Grrl Power #396 – Eat lightning and crap expletives
Woo! It’s good to be getting back to Sydney, up to her usual… antics is really the only word for it. If they ever make a reality TV show about Sydney, she should be fighting crime while traveling across the country and they should call it the Antics Roadshow.
13 panel page too. Yup, everything’s back to normal. :/
Apparently normal Army bootcamp starts you at 4:30 which is just painful to think about. The last time I was up at 4:30 it was because I hadn’t gone to bed yet. Archon starts their day off a little later because they stay up later. Arc-Boot doesn’t take place in isolation, they knew from the beginning that even the recruits would be in high demand for interviews and public appearances. The second wave of recruits might follow a more traditional route, but by the time they roll around the public will probably be champing at the bit for new super celebs.
I live in Texas, so naturally I hate hot weather. “Jacket weather” or colder is best for me, but it comes with a major drawback. I shock the crap out of myself about 50 times a day when it’s cold. Doesn’t matter if I’m walking around in socks, wearing shoes or slippers with rubber soles, or if I’m barefoot (which admittedly is rare cause my toes get cold.) I once actually destroyed a mouse by zapping it so bad something inside it got fried. Well, I zapped it a zillion times and one time the buttons suddenly stopped working. I learned to shock myself on something not attached to my computer first to avoid any more expensive replacements.
Something I’ve decided to start doing is posting double resolution pages over at the Patreon for all supporters. ($1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :) Unfortunately Patreon doesn’t have a way to schedule posts as far as I can tell so I’ll post it as soon as I get up today and link it here.
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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SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Well at least she knows…
And knowing is half the battle! :D
G.I. JOOOOOOOOOEEEEE!!!!!!!
“Static shocks Waldo”
That’s “YOOO JOE!
*Uses all 3 of Sydney’s batteries to static shock DR. REVENGE*
WRONG! Waldo had it right. :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc
“Force lightning’s mcjstar”
8P
*activates AT Field at full power*
You think a little shock is going to hurt me?
*pulls out human sized Positron Rifle*
Some like Revenge served cold. I like mine vaporized!
“Aims P.S.P. batteries 1 – 20 at Waldo”
Also, she knows she could use a humidifier….
If Sydney wants to make an impression on Maxi, she will wait for whoever comes to wake her up, and ask them to give her a hand :D
Well. Who thinks that having a status effect such as excess electricity is a per-requisite for using one of our mystery orbs? What if the power of one of them is to dump injury onto an enemy or into the ether? That would be a pretty nasty, but very useful, skill set.
…And then Maxima opens the door and looks in to check on her.
Wonder if you can shock Maxima? I mean how golden is she?
Yeah, but how long will someone live after discovering Maxima’s Top Secret Weakness, even if Max likes them? =P
I live in WI. A humidifier is your friend this time of year.
My last home had a humidifier attached to the furnace, so that helped a lot with the dry air. My current place does not. So I just leave a tea kettle on the stove all day long. With the heat down low and the cap closed it doesn’t lose a lot of water mass, and I get hot tea any time I like. :)
It’s nice to be going back to Sydney, that Deus arc was a nice refresher but I did think it was dragging on a bit towards the end.
Will give this arc five pages (being generous) before someone complains about the pace :p
I am giving it two, but only because they will be trying to be ‘irony’ and ‘funny.’
Its a arc about arcing; 5 pages would be shocking…
Could be less, could be more. Maybe Dave will swim against the current here. Or just go with the flow. Heck, as far as we know this might be a slow start to a chapter that quickly goes high voltage!
For the record, the part that hurts is the “lightning” connecting with your fingers. If you want to go unscathed, hold a conductive object and touch the “doooom” thing in question with that — then the arc will be between those two objects and you won’t get hurt.
That’s one option. I know and have used another one, with a door knob that was highly charged at times: Skip and touch the charged object while you are in the air. When you come down the discharge happens between your feet and the floor which does not shock. Personal experience and you can do it without a conductive object :) It just looks funny to everybody else :D
Holy crapwarts … that’s exactly what Sydney should use her flying orb for.
