Grrl Power #373 – Club step
As Kelvin is an uncommon unit of measurement outside certain sciences, it’s excusable Sydney didn’t realize that 2100 kelvin is actually just over 3300 Fahrenheit (1800 Celsius). I mean, it’s not that excusable, but it’s Sydney we’re talking about. She just blurted out the first thing that came to mind, and she thought since Kelvin starts at absolute zero, 2100 might be within human tolerance, if still alarmingly hot. Actually 295 Kelvin is right around comfortable room temperature, so she was off by an order of magnitude.
Personally I think Sydney’s reaction is really funny, but I can’t help wondering if I’ve seen almost this exact joke somewhere, probably in a sci-fi show like Futureama or Red Dwarf, and I’ve forgotten the source and am committing a dire act of cryptomnesia. Ever since I started the comic, it’s something I get a twinge about every now and then. I don’t care this time, whatever the origins are this makes me giggle (a manly giggle.) At least Sydney has the decency to be ashamed when she realized how far out in left field her assumption was.
It should be concerning to any of her teammates paying attention to Sydney that she considers the intervening half hour between panels 6 and 7 while Harem was wrangling superheroes (only marginally easier than cats) as non-time, because otherwise it wouldn’t be a smash cut from her perspective. Obviously Sydney didn’t black out or anything for that half hour, and is just recognizing those two moments would fit together in a 4th wall sort of way. Incidentally, an amusing villain would be “Smash Cut” who could make anyone do anything as long as he can get them to specifically say they won’t. His powers can only be activated mid sentence.
Harem’s actually wrong about Arianna’s authority here. Yes, she doesn’t have any say about deployment and stuff like that, but making an appearance at a club is exactly the sort of thing she’s there to manage.
Yes the OONTZs are supposed to be over the word bubble in that last panel. That’s my attempt to simulate how hard it is to hear in loud places like clubs. If it is in fact too obnoxious I’ll play with the transparency and blending mode a little. I want to make you guys have to read carefully like you have to listen carefully in an environment like that, but not make anything illegible. (Even though when I’m in clubs (both times!) or somewhere else really loud like restaurants with open walls and hard floors or dealers rooms at conventions, I only catch every 3rd word. I’m fairly good at piecing things together from context, but a lot of times I pause, smile blankly, and nod “yeah!” It’s weird, I evidently have pretty good hearing for my age, except in loud environments like that where I’m almost useless. It’s been suggested it’s actually the ADD, and not my hearing that’s causing the problem. The number of conversations and other distractions taking place make it really hard to focus on what the person right in front of me is saying.
I know VIPs normally get fancy lanyards at clubs, but I’ve already drawn the next 4 pages and I totally forgot to add them, so they get a hand stamp here. Come to think of it, it’s probably in UV ink because I forgot to draw stamps on their hands too. ¬.¬
Oh, and not to be gross about it, but since it is getting close to the Xmas shopping season, I’ll gently remind everyone about the Amazon link I have. If you click on it then shop like normal, then I get a % of the sale. It’s a good way to support the comic without spending any extra money, and also cut into Amazons profit margins if that’s something that appeals to you. Historically those sales don’t exactly pay the morgage, but they do defray some of my own Xmas expenses, so it is very much appreciated. Unless you guys decide to go to town this year and buy stuff like this or this. You know what the real kick in the teeth is there? $110K for a ruby and it’s not eligible for Amazon Prime. If you spend $110K at Amazon you should be eligible for Optimus Prime.
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nice literal name for the club as its all you’ll hear the entire time
The club I got dragged to could, I suppose, be named Club Shitty Tool Cover Band.
Like the Shitty Beetles in Wayne’s World.
live music can be grate if you get a band but unless they are pretty good its horrible
Bad musicians can make any music grating :P
Grate means to scrape off or irritate (i.e. to grate cheese or grate my nerves), great means really good.
shower pic on the dyslexic :p
I feel for you. Although I try to avoid using peoples’ names, in sentences, sometimes it is necessary and, at times, that can leave a large awkward gap, as I try to recall their name and/or work through my mental process to reconstruct it.*
Which can be incredibly unhelpful if people then start throwing random names in, trying to help. Particularly if they do not know the context, so are not actually helping. It is both hindering and incredibly frustrating. Names are hugely distracting, and hard to process for me, and every wrong one makes my life harder.
But then you get the insightful folks who think before they interject. If they have no context, then they just wait patiently until I either get it, or give up. Whereas if they can figure out where I was going, then they provide the right name, or at least eliminate a logical alternative.
That allows me to say ‘no not that one’ and hopefully we can then speed the conversation on to the main subject, if the alternative is simple for them to deduce. With these, the irritation remains, but I try to focus that towards my condition. The latter kinds of people are actually contributing positively. Especially if I say the wrong name, but do not realise it.
I think Ie Yamof Ool was in the latter camp, trying to be helpful, in a useful way.
Me? I am trying to do likewise. And wisdom would dictate tactful avoiding bringing up a similar issue. But… it is so hard to avoid… you have given us a lovely wordplay… such pretty visual images… sooo irresistable… and I am weak…
shower pic
* For simple conversations I am mentally adept enough to be doing that process whilst listening or talking, so it does not intrude. But the more complex or interesting a subject, the less attention I pay to the name side of the task.
The most interesting and I will (unintentionally) pay no notice to names at all. Sometimes I luck out. Other times though someone will mention afterwards “did you mean ‘John’? You mentioned him about six times, but I am sure that should be ‘Frank’?”
The most frustrating thing (which is the usual cause of an awkward pause, as it will catch me unguarded) is if a name comes to me instantly, on requiring it. For information, I always prepare names in advance of needing them (if it is something I am introducing to a conversation). I then keep repeating it, in my mind, until ready to use it.
But sometimes when it comes to the moment, when I need to put it into words, what my brain gives me instead is “….”!
How much dyslexia can fun be, right?
:P
But it can make for some fun word-play.
Live music can be great but, unless you get a band who are pretty good, it can grate. [the ears]
*puts paws over ears and howls*
Live music is only good if the technician isn’t an idiot and the audience knows how to stfu. Even if you do manage to find those two unicorns, it can get screwy. I heard a live version of the stones doing paint it black. I wanted to hunt them all down and paint their walls red.
The only live one I can remember right now is this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35uKQiEmwgc&feature=related Rouska is awesome btw.
Quite enjoyable. The lead singer keeps his voice within a safe vocal range most of the time. I only winced a few times, during the performance, when he pushed it to levels where he might be causing long-term damage.
Sadly being over-empathic can interfere with music appreciation, at times.
Empathy refers to your ability to understand other ppls emotions or to place yourself in their shoes so to speak. Are you sure you don’t mean audio sensitivity or sensory processing disorder?
Nope, wincing in empathy is distracting. Unlike SPD it is not caused by (in this case) the loudness of the noise. Even when the band is louder, I have no problems. Nor when the singer is loud. But at the times when he is rasping his voice, like a file going over his vocal chords, I am not enjoying the music.
Other bands, where I can tell the singer categorically is harming his voice, and will be going to hospital within a year or two, my own throat starts to hurt. Listening to a whole set, full of throat ripping, is downright painful and unpleasant!
From DaveB‘s blog: “It’s been suggested it’s actually the ADD, and not my hearing that’s causing the problem.”
Trust me on this…It doesn’t take a case of ADD to have a problem with “mentally filtering out” loud, distracting noises like that.
FYI, l0wten has a bit of dyslexia; the name of which always seemed a little cruel. At some point a researcher must have announced “Here is a name for the condition you have. A word you could never possibly spell correctly due to your condition.”
trust me every single one of us hate filling that out on forms
Sorry about the big wall of text reply, above. Your situation spoke to me.
