THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: jwhouk on 03 Jun 2012, 15:09
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And we start the month of June with a good poll - your favorite character!
Yes, I did use the "Count of Character Appearances" (http://questionablecontent.wikia.com/wiki/Count_of_character_appearances) List from the Wiki to fill out the list.
By the way - the reasoning for this poll is twofold: first of all, it's pretty simple; second, we're at a point where there really isn't a major storyline to comment upon.
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I'm the first "other" vote.
Jimbo. I miss the dude.
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Another "other." Sam. She has possibilities as a character.
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I'm the first Pintsize vote.
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Gotta be Hanners. She's smart, really good-hearted and innocent, adorably cute, and gets the sympathy vote as well because she has the worst anxiety issues.
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Hannelore gets my vote, with a solid 10.00. All of the others were distant seconds at 9.98 to 9.99.
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Oh shit my vote tied Faye and Hanners. Mine's for Faye; she's an interesting, complex character and always fun to read. I admire her in a lot of ways even though I'm in the camp of people who probably wouldn't like her if I knew her in real life. :psyduck:
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I voted for Faye because I expect Hannelore will win it in a walk, but in my book they're really about equal.
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I voted for Momo because I think she's got the most potential for development. Plus she's our best window into whatver Ideas Or Plans Jeph has for telling us about his Human-AI Interrelationship Stuff.
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She's also got the potential that comes from being a character who wants to explore life instead of languishing in a rut.
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Kinda like Hanners.
Though obviously Momo's gonna be the one to start our week.
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You Obviously Like Owls, that's the motto, Marten, YOLO
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Just one more reason I dislike fundamentalist christians.
New goal in life: Build a lesbian AI and go picket Westboro.
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Yeah...that's why you'd build a lesbian AI. :roll:
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Well the lesbian part does me no good. My wife, on the other hand...
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That would explain why AI's haven't progressed far beyond the Northeastern US or California, I would reckon.
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I love that they're willing to wait us out. Meta attitude.
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I admire Hannelore for her courage.
And yes Momo, it does hurt to be hated because of what you are...
Of course somebody, somewhere, hates everyone...
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Of course somebody, somewhere, hates everyone...
It's like a more depressing rule 36 :(
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Of course, in some cases it is not quite so depressing to be hated. It is painful to be hated for something that wasn't a choice, like race, gender, sexuality, or what your brain is made of, but some things are choices.
Example: As a long-haired atheist who listens to metal, I'm sure there are thousands of people who would think I'm evil. But I don't mind that, partly because hellyeahsatan, but more importantly, because those are choices I made about my life and I can stand firm in my own footprints. People will always disagree with your choices; that's what gives spice to life. But when they hate something that is an inherent part of who you are, that's when it hurts.
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Great comic. What a good start of the week.
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I just gotta wonder what Momo's views are on AnthroPC's that get taken advantaged of. Like sex bots. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SexBot) But then again......maybe I don't wanna know what other capabilities AnthroPC's might have. (http://xkcd.com/595/)
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I think I may be the only one that likes Winslow, I find him to be a good straight man to Pintsize and Hannelore. Also, he is frequently rather adorable, and full of music.
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I was very close to voting for Winslow, he is pretty cute.
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Curious how no-one's voting for Marten, who, after all, is the linchpin round which everything revolves.
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He tends fades into the background.
For me it was a choice between Hannelore and Momo. I chose Momo because she combines a realistic view of the world with an idealistic approach to life.
On today's strip, I would have expected more groups of people to be against AIs. The fact that they are accepted by the vast majority of people suggests that Jeph does have a positive view of humanity.
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Curious how no-one's voting for Marten, who, after all, is the linchpin round which everything revolves.
Well, did you ever walk past a car showroom and say "Man, that ride has a sweet linchpin!"
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I suppose it rather depends how long AIs have been around. I mean, think about things like single parents, gay relationships, women in trousers... all are things that started out as total outrages for most people, and gradually became more acceptable until only (varying levels of) conservatives have a problem with them.
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Well, I threw a vote to our favourite "everyman", although it was a close call for Mr. McPhee. Hard to pick out why, those two strike as the characters that I can empathize most with.
As to the subject of today's strip I thought it was well handled. And as a bit of self analysis I've come to the realization that concerning certain prejudices I have become more tolerant over the years, rather than less. Maybe I've just come to realize that hard and fast notions about what is right and proper only apply to works of fiction, as reality requires much more flexibility and that judging things not by their actions is just wrong.
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Curious how no-one's voting for Marten, who, after all, is the linchpin round which everything revolves.
He tends fades into the background.
It's because of that tendency that I ended up giving him my vote, though I could have selected P) All of the above (there's just so many quirks, nuances and even bits of realisation that each character provides that makes it hard to choose). Or to rephrase Wen the Eternally Surprised (Thief of Time):
Wen: "[...] I know the answers to many questions. Ask me."
[...]
Clodpool: "Er... who is master's favourite QC character?"
[...]
Wen: "Ah, one of the difficult ones."
I like these sorts of comics and what they say about humanity (and lack thereof) as a whole. Of course, many people have grown out of their superiority complexes and come to realise that people everywhere are just trying to live life. To them - ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Enlightened Realisation. Learning that people are more than race, class, biology and desires is a lesson that too few people have learned.
I judge not by peoples looks or whatever anymore (What? Kids are always arrogant and I was no exception). If your beliefs are built of ignorance, arrogance and superiority whoever you are or wherever you might be from, then you have in my eyes earned a rank somewhere a few steps below bacteria. Or to put it in another way: Who are you to put words in God's mouth?
If anything else, if an omnicognizant, omnipresent, omnipotent being had actual issues with anyone... destroying an individual, a group or a species would not be much of a problem. Not that I seek to challenge God's power, mind you (Atheist, but not saying "God doesn't exist", but more "There's not really much reason to have faith in one, considering").
My philosophical rant is over for now. I need sleep...
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Nice start to the week - and a pretty good poll so far:
The Unscientific Poll We Haven't Done In A While - Your Favorite Character?
Marten 3 (7.3%)
Faye 9 (22%)
Dora 0 (0%)
Hannelore 14 (34.1%) <If ANYONE is surprised by this, you're not paying attention.>
Pintsize 1 (2.4%)
Marigold 1 (2.4%)
Steve 0 (0%)
Sven 0 (0%)
Raven 3 (7.3%)
Angus 1 (2.4%)
Tai 1 (2.4%)
Penelope 0 (0%)
Momo 4 (9.8%)
Winslow 1 (2.4%)
Other (Specify) 3 (7.3%) <1 vote for Jimbo, 1 for Samantha, 1 for "All of the Above">
Total Members Voted: 41
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I admire Hannelore for her courage.
And yes Momo, it does hurt to be hated because of what you are...
Of course somebody, somewhere, hates everyone...
Hannelore displays the courage of a bullfighter just to get through the day.
Tom Lehrer made much the same point you did in the song "National Brotherhood Week".
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Wonder if it's a coincidence M&M are walking by the church for part of this conversation. Or is it that if you walk anywhere in QCNoHo, you're gonna walk by the church eventually?
Think Jeph'll light that fuse?
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I for one would love to read what Jeph has written as the 'canon' to the QCverse. I didn't even notice the church, but I found that last use of the word "we" for the AnthroPC's as a bit chilling -- like there's a universal hivemind of AI consciousness, and anything from a nuclear submarine to a toaster to an Idoru, can login and compare notes.
@DSL: I hope Jeph DOESN'T. That's a short fuse to a big stick of dynamite. Why poke the sleeping dragon?
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I'm on my third read-through, and in one of the comments he mentioned he was hoping to stay away from religion. That was a long time ago though, maybe things have changed. Personally, I agree with Throg.
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I think I'd enjoy a brief religion arc - perhaps if Momo were to go to church a few times off-camera, and chat to the others about why humans put so much stock into gods. It would be interesting to get the robot perspective, and to hear the various characters' views. I don't think any of them seem religious, we've had no hint of it, but they might well have had interesting upbringings. I seem to remember Faye did have religion in her family, anyway.
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Faye and religion. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=232)
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I was actually about to vote for Marten.. though I think I identify a bit TOO much with him for it to be comfortable to actually call him my favorite. I voted Faye, because I like girls who could, potentially, beat me up.
What? Don't look at me like that...
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I was actually about to vote for Marten.. though I think I identify a bit TOO much with him for it to be comfortable to actually call him my favorite. I voted Faye, because I like girls who could, potentially, beat me up.
What? Don't look at me like that...
S'alright, we won't judge you
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too harshly.
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I just realized that I've been mentally reading Momo with Starfire's voice this whole time. :psyduck:
Reference for those who don't know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTbNuoQTiGc
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I for one would love to read what Jeph has written as the 'canon' to the QCverse. I didn't even notice the church, but I found that last use of the word "we" for the AnthroPC's as a bit chilling -- like there's a universal hivemind of AI consciousness, and anything from a nuclear submarine to a toaster to an Idoru, can login and compare notes.
There IS a hivemind:
First mention that I remember:
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1316
It happens:
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1777
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1780
and
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1785
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I for one would love to read what Jeph has written as the 'canon' to the QCverse. I didn't even notice the church, but I found that last use of the word "we" for the AnthroPC's as a bit chilling -- like there's a universal hivemind of AI consciousness, and anything from a nuclear submarine to a toaster to an Idoru, can login and compare notes.
@DSL: I hope Jeph DOESN'T. That's a short fuse to a big stick of dynamite. Why poke the sleeping dragon?
If it's any consolation, Pintsize has probably been banned from the important forums.
@Throg: I doubt he'll poke the dragon just for the sake of poking the dragon; that hasn't been his style so far. But he has done things he said he wouldn't do, at least indirectly; he commented early on after a fairly tame scene that he probably wouldn't get more risqué than that. And then, later on, he turned it up a notch -- but in service of the story, or at least a joke. But the place on society of AIs in the QCverse is obviously much on his mind and he's certainly thinking about ways to explore this.
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I foresee that we will soon see some bigots from the anti-AI church soon...
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There was a newspost that described a global meta-AI.
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There was a newspost that described a global meta-AI.
The one here (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1996):
Artificial intelligences are created in a virtual environment, where they are stored in a "creche" of other AIs in their generation. When bootstrapped to self-awareness, they are given a choice of function- commercial use (AnthroPCs), military, scientific, etc, or allowed to subsume in the global meta-AI. If they choose to go into "retail" they are allowed to choose a self-identity and are shipped to a reputable "dealer" (such as Idoru, in today's strip) where they are put up for "sale."
Purchase of an AI is not a binding contract- either party is free to terminate the relationship at any time, and the transaction agent will refund the contract fee. The use of terms like "sale" and "owner" are considered offensive by some, and are becoming rather politically incorrect (my use of them here is solely for sake of comparison, hence the quotation marks).
One would think that the majority of AIs would choose to simply be given a chassis and left to make their own way in the world, but the majority who do not go into a specialized profession choose to pair up with a human "owner." There has been much speculation by both humans and AIs as to the reason for this- no aspect of their programming indicates a cause for such a bias. The general consensus is that the average AI simply finds your average human entertaining, and enjoys the companionship.
tl;dr I am a big ol nerd
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I just realized that I've been mentally reading Momo with Starfire's voice this whole time. :psyduck:
Reference for those who don't know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTbNuoQTiGc
Strangely enough, me too :-D
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There was a newspost that described a global meta-AI.
The one here (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1996):
Artificial intelligences are created in a virtual environment, where they are stored in a "creche" of other AIs in their generation. When bootstrapped to self-awareness, they are given a choice of function- commercial use (AnthroPCs), military, scientific, etc, or allowed to subsume in the global meta-AI. If they choose to go into "retail" they are allowed to choose a self-identity and are shipped to a reputable "dealer" (such as Idoru, in today's strip) where they are put up for "sale."
Purchase of an AI is not a binding contract- either party is free to terminate the relationship at any time, and the transaction agent will refund the contract fee. The use of terms like "sale" and "owner" are considered offensive by some, and are becoming rather politically incorrect (my use of them here is solely for sake of comparison, hence the quotation marks).
