney, or funnier, to Maxi? o_O
According to this page, his real name is Brad, but I think your name for him might be more appropriate.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/120
He seems to know Sydney fairly well from all of the times he’s been shopping in her store, so I’m expecting him to go all fanboy on Maxima. He will certainly test her patience, but will he drive her to the brink of blasting him to ash? Lord, I hope so!
Careful, Max! Your in Sydney’s world now!
Of course, it doesn’t count as “meeting a superhero” if he didn’t know that Sydney *was* a superhero at the time. But since he’s named, and has been in several pages already, I’d think he has earned a spot in the Who’s Who.
I see. He’s one of those customers. Never hears what you tell him. Thinks his needs are Priority 1. And is never happy unless complaining.
And no matter how few of that kind of customer any business has, they all prefer to show up on Mondays…
in other words, the kind of person Maxima might end up juggling, and possibly tossing a few hundred feet in the air and catching just so he wets his pants.
And then all our expectations are dashed because it turns out that he had relatives in the military who served with Col. Leander and she saved their lives at one point, and he’s super respectful of her for that, and just shakes her hand and thanks her.
Yeah… nah!
Maxi needs to prove herself before she gets to woman the register, she starts with cleaning out the backroom and moving the inventory (including the display stands themselves) from one side of the store to the other, then back again, twice
You’re not going to go all the way and have her scrub the bathrooms, too? I suspect they’d regret it if they did ask. ;D
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1129
HMMM?
Sydney: “What the hell happened to my store?! I swear it was right here last time I saw it!”
It would be clean.
I think you mean “Cleansed”
Enough to clean out the whole store & building, yes…
Clean it right off the face of the map.
Superpowered bathroom cleaning…
(Note the text in the mirror in first & last panels)
Thanks, I’d wondered where that comic had moved to.
Thank you, started reading that yesterday :D
Twice? Pssh… Crank up super speed, and 1-2 seconds later, it’s been done 80 times and she says “now what?”
“Do it again, but no speed or you are fired!”
In case anyone haven’t heard the song, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L47GQG12WHg :P
Work of Satan. clearly.
Hmm… the good old “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”. A sad story about runaway dog and its owner who goes nuts. I haven’t heard it since early 1970’s. I think I still have the original vinyl somewhere in storage, but no turntable to play it.
Another Napoleon XIV ringtone which could fit to Sydney is “Marching off to Bedlam”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C63HnJT620
Hey, unfair! Sydney is not mad. She is now rich, that makes her just eccentric!
Actually it was only the last verse about the dog;\.
All the rest was him talking to his ex.
Oh YES!! I was about to suggest it. You don’t need to be mad to have it. THE perfect ringtone.
Then again, playing “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” loud on the car stereo while driving through the city… :D
That reminded me of this song (shame you can’t seem to find the original un-censored version no more :( )
By the way, let me know if you managed to get through the full video, specially at 1.25 speed :D
“Blocked in my country due to copyright issues.”
Sorry. didn’t get through any of it.
What? Some country blocked Crazy Frog? o_O
Damn smart country! :P :D
Mach 4 straight up will get you into “can’t breathe” in about 5 seconds, “blood boils” in about 20 seconds and “Oh Crap, Scoville’s gone orbital” in just over a minute.
True (I guesstimate, didn’t actually check the numbers), but we know nothing about how fast she accelerates. And that part about going orbital should probably be a real concern…
Do you really want to see her knocking on the windows of the ISS, wearing a fire-fighter’s breathing rig surrounded by her force-field and a few hundred litres of sea-level air?
Not a huge problem really. It has air-locks. Halo’s shield is deformable. And she can operate any mechanisms using her tentacle. So all she need do is enter the airlock and allow it to pressurise normally (it will measure the air pressure in the chamber as it tops it up, so the volume of the force field will not cause it a problem, it will stop the airflow when the pressure reaches the standard for the ISS station).
Assuming that the ISS operates with approximately sea-level air density, there should be no issue when Sydney lowers her shield. But even if they choose to pressurise it as if at higher altitude, Sydney will lower her shield in the airlock, and they can gradually adjust the air pressure, at a safe rate for her, until it has equalised with the station’s.