I mean … everyone already knows shes crazy. Just wait until she starts telling everyone that static is on The List and that’s why she’s constantly hovering before touching anything.
Knowing her, she’d definitely do that.
For that matter, she could use the
MolestorbHentacleorbSkyhook Orb to handle a lot of the direct-contact stuff.Curse the lack of editability. Obviously, I meant the Lighthook Orb.
Unless she discharges on the orb.
One does not have to be in contact with the ground to build up a significant static charge…
Or just touch things with the back of your hand first. Less nerves, doesn’t feel painful at all.
I’ve taken to quickly and decisively grabbing the doorknobs at work here (yay synthetic floors..)
When pussyfooting about it and touching slowly and carefully (like Sydney does here), the arc will focus on one small fingertip –> mucho Owie.
Decisively grabbing the doorknob to show it who’s boss means I dissipate most of the shock over the entire palm of my hand –> less Owie.
Confronting your fears head-on really helps in this case :-)
That’s the way I do it too, Jules.
Yes! I too do that Daemonwolf. I always get bad static in the winter, especially at work and I always tap things with the back of my hand first and it’s so much less painful.
I have lived in California, Florida, Washington, Illinois, and Arkansas, and I have never had this problem.
Like…ever.
You seem to be lucky. Happens all the time in Sacramento, which is somewhat northern California.
You get it sometimes in San Francisco, too. It simply is too humid in LA on the rare occasions it’s cold enough. Florida doesn’t get cold enough, usually, and is way to humid when it does; same for Arkansas… Seattle and Chicago get cold enough, but are too humid (at least on the occasions I’ve been there) — don’t know about the rest of their respective states…
Don’t get it much here in KC, either; usually way too humid (you can do it on really dry days in winter, but you have to work at it — most of the time; occasionally you get a surprise).
I get hit semi regularly here in the St. Louis area especially right now with snow on the ground.
I’ve lived in both the Frisco Bay (where I currently live) and the LA area. Nothing.
I’ve also lived in the Nagasaki area of Japan. Nothing.
Perhaps I’m just immune to static.
Heh, I live in a part of alberta where it’s actually possible to accumulate static electricity when it’s above 75 degrees Fahrenheit due to the utter lack of humidity at ground level and the windy conditions- of course then afterward you get this eerie calm period before a 15-30 degree drop in temperature and the sort of thunderstorm where you are damn glad the bbq is still off the deck from the morning winds and the place you live in has properly grounded electrical and grounding on the copper plumbing. Cold dry and windy is still the worst combo for static buildup- if chapped lips aren’t a distinctly normal part of your winter experience it isn’t dry enough for wicked static buildup.
Try Las Vegas. Snap, crackle, pop constantly.
Then lay off the Rice Krispy’s!
WA reporting. When the weather turns cold and dry, I have to perform interpretive dance to shrug out of my jacket, or my shirt will go skin tight for hours.
Skin tight is, not my look.
Oh Sidney, you pleb! You’re supposed to SMACK the door knob(or anything else conductive) when you’re expecting a static shock! Immediately redirect the shock over a larger surface area, nullifying any pain!
Does that really work? As in, can you smack a door knob faster than than a flash? Or is it just that the pain (or mechanical shock perception) of the smack just “overrules” the pain of the shock?
I can confirm BrainBlow’s observation from personal experience (see above).
Even without slapping-so-hard-it-hurts, decisively grabbing it does help!
Smacking(with your WHOLE hand, not just the fingertips), or grabbing decisively(palms first) definitely helps. I was constantly being shocked due to my uniform while I worked at a store, and I developed the habit of smacking or decisively grabbing(which is like a smacking grab, really) something conductive before doing stuff like touching doorknobs.
Before that, I was getting neurotic over constantly being shocked. Now it’s pretty much second nature to safely discharge the shock, especially after putting on or taking off items of clothing.
The shock is usually still there, but if you use your whole palm in a quick move then it rarely feels like anything other than a mild prickle on your skin, if anything at all.
Smacking with just your fingers first will often still get you shocked, though.
