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IT'S JEPH'S BIRTHDAY!

4 (8.9%)

His very own helium pony!

4 (8.9%)

The Training Montage!

7 (15.6%)

Vintage Porn Collection

0 (0%)

Wayfarers, Noam Chomsky flyer, and keys to a Volvo.

1 (2.2%)

Don't ever look in the black bin.

0 (0%)

How'd training day go? Nerve wracking!

0 (0%)

If I didn't think you could do it I wouldn't have told you to. (That makes one of us.)

0 (0%)

We wanted to say thank you for showing us around today.

0 (0%)

Banana Smoothie!

7 (15.6%)

WORK HARDER Evil Bonercat Demotivator!

1 (2.2%)

What's this strange feeling? "Job satisfaction." I think I need to lay down.

2 (4.4%)

You need the extra responsibility. I might not be working at the library forever...

0 (0%)

Like, what if my band takes off, and -

0 (0%)

How IS your band doing? "W-well... we're kind of still trying to write some songs..."

0 (0%)

Cart before the horse? "The horse is a foal. The cart is a pile of lumber and a gleam in the carpenter's eye."

7 (15.6%)

I WILL ACCORDION 4 YOU

11 (24.4%)

It can still be a fulfilling job if you put the effort in.

0 (0%)

Do what you love, but you don't have to be miserable. Make the most of it.

1 (2.2%)

Jeez, now I feel guilty for getting high and watching cartoons all day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 45

[Tova]

Today's comic brought to mind an article I read only recently:

Can you learn to love your job?

Many years ago I was working with Ingham's Chickens at their processing plant in Sorell, near Hobart. My job was to work with Human Resources to help reduce the amount of soft tissue injuries on the production line. Over time I came to know the staff well, and there was one woman, a beautiful Italian lady in her late 50s named Rosa, who to this day still inspires me.

Rosa worked on the end of the production line and her technical role was to exonerate the internal chicken carcass, or in everyday terms, she stuck a pipe inside a chicken's arse and flushed it out.

One day over morning tea I said to her "Rosa, you are always so happy and positive, have you always been like this?". "She looked at me like I just asked a really stupid question. "Of course I am always like this. I have a job and I work with great people."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/management/blogs/performance-matters/what-is-australias-worst-job-20120530-1zi20.html#ixzz1yVOToElX

Any one else feel sorry for the poor guy trying to use an accordion to busk? 

Depends. If he busts out some Wagner, then he has my gold.

Edit: There are a lot of "never" options in that poll.

[cesariojpn]

Any one else feel sorry for the poor guy trying to use an accordion to busk? 

I think that might be an AnthroPC. Looks too.....unlifelike to be real.

[VonKleist]

What? NOoo. Accordeons are awesome. Check out The Band's Garth Hudson.
Okay. Maybe it´s not for everyone, but it can rock. Just as bagpipes, in a certain context, may rock

My band also has harmonica.
I´m not allowed to play it as often as I´d like, tough.
*wheeeeeeeeeeeeee* *blasts harp*

[Barmymoo]

Actually, Marten is a correct spelling of the name, assuming that is what you are referring to.  As long as the letters in the name are phonetically correct, then the name itself is spelled correct.  That would be like telling me that I spell my name, "Collin," wrong, just because spelling it "Colin" is more common.  Based on English standards, the way I spell should be phonetically correct, but actually both are the correct spelling.

He wasn't criticising the spelling of Marten, he was pointing out that people often misspell Marten as "Martin" on the forums, and saying that it was annoying him.

People are always misspelling my name too - both my real name, which is such a common English word that I'm amazed every time, and my forum name. Apparently there are people who believe my name is Barrymoo.

[VonKleist]

I went with the "next rung".

Navigators, Reverend Mothers, Mentats, the whole Shebang.

[Schmorgluck]

He wasn't criticising the spelling of Marten, he was pointing out that people often misspell Marten as "Martin" on the forums, and saying that it was annoying him.

Nope, I was meaning that we mostly got rid of the misspelling "Martin" for Marten, but people still regularily misspell "Cosette" as "Cossette", which I find irritating.

[Vurogj]

Woo! Go Marten, it's only taken, erm, a large number of strips to come to terms with your job. Go man, you're the best.

Hmm, reading that back, it's unnecessarily snarky, but sometimes Marten just gets to me.

[techkid]

Woo! Go Marten, it's only taken, erm, a large number of strips to come to terms with your job. Go man, you're the best.

Hmm, reading that back, it's unnecessarily snarky, but sometimes Marten just gets to me.

It's the curse of being a genuinely nice person, I'd say. Looking at his character, we've seen Marten bend over backwards (figuratively, but not (yet) literally) to help everybody out. But when it comes to his turn for something nice to happen to, he ends up causing it to blow up in his own face, leading to a "woe is me" period, while he's running around in damage control mode, and the cycle continues. At least, that's my view...