One would think that the majority of AIs would choose to simply be given a chassis and left to make their own way in the world, but the majority who do not go into a specialized profession choose to pair up with a human "owner." There has been much speculation by both humans and AIs as to the reason for this- no aspect of their programming indicates a cause for such a bias. The general consensus is that the average AI simply finds your average human entertaining, and enjoys the companionship.
tl;dr I am a big ol nerd
Oh yeah, I remember the bit about the "creche". That's why I want to read Jeph's "canon". Who controls the artificial environment and the creche? Is there a single actual consciousness in the global AI? Do the AI's think of themselves as a "race"? Are they as puzzled by aspects of their own sentience as humans have been, down the centuries?
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That would explain why AI's haven't progressed far beyond the Northeastern US or California, I would reckon.
Really, what if AIs are just hiding among the humans within the rest of the nation???
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I'm sick of Momo's "Little Mermaid" comics.
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Tai
At least the AnthroPC's aren't thinking of going Cylon on the Humans
Yet
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Tai
At least the AnthroPC's aren't thinking of going Cylon on the Humans
Yet
Maybe they just want us to think that.
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Pintsize can taste things and has a stomach, as of the upgrade to the M-31 chassis.
There is a potential for dramatic conflict when Momo discovers that her premium chassis is missing a feature that Pintsize has.
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This is certainly the longest time I can remember that a comic has been up with not a single comment. Perhaps this is because there isn't a joke, but just musing about the future; or does it just not go down well with Europeans for some inscrutable reason?
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I want cybernetic implants. Mostly just modded arms and a glowing red eye, though.
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This is certainly the longest time I can remember that a comic has been up with not a single comment. Perhaps this is because there isn't a joke, but just musing about the future; or does it just not go down well with Europeans for some inscrutable reason?
Aren't you gonna join us in holding your breath in anticipation of wherever this is going?
One of us (Europeans)! One of us (Europeans)! One of us (Europeans)!
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The Unscientific Poll We Haven't Done In A While - Your Favorite Character?
Marten 5 (8.9%)
Faye 11 (19.6%)
Dora 1 (1.8%)
Hannelore 19 (33.9%)
Pintsize 2 (3.6%)
Marigold 3 (5.4%)
Steve 0 (0%)
Sven 0 (0%)
Raven 3 (5.4%)
Angus 1 (1.8%)
Tai 1 (1.8%)
Penelope 0 (0%)
Momo 6 (10.7%)
Winslow 1 (1.8%)
Other (Specify) 3 (5.4%)
Total Members Voted: 56
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I'm sick of Momo's "Little Mermaid" comics.
I have no idea what that means.
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Yeah I couldn't work that one out either. Momo is nothing like the little mermaid, either the Disney version or the traditional folk tale.
ETA: just checked and discovered it isn't a folk tale, but Hans Anderson actually made it up. Either way, no pink-headed robot girls.
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Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122, was asked what it was like to have lived through so much change. I don't remember her exact words, even in translation, but what she said was to the effect of "Meh. People are the same.".
When the cybernetic implants hit the QC world, they'll probably only affect cognition.
Genetic engineering will probably be aimed at superficial ends, such as making someone good at Scrabble.
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I for one would love to read what Jeph has written as the 'canon' to the QCverse. I didn't even notice the church, but I found that last use of the word "we" for the AnthroPC's as a bit chilling -- like there's a universal hivemind of AI consciousness, and anything from a nuclear submarine to a toaster to an Idoru, can login and compare notes.
@DSL: I hope Jeph DOESN'T. That's a short fuse to a big stick of dynamite. Why poke the sleeping dragon?
If it's any consolation, Pintsize has probably been banned from the important forums.
@Throg: I doubt he'll poke the dragon just for the sake of poking the dragon; that hasn't been his style so far. But he has done things he said he wouldn't do, at least indirectly; he commented early on after a fairly tame scene that he probably wouldn't get more risqué than that. And then, later on, he turned it up a notch -- but in service of the story, or at least a joke. But the place on society of AIs in the QCverse is obviously much on his mind and he's certainly thinking about ways to explore this.
I don't know Jeph as a person, but I think I can sort of see his views. I don't think he'd "poke the dragon" just for the sake of doing it. It may have been something on his mind back when Westboro Church was reigniting its homophobic tirade (and particularly when they came out into the public eye), and just needed the time, place and/or circumstances to be right.
I don't know. All I can guess is Jeph probably wouldn't make a cheap jibe at anyone without cause.
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QC = Blade Runner where EVERYBODY'S JUST DANDY, kthxbye
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This is certainly the longest time I can remember that a comic has been up with not a single comment.
Um, his twitter saying the comic was up is 7 hours old so it went up between 4 and 5 am. You post just before 6 am. So you are saying less than 2 hours is a LONG time?
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Well, pwhodges, for the record I love the two comics this week, so far. I just can't think of anything to add. It's almost perfect to me.
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Pintsize can taste things and has a stomach, as of the upgrade to the M-31 chassis.
There is a potential for dramatic conflict when Momo discovers that her premium chassis is missing a feature that Pintsize has.
Well, at least she still has her electric shock feature, as opposed to Pintsize losing his laser.
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I just want to say that I love the perspective shot in the first panel. That is all.
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Loving the discussion of AI's place in humanity so far. This page in particular reminds me of my favorite sci-fi site, Orion's Arm (http://www.orionsarm.com) that deals with many of the same issues, and in the speculative future discussed on that site, many people DO in fact become vehicles, vessels (the "brains" of them, certainly) and many others actually evolve into highly advanced AI. That site is basically The Singularity on steroids. Mega steroids.
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I just want to say that I love the perspective shot in the first panel. That is all.
Jeph tweeted (or was it tumbled?) something about working on thinking of ways of getting the comic better, and different perspectives was one of them. Very successful so far in my humble opinion.
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I'm sick of Momo's "Little Mermaid" comics.
I have no idea what that means.
I am guessing that Mustang, possibly confused by Momo/Ariel pink/red hair, it thinking of Ariel wanting to become human to be with Eric. The parallel doesn't really work though, because Momo doesn't want to be human, just to be treated as equal to a human. There is a big difference!
And as others have pointed out, awesome perspectives. Jeph should place his characters in expansive spaces more often.
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No no no he meant that he's sick of Momo's actual collection of Little Mermaid comic books. They really annoy him for some reason.
DUH
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The parallel doesn't really work though, because Momo doesn't want to be human, just to be treated as equal to a human. There is a big difference!
Except she wants to be able to eat cupcakes.
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I wonder, sometime in the future will Marten play Batou to momo's Major?
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I wonder, sometime in the future will Marten play Batou to momo's Major?
THAT is funny! I just can't see Momo doing all the cyber$#x and having Marten ghost link her at the wrong time being something Jeph would do. Then again after that strip where Pintsize was wearing the Fleshlight and had a cartoon of Dora's hindquarters taped to his back, perhaps anything is possible! ECCCCH! I can't get that Pintsize image out of my head. Singed my retinas on that one!
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Picked Raven, because even though I don't like her all that much individually, I really enjoy the strips where she's interacting with the rest of the cast. I wouldn't mind seeing Pintsize attempt to shock her with his antics and fail spectacularly.
I'm honestly not surprised that there's a lot of hostility towards AI, and it doesn't even seem like it'd necessarily be religious. AI's have the ability to swap bodies as often as they can afford it, they have very few needs that are easily met so they can spend more time focusing on the things they enjoy, and they're effectively immortal in a way humans don't appear to be yet. I can see and even sympathize with people who'd be freaking out over what is both an admitted takeover by the over-AI and the effective replacement of human beings by entities that not only have advantages now, but whose capabilities are increasing at a rate approaching Moore's law. It's like Skynet, if skynet was more into adult alternative than black metal (seriously, all of the skulls and flames and whatnot? Totally metal).
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Some humans will automatically hate anything different without being motivated by actual reasons. Then some other humans will attribute anything scary done by a member of a minority group to the group as a whole, and we know that some AnthroPCs have violated social conventions.
The fact that AIs "don't do religion" is probably enough by itself to set off a particular subset of bigots. That's a bigger difference from humans than being made of plastic is.
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Which is funny since there are plenty of humans made of plastic.
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I want to be a hoverboard!!! That is all.
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The parallel doesn't really work though, because Momo doesn't want to be human, just to be treated as equal to a human. There is a big difference!
Except she wants to be able to eat cupcakes.
Not equivalent. Puppies can eat cupcakes; maybe she wants to be a puppy?
It is not sufficient to expand a poorly defined desire (does she only want to eat cupcakes? What about steak? Does she think of cupcakes as delicious morsels or abominations to be destroyed? Etc.) into a vaguely correlated set of other desires, assume that this one path of many is the intent and sole possible outcome, then drop into full on prejudice-mode and expound a crude metaphor to attempt to express this, without further explanation.
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The parallel doesn't really work though, because Momo doesn't want to be human, just to be treated as equal to a human. There is a big difference!
Except she wants to be able to eat cupcakes.
Not equivalent. Puppies can eat cupcakes; maybe she wants to be a puppy?
It is not sufficient to expand a poorly defined desire (does she only want to eat cupcakes? What about steak? Does she think of cupcakes as delicious morsels or abominations to be destroyed? Etc.) into a vaguely correlated set of other desires, assume that this one path of many is the intent and sole possible outcome, then drop into full on prejudice-mode and expound a crude metaphor to attempt to express this, without further explanation.
You know, now that I think about it, why can't robots eat cupcakes? I mean, surely a civilization that has achieved singularity must have also started developing biochemical reactors, which work best with carbohydrates, which is basically all there is to cupcakes. Or maybe I missed something.
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BAHAHA Fuck YES! Adventure Time fucking rules!
Also I seriously toked up before reading the comic, totally by coincidence. Fucking awesome.
/profanity
but seriously watch Adventure Time right now
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It's the new girl! *jumps and points* I was wondering when she'd finally pop up.
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And
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It's the new girl! *jumps and points* I was wondering when she'd finally pop up.
What new girl? (Which of the three?)
And I totally know that redhead from somewhere... *wrinkles brain*
(Cudos to Jeph for further experimenting with body shapes... variata delectat)
And
Nah... could be a friend/teacher of the slim tall girl's.
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seems to me that the black girl in the latest comic looks like she could be Faye's sister.
the possibilities.
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Redheaded girl is Clinton (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2068)'s sister; calling it now. Compare chin, facial shape, eye color and hair color.
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Nice to see that Jeph has found a use for his mysterious redhead! Looking forward to get to know her.
Edit: Oh, and I voted "Other" on the poll - I adore and miss Padma! *dodges incoming missiles*
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I thought this (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2031) and this (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1445) was the mysterious redhead; very different. Did this girl show up in the background previously too?
Jeph's "#theresthatgirlagain" remark indicates at least one of them did, but I'm not sure which or where.
Edit:
ah.
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v
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Jeph has drawn the new girl on Twitter a few times, wondering what to do with her. She hasn't turned up in the comic until now.
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I thought this (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2031) and this (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1445) was the mysterious redhead; very different. Did this girl show up in the background previously too?
Jeph's "#theresthatgirlagain" remark indicates at least one of them did, but I'm not sure which or where.
Edit:
ah.
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v
No, thats Sweet-tits. (http://questionablecontent.wikia.com/wiki/Sweet-Tits) The girl that appears in many Yelling Bird strips. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2197)
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I think that that poor young intern is in for an ...... interesting time
Especially with Hai Tai :-D
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The red-headed intern with glasses is a design that Jeph has been playing with for a while on Tumblr.
Links:
http://jephjacques.com/post/24100499624/qa-dump-38
http://jephjacques.com/post/18717797534/still-keep-drawin-this-girl-all-the-time-who-is
http://jephjacques.com/post/20639465972/more-face-sketches-of-that-goddamn-girl-i-keep
http://jephjacques.com/post/18642486448/drew-some-animes-tonight
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I am much more fascinated by the tall one in the bunch. We know a lot more about her already than we know about the other two... and she seems interesting.
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And
AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK
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Sooo, since Jeph mused on his Twitter about introducing a Transwoman attending Smith College, might one of the new girls be this person?
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Sooo, since Jeph mused on his Twitter about introducing a Transwoman attending Smith College, might one of the new girls be this person?
My mind just translated this into "female transformer"... I. Need. Help.
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Sooo, since Jeph mused on his Twitter about introducing a Transwoman attending Smith College, might one of the new girls be this person?
My mind just translated this into "female transformer"... I. Need. Help.
Transwoman - robots in disguise,
Transwoman - more than meets the eyes!