Thanks for the details! Interesting! Very much! I probably learned a thing today. Now I need a charged door knob for testing :D
Have you seen and my answer? Both work also, no shock (at least none to feel) at all.
(And just now I saw that I “than than”-ed in my upper post >_<)
F’ it. I don’t even know what I did wrong. Most likely I didn’t put a “/” before the closing “>”.
Use the back of your hand and just touch it, don’t have to smack it. It hurts a whole lot less.
Pretty much what I’ll do if I want to get rid of a charging. Which I usually do as soon as I realise I’ve acquired one.
But then I’ve got to admit that I don’t care about the pain no more at all. I once accidently touched an electric cattle fence with a meter long steel pipe by accident. After my heart had finally found back to a rhythm and reasonable pace again several minutes later, I realised the experience taught me two things.
– First: The urban legend about touching such a fence with a metal pipe instead of directly amplifies the shock is no legend at all, but a fact.
– Second: For the rest of my life, no shock from personal electrostatic charging will ever be able to faze me anymore.
I once zaped my laptop, a spark jumped from me into the keyboard of the laptop, death laptop. and yes it was the night before an exam.
Dave tere is such a thing as conductive floorpaint, and small condutive you can put from under your heel to under the shoes heel.
an easy thing to do if you don’t want to carry around a long grounding wire, is to regularly poke some something ground the end of a key or something like that. there will still be a spark, but since the contact area between you and the key is so much greater then the area where the spark normally would jump from you will likely only hear the zap not feel it.
I have to wear those shore steps of o ever have to go into the hardware labs at work.
I don’t generally get static shocks, though I take a certain pleasure in putting pressure on shopping trollies, to build up a charge, then watching it discharge into her hand when she touched it… Yes, I might be slightly evil deep down.
R.e. PC equipment, I was playing with one of those clickers from a gas lighter – one of the ones used for ovens etc, not cigarettes.
I’d click it, and feel the tingle as it zapped my finger. I don’t actually find that painful.
It was then that I swung round in my chair and ended up a little closer to my PC.
I have one of those big light-up gaming keyboards. Turns out it isn’t shielded properly.
*click*
Dead keyboard.
Luckily I was able to reset it by unplugging it and putting it back in again.
I tested this, a good few times. Anything closer than 1m and poof. Gone.
Did this with my first desktop. It was a model that had a physical keylock on the case to secure the input devices… a keylock that tied in right next to the CMOS. One cold, blustery day with the furnace on and a shawl wrapped around my shoulders, one careless brush with my fingertip, and *blip* dead mobo.
It was time to upgrade anyways :P
Should have used the lighthook, then tested the shock on either Max, or Harem, for science obviousy.
Most likely the Lighthook tentacle doesn’t conduct electricity.
I meant so that she doesn’t get shocked and can save the shock to test on another hero once out of the room.
Varia. The electrical charge might actually have an effect on her powers.
Plot twist: It’s actually because Jiggawatt is in the room next door…
Sydney can really rock Edward Elric’s hairstyle.
Try walking around outside barefoot, I find that helps. Grass or dirt works best for me, but concrete seems to be fine as well.
Umm, just how are you supposed to get outside without frying something? :D
Static electricity = dry humor.
Never tell electricity jokes over the radio. All your audience hears is static.
I find electricity jokes to current for my tastes.
Here and I thought this sudden burst of energy was going to have something to do with her orbs. Shows you how much I know . . .
Oh, by the way – YAY!!! Sydney’s back!!!
I’ve never damaged any electronics with static electricity, but I’ve sure startled my dog when I tried to scratch her behind the ears. Animals may not be able to speak, but the look she gave me was eloquent.
Wait till you do that to a cat.
I always charged myself on the nylon carpets in college. Once shocked a coworker when I reached for something he held out to me, everyone in the office heard the spark. I found that slamming my entire palm on a conductive surface discharges the static without shocking me. I assume larger surface = less current per unit area?
Or perhaps you just don’t notice the spark because of the slam?
:D
I’d think that you shouldn’t be able to slam on something or slap it faster than a flash, at least theoretically. Larger surface = less current per unit area = less or no shock seems still true – but you need to touch the object in question before it’s getting charged up.