Overanalysis can be a pain like that.

[jwhouk]

Over analysis is what we do best around here!  

Y'know, I think we need to do something different for our end of the week poll... like, maybe, a "MOMENT OF THE WEEK!" vote!

 

Anyways:

So what else has to happen before The Band gets Big Time?

The mare of the foal of the horse has to be born.    1 (3.7%)
The seedling of the tree has to be planted.    0 (0%)
Heat death of the universe.    3 (11.1%)
Pintsize runs out of memory for his pron collection.    3 (11.1%)
The Next Rung Up The Evolutionary Ladder.    4 (14.8%)
Musical tastes have to alter drastically.    1 (3.7%)
Hannelore needs to get over her OCD.    2 (7.4%)
And her OFD (overactive foot disorder).    0 (0%)
Marigold has to get self-esteem.    0 (0%)
We all get holoponies.    2 (7.4%)
Who are we kidding? Ain't gonna happen.    2 (7.4%)
Whenever Jeph wants it to happen.    3 (11.1%)
...which is still never.    4 (14.8%)
Mandatory meme option (i.e., waffles, spathe ham, whatever)    2 (7.4%)

Total Members Voted: 27

[bukwrm]

Random here, but...I am loving the new interns.
More specifically, I am like four days away from registering for college classes-with the ultimate goal of getting a Master's in Library Science.

[Tova]

I will never understand the level of Marten hate around here.

[Throg]

Accordion guy scares me.

I must confront my fear.

[Throg]

I will never understand the level of Marten hate around here.

b/c Marten is content to drift through life ... I suspect a lot of people look back on that period of their own lives with regret.

[jwhouk]

I will never understand the level of Marten hate around here.

I think it's along the same reason why people hate Charlie Brown at times.

[LTK]

Accordion guy scares me.

I must confront my fear.

He looks vaguely French. I'm reading his sign with a thick French accent.

[TinPenguin]

I will accordion quatre vous?

[Boxilar]

I will never understand the level of Marten hate around here.

I think it's along the same reason why people hate Charlie Brown at times.

Perhaps some folks see a little to much of themselves in Mr. Reed and don't like it. I remember seeing a Star Trek, The Next Generation episiode called "Tapestry" and having a deep dislike for the episode. And not because it was badly written or anything. I didn't like the premise. Captain Picard was given a chance to undo some of what he felt were some major mistakes in his life. In his altered reality he went from being a bold starship captain to a lowly ensign who had never followed through with any of his plans. The boldness and rashness that he regreted were what made him the man he became. At that point in my life, I had let opportunities slip past and the story shoved it right in my face. And I can certainly identify with Marten. I've been where he is right now. I may be overly optimistic, but I think with a little prodding, he's getting his act together.

[VonKleist]

He´s gonna be fine.

[Carl-E]

I will concertina 4 you. 



I don't have an accordian. 


But I can do a bitchin' version of "over the rainbow" on my little concertina...

[DrBear]

Used to work in a place where one of the cars in the parking lot had a bumper sticker-

"I'M PRO ACCORDION-AND I VOTE!"

[Carl-E]

Pro accordians have dual keyboards and electric bellows...





Edit:  fuckig sticky N key!

[DSL]

Used to work in a place where one of the cars in the parking lot had a bumper sticker-

"I'M PRO ACCORDION-AND I VOTE!"

Was it a Honda Accordion?

[Redball]

Was it a Honda Accordion?
[/quote]
With electric bellows?

[Throg]

Geez. I was into accordions...before they got all mainstream.

/hipstercordion

[ink slinger]

Tai is giving some good advice. Your job doesn't have to be your great passion in order to still be, you know, a good job. Unfortunately, most people don't think this way (including my own boss, who is troubled that my job is not my life's passion).

[Overkillengine]

Geez. I was into accordions...before they got all mainstream.

/hipstercordion

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone used him as an avatar. That fixed manic grin and glassy stare is just too damn creepy to pass up.



*Edit for me spel gud.

[Kugai]

Accordion guy scares me.

I must confront my fear.

The Bene Gesseret would approve



Go Marten!  Karma's a bitch eh Tai 

[BoDJangles]

My band also has harmonica.
I´m not allowed to play it as often as I´d like, tough.
*wheeeeeeeeeeeeee* *blasts harp*

Your band is the best band. It always bugs me when people ask me what instruments I play, it goes something like this:

Me: Well, I play the piano-
Them: Oh wow, that's really impressive!
Me: -and the guitar-
Them: Awesome!
Me: -and the harmonica!
Them: ... so tell me more about the guitar? Can you play Freebird?!?!