Uh... :-D
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Damn, why does this work so well? ><
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Cue Tai throwing single college girls at Marten! Wacky hijinks ensue...
This is beginning...
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I can't say I'm impressed with the looks of the intern girls - I like the mystery redhead somewhat, if only because Jeph has shown her to us a few times before, but those other two fail to intrigue me. If Tai is hoping to match Marten with one of them, I hope she fails. Then again, we've just met them, so maybe they'll turn out to be interesting after all.
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Sure, Marten is a bit worried about training three new interns.
But, deep down, dude's thinking, "Three more ladies to add to my harem."
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My mind just translated this into "female transformer"... I. Need. Help.
someone's like a certain character in a certain other webkomic (http://www.khaoskomix.com/komix/alexs-story-page-59).
Also, speakin' of Adventure Time, is it just me, or have the last two b'n more fucked up than usual?
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Sure, Marten is a bit worried about training three new interns.
But, deep down, dude's thinking, "Three more ladies to add to my harem."
I really don't want this webcomic to turn into some pseudo-harem comedy.
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Dibs on the tall Asian girl with the almond-shaped eyes. :-D
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First reaction on seeing the third panel: OH MY GOD IT'S HER!!!!! :-D
Second reaction: Oh look, and there's Akima's avatar.
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Dibs on the tall Asian girl with the almond-shaped eyes.
Hands off. Those of us over 6' get first crack.
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Sure, Marten is a bit worried about training three new interns.
But, deep down, dude's thinking, "Three more ladies to add to my harem."
I really don't want this webcomic to turn into some pseudo-harem comedy.
You wants and desires have so little to do with it though.
come to think of it, so so mine.
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That asian girl is TALL! :-o I would look so silly next to her hahahhahahah (I'm 5'6'')
Also, weeee for mistery girl... But yeah, I never liked those "bunny teeth" on people. Big turn off.
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This is hardly a harem anime. If that were the case, Faye, Hannelore, and Marigold would have been all over Marten by now. But, it does seem like there are more female characters, and that they've gotten more colorful personality types.
Jeph FINALLY included an asian character -- was wondering when that would happen.
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File and Save:
Her name is Tai Hubbert.
Only took us more than 1500 strips to find out.
Worth it. ;D
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It took me reading through the whole comic first and then looking back again to realize who she was. I was so happy.
I will say her neutral expression seem a bit awkward and dorky, not in a necessarily bad way. Though her other expressions, as Jeph showed us,
http://jephjacques.com/post/20639465972/more-face-sketches-of-that-goddamn-girl-i-keep
look much more lively and Hannalorish rather than the more awkward Marigoldish we see now. Maybe that's just me and plus she was only there for three panels so I could be very wrong.
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This is hardly a harem anime.
Well, Marten isn't exactly a Bishiounen, the storyline doesn't lend enough to Shojo, Tai doesn't seem to break the Yuri trope that well, and how could you define AntroPC's and a fully functional Space station in a Slice of Life trope?
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Jeph FINALLY included an asian character -- was wondering when that would happen.
We alredy saw an asian character once (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2137)... But yeah, only once. Let's see how long are we going to see these girls.
I'm getting the feeling males are a dying breed in QC world.
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I was pretty confused because there have been lots of Asian characters, but then I realised that you guys were talking about East Asia and when I hear the term Asian I think of South Asia.
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I'm getting the feeling males are a dying breed in QC world.
Well, I would certainly imagine they are rare in an all-girl college...
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Hah, shit I forgot about that part! :-D
My point still stands though, considering Jeph's preference of drawing women.
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Jeph FINALLY included an asian character -- was wondering when that would happen.
I think the first East Asian character in QC was Chinese Delivery Man (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=761) though he didn't get any lines...
And yes "Asian", unqualified, is very ambiguous. Padma would be Asian to someone from the UK. Probably Amir too.
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The Unscientific Poll We Haven't Done In A While - Your Favorite Character?
Marten 6 (7.5%)
Faye 13 (16.3%)
Dora 1 (1.3%)
Hannelore 29 (36.3%) <"Number One Answer.">
Pintsize 2 (2.5%)
Marigold 10 (12.5%)
Steve 0 (0%)
Sven 0 (0%)
Raven 6 (7.5%)
Angus 1 (1.3%)
Tai 1 (1.3%)
Penelope 0 (0%)
Momo 6 (7.5%)
Winslow 1 (1.3%)
Other (Specify) 4 (5%)
Total Members Voted: 80
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Padma and Amir are Asian, in that their ancestors were from the continent of Asia, as much as Chinese Delivery Man or the new character, surely? I realise that the countries people assume the term refers to vary depending on what their experiences have been (and historically the UK has had more South Asian immigration whilst the US and Australia have had more East Asian) but that doesn't actually change the fact that Asia is a continent.
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I'm gonna call it now - the one on the far right that isn't the tall Asian or the redhead? SHE'S the TG co-ed.
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Adventure time is fun to watch even when not high as hell
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While Hanners and Mom are my favorite female characters my favorite all around character is Sven. While he started off as just a womanizing jackass I feel he has evolved immensely within the comic and would love to see much more of him.
Also woooo mystery girl. I'm gonna make my assumption now and say her name starts with an L.... Maybe Lisa? Lindsey? Idk just assuming.
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In North American English Asian usually refers to someone from China, Japan, Korea, and immediate neighbours with similiar looking people like Vietnam, Thailand etc. South Asian has become an increasingly common term in Canada to refer to people from India, Pakistan, and ttheir related neighbours.
Add me to the list of readers who figured Tai was in some way Asian. She definitely falls into the "ambiguously brown" category.(I will not be cruel and link to TV Tropes.) Giving her a last name doesn't clarify things.
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I've been puzzled for ages by what people mean when they say "co-ed". I knew they were talking about a student who attends college, and I knew that it was short for co-educational, but I never worked out what made someone a co-ed rather than a student. Just asked wikipedia and to be honest I'm still in the dark.
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It's not a person who's co-ed, it's an institution, owing to the fact of both sexes being educated together. Historically, schools (at least, the bigger ones, and boarding schools) were single sex, and when I was at public school (private boarding school for the rest of you), the very few such that had both sexes were referred to simply as co-eds. The same applies for colleges, I guess.
Edit: I now see the use of coed to mean (principally) a female student in US slang, which I've not come across before. Presumably this is applied to women because most places would have been men-only before they went co-ed; it strikes me as a demeaning usage (with implications of the "token minority (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokenism)" figure).
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I voted for Margold. Her personality remind me of mine when I was younger. Plus I started reading the comic because I saw a link to a comic with her and Dale and was obligated to read the 1600 or so comic back log.
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It's the latter usage I'm querying, and yes, I also have got the impression that it is used to refer to women, which is rather ironic since I'm a woman and I decidedly do not attend a co-ed college. Am I a co-ed?
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Are you a token minority? <ducks>
Actually, are you at one of the still all-female colleges - Newnham, perhaps?
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You might be called a co-ed if you attended a U.S. university. But it's my impression the word may be on its way out. It's still handy, I suppose, for headline writers, a lot shorter than the words which define it.
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And what - specifically - defines a TG co-ed? °O
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For the non-narcotic-familiar of us out here, are there any drugs that would get you "high as hell" without being obvious to the people around you? I think we've seen a similar lack of effect before with Tai on LSD (the one where she sees dragons, finding it on my phone would take too long), but my inexperienced intuition says that there would be a pretty noticable effect for any strong narcotic, like with alcohol.
Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
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You know, now that I think about it, why can't robots eat cupcakes? I mean, surely a civilization that has achieved singularity must have also started developing biochemical reactors, which work best with carbohydrates, which is basically all there is to cupcakes. Or maybe I missed something.
They could use symbiotic bacteria, or just dry out the food and incinerate it (have you seen the video of the thermal lance made of bacon?). An auxiliary power source like that could come in handy when traveling.
Methane-producing bacteria and a methane fuel cell might be the most compact design with the fewest tradeoffs.
Marijuana's effects are much less visible from the outside than alcohol's.
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Yes, Paul, I'm at Newnham, which is obviously and objectively the best college ;)
And now you can all come and visit me! Unless you are massively creepy stalkers, in which case the porters will catch you on the way in and feed you to the college bear.
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
Pintsize (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1812)
:angel:
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
Vicky, I suppose. They were actually together only before the strip started; but she has appeared in the strip, and Marten told the story.
Pintsize (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1812)
It's more that Pintsize slept with him...
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For the non-narcotic-familiar of us out here, are there any drugs that would get you "high as hell" without being obvious to the people around you? I think we've seen a similar lack of effect before with Tai on LSD (the one where she sees dragons, finding it on my phone would take too long), but my inexperienced intuition says that there would be a pretty noticable effect for any strong narcotic, like with alcohol.
Dragon LSD (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1279)
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She definitely falls into the "ambiguously brown" category.
Wait, she does?
Also, re: 3...it's possible the third person is someone he literally "slept next to". I also suppose it's possible that Jeph miscounted.
Oh, and I've always found the term "co-ed" to refer to a female to be odd.
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The new characters are Miss Frizzle, Sakaki, and... Are there any heavyset Indian ladies in the media? I can't think of any, I feel like such a cad.
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Okay okay I meant EAST ASIAN.
In North American English Asian usually refers to someone from China, Japan, Korea, and immediate neighbours with similiar looking people like Vietnam, Thailand etc. South Asian has become an increasingly common term in Canada to refer to people from India, Pakistan, and ttheir related neighbours.
Add me to the list of readers who figured Tai was in some way Asian. She definitely falls into the "ambiguously brown" category.(I will not be cruel and link to TV Tropes.) Giving her a last name doesn't clarify things.
As a Korean-American from NYC, this is a pretty good summary...hadn't heard the South Asian bit, but it makes sense: better than calling a Pakistani "Indian", and sure beats calling an Indian person "Paki". Amir is Middle-Eastern; Padma is obviously Indian; and as for Tai, I always thought she was either a halfie or Filipino, a Pinoy; although, depending on where you're standing, that's the same thing anyway (ducks, j/k!!)
In one of the QC dumps, Jeph did detail how tall Marten is -- does anyone remember? B/c tall asian girl looks TALL.
Just realized that's one of the things I like about QC: race just doesn't matter. Not a peep about an Indian girlfriend or whatever.
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Oh, and I've always found the term "co-ed" to refer to a female to be odd.
Co-ed was still in use in the 1980's, but I think since the 90's that it has become rapidly antiquated. As in, "I called up a hot co-ed on my rotary phone to meet at the Automat."
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Edit: I now see the use of coed to mean (principally) a female student in US slang, which I've not come across before. Presumably this is applied to women because most places would have been men-only before they went co-ed; it strikes me as a demeaning usage (with implications of the "token minority (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokenism)" figure).
It's the latter usage I'm querying, and yes, I also have got the impression that it is used to refer to women, which is rather ironic since I'm a woman and I decidedly do not attend a co-ed college. Am I a co-ed?
Odd, the usage in the US dates back to the 1950s at least. That's when a lot of the men's college became co-ed, women's colleges tended to go co-ed in the late 60s and 70s if the went co-ed at all. And somehow women attending a former all-male college became known as coeds. The usage then spread to women attending any co-ed college. I don't think you can be a co-ed at an all-female school though. Likewise, if the school was original all-female, I don't think the term co-ed referring to a student occurred at all.
Since the first women stepping onto a formerly all-make college were definitely in the minority, there wasn't anything "token" about it. I don't think co-eds found being called co-eds demeaning though. That attitude sounds like the reaction of someone from the 80s, not someone from the 50s.
And as someone else pointed out, the usage is becoming archaic since there is no longer a bunch of colleges "going co-ed" any more. The majority have changed and the idea of a co-ed college is no longer "new and exciting".
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Why is Nani from Lilo and Stitch asking to get high as hell? Is nothing sacred? :angel:
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As stoked as I am about the red-headed girl, I'm more stoked that Jeph actually added a chunky girl. There needs to be a couple more of those around (Faye and Mar-bear are more husky than anything).
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Voted Raven.
Asian girl is all sorts of cute. Demand more of her constantly.
Constantly.
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I find myself torn between the redgead and the Asian on whom to root for. Two likes of mine that can never meet. :(
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Automat
You can't imagine my disappointment when I looked this up and it had nothing to do with robots.
