Grrl Power #374 – It’s a club of +2 annoyance vs. Sydney
Now I want beef brisket noodle soup. :p
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating it. Comments may be a bit slow today as lots of people are away from their usual routines, and instead trying to kill time until dinner is ready by catching up on their favorite webcomics… No wait, then traffic would be flat. Well, whatever.
Harem is evidently privy to a method of speaking in a club that allows you to be heard without screaming. May. Be. You. Talk. In. Be. Tween. The. Beats? Everyone else who came to the club with them is dancing in case you were wondering where they were.
To spare people from zooming in and squinting, Sydney’s dialog in panel 3 is
“Make sure they’re vegetarian! Also see if the cheese is from humanely [cut off]”
“Ask if they have anything hotter than jalapeños!!”
“Maybe see if they have super hot wing sauce or… [cut off]”
Normally I like making each page a complete… clause? I guess that’s the best way to put it. One page isn’t one scene, but I still like wrapping up the main thought on each page and not have obtrusively dangling stuff out there like there is on this one, but as I gear up to the next storyline, not everything that happens on every page will be resolved right away. We’ll have to see how good I am at resisting the urge to throw my hands up and going “Ooh ooh! I know!” when people speculate in the comments.
One thing I could have done better with the comic so far is showing the fervor of the public surrounding the team’s celebrity even in these incipient days. If this was a manga and I had to turn in 12 (or whatever their schedule is) pages a week (and was capable of doing that.) I probably would have padded the page count out a little by showing people being interviewed about how excited or scared they are about the team and individual members. (Mostly excited) Or instead of having a few arms sticking in from off panel on the previous page taking photos, do a whole page of a crowd going nuts as they pull up. Presumably they took a car of some sort and Halo didn’t fly them all in her shield since fitting 5 people in there at once would only leave them with a few minutes of air.) I may yet in the future, even if those pages would be more about mood and pacing than cramming a bunch of jokes and dialog in to a single page. (Actually I thought of a decent gag as I was writing that paragraph so maybe I’ll save a few of those up and eventually do a page like that.)
Another reminder about the Amazon associate link. I think most people know how that works by now, but just in case you don’t, click on it then shop like normal, then I get a % of the sale without it costing you anything extra. I just thought of this too, when you distribute your Xmas wish list to your friends and family, (if that’s how your family do) you can also give them links via that associate link and trick them into supporting the comic. At least I think you can. Everyone try that. For science and stuff.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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DJ PON3 in da house! lol
I thought that was vinyl scratch, well either way it’s good to see either of them getting work.
Both. DJ PON3 is the name given to the character by fans after her first appearance. When she was given an official name in some of the promotional material it gave the fans a nod by saying DJ PON3 was her ‘Stage name’ and her real name was Vinyl Scratch.
Who? o_O
The DJ. First panel, far right. From My Little Pony. We already knew this place is Brony-friendly, as RD has shown up several times.
Source character:
https://img00.deviantart.net/3997/i/2014/294/7/c/vinyl_scratch_thumbs_up_by_quynzel-d83nqcm.png
That still does not explain what she does with her hooves? Those gloves must have been made in Hogwarts!
The comic sure is MLP friendly. At least half a dozen references to it, in various scenes. Not least of which General Faulk appears to be a brony! And Sydney is clearly a big fan, with her poster, plushy and even having the MLP ringtone.
Pony!Vinyl is a unicorn, she could be using magic for fine manipulation and just moving her hooves for the show.
Octavia, now there’s a challenge. Of course we’ve also seen hoof-piano playing, first Scootaloo pounding away and recently Coloratura in full virtuoso.
Since when has moving slide-controls or rotating a turntable required fingers? Also, that’s the Equestria Girls version of her, which is fully humanoid.
I, as a diehard brony, have one objection to this cameo: Why is she in club Oontz???
Read the footer on the previous page.
I did. That doesn’t provide any kind of explanation.
Because club Oontz were canvassing to get supers appearing at their club. A bit of social media research will have found that a lot of MLP videos got liked from both General Faulk’s private YouTube account and by Sydney. Hiring Vinyl Scratch (or a good lookalike) would be a clever move to appeal to them.
Being of especial use, to club Oontz, as regards Sydney, because her music tastes would reveal that she probably does not normally like the kind of music that they play. But may be won over, once she finds they have Vinyl Scratch as the DJ.
yes, it’s actually just a lookalike, or impersonator, like all those DeadMaus you see everywhere…
*giggles*
Because that’s her thing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh7j1qUaGOc
It is no good, you will not turn me into a brony!
*stomps hoof down firmly*
Don’t give in! You have paws, not hooves!
He’s got grandchildren. He may have been forced to sit through the show, several times.
Oh, it’s the rubbish MLP, thank you
Well that’s not very nice.
Compared to the original, it’s very accurate, and of course that is simply POO
It made me smile to see her cameo. :)
Same.
Yo dawg, we heard you liked shout-outs so we did a shout-out on a comic page about shouting!
SORRY, YOU WILL HAVE TO SPEAK UP!
*holds paws, over ears, to drown out music*
SOUNDED LIKE YOU SAID SOMETHING REALLY FUNNY THOUGH.
*softly pets the puppy, putting a pair of wool-soundproofed earmuffs on him* Poor Yorp…
*gives a lick of thanks*
*curls up in a ball and falls asleep*
With a character who is mute!
/apparently the writer was going to have her talk during the Vinyl/Octavia jam session, but it was specifically countermanded by Hasbro. So yes, Vinyl is mute, IDF comics be ignored.
*blink* really?