And I could not resist linking a pretty girl.
i dont mind walls of text i got my ways of dealing with it
i think they did that on purpose because a fear of long words is called hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
The fear of failing to recall names is similarly long. I just can’t remember it.
For whatever it’s worth, I tend to spot bad spelling very quickly, and ask myself if the person is dyslexic, stupid or lazy. I guess I shouldn’t, so maybe my own condition is borderline OCD. :) Your comments can be hard for me to read at times.
However, I also notice your good vocabulary and well thought out comments, so it was very clear that the explanation was that you were dyslexic. I’m still glad that you’re here.
+10
My wife had dyslexia. the kind where the letters seemed to change shape, not the kind where letters or words would seem to interchange. I’ve got empathy for people with either kind, because I’ve seen how hard it is to deal with it.
My wife has a T-shirt that says
“I have sex daily — I mean dyslexia! Oh carp!”
She, too, is dyslexic.
They should just call it “bonk” -Eddie Izzard
How is dislksia bad? No one could ever mess up spelling dyslehkshia. Duhsluxia is really just a polite way of say normal ppl are dumb and cuntspeel.
Is that the spotted or herbaceous cuntspeel to which you refer?
heh no, cuntspeel was something I drunkenly typed in chat years ago, I meant to write can’t spell, but after typing cuntspeel instead I decided to integrate it into my ‘chaos-speak’.
I saw Liverpool in college – best Beatles tribute POSSIBLE.
All of my clubbing friends have screwball adventures that I never saw on those rare occasions I went with them.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the clubbing answer to “Tha’ thar fish I caught was this big” “Mine was bigger, here’s a picture”
Will we get a Something Positive ferret cameo?
‘Candi’ has a talking flying ferret :P
Creative name on that club
It certainly made me laugh. Can oontz, oontz be said without a little head bob to accompany it? Because I’m having some trouble pulling that off.
I thought the head-bob was part of the pronunciation. At least for me it is. =P
not really meant to be SAID.. it’s more an attempt to render into letters what Bass and Electronica combined sound like.
think Gangam Style for an example of the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0
while PSY does do a good song for an example for the Oontz, Oontz sound effect, i think this one would serve better…
Sweet chaos why? It’s a well known fact that I’m just a slice of rationality away from being the sole survivor of a bloodbath, and you subject me to that……srsly……if any one of you drags me into a place like that you’ll be the last to die. Slowly.
Mind you if you kin find me a goth club that isn’t emo in disguise, I’ll let you watch the orgy.
hey now!… all i said is that it was a better example of the Oontz Effect… nothing more, nothing less… i like the MUSIC, but dear gawdz never would i GO to a club like that: i don’t have enough agility to DO those dance moves that Jack did… :D
…Not to mention that I gave up pacifiers a few decades long gone…
For me dancing is more…..violent and possibly lethal, in reality I never ever do it. My usual club type movements involve wandering around the outer perimeter of the place occasionally catching the eye of someone who seems shady to me (they tend to vacate quickly). If I’m with other ppl and we need a table, I’ll go for the one in the corner where I can see everything and can’t be surprised from behind. I’m…….odd.
My movements involve very carefully avoiding going anywhere near enough to the dance-floor that any of my female companions might be tempted to try and drag me out. Despite the fact that I do not dress up especially for clubs, even my regular clothing is cool enough to blend into a crowd of people who have dressed up.
So I feel comfortable enough in the environment and, if the club is well enough designed that the tables are quiet enough to allow some degree of conversation, I can be entertaining with the company I am keeping. I would never enter such an environment unless with others.
But drag me onto a dance floor and I am like a fish out of water, that has the body of a sack of potatoes. So I avoid it, like the plague. I look like a pratt there, know it full well and dislike it.
Soak me in enough alcohol though, and I loose my inhibitions enough that I do not care. Very fortunately though I know the point where that is a risk. It takes a bottle of vodka. So I aim to stay under half a litre, in a club.
But I am not a kill-joy. If everyone is having a good time, and getting well lubricated, thereby being less likely to notice how badly I dance, then I am happy to take the risk.
That’s a great samurai jack episode you linked, and i agree the music fits PERFECTLY.
Also theres the fact you have dexter as your avatar who was made by the same guy….lol
Poor Sydney, caught in her own comic-book awareness :D
is that the 4th wall i hear cracking?
Just a tad :D
~whistles as he hides his hammer behind his back…nothing to see here folks i was just trying to hang some frames on the wall and sorta missed the nail… half dozen times
It might have something to do with the sonic vibrations.
…Which happen to be depicted in written form…
No, THIS is where you heard it cracking. Right now, it blew up so hard it created a ripple in the space time continuum, hence the half hour time leap.
Actually I do not view that as even poking at the 4th wall. Sydney is genuinely pausing to collect her thoughts there. Although it is convenient for the reader, to pick up on her thoughts, she is not directing them to us. Sydney is just introspectively contemplating her situation.
Where she breaks the 4th wall is when she climbs out of the frames completely, leans on them, and points up to the comic control buttons above, whilst speaking to us!
Not to mention Dabbler being able to exit it fully, tie up Dave, and interrogate him!
Syd DOES see the world in comic-book terms.
Au contrair my dear Yorp.
Acording to Dave in the discription of that page:
“I know some people aren’t down with 4th wall humor, the progression of panels on the top was originally going to be a single panel but then I realized Sydney wouldn’t think about what’s in the tube in ambiguous terms, so in order for her thought bubbles to make sense, I broke it up as it is now and it makes me chuckle every time I look at it.”
You have to remember, by this time, even the reader didn’t know what was inside the tube. so when she looks up, she directly adresses the reader and is purposefully ambiguous about it and doesn’t just think “she’s gona make me show her the power orbs” (do they have an official name yet?).
Though i do agree that at first i though the same thing, hence why i call it poking at the 4th wall and not breaking it.
Reasonably countered.
Allow me to clarify my intent, in saying that ‘it is not even poking at the 4th wall’. It was simply meant to be a downgraded version of my later line ‘Where she breaks the 4th wall’. That was poorly phrased, and I would have been better saying it as ‘Sydney is not even poking at the 4th wall’.
As I phrased it though, you are right to point out that Dave is poking fun, but only at the concept of ‘speaking through the 4th wall’. However the point of his comment is that he has rearranged it, such that Sydney is not actually doing that. He has managed to keep her wholly within character, as I contested.
Yes, it has been constructed to avoid giving a spoiler, but very carefully such that it does so in a believable way.* Yet still being reminiscent of narrators, who speak out of character, to the 4th wall. Mind you, the comic does quite literally do this, even earlier, just prior to the flash-back.
So, going back to your original comment, I do not think this would be making the 4th wall crack. Dave has simply painted fake cracks on it.
* Consider this. We know that language can modify how we think. For example the Japanese words for numbers are (according to QI) much shorter than their Western counterparts. Likewise their ways of describing simple arithmetic. This contributes to them, as a populace, being far faster at conducting mental arithmetic. Consistently winning competitions more frequently, and holding records for such.
At that point, in the comic, Sydney had months of verbal sparring with Joel. All of it asking about “what is in the tube?” With Sydney having to come up with various excuses. But always avoiding accidentally saying something like “the orbs… oops I mean the tube… err can you forget what I said first?”
Given how distractable she is, that is a very real danger. One Sydney would have had to enforce strict mental discipline to avoid. Making it habitual. Hence why I feel it to be highly realistic. She genuinely would think:
how is that a 4th wall breaking?
if you consider delayed reactions (which DO happen) as a 4th wall breaking, then what do you call someone saying:
– “you made me carry those for the last few episodes.”
