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The denouement of Faye & Bubbles' first time

17 (32.7%)

Guest Strips!

0 (0%)

It's a Big Deal (Reaction to Faybles)

1 (1.9%)

Bubbles uses Psych Warfare on Pintsize

6 (11.5%)

Emily ponders mating practices of Dinosaurs

2 (3.8%)

Anthony Jones and Pintsize's group therapy

0 (0%)

"It's YOU who is the dork about it!"

1 (1.9%)

"Screaming Internally" face

2 (3.8%)

Brun, Clinton, Elliott doing the foot-in-mouth tango

3 (5.8%)

Roko: "You have soda bread?"

3 (5.8%)

Clinton explains about his father

0 (0%)

Bubbles gets a makeover!

0 (0%)

"Don't ever get romantically involved with a business partner."

0 (0%)

Swordsmary Stabitha gets a spray!

2 (3.8%)

Permanent Sex Hair

3 (5.8%)

Samantha vs. a Dremel

1 (1.9%)

"She's being brave, you twit." (with disappearing glasses!)

3 (5.8%)

Under the Sea with Hanners and Winslow!

4 (7.7%)

Claire's exam anxiety and Pintsize

2 (3.8%)

Pintsize gives Marten a clue-by-dildo upside the head!

2 (3.8%)

Total Members Voted: 49

[Tova]

Well, whatever happens at this point, it's been a pleasure knowing you all. Truly.

[TheEvilDog]

Likewise Tova.

Before the forum gets nuked from orbit, if anyone would like to swap emails or like to contact me on social media, feel free to message me!

It was nice while it lasted.

[Lucina]

I've been lurking here for the better part of a year. I'd like to say that some of the discourse from the last few weeks have been uncomfortable to watch, and I appreciate Jeph's statements
>.<


Also hai~

[Is it cold in here?]

The job was reserved for students; Claire could have applied too.

Welcome, knowledgeable new person! I believe you're the first to have remembered that.

[TheEvilDog]

The job was reserved for students; Claire could have applied too.

Welcome, knowledgeable new person! I believe you're the first to have remembered that.

Although, because Marten did end up getting the job, we can infer one of things happening.

Either no one else applied for the job.
Or
No one was qualified enough for the job to begin with.

Given that Claire has made it her life's goal to become a librarian, I imagine she would have kept her ear to the ground about any positions at SMIF. Either Claire was not in a position to apply for the position, thus having to come in as an intern at a later, we can infer two more possibilities about why she didn't.

Either Claire was too young to apply for a position at the library (I never saw a first year student get a job anywhere on campus when I was in college)
Or
Claire wasn't a student at SMIF at the time when Marten got the job. There were a couple of time skips, Claire could have transferred in and so on.

I'd be more inclined to go for the former in this instance, as when Claire was introduced, she seemed younger than Emily or Gabby. If she could get the job, go for the internship, get the foot in the door and make a connection with management.

[Near Lurker]

Anyway, I miss 1990s web design.  I don't miss marquees and wild backgrounds, but I miss pages that lay out their information in a nice, simple way, without trying to eternally cater to the latest thing.  I miss the notion that computers were to expedite the transmission of information, not to stymie it.  To hell with all these bells and whistles on functions that haven't fundamentally changed since the newsgroup days, to all this "mobile-friendly" nonsense that not only doesn't work on my mobile, but doesn't work on any window I don't maximize.

[Is it cold in here?]

Global Moderator Comment

I think this will be a happier place if we discuss the week of comics in the weekly comic discussion thread. Social theory distracts from that.

[Is it cold in here?]

I've been lurking here for the better part of a year. I'd like to say that some of the discourse from the last few weeks have been uncomfortable to watch, and I appreciate Jeph's statements
>.<


Also hai~

Welcome, new person!

Global Moderator Comment

"Uncomfortable", you and me both. The mod team is trying to figure out the right position to take and the right note to strike.

[jeph]

"huh buh i'm mad you used the P word" lol die mad about it, idiot

[jeph]

The right position for mods to take is to do what you think is right! But also if I poke my head in and see idiots being idiots I reserve the right to take a shit on them.