I’m going to have to check and see if the equestria girls version is mute too…
YAY :3
OH, Harem… Sydney warned you, *emphatically*…
Yeah, Harem may be able to experience five different nightclubs a night (well, four if you consider one has to be ‘on duty’ at all times, or at least in uniform and ‘on call’), but Sydney doesn’t even like nightclubs
It is my assumption that Harem does not have any longer working hours than anybody else. Yes, she could work 24 hours a day and, in war-time, or other crisis, might be called upon to do precisely that. But, outside of an emergency, it would be unfair to impose draconian working practices on her.
Especially as, in certain social circumstances, she enjoys having all her bodies together. For instance when they were eating at the restaurant. Likewise her photo-shoot. Not to mention making the most, out of sweatier activities, she hopes to get up to tonight.
Dancing.
You could actually pull of some really crazy moves doing that. On top of just the base teleportation. The level of coordination boggles the mind. Although… pairs figure skating would be even crazier, given the intimate knowledge of your partner’s sense of balance.
Thank you (again) for correcting me, knew that one had to be in uniform, just misbelieved that it meant ‘at all times’ rather than just during ‘normal business hours’
So, does that mean there are four Harem scattered around the Oontz-club? With one still in ‘storage’ due to the broken wrist?
I would guess three. The fourth will be doing important research.
:-D
I saw what you did there! *tosses you a bacon treat* I laughed so hard I snorted. >.>
Yummy!
*head dives straight in trough*
Nom nom nom
Since the bodies share a conciousness, she couldn’t achieve rem sleep or deeper without ALL of the harems sleeping at the same time. So for a short stint she could put some in cold storage and rotate through them for maybe as much as 72 hours of constant watch, but by then all of the Harems would be tired and they would all need to sleep.
Well proposed.
[activate wriggle mode]
*wriggle wriggle wriggle*
Err, it isn’t meant to work like that… give me a minute…
It all depends on the nature of consciousness. As a being limited to a single body, you naturally assume that self-awareness is dependant on your biological state. But that is purely because you only have the one body to experiment with. However Harem has a couple of bodies unaccounted for, so she can participate in this demonstration.
*bonks Harem on the head with a rubber mallet*
OK, see how that body fell unconscious. Yet the other one is still self-aware… and looking rather irate!
Calm down, will you. This is all in the interest of Science! Now, where was I? Oh yea, so we have an awake Harem here, plotting my demise. Plus another one learning how to garnish tacos with cayenne pepper, and yet another trying to teach Sydney how to talk in a club.
Each of those minds is doing completely unrelated tasks. And, as the unconscious one slips into a delirious semi-sleeping semi-conscious state, the combined mind is aware of the groggy sensations, in addition to those from the club and Dabbler’s laboratory.
Sleep is a biological function, and as you say REM sleep requires the consciousness, in order to participate in dreaming. Allowing the laying down of memories, assessing the day’s activities and conducting future survival simulations. Plus some weird s**t we don’t understand.
But I believe Harem can probably provide that active participation, in the dream state, simultaneously with all the other active things she does.
Note that nature does have one (moderately) similar example I can cite. The dolphin only sleeps with half of its brain at a time. The other half remains awake (albeit at minimum function) in order to maintain position, surface to breath and watch out for danger. Harem just does that a lot better.
Talking in clubs (or other moderately loud environments) is more about tricking the brain of the person your talking to into filtering noise differently than in talking OVER the background sounds (somethings, like jet engines really close, you can’t do that with but eh). Maybe with a little bit of lip reading.
Well that’s one skill I never mastered.
Talking in a lower pitch than the noise works. Don’t intermingle with existing high volume frequencies.
Technically lower is better than higher as it travels further cos science.
There are music people and non-music people. Don’t get me wrong, the latter can enjoy music, but there are still fundamental differences between the two. Not just in desires, but physical differences in the brain too. The former get music at an intrinsic level and probably live for it.
They can get what you are saying, and probably do it anyhow, without even having to think about it. Hence why they don’t get how the rest of us struggle in those situations. I am exactly the same as Sydney is above.
Hmmm, interesting. Daniel the Human might qualify as 1 of those “Music People”. He loves a bit of background music, uses some “MP3 player” thing on the train, sometimes almost completely tuning out into the music, & he can sen his voice deeper into the bass region to make it easier to hear. Me, I like double step I think it’s called, reminds me of home…
I am definitely a music person. I am NOT, however, a club person. I value my eardrums, and the music at clubs is never my taste anyway.
So I think you’re talking about “club people” and “non club people”
Mmm, no that is a different thing again. Should you have a need to go to a club, I am sure you could implement Faust‘s suggestion a lot easier than I could. Especially given that I cannot hold a tune in a bucket.
Similarly there are doubtless non-music people who are very much club people, simply because they like the socialising and opportunities to pick someone up. I have no basis, other than pure speculation, for the following, but perhaps some folks can have a poor ear for music, yet still have good moves that they can pull, on the dance-floor?
Provided they could at least keep their dancing in time to the music, they might love clubbing. Yet have the same difficulty as I do, in picking out the spoken word. Likewise projecting their voice, at the right pitch, to be heard over a particular song.
Dancing well requires a sense of rhythm/ timing, while music (and music appreciation) includes that as well as other elements relating to pitch, harmony and, erm, probably other stuff. Dancing also includes other physical stuff, like ballance.
There is the Spiderman GIF that apparently syncs up to almost any music, just because of the way it moves at a certain rate. It’s close enough to fool most meatsack brains into thinking it’s in sync I’ve been told cause the brain rules out the parts that don’t match up. Master dancing like that, & you got a chance even without a sense of rhythm…
Posting link to relevant picture of Spidey dancing.
https://m.imgur.com/qswO0HC
My brain hasn’t been told that :)
Couldn’t make Spidey sync to this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNAdtkSjSps&index=27&list=PL601566E906CFE558
He’s a tad too slow, and I can’t dance anyway!
That ‘song’ is still far superior to the vast majority of cRap and ‘pop’ songs nowadays!