– “i could explain, but the episode is almost ov-”
or
ACTUALLY breaking the “glass”, and noticing it.
that is professional 4th wall breaking. Grll power can’t even scratch it.
Nah. THIS panel from Carry On is professional 4th-wall-breaking.
Grrl Power doesn’t really have a 4th wall… its more like 4th shutters w/out latches
+1
Still, this seems more like a TV or movie trope than a comic trope. Though this particular comic seems to borrow a lot of those, like the dolly zoom and focus shift.
Yes, but didn’t say that over-used word, said ‘comic-book awareness‘ instead :P
I’ve been to a club once, and only once, and I really have to agree with Sydney’s general feelings on them.
as an ex dj, bartender and bouncer (depending where they needed me) i would tell you what i heard all the others at the club say “you didn’t find your right club flavor sweetie if you say that. like ice cream you have to try more.”
hehe
also as an ex dj i whould say clubs are just not for some people
I dunno. I’ve always found a 9-Iron sufficient for basic melee purposes.
“…that may not be enough club.”
“He’s definitely gonna lose a stroke on this hole.”
Kraken me up there
My lady suddenly started laughing about the dozenth time she saw that commercial…
she had just realized that the announcer was NOT calling the sea monster a “krakenbruce”.
That’s an iron, not a club.
“Hey, Shooter, forget your Nine-iron? Bwahahahahaha!”
I prefer a 1 Wood. If the wood breaks on impact, you just know it was a good drive.
…Fahrvergnügen, baby!
I’ve heard the same thing about beer. I simply don’t like the taste of it, but I heard that if you drink enough, you grow to like it. My question is: why? Why torture myself with something I don’t like, meeting people I don’t care about, just to do what everyone else does?
That said, the only time I can tolerate oontz-oontz music is when it underlines a high-adrenaline fight/chase scene in an action movie.
so, nothing about ‘growing to like beer’ leads anyone that drinks it to think maybe, just maybe, it dulls the senses? alters them?
just sayin’ ;}
i gotta disagree here there are many kinds of beer and they can taste very different a wimpy american light beer for example tastes like nothing but slightly bitta soda water compare that to an irish stout like guinness and you have a vastly different flavor.
now im not saying there is a beer for everyone i myself prefer a single malt scotch but there is definatly a merit in trying a few to see if you find one you like
Fair enough.
But the problem (as I see it) lies in the common assumption that, if someone is cajoled into sticking at a particular activity (whether beer-drinking, clubbing, playing sports, watching sports or whatever) they will inevitably come to like it.
I have some experience with this thinking from my childhood (Long Story Short: My father loved sports, and both parents and most relatives honestly believed I “should” love sports too. But I didn’t.) . This kind of belief may come true sometimes. The rest of the time, it just makes the unfortunate recipient miserable until they muster enough assertiveness to break away from it.
Beer-drinking = fine. But as you say yourself, IOwten, it may not be for EVERYONE. Simple as that.
all true but just the term beer it’s like saying you dont like fruit after trying an apple
I’m sure there are people who say exactly that.
no it’s more like saying you don’t like apples after trying a golden delicious.
I don’t like barley, don’t like hops, don’t care for malt or alcohol. Since I don’t care for any of the main ingredients I feel the one beer I tried was enough to decide I won’t like any.
i stick by my analogy as there are many brands of each type of beer each a little different a bud is not that different from a stella for example and they would be the different types of apple with stouts being maybe citrus and so on
no… actually…. different “fruits” would be more like Whiskey or Vodka. the Golden Delicious/Apple analogy makes more sense.
nope they are nuts and vegtables
It’s starting to sound like you’re just disagreeing just because YOU like beer and think that anyone who does not must be wrong.
If I think apples and oranges taste like fresh manure I’m not going to like apple juice, fruit salad or apple pie no matter how perfect the ingredients as long as it tastes like apples or oranges.
To someone who likes apples there might a world of difference between various apple juices or apple pies, but to someone who hates apples it makes no difference whatsoever.
Beer is no exception. In fact, I would argue that it is quite the opposite. A lot of people hate beer.
I think it is more likely social peer pressure https://xkcd.com/1534/
Completely agree with you: and about the beer, still trying to find one that is palatable enough to drink more than once, other than Corona (found one, years ago, but when went back to the exact same store bought it from, was informed by the manager that they had never stocked it! o_O)
The only beers that I’ve liked have all been without hops. I do like the hard ciders.
Same here, but technically, ciders aren’t ‘beer’ (they are closer to ‘wines’)
not in the uk were cyder is from its nothing like the what is essentially apple wine they have in america
I didn’t know cider is from the UK. But I think we have some good apple ciders in Canada.
Although at the moment I can’t say for sure about that either. Been quite some time since I have seen them around. I like the somewhat pulpy apple ciders. They are SO good cold or ‘mulled’ with some cinammon sticks and a few spices while warming in a crock pot.
We know that it was being produced in Britain at least as far back as when the Romans were in occupation, although their apple vineyards pre-dated even that, so it may be an even more ancient beverage. There are also claims that Julius Caesar tried and liked it, but I could not be bothered to verify that.
The Normans were very keen on it too, and the Norman conquest spread the taste for it more widely than the main production areas (in the Western parts, where the Gulf Stream and soil provide the best conditions for cider apple growing).
The UK has the world’s highest per capita consumption, as well as its largest cider-producing companies. But it has indeed spread around the world.
Like many fellow readers I have never liked the taste of hops and find beer generally unpleasant. Although I have learnt to tolerate it, for social and professional reasons (I used to work in an industry where being able to ‘hold your drink’ is considered an asset.
However I love cider. Sadly it is hard to find a decent West Country Cider (or scrumpy). The mass-produced stuff just isn’t up to scratch, I am afraid. Better than beer, but not in the same league.
So mostly I drink spirits. One cunning trick I can pass on though, of especial use for anyone with a sweet tooth, such as myself. Use a mixer. So order a vodka and coke, rather than just a vodka, for example.
But, even better than that, order the soft drink in a large glass. In the UK that would be a pint glass. With a single measure of spirits in it, that will have about the same alcohol content as a pint of beer. Which means that you do not run the risk of accidentally drinking faster than the folks you are socialising with.
Particularly important if they are attempting to drink you under the table.
Cider is fermented fruit that is not grapes
I swore off alcohol at a very young age. It’s done enough damage to my family.
I also hate most modern music (I make very rare exceptions for the occasional song or soundtrack), and can’t dance worth shit. So no clubbing for me.
In that case it’s less an aquired taste, it’s more mass stockholm syndrome.
https://www.xkcd.com/1534/
Though, my view isn’t “drink the same one enough times” (enough beer) it’s “try many kinds until you find one you like” (enough beer).
Always hated beer until I had a good german stout. Low in hops, high in taste. Sadly also massively high in calories.
The latest fad around here though is for beer with more hops then you can taste. Two or three times the limit of the hops you can taste, so even if you diluted it three times, it would still taste as strong of hops as it could possibly taste.
Hops to the point of mild halucinations.
**** no.
I have tried a wide variety of beers, ales and the like. And find lager to be the most tolerable, to my pallet. But much prefer lager-shandy (company and availability of lemonade permitting), as the sweetness is both more appealing and helps to mask the unpleasant taste of the hops.
However there is one beer which I absolutely loved. Which I guess worked on fairly similar principles (if implemented differently). A cherry beer, which I have only ever been able to find in Belgium. Even more specifically, when in Bruges (I could not even get it in Brussels, but that may have just been for lack of knowing the right places to try).
I could tell that it was actually a hops beverage, but one with a higher alcohol content than most beers. So I presumed it was fortified with something akin to cherry brandy. The taste certainly was strongly reminiscent of that, but lacking the cloying sweetness and stickiness, you can associate with it.