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I first went to it when I was a child. I thought it did have something to do with robots, until I opened a door and saw a moving, living human hand. I had to assume it was attached to the rest of a human, and you can probably imagine my disappointment.
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And yes "Asian", unqualified, is very ambiguous. Padma would be Asian to someone from the UK. Probably Amir too.
I'd figure those two were Middle Eastern, which technically means their Asians if you want to get literal geography-wise.
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Why wouldn't you? Doesn't it make the most sense to have Asian = from Asia?
Sure, it covers over half the world, but so what? If you want to be more specific about where someone's from, there's nothing stopping you, but that doesn't make someone from Asia any less Asian.
(And that's not even getting into Europe/Asia vs. Eurasia)
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That was my point earlier. My usual assumption when I hear "Asian" is Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi because those are the main countries of origin for the first and second-generation immigrants in the area I grew up in, but Asia is a big place. This is kind of touching on some of the stuff that came up in the Discuss racism thread recently - why would we limit "Asian" to a certain collection of countries and not others?
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I have a Korean friend who constantly reminds me that Russians, Indians, Iranians and Saudis aren't Asians. 'Asian' to her is only people from east and south Asia.
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That was my point earlier. My usual assumption when I hear "Asian" is Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi because those are the main countries of origin for the first and second-generation immigrants in the area I grew up in, but Asia is a big place. This is kind of touching on some of the stuff that came up in the Discuss racism thread recently - why would we limit "Asian" to a certain collection of countries and not others?
You dare question the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (http://youtu.be/4ImLfvgPJd8?t=22m25s) TV show over which countries are in Asia? They had their stuff verified!!
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the cartoon was good to
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This is kind of touching on some of the stuff that came up in the Discuss racism thread recently - why would we limit "Asian" to a certain collection of countries and not others?
Possibly precisely because Asia is so large, and the people born and living in Asia are so enormously diverse, that "Asian" meaning "a person from the Asian continent" is not a useful classifier. You could probably find someone in the 60% of the human race that lives in Asia who could easily be confused with a native of any other inhabited continent.
The division of continents is arbitrary and doesn't account for overlapping areas like the Middle East or Central Asia. An Egyptian or Algerian would be "African" in terms of geography, whereas an Iraqi or Saudi Arabian would be "Asian", a division that makes no sense culturally. Someone from Lebanon would have far more in common with an "African" Egyptian that with a "fellow Asian" Japanese person, and I think this is why nobody actually ever calls Lebanese people "Asian".
In people's minds, I think ethnic appearance trumps geography every time. In Australia, and I'm sure in the UK or USA too, it doesn't matter how many generations your racial-minority family has been living in the country, if you look different from the majority, your ethnic appearance will dominate people's perception and identification of you. I was born in China, but many of my "Asian" fellow-citizens were born in Australia, and it is our common ethnic appearance, not our diverse places of birth, that dominates people's perception of us as "Asian". By contrast, if he were not wearing the uniform of a general in the PLA, how many people would pick out Lin Hu (http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/1402/7005738.jpg) as "Asian"?
The "one drop rule (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule)" seems still to be alive and well too, judging from the way in which Dichen Lachman is so often referred to on the internet simply as "Asian" rather than "Australian". A few years ago, I was shocked to read a forum posting questioning whether Joanne Missingham (http://senseis.xmp.net/?JoanneMissingham) should be representing Australia in the 2008 World Mind Sports Games because she was "obviously Oriental"... :x
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I have a Korean friend who constantly reminds me that Russians, Indians, Iranians and Saudis aren't Asians. 'Asian' to her is only people from east and south Asia.
Why don't you ask her what* continent those countries are in? When she says "Asia", you reply with "exactly". I can't imagine she'd bring it up again after that.
(What ain't no continent I've ever heard of, DO THEY SPEAK ENGLISH IN WHAT? Ok, sorry about that.)
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I guess I'm showing my age by referring to them as co-eds (which isn't actually the case, since Smif is an all-girls college).
Yes, "co-ed" is a term for a student in a college where classes are made up of both male and female students. Colleges in the US were single-sex for a long time, for various factors (limited vocational opportunities for females, for one). The term was pretty much coined in the 1920's, after suffrage was granted to women. It's gone out of vogue, since most colleges are co-ed nowadays (with the exception, of course, of places like Smith College).
And "TG" is the term for Transgendered - in other words, a male-as-female or female-as-male. Jeph wondered in his tweets if an all-girls college would accept a male-to-female TG to matriculate as a student; I don't know if they would or wouldn't, personally.
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I have a Korean friend who constantly reminds me that Russians, Indians, Iranians and Saudis aren't Asians. 'Asian' to her is only people from east and south Asia.
Why don't you ask her what* continent those countries are in? When she says "Asia", you reply with "exactly". I can't imagine she'd bring it up again after that.
(What ain't no continent I've ever heard of, DO THEY SPEAK ENGLISH IN WHAT? Ok, sorry about that.)
Well, what do you expect? Many Asian cultures are ridiculously racist and bigoted (speaking as an Asian, I do have some prejudices; we're not all perfect anyway). Koreans take it to a....whole new level.
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I have a Korean friend who constantly reminds me that Russians, Indians, Iranians and Saudis aren't Asians. 'Asian' to her is only people from east and south Asia.
Why don't you ask her what* continent those countries are in? When she says "Asia", you reply with "exactly". I can't imagine she'd bring it up again after that.
(What ain't no continent I've ever heard of, DO THEY SPEAK ENGLISH IN WHAT? Ok, sorry about that.)
Technically even France, Germany, Spain, and the rest of Europe are also in Asia because there is no true geological or geographical separation between Europe and Asia like there would be for other continents. That being the case, there should actually only be six continents, where Europe and Asia should be Eurasia.
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I mentioned that before, but my point is even the people who say that not all from Asia are Asians would probably agree that India and China are on the same continent and that continent is called Asia.
That being said, yeah, the distinction between Europe and Asia is arbitrary. I wonder if there's a sign in Russia that has the "border" between Europe and Asia, where you can go from one continent to the other without leaving the country.
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Why wouldn't you? Doesn't it make the most sense to have Asian = from Asia?
It just about says as much as saying African = from Africa.
"African" doesn't make a better work in describing a person than "Asian" does.
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I wonder if there's a sign in Russia that has the "border" between Europe and Asia, where you can go from one continent to the other without leaving the country.
Yes. Lots of them (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1223&bih=1050&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Europe+Asia+monuments+in+russia&oq=Europe+Asia+monuments+in+russia&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=img.3...16261.21149.0.21849.12.1.0.11.0.0.162.162.0j1.1.0...0.0.g5E_qVniQhM).
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Why wouldn't you? Doesn't it make the most sense to have Asian = from Asia?
It just about says as much as saying African = from Africa.
"African" doesn't make a better work in describing a person than "Asian" does.
I'm not saying either are very specific, as they apply to a lot of different cultures, but neither are inaccurate. Someone who is from Africa is African, someone who is from Asia is Asian (or Eurasian, I guess). Most people refer to themselves as a more specific group (like their country rather than their continent).
Either way, in a thousand years, we'll all be Earthicans.
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Technically even France, Germany, Spain, and the rest of Europe are also in Asia because there is no true geological or geographical separation between Europe and Asia like there would be for other continents. That being the case, there should actually only be six continents, where Europe and Asia should be Eurasia.
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
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I wonder if there's a sign in Russia that has the "border" between Europe and Asia, where you can go from one continent to the other without leaving the country.
Yes. Lots of them (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1223&bih=1050&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Europe+Asia+monuments+in+russia&oq=Europe+Asia+monuments+in+russia&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=img.3...16261.21149.0.21849.12.1.0.11.0.0.162.162.0j1.1.0...0.0.g5E_qVniQhM).
Thanks!
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According to the OED, "coed" -- in both the institutional and female student senses -- dates from the late 19th C. The term struck me as pretty old-fashioned when I went to college in the late 60s.
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Like I said, it kinda died out after suffrage was granted in the 1920's. Post-war US colleges pretty much became completely co-ed because of the GI Bill and more career options for women.
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Why wouldn't you? Doesn't it make the most sense to have Asian = from Asia?
It just about says as much as saying African = from Africa.
"African" doesn't make a better work in describing a person than "Asian" does.
I'm not saying either are very specific, as they apply to a lot of different cultures, but neither are inaccurate. Someone who is from Africa is African, someone who is from Asia is Asian (or Eurasian, I guess). Most people refer to themselves as a more specific group (like their country rather than their continent).
Either way, in a thousand years, we'll all be Earthicans.
Awesome. I just hope I can have my cognitive awareness transferred to a robot so I can be there. At this point I question if all the sci-fi I read is good for me.
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Why wouldn't you? Doesn't it make the most sense to have Asian = from Asia?
It just about says as much as saying African = from Africa.
"African" doesn't make a better work in describing a person than "Asian" does.
I'm not saying either are very specific, as they apply to a lot of different cultures, but neither are inaccurate. Someone who is from Africa is African, someone who is from Asia is Asian (or Eurasian, I guess). Most people refer to themselves as a more specific group (like their country rather than their continent).
Either way, in a thousand years, we'll all be Earthicans.
This is one of those things that I was never comfortable with. I don't have Asian blood, but I have Asian relatives from Korea and Japan (we've got some veterans on my side), so I had to learn really early that the young child "Chinese" blanket term was not cool. Then when people started saying Asian, I thought they meant it as a term for any Asian (Indian, various east and southeast ethnicities, etc. and so on), until I realized that they were just meaning it as a term for people with "the eyes." It's one of those things that just doesn't sit right with me, such as using "African" to describe black people (when you've got the North African ethnicities) exclusively. I keep telling myself to get over it and it doesn't matter, but it's just one of those things that likes to chew at the back of my brain when I have too much time.
Anyway, I like how Jeph drew the Asian girl. It's amazing (in terms of laziness more than anything) how we can still get away with just narrowing their eyes (or in some cases, closing them) and painting them with some default yellow shader in Photoshop.
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I'm excited to see a South East Asian girl in the comic! Can't wait to find out more about her (: And also re: Tai's ethnicity, I thought she was a halfie right from the start. Hopefully this will be confirmed at some point :D
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Jeph wondered in his tweets if an all-girls college would accept a male-to-female TG to matriculate as a student; I don't know if they would or wouldn't, personally.
A person who changed gender legally, which is not the case of all TG persons, would, by law, be eligible for study in a single-gender college of his or her "new" gender. But many US colleges tend to have other restrictions than those coming from the naked law, so it would depend on the institution in question. In some countries, the original gender of a cross-gendered person would not be relevant - if you're legally a woman, you have all the rights of those born female, so to speak.
I hope I havent stepped on anyones toes with this post...
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For what it's worth, "co-ed" to me means "female character in a college-themed porn flick". I feel pretty safe in saying that using it to describe an actual person is almost always condescending, as if you think it's just adorable that she decided to go to college instead of finishing school, but she's only there for her MRS degree, so it's not like we have to take her seriously as a student.
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@Comic:
Someone replaced Marten with Captain Obvious. QC will now be called Questionably Obvious or Obvious Content. And will be largely about people pointing out stuff everybody already knew.
edit:
Oh hey, do I get to say "first" now? This is a first. (Hah!)
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Technically even France, Germany, Spain, and the rest of Europe are also in Asia because there is no true geological or geographical separation between Europe and Asia like there would be for other continents. That being the case, there should actually only be six continents, where Europe and Asia should be Eurasia.
Yes, Eurasia is the continent, but that doesn't mean Europe and Asia don't exist as geographical and cultural regions. It certainly doesn't mean France is in Asia, because apart from the hazy area where they meet, the distinction between Europe and Asia has always been clear. And does it matter if they overlap? Many regions of the world don't have distinct borders. There is no true geological or geographical separation between Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Does that mean France is in Eastern Europe?
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Technically even France, Germany, Spain, and the rest of Europe are also in Asia because there is no true geological or geographical separation between Europe and Asia like there would be for other continents. That being the case, there should actually only be six continents, where Europe and Asia should be Eurasia.
Yes, Eurasia is the continent, but that doesn't mean Europe and Asia don't exist as geographical and cultural regions. It certainly doesn't mean France is in Asia, because apart from the hazy area where they meet, the distinction between Europe and Asia has always been clear. And does it matter if they overlap? Many regions of the world don't have distinct borders. There is no true geological or geographical separation between Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Does that mean France is in Eastern Europe?