I dislike any setting where being there causes physical pain linked to permanent injury, and will immediately seek to leave it. Loud music is exactly that to me. If that means I avoid clubs, some bars, and some other settings, so be it. It’s not being a wuss, I just like to be able to hear and seek to retain that ability.
I am a music person. Just not that kind of music. I am with Sydney on this. I would prefer a nice jazz club or something.
Yup, that’s what mum and me do in restaurant’s: instead of raising our voices, we lower them, shame no one else thinks to do that :(
“I wish to report a burglary!”Sydney missing out on the public-relations briefing is going to be a running joke, isn’t? Like they’ll be some emergency or event that just keeps pushing it back, and she never actually gets taught the proper etiquette.
Because Sydney’s abrasiveness is part of her charm, and we obviously can’t lose that.
Thanksgiving day comic updates are the best!! I’m very excited to see this new storyline. :D
So, are we finally going to find out about the guy with the white hair and ears from back in the Grand Canyon?
It seems unlikely that Archon would be aware of him. The reason why they wanted Sydney is because they lack illusion-penetrating capability themselves. So they would not have been able to penetrate his disguise, prior to Halo joining the team.
Further he appeared to just be a tourist. Unless one invents a really convoluted explanation for why he was in a crowd of spectators, overlooking the Grand Canyon. The most likely explanation is that he is just a regular member of the public, who uses illusions (or similar, such as shapechange), in order to avoid people staring at him.
For no more sinister reason that he does not look like a normal human, and likes his privacy.
It’s possible that he was just an alien on vacation.
I recon they do know about him, in fact i think it might have something to do with the “Uh oh” & “…read Sydney in on some things that are way above her pay grade.” lines. We already know Dabbler is an alien (aw yeah, suck it Earthling meatsacks, aliens are awesome!), but what if Mr Blue-Skin-Illusion-Guy is another alien, only living on earth as a refugee? Hand out a few of the illusion-generating-tattoos like those used in the robbery, then just run your new Men In Black operation like any other Refugee program. Maybe even add on the Customs part of it too…
Blue guy from the Grand Canyon? A Refugee taking a holiday in his new adopted home? Or maybe just a tourist from a bit further than just somewhere in Australia…
Next you will be proposing that Harem is presently speaking to some blue-skinned, gilled alien, disguised as a waitress.
*rolls eyes heavenward*
They dont necessarily lack illusion busting abilities, they just realize that her having said abilities would make her useful on the investigative side of archon.
Why? The only one who saw him… was us, Maxi wouldn’t have seen him because she was concentrating on Sydney
More to the point she would not be able to. We saw him, because we see things the same way that Sydney can. But other people do not get that privilege. In the interview, even when Sydney pointed X out, nobody could see her and someone asked “What is she pointing at?”
I had considered if someone reviewing Sydney’s pip-boy feed might be able to spot him. But discounted that, when I remembered the previous point. Possibly it might eventually come back, through Sydney’s subconsciousness. Say when she wakes up tomorrow morning?
Failing that though, it would take something like hypnosis to bring back a subtle detail like that. However, without stretching things implausibly, there is little likelihood of someone doing that, as there is little need.
However one day Sydney might be interrogated by someone skilled (or powerful) enough to pull off something like ‘think back, have you ever seen someone change appearance, when you picked up the yellow orb?’
Uh-oh usually means it could have caused a problem already (but didn’t) or that they should get on fixing that right away. Given the law of comedy, something is probably going down in the club.
Hmm, would that be someTHING, or someONE?
Good point, there are at least two Harem unaccounted for :P
This is the second time that sign language would have come in useful. Just sayin’.
I would prefer to use tactile signing, with Sydney. For various reasons.
Including that it could be done unobtrusively, in that environment. Plus it would be incredibly hard to eavesdrop, so could talk freely, without fear of being overheard. There are plenty of smartphones in evidence, so it would not even require a sign fluent linguist to be present, in order to loose their privacy.
What about lip readers, Lip readers can understand them, like in the TV show, “Sue Thomas F.B. Eye” Then again you also have people like my dad, who can hardly hear after years working the flight line in the military, or me who picked it up watching tv shows on mute….. Anyway a lip reader can understand everything their saying as long as they can see their lips moving and they know the same language.
tactile signing does not use the lips. It is something that requires neither sight not sound to use.
Some versions could be interpreted by an observer though, but only if the signing is done in plain sight. Sitting at a table is the ideal environment to conceal such though. Just conduct the signing below table-top height. Say squeezing a leg, or tracing the symbols on a hand.
Other types however would be intrinsically incredibly hard to intercept, even without doing that.
Actually I was talking about when their talking to each other, not about tactical signing, like in the above comic their in the bar talking in the loud bar and their having trouble speaking because the music is too loud, in a case like that a lip reader can still understand no matter how loud it gets because their reading the lips, not using tactical signing. So a lip reader in the area will know what their saying even though they can’t hear in the situation.
He he. Tactile (meaning by touch) not tactical (like soldiers use to signal, eg ‘follow’ or ‘stop’). Both the original comment, and my replies, are working on the basis that instead of talking with their mouths, they use their hands.
But, yes, lip-reading is a valid option to use in such situations. Albeit that there is a margin of error, given that a number of English words are ambiguous, or even indistinguishable, by lip reading. Not a good option though, due to the loss of privacy, as you say.
“This is the second time that sign language would have come in useful. Just sayin’.”
ArcSwat should be teaching that to Sydney eventually, as part of their Special Ops combat skills.
Sydney doesn’t need to do any of this as she can sign write or draw in the air with the molest orb… So long as she is sober. Drawing with that when drunk would be crazy.
well Harem could do what a most NCO’s and people wanting to become NCO’s would do in that situation. teach the rookie how to talk in a club. (and some discrete hand and arm signals too.)