I would have happily drunk that from dusk until dawn.
Wheat beers are usually hops-light, as well; you might want to consider one of those. (Best served cold with a slice of lemon during the summer.) I’m not a beer drinker in the least, but I enjoy a decent weissbrau. (German imports are, in my opinion, the way to go.)
My dad had a strong influence on my drinking habits, and probably saved me from alcoholism. Simply put, I don’t make enough to get sloshed on the alcohols I actually like. I’d rather drop 30 bucks on a single malt whiskey at the bar and nurse it for awhile before switching to soft drinks than have a half-dozen five-dollar shots over the same period.
Most beer smells (to me) like someone already drank too much of it and threw it up. I not only decline to taste it, I strongly prefer to not be around while other people drink it.
Beers that don’t smell that way, still – at best – merely don’t taste disgusting.
Our daughter took us out to a brewpub for lunch one day and suggested a… I think it was a “blond ale”. She and my wife each got a glass, so I took a sip. It was the best beer I’ve ever tasted. Almost as good as the worst root-beer I’ve ever tasted.
That reminded me of a line from Phineas And Ferb. “If you don’t like meatloaf, it’s because you haven’t tried mine!”
I have anxiety and a general distaste for overpriced drinks and loud music, so…
Don’t forget the drunk Douches hitting on anything with breasts.
hypersensitivity to loud noises, especially bass at levels only myself and dogs can hear, a medical condition that prevents me from drinking alcohol at all, as well as social anxiety… no. i don’t do clubs. i have gone out a few times when there was an event at a club i REALLY REALLY wanted to see, but even when i pre-gamed with a lot of pot, i have to take breaks and go outside in the quiet every couple of minutes. there is a world of people out there like me who just DON’T DO clubs. maybe there are quiet bars i can go out to that have non-alcoholic options, or any number of cafes, but no clubs are for me.
I feel your pain. There are times when I hear noises that are bothering me and my partner doesn’t even notice them. Fortunately I can drink alcohol, though I’m not sure how often I would buy it for just myself. Also: Social anxiety really, really, sucks. (And not in a good way.)
When I do listen to live music at DragonCon, I’m usually in the back of the room near the exit where 1) fresh air is readily available 2) I can hear all the nuances of the music better in the back. Up front is for all the bass nothing but bass lovers.
I am totally like you. I had an interesting experience though, which has given me a slightly different perspective. I had a cybernetic implant installed,* which causes the bass to be amplified and resonate in my chest cavity! So I can now understand a lot of what I had been missing before. I can now feel the music, deep within me. Quite literally.
Mostly though the kinds of music that I am into do not feature that kind of bass. So my lifestyle choices are much the same as yours. But I can now hang with heavy metal friends, and actually get some enjoyment out of the music. Provided that the singer does not sound like he is rasping his throat by singing too harshly. Otherwise mine just starts hurting, in empathy! And am not kidding. My throat will be raw after two or three such songs.
I much much prefer places quiet enough to talk and be heard.
* This was not the primary purpose of it mind. It was more of a ‘if you have this put in, your quality of life will return to that of normal people. Oh, and your life expectancy will increase by many decades.’ I still like to think of it as my bass-appreciation implant though.
Just to be sure, this post is not in character right?
Heh, in real life, yea.
There was a K9 incident, involving animal research, unethical cybernetic procedures and resulting super-powers. But I don’t like to talk about it too much. DR.REVENGE is still rather sensitive about it, and it was more of a misunderstanding than anything else.
You know, like how surgeons can amputate the wrong arm, if there is a mix-up? Apparently that can happen in reverse too.
Speaking of clubbing, where is the baby seal?
And his t-shirt ?
I was gonna say that you’d been to the wrong club, but considering yer name, gals wandering about in their bras making out with each other nder darklights while the 12×12 speakers try to split your fucking atoms with deep nearly entirely bass metal may not be yer thing…….
what harem were you expecting sydney to pull out one of her cosplay outfit? she is a TOMBOY of COURSE she probably doesn’t have sexy stuf…plus unless she puts an orb in each bra there would STILL be a problem…me thinks
no halo will have sex stuff but it will be cosplay stuff. she could probably mix and match that stuff to make a pretty decent club outfit. what she doesn’t have is any going out clothes in her locker at work that she can change into
The Amazebra. If your cups don’t runneth over, we’ve got you covered.
I had to re-read that. My first mental image was of a Zebra in Wonderwoman’s outfit
Someone needs to draw that :D
…The bra or the zebra?…
Sydney may be a tomboy, but I’ve yet to many anyone, male, female, masculine, feminine, or other, that doesn’t like to look good. Harem should have put it more like “Hey let’s get you dressed up to party!” Make it seem more like female bonding instead of a social obligation.
Sydney clearly has a similar attitude to clubbing as I do. It is a chore to be endured, in order to be sociable to friends or workmates. I have done a fair bit, as a result, but I never enjoy the experience much. I make the most of it, but I would prefer an environment where I could have a conversation.
Sydney is about as dressed up as I would be, if clubbing. A black-tie event is something different mind. But, for everyday events, I just wear everyday clothes.
Mind you, I am still single. So this is not advice. I am just saying that Sydney’s behaviour is very typical, for someone like myself.
Daniel here. It helps if you’re into the type of club it is. Went to a 70s themed club for a post-concert party for the bar staff, still had to pay full price, the 2 free drink tokens went of lemonade (allergic to alcohol), got bored quick despite the bachelorette party that came in & the free finger food, left after an hour of not recognizing anyone…
Now at where I work, there is a nightclub too. Definitely prefer the stuff they play, plus I get paid to hang around there :P, so I got no problems there. That said, I’m not the type to got TO a club, unless others are taking me & I’m in the mood…
As for Screwball, yeah, I think it’s best he doesn’t go. Not only will he set off EVERY metal detector near him, but chances are he’ll be thrown out in no time for his usual stupidity…
For $110K, Optimus Prime should deliver it to your house.
Panel 4, should be ‘make do’.
Can be either, please remember, not everyone is a perfect little smarty-mc’farty English major, and look at it either that that is simply how Daphne pronounces it or she simply believes that’s how the saying goes (like how some people believe it’s a “mute point”)
unless it’s Ents. they always know the point is Moot
no, i thought that he was Groot?
Shoot, there’s a moose loose aboot this hoose!
Well you could also have “mute point” if it’s a point not worth talking about ;)
Fixed!
Don’t worry about where the idea came from Mr DaveB Sir, if you worry about only using ‘original’ ideas, nothing will get done, and, personally speaking, a good idea is a good idea even if it’s not an original idea (and, as long as you aren’t trying to claim credit for it, who cares?)
DaveB, read Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson. And stop worrying about the possibility that you’re copying a general scenario from something you read when you were in 3rd grade.
Back when Harry Potter first came out, many of Neil Gaiman’s fans noticed similarities between Harry and Gaiman’s own character, Timothy Hunter, from The Books of Magic. You know–frail, put-upon, English boy with nerdy glasses, from a troubled home, learns that he is destined for greatness. When Gaiman was asked about these similarities, and whether he thought Rowling had ripped him off, he replied, “Honestly, I thought we were both cribbing from The Sword in the Stone.”
In short, originality is hiding your sources. Don’t sweat it.
From DaveB‘s blog:
“…and am committing a dire act of cryptomnesia.”
I refer to that as vusa-dey, the feeling that this has never happened before, at least not as I can remember. I’m utterly convinced that the bulk majority of my sense of humor originated somewhere else, so I avoid copyrighting any any of it.
;)
“…an amusing villain would be “Smash Cut” who could make anyone do anything as long as he can get them to specifically say they won’t.”