It isn’t a flash. What happens is the charge is so large it forms a cloud or aura around your body. When this ‘aura’ gets CLOSE to something grounded it starts discharging into it (since this part doesn’t touch you, you don’t feel it). This discharge ionizes the air, making a path the rest of the shock can follow. Once the aura within ~1/8 inch of the object is gone, the charge in your skin follows, causing the ‘aura’ to collapse into and through your body to the ‘flash’ spot. This is the part that hurts.
It only hurts when the shock ‘jumps’ to another object, if your holding an object that is then grounded, the contact protects you hand from shock. If you can get a solid contact while the ‘aura’ is still discharging, there IS no ‘jump’, and you won’t be shocked. Even if you can’t ‘beat the shock’ since the shock continues until all the ‘aura’ move through the body, a fast contact will greatly reduce the amount of shock.
The static discharge problem is significant enough that there are loads of companies that sell “static straps” or “anti-static” straps. Just use your favorite search engine to find one. That’s the reason that big data centers include humidity control for their server rooms. They keep the humidity at 40-60% relative humidity to prevent the static discharge.
I had to use those when I worked in a bomb factory. All they are is a square of metal pressed up against your wrist by elastic with a wire leading to an alligator clip. You can skip most of that and use the metal back of your watch and a piece of speaker wire if you need one to work on your computer.
You missed THE magical component that makes those straps work: the 10 MegaOhm resistor between the skin-touching part and the cable.
The resistor allows the built-up charge to dissipate through it, but it can’t do it so quickly it sparks.
Also, the high resistance prevents you from electrocuting yourself if you accidentally touch a powered bit somewhere (i.e. capacitor in computer power supply, those keep their charge up to weeks!);
You do NOT want to be well-grounded on one arm when your other arm touches live wire –> current could/will go straigth through your heart, with a non-negligible chance of heart-attack.
This is the same reason some/many electricians insist on keeping one hand in their pocket when working with mains power, less risk of forming a path through your chest. (from hand through armpit to foot is OK-ish, from hand through chest to other hand-touching-other-bits is BAD)
Very much that. Even though I’m not sure about the OK-ishness of electrical current from hand to food. Theoretically, judging by the path the current will take, this could be at least as bad as hand to other hand, if not worse. Theoretically – I don’t remember having tried any of that.
The most stupid thing I remember: For fixing a light organ I removed the case, connect the board to a isolating transformer that still outputs 220V, put the board flat on the palm of my hand and switched on the transformer….
=8-(_)
Better that any amount of coffee, but I still won’t recommend it.
… “hand to foot.”, of course. Once the spell checker doesn’t complain I miss it too easily.
I’m glad you survived to share this cautionary tale.
I originally wrote “OK” then remembered those times I hit myself with 230V. To paraphrase airliner pilots: any electrical accident you can walk away from its a good accident, hence “-ish”.
I still wouldn’t recommend shocking oneself though, anything involving alternating current carries the inherent risk of heart attack.
Remember: “no user serviceable components inside”allies to both the electronics AND you :-)
> Remember “no user serviceable components inside” allies to both the electronics AND you :-)
Yeah. I know. I was at work. Work consisted of fixing such things, note the isolating transformer that should protect you from getting in touch with one hot wire while possibly being grounded, but not from touching both sides of 220V (back then) at the same time. Really, I knew better. Well, I should have…
It isn’t ‘one hand’, it’s the LEFT hand. Since the heart is on the LEFT side, a charge through the right side isn’t as bad.
“a square of metal pressed up against your wrist by elastic with a wire leading to an alligator clip.”
Isn’t it hard to work with your hand clipped to an alligator?
Not if you clip it around the ears a few times :P
And now Sydney has absorbed Jiggawatts powers
No… That is Jiggawatt in her lightning form. She is under orders to ensure that all recruits are up and ready for the new day.
Tip for non-electricians… use the back of your hand to touch potentially zappy things, Syd. Any shock will zolt your hand Away from the thing instead of clenching On it.