Indeed not, and most geographers today are fairly agreed upon the boundaries between Europe and Asia. Geographically speaking, all of Armenia, for instance, lies in Asia, while most of Georgia is in Europe. Still, Armenians as an ethnic group would be called Europeans, since they culturally "belong" to Europe. The same might be said of the Turkish people, although many would disagree.
All in all, it might be best to avoid using the word "Asian" to describe a single individual, both to avoid confusion possible insults. It's much better to use terms like "Central Asian", "South Asian", "East Asian" and "South East Asian", but you'll still not be sure to avoid confusion.
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I still find it hilarious when people insist that the Americas are one continent based on the fact that there's no natural break between them, while at the same time claiming Europe and Asia to be two, under a test even Africa fails objectively. They've absorbed the conventions they were taught so thoroughly that they can't admit that that's all they are.
The fact is, though, that it's always been known that the three continents were all linked together - it was never a system meant for the entire world's use, but only the Greeks', where one meant sailing south, one east, and one trekking north.
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I still find it hilarious when a clown is hit by a pie.
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Technically even France, Germany, Spain, and the rest of Europe are also in Asia because there is no true geological or geographical separation between Europe and Asia like there would be for other continents. That being the case, there should actually only be six continents, where Europe and Asia should be Eurasia.
Yes, Eurasia is the continent, but that doesn't mean Europe and Asia don't exist as geographical and cultural regions. It certainly doesn't mean France is in Asia, because apart from the hazy area where they meet, the distinction between Europe and Asia has always been clear. And does it matter if they overlap? Many regions of the world don't have distinct borders. There is no true geological or geographical separation between Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Does that mean France is in Eastern Europe?
No, but it does mean that France in Europe. France is also in Eurasia. France is also on Earth. That only means as much as you want it to mean.
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Anyway, that girl with the earrings has a future. Even if it's the elf girl Jeph seems to have come up with first.
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I still find it hilarious when people insist that the Americas are one continent based on the fact that there's no natural break between them, while at the same time claiming Europe and Asia to be two, under a test even Africa fails objectively.
I agree. It seems, however, that this is a problem stemming from the English language. In most languages, the word "continent" is split in two. In my language, Norwegian, the word "kontinent" describes a geological landmass. Eurasia is a "kontinent", as is Africa, North America (including Central America, but that is a different discussion), South America, Australia and Antarctica. The word "verdensdel", however, which literally mean "part of the world", is similar to the everyday use of "continent", and is split further into Asia, Europe, North and Central America and so on. This split is prevalent in most languages, even the ones most closely related to English (Frisian, Dutch, High German and so on), and makes discussions such as this easier.
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I still find it hilarious when people insist that the Americas are one continent based on the fact that there's no natural break between them,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap
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"Weird hazing ritual" indeed! I like the emergent dynamic between these girls, I think...
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It is a weird hazing ritual, but the hazee is Marten. :P
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Nothing like, "You're the new trainer, you have no prep time, no prepared lessons, no idea of what is formally required vice what you often do and no idea what the baseline for your trainees is- go."
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I'm wondering if Momo would have been a better trainer because I suspect anthro PCs have excellent memories, can research things quickly (e.g. training techniques) and Momo, unlike Marten, doesn't seem to be afraid of public speaking.
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Technically even France, Germany, Spain, and the rest of Europe are also in Asia because there is no true geological or geographical separation between Europe and Asia like there would be for other continents. That being the case, there should actually only be six continents, where Europe and Asia should be Eurasia.
Yes, Eurasia is the continent, but that doesn't mean Europe and Asia don't exist as geographical and cultural regions. It certainly doesn't mean France is in Asia, because apart from the hazy area where they meet, the distinction between Europe and Asia has always been clear. And does it matter if they overlap? Many regions of the world don't have distinct borders. There is no true geological or geographical separation between Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Does that mean France is in Eastern Europe?
Indeed not, and most geographers today are fairly agreed upon the boundaries between Europe and Asia. Geographically speaking, all of Armenia, for instance, lies in Asia, while most of Georgia is in Europe. Still, Armenians as an ethnic group would be called Europeans, since they culturally "belong" to Europe. The same might be said of the Turkish people, although many would disagree.
All in all, it might be best to avoid using the word "Asian" to describe a single individual, both to avoid confusion possible insults. It's much better to use terms like "Central Asian", "South Asian", "East Asian" and "South East Asian", but you'll still not be sure to avoid confusion.
I always thought the Ural mountains separated Europe with Asia. As for calling people Asians would be because both the race as people of that continent could be called that, so people only use the former to avoid confusion. I guess that the word Caucasian could be a compromise as what to call people from West and North Asia.
For some reason I associate a Miss Hub(b)ert with an old teacher(even if I didn't had one with that name). So did we see any of new girls before somewhere?
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I still find it hilarious when people insist that the Americas are one continent based on the fact that there's no natural break between them, while at the same time claiming Europe and Asia to be two, under a test even Africa fails objectively.
I just tell them to look at the boundaries of tectonic plates. This is why India is referred to as a 'subcontinent' even though it is quite clearly (visually) a giant peninsula in Asia.
Why don't you ask her what* continent those countries are in? When she says "Asia", you reply with "exactly". I can't imagine she'd bring it up again after that.
I do tell her this, and she still insists that they're not Asian. As someone mentioned above, she is Korean (she's only been in the US a couple years), and they take it to a different level. She's not racist or anything (she's married to a white guy), it's just the culture she was brought up in.
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I always thought the Ural mountains separated Europe with Asia.
They do, but the problem is the regions south of the mountains. The Urals become less of a natural barrier when you get as far south as Kazakhstan. Plus, the experts disagree on how much of the Caucasus range should be considered European.
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For some reason I associate a Miss Hub(b)ert with an old teacher(even if I didn't had one with that name). So did we see any of new girls before somewhere?
We haven't officially seen the new girls before, but Jeph has been drawing the girl with frizzy red hair and glasses for quite a while now, without knowing precisely what to do with her.
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I'm wondering if Momo would have been a better trainer because I suspect anthro PCs have excellent memories, can research things quickly (e.g. training techniques) and Momo, unlike Marten, doesn't seem to be afraid of public speaking.
But wouldn't have been as funny. You can see the dilemma.
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I wonder how long it will be before the phrase "This is a bookshelf" becomes part of a "History of Communications" course.
Or, given the way US politics and the economy seem to be going on alternate days, a phrase uttered just before throwing one on the bonfire/hobo camp fire.
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I wonder how long it will be before the phrase "This is a bookshelf" becomes part of a "History of Communications" course.
I'm somewhat tempted to use it as a signature. But the Pokemon quote is still better!
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I'm wondering if Momo would have been a better trainer because I suspect anthro PCs have excellent memories, can research things quickly (e.g. training techniques) and Momo, unlike Marten, doesn't seem to be afraid of public speaking.
But wouldn't have been as funny. You can see the dilemma.
True. Momo would end up having to step up to save him from this embarassing predicament, but it's always fun to see Marten put his foot in it.
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When does Marten get to choose his first Pokemon - errrr... personal intern?
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Oddly, I thought of my first playthrough of Pokemon Gold when that old man was dragging me to places I clearly knew what they were. I even heard the music.
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Nothing like, "You're the new trainer, you have no prep time, no prepared lessons, no idea of what is formally required vice what you often do and no idea what the baseline for your trainees is- go."
:-D Y'know, behind the scenes Tai must have saved the world a-la-Steve, or at least someone's hide, or else the particular area of the Library they're at is just considered entirely unimportant by the administration. Otherwise ISTM that she would not last long as a manager in a real workplace (drug use during work hours, never mind the random hiring decisions or being more interested in partying and girls). I recall the strip where she explains to her boss that a rave she's throwing in the library is an experiment in new learning environments and the boss seems to want, but not dare, to call her on it. Then again Smif is supposed to be this caricature of the proverbial ultraliberal NE college, so it fits well.
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I don't recall anyone's pointed out here that "Eurasian" has also referred to someone of mixed Asian/European descent.
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Generally, the Urals and the western border of Kazhakstan are considered the dividing line of Europe. Georgia, Azerbijan and Armenia are considered, with Turkey, to be "Asia Minor". And I always heard of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh called the Indian "subcontinent".
Anyways - the one gal is taking this whole thing way too seriously. I'm also kinda liking the redhead's looks and attitude.
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Generally, the Urals and the western border of Kazhakstan are considered the dividing line of Europe. Georgia, Azerbijan and Armenia are considered, with Turkey, to be "Asia Minor". And I always heard of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh called the Indian "subcontinent".
Actually, about 10% of Kazakhstan is in Europe. As is the northern tips of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Armenia is, as mentioned, wholly in Asia. The part of Turkey that lies on the western side of the Bosphorus is also in Europe, while the rest (Asia Minor) is in Asia.
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Y'know, behind the scenes Tai must have saved the world a-la-Steve, or at least someone's hide, or else the particular area of the Library they're at is just considered entirely unimportant by the administration.
Well, we've seen that college trustees slip into the library for a quickie, and get caught in compromising positions (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1133), leading to 30% raises (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1134). Perhaps Tai simply has "the goods" on enough senior staff to be fireproof?
Tall-East-Asian-girl looks profoundly unimpressed with Marten's performance.
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If Marten really wants to haze the interns, he could bring out the little hats.
YYEESSSSSS
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I vote that we call Tall East Asian Girl "Akima". ;)
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Woo, 101 votes!
The Unscientific Poll We Haven't Done In A While - Your Favorite Character?
Marten 11 (10.9%) <-- Number 4
Faye 13 (12.9%) <-- Number 2
Dora 1 (1%)
Hannelore 35 (34.7%) <-- Number 1
Pintsize 2 (2%)
Marigold 12 (11.9%) <-- Number 3
Steve 0 (0%)
Sven 2 (2%)
Raven 7 (6.9%)
Angus 2 (2%)
Tai 1 (1%)
Penelope 0 (0%)
Momo 8 (7.9%) <-- Number 5 (Is ALIVE!)
Winslow 2 (2%)
Other (Specify) 5 (5%)
Total Members Voted: 101
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Looonnnngggggg curly hair Redhead with glasses. My knees are weak.
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
This one. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1170) Yes, I am counting that.
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I vote that we call Tall East Asian Girl "Akima". ;)
Red-haired one is closer, given her willingness to question things. TEAG may be an interesting subversion of the overachiever stereotype.
What's Marten's problem? I thought he had gotten over being tongue-tied around women. Is it having to deal with three strangers at once?
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It's the RESPONSIBILITY.
Though our hero does seem to be more comfortable in the big-brother-mentor role than in the cruising-for-chicks role. Go with your strength, Marten! FOCUS!
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Shh. He might tell us something important soon.
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My bet is going to go for the east asian recruit being the TG. Just a hunch I have.
Regardless I DEMAND NAMES FOR THE NEW RECRUITS!
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"Well, they sure have some strange names."
"You mean funny names?"
"Yes."
"Well, tell me some of the names."
"Let's see. Who thinks this is a weird hazing ritual, What's taking notes and I don't know isn't that impressed with Marten."
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
This one. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1170) Yes, I am counting that.
Didn't Marten have an ex-girlfriend before Dora. I'm sure they had a fling every now and then.
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Until told otherwise, I'm going to call the tall one Talia.
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"Well, they sure have some strange names."
"You mean funny names?"
"Yes."
"Well, tell me some of the names."
"Let's see. Who thinks this is a weird hazing ritual, What's taking notes and I don't know isn't that impressed with Marten."
I know, Hazel, Natasha, and... uh...
screw it I'm not good with Asian Names 2 out of 3.
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TEAG = Motoko (either GitS or Love Hina, take yer pick).
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
This one. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1170) Yes, I am counting that.
Didn't Marten have an ex-girlfriend before Dora. I'm sure they had a fling every now and then.
Yes, Vicky, but that one was extremely over.
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I forget, weren't there hints that one of the new recruits is transgender? If so, my guess currently goes with the darker woman.
My bet is going to go for the east asian recruit being the TG. Just a hunch I have.
Regardless I DEMAND NAMES FOR THE NEW RECRUITS!
All three have some hints that they could be TG.