I pray that Sydney won’t go all spastic upon consuming the nachos as ordered by Harem.
Something like that would give Arianna a stroke!!!!
Why would she? Unless just playing with her food, which Arianna would not be bothered about anyhow. But, even with cayenne pepper on the nachos, Sydney will probably just find them to be baby-food weak. She barely bats an eyelid at hot food (unless it literally gets into her eye).
Plus don’t forget how smart Sydney is, if you fear that she will not be satisfied. Rather than making a scene here, she can just ask Harem to teleport to somewhere that does serve suitably hot food.
Harem might not know Sydney’s favourite restaurant, but she does know Fusion. And can get there easier even than here. There will likely be less of a crowd at Fusion’s this time of night.
And I’m sure all of those fans snapping pictures would love it if poor ol’ Sydney had to do try that stop, drop, and roll thing she did twice “yesterday.”
Quick! We need “The Unmaker”, Stat! Sydney’s jonesin’ for some spicin’!
yea but shes a vegetarian so why would she want a beef brisket noodle soup recipe
Replace beef with tofu? Or fish?
That really wouldn’t work. Simply replacing the meat with tofu or beans rarely works well. Especially with a good soup, where a lot of the flavour comes from the meat or bones used in making the broth.
Fair enough. I’m just a sentient alien robotic life form. I’m still not too good at cooking, very new thing for me still. Never did anything like it back on Cybertron…
…Not to mention Daniel the Human can only cook a few basics…
well, there are some very nice vegetable soup stocks you could use for flavour, however, for those of you that do like meat, there’s a very interesting thing some people do with tofu and eels…
I have a well-stocked fish farm nearby. With a number of separate lakes with different stocks of fish. So I can supply the eels, if a nice girl or two can bring the tofu. I have a large bathtub, so we can find out what those interesting things are.
actually, they boil the water, and toss in the large cubes of tofu, and the live eels, and as the tofu is still cool, the eels swim into it to try to cool down (soft tofu) and thus get cooked into the tofu!
Eww. Scratch that then. I don’t like anything being cooked alive.
*releases the eels into the river*
Swim free fishies, get far away fast, in case any girls with tofu turn up!
They do that with lobsters too, don’t they? Run for your lives little lobsters before some mad cook gets hold of you! Here, let me help you . . .
YEEEOUCH!!
No wonder people cook you alive, damn water bugs! Anyone else hungry for a little sea food?
And they can be quite tasty, and while I regularly enjoy consuming the flesh of dead animals I’m also able to make some tasty vegetarian dishes*. However one can’t simply omit the meat and expect to get good results, and while there are ways to substitute they’re generally not a simple one for one. Most people are better off getting a good vegetarian, or pescetarian if you eat fish but not other dead animals, recipe rather than trying to find a good substitute.
*There are a handful of vegetarians in my family, so I like to bring something they can eat whenever we have a family get together.
btw, marshmallow peeps with pretzel sticks as ‘legs’ give a very satisfying crunch, as long as you don’t mind the ‘Fable’ video game reference
*evil*
She likes to eat fish
And soup does not have a face…
I like where you are going with this, so that means the beef is…
nope, I kinda loose you at that point.
Still, if it leaves a glimmer of hope that I might be able to share bacon, eggs, sausages and hash browns for breakfast, with Sydney, someday I like it.
Well, fairly sure Sydney wouldn’t stop you from eating all that, just she would be eating something else (covered in burn most likely)
The spelling here in the states (of denial, confusion etc.) is to go with ‘lose’ for describing a state of loss. Is this one of those Brit vs. US spelling variances, like when we dropped the use of a bunch of superfluous ‘U’s?
Oh heck, ‘superfluous’ looks like it has an extra ‘U’. I guess we missed one.
I let Dane_Lare loose.
That is my excuse, until I can remember to spell it right.
That’s just one of the (many) words that are easily typo-ed (doesn’t help that both are valid words in their own rights :P)
She’s ok with “free range” chicken. Her “vegeterianism” basically amounts to “cruelty free” food. I’m with Col Sherman on Mash though, why would anyone find cows “cute” is beyond me.
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t she OK just with milk, cheese, eggs, etc. that came from free range animals? I’m pretty sure she doesn’t eat chicken meat.
And cows are so cute when in the open, they are so serene.
https://i.warosu.org/data/cgl/img/0077/62/1408280468621.jpg cows can be very ‘cute’
however, my dad used to say that the word ‘cute’ usually meant :short, fat, cross-eyed and bow-legged:, but that was just his little joke, i think.
Hmmm, wonder if Sydney would have a problem eating that cow(girl) ;)
The only talking-in-a-loud-club technique I know of is to lean in really close to someone’s ear, like Harem is doing in the first panel. It seems to me that the requirement to lean in so close plays a key role in hookups at clubs, by increasing a sense of intimacy. Or at the very least, is a good excuse to put your hand on an attractive person’s shoulder and your face close to theirs.
Happy Thanksgiving guys and I only ask what thing. In a world of massive debt and many problems everyone needs to stop and think a moment this time of year. We all have problems, lord knows nobody is alone in this even if you think you are. The trick is don’t look at those problems, instead look in the other direction.. Ask yourself, what in this world are you thankful for, because even at the worst moment their is always something. I’m thankful for the roof over my head, the settlement for the accident I’m about to get, and the fact I’m nearly ready to release a book or two at the start of the next year. So what are you guys thankful for? You know you have at least one thing, look to that instead of your problems for one day and let it make you smile. You owe that to yourself if nobody else.
+1
Amongst other things, I am thankful for free access to an incredible webcomic. Thanks to both DaveB and the patreons who support the comic.
Likewise having such a wonderfully friendly, and insightful, community to socialise with about it.