[jeph]

It costs me less than 90 seconds to ban someone and I laugh the whole time I'm doing it, so I really don't mind

[Is it cold in here?]

Didn't Tai tell Marten once that she'd graduated?

[cesium133]

Yep.

[MrNumbers]

"huh buh i'm mad you used the P word" lol die mad about it, idiot

With all due respect, I think the issue is more the nature of the priviledge he's being called out on -- namely, getting the job from Tai even though he didn't even know her at the time -- doesn't particularly make sense.

You've covered the topic before and much better with Winslow and May. That was pretty chill and interesting. This is just weird, and the fact that you're coming to do this in the forums after makes me wonder if you're not in a good place at the moment. What's up, dude guy? Is everything okay?

Can I get you anything? Coffee, a copy of Pitchfork, long flattering fanfiction that doesn't involve shipping?

[Lucina]

"huh buh i'm mad you used the P word" lol die mad about it, idiot

With all due respect, I think the issue is more the nature of the priviledge he's being called out on -- namely, getting the job from Tai even though he didn't even know her at the time -- doesn't particularly make sense.

You've covered the topic before and much better with Winslow and May. That was pretty chill and interesting. This is just weird, and the fact that you're coming to do this in the forums after makes me wonder if you're not in a good place at the moment. What's up, dude guy? Is everything okay?

Can I get you anything? Coffee, a copy of Pitchfork, long flattering fanfiction that doesn't involve shipping?

I think you must've missed the long diatribe about how Jeph 'pushing these hot button issues' were making someone, in a long worded pompous way, part way with the comic because this is just outrageous. it was pretty ridiculous

Also, multiple people here are not complaining about the specific nature of the privilege addressed in the strip, but just the word. 'if my partner ever brought up my privilege I'd dump them' for example..

Edited to reflect that a comment I thought was removed had just jumped back a page.

[jwhouk]

I was just laughing at the Schroedinger's Grad Student line, myself... 

[Case]

Well, whatever happens at this point, it's been a pleasure knowing you all. Truly.

Likewise

[Lucina]

ah yes, new comic. Wait, is this whole thing actually a vehicle for Marten to get a wake-up call, and get some more direction in his life?

[judemorrigan]

If this is all a head-on to Marten going back to school, I quite approve. He could use something to do, story-wise.

That said, a lot of this is really pretty at odds with my experience with the world. I know academia can be kind of weird, and maybe this is a case of it, but...

- while there may be certain very specific careers with hard educational requirements (e.g. medical doctors), it's really quite unremarkable in my experience for people to wind up in fields for which they lacked the formal qualifications.
- In my experience, once you're in, you're *in*. People voluntarily leave jobs for all sorts of reasons, but generally are only involuntarily separated for poor performance or budgetary reasons. Someone whose been in a job for years getting let go because a more qualified candidate happened along would seem truly remarkable to me.
- In general, while highest degree completed informs a person's salary since that's just how it works, once one is hired, people stop caring too much about the paper and start caring far more about a professional knowledge, skills and abilities. Admittedly this I can see academia being a bit different about. But using myself as an example, my being a chemist by education (vs mathematician, physicist or engineer) is more "weird trivia" within my workgroup than something that has *any* impact on my work or future employability within my specific field. My 15 years of experience is *vastly* more important that my educational misalignment.

YMMV, and all that jazz. Expect seriously, if anyone ever finds themselves looking for a job, don't be afraid to apply for ones that seem interesting but you lack the paper qualifications for.

[Near Lurker]

*snip*

...are you familiar with the phrase "don't poke the bear"?

[Is it cold in here?]

Well, since we have the author here we can, gasp, *ask* for clarifications.

Jeph, what did Claire have in mind when she said "your privilege"? I see more than one possibility and more than two.

[snufflebottoms]

Marten has lots of privileges over Claire in terms of being white and cis but I don't think they helped him get THIS particular job. Tai gave him the job and Tai seems like one of the least prejudice people in the comic. She may be flighty but Marten got his job more or less out of luck in my opinion. 

