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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Ah graceful as always.
I have tried multiple charge discharge methods, and have settled on simply knocking. Your knuckles are about the least sensitive things you have (possibly aside from elbows), and the physical contact sensation tends to be stronger than the electrical shock.
Make a fist, knock on the door handle.
Best way to discharge is to hold your keys tightly between your finger and thumb and touch them to something metal. The spark occurs between the keys and metal object without you feeling it (the spark gap causes the pain trigger). It is my winter ritual when it is dry because I produce a lot of static (I have very long hair).
It’s stupidly simple, but just stroke some wood. You’ll discharge painlessly. I’ve not had to deal with static shock except for the initial discovery of it being a shock day since I was in the 5th grade because of that one.
Wait, what?
rubber. anything rubber.
ROFL!!!
That’s code for something, isn’t it…? Stroking wood….
*sighs* sorry, I’m grey-asexual and thus my brain doesn’t go strait to the dick joke. That one got by me. Though, I’m sure that if I could find that sort of wood, I’d be happy to transfer the shock to it. Zap.
But I’m actually talking about the kind trees are made up of, and that is used for many architectural items, like doors and door frames.
I’m not asexual at all, but if flew right past me on the first read-through as well. Which made it even funnier on the second one. :D
Unintentional double-entendres are usually the best ones!
I have used keys… unfortunately most of mine now are more plastic than metal, so the contact between finger and metal is small enough that there is still discomfort, and you’re conducting through the finger tips, which are the most sensitive area.
Knocking can be done without delay and all you feel is the knock impact.
Oh right she’s injured (I forgot with the makeup), she should try out her unknown orbs.
This is why hardwood floors are nice in drier winter climates. Less carpet induced friction static to contend with.
Also in that last panel I would so make a move on prone pissed off Sydney. Nothing quite like a clumsy nerd woman to turn me on.
Then the next thing you know she uses a Lightning Uppercut, and tried to strangle you with your tongue.
Some people would find that a bigger turn on :p
I know I would.
Dude … she’d end your ability to have children, or at the very least make all your future children, and their children’s children be born with hernias with the hurting she’d give you. It’s much safer to just try something with Dabbler. At the very least it’d be win-win.
No, it would be Equalizer kick, tongue grab, snap-mare flip. It worked so well last time.
And her hyper activity give her an initiation bonus.
Step 1: Aquire/build one of these: https://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectronics.com/prodinfo.asp?number=C6740
Step 2: Use it on yourself a shitton
Congrats, you are no longer pained so much by puny static
I may have figured this out by accident.
Ah, Sydney. I do just adore her. Best character, and best looking character.
ROTFL, this has got to be one of the funnier ones in a while.
pretty sure that threading copper wire through a blanket, then out into the ground socket on an outlet would work for making grounded blankets. or, you know, just get some copper wire, plug into ground, and grab the wire.
Really, you don’t need to go that elaborate. Just put a grounding bracelet on your ankle or something, let the wires drag along ground to equalize charge.
where’s the fun in taking the easy way out?
on that note, pulling apart steel wool, making a blanket like object out of it, and then sewing that between two microfleece blankets, would work pretty well too.
Dave, maybe you and I should trade places. I’m from North Dakota, so naturally I hate cold weather, coats and jackets, long sleeved shirts, gloves, and all the other winter related annoyances.
Though strangely, I don’t seem to have problems with static, despite dry winter air and electric heaters that hunt down and kill every last drop of remaining moisture.
I’d love to move north, but I was thinking Colorado or Washington.
Washington lots of artists up here weather doesn’t get so dry that you get the static bit every day. But you need to get used to rain. Only snows once or twice a year and sadly when it does everyone forgets how to drive. If you want to go ski the mountains are close enough to do it easily.
Ancient mossback here I would suggest either north of Seattle or south to avoid the higher cost of living. Spokane is right our since that is like living is Kansas. No really it is I have been to Spokane and I’m from Kansas there isn’t much difference.
Mossback is a term for folks that have lived in the wetter parts of Washington for long times we tend to take things slow and enjoy the simple things in life.
I’m down with cold and rain, I’m disappointed about the lack of snow though.