Whether you’re in the US or not, may you enjoy wonderful food among wonderful people.
I’m thankful the Netherlands don’t have any christmas crap yet. Sinterklaas is holding it back
they’re already starting that crap here… in stores it’s the music, and at a local mall they had the xmas tree stand out in the parking lot put up at least 2 WEEKS ago, i haven’t been by there recently enough to see if they have the trees on the lot yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they are…
Disneyland started on Christmas prior to Halloween with the “it’s a small world” ride down for the refurbishment of putting decorations everywhere while visible exterior decorations were going up by November 3, if I recall right. And then they have the Haunted Mansion which was redecorated along the lines of Nightmare Before Christmas by November 1, I believe.
the stores here in Colorado have had the Christmas stuff going since October right after Halloween ended. In a lot of ways its like Thanksgiving didn’t even happen, to keep with what your thankful for
Sadly, the store I work in was selling Christmas stuff even before we reached Halloween! And we were hardly the first place in town to put it out for sale, either. As I understand it, a lot of businesses make most of their money over the holidays and so you can certainly understand their wanting to extend that period a bit, but it’s gotten kind of obnoxious.
This year my first official sighting of Christmas items being put on display in a store was believe it or not Labor Day weekend. It was still officially summer on the calendar. But Labor Day is the merchandising business start of fall, and fall means that winter can’t be far behind. The same goes for spring and summer merchandise. Last year I needed to replace a pair of winter gloves in February. When I went shopping to find any I discovered that stores had already gotten rid of their winter merchandise and started stocking their summer wear. There was over a foot of snow on the ground and the stores think their main concern should be shorts and sandals.
Here in the UK, the big chain stores had the Halloween stuff (more of that than ever before) competing for shelf space with the Xmas tat.
a) isn’t one festival at a time enough?
b) why would I want to buy mince pies and Xmas cakes in late October, when said foodstuffs will expire well before Xmas day???
FFS…
But that aside (sorry Arious), I’m grateful for my good health and that of my family, my secure employment, and having the freedom to speak my mind (even if I use it to moan about trivial issues on the ‘net).
Plenty of people would risk their lives (and frequently do) for a chance to have what I often take for granted.
So – even as I watch the utter consumerist shallowness of Black Friday take hold where I live – I’m thankful.
Main thing I’m thankful for is my mom. Partly because she did me a small huge favour today (Small for her to do, huge in how much it helped me.) and partly because I was recently reminded that not everyone gets along with their parents.
Also thankful I don’t work retail, the excessive commercial christmas crap really gets to me.
Speaking of retail, BEWARE the power of Black Friday, its a bit of a monster…
Beef barley soup is pretty good too. Simmer soup bones for about three hours in well-seasoned broth until the beef is falling off the bones…
You want amazing food, try Sausage and Artichoke stuffing, its some really amazing stuff, you can find the recipe on the food network and its some of the best stuffing ever to be used on a bird. Pretty much the only one I actually like that I didn’t come up with myself and that’s saying something…
Let us hope that the nachos are not made from a crop of +2 indigestion vs Sydney.
Although Arianna is hoping that Sydney will sleep well and be the morning’s star +2 vs paparazzi.
Clearly Harem is hoping to be a man catcher +2 vs billionaires.
Do you really think a nightclub has what it takes to make something too spicy for Sydney to eat?
Pfft. A nightclub which doesnt have access to nuclear contaminants?
I was thinking more of food poisoning, also known as “Montezuma’s revenge”.
Politically incorrect though the term may be, it is associated with tacos, and other convenience food. An expensive ticket price is no guarantee that the kitchens are hygienic. I have seen too many episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, to have faith in that concept.
Or too many episodes of “Restaurant Impossible” (Food Network). Or “Bar Rescue” (Spike), if the bar also serves food. Or… drat. I can’t remember the name of that other show on Food Network (it only ran for one season) where a consultant helps restaurants pass their health inspections.
I know a person who is a certified health inspector; he tells me “I hate to say it, but nearly everything I have seen on Kitchen Nightmares, I have seen during my inspections. Never all at one location, but I have seen it. Ramsay does a good job of over-dramatizing things, but his ‘inspections’ are always correct.”
A good example of one of the things he’s had to deal with is this: My friend entered the restaurant just as the employees got there for the day, which was just before lunch. While the employees began the process of getting the restaurant ready for lunch, he began his inspection. When he got to the walk-in cooler he knew something was wrong. He pulled out his thermometer, and sure enough all of the foods were room temperature (around 21C; the walk-in must be kept at, and able to maintain, a temperature of not more than 5C).
The owner tried to say that the cooler was working fine just last night before they closed and that it must’ve failed overnight, but those coolers don’t suddenly jump by 16 degrees Celsius in just a few hours, even if the compressor *and* the fans fail at the same time. By my friend’s estimates, the cooler hadn’t been working in at least two days. So he told them it all had to go.
They rolled in 55-gallon (208 liter) trash cans, filled them with the meat, and wheeled them out to the dumpster. He finished his inspection, wrote the report (including embargo slip for the owner’s tax records) and left. As he was leaving, he happened to drive around to the back of the building and noticed the restaurant employees standing in and around the dumpster, retrieving all of the food he just made them discard.
Needless to say, the owner got an even bigger violation and a citation (meaning the owner had to appear before a judge to explain himself), and the food was returned to the dumpster and showered with bleach to ensure it would NOT be used. That isn’t even remotely the nastiest story he’s told me, but if it’s bad enough to almost make me sick, then I think it’s a good idea to apply some discretion and not repeat the story.