I don't think Claire is some terrible person or manipulative. She's wrong here but she's not being cruel or mean spirited. From her POV he stumbled on the lottery and doesn't get it but to him this is just the job that doesn't suck but isn't his dream. Kind of like what Claire might have to do. It'd be kind of funny if she ended up in the music business under similar circumstances. Like a record store manager or something. 

Also, if Marten and Claire aren't fighting why are people upset about their interaction? They're talking things out. Neither of them is perfect but neither is being abused here.

[Thrudd]

the joke is that reddit IS a trash can 

And here I always thought is where Beelzebub and company go potty.

I remember a giant pink eraser from my childhood with the motto "Everybody makes misteaks" emblazoned on it. 

I saw the P in "pobody's" right away - took me two more readings to see the N in "nerfect"

and the mistake with misteaks just glared at me, daring me to say something.

Oh, I skimmed the last few pages because I was AFK/AFC for most of the week and didn't quite realize the Sword of Damocles was unsheathed.

As for the P-word. People who use it, tend to use it as a broad brush when closer inspection shows it is a subset of a subset of a subset and has more to do with social circumstances being self perpetuating.
What infuriates me though is that model is strongly encouraged and even lauded - just dropping some names here to think about ... Kennedy Bush Koch Rothschild to name a few

[Tova]

Yep.

FOUR YEARS AGO
good lord
(real time, obvs, not comic time)

And if that little story arc (which reads very similarly to this one) didn't change Marten's direction, it's hard to see how this time it will be different.

[MrNumbers]

...are you familiar with the phrase "don't poke the bear"?

urk. it's 3pm in Australia and I'm actually still up from the day before. I'm taking a massive hit to my wis score across the board.

[cybersmurf]

Well done, Claire! Now you're less anxious, but Marten is more anxious about being "in the wrong place" and "stealing your job".

[BenRG]

Tai, as we all know has a weird job arrangement, a sort of tenure-by-implied blackmail. I don't think that she's ever threatened to use it but it's out there. The thing is that, should the couple she saw having sex in the library ever quit or retire, she (and, by extension, Marten) will lose her guarantee. Then, the only thing protecting the non-student staff will be their competence. That alone could lead to major changes!

I wouldn't expect a clear-out; too much chaos would arise if they tried to replace everyone with students. However, Tai might have a hard time adapting to not being able to do whatever she wants anymore.

FWIW, I do think that Tai loves the job and Smif College and that she'd try hard to keep her position, even if that means painful lifestyle changes.

[pwhodges]

For a routine nitpick - consider Marten's left arm in the third panel.  Looks pretty broken to me; the forearm doesn't line up with the elbow.

[BenRG]

Suggestion from the Subreddit: This entire arc is basically foundation/set-up for Marten giving up his job for Claire. Personally, I wonder if Jeph is signalling that he intends to have Marten finally taking charge and looking for his dream job and, perhaps, finding that his dream job wasn't entirely what he expected.

Remember that Marten was originally Jeph's self-insert. Jeph was, like Marten, a 9-5 wage slave. Unlike Marten, Jeph chose to quit and try to see if he could make a living out of his creative talents. I'm wondering if Jeph has decided to revisit this and send Marten on a path not dissimilar to his his own. Maybe it will be his blog (which seems to take the place of the QC comic in Marten's life in early strips)? Or maybe Hannelore will come home and, with Emily on keyboards, Deathmřle will become his creative focus?

Discuss...

[JoeCovenant]

Oh wow, does that bring back some memories of horrid 1990s web design! Complete with disclaimers that basically assert that the site won’t look right except on the designer’s monitor.

"Although the name "Quick" sand literally implies "living-sand", it is not alive. "

Wonderful!!!

But.. just in case you missed it...
"This might give the appearance of the ground "coming to life" but it is certainly not in any way alive."

LOVE IT!

[jeph]

Yep.

LOL she did, time to rewrite this comic! Turns out it's hard to remember 3800 comics

[cybersmurf]

Yep.

LOL she did, time to rewrite this comic! Turns out it's hard to remember 3800 comics

Turns out with enough people constantly dissecting the comic, someone is prone to remember.

[Nepiophage]

I'm reading Paul McCartney - A Life, and at the point where I'm at, being at the top of your game can really suck rocks.

If that was after he recorded “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time” then it was karma.