This sounds bit different from the Marvel villain known as the Purple Man. His name comes from his skin color, but his power is to make anybody do anything he says, flat out. His power is tied in with his own pheremones, so he can’t command anyone who isn’t directly in his prescense & also limited according to how much breeze might disperse his scent. I think there’s a sufficient enough difference that you shouldn’t have any problems copyrighting your villain. But a bit of research might make all the difference…in avoiding, you know, another instance of cryptomnesia.
O.o
Yeah, I’m aware of the Purple Man, which is why I have no interest in Jessica Jones. I don’t think the Purple Man fits into the Marvel Universe very comfortably. There’s really no other villain who’s whole shtick is “making people murder their loved ones and/or themselves and raping anyone he wants” I just don’t think he goes well in the same universe that contains Spider-Man and Squirrel Girl. Dark Horse or Vertigo maybe, or just leave the absolute worst sort of villain like him strictly to novels, IMO. I don’t want to watch a TV show that opens after the heroine has been the victim of super powered sexual abuse. Nice power fantasy for the ladies, dicks.
Watch the 4th wall there Sydney
I imagine Harem ported them possibly.
harim cant take people with her except veria and that’s because of vera’s power not harems
In principle I think maybe she could take people… but they’d have to be very light people. Under 30 pounds.
DaveB said she can’t transport living matter (no idea if He included things like fruit and vegetables)
Back when DaveB first mentioned it, I also wondered about potted plants, and the like.
to be honest i’m with sydney on this clubs are to load and to crowded for me to have any fun. and i used to do work as a DJ and trying to get a drink (non – alcoholic if i was working) or listen to someone try to give a song request was hell. add in to that that i have very good hearing. it all means clubs are just hell
Not necessarily. Some clubs have very high-quality sound isolation systems, so that unless you’re on the dance floor, you can barely hear the music (just loud enough for you to know if it’s something you want to dance to).
But the clubs that don’t have that sound isolation? I totally agree with you, they’re hell, especially for someone with “teacher’s ears” (you know, ears that can hear a kitchen drawer being opened at the other end of the house.)
“Members only” clubs that limit the number of guests you can bring with you are generally much less crowded.
clubs like that also tend to be out of my price range.
i only ever found 1 club i like and by every stand i should hate it. it’s loud, crowded and it is in an old basement so there is no air flow leaving it hot and humid. but somehow i ended up liking the place
Mine too. Also, I couldn’t dance to save my life… I’m sure some people reading this have played Mass Effect, and know how badly Commander Shepard dances? I’m even worse. And I like electronica, but I can get all the electronica I want from YouTube. So, for the most part, I don’t go to clubs either.
Worse then the Shepard Shuffle? is that possible?
that being said when i was payed to be at a club i was there with bells on and i wasent geting anywere near 5k and i had to do actual work
were you paid extra for wearing the bells? :)
The cost of the whistles had to be paid for out of pocket :P
i was only payed once for wearing bells all i will say is morris dancers are weird
Oh boy! If Sydney shows up for her media prep course plastered,won’t Arianna have a few “words” for either Maxima or Harem???
“oooh my head”
“Sydney, what possessed you to vaporize 5 billboards and an abandoned warehouse”
“I think it had something to do with finding hot sauce for my wallaby…”
“Wha..”
“It’s pink, frilly, and wanted to spice up it’s adventures with its mate”
“Sydney, where do you think you are?”
“Disney?”
Someone must draw this!!!
Followed the links to the Amazon pages, and saw Marvel Figurine Collection: Cloak & Dagger going for $10k!!! What the Stan Lee!? Unless that was the limited edition, solid gold life-size edition, how can they get away for charging that much?
Could understand maybe the limited edition Spider-Man or Angel figurines, but even with Cloak & Dagger being one of the Special Editions, what makes them that expensive? (have all 200 of the regular figurines, and 29 out of 30 Special Editions, not counting the two limited edition’s you could only get for ordering them direct)
follow link
read reviews
have fun
Yeah, did that, still not understanding the cost, is it for some charity or something?
Hmmm, wonder how much “Uatu: The Watcher” would go for, or “Fin Fang Foom” (or whatever that over-sized lizard was called)
I know of a few other independent publishers who have gone on to Amazon to find other sellers offering their books at huge marks ups over what the author offers.
Amazon sellers can be annoying.
Didn’t notice it was some knob trying to sell it, didn’t realise Amazon now sold second hand goods
Had a further look around, and someone was selling just the magazine (no figurine) for the Electra issue for $70!!! o_O
the same item is a lot cheaper on ebay
Actually Kelvin is a pretty standard temperature unit in many sciences because you don’t have to deal with negative numbers. When I studied meteorology, temperatures were measured in Kelvin so the computer computation need to forecast would be easier to calculate. It’s harder to relate freezing cold as numbers below 293 K, so it’s why we keep other measurements around.
Also, would it hurt Harem if she pulled herself together for once?
mmmm…. 5-way self-hug!
yes hug that’s what harm does to herself
More importantly, what would she look like?
Like whichever body she decided to be the one that’s out of “Stasis”
Yup, also a number of calculations only work properly if you use an absolute temperature scale. Annoyingly I can never recall the numbers you need to add or subtract to convert between celsius and kelvin or fahrenheit and rankine.
Actually, those numbers you’re referring to are called “Conversion Formulas” & I have trouble remembering them too. Mostly because I don’t have to use them on a day-to-day basis.
;)
Here’s what I’m wondering about – the rainbow flash of light around Sydney when she was startled in that first panel. I hadn’t really noticed the orbs doing anything like that before and so I’m wondering what that might mean.
that’s not actually happening. Like speed lines, zoom lines, or blurring around the object of focus, it’s the artist’s way of showing something a still image CAN’T. In this case it’s showing the motion of surprise.
Yeah that’s just a comic effect.
Sorry. I probably should have figured as much since Harem wasn’t reacting to it.
and its clearly centered at Sydney’s head, not the orbs.
Dammit, now if I ever open a Nightclub I’m going to be forced to name it “Club Wub” because reasons
Only if this song is played a few times a night.
Yub nub, eee chop yub nub;
Ah toe meet toe peechee keene,
G’noop dock fling oh ah.
Yahwah, eee chop yahwah;
Ah toe meet toe peechee keene,
G’noop dock fling oh ah.
Coatee cha tu yub nub;
Coatee cha tu yahwah;
Coatee cha tu glowah;
Allay loo ta nuv.
Glowah, eee chop glowah;
Ya glowah pee chu nee foom,
Ah toot dee awe goon daa.
*Coatee cha tu goo; (Yub nub!)
Coatee cha tu doo; (Yahwah!)
Coatee cha tu too; (Ya chaa!)
Allay loo ta nuv,
Allay loo ta nuv,
Allay loo ta nuv.
Glowah, eee chop glowah.
Ya glowah pee chu nee foom
Ah toot dee awe goon daa.
* Coatee cha tu goo; (Yub nub!)
Coatee cha tu doo; (Yahwah!)
Coatee cha tu too; (Ya chaa!)
Allay loo ta nuv,
Allay loo ta nuv,
Allay loo ta nuv,
Allay loo ta nuv.
That reminds me, a day or two ago I converted a chat up line into ewokenise…
Did it get your prospective date’s hackles up? Perhaps causing a fur-ball to be vomited up?
Or were you rubbing the fur the right way?
Wasn’t honestly flirting, was part of a joke.
Almost worked as a joke, would have failed horribly as a chat up line.
Yeah, that’s a real sing-along type of song there…
What? There were lots of Ewoks sinning along at the time!
;)
What happened to Sydney having to put her orbs away in public?