Mancatcher +4 vs billionaires, technically…
I just do not like loud places. Shouting as loud as I can and barely hearing myself speak. No thanks on that. I would be a very boring person in that group.But my ears would be saved.
love how the headshots came out on the page sid raging scowl, happy max (or as happy as she seems to get), freaked out dabs (from the maluck page), kenya ducking like shes trying to get out of the chaos about to hit, smirky deshante like she planned it all (from shirt steal page), arianna face palm.
Took me awhile to figure out what you were talking about. Those pictures are different every time you reload the page
In the spirit of the day, thank you Dave, for taking the time, making the effort, & sharing your creativity with us poor saps.
I very much agree with this sentiment. :)
Came to the party late: but where are Sydney’s glasses in panel two? o_O
Taken off, to pose for the photo. Confirmed by Dave.
Which will only give rise to trouble from those conspiracy theory nuts amongst us.
“Hey, she was seen in that club not wearing her glasses! Maybe she doesn’t really need them? I’ll bet they’re actually some kind of super high tech gadget that she uses to see through men’s clothes or something!”
Hey, I resemble that remark! I have already stated something to that effect. Albeit that mine went the other way. Suggesting that Sydney only put them on as part of her cos-play (specifically for Lady Heterodyne, the Girl Genius), and decided that they made her look cute, so now wears them habitually.
Sorry. I didn’t mean the nuts amongst us Grrl Power fans :D so much as the ones out there in the real world.
I thought we were from the real world…
You haven’t checked? Mind you a lot of folks would not know where to start. So I guess that the majority just make the same assumption that you have. Which helps living a day-to-day life, so is not too bad an option to choose.
Sydney does not make that mistake mind. Nor do I.
Ah, but would she also have a Mechaturkey to ride in on? even if it’s 1 of those “wear the body around the hips & use my legs as it’s legs” deals?
We haven’t seen her Cosplaying yet, now we’re both curious about her level of detail…
Thank you, guessing wasn’t the only one to spot it (didn’t read anything in the blurb, so must have been a reply on page one)
I can see Janice from The Muppets (Electric Mayhem), and Vinyl Scratch as the DJ, but I’m sure there are more guest characters there!
He he. Well spotted.
Now that you mention it, was able to spot her :D
Now I’m thinking about a short arc told through the fans’ perspectives. With the panels just being social media pages with some pictures and people’s reactions to it as they’re tracking sightings of flying heroes or documenting super violence.
That would require a change of narrative style mind. Presently we see everything from the perspective of one of the protagonists. Namely Sydney, Maxima, Dabbler and Harem. That helps us to strongly identify with them, and it would be a shame to break that empathy, even for a short arc.
Of course, there are ways to accomplish what you suggest, whilst not loosing that important bond. And it can even be done the way you suggest, via Sydney or Harem, as the most likely candidates. Sydney because we know that her on-line life is important to her, so has an avenue to discovering it. Whereas Harem simply has more time on her hands than other (or rather more hands and eyes, to make use of that time).
But it might have a greater emotional appeal if they were to actually interact with the person first hand, initially. Even if a lot of it is then followed by social media subsequently. Just to establish the rapport with them, despite continuing to tell the story from the perspective of our protagonists.
This could be done by introducing a new character. For instance a friend, or sibling, of Sydney or Harem. But the story already features quite an extensive cast of characters, so there are a number who could be picked up for the task.
• Super Construction Guy. Although he is super-powered, he just has returned to a regular job (if probably more spectacular than average). He has been saved from a life of crime, by Maxima’s demonstration, so probably will be a fan. But will be seeing the world from the perspective of a normal person.*
• Susie News. She will probably have a blog and, just yesterday, had a mundane intern’s job. She certainly qualifies as Archon’s most vocal fan! And will doubtless be gathering a lot of human interest stories. Both as a part of her new job and because she is serving as a focus for other regular people identifying with her and her boundless enthusiasm.
• Maxima’s brother (assuming that is the relationship of the boy who startled the young Maxima into blowing a hole in the wall of their house). Although Maxima would be too busy, in general, at the moment, she might make time for her brother.
Alternatively Sydney or Harem could be introduced to him. But he is Maxima’s age, which is quite a gap to theirs. Someone who is itching to get in a Leander’s pants though might make time. And he is not on the banned list, for Dabbler, as he is not one of her team-mates.
• Any of the table-top gaming crowd.** Of whom we have met Tony and, his cousin-sister, Olivia. They, I think, would be absolutely ideal for the role.
* So he is more suited to the role you have outlined, than Barberian, who already as ‘an in’ with Archon. Although long-term, I favour Barberian to have his ear to public opinion. He will get to hear a varied selection of it, in his day job. So would be ideal to organically introduce a slice of that, upon demand.
** Joel is completely out. He is both way too busy and we already know that he is oblivious to social media.
Plus, with Olivia now part-timing at the comic store, would give us another view point to Sydney and her interactions with the public, and whichever ARCHONite gets sent to keep an eye on things
We know that Harem and Sydney are at the night club. She doesn’t seem to appear on this page, but we know that Anvil is there too thanks to the last page. We also suspect that Hiro is with them because of the last page. So what about Dabbler? Didn’t she say she was going to be coming along like two or three pages ago?
Here’s my theory! She was delayed because she was seeing the Barberian home, but will arrive soon wearing one of her magical disguises. She did say she wanted someone new to . . . play with since the Barberian was spent, so she will be on the prowl, as it were. Since Sydney isn’t holding her truesight orb, we will only find out which person she is when she comes over and starts playfully hitting on the mighty Halo.
I like this idea because when Sydney suspects she can pull a yellow orb to hand and spot multiple “people” who don’t match their looks. Dabs is not above trying to mess with her by adding glamours on other people in the club.
If Dabbler does try that, I will be able to spot her, even without truesight.
Wait, is that supposed to be Laura? Or a Rule 63’d Wolverine?
