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Total Members Voted: 25

Voting closed: 23 May 2021, 19:56

[shanejayell]

Comics up

While it hasn't happened to me (poor) I have heard in the news about sudden windfalls getting your bank account frozen.

[sitnspin]

any deposit or withdraw over a certain amount automatically gets flagged.

[Farideh]

Well, that explains a lot. I've had the bank call me when I did an unexpectedly large payment on my credit card, just to make sure that the card wasn't stolen or anything. I do appreciate that.

[Gus_Smedstad]

That last panel pretty much encapsulates why I'm not sold on May as a money manager, or manager of anything. "LA LA LA DON'T CARE CAN'T HEAR YOU" is pretty typical May, and money manager / organizer involves a lot of boring detail work. Marigold really needs someone with Roko's personality who cares about what happens to Marigold. Momo would do a MUCH better job, though I totally understand why she doesn't want to endanger her friendship with Marigold.

Also, this feels like a huge retcon. What actually happened is that Jeph decided to do this Marigold plot, and this strip is rationalizing why we've never heard about it prior to this. Which I don't really think is needed; Marigold keeping it to herself and/or not really believing the money was coming in is more than enough explanation for me.

I've had the bank call me when I did an unexpectedly large payment on my credit card, just to make sure that the card wasn't stolen or anything. I do appreciate that.

They were worried that someone stole  your card and then paid off your balance? That doesn't make much sense. Thieves steal cards to run up charges, not pay them off.

I did have a credit card company call me once for making a large payment. I'd just recently gotten the card, and they didn't know that I never, ever keep a  balance. They thought because I'd paid off the complete balance - SOP for me - I was unhappy with the card and planned on cancelling it.

[Farideh]

Sorry, bad phrasing. I meant that I made a large purchase on my CC.

[oddtail]

I think we can guesstimate now how much Marigold has made.

Her student loan was probably to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. And we know it took a noticeable chunk of what she had, but judging by the phrasing, not most of it.

So we can guess she made money that's, in total, in low-end hundreds of thousands of dollars. Assuming she made that money over many weeks, that's a "holy crap a shitload of money" kind of money, but still not "she's set for life" kind of money.

Although if she kept making that kind of money over the next many months, she probably *would* be set for life if her living is not extravagant.

(BTW: correct me if any of my assumptions are incorrect here. I'm aware of American costs of living in broad terms and know both the median and mean salary in the US, but I live in a country where those numbers are significantly lower - and I don't make much even by standards over here - so my perception of how much money is "a lot of money" will be necessarily skewed)

EDIT: US student loans and just how MUCH they are is still something nearly impossible for me to wrap my head around. Not *all* college is free here, but you *can* reliably finish university around here without going into any significant debt (or if you have a fairly decent part-time job during your studies or live with your parents or whatever, no debt at all). Certainly not debt that you might still be paying off decades later.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

And it had to be that shade of green. Jeph is very careful with his colors. Notice how May owns that side of the room. The other side is all about warm colors.

[Gyrre]

I wonder if that Hanners face in panel one is available as an avatar yet?

[dutchrvl]

I think we can guesstimate now how much Marigold has made.

Her student loan was probably to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. And we know it took a noticeable chunk of what she had, but judging by the phrasing, not most of it.

So we can guess she made money that's, in total, in low-end hundreds of thousands of dollars. Assuming she made that money over many weeks, that's a "holy crap a shitload of money" kind of money, but still not "she's set for life" kind of money.

Although if she kept making that kind of money over the next many months, she probably *would* be set for life if her living is not extravagant.

(BTW: correct me if any of my assumptions are incorrect here. I'm aware of American costs of living in broad terms and know both the median and mean salary in the US, but I live in a country where those numbers are significantly lower - and I don't make much even by standards over here - so my perception of how much money is "a lot of money" will be necessarily skewed)

EDIT: US student loans and just how MUCH they are is still something nearly impossible for me to wrap my head around. Not *all* college is free here, but you *can* reliably finish university around here without going into any significant debt (or if you have a fairly decent part-time job during your studies or live with your parents or whatever, no debt at all). Certainly not debt that you might still be paying off decades later.