[cesium133]

Yep.

LOL she did, time to rewrite this comic! Turns out it's hard to remember 3800 comics

My head cannon is that Marten himself forgot. Seems in character for him.

Also I cheated a bit. I have a script where I can search for a QC comic by the names of the characters in it.

[moissanite]

"huh buh i'm mad you used the P word" lol die mad about it, idiot

I agree! Everyone needs to stop questioning cis white male Jeph Jacques' interpretation of privilege. How could anyone have a better understanding of privilege than cis white male Jeph Jacques??

[pwhodges]

Administrator Comment

Insulting our host in your first post is a sure-fire way to get banned.

The concept of Privilege can be discussed in the appropriate part of the forum - in an existing thread, in fact.

[Cornelius]

You'd think that's obvious. Ah well.

Yep.

LOL she did, time to rewrite this comic! Turns out it's hard to remember 3800 comics

My head cannon is that Marten himself forgot. Seems in character for him.

Also I cheated a bit. I have a script where I can search for a QC comic by the names of the characters in it.

It does seem in character. Not to mention that with Tai just continuing on, it's easy to forget and overlook.

[tomveil]

Hey everybody, remember the time that Pintsize hit his friend with a dildo?  That was fun!   I like liking things!

[OldGoat]

Yep.

LOL she did, time to rewrite this comic! Turns out it's hard to remember 3800 comics

The Story Continuity Monster rears its ugly head.

[themacnut]

I'm going to be surprised if this arc leads to Marten doing anything new to change his work/career path. Marten has always been pretty much been the anti-ambitious, non-career-focussed, no-ladder climbing dude who tends to go where the winds blow since the beginning of the comic. The opposite of Claire, pretty much. He may occasionally realize that drifting where the work/career winds blow means he's at the mercy of those winds, but I think it's going to take him actually being booted out of his present job (again!) for him to really do something about it. Or perhaps some extra nagging from Claire - if Marten drags his feet after that, there's some potential for conflict between them.

[jwhouk]

I'm reading Paul McCartney - A Life, and at the point where I'm at, being at the top of your game can really suck rocks.

If that was after he recorded “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time” then it was karma.

Two words: Heather Mills.

[OldGoat]

I'm going to be surprised if this arc leads to Marten doing anything new to change his work/career path. Marten has always been pretty much been the anti-ambitious, non-career-focussed, no-ladder climbing dude who tends to go where the winds blow since the beginning of the comic. The opposite of Claire, pretty much. He may occasionally realize that drifting where the work/career winds blow means he's at the mercy of those winds, but I think it's going to take him actually being booted out of his present job (again!) for him to really do something about it. Or perhaps some extra nagging from Claire - if Marten drags his feet after that, there's some potential for conflict between them.

Ah, but this is no typical Marten script!  Where Claire is concerned, we see atypical Marten behavior.   She inspired him to seize the initiative to start the relationship in the first place - something he had never done before - and she may well still have that influence on him.  For all Claire's faults, she absolutely brings out the best in Marty, and he in her.  They really are good for each other.

[Penquin47]

I'd just assumed that while Tai had graduated, she'd started a graduate career of some sort and Marten meant "if she ever finishes her graduate work".  Some people can drag that out forever (I have a cousin who was over 30 by the time she finished school - of course, that was with multiple doctorates and post-doc work.)

[Eternal_Newbie]

I've recently learned that a lot, if not most Library Sciences degrees in the US require a student to do a long period of unpaid internship. And that many will not count paid work towards this. It's possible that Claire was in a situation where she knew of the job that Marten got, but it would have been counterproductive to apply for and get it, as it wouldn't have counted toward her degree and she would still have had to do that internship.

[snufflebottoms]

I'm going to be surprised if this arc leads to Marten doing anything new to change his work/career path. Marten has always been pretty much been the anti-ambitious, non-career-focussed, no-ladder climbing dude who tends to go where the winds blow since the beginning of the comic. The opposite of Claire, pretty much. He may occasionally realize that drifting where the work/career winds blow means he's at the mercy of those winds, but I think it's going to take him actually being booted out of his present job (again!) for him to really do something about it. Or perhaps some extra nagging from Claire - if Marten drags his feet after that, there's some potential for conflict between them.