It has air-locks. Halo’s shield is deformable. And she can operate any mechanisms using her tentacle.
Would that work? IIRC from the fight with Vehemence, the lighthook cannot operate on the opposite side of the shield from Sydney.
Just went back to check out the fight and it turns out I did not RC. My apologies.
No probs.
We would have a problem with relative speed again, though (guess we had this discussion some pages ago already, eh?):
While the ISS is only 400 km above sea level (so she would roughly take 5 minutes to reach it at mach 4), she could never actually catch up to it on radial velocity (which is roughly 28.000km/h; Sydney will only make it to about 5000km/h at mach 4).
… unless she gets faster at lower air density, that is.
I think the latter will be the case. Mach 4 is her operational speed limit at or near to sea-level density atmosphere. But if the same applied consistently, her underwater speed would be devastatingly dangerous (like high explosives). So I think normal real world logic applies, rather than the arbitrary ‘Halo does Mach 4, under all circumstances’.
As such in denser atmosphere (like underwater) she will go slower than Mach 4. So, conversely in (significantly) less dense atmosphere, she will go faster.
Logically the meter on her orb would re-calibrate to indicate this. Note that the Mach number is critically important, due to the shock-wave that will be generated. And much more so for underwater travel, as that shock-wave can be deadly (not sure how bad Mach 1 is but a Mach 4 water shock-wave will rupture internal organs).
At the end of the day though it depends on what story-lines (if any) DaveB might have planned in orbit. If he wants Halo to be able to go up there, he can do so without any continuity error. If he does not want her to, then he can keep her at a Mach 4 limit, even in upper atmosphere. And simply apply different rules when underwater, if having her as a mobile explosion is not part of the plan. Or Halo might just have to be very careful underwater!
One big point to consider on this, is that if Sydney is capable of flying up to the ISS, she can also fly anywhere, on the planet, fast, by means of sub-orbital flight.
Oh, and Sydney can then present them with an invoice for the delivery of a few hundred litres of air!
…a few hundred litres of partially oxygen-depleted air…
What? You weren’t expecting Sydney to NOT breathe any of it on the way up?
A fire-fighter’s re-breather was specified in the comment I was replying to, so felt it fair enough to assume it was mostly still ok. I did edit my comment, prior to posting, to remove ‘fresh’ though. :-D
But, even partially depleted, there is a huge premium on anything taken up in orbit. And just imagine how popular she will be, when she gets the fresh pizzas out of their delivery boxes!
And they darn well better fork over a good tip for that delivery…
huge premium, according to a book I recently read ( “Exo” book 4 of the “Jumper” series) it costs about $1000 per pound to get to orbit, and since the ISS is in HIGH orbit it’s probably more.
Actually the altitude of the ISS is considered low-Earth orbit. It tends to maneuver between 330 km to 485 km elevation above sea-level. High-Earth orbit is beyond the geostationary communication satellites at 35 768 km,
Oooo I know that song! It fits soooo well, both because of the lyrics for Sydney and the ‘army march’ like rhythm for max.
Radio still is alive and has been declared dead a long time ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hs4Gg7RDnc
It might adapt this time too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azdwsXLmrHE ;)
You had your time, you had the power, you’ve yet to have your finest hour… :)
The song CLEARLY states video killed the radio STAR. In other words the singers that weren’t photogenic, and didn’t look good filmed in action, were left behind. Only the radio stars that were also video stars continued. Radio as a locally owned/ run/ broadcast medium is long gone. What is left is major conglomerates, running web-stations that also broadcast in multiple areas.
Internet killed the video star
Internet killed the video star
Radio has already adapted…You can websearch for free radio stations online.
Just in case we’re still at ring tones… and you need one to clear the room…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIHPSeuhaxE
Damn. Not my day. I obviously meant this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rlFie2B9xE
MadEccentric or not, he had a noticeable effect on British politics. His was the protest party of choice. And usually the only point of interest in any election coverage.Funny enough; radio might actually survive television, considering the generally shrinking viewing rates on television, especially for the younger demographic:
https://www.marketingcharts.com/television/are-young-people-watching-less-tv-24817/
Awesome song that totally fits. I expect Sydney will have a giggle fit about this in private later.