She was hiding them from everyone back when the comic began, but I don’t think she’s doing anything like that now. She doesn’t have a secret identity and, after the press conference and the restaurant fight, it’s not like there’s anybody who does not know she is Halo.
i would also assume given her nondistinctive appearance the club will only pay her if he lets her balls hangout were they can be recognised
I certainly hope that condition doesn’t apply to any of the male members of ARC invited to the club.
lets be honest math would do it for free
Promise Math a free show, and he’d do a striptease for anyone who wanted to see him.
The whole purpose for this kind of club-outing (from Arianna’s point of view anyway) is to make ARCSwat as publicly distinctive as possible. Besides having the “no secret ID thing,” Sydney really doesn’t have to hide them anymore…except perhaps during specific instances where “open carry” of her “weapons” might be taken as a bad thing.
That was before the press conference the day before, and she only stored them because she hadn’t told anyone about them, and because she still believed real Super’s were a myth
she never believed real supers were a myth in the times the comic has shown she just voiced that opinion to avoid suspicion.
that and to avoid the argument “supers are totally real here i’ll prove it… ops”
Still, she also had them in the tube in the RPG session in the first pages, which was supposed to be several months *later.*
but that just so people dont stare not because she is hiding
Agreed. Plus, considering the circumstances, she might just do it to avoid disrupting the session. The people she games with are not used to seeing those all week long, unlike her work colleagues. Further the typically crowded table-top environment would make both their movement and their illumination rather distracting.
Whereas, in a club, flashing lights and spinning orbs are just part of the normal environment. And is not keen to be there in the first place. So is (visibly) less concerned about causing any disturbance.
Just like Peggy said on this page, she probably puts them away every so often just so that they won’t be a distraction for the people she’s spending time with.
it’s a club, they glow, nuf said.
As I was scrolling down I said “I hope I see Anvil”.
Thanks!
Yeah, Sydney’s alphabet disorders probably make the noisy clubs unpleasant experiences.
Yeah, and it looks like Hiro hiding behind her voice bubble in panel 6 :D
Yep, Harem said a couple of pages ago that “Hiro and Peggy might roll with us”.
I’m guessing they switched to Anvil because she’ll be much more useful when the inevitable brawl breaks out.
You don’t believe Peggy could handle herself in a brawl? If nothing else, she could take her leg off and bash some heads in :P
Snipers may prefer to operate at long range, but they can be required to operate solo (or with a spotter) behind enemy lines. Whilst we can see that Lieutenant Kessler does not have sufficient martial arts skills for them to warrant star ratings, on the super-scale, that does not preclude her from having capable self-defence skills.
If nothing else, she will have been taught them in basic training. And she has amassed enough combat time that she can operate effectively outside her core sniper training. Take for example her use of the claymore,* to take out Concretia.
I am equally confident that Peggy could look after herself, especially against mere civilians.
But grant that there is amusing imagery, from picturing her improvising, should Peggy’s leg become detached in a brawl.
* In comic we only see Concretia in rubble. But Dave’s comment confirms that this was not just from a bullet.
Hell, I could see her doing it just to intimidate/humiliate the typical drunken douchebro. Fifty years later: “Hey, remember the time Todd slapped that girl in the ass at the club and she beat him unconscious with her own leg?” “Oh, yeah, that was classic! Todd, you really suck!” “C’mon, guys, not in front of my grandkids….”
:-D
Ah, the stories that he could avoid telling…
Negative 60 C isn’t exactly human-survivable either (well, not in shirt-sleeves anyway)
“Oh, yes, very droll.”
Now two of my favorite fictional characters say that! Sydney and Sir Humphrey Appleby.
A quick cut where people end up doing what they just said they wouldn’t do … is properly called a “Gilligan Cut”. TV Tropes wouldn’t lie.
Ah, so it is. I’ve heard it a lot recently as someone saying “Smash cut to…” I think Gilligan is such a dated reference now that fewer and fewer people under 20 know what a Gilligan is.
I know who Gilligan is…! :) :D
Who? The only Gilligan I know of is of island fame. And then only from references to it, clips and the odd, partial, episode that I vaguely recall.
That would be the one. Here’s the webpage Eddurd mentioned:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GilliganCut
I have heard some things about this “Gilligan” thing, like they can make a radio out of a coconut, but can’t patch a small hole in a boat…
Poked around Dagonell’s link, turns out this does count as both a Smash Cut as well as a Gilligan Cut cause she’s doing what she said she wasn’t going to (Gilligan), plus from our perspective she was cut off mid sentence without warning (Smash).
Both fit, it’s all good…
It was The Professor (Roy Hinkley) who could make a radio out of coconuts but couldn’t figure out how to fix the boat. Even the actor who played him had those thoughts after a few episodes.
Well, to be fair anybody could make a coconut radio. You just need a coconut, some string, and a radio…
And for the record, the radio is the key component. :D
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!! NO linking to tvtropes EVER. It’s like making a sculpture out of bacon.
*walks by wearing a scrap of shirt as a loincloth and carrying a broken shovel* Bloody wikiwalks
Seconded.
*rubs sore back*
[thinks to self: I must not be so surprised when Chaos expresses such insightful comments. it is not the first time, and it hurts when I fall off my chair]
Ya I do occasionally say things that make sense to other ppl, I’ve yet to come up with an expression for how I think other then ‘non-linear’ or ‘webbed’, but occasionally a buddy might ask for my view on a given project.
Ahh, quite a few of your comments can come across as being critical or barbed, even though, if examining them, they do not do so explicitly. That impression though is carried by readers, seeking an ulterior motive for what the comment says.
All too often, on the internet, it would be due to a troll deliberately implying something harsh, or making a statement obscure enough, or sufficiently vague, with intent to cause some kind of controversy.
Fortunately I do not tend to leap to such conclusions. Albeit that I will work to plug any potential criticisms (of the comic) be they intentional or unintentional. If I feel that they are unjustified, that is.
Knowing that your style stems from a less-mainstream way of thinking, and expressing yourself, does provide useful insight, in our environment. I always like to assume something like that is at play, but it is nice to know when it is.
Just so you know…
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/23/free-bacon-bust-sculpture_n_5379634.html
Even though not all of these examples are technically sculptures, well…
https://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/18-pieces-bacontastic-bacon-art
*starts packing bags*
OK, what is the address of that cabin, next to the bacon river and hills of bacon?
Apparently the “smash cut” part refers to the interrupting them mid sentence (or any other sudden cut).
Learn something new every day.
There’s one of the lesser known provisions of the DMCA; at least one episode of Gilligan’s Island must be shown on one channel once per day in each market area.
Nice to see that Harem has a ‘clubbing’ necklace, but Anvil still wears her official choker (is that so that she can be contacted at a moments notice? Harem doesn’t, seeing how one of her is always ‘on duty’)
Yeah, I thought about that. Only one of her needs to be wearing a choker, or just hanging around operations to get a message. The only value of the choker for the team besides branding is it allows them to track where the team is at all times.
Unless she takes it off and leaves it on (one of her) bedside tables.
Thought……if she unteleports her alternates, then teleclones the version with the choker, takes the choker off of one of the two of her, unteleports that clone and then reteleclones her alternates…….could she clone the chokers…..or potentially any other thing she happens to be wearing? Could be useful for covert ops, nick keycard, teleclone,clone drops keycard ,unteleport clone, put original keycard back.
That is the logical assumption, for how we would think Harem’s teleport power works, but the mechanics are actually different to that.
Once Harem creates a duplicate it is a permanent addition to the world. Albeit that, at times, she suspends it from our universe, by teleporting it outside of the time-space continuum. However she is not causing it to cease to exist. It is still somewhere, just not where it is being affected by time and space.