I'd say that's a reasonable assumption, although I think low-end 6-figures is more towards the max of what she may have right now. I'd estimate it ballpark 40-60k myself. A shitload of money for sure, but not exactly set for life (yet)

I hear you on the student loan BS in the US. I finished my MS with about 20k in debt, and that was definitely on the higher end of debts people in NL have when they graduate, and that was a combo of "took 7 instead of 5 years" + "1 of extra 2 years was spent abroad and therefore less frugally lived" + "no assistance from parents despite also not qualifying for max gvt assistance".

AFter moving to the US, I felt a lot better about that debt because it was generally laughed away as "haha that little, who cares!".
ALso, one of the crazy things to me about student debt in the US is the ridiculous interest rates. To compare: student debt in NL generally carries an interest rate of < 3% and goes further down every 5 years. Example: I (graduating around 2002-2007) started with 2.8% interest, which went down to about 1.5% after 5 years and almost 0% after 10 years.

FOr anyone who graduated in the past 10 years, interest rates have been effectively 0% for most of those 10 years...
Tell US students about that......   

[Wingy]

So we can guess she made money that's, in total, in low-end hundreds of thousands of dollars. Assuming she made that money over many weeks, that's a "holy crap a shitload of money" kind of money, but still not "she's set for life" kind of money.

Although if she kept making that kind of money over the next many months, she probably *would* be set for life if her living is not extravagant.

US banks have a "know your customer" law to deal with.  Large (over $1000) cash transactions require extra scrutiny before they are allowed to proceed, etc.  So a wad over $100,000 flowing into Marigolds account would probably set off several flags, including the local FBI and IRS offices getting involved to ensure proper taxes are paid and this isn't the result of some illegal activities.  *I've been bit by this myself.

As far as getting set for life, that kind of money is on the order of $3,000,000.00 for a minimalist lifestyle, and $5,000,000.00 would be a little more comfortable.  That's not the kind of money Marbear is looking at given what we now so far.

* My wife and I were buying a new house.  Since our old one hadn't sold yet, we arranged to sell some investments and had the money funneled into our checking account a month in advance because I knew about the wait time requirements.  On the closing day, we arrived at the bank an hour earlier than needed, just in case, because I knew we had to produce a check for the remainder of the sales price, and it was going to be on the order of $200,000.00.  When we requested a cashiers check for the amount, even though the money had been sitting in the account for a month and was clearly marked as available on their terminal screen, they just about flipped their collective lids, brought out three extra sets of paperwork, and had to get the check approved by a 3rd-line manager (who wasn't there and therefore the second line had to exercise her delegated authority) before they would print off our money.  All this even though I had discussed the situation with the branch manager a month in advance and was following the protocol then laid out and even then they weren't happy about it until I pointed out, rather huffily, that we were running out of time to make our appointment at the realty office.   Closing was uneventful and the check cashed just fine, so I suppose I'm happy.  I was glad I had planned for extra time however.

[Roborat]

I see May found something to cover herself, although that isn't much better.  Also, what is the protocol on reporting typos?  The second panel has "then then", which I assume was supposed to be "then the" .

[David F]

Also, this feels like a huge retcon. What actually happened is that Jeph decided to do this Marigold plot, and this strip is rationalizing why we've never heard about it prior to this. Which I don't really think is needed; Marigold keeping it to herself and/or not really believing the money was coming in is more than enough explanation for me.

It'd be a little easier to buy if there was a longer gap between the fundraiser for May and "Marigold is rich".  Then again, do we have any compelling reason to believe we haven't skipped forward a month or so from "longest day ever"?

I wonder to what extent this parallels Jeph's experience when his first big Patreon deposits started showing up.