Original “Coming to take me away” or the new version?
Do you mean this version? I like both versions, but this one’s more modern…
Oxygen?
Spacesuit?
I think there was a SF story of really alien/advanced tech where the spaceship was a chair that made a spaceship shaped forcefield including engines around it.
Can’t remember if the pilot had to have a suit when the chair did all the work.
Almost sounds like a Green Lantern thing.
Somehow, I think that aside from oxygen, the shield will probably be enough to protect against any high altitude problems. But Sydney is probably thinking ‘just in case I have to turn off my shield while I’m too high up.’
Radio is alive and well but you never hear anything like that on it anymore—unless somebody somewhere still runs Dr. Demento.
Try the flipside. They say it can clear a diner in thirty seconds flat.
Sometimes it seems like it is Sydney who is gradually bringing Maxima around to a less military way of thinking…
Not a bad thing, in terms of reminding Maxima of civilian lifestyles. Given that she is now a policewoman (as well as still being a soldier), and that community policing will be an aspect of that, it is important that she gets comfortable chilling with civilians. Especially with ones that are so quirky they would not last five minutes in the regular military.
Thanks to Sydney, she will now face her ultimate test. If she can get through the next few minutes without killing Brad, or dangling him head first off the top of the building, Max can be certified as safe for community policing.
I imagine Dave reading this and revising plot ideas.
I don’t think Sydney is influencing her on her military thinking… but rather, I think Max starts to treat has as more of a friend than a subordinate.
Ensue all the D’awws.
Yea, there is that to it. I don’t think the military side is sliding away completely though. It is simply that Maxima faces a problem, in having quirky supers as her subordinates, which has no direct parallel in military history. Max has to retain the loyalty of these individuals no matter how quirky and unsuitable they would normally be for military life (within limits, of course).
In Sydney’s case it is rather like trying to control a bag-full of monkeys. Monkeys can be cute (even if they can also be scary, at times, too). Directing their movement by hitting them with a stick may be simpler, but is very likely to provoke a hostile response. So becoming friends with them is a much better option. And a genuine friendship, rather than a superficial one, will make the bond and loyalty that much stronger.
Either way though, your control is going to have it’s limits!
*Now has a processor image of Max standing there with angry monkeys climbing all over her, biting, hitting, showing their general displeasure at being “nudged” in the right direction with the stick still in Max’s hand. Meanwhile, Max just an annoyed -_- face on…*
Someone needs to fanart that :D
Snrk. Come on, admit it Sydney. That one fits you perfectly.
Sydney: “But the sleeves are too long & they cover my hands so I can’t use my orbs!”
Random Wanderer: “That’s why it’s a perfect fit.”
I feel that, considering how fast max moves, she could have prevented that call from even getting past the first note of the ringtone if she truly cared. Though I guess her abusing speedster status all the time would get boring. Suddenly it makes sense why the flash can make jokes constantly without worrying about being on the other end of the situation typically.
She wasn’t ready for fear vomit, or misdirected mobile calls…
please let something horrible happen to that guy! ….then he can become the most incompetent villain ever! like that guy from Watchmen that Rorschach dropped down the elevator shaft.
That would be the masochist pervert “Captain Carnage”.
https://watchmen.wikia.com/wiki/Captain_Carnage
I could totally see Brad wind up like Fabian Stankowicz.
https://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/stankowicz.htm
Albeit being a much more pathetic version. Totally lacking even enough intelligence to understand which end of a gun is the dangerous one. Let alone having the wits to design and build a battlesuit.
I didn’t know about that guy but that’s totally what I was thinking. He’d be given weapons and items by actual villain and set up as a distraction while they commit the real crime. What I pictured mentally was him in some battle suite with advanced alien weapons that make even Dabbler nervous he’d be all cocky and shouting but when he fires the weapon there’s just a sad powering down sound and everyone stands around awkwardly. He’d be trying to read the manual while they are trying to get past the force field protecting him. Could totally see Dabbler going “would you like a hint?” and he’d be all “Shuddup! I can do it!”
Brad gets his demand, I don’t think he’ll like it after he annoys Sydney, since I think Maxima will be the one “Correcting” him so Sydney doesn’t go apemaulk.
that’s a good series of books… i can’t wait for the next one to come out.