Hip-bumping/knee-bumping conductive surfaces works, too…
Dang!
I mean– whoo-hoo! Sydney is back!
However I was hoping for a dream sequence or one of the
Mystery Orbs being a sleep aid.
(Would 8 hours of sleep in 90 minutes be time travel or super healing?)
Wondering if static electrocity is already on ‘The List’.
Very possible. It does seem to be a foe with whom she is already well acquainted.
I was going to comment something like that. I’ve realized lately that The List has made a quiet exit at some point. Perhaps Dave decided that its value as a running joke has been spent?
There are only a limited number of entries onto The List even Sydney can make in two days (this is the morning of the third day)
She’s encountered a lot of new and surprising things in the last two days – The List has probably gotten a tougher workout than it usually gets in a month. I’m sure it’s still there, though… biding its time…
No, The List is still around, I’m just being a little more sparing with it.
It might have multiple entries depending on how dry where she lives is, ahahahaha. Summer, winter, fall, spring entries, ahahahaha >_>
At first I thought he meant a living mouse, not the computer kind. I was both amazed and appalled until I realized what was meant.
My basic reaction here is disappointment.
This was an incredible opportunity for Sydney to discover a new property of one of the orbs. ANY interaction with electricity would have been comedy gold, as well as a fantastic reveal. Sydney having the power to harness lightening to her will … C’mon. Everyone of you guys knows that’s what you want to see.
* sigh *
Still waiting on more orb powers.
Side-note: Sydney seems to handle the inconvenience of her period a lot better than we were led to expect a day or so ago.
FYI, the cramping usually happens before the actual period. Severity and duration may vary. Sydney could be a short duration, high severity type. Or her ovaries might still be asleep and are about to wake up at any moment to make her life miserable. :-P
And even for a given woman, each month seems to vary. My wife is OK some months, miserable others.
Are her socks wool or cotton? If they’re wool, that’ll make the static electricity worse. Also, it’s better for her feet for her to sleep without socks; someone should eventually tell her that. And the static builds up worse if she shuffles her feet than if she steps; if she doesn’t shuffle, a decent pair of slippers should be enough to protect her. Getting a humidifier for her quarters is probably a good idea too.
I should also note that the two methods for building up static electricity in science class involve rubbing a rubber rod with wool or fur, and rubbing an amber rod with silk. The latter is where the word “electricity” comes from; “electri” in Latin is “amber” in English. (I had remembered it as being related to “elektra” in Greek, but Google Translate says otherwise…)
I live somewhere where “hazy, hot and humid” is a common summer weather report. It has to get below freezing and then some for ambient static buildup to be a problem. I usually get it from getting out of my car… and it doesn’t discharge on my doorknobs, only on the computers (if I forget) or the plumbing (if I remember). Haven’t fried any hardware with it, but the machines I’ve been most likely to touch first when I get home all have grounding power supplies.
Some people have to wear socks when sleeping (personally can’t wear socks while sleeping but have a sister who does)
The technical term in the Army for when you wake up in basic is “Oh Dark Thirty.” It may not actually be 4:30 in the morning, but it definitely will be dark out. Given the drill sergeants ability to get people out of bed, you quickly learn to deal with it.
So we’re literally picking up the next day. No time skip at all?
396 pages just to get to the start of day three . . .
:)
Actually it looks like it’s day 2 of boot for Sydney.
She seems to be complaining about sore muscles from her first day of training.
Day 1: comic shop, bank, robbery, joining ARC, press conference, battle, debrief etc..
Day 2: comic shop w/ reporters, training (boot camp), training gun range, flight testing, new uniform… clubbing w/ aliens.
Day 3: wake up for 2nd day training and get shocked.
This day should be shorter than the previous one, page wise.
Which was much shorter than the one before it.
Too bad Sydney can’t float in the air when touching stuff. If she was completely isolated and cannot form a circuit with the ground, the static won’t be able to discharge.
She can, she just hasn’t thought of it yet.