[Farideh]

New comic.


Nice try May, but Marigold is impervious to your needling. She is wise to your ways.

[shanejayell]

Either that or Marigold is entirely OKAY with spinning off May into her own channel.

[Gnabberwocky]

I don't want to imagine May's streaming channel.

That's a lie. I d...nope, changed my mind again, I really don't.

[Gyrre]

There's rings with tiny abaci (abacuses?) on them.

This one's from etsy.

[Gus_Smedstad]

Sorry, bad phrasing. I meant that I made a large purchase on my CC.

Oh. Yeah, that happens to me all the time. Every 2-3 months I get an automated call because my credit card company thinks there's a suspicious purchase. It's usually not particularly large, it's just not what they think is "usual" for me.

For example, I bought a bunch of tables for Pinball Arcade, and they thought that looked iffy.

It's annoying, but I do appreciate the protection. In one case, it actually was fraud. Near as I can tell, some motel clerk copied my card number and then used it.

[Gus_Smedstad]

* My wife and I were buying a new house.  Since our old one hadn't sold yet, we arranged to sell some investments and had the money funneled into our checking account a month in advance because I knew about the wait time requirements.  On the closing day, we arrived at the bank an hour earlier than needed, just in case, because I knew we had to produce a check for the remainder of the sales price, and it was going to be on the order of $200,000.00.  When we requested a cashiers check for the amount, even though the money had been sitting in the account for a month and was clearly marked as available on their terminal screen, they just about flipped their collective lids, brought out three extra sets of paperwork, and had to get the check approved by a 3rd-line manager

That's... surprising. I've done this a couple of times, moved >$100k through my checking account to purchase a house, and not once has it set off alarms. It was completely straightforward each time.

One detail that's different: in each case, we wired the funds. No cashier's check, no visit to the bank, just a phone call. The receiving entity was always real estate related, i.e. a title company or an escrow account, and the bank had a pretty good idea what we were doing. Maybe there was some security measures going on where we couldn't see them, but it's never been a visible problem.

Cashier's checks turn out to be a problem for real estate transactions, because for amounts that large, the bank WILL put a 10-day hold on it, despite it being a cashier's check. A receiving bank hates that if if's paying off the seller's mortgage. There's no hold for wired funds, so usually the seller insists on that.

The largest cashier's check I've ever handled was about $75k. The bank teller did have to summon a manager for that, but overall it was pretty smooth, no extra paperwork, and no one flipped out.

Anyway, I didn't raise any objections to Marigold's problem because it's not really the same. The thing about your case - and mine - is that the brokerage had lots of records of the money accumulating over time. Marigold abruptly had large amounts of cash flowing in from somewhere. That kinda looks like it might be from drug dealing or something else illegal.

[awkwardness]

OK so we got not only a good answer for why Marigold didn't donate more to May's new chassis, we got a solid reason for why May didn't know about the lucrative new job that Marigold has.

Damn, it's a shame that Marigold's bank account was frozen when someone she knows needed help the most...but from that came a lot of good for her so May ended up for the better in the end.

[JimC]

I was tempted to Google 'sexy girl with an abacus' but then realised I didn't want to know.

[Wingy]

There aren't many.  Images fairly quickly turn into lingerie shots, none of them particularly sexy - the Sears catalog had better back in the day.

[Gyrre]

There aren't many.  Images fairly quickly turn into lingerie shots, none of them particularly sexy - the Sears catalog had better back in the day.

...I'll take your word for it.

[stayctee]

Why do so many of these characters talk like four year olds? Every time someone says something like "'fore", I cringe. I just, don't know any adults who talk like that. Is it an accent thing I'm not aware of? This has bugged me for a long time. I know about the Faye pronunciation, but what about all the other characters? Does this make me some kind of linguist snob?

[sitnspin]

Does this make me some kind of linguist snob?

Yes.