You can go up to the mountains less then an hour away to get your snow fix we already had some in the low lands this winter and I’m expecting some more soon. The lack of snow is one of my favorite things about Washington you don’t have to dig yourself out just know how to drive in it.
Move to Michigan. We get cold weather, and snow, but not in the amounts Colorado or Washington get.
Don’t really remember when we had to get up in boot camp. I think it usually was between 5:15 and 5:45 though, depending on what was planned for that day (and how long you took for morning hygiene and breakfast). Which meant we usually got between 5 and 6 hours of sleep a night, tendency to the latter.
The Marine Corps was at least consistent about that. 0400 every morning. Even Sunday.
Between 5 and 6 hours if it wasn’t your turn to stand a watch. And the middle watch made sleep just a waste of time, since none of it was really restful.
0530 wake up for Canadian military recruits, I think; my mind wasn’t working so well at that time, what with still being asleep. Get up, get washed (shit,shower,shave), get dressed for PT, run around for a while (about an hour by the last weeks), go have breakfast. Be in the classroom as of 0900. Be in bed by 2200.
0200 watch was the worst; you just got to sleep when the midnight crew wakes you up and then you wander around looking for trouble until 4 then good luck getting back to sleep before you need to be back up again. I am glad I only pulled that a couple of times.
04:00 when I went through Navy Boot. Except during mess week. Then it was 02:00 and we didn’t return to barracks until 22:30 (10:30 pm). Mess week is when your boot company works in the mess hall making, serving, and cleaning up after the meals.
Can’t wait to see what Sydney will do next…!
She has on Deadpool socks in honor of tonight’s release?
She was wearing a Deadpool shirt yesterday. She coordinates her socks with her shirts when she can.
She had been wearing a DeadPool t-shirt for months now (she is also wearing DP underwear ;) )
Didn’t Arianna give her grief for wearing that?
Are you saying that Ariana would like to get Sydney out of her panties? :-P
It was the shirt I was referring to.Now I hope we get to that media prep course…!
Am I the only one who thought he meant that he killed an actual mouse with static electricity? That would have been awesome.
Not at all. It must be his superpower.
Yeam, I was trying to figure out how he did that without killing someone’s pet…
I found a static dryer sheet balled up in your pocket will cut down if not eliminate static shocks. It’s what they are made for after all.
5:30 am, that’s my usual time to get up for work! :(
Really? That’s when I get off work.
Really? That’s when I go to bed.
they do make grounded bedthings.
google bulletproof executive, it’s around.
theres this nifty little thing you can get to keep you from wrecking yer compy wif static. cant remember what its called but its a piece of fuzzy Velcro attached to insulated wire attached to an alligator clip. you attach the clip to metal. it grounds you basically. i have one but haven’t needed it since i stopped using my laptop in the den… static used to go thru my compy->surge protector->lamp and cause the lamp was a touch lamp the static kept turning it on and off…. -_-*
My solution to this is to hold a key(not grounded) and then touch it to a grounded metal surface. The charge will be transferred though multiple points on the key contacting the hands, through the tip of the key, thus preventing a shock.
My understanding is that the reason it doesn’t hurt is because the arc (which is formed between the key and doorknob) doesn’t contact your skin, and most of the pain comes from the arc (heat and thermal expansion of air) rather than from the discharge itself.
People have mentioned, I think, those straps for grounding you to the floor, but those won’t work unless the floor is a little conductive. On a tile floor, there is special wax you can use. I’m surprised that such a high tech place doesn’t have slightly conductive carpets.
I’ve found that touching a wood door or similar will discharge things without any pain. Or touch something with a piece of wood.
Or maybe wear a really sharp hairpin. A guy I used to know says that when he was a kid, he’d sabotage some other kids science fair static generator by putting a needle, pointing outward, on the back. The smaller the radius, the lower the voltage necessary for discharging to the air. I had a wimpy van de Graaff generator I made. Didn’t seem so wimpy with a pin on it pointing at fluorescent lights several feet away. Then, at least if the room was dark, you could see the bulbs light up. You could also light up compact fluorescent bulbs by touching the terminal, but then they wouldn’t light up any more when screwed into a regular fixture. Something inside got fried.