Asian culture has the Kathoey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathoey), the Hijra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_%28South_Asia%29), the Newhalf (NSFW) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhalf), and others that escape me right now.....
The darker woman could be a Fa'afafine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa%27afafine), a Fakaleiti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakaleiti), a Akava'ine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akava%27ine), or a Mahu. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahu_%28person%29)
As for the ginger......I know someone that looks like her. She went thru the process of going MtF.
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
This one. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1170) Yes, I am counting that.
Didn't Marten have an ex-girlfriend before Dora. I'm sure they had a fling every now and then.
Yes, Vicky, but that one was extremely over.
Hmm. Yeah, I guess, Marten didn't have sex with her since the comic started. I think I misread that the first time.
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I stand to my initial interpretation: this is all a ploy from Tai to expand Marten's dating pool. Her pretext for affecting this job on him is ludicrous. And she's been knowing him for long enough to know that he's never more endearing than when he's bumbling and confused.
If this ploy is well thought or even wise is another matter entirely.
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"Well, they sure have some strange names."
"You mean funny names?"
"Yes."
"Well, tell me some of the names."
"Let's see. Who thinks this is a weird hazing ritual, What's taking notes and I don't know isn't that impressed with Marten."
THIRD BASE
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I vote that we call Tall East Asian Girl "Akima". ;)
Akima sounds too common. I vote for Misaki.
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if an all-girls college would accept a male-to-female TG to matriculate as a student
Obviously I can't speak for all women's colleges (incidentally, whilst I refer to my college as "a girls' college", some people find it demeaning - no one ever talks about a "boys' college". We're adults, so we're women. Just a heads-up, as many women's colleges attract very fiercely feminist women!) but mine accepted a fellow who is female but was born male. There was Controversy and Fuss, and Germaine Greer resigned in protest, because Germaine Greer is a bigot.
Added because I got held up by two posts being posted at the same time anyway: I just googled to check I wasn't talking rubbish about Germaine Greer (I wasn't) and Rachael Padman has written a very interesting and very well-written article about her transition, which is worth a read if anyone is interested.
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"Well, they sure have some strange names."
"You mean funny names?"
"Yes."
"Well, tell me some of the names."
"Let's see. Who thinks this is a weird hazing ritual, What's taking notes and I don't know isn't that impressed with Marten."
THIRD BASE
Marten's hoping for at least that, I'm sure.
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if an all-girls college would accept a male-to-female TG to matriculate as a student
Obviously I can't speak for all women's colleges (incidentally, whilst I refer to my college as "a girls' college", some people find it demeaning - no one ever talks about a "boys' college". We're adults, so we're women. Just a heads-up, as many women's colleges attract very fiercely feminist women!) but mine accepted a fellow who is female but was born male. There was Controversy and Fuss, and Germaine Greer resigned in protest, because Germaine Greer is a bigot.
Added because I got held up by two posts being posted at the same time anyway: I just googled to check I wasn't talking rubbish about Germaine Greer (I wasn't) and Rachael Padman has written a very interesting and very well-written article about her transition, which is worth a read if anyone is interested.
Is Germaine Greer the one that published the creepy-ass book of pictures of half-naked prubescent boys on some pretext about double standards in art regarding sexuality?
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I try not to know anything about Germaine Greer's work, because of the aforementioned opinion that she is a bigot, but I believe she wrote The Female Eunuch.
My favourite Germaine Greer-related story. Just before I matriculated, there was some big hoopla about the university being 800 years old and a big theatre production was put on. Germaine Greer was at the party, rather intoxicated, and spotted a priest in his dog collar. She said to him, slightly slurred "Everything you believe... is a lie!". He looked at her, let a beat drop, and said "Madam, for your sake I hope you are right."
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I vote that we call Tall East Asian Girl "Akima". ;)
Akima sounds too common. I vote for Misaki.
I think its gonna be Rebecca or something english, because she was more then likely born in America.
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I vote that we call Tall East Asian Girl "Akima". ;)
Akima sounds too common. I vote for Misaki.
I think its gonna be Rebecca or something english, because she was more then likely born in America.
Fred.
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While that sounds nice, I don't think he's going to want a character in his strip named for a certain "Friday" singer.
...and is that a takeoff on Rikki Tikki Tembo No-Sarembo Chari Bari Pip Peri Pembo?
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Her name is Jim, but some people call her.....Jim.
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We come in peace, shoot to kill
Until told otherwise, I'm going to call the tall one Talia.
This message tentatively approved by the PsiCorps Public Relations Division
The Corps is Mother
The Corps is Father
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Will this get Tai in trouble? Redhead might file a complaint.
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Will this get Tai in trouble? Redhead might file a complaint.
Why should it? I doubt the Smif library is required to employ only fully educated librarians.
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Goddamnit, when will shy/insecure people finally stop rubbing their necks when confronted? That has always irritated me. oO
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The Unscientific Poll We Haven't Done In A While - Your Favorite Character?
Hannelore 38 (35.5%) <-- Raise your hand if you saw this coming a mile away. I thought so.
Faye 13 (12.1%)
Marigold 12 (11.2%)
Marten 11 (10.3%)
Raven 8 (7.5%)
Momo 8 (7.5%)
Pintsize 2 (1.9%)
Sven 2 (1.9%)
Angus 2 (1.9%)
Winslow 2 (1.9%)
Dora 1 (0.9%)
Tai 1 (0.9%)
Penelope 1 (0.9%)
Steve 0 (0%)
Other (Specify) 6 (5.6%)
Total Members Voted: 107
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Goddamnit, when will shy/insecure people finally stop rubbing their necks when confronted? That has always irritated me. oO
Dude - Marten's been doing it for YEARS. Heck, you could argue he first did it all the way back in strip number 7!
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*raises hand*
I didn't expect Faye to finish second though.
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Goddamnit, when will shy/insecure people finally stop rubbing their necks when confronted? That has always irritated me. oO
Dude - Marten's been doing it for YEARS. Heck, you could argue he first did it all the way back in strip number 7!
I know he has. I was a lurker back then. It finally bubbled up.
And as someone already asked: Shouldn't he be past all the insecurity crap by now?
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Will this get Tai in trouble? Redhead might file a complaint.
"There is a female Librarian that is as high as shit all the time, a MALE librarian with the education prowess of a street rat, and an AnthroPC that can throw testicles from it's vajay-jay. WHAT KINDA COLLEGE LIBRARY IS BEING RUN HERE?!?!"
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I thought that´s spelled Va-jayjay!?
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And as someone already asked: Shouldn't he be past all the insecurity crap by now?
Why? I'm not - not completely, anyway. I do the thing with the arm too.
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Didn't Tai once said she isn't a librarian either, citing required degrees to hold that title?
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[...]
"There is a female Librarian that is as high as shit all the time, a MALE librarian with the education prowess of a street rat, and an AnthroPC that can throw testicles from it's vajay-jay. WHAT KINDA COLLEGE LIBRARY IS BEING RUN HERE?!?!"
The obvious answer is one that values the bottom line over most other considerations. I'm betting that Marten and Momo are cheaper to hire.
However, the fact that Tai got high when she knew they were coming in and assigned Marten to them was probably a way of putting them off that library so that she can keep Marten and Momo on the payroll, and run the library the way she wants to (rather than be questioned all the time). Furthermore, if the internship remains vacant and/or she can put someone she wants in it, there's less chance that the new person would replace Tai.
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As he says, Marten is not a Librarian. He is only a library assistant. Some people seem to think anyone who works in a library is a librarian, which is like thinking anyone who works in a kitchen is a chef.
Mind, he should nonetheless know enough by now to display a little more adeptness.
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My wife is not a librarian (she is a biologist who has moved into use of computers in education), but she is nevertheless deputy director of the library of a university.
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Yeah. you don't really have to be a librarian for a lot of things you´ll do in a library.
I did an Internship at the local college library and the head of departement (loan/lending etc.) said she basically never did any library-specific stuff anymore because it´s gotten to be just like middle-management. Which is the case with a lot of jobs in public service, I guess.
On the other hand the system (of scientific libraries) is quite complex, so to really know what you are doing and why you should have the BA or something.
My professor in library marketing is a chemist.
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I don't usually make comments like this but regarding panel 4:
Eh, What's up, Doc?
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I think its gonna be Rebecca or something english, because she was more then likely born in America.
Isn't Rebecca Hebrew? But a Western-style name, legal or assumed for convenience, is quite likely. It's interesting that the East Asian names that have been suggested here so far are all Japanese. The influence of manga and anime, presumably. I vote for Korean!
The red-head has a stare like a basilisk.
I try not to know anything about Germaine Greer's work, because of the aforementioned opinion that she is a bigot, but I believe she wrote The Female Eunuch.
Indeed she did, but she's written a lot of things since, and it's a bit weird that people are so fixated on a book first published in 1970. The depressing thing about The Female Eunuch is not its anger (which is easy to understand and indeed share), or that it is chaotic and poorly-written (which it is IMHO), but that so many of the things it said about the position of women in society are still true more than 40 years later.
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Didn't Tai once said she isn't a librarian either, citing required degrees to hold that title?
Ah yes, just looked it up, Tai did say it but it was in a guest comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2049). She said 'I just work here' too.
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A thought! ... Jeph is building up "another CoD". Like tSB was a CoD. A place to let characters converse and let arcs start and end or unfold.
We are witnessing the introduction to "Questionable Content: The Library Files"...
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Or this gets all three of them fired, and they wind up on the hunt together.
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an AnthroPC that can throw testicles from it's vajay-jay
I think that you meant to type "tentacles," but the mental image of an AnthroPC firing testicles from its crotch is traumatizing hilarious.
Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
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It's interesting that the East Asian names that have been suggested here so far are all Japanese. The influence of manga and anime, presumably. I vote for Korean!
I say Korean or Chinese. There are not many really tall people in Japan, after all. Not that it matters much - Jeph might not let us know anyway.
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Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
And luckily, she's right there on the platform to jump aboard the Marten-train to Orgasm-town.
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Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
And luckily, she's right there on the platform to jump aboard the Marten-train to Orgasm-town.
She looks like she's already been to Bitter-Recriminations-Ville...
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Yes, Marten's personality is evolving but that does not mean that it's any less difficult for an anxiety-prone person to be placed in an uncomfortable position.
[...]
"There is a female Librarian that is as high as shit all the time, a MALE librarian with the education prowess of a street rat, and an AnthroPC that can throw testicles from it's vajay-jay. WHAT KINDA COLLEGE LIBRARY IS BEING RUN HERE?!?!"
The obvious answer is one that values the bottom line over most other considerations. I'm betting that Marten and Momo are cheaper to hire.
However, the fact that Tai got high when she knew they were coming in and assigned Marten to them was probably a way of putting them off that library so that she can keep Marten and Momo on the payroll, and run the library the way she wants to (rather than be questioned all the time). Furthermore, if the internship remains vacant and/or she can put someone she wants in it, there's less chance that the new person would replace Tai.
You're right -- it could be a "weird hazing ritual", as in Tai making sure they're the "right" kind of people (or AIs) to work under her management style, or else be chased away and leave her to do what she likes. And there are many RL offices with conventionally "normal" managers who feel that interns are a bloody nuisance that distracts them from running the place the way they normally do ("Dammit, we just lost the conference room we used as nap/gameroom just to have somewhere to sit these kids...").
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Suddenly Marten reminds me of Jon Arbuckle.
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My professor in library marketing is a chemist.
Is that the US version of the word, or the UK version?
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Yes, you do need an MLS -- master's of library science -- to really run a library.
These interns remind me of the grad student interns we've got in our own office. Ready to take on the world, stars in their eyes, not aware of the kitchen sink of humdrum boring office work about to fall on their heads.
On a side note, though, MLS is an in-demand degree -- or rather MLIS, library and information science. What was used for shelving books is, apparently, broadly applicable to arranging information across quite a variety of fields; and these days it's all about Big Data.
On a side side note: damn Jeph had a good time doing the shading on the redhead's hair in Panel 3.
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It's just as likely Tai is sitting in her office, watching the security cameras and laughing her head off.
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the position of women in society are still true more than 40 years later.
I'm very surprised at this. I don't see how this can be true. Then I thought - 'maybe you need to ask which society? It's not like they're all the same!'
There is no way that the position of women in Canada is the same it was in 1972! No way in hell! It was different even in 1982!