[Shjade]

Also worth noting AI characters consciously tailor their speech patterns, so it's something of a style choice for characters like May. Not that it's insincere, but it's intentional self-expression.

[Pilchard123]

I'll usually be the first to complain about "incorrect" grammar/phrasing/whatever, but I agree with sitnspin.

( also the comma in "I just, don't know [...]" shouldn't be there )

[Wingy]

( also the comma in "I just, don't know [...]" shouldn't be there )

Unless it's a dramatic pause like William Shatner uses too often.

[sitnspin]

Also worth noting AI characters consciously tailor their speech patterns, so it's something of a style choice for characters like May. Not that it's insincere, but it's intentional self-expression.

Humans do this, too, it is not an AI thing.

[Shjade]

Humans can do that, but it's as often unconscious as conscious. I suspect that's not the case with AI, or at least less commonly.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

It appears our favorite transgressive AI has picked up some self-respect with her new bod. Maybe because most of her diagnostics are now green instead of blinking yellow?

The gold rings upstream are sorobans, the Japanese variant of abacusses. I'm sure Hannelore could do wonderful things with them.

[sitnspin]

Humans can do that, but it's as often unconscious as conscious. I suspect that's not the case with AI, or at least less commonly.

You can suspect it, but there's no evidence of it. In fact there's evidence of the contrary. Look at Basilisk and her Boston accent.

[Farideh]

Comic's up.

Going into the chat might be a good experience for Hannelore. At the very least it will expand her worldview.

[shanejayell]

Going into the chat might be a good experience for Hannelore. At the very least it will expand her worldview.

Having seen chats... OH HELL NO. *lol*

[Is it cold in here?]

This may be the first time someone has called Hannelore a "normie".

[Gus_Smedstad]

My ex-wife used "normie" as a code word for penis. Which makes that last panel a bit surreal for me.

[Shjade]

You can suspect it, but there's no evidence of it. In fact there's evidence of the contrary. Look at Basilisk and her Boston accent.

Ah, you know, I'd completely forgotten about that. Fair enough!

[Oenone]

Humans can do that, but it's as often unconscious as conscious. I suspect that's not the case with AI, or at least less commonly.

You can suspect it, but there's no evidence of it. In fact there's evidence of the contrary. Look at Basilisk and her Boston accent.

I feel like whatever quirk of life that gives AIs not just intelligence but also a distinct sense of self with individual taste and understanding justice is perfectly capable of giving them unique voices, accents, and intonations.

[St.Clair]

A consistent theme of the comic has been that AIs are complex and non-deterministic/mechanistic enough to be definitely counted as people, not computers.

[shanejayell]

Dora: "So they're doing ORGIES now?"

Hanners; "NOO!!!"

[awkwardness]

I was tempted to Google 'sexy girl with an abacus' but then realised I didn't want to know.

Shockingly, it's tamer than you'd think! The first couple of dozen are stock photos and just pretty women holding abacuses.

[awkwardness]

Humans can do that, but it's as often unconscious as conscious. I suspect that's not the case with AI, or at least less commonly.

You can suspect it, but there's no evidence of it. In fact there's evidence of the contrary. Look at Basilisk and her Boston accent.

That evidence proves it, not disproves it. Her normal patterns aren't a Boston accent, they're a basic accent that's indistinguishable- but when she's upset enough, her control erodes and the Boston accent in her comes out. Just as I suspect that May's accent is her own doing, with how little self-control she has shown her neutral accent patterns aren't there often if ever.

[Farideh]

Dora's smirk in panel 2 is priceless

[Gyrre]

Also worth noting AI characters consciously tailor their speech patterns, so it's something of a style choice for characters like May. Not that it's insincere, but it's intentional self-expression.

Humans do this, too, it is not an AI thing.

Yep.

I used to do phone surveys and had to be conscious of avoiding that during a survey. Though, it was how I got completed surveys when we were calling client's customers in NYC.
 [Side bar: It was way easier to call people in NYC than calling anywhere in California. Most Californians either screeched about the National Do Not Call list -- which has exceptions that we fell under -- or they "didn't speak English", or they actually didn't speak English. With New Yorks we just had to be quick and to the point w/o any faffing around.]