THE CHROMATIC AND DIATONIC HARPS ARE NOT AS SIMPLE AS THEY LOOK, DAMMIT.

[cesariojpn]

He wasn't criticising the spelling of Marten, he was pointing out that people often misspell Marten as "Martin" on the forums, and saying that it was annoying him.

Nope, I was meaning that we mostly got rid of the misspelling "Martin" for Marten, but people still regularily misspell "Cosette" as "Cossette", which I find irritating.

Cossie?

[Boxilar]

My band also has harmonica.
I´m not allowed to play it as often as I´d like, tough.
*wheeeeeeeeeeeeee* *blasts harp*

Your band is the best band. It always bugs me when people ask me what instruments I play, it goes something like this:

Me: Well, I play the piano-
Them: Oh wow, that's really impressive!
Me: -and the guitar-
Them: Awesome!
Me: -and the harmonica!
Them: ... so tell me more about the guitar? Can you play Freebird?!?!

THE CHROMATIC AND DIATONIC HARPS ARE NOT AS SIMPLE AS THEY LOOK, DAMMIT.

I think it's a law here in the American South that at any concert, of any kind, somebody HAS to yell out "Freebird!".

[Akima]

Anyhoo, I personally always try my best at smoking weed.

I'm sure Tai optimises her synergies to achieve six-sigma quality performance in weed-smoking, and be the best weed-smoker she can be.

Accordion-guy looks disturbingly keen to play for someone... anyone... You can busk with any instrument; the other day I saw a guy busking with an erhu (pronounced "ar-hoo") in my local shopping centre.

[jmucchiello]

There is nothing worse then the fellow who plays trombone on a street corner near where I work. He's not very good and his song choices are curious: Besame Mucho? Really?

[cesariojpn]

Accordion-guy looks disturbingly keen to play for someone... anyone... You can busk with any instrument;

Waitaminute.....doesn't the other buskers around that area know about accordion guy? Didn't they go after Raven's boyfriend once for trying to busk without even so much as an acknowledgement?

[BoDJangles]

Waitaminute.....doesn't the other buskers around that area know about accordion guy? Didn't they go after Raven's boyfriend once for trying to busk without even so much as an acknowledgement?

Exactly. Now imagine what dark deeds accordion busker has done to earn their fear and respect.

[Overkillengine]

Accordion-guy looks disturbingly keen to play for someone... anyone...

FOREVER.

[Boxilar]

Waitaminute.....doesn't the other buskers around that area know about accordion guy? Didn't they go after Raven's boyfriend once for trying to busk without even so much as an acknowledgement?

Exactly. Now imagine what dark deeds accordion busker has done to earn their fear and respect.

Come to think of it, when's the last time we've even seen another busker in the comic? Maybe accordion guy is the sole survivor of the Great North Hampton Busker Wars. It would explain the thousand yard stare.

[VonKleist]

THE CHROMATIC AND DIATONIC HARPS ARE NOT AS SIMPLE AS THEY LOOK, DAMMIT.

Thanks.
I´m don't play really great but people seem to approve just for the sake of variety, I guess.

I also appreciate that it is friggin' LOUD when it needs to be

[cvcharger]

I wonder, how much effort does it take to smoke pot and watch cartoons at the same time?

[cesariojpn]

I wonder, how much effort does it take to smoke pot and watch cartoons at the same time?

I don't think people will be that forth-willing to reveal that info.

[Carl-E]

THE CHROMATIC AND DIATONIC HARPS ARE NOT AS SIMPLE AS THEY LOOK, DAMMIT.

OK, take two diatonic harmonicas (one in G and the other in C).  Split each one in half, and then put one half of each of them on opposite sides of a bellows. 

That's an (anglo) concertina.  The pic below is disturbingly identical to my own.  I picked it up over 20 years ago, and play by ear.  There's tabulatio, but dammit, I have no idea how to even think about how it's played - it just feels right, since the minute I picked it up in the store and sounded out Black Nag.  And I can get some pretty amazing harmonies on it.  Your fingers can do things a mouth could never do on a harmonica. 

Except, of course, bending a note...



Edit:  I now love the word forth-willing. 

[BoDJangles]

I wonder, how much effort does it take to smoke pot and watch cartoons at the same time?

Almost none. You can fairly competently play videogames while high on weed, it mostly just makes people giggly, hungry, and filled with a profound sense of not-giving-a-fuck. You'd have to be really high before it interfered with your ability to follow the plot of an average Adventure Time episode.

The end of the Tart episode might freak you out, though.

[TinPenguin]

You can busk with any instrument; the other day I saw a guy busking with an erhu (pronounced "ar-hoo") in my local shopping centre.