We can see this from how her tattoos and hair styles persist. If her duplicates were disintegrated, then the version of Harem which re-summoned another body would (as you say) create an exact duplicate of herself. Hair clothes and all.
Rather each body stays in exactly the same condition, when it is re-teleported into existence, as when it was un-teleported.
Yes, the very first time that each duplicate was originally created, there was the potential for also copying items. But Harem appears to have reached her limit, for now, so cannot use the trick for infinite wealth.
Possibly she might be able to re-create a duplicate, should it die. But there is only one way to find that out. Dying is not something Harem is keen to test out. Especially as it might turn out that the dead duplicate cannot be replaced. Whatever has limited her number of bodies might not be overcome by death.
Was reading farscape fic, the twinning process on Rohvu sounded like it could be very very useful, if you were to load up a base with every weapon on the ship or at least just the chaka oil, then twin the shit outta that base.
Also,why not just multiple pilot twins?
On the plus side, her glowy balls are like the ultimate glowsticks for clubbing.
I just got a cascade affect idea from that suggestion.
– She could use the lighthook as a glow stick
– She could use the com orb to create a partner on the dance floor
– She could combine the first two to stage a light saber duel with herself.
And then I realized that would need her to figure out how to flip the hologram into a mirror image.
Quick Syd, start pressing the control buttons on the orb until you find this option.
I hope that Sydney remembers that the Com Orb is classified, so does not try to do that. She is going to be in enough trouble, from just skipping the media course,* as it is.
* Now that we know it has not happened in-between comics.
Hopefully she remembers. And that noone gives her a drink or 2 to “loosen her up” & make her have fun. That could end in Sydney forgetting important things, such as classified orbs…
And that the PewPewOrb is for outdoor use only…
thanks the guys in uniform with the carbines are looking at me worried after I laughed at your comment.
“Make do”
–The Grammar Nazi
Already been commented, and counter-commented, on :P
I like Sydney more and more every time.
UHN TISS UHN TISS UHN TISS (NSFW)
But seriously, I hate places like this. Only times I ever go is when I’m with friends, and would rather not be alone :-(
The music is too loud, I don’t drink, and the dancing is stupid. I tend to just pop in a pair of ear plugs and huddle in a corner with my phone.
And don’t get me started on strip clubs. Only thing neat about strip clubs is the pole art, but otherwise I’m completely zoned out.
The only strip club that I ever liked, had a vegetarian menu. (And I’m not even vegetarian. I just liked their slogan… “We put our meat on the pole, not on the plate.”) Why go to a club to see titties? I can get that on the Internet. ;)
Yup, a pair of even the cheapie disposable ‘squish and stuff in your ears’ earplugs are a must for clubbing for the wife and I.
Well, if it is a good club, it will have an RPG and board games and video games going on in one of the back rooms. Let’s hope Sydney can get her nerd on in the Wheaton room. Maybe she can get a request in for “The Hero of Canton”.
…otherwise, I am in full agreement with Sydney. Too much bass triggers my tinnitus and causes pain at the base of the back of my skull. I go out to socialize, not bounce mindlessly to electro-pop crap.
Sydney, you tried. You wanted to do right by your on-line friends. You attempted to avoid bad company and situations you don’t like. But nobody can beat cosmic irony!
…Well, you gotta admit that when it comes to “cosmic” irony, Archon is not lacking in examples of “heavenly bodies.”
I also have ADD and can attest that hearing can be affected at times. As my Dad used to say it goes in one ear and out the other if I’m not paying attention. Loud and or data filled environments can cause this as well even if I want to hear what people say. I have had people tell me my hearing is bad but every test says it’s better than most my age despite many jobs that could have damaged it.
A few years ago, I decided to read up on the effects of ADD, as I knew I had it, but never did anything about it. One of the potential effects is what was described as a mental blink. When you blink your eyes, you stop seeing the world for a brief moment, but you don’t notice it, because your mind fills in the gaps. Now imagine your mind blanking out for a moment, in the middle of a conversation. Your mind fills in the gaps in the conversation, sometimes correctly and sometimes not. When you get it wrong, people think you’re not listening.
I also found that there’s ADD medication that can help.
I admit, I figured that would be sydneys response to clubbing. Mainly because I swear she is a more crazy version of me. Both of us are adhd suffering WoW playing nerds that can be plenty outgoing in some circumstances but clubbing or bar hopping isnt one of them.
Regarding the overlaying of background sound on speech bubbles, one of my friends has what I take to be a unique form of synaesthesia. She ‘hears’ spoken words as subtitles, which she reads.* But even low levels of background noise (like a loud photocopier) can disrupt her sub-titles. Knocking words out of the sentences or letters out of the words.
So that makes her more vulnerable than an average person, who could easily cope with low to moderate distraction noise. To compare it to DaveB‘s analogy, the speech bubble effect would be visually very similar to what she experiences in noisy day-to-day situations. Whereas club music would have the transparency set to maximum illegibility, and all she would be able to read is “OONTZ, OONTZ, OONTZ”!
* Come to think about it, I must ask her what she experienced before she learnt to read? Mind you she is really smart, so probably learnt age two, or something ridiculously early like that, and does not remember an earlier time.
This isn’t the same thing, but when I watch some subtitled anime, months later I genuinely can’t remember if it was subtitled or dubbed which is really weird to me since auditorially the Japanese and English are so very different.
Any foreign film, which is designed with an export market in mind, will ensure that the dialogue is neither too complex, nor too fast, for viewers to be able to follow the subtitles. Likewise avoiding overly elaborate speech, when there is action, or something important you need to be following on-screen. For any such movie I will always prefer to use subtitles, rather than a dubbed version. For my first experience, anyhow.
I find the experience that much more immersive, and you get the fuller experience of the acting that way too. Subsequent re-watchings though, I will alternate, as you can pay more attention to the visuals and other aspects, if not distracted by subtitles.
So I can usually figure out how I first watched a film (as breaking my rule would probably stick out in my memory). But otherwise I likewise would not remember how I saw a movie.
Further examination of the Amazon site, and found this!, and immediately thought: “Yorp went and got stuffed!” :D
(yes, technically it’s not a Yorp, but looks close enough to cuddle :P )
OMG! Don’t tell me some taxidermist got hold of Yorp!?
Aww, what a cute representation. Do not worry though, I am alive and well!
Nobody has knocked the stuffing out of me yet. Err not that I had non-meaty stuffing in the first place. Weird phrase that. Did whoever originate it stuff themselves, like a turkey?
Just glad you didn’t take offence at the ‘get stuffed’ phrase :)
“…stuff themselves, like a turkey?”
Every Thanksgiving, I have a nasty habit of eating too much stuffing…
Sydney: Hmm, now why is my stamp red but Anvil’s stamp is blue? Hmm, Daphne’s is red too, but Hiro’s is blue as well. Hey, Daph, how old are you?
Harem: 19, why?
Sydney: So the red stamp means were under drinking age?
Harem: I don’t know. I never asked. Maybe. Yeah, that makes sense.
Sydney: One mystery down. [ Watches 4 Harems dancing with 4 guys ] So many to go. Hmm, to go. I wonder if this place has a kitchen.
Sydney: That’s right, I want you to use your Super Suicide wing sauce as the dressing on the garden salad.
I believe Sydney is over 21. I think Dave said it at some point.
Just checked the Profile Page. Sydney is 21.
Yup, but the bouncer would be right. She looks like she is under drinking age. Not that this is a dig at the art, Sydney is very realistically portrayed. I had a couple of friends who were similarly perpetually mistaken for being under drinking age. They just made sure they kept their drivers licences in their handbags.
Oddly though they were both very confident and assertive, and got challenged surprisingly rarely (by professionals) even though non-professionals around were often clearly wondering if they should have gotten in without their age being verified.