[jesslc]

After bringing up this question last week, my curiosity wouldn't let it go, so I did some re-reading specifically looking for info about Dale & Marigold's current living situation. Figured I'll share it with y'all in case anyone else enjoys this kind of detailed background info, like I do.

Dale/Marigold/Momo/May are mostly seen together in Marigold's apartment. And quite a lot of the situations they are seen in there would give the idea that they are all living there together. However, Dale & Marigold definitely still have separate apartments at these two recent-ish points:
1) https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3682 - The arc where Marigold got jealous over Dale working with Emily

2) https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4012 - When May gets back after her first hookup with Sven + the comic immediately after it

The last time Dale's apartment made an appearance on screen is shortly after that second one (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4034 ).

So my conclusion is that if Dale and Mairgold have moved in together off screen, it could have only happened recently. But it's also possible that Dale still has his apartment and is just hardly using it anymore. If this is the case perhaps it could become an office/workspace... Marigold did just hire a business manager after all.

At the moment I think that it's more likely that Dale & Marigold haven't officially moved in together. While it's not clear exactly how much time has passed since comic 4012 (or 4034), I'd estimate it to be no more than a couple of months. (May & Sven hooked up while Dora & Tai's engagement celebration was still going and that was also the same day that Claire sat her exams. In the comic since then, Claire has received her exam results and started applying for jobs. So far we've seen her receive her first rejection letter but there hasn't been anything about job interviews. That could be happening off screen but I feel like Jeph would show something of Claire's job interviews - especially as the possibility of Claire finding work far away has already been raised as a potential plotline/conflict. Note: this estimate is also using my vague memory of "I think it might have been about 2-3 weeks to get results back when I was at uni" - which was both a long time ago and also not in the US.)

[Shremedy]

There's rings with tiny abaci (abacuses?) on them.

This one's from etsy.

AbacusTube has gotten SOOOOOOO commercialized.  I guess that's what happens to the dominant, established platform.  ClickClack is where all the cool kids are at now!

[shanejayell]

Comics up!

Aww, no scandals for Dora.

(It would be funny for her to immediately realize Marigold is a streamer after this.)

[sitnspin]

Humans can do that, but it's as often unconscious as conscious. I suspect that's not the case with AI, or at least less commonly.

You can suspect it, but there's no evidence of it. In fact there's evidence of the contrary. Look at Basilisk and her Boston accent.

That evidence proves it, not disproves it. Her normal patterns aren't a Boston accent, they're a basic accent that's indistinguishable- but when she's upset enough, her control erodes and the Boston accent in her comes out. Just as I suspect that May's accent is her own doing, with how little self-control she has shown her neutral accent patterns aren't there often if ever.

Again, humans do this too. Plenty of humans who grew up with a strong regional accent but have since shed it slip into their original accent in emotionally heightened circumstance. It's not an AI thing, it's a people (which includes AI) thing.

[St.Clair]

Dora, you are not exactly covering yourself in glory of late.

[Scarlet Manuka]

Why is that etymological fact something Hannelore happens to know off the top of her head?

It's been established that Claire and Aurelia are interested in this sort of thing, so I could see that response coming from them, or from an AI character who might just be looking it up on the fly, but I struggle to imagine Hannelore wanting to look up the etymology of those words.

[Penquin47]

Hanners mentions that she has a photographic memory when Tilly is trying to sell her on why she needs a PA.  It's possible she looked it up once to settle a bet, or after a conversation with Pintsize, or just one of those random "I went to Wikipedia to look up tapirs and now I'm reading about medieval Italian painting and it was on the way" nights when she couldn't sleep.  (Don't ask, I don't know what path would get you there, but it's Wikipedia.  I'm sure it could.)