I've seen a few interesting buskers in my town, which is surprising for such a small, sleepy place. Fiddle and accordion, saxophone, even one guy with a gaita (Galician bagpipes). He was awesome. Never seen an erhu on the streets though, that'd be pretty cool.

And across Europe, particularly in medieval cities like Strasbourg or Antwerp, you can find traditional folk bands busking with bouzouki and balalaika and hurdy-gurdy and dulcimer and all manner of fantastic instruments. Many of them are accomplished and talented musicians who don't need to busk, but street music is a fine tradition that need not be let die.

[Tova]

I will never understand the level of Marten hate around here.

I think it's along the same reason why people hate Charlie Brown at times.

I should clarify. I know why people hate him. I just don't understand it. If that makes sense.

If I did something I regretted, and then saw someone else doing the same thing, I might want to stop them from doing it, but I would hardly hate them.

Is it a self-hate thing?

(Serious question - not trying to be rude about it, sorry if it comes across that way)

[Is it cold in here?]

Someone who tries to cope with shame by fleeing the memory might be hurt, then fearful, then angry, at being reminded.

[jwhouk]

And what was the MOMENT OF THE WEEK???

IT'S JEPH'S BIRTHDAY!    3 (8.8%)
His very own helium pony!    2 (5.9%)
The Training Montage!    5 (14.7%)
Vintage Porn Collection    0 (0%)
Wayfarers, Noam Chomsky flyer, and keys to a Volvo.    1 (2.9%)
Don't ever look in the black bin.    0 (0%)
How'd training day go? Nerve wracking!    0 (0%)
If I didn't think you could do it I wouldn't have told you to. (That makes one of us.)    0 (0%)
We wanted to say thank you for showing us around today.    0 (0%)
Banana Smoothie!    5 (14.7%)
WORK HARDER Evil Bonercat Demotivator!    1 (2.9%)
What's this strange feeling? "Job satisfaction." I think I need to lay down.    1 (2.9%)
You need the extra responsibility. I might not be working at the library forever...    0 (0%)
Like, what if my band takes off, and -    0 (0%)
How IS your band doing? "W-well... we're kind of still trying to write some songs..."    0 (0%)
Cart before the horse? "The horse is a foal. The cart is a pile of lumber and a gleam in the carpenter's eye."    7 (20.6%)
I WILL ACCORDION 4 YOU    8 (23.5%)
It can still be a fulfilling job if you put the effort in.    0 (0%)
Do what you love, but you don't have to be miserable. Make the most of it.    1 (2.9%)
Jeez, now I feel guilty for getting high and watching cartoons all day.    0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 34

[techkid]

I will never understand the level of Marten hate around here.

I think it's along the same reason why people hate Charlie Brown at times.

I should clarify. I know why people hate him. I just don't understand it. If that makes sense.

If I did something I regretted, and then saw someone else doing the same thing, I might want to stop them from doing it, but I would hardly hate them.

Is it a self-hate thing?

(Serious question - not trying to be rude about it, sorry if it comes across that way)

I don't really have any hate toward Marten. Hell, if anything else he's probably more successful than I am (which is kind of sad given he's a character in a fictional universe), which I admire. He might not be successful in the sense of being disgustingly rich or "popular" in the famous sort of sense (which is a shallow form of popularity and probably yields less actual friends than the rest of us), but he's got good quality friends, and he tries to be happy with what he's got.

It probably is a self-hate thing more than anything.

[Schmorgluck]

Someone who tries to cope with shame by fleeing the memory might be hurt, then fearful, then angry, at being reminded.

Well yeah, that's how the Shame Orb works. What's your point?

[Is it cold in here?]

That Marten reminds people of how little they've accomplished.

[Schmorgluck]

I know. I was being deliberately goofy, based on your post reminding me of the effect the Shame Orb has on people.

Given that I posted it at 5:15 AM, after going home from a night of drinking with friends, my formulation may have turned up less humorous than I intended it to be. Sorry 'bout that.


About Marten... I relate to the guy on some levels. Tuesday was Music Day in France. I went downtown and walked around to look out for possible interesting music. The streets were crowded. As a general rule, I hate being in a crowd. And tuesday I understood something about that, and about me. When I move through a crowd, I try to minimize the disturbance I inflict on people. By doing so, I end up being taken advantage of, as it gives less scrupulous people plenty of opportunities to rush past me. Like when I am following in a column of people going in the direction I seek, and then suddenly the people in front of me slow down and stop. I have a short hesitation to knock them about in order to keep going. This hesitation is enough for about three people to fill the gap, and I can end up locked for a few minutes in that place.

I'm too gentle for my own good.

[Carl-E]

Sometimes, it pays to be pushy. 


I'm ot sayig it's easy to do, mid you.