I have only ever been asked to prove my age once. In America. When I was in my 30s! That made my friends and I laugh hard. Doubly so when the guy was confused at having a passport provided. Flustered though he was with it, he had to accept that it was a valid ID.
I’m in my mid-40s. If I’ve just shaved, when I go to the theater, I usually have to provide an ID to get into a rated-R movie. That’s actually the reason I started growing a beard. (Well, that, and I hate having to shave.) Fortunately, I’m old enough that I can just show them the top of my head. (Male pattern baldness… in another decade, I’ll probably be rocking the Captain Picard look, also known as “watermelon with a fringe”.)
I used to be able to claim to be a victim of “Dick Clark Syndrome” myself, in that I appeared to be somewhere between five and ten years younger than I actually was. Now that I’m in my mid-forties, I’ve been cured of it, though. I’ve had some hair fall out so that I have a bigger forehead than I used to, I’ve grayed some at the temples, and I’ve packed on a few more pounds than I should have.
then that guy shouldn’t have been working Door, he’s actually a LIABILITY to that club, he could let someone under-age in and not know it till the cops show up… heck, every year that we put on a room-party at NorWesCon up here in Seattle, i do door, and that’s one of the things we get info about BEFORE the party starts… what do Canadian Passports look like, where to get the info needed, etc., we even have few friends that come by from Cali and Oregon, that we try to get a look at before hand as well, just to refresh our memories, but even if we don’t see an example, we still know not to show “being flustered” at the door! that’s just Bad Form… but we’ve been complimented by the SPD for running a tight ID check on all our parties even when the “prevailing custom” wasn’t to even bother with them at all. (this was QUITE a few years ago i might add, since then, the times have changed… ugh…)
Some stores around here have a policy of checking EVERYBODY who wants to buy tobacco. Doesn’t matter if you’re grey-haired, wrinkled, can only stand up with the assistance of a walker and can remember exactly where you were when you heard that Lincoln was assassinated, you will provide a government issued ID with your name and picture or you will not get your nicotine fix.
Perhaps a retail version of There’s No Kill Like Overkill?
I’m with Syd on the general opinion of that kind of place honestly….
DaveB announced some ideas for holiday shopping. Let me put in my suggestions.
Last year they had the star ship Enterprise pizza cutter. https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/dea2/
This year we have the official Death Star waffle maker. https://www.cnet.com/news/nibble-on-the-dark-side-with-a-death-star-waffle-maker/
(Waves hand) “This IS the gift you are looking for.”
One note. When cleaning it, be sure not to damage the exhaust port on the back, or the whole thing could blow up.
Don’t worry Sydney, there’s always remote guild chat on your phone.
Here’s hoping Halo gets out quickly, the chance for embarrassing/cringe humor goes up the longer she stays in there.
Yeah, I think Sydney’s already crossed her tolerance level for embarrassing/cringe humor during the course of her day at Archon…I don’t want to list the specific links simply because there’s too many of them & this kind of comment section would make me wait to be approved before actually posting.
I think I’m going to start blaming my inability to hear the entirety of conversations in loud/busy places on my ADD moving forward. :P It’s not that I’ve been listening to loud music all of my life. It’s because I’ve got the attention span of a …oh hey! Shiny!
Seriously though, my hearing isn’t spectacular, but it’s not atrocious…and just last night I had trouble having a conversation in a mall due to the high levels of ambient noise and the massive amount of other chatter around me. It actually kind of makes sense that my brain would have trouble sorting through the miasma to focus on a single conversation. I’d just never thought bout how ADD could potentially impact something like that when I’m actively trying to focus on a single conversation.
I think any of us who have mental conditions, which can shift concentration away from the content of a sentence, will naturally have a harder time in such noisy environments. The more pronounced the condition the worse it is bound to be.
Mind you some folks, myself included, are just not able to hear very well in such circumstances. Part of it may be due to purely hearing related issues, with the ear not being able to cope with the input. The rest of it being down to the processing of that information. That side we can improve, with practice. For instance learning how to follow a conversation with even only a few words, in each exchange, being ungarbled.
I did find I slightly improved, with practice. Mind you, that will eventually be offset by gradual hearing loss with age. As we get older we gradually loose the extremes of our hearing range. And we might need to rely on either end, of the auditory spectrum, to overcome particular background noises in a club. Which is doubly hard for those of us not blessed with it being good in the first place.
Everyone has mental conditions, you can tell who they are because define themselves as normal.
Considering my present SPD issues I’d either be on the floor screaming…..or somehow magically cured…….I went out with a friend halloween and there was this laser light thing that was like visual weed.
Ahh, reading up on SPD, I can more easily see why you might be so averse to unsolicited flirtation. Given your comment on that, the other day, the following line leapt out at me.
Although the breadth that SPD covers meant that I only considered this as being a possibility, rather than being reflective of you. It is nice to find that there can be positive sides to such effects though, under particular circumstances.
It is a shame however that it is otherwise so extreme, for you. You have my sympathy, such as that may be worth.
I’m not averse to unsolicited flirtation, I just can’t be absolutely certain someone is flirting until they say something akin to “fuck me now”. Or pin me to the wall……that’s usually fun. Tho sex is a bit tricky as I actually have less tactile sensation, making blowjobs nothing more than foreplay and sex itself 99% mental.
Okay, I guess we can stick to playing mind games, if that’s what you prefer.
:)
For me it is more like a delayed reaction. The following day, it will strike me ‘I think she was coming on to me!’
Which is odd for someone who suffers from being over-empathic in other regards. I think I just put up too many filters, trying to avoid reading the wrong things into situations, thereby inadvertently causing offence. So I default to assuming a polite or innocuous meaning, if there is any doubt.
Playing it coy does not work with me. It is akin to just saying no. Until, eventually, my subconsciousness has the opportunity, to eliminate all the alternatives, and decides to let me in on it.
Me too. I’m reasonably certain that the cute gal I was talking to awhile back while she didn’t have a bf had ulterior motives for telling me how tight she was, or that she loved sex.
Up next: Sydney discovers one of her ‘unknown’ orbs has the ability to muffle sound. She clings to it tenaciously for the rest of the night.
She could activate the force field bubble, send out the light hook to grab onto a ceiling support, reel it in, and hang there like a disco ball.
Naaa, wouldn’t need Lighthook, she has Flight Orb. Actually, wonder if she could get some extra money for shoving some earplugs in her head, using Flight Orb to get to the roof & use Lighthook to add some extra animation to the place. No other club would ever have thought of having a writhing, glowing neon tube thingy flailing around as part of the act…
…or at least until she knocks down something expensive… :P
If I was in Sydney’s shoes, I’d feel the exact same way. Clubs are noisy, stressful, and uncomfortable.
I’ve never understood how people go to clubs to relax. Those places are so stressful to me, I’d pretty much need heavy sedation to relax there. Which, might just be the strategy, for some.
I speak from ignorance as I’ve never been to a club, but I didn’t imagine that people went to a place like that to relax. I thought they went there to see, to be seen, and to find someone to have a one-night stand with.
and to some people that is relaxing (how I have no idea).
I, too, am incapable of listening to conversations in loud clubs, but honestly from my observations, so is everyone else in the loud club, other than a very small minority of superhuman audio-distinction hearers (which often doesn’t include any of the servers).
That is to say “Whenever I enter a club, it looks like fewer than one in ten people inside is capable of actually doing more than going “YEAH!” and nodding without understanding the conversation they’re ‘engaging’ in”
My idea of a good time is a get together with friends; generally some kind of pot luck deal. Booze from the liquor store is cheaper, and you can actually talk and have conversations with people you care about.