I don’t know about what happens in other fields, but medical device and also telecommunications manufacturers go to a fair amount of trouble to protect their electronics from electrostatic discharge. There are very specific specifications for a metal simulated finger that must not be able to damage anything by zapping. If you open up the insides, it’s a different story.
Sydney, Sydney Sydney…levitate, you are now insulated from the ground, use the lighthook (molestorb) to open the door, float around and touch one of the Harems on the ear…extra points for making more than one piss themselves…for the WIN!
Lighthook to open the door. Feh. This is Sydney, she doesn’t do things by halves, she goes to the extreme. We’ll be using the PPO to open the door, thankyouverymuch.
“Uneducated taxi-driving immigrant son of a wombat turd wrangler!” BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. And there you go. One static free open door. And hallway. And wall on the other side of the hallway. And room on the other side of the wall. And wall on the other side of the room. And the tree in the yard. The cars in the street. The school a block a way.
Way to go, Sydney. You made all the little chirrens static-free. And extra crispy. *highfive*
Yes, thank you. I was hoping someone would point this out. Well, not the shocking of the Harem… I was thinking more of Math, but floating would be very insulating
“Eat a dick, Electromagnetism!”
Quite possibly, the best line ever uttered at natural force of the universe.
I had a job where one of the tasks was assembling cardboard boxes, anytime I had to touch anything like elevator buttons or metal, I get zapped.
People have suggested grounding with keys or other things. I find it useful just to touch something grounded with my forearm to discharge, as it has fewer nerve endings per square inch than any part of my hands.
I was in Texas for too many years. Got used to the season of static. You haven’t been shocked until it happens taking a drink at a water fountain and goes right through your teeth. When I wasn’t on duty, I had a good sized ring with a raised portion I used to discharge with so I didn’t get burned. (Yes, the static in San Antonio will get bad enough you can get small burns when you discharge.)
At work we had tons of antistatic stuff around, so it wasn’t a big deal there. Yes, I was military and worked in the Bomb dump. At home for my computer desk I installed a grounding mat and pad. (Conductive material wired into a nearby electrical boxs ground screw.)
You know, the funny thing is, she could have avoided that if she had just used the lighthook orb :)
Isn’t this something Jiggawatt could help her with, easily?
So not only did Sydney wear a WWDP do shirt, she also wore DP socks and Undies
It’s been a while. And it was worth the wait. I approve of this page!
To the author of this comic,are you familiar with a webcomic called The Dreamland Chronicles,if not then go here:
https://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/
Maybe you could a pin-up of any of the Grrl Power cast interacting with the Dreamland cast…?
pro tip: it hurts less if you purposefully shock something other than your fingertips, like the back of your hand or your wrists.
i feel so bad for Sydney. i want to get her a humidifier.
Agreed. I usually use the heel of my palm, or my elbow if my sleeves are rolled up.
Holding anything conductive and letting the spark jump to that means no pain. Those touchscreen compatible gloves should work. If you don’t want to zap whatever you discharge to, a ~1 megaohm resistor between you and whatever should stop sparks from happening at all
This is one of the reasons I’d hate to be in the military, super or not. I mean: Is there an actual reason for getting up this early AND going to sleep so late? I know when you’re in a combat situation you have to make do with a lot less sleep than you’d need, so it does make sense to train, but as a permanent thing? Really? I wouldn’t mind having to get up even at 4:30 a.m. if I’d be allowed to go to bed at 7 p.m. (8 hours of sleep + 1.5 hours in case I can’t sleep well). It wouldn’t be the happiest of situations for me, but afaik bakers get up at 1:30 a.m., so 4:30 or 5:30 would be no reason to whine at all provided I’d be allowed to sleep for long enough. Otherwise I would become depressed very quickly and I’d try to take a nap in literally every single break opening up for me, which is what I actually did when I was in the military.
Seriously, Maxima seems like a firm but kind leader, so in contrast to your average real-world military superior I am expecting her to actually allow going to bed early, right? I mean, watching super-tired Sydney electrocuting herself was all fun and stuff, but Maxima would lose quite a few sympathy points from me if there would be no way to sleep for 8 hours straight under her rule. Sydney didn’t even want to go to that party to begin with.