Is there going to be a next one? It’s the only Ringo series I like…
i=I remember that song and Dr Demento. I used to listen to that show on a station out of Dallas, unfortunately it wasn’t always the greatest signal strength here in Waco, so it depended on the weather. I think Max has a soft spot for Sydney, but also understands that Sydney will take time to learn how they do things in the military. Add to it the fact that Sydney basically saved Max’s life by figuring out not only how to stop Vehemence, but also (FWT) Death Tolls. Sydney is both a powerful super, but also she has the ability to analyze situations, and find solutions that aren’t always obvious.
His name should really be “Francis”, so one can hit him with the quote from “Stripes”.
Francis Bradley Twitwilliger perhaps?
The only thing I really remember about him was that he threatened harm to anyone who called him Francis.
Sarge: “Lighten up, Francis.”
sometimes good things happen even when you don’t deserve them to happen.
sometimes… the “good thing” is a trap meant to get you off-guard before the real thing happens.
So is that Max’s standard ringtone, or one for Sydney in particular?
I believe that is her “Sydney’s calling” tone. That’s why she looks a little guilty.
My vote for his name is Cecil… but he calls himself Burt to not sound like someone he would be an asshole to for having a nancy name.
MAXIMA: Want to join me, at the end of the day, for a drink?
SYDNEY: Sure.
That evening, in a tapas bar
SYDNEY: I know I said I fancied tequila, but should’t we have gone through customs, when we crossed the border into Mexico?
MAXIMA: Only if we flew high enough to be picked up by radar.
Or Max could just say
“insert bad Mexican accent”
We don’t do no stinking customs.
Name him Tyler. Every Tyler I know is an asshole.
The guy’s name is Brad. “Don’t antagonize Sydney, Brad. She’ll cut you.”
Yay! Sydney’s bangs are boonie-hat resistant!
I think what she needs to do is walk into the super-tailor’s wearing her flying accessories. She will not need to say a word. He will down tools, on whatever they are working on, declare an emergency. Then get to work, straight away, on finding something that lets her keep looking as good as she does in the final panel above!
Since the Forcefield is air tight, how does it handle pressure? If she puts up the shield then goes up or down too much can it actually harm her when it drops?
If she travels too far from where she was, even if she seems to stay level I could see her finding herself in wildly different pressure areas before and after she puts it up.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1476
Space magic. The same thing that keeps Sydney safe whether she’s making her shield big or small.
The way I see it & the way Dave has expressed that the Grrl Power universe still doesn’t understand how super powers work, those orbs are already capable of inducing physics with the Bends…
Superpowers are what happens when you successfully convince the laws of physics to look the other way when you want to do something.
Like in the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy novels where Arthur Dent discovers that he can fly. All he needs to do is throw himself at the ground and miss!
. . . and he does it!
A good time for a critical miss.
I thought that was trip and forget to fall….
Makes sense.
I guess the ‘limitation’ of air supply is probably considered a feature, as a defense against gas attacks, rather than a flaw. And there is no benefit to making her ex or implode so they designed around those.
Internal pressure stays sea level normal or thereabouts, apparently. The force field seemed to ignore blast and super punch overpressure. So if she drops that orb, explosive decompression will be a major accident. If they go for maximum altitude, a pressure suit and air tanks would be necessary.
The pressure suit will need to be fitted with a set of over-sized gloves, to fit both her hands and the orbs. She would not be able to swap them out for the duration of the test. Which is a shame. Because if she ever made it to orbit she would most likely try to use the com-orb clone to recreate the scene from Gravity where George Clooney floats off into space.
My personal choice for a com-clone prank would be getting booked on a flight with William Shatner. Half way through the flight send the clone outside the plane and have it look into the window at him. (For those of you who didn’t get that one, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_at_20,000_Feet)
If Sydney were to bump into Shatner on a plane, she would immediately start pestering him for Captain Kirk’s autograph, while he would ask her if she had booked through PriceLine. I think they would annoy each other so much that Sydney might very well be willing to put her illusory self out on the wing.
Back then, Gremlins were not cute & adorkable like Sydney…They were ugly, with facial features that appear “smashed together.”