Maybe some aspects are similar. But I'd really like some examples, and I'm sure you have references that would show the situation to be so dire?!?
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On the name issue, if we are going to go with weird names then we must avoid anything stereotypically expected.
East Asian would be names like Brigitte, Gwenhwyvar or Margred.
Our heavy-set lady could be named Thomasina, Zerlina or maybe Yvonne or Ephemeris Jansky
Our red hot red head could be named Anastasiya, Флорентина, or maybe Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim's Dotter.
Heck, just mix it up between any of them to give everyone the equivalent of a straight shot Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster .... on ice. :-D
My money, all two cents (1.25 u$), is on Tai watching all this on the closed circuit. :wink:
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Redhead's grounds for a complaint against Tai would be neglect of duty, failure to provide required training, and leaving them in the hands of someone who could trivially be portrayed as insulting ("this is a bookshelf").
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the position of women in society are still true more than 40 years later.
I'm very surprised at this. I don't see how this can be true. Then I thought - 'maybe you need to ask which society? It's not like they're all the same!'
There is no way that the position of women in Canada is the same it was in 1972! No way in hell! It was different even in 1982!
Maybe some aspects are similar. But I'd really like some examples, and I'm sure you have references that would show the situation to be so dire?!?
Akima writes with precision. "So many of the things it said" we can take to mean the logical meaning: "a proper subset of statements made in that book about the position of women in society". The position of women in society can change radically and still leave many problems behind.
This could be a good thread in Discuss, in fact.
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Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
I wanted to say that but I wasn't sure if someone was going to be offended by that or not... It seems like it's cool so I will say it with you:
Ginger needs to chill the f- out.
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Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
She may need to chill (dude, it's an internship in a library, it is not running the Pentagon) but why do people always assume that sex will stop women having strong opinions?
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because she is clearly a sexually-frustrated bag of pent-up desire can't you tell
i expect she will become hysterical soon
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because she is clearly a sexually-frustrated bag of pent-up desire can't you tell
i expect she will become hysterical soon
Well, if she does become hysterical, then the Smif College library does have that exhaustive catalog of Victorian-era porn; she's come to the right place.
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Is the contention here that her complaint was unfounded, or that it was expressed with disproportionate intensity?
A mellower response would be appropriate if she realizes she's in a webcomic, but she probably thinks this is important to her career and that she should be treated with respect at work.
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Aw, look how moe Marten is. :3
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Is the contention here that her complaint was unfounded, or that it was expressed with disproportionate intensity?
A mellower response would be appropriate if she realizes she's in a webcomic, but [Jeph never breaks the fourth wall, so] she probably thinks this is important to her career and that she should be treated with respect at work.
...
Is that what you're sayin'?
Also, it's not quite uncommon for starry-eyed overqualified young interns to be somewhat disappointed by humdrum reality.
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On the name issue, if we are going to go with weird names then we must avoid anything stereotypically expected.
East Asian would be names like Brigitte, Gwenhwyvar or Margred.
Our heavy-set lady could be named Thomasina, Zerlina or maybe Yvonne or Ephemeris Jansky
Our red hot red head could be named Anastasiya, Флорентина, or maybe Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim's Dotter.
Dude, this is some real truth here. However, you appear to have neglected an even greater truth; these girls are a trio, so their names must complement each other.
Consider this situation holistically and the answer becomes obvious. Clearly, they must be named Moe, Larry, and Curly.
All that remains is to decide who is who.
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Larry, her brother-sister Darryl and her sister-brother Darryl.
Who said only one had to be transgender?
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The Unscientific Poll We Haven't Done In A While - Your Favorite Character?
Hannelore 38 (35.5%) <-- Raise your hand if you saw this coming a mile away. I thought so.
Faye 13 (12.1%)
Marigold 12 (11.2%)
Marten 11 (10.3%)
Raven 8 (7.5%)
Momo 8 (7.5%)
Pintsize 2 (1.9%)
Sven 2 (1.9%)
Angus 2 (1.9%)
Winslow 2 (1.9%)
Dora 1 (0.9%)
Tai 1 (0.9%)
Penelope 1 (0.9%)
Steve 0 (0%)
Other (Specify) 6 (5.6%)
Total Members Voted: 107
Hand is raised.
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I agree but I think it's a little harsh to call Marten incompetent. I mean come on, he had no idea this was happening and has had zero time to prepare; if I were him I'd be on the verge of a panic attack. He could probably teach them something once he stops being flustered, but redhead's shrieking isn't really helping that situation.
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Not to mention he wasn't told what they'd be doing. He and Tai can run the library just fine during the school year, I'm not sure what a trio of graduate students when there's less people on campus is supposed to accomplish.
On that note, graduate students doing a summer internship? I might be disconnected from the liberal arts but that's a time for hard research as I understand it.
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I really didn't perceive it as "shrieking".
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an AnthroPC that can throw testicles from it's vajay-jay
I think that you meant to type "tentacles," but the mental image of an AnthroPC firing testicles from its crotch is traumatizing hilarious.
Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
Damn autospell on smartphone.....
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It's a library tour. What else did she expect besides books and shelves?
"Hang tight girls, we're almost to the PBS video section.....then the party starts!!" :psyduck:
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Redhead's grounds for a complaint against Tai would be neglect of duty, failure to provide required training, and leaving them in the hands of someone who could trivially be portrayed as insulting ("this is a bookshelf").
Till Marten "reminds" some "people" (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1134) of a certain event (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1133).....or Tai dredges up something more damning (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=842) and manages to skirt the complaint.
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It's just as likely Tai is sitting in her office, watching the security cameras and laughing her head off.
I prefer the curtain theory
Jabba The Hutt would approve
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"I know that laugh."
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*Insert slave Leia costume joke here*
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So does this mean that Tai's definitely a grad student? I don't think her major/year was ever said in comic.
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So does this mean that Tai's definitely a grad student? I don't think her major/year was ever said in comic.
Liberal Arts, but no confirm over her graduate status that i've seen. (http://www.questionablecontent.net/728)
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There is no way that the position of women in Canada is the same it was in 1972! No way in hell! It was different even in 1982! Maybe some aspects are similar. But I'd really like some examples, and I'm sure you have references that would show the situation to be so dire?!?
I'm sure people made misogynistic "jokes" like some in this thread in 1970, so that certainly hasn't changed :( Yeah, if a woman has opinions and states them forcefully, there is something wrong with her and she needs a good dicking to fix her... Never mind 1970, this idea was popular in 1870, and it seems it's still alive, kicking and provoking sniggers today.
I never claimed that nothing had changed for women in forty years, but rather that many, probably most, of the issues that angered Germaine Greer in 1970 still face women today. I don't know what kind of carefully constructed obliviousness would be allow someone to feel that I needed to give them evidence of that.
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The heavyset black girl is Monique, the
Asian East Asian tall girl Lana, and the curly one Curly (real name Josephine)?
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It is certainly possible to point to changes in certain aspects of society - for instance women's employment is more common, sexual freedom is more acceptable, there is legislation against gender discrimination. But the overarching issues are still the same: institutional sexism, systematic societal disadvantage against women, and a belief that women "should" behave in a certain way or are not proper women.
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... and that she should be treated with respect at work.
God forbid. </sarcasm>
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So does this mean that Tai's definitely a grad student? I don't think her major/year was ever said in comic.
She's a TA, for whatever that's worth.
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The heavyset black girl is Monique...
The facial structure isn't right for her to be black, I don't think - Jeph's (usually) pretty dang good at using common traits to help the viewer identify at least a general idea of what race someone is, instead of relying on the ambiguous nature of skin tone. We've already had a couple of Indian girls that have been notable characters (for a while, at least), so maybe he's going for a third?
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Redhead is a bitch, I can tell already.
Sure, Marten's kind of yammering incoherently and not really doing much OTJ training, but he's nervous as fuck. Can you really blame him?
Since she doesn't know Marten, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it's a one-strike system.
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Redhead is a bitch, I can tell already.
Politely voicing her disapproval of how her time is being wasted makes her a bitch?
Good job proving Germaine Greer's works aren't outdated at all.
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Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
Redhead is a bitch, I can tell already.
Hey guys, I had hoped that sort of thing was getting left behind in the 20th century or earlier; please think before you type.
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I believe you're gonna have to explain "thought" to them first, pwhodges….
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I felt CompSarge was merely joking around. Sorflakne on the other hand felt hostile.
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We can have a thoughtful conversation here, featuring questions such as "What would you consider healthy assertiveness on Redhead's part, and how would that be different from what she said?", or "What would have been your reaction if a man had spoken the same words, and if you see a difference, why?".
(moderator)
Bigotry, on the other hand, will not be tolerated.
(/moderator)
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The heavyset black girl is Monique...
The facial structure isn't right for her to be black, I don't think - Jeph's (usually) pretty dang good at using common traits to help the viewer identify at least a general idea of what race someone is, instead of relying on the ambiguous nature of skin tone. We've already had a couple of Indian girls that have been notable characters (for a while, at least), so maybe he's going for a third?
...Maybe Jeph doesn't know how to draw black people? :/
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Which doesn't cancel anything out, but rather is another thing to be corrected.
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Also, Ginger needs to get laid asap so she can chill the f- out.
Redhead is a bitch, I can tell already.
Hey guys, I had hoped that sort of thing was getting left behind in the 20th century or earlier; please think before you type.
While I disagree that she is a 'bitch' per se, I think such situations can be handled better. I mean sure she knows what all of this stuff is, and sure it would be obvious to anyone with a fully functioning brain, but to some extent, what kinda got me about her response was when she said, "we're all graduate students, we know the basics." I've had to train new associates before, some with previous experience, some without. I was never told the difference, and when introducing them to the layout of the store, previous experience doesn't make a difference if you're not sure where things are. Of course, without a training guide, I've made up better shit than what Marten came up with. Still, it seems like improper etiquette to say, "I already know this." when someone else is telling you something. Plus, if person a tells person b something, then it should be expected that they 'know' about such after the fact, so saying "I know" is kinda redundant.
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The heavyset black girl is Monique...
Whatever her name is, I don't like her character design at all. Oof.
I don't like it either, but hey, different strokes for different folks. No harm, no foul.
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The heavyset black girl is Monique...
The facial structure isn't right for her to be black, I don't think - Jeph's (usually) pretty dang good at using common traits to help the viewer identify at least a general idea of what race someone is, instead of relying on the ambiguous nature of skin tone. We've already had a couple of Indian girls that have been notable characters (for a while, at least), so maybe he's going for a third?
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=972
...Maybe Jeph doesn't know how to draw black people? :/
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Hey guys, I had hoped that sort of thing was getting left behind in the 20th century or earlier; please think before you type.
"What would have been your reaction if a man had spoken the same words, and if you see a difference, why?".
Exact same words. *shrug*
Ok, so I was a tad hasty in my word choice, but the point is, she just automatically assumed she was being hazed because Marten's stammering all over the place and not really going into the process of working in a library. So why exactly would she assume she was being hazed rather than, I don't know, ask Marten if he was just nervous for whatever reason or if he was also a recent hire? She didn't bother to get info, she just jumped to conclusions and thought the worst (and in fairness, I did too).
My original statement had nothing to do with hating on women, so knock that crap off. I would've said the exact same thing had it been a heterosexual Anglo-Saxon male. Misguided as the words were, the post would've been made without this current foresight.
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I see it less of her being a bitch, and more perhaps of it being a defense mechanism. She's pretty mousey-looking, and her posture was very closed for the most part - it could very well be that she was teased or harassed a lot in her life, and as such has just gotten to the point where rather than being a victim, she goes on the offensive instead. I myself can be a bit oversensitive, if I feel like something may be being said/done to me maliciously, and without any reason for it; it's one reason why I find a lot of those practical joke shows to be pretty mean-spirited.
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I, for one, don't see anything wrong with what Ginger said. She reacted defensively, to be sure, but also assertively and politely. She didn't shriek like a banshee and beat Marten over the head with a broom. The only part you can see as being too intense is her 'WHAT?!', which I see as incredulity/shock rather than actual anger. 'and I do not appreciate it' strikes me as remarkably restrained and polite. Is it the emphatic use of capitalisation that some people are perceiving as 'bitchy'? Or is it her too-close close-up in panel 2?