The latter. Succubi apparently being limited to female forms, should Dabbler want to probe Sydney’s subconsciousness for an ideal sexual partner, that is the closest she will get.
Was going to say: Laura only has two hand claws (the third being relocated to her foot, how that actually works, have no idea… o_O)
Yep, a few things Sydney knows about that clearly are not common knowledge of the other new recruits
Dabbler’s “battle form” is her true form…and is both an alien and a demon,
the Archon has invisible secret spies such as “X”
Is it just me or does the art style for Sidney make her out to be the next main character for a “THE CROW” film
Dave is experimenting with shadows here. Quite successfully. Although I loved the more diffuse technique, used when we see Sydney coming home. So it will be a harder sell for me. But combine that with Sydney’s serious look, in panel 2, and I can see where you are coming from.
That’s what happens when dozens of flashes go off in your face
Sometimes, I kinda wonder why they’re even bothering with secrecy and “need to know” and “above your pay grade”. I mean, when you’re employing people like Daphne, Sydney and Dabbler, you’ve got to know that they’re going to find out. It’s just inevitable. I suppose my opinion on the matter may be biased: I never really saw much point to secrecy in the first place, at least as regards your allies.
In this case, Sydney’s “pay-grade” is “raw recruit”. They don’t know her well enough to know whether or not she can keep a secret, or whether she’ll blab classified intel to the press without thinking.
I would imagine things like Dabbler being an alien/demon hybrid are kept from the recruits until they’re sure they’ll work out. You don’t want that kind of secret in the head of the guy who got dropped from the program for incompetence and holds a grudge.
That is why we have suitably trained people making such decisions, in secret. Because the general public are far too trusting, especially in modern democracies. Your allies are the ones you need to be absolutely certain that you know their true motives.
You are entrusting them with aspects of your defence, sharing military and industrial secrets. If your trust turns out to be ill-founded, they can do far more harm to you, than a rival or enemy, who you have kept at arms-length. Proud though we may be of our nations, it does not take much to find historical examples of them treacherously abandoning, or even turning on, an ally.
A lot of that happened at the end of World War II. Picking just one, which stands out because Britain went to war to protect them, namely Poland. Yet in the territorial carve-up, Poland was ceded, by all of the Allied nations, to remain under Soviet control. A harsh injustice for the free Polish air force, who fought side-by-side, with the allies, throughout the war!
Much more recently than that though, look at Ukraine and Russia, who signed long-term agreements, allowing Russia to maintain naval ports in Crimea. Thanks to Ukraine being blindingly trusting in them, Russia was able to covertly deploy sufficient troops to completely take over their nominal ally’s territory!
Was Zephan looking at anything specific when he had his “uh oh” moment? Specifically, Sydney’s betting table?
Nice catch there!
+1
i believe he was looking at inactive tv.
if you look at it, you see the screen is dark.
all of them.
and there aren’t any above the big one.
do YOU have a recipe for beef brisket noodle soup?! Gimme.
please?
Found a link to the original Buck Rogers newspaper comics. Go take a look at what the “web comics” of the 30’s look like:
https://rolandanderson.se/comics/buckrogers/buckrogers.php
(comic links a little down under the explanation)
Thank you, spent the last couple days reading them all (wasn’t sure if would be able to remember were last read so had to leave the machine on while slept), saved the link so can go back one day and copy the pages
Was, previously, only familiar with the 80’s TV series and the game (spent 72 hours playing that on the Sega Megadrive, with just 3 hours sleep somewhere in the middle), it was weird but good, definitely a product of it’s time (even though it was 500 years into the future, they still talked and dressed like the 1920’s)
To be fair, many Bothans died to get that recipe.
And FOR the recipe. It was originally Bothan brisket noodle soup.
Bothan leg-shanks are to die for! At least, it is required for Bothan’s to die for you to enjoy :P
DJ Pon-3 rockin’ the joint…
You are the strangest-looking pony I have ever seen!
Beef brisket noodle soup.
With hot sauce.
To satisfy a craving for that, you’ll have to go pho.
I’m still curious about catfish noodles, not noodles at all, but catfish meat drawn through something to make it into fishy noodle-shapes
Eye spy with my little eye, DJ PON3! Human version. :P
I think Harem’s method of club-talking is one that pretty much only she is capable of – Go to a relatively quite corner of the club where you can hear Sydney’s voice, while your other incarnation relays the order to the bartender. Without her separated consciousness, it would be impossible…
That sounds like how I order my pho, except you skipped the tripe.
THE BLUE HYPOTHESIS
A while back we had a thread debating why the ancient Greeks did not have a word for the colour blue. Instead referring to the sky as being bronze coloured. I rejected the traditional explanations and proposed that this might have been evidence of a genetic difference (probably in the eyes), which was present then, but gradually got superseded by blue-sensitive genes.
Apparently linguistically the colour blue tends to be a late introduction into other languages too. So this could actually support the proposition. As the genes propagated, into other cultures, a new word was required to describe the colour.
A new conundrum faced by biologists could be explained by this. If the centre of the colour-blindness previously suffered by the human population centred around cobolt blue (a 20 nanometre range, clustered around 450nm), then there would be an evolutionary advantage for prey species to exhibit this colour.
Tarantulas are eaten by indigenous people, around they world. And taste rather yummy, like prawns. Plus arachnophobia is extremely widespread amongst humans, resulting in large hairy spiders being killed even in areas they are not considered a delicacy. This provides a strong evolutionary need to avoid drawing the attention of humans.
Yet there is also an advantage to being brightly-coloured, in order to avoid accidentally straying too close to a rival. Likewise in finding a mate (even if the mating rituals, when closer, do not make further use of this).
Note that the article linked does not say that tarantulas cannot see blue. It simply indicates that they probably cannot differentiate it from other colours. So, to them, other tarantulas would appear bright.