If seeing a young woman out on the wing isn’t enough to worry him, she could always shout, “Badgers!”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494
I can see her hiding in the toilets after “needing to step out for a moment…” before sending an illusion outside the plane to peak in the windows. since it imitates her clothing too, maybe she could wear a mask too…
I saw that episode on TV, way back when. It didn’t take me long to recognize Capt. Kirk as the main protagonist in the story.
;)
I’ve seen that one too, but even better was an episode of Man from U.N.C.L.E. where Leonard Nimoy was the guest villain from a commie country, and Shattner was the guest good guy “All American Boy”.
There was an episode of Get Smart where Nimoy was one of the Chaos agents that Max went up against.
I get a chuckle out of that ringtone mostly because I have the song “Another New Crisis” by Kirby Krackle as my ringtone for work. :)
So is Joel and Maxima next to each other in Sydney’s phone list? If so, Dave will have to remember not to include any Ks and Ls in the list.
We don’t know Joel’s last name yet, plus mine has a “favorite” list I use for my ten most important people. Easier than going through the few thousand contacts I have.
Like Kenya, or even Leon?
Maybe we’ll finally get to find out Joel’s last name if we get to see Sydney introduce him to Maxima.
Joel Maxwell???
Speaking of ringtones, maybe Sydney ought to change hers to the song from the Ren and Stimpy Show- “Happy Happy,Joy Joy” or the song played in Cheech and Chong’s “Earache My Eye”?
Also,I too have memories of Dr. Demento…!
Am I the only one who actually doesn’t get the joke in the ringtone?
Am I just derping?
Wut?
probably.
Maxima can set different ring-tones for different people. For instance she may have set it to play ‘Hail to the chief’ if the White House calls. Giving her the warning that she needs to prioritise answering the call. Whereas Max’s choice of ring-tone for Sydney rather reveals how she has categorised her!
A mildly embarrassing faux-pas, being caught out like, that also explains why they found time to go to the shop in person. A subordinate without a sense of humour might have taken offence at being classed as insane. But, even so, Maxima has clearly felt a need to make a token gesture, to make amends, and smooth any potentially ruffled feathers.
Yes the custom ring tone for your management can be amusing, more than a few of my team had “Highway to Dell” since we had to commute to HQ on a regular basis.
/so yeah I can see that Dr D top 10 perennial fave for Sydney, but who gets “Transfusion – Nervous Norvus” as theirs?
If Brad there happens to be on Sydney’s phone (I would have no idea why & probably not), then her ringtone for him might be “The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati.”
Why would she even have a ceiling?
She might not. But, she might and that is important to know.
So she can hang the light from.
Ahh, so you think this is a TVTropes lampshade* situation?
* Look this up at your own risk.**
** Especially as I am doing this as a pun. Having little or no interest in how they actually define it, it may or may not make sense.
People and DaveB throw out mentions of the “Who’s Who” as if it’s more than just that little panel to the right of the comic… As if there’s some page that compiles all of that information from all the prior comics in one place. If there is, please point me to it. It certainly isn`t the cast page as that hasn`t been updated in a loooong time.
A lot of us go back and reread the comic periodically to refresh our databases and laugh at some of the earlier antics.
No, that’s pretty much what the “Who’s Who” is: a list to remind you of who is talking on the current page
Heh, many, many years ago I worked as a weekend DJ at a radio station in West Texas and it was decided that we’d have yet another format change from AC / Top 40 to more or less the same AC / Top 40 but through a different programming service. The management wanted to do a big publicity campaign but wanted not to spend any money even more so someone came up with the idea of playing that song.
For an entire week.
And nothing else except FCC required top and bottom of the hour idents and the occasional “Coming soon, the all new B93” stings.
Happily for me it started at the end of my Sunday night shift and ended at the start of my Saturday morning shift so I didn’t have to sit there for six hours listening to it over and over.
Unhappily the local Mental Health center happened to use out station on their phone and intercom system so that’s the tune that anyone who called in or dropped by heard until they could get someone to change it which for some reason took more than a day.
Pretty sure that may have cost us some listeners :)
Ya THINK? ;)
As I remember the song banned from airplay in more than a few places for maximum tastelessness.