And if it can’t discharge, the charge will continue to build up until she does manage to touch something grounded (like a door-frame, metal desk, etc)
That is incorrect. Static jumps from you to the door knob not because of grounding but because the door knob has a different polarisation and energy quantity that you do. In this case the electrical signals aren’t trying to complete a circuit but are trying to balance their force and that’s done through a discharge of lightning. This is why cloud to cloud lightning exists.
Holmes sells a humidifier for about $30. I use regular tap water instead of the distilled water they recommend, I just clean the mineral build-up off every two weeks. One of these in your bedroom at high will keep your room humidity at a comfortable level for 8-10 hours, 24 hours on low (at temperatures 20-30 degrees F). A cheap fix for an annoying problem.
They do make mouse pads and such that when properly grounded help prevent those pesky ‘destroy your mouse from the static shock’ events, if it’s something you have to worry about they’re definitely worth it particularly since you can potentially blow out the hardware in the computer (I had that happen once in fact, destroyed an older motherboard’s serial port that my mouse was plugged into when I accidentally arced to the mouse). I doubt current computers are any more tolerant than they were then, and really it’s just not worth the risk.
Otherwise I don’t worry about ESD, when I repaired computer monitors I got shocked so regularly by the monitors while working on them I built up enough of a tolerance to not even react to shocks (which got me called a freak by a co-worker at a later job as the guy’s idea of ‘humor’ one day was going around setting people up to get shocked by a novelty beverage can which I barely even noticed when I picked it up, he even bought a new one as he was sure it had been damaged by the time it got around to my desk and while it had the new one didn’t phase me either).
Guess at what time I got up today? 04:30… It was not as bad as I feared…
I am always up at 4:30 in the morning.
I love working nights.
Trick is that when you might have a charge, to not touch things with your hand. Discharge with your elbow first. The hand hurts, the elbow doesn’t.
Never whacked your not-funny bone then?
It’s not often when I build up enough static to trigger my funny bone that way. Middle forearm touching the door handle or resting on top before grabbing the door works. Probably the only reason 3/4sleeve dress shirts became a thing where I live.
The point was, elbow’s can hurt as well :P
Uh oh, one of those days, and with super heroes, this looks promising.
I also use 2 blue 30″x 36″ anti-static mats on my 6′ computer table. It prevents slipping, shocks, and works great with a laser mouse. I bought the high-grade mats, so that I can clean them with 409 without harming the mat.
Actually I know a trick around getting a shock from doorknobs:
Simply ground yourself via a piece of clothing first. Touch the doorknob with your sleve, then your hand.
If that is not an option, ground yourself via the back of your hand first.
Part of the issue is that our fingers have a very high concentration of nerve cells. They need to have, as they are important. And we instinctively use them if we expect negative feedback (like a static shock), but that is the mistake here. If we get it, it hurts all the more.
The back of our hands is not nearly as sensitive and can discharge us just as well :)
Y’know, she’d be my type if she wasn’t such a spaz.
The spaziness is literally the best part.
Come on, Syd, you have superpowers. Fly ball in one hand, hentorb in the other, never have to touch anything again.
1 word: Humidifier
I really am curious, exactly what conditions is she diagnosed with, if any? I think I missed that if it was exolained earlier In The comic.
It’s mentioned here that she is taking medication for ADHD.
I wonder what her caffeine consumption is like. I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, and many of my friends have been as well as we all just drain caffeinated drinks like it’s going out of style. Mountain Dew, Coke, Jolt, Coffee, we drink it all, especially at RPG nights.
I used love static charge, bought myself a little van de graff generator and would charge myself constantly. Then this happened https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4252692.stm
I’m not Frank by the way. Just someone who saw the downside to static… *zap* teeheehee!
I’m extremely skeptical of that story. When it comes to static, 40,000 volts isn’t that much, but I doubt a person could get up to that voltage for very long anyway. People don’t really have enough capacitance to cause that kind of damage. If you had a good sized Leyden jar, maybe you could get that kind of damage with 40,000 volts. For instance, a plastic bucket with foil inside and out, no connection between. But that would be dangerous if really charged up.
Heh, when I first read Dave’s comment I thought he had managed to shock an acctual mouse to death through static discharge xD