Also: Why isn’t she grounding herself in that last panel? Is this some kind of torture chamber where even the effing FLOOR isn’t grounded? I mean, what the hell? It’s weird enough that her socks aren’t grounded, but from a physical point of view, if you charge yourself up on the ground, then the ground should have the opposite charge, i.e. you should discharge once you hit the ground with your bare skin, right?
Btw: I know that apparently many people wanted the Deus arc to be over as soon as possible, but I actually enjoyed it. It’s nice to return to Sydney now, because I enjoy her antics as well, but I wasn’t waiting for it anxiously. I kinda like Deus and I’m looking forward to seeing him again at some point.
I’m the odd one out, I don’t seem to conduct electricity, static or otherwise anymore.
You clearly haven’t been around any significant voltages. ANYTHING will conduct, if you test at a high enough voltage.
I nearly got hit by lightning years ago. Really damn close. I’d call that significant voltage. :P Though I imagine if I was standing in a power plant I would feel the juice. Just now, it seems like anything I do to try and build static charge to shock my friends just doesn’t seem to work.
I wonder if she could discharge through her shield, or use it to prevent the charge differential from building up in the first place. Of course, if she used the flight orb to move around the house, she could avoid the whole situation.
Well, it has been three pages and no one has made the obvious comment yet, so I guess it is up to me.
“That’s one thing I really like about Sydney, her electric personality.” Thank you. I’m here all week.
And I must also compliment the maturity of today’s commenters. No one has yet combined the words ‘carpet’ and ‘munch’ in a description of the last panel.
So: “son of a fart vaper” ranks right up there with “son of a horse dick” in Sydney’s creative and insightful curse vocabulary–I love it! But out of curiosity: was that supposed to be “vapor,” or was it intended to signify someone that vapes farts? (Hilarious either way!)
On first reading, I saw fart vampire.
Am I the only one that pictured Dave killing a real mouse with the static discharge. (MICKEY NO!!!!!!!)
I figured he was in science class or some such…. Don’t you love language…
Love the twist in Sydney’s second panel XD that’s like me in the mornings, kinda melting outta bed
Question; is there a way to transfer the ‘energy’ to her orbs? Everything has SOME kind of energy source, in general. Granted, with supers it may not be an energy thing, but you HAVE mentioned that Maxima has to decide which ability to amp, so in the showdown destroying that parking lot that’s something that kind of limited her; she had to fully ‘amp’ her defense, so she didn’t get fried. (Being made of ‘gold’ can’t have helped, as real gold is a superconductor. Ick)
Just wondering if there was an energy source to Sydney’s balls, or if she could store energy; that COULD potentially help her with morning static s: t’is merely a thought.
Also…native Oregonian. Winters could still get SOME static, but it’s NOWHERE near as bad as clothes clinging all over you and seeming possessed. Or somehow spirits, waving everywhere and defying logic and physics as they did so XD (moved to Colorado, and while sometimes the ‘ghost effect’ is kinda fun to watch, other times it’s just frustrating because the laundry acts as if it genuinely DOES have a mind of its own /: meh)
Heh, we stir up static charges in our theatre with the pillow covers and drapes, so I chase my colleague around to shock him – he’s a wimp. Think Green Wing.
I actually have a grounded conductive sheet running along the foot of my bed. It’s called “Earthing” by the natural healing folks, but it makes real scientific sense. For most of time humans were almost constantly electrically grounded by virtue of bare feet on the soil.
Science does not work that way. First off, you’d need to break down human history into a start date and then the invention of footwear to make that “most of the time” claim true. And secondly, even just outright granting that humans were barefoot and therefore “constantly electrically grounded” for their entire history does not mean that that sheet gimmick, which I hope you did not pay more than the cost of any normal sheet to acquire, has any real value to you for health or any other reasons.
The Black Plague was not caused by footwear. More virulent viruses did not evolve because we learned to sleep in a bed instead of on a rock.
Next you’ll tell me that you wear a bracelet with copper and magnets in it, because some quack sold it to you after convincing you that it would be good for your health, your backache, your headache, would improve your income or allow the spirit of your dead cat to hang around with you. It improved the charlatan’s income, and that is the only thing which can be scientifically concluded from that transaction.