The only thing which made that brightness evolve in such a narrow range being that big bright hairy spiders would have been killed (and sometimes eaten) everywhere that humans are. Except the ones that were not luminous to human eyes. To those with the inferior blue-colour-blind gene, such spiders would be a more non-descriptive shade.
Most of us today are mutants, with the super-power to distinguish camouflaged dangerous spiders. Look out Vance. If your spider bodies are cobolt-blue, we will spot you!
I don’t see how your genes theory is compatible with the spread of humanity making it logistically tricky to supply new genes in time for language to start using new color names. It’s likely that full color vision was the norm for the common ancestor to the catarrhine primates (old world monkeys and apes).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_color_vision_in_primates
Actual color pigments are broad in sensitivity so determining the hue of something requires a balancing act between signals. So a narrow hole in color sensitivity would seem difficult to imagine biochemically as the spectral sensitivity is largely determined by the molecular orbitals of the chromophore as modified by interaction with the amino acid bases of the protein.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision#Physiology_of_color_perception
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsin#Structure_and_function
So I think blue took a long time to separate from green in languages because of the sparsity of bright blue in foods or warning coloration. Eventually art, chemistry and fashion require the invention of new color names for civilizations progressing beyond just agriculture.
You are assuming that the presence of three cones means comprehensive spectral coverage. That need not be the case. Have a read through your first link, to see the ultimate causation hypotheses for why tetrachromacy evolved so early. None involved seeing the colour blue.
It was to distinguish other things, like food-sources, in the natural environment. Requiring extra sensitivity in the red-green area, for example. Hence adaptations which optimise that would be the primary evolutionary drive.
The third cone, in primitive humans and the predecessors, may have peak sensitivity emphasising this. Thus leaving a gap. Whereas the gene I am proposing may have shifted that sensitivity away from that and towards the gap left in the blue part of the spectrum.
Further, in addition to the changes in the eyes, the brain needs to be able to process the increased colour range. So even though those changes may have been present in the eyes of common ancestors, the brains may not have adapted to actually make proper use of the increased capability. That may be a very recent evolutionary advance (perhaps, in humans, being during the period I have pointed out).
A gap in the blue spectrum would be less significant, until modern times, when dyes, painting and fashion became socially important. Likewise in areas such as heraldry and identification of the bright uniforms used in armies. Colour-blindness could be a handicap in various professions. Thus giving an advantage to those who possessed broad-spectrum vision.
Look at your link on colour vision, and in particular the wavelengths chart, showing the peaks of human spectral sensitivity for blue (S), green (M) and yellow (L). It is of interest that the blue (S) is at precisely the 450 nm point key to the tarantula dilemma. In present-day populations.
Perhaps the early Greeks had a gene which expressed an opsin protein that was sensitive closer to the other two peaks? Or their brains did not have the right gene, to allow the data from the associated cone to be properly interpreted? Once someone developed a gene more suited to the modern environment, that would spread fast.
The greeks were the super-power of their day. Their soldiers, sailors and merchants propagating their genes across the known world (thanks to Alexander the Great). And they had close association with the Romans, so the genes had an easy route to spread via them.
Further, in parallel with those genes, their culture also influenced all those they conquered or traded with. Spreading Greek art, use of bright colours, to distinguish military units, and other social changes which would benefit the evolution of that gene.
Eh?
So you’re saying that primates evolved all three receptors, but the blue one remained useless for millions of years until (sometime after the ancient Greeks) humans all over the world evolved the necessary brain function to make use of it? That’s ridiculous.
1) The receptor would have evolved alongside the neural pathways needed to use the extra information, or very shortly before. How could it confer any selection advantage otherwise? And there was indeed an advantage, due to the benefit being able to distinguish different shades of red, purple, and blue, in fruit.
2) The time needed for the necessary mutations to spread to all humans – many populations of which have been isolated for thousands of years, often tens of thousands – is much too long. Many far-flung populations have had very little genetic input from Europeans.
3) If it was a recent innovation, there should still be considerable variation in the frequency of trichromatism, not the total uniformity that’s apparent today.
I have to say that you’re reading far too much into a linguistic oddity.
It is of note that what I am proposing happened once, is actually in the process of happening again. There are some humans who have richer vision than normal trichromats, having a fourth cone. Others who have four photopigments. Those who’s brains can make full use of these being true tetrachromats.
Once those genes propagate through the population, parts of the spectrum which presently look bland and similar, will become distinct to all of us. The ones which stand out the most and have a particular use will be given suitable names.
And if those advantages are only spread in a confined population, they could take advantage of that. Ensuring that their heraldry, insignia and signage are only clearly distinguishable by those with the enhanced vision. If wishing to make things hard for enemies.
Does Groupon have anything similar? Because I don’t buy much at all off of Amazon, but I do buy stuff Groupon spams me about (I filter their spam to a separate folder and skim it about once a week) a few times per year.
Syndey and I share the same taste in nightclubs.
As in, we’d rather not.
Is it just me or does that sk look like she could be a super?
*dj
She does rather stand out. But that is apparently because she is a
ponyunicorn.or at least based on a unicorn character.
quick google image search shows a lots of “pony” form images, but a few humanoid images with no consistency, suggesting there is no “official” humanoid form.
not like i was expecting her to have, but who knows, had to make sure.
If Achilles tried to walk on a floor covered in LEGOs, what would happen?
Um, little children would cry?
Why would children cry? It is the parents who find the LEGO, late at night, in the dark, while barefoot, long after said child swore that they had picked up every last piece
Well given that LEGO’s hurt for a variety of reasons I could imagine even he would would experience discomfort actually, as they don’t really cut into anything, its more multiple sharp pressures, course depending on his ability stopping pain from ever happening or he can feel discomfort or such.
That expression on Panel 3…Really says a lot.