I think that'd be shitty. I mean I get not liking your partner lacking ambition but this is the man she chose to date. If he likes his job and doesn't want to quit for something else, that's valid too. He pays rent, he's a good boyfriend and friend. He does purse his music with the band even if it's not for acclaim. Marten leads a good life and while having goals is important, I don't think this is a giant flaw. 

Encouraging him is great but nagging wouldn't be.

[Emperor Norton]

I'm going to be surprised if this arc leads to Marten doing anything new to change his work/career path. Marten has always been pretty much been the anti-ambitious, non-career-focussed, no-ladder climbing dude who tends to go where the winds blow since the beginning of the comic. The opposite of Claire, pretty much. He may occasionally realize that drifting where the work/career winds blow means he's at the mercy of those winds, but I think it's going to take him actually being booted out of his present job (again!) for him to really do something about it. Or perhaps some extra nagging from Claire - if Marten drags his feet after that, there's some potential for conflict between them.

I think that'd be shitty. I mean I get not liking your partner lacking ambition but this is the man she chose to date. If he likes his job and doesn't want to quit for something else, that's valid too. He pays rent, he's a good boyfriend and friend. He does purse his music with the band even if it's not for acclaim. Marten leads a good life and while having goals is important, I don't think this is a giant flaw. 

Encouraging him is great but nagging wouldn't be.

I really hate the idea that your career and your ambitions within it define you. Like, it can define some people. If they are happy with that being their thing, that they want to be the best whatever etc, that is cool. But honestly my whole life my happiness doesn't come from my job. Don't get me wrong, I like my job. I have a cool job. But that isn't what makes me happy. My friends, my wife, my kids, board games, video games, tabletop rpgs make me happy. My job lets me keep doing all those other things, and keep me in a house. It isn't who I am, and I don't need to be actively trying to "better my career".

And Marten doesn't either. If he is happy where he is, that is good enough.

[Jakk Frost]

I get that it's to keep the comic PG and all, but ladies, if you sit up in bed while having a discussion with your significant other, do you really feel the need to cover your boobs with the sheet the way this comic depicts, and the way all TV shows seem to depict?

[brasca]

I get that it's to keep the comic PG and all, but ladies, if you sit up in bed while having a discussion with your significant other, do you really feel the need to cover your boobs with the sheet the way this comic depicts, and the way all TV shows seem to depict?

Sadly the advertisers demand it.  Adult situations, profanity, and violence will slide, but no nudity no matter how tasteful. 

Things were getting heavy since I last visited.  Glad there’s still a message board to return to.

[hedgie]

True, and Giggle can be pretty heavy-handed (they already forced Jeph to remove a link to Oglaf from the main page).  I don't know how much of his income is advertising versus selling merch or Patreon backers, but I don't think it fair to ask him to take the pay cut.

[themacnut]

I really hate the idea that your career and your ambitions within it define you....Don't get me wrong, I like my job. I have a cool job. But that isn't what makes me happy. My friends, my wife, my kids, board games, video games, tabletop rpgs make me happy. My job lets me keep doing all those other things, and keep me in a house. It isn't who I am, and I don't need to be actively trying to "better my career".

And Marten doesn't either. If he is happy where he is, that is good enough.

I agree with you completely; I think if someone's greatest work-related ambition is making sure they have a job that's not too shitty, pays the bills and gives them a little extra to do fun things outside work, that is a noble ambition indeed. Marten clearly subscribes to this philosophy as well, most of the time anyway. Claire however, does not seem to, as evidenced by all her years at school pursuing the educational requirements of her chosen career. And it's been my experience that people who tend to put a lot of time and effort into their career ambitions tend to have less respect for those willing to "settle" for "a job that pays the bills". We may have seen some hints of this in the previous discussion between Marten and Claire.

Yes, Claire was worried about her career prospects post-graduation and this worry influenced the things she said, but the shots she took at Marten about the way he got the library job were Not Cool. I hope she learns to respect Marten's relative lack of career ambitions compared to hers, or the good ship Clairten could be in for rough seas ahead.