For that matter, I think it's quite a sad state of affairs when your first reaction to an opinionated woman being assertive is to brand her a 'bitch'. I think we're all perfectly capable of describing someone's behaviour far more accurately (e.g: 'defensive, hostile, aggressive', what have you) without having to resort to gendered slurs.
Maybe some of us are forgetting that we're being sympathetic to Marten because we know him and his intentions, without considering the viewpoint of the girls. If some random 'librarian' tried to instruct me with:
"This is the front desk"
"Here we have a library computer"
"This is a bookshelf!"
You can bet I'd assume he/she was being condescending, and it wouldn't be too far of a leap to assume something like hazing was going on. Something's definitely off. Did Ginger leap to a conclusion? Yes. Would it be fair to expect her to give Marten the benefit of the doubt and assume that Marten merely doesn't know what he's doing? Not really, with the kind of bull he's (unintentionally) pulling.
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...the point is, she just automatically assumed she was being hazed because Marten's stammering all over the place and not really going into the process of working in a library. So why exactly would she assume she was being hazed rather than, I don't know, ask Marten if he was just nervous for whatever reason or if he was also a recent hire? She didn't bother to get info, she just jumped to conclusions and thought the worst (and in fairness, I did too).
It may be an early indication of her life history that she went to a worst-case scenario. Could also be a matter of each successive sentence adding to the pile of resentment that started when her boss said she was too stoned to do her orientation.
Asking Marten if he were nervous or something would have been way better! It would also be way above-average people skills, especially for someone that age.
I wonder if she's one of those people who thinks the world works logically and that things happen for reasons. It can take more than a few decades of life to get over that idea.
My original statement had nothing to do with hating on women
I am glad.
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While I disagree that she is a 'bitch' per se, I think such situations can be handled better. I mean sure she knows what all of this stuff is, [...]
Um, surely you realise that my comment was not directed at people pointing out that the redhead was being aggressive in her response to Marten, but at the thoughtlessly sexist language that had been used in those instances to express the criticism of her? OK, there are many worse expressions of sexism that still occur in much of society; but it is the continued acceptance of the simpler ones like those that we saw earlier that provides a toehold for the worse cases to continue - it's a case of starting as you mean to go on, so we try to reject prejudiced language as soon as it starts. I am not supposing that there was any sexist intent in either of the posts; but language has a way of leading thoughts on.
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"This is a bookshelf". Ha-ha. This is the first time since the start of the comic where I've come to wonder if Marten might be, what's the nice way to put it? mentally challenged?
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Panic makes anyone mentally challenged.
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"This is a bookshelf". Ha-ha. This is the first time since the start of the comic where I've come to wonder if Marten might be, what's the nice way to put it? mentally challenged?
(http://i.imgur.com/z3DmGl.png)
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I, for one, don't see anything wrong with what Ginger said. She reacted defensively, to be sure, but also assertively and politely. She didn't shriek like a banshee and beat Marten over the head with a broom. The only part you can see as being too intense is her 'WHAT?!', which I see as incredulity/shock rather than actual anger. 'and I do not appreciate it' strikes me as remarkably restrained and polite. Is it the emphatic use of capitalisation that some people are perceiving as 'bitchy'? Or is it her too-close close-up in panel 2?
For that matter, I think it's quite a sad state of affairs when your first reaction to an opinionated woman being assertive is to brand her a 'bitch'. I think we're all perfectly capable of describing someone's behaviour far more accurately (e.g: 'defensive, hostile, aggressive', what have you) without having to resort to gendered slurs.
Maybe some of us are forgetting that we're being sympathetic to Marten because we know him and his intentions, without considering the viewpoint of the girls. If some random 'librarian' tried to instruct me with:
"This is the front desk"
"Here we have a library computer"
"This is a bookshelf!"
You can bet I'd assume he/she was being condescending, and it wouldn't be too far of a leap to assume something like hazing was going on. Something's definitely off. Did Ginger leap to a conclusion? Yes. Would it be fair to expect her to give Marten the benefit of the doubt and assume that Marten merely doesn't know what he's doing? Not really, with the kind of bull he's (unintentionally) pulling.
Agreed. If any of us encountered anything like that (and without knowing their background as much as we do Marten's), anyone's first reaction would be "they must think I'm an idiot!" Could Ginger have reacted less harshly? Probably, but considering how some people would and have reacted to similar circumstances, I'd say Marten got off lightly (she didn't take the express to Expletive-ville, after all).
Marten's just going to have to get his shit together for round two, is all.
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Redhead is a bitch, I can tell already.
My original statement had nothing to do with hating on women, so knock that crap off. I would've said the exact same thing had it been a heterosexual Anglo-Saxon male.
Oh sure, I hear "heterosexual Anglo-Saxon males" being called "bitches" when they express their opinions all the time. :roll:
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Oh sure, I hear "heterosexual Anglo-Saxon males" being called "bitches" when they express their opinions all the time. :roll:
I have. Maybe its a cultural difference, but where I live, I've heard exactly that.
Also the whole "x needs to get laid", while perhaps seemingly recalls the days of belief in 'hysteria' I've heard referring to both women AND men who are acting really uptight. Hell, I've heard it used directed at me (a caucasian/native american mixed male) when I've gotten pissy over things. Its a sort of "Dude, you need to get the stress off" comment to a lot of people.
As for the comic itself, this is what we know that she knows about the situation:
She is a graduate student.
She knows that Marten has been thrown into training without any preparation or forewarning.
And she is DEFINITELY being aggressive. Its not the words, check out her body language. Panel 1: the Crossed arms and stance. Panel 4: She is WAAAY up into Marten's face. Dude, the only time anyone is that close in on my face they are either going to kiss me or are being incredibly aggressive. Invading people's personal space, ESPECIALLY when they are as obviously flustered as Marten is not cool.
Honestly, she shows an incredible amount of self-centered thought. She completely ignores the existing evidence, knowing Marten was thrown into this unprepared and without warning, Marten's stammering around stupidly, Marten's body language, and assumes that SHE Is a target. Self-centeredness is a somewhat shitty personality trait.
That being said, maybe she had a bad morning already. I mean, acting self-centered in ONE instance doesn't make you a bad person, but she isn't really getting off on a good foot here, and it has nothing to do with her gender, it has to do with her attitude.
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I'm going to try and stop Flame War 3 before it begins...
Sorflakne: be careful with your words. This ain't how grown ups are supposed to behave, so don't antagonise the situation further.
Akima: Slips of the tongues happen, and it isn't something to excuse or just sweep under the carpet or whatever. pwhodges has reprimanded him for his poor use of the language. Don't antagonise the situation further, either.
Oh sure, I hear "heterosexual Anglo-Saxon males" being called "bitches" when they express their opinions all the time. :roll:
No... we call them "tossers".
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I agree that Marten's flustered stammering makes it obvious that he's unprepared, but these people are operating under the reasonable assumption that Marten is a librarian, who has been entrusted the position by a senior ('You could use the extra responsibility', indicating that Tai thinks he's capable of handling it.)
Marten does nothing to halt that idea in its tracks, and continuing to spout inanities desperately then finally revealing that he's not actually qualified ('Aren't you more qualified' =/= I am unqualified) seems like a deliberate let-down. So yes, I can see how it can be construed of as a prank. And it doesn't have to personally malicious either, since this perceived 'hazing ritual' could be someone else's idea and put Marten up to it. In Ginger's eyes, it's not 'this librarian is the instigator of a hazing ritual and is deliberately mocking us', it's 'this person is complicit in a hazing ritual and we the interns are its victims'. The irresponsible mastermind could well be Tai, or anyone else. She doesn't seem to be personally offended by Marten.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect at least some modicum of competence and knowledge, even from an unprepared 'intern-trainer'. Surely Marten should have cleared the air before digging himself a hole. That is possibly the silliest training lesson I've ever seen.
About her posture: Yes, she's definitely invading his personal space in panel 4, and that's out of justified incredulity/anger/demand for answers. (WHY is someone who doesn't know what he's doing in charge of training us?)
Her posture in panel one is defensive, not aggressive. Crossed arms is a sign of being fed up and is a protective reaction. Only panel 4 is aggressive.
And yes, maybe she had a bad morning, or maybe just bad experiences overall. As others have said, it's possible that she's previously been the victim of bullying and reacts pre-emptively to potential threats. If this actually WERE a hazing ritual, and everyone involved acted exactly the way they do now (including flustered Marten), I think her reaction would be entirely appropriate. The only reason we're all up in arms is that we KNOW it's not hazing and Marten's not intentionally being condescending. Not everyone is capable of calmly absorbing all the available data, processing and analysing them, then producing the most carefully measured and diplomatic response.
So while her reaction isn't ideal, it's relatively light. No one's swearing, yelling, getting physical (other than in-your-face in panel 3 - anyone else remember when that witch poked Penny with her cane and everyone got heated up?). The situation is tense, but not explosive. The worst it's gotten is the not unreasonable leap-to-conclusion, and a 3-second invasion of personal space. I think that's getting off pretty light.
What Marten needs to do now is explain the situation, as he should have done at the beginning before the drama could begin (and before it worsens).
PS: Good god. Look at this wall of text!
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I, for one, don't see anything wrong with what Ginger said. She reacted defensively, to be sure, but also assertively and politely.
Assertively? Yes. Politely? No.
She accused Marten of hazing. In today's world, what with the death of that college drummer and crackdowns on hazing around the country, that's not an accusation to be used lightly. What if she had gone straight to the Dean with her accusation instead? Marten would've been screwed.
Um, surely you realise that my comment was not directed at people pointing out that the redhead was being aggressive in her response to Marten, but at the thoughtlessly sexist language that had been used in those instances to express the criticism of her?
Two random thoughts:
1. Would the negative reaction to the post(s) calling Redhead a bitch have been as strong if Redhead were a male?
2. Would there have been a negative reaction if a female had made the exact same post?
For that matter, I think it's quite a sad state of affairs when your first reaction to an opinionated woman being assertive is to brand her a 'bitch'.
She accused Marten of hazing without fact-finding first. See my previous post and the beginning of this post.
I think we're all perfectly capable of describing someone's behaviour far more accurately (e.g: 'defensive, hostile, aggressive', what have you) without having to resort to gendered slurs.
Again, without this current foresight, I would've used the term had it been a guy.
Oh sure, I hear "heterosexual Anglo-Saxon males" being called "bitches" when they express their opinions all the time.
I've been called a bitch a few times. Last time it was actually a woman who said it. Non-joking manner I might add.
As for the comic itself, this is what we know that she knows about the situation:
She is a graduate student.
She knows that Marten has been thrown into training without any preparation or forewarning.
And she is DEFINITELY being aggressive. Its not the words, check out her body language. Panel 1: the Crossed arms and stance. Panel 4: She is WAAAY up into Marten's face. Dude, the only time anyone is that close in on my face they are either going to kiss me or are being incredibly aggressive. Invading people's personal space, ESPECIALLY when they are as obviously flustered as Marten is not cool.
Honestly, she shows an incredible amount of self-centered thought. She completely ignores the existing evidence, knowing Marten was thrown into this unprepared and without warning, Marten's stammering around stupidly, Marten's body language, and assumes that SHE Is a target. Self-centeredness is a somewhat shitty personality trait.
That being said, maybe she had a bad morning already. I mean, acting self-centered in ONE instance doesn't make you a bad person, but she isn't really getting off on a good foot here, and it has nothing to do with her gender, it has to do with her attitude.
This.
Marten does nothing to halt that idea in its tracks, and continuing to spout inanities desperately then finally revealing that he's not actually qualified ('Aren't you more qualified' =/= I am unqualified) seems like a deliberate let-down. So yes, I can see how it can be construed of as a prank. And it doesn't have to personally malicious either, since this perceived 'hazing ritual' could be someone else's idea and put Marten up to it. In Ginger's eyes, it's not 'this librarian is the instigator of a hazing ritual and is deliberately mocking us', it's 'this person is complicit in a hazing ritual and we the interns are its victims'. The irresponsible mastermind could well be Tai, or anyone else. She doesn't seem to be personally offended by Marten.
So why didn't she just call out Tai in the beginning when Tai said in front of everyone, "I'm high as hell right now." and that she was going to be in the back watching cartoons? I mean, does that sound like a competent boss to you?
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1. Would the negative reaction to the post(s) calling Redhead a bitch have been as strong if Redhead were a male?
Perhaps. It's not a usage I've come across, so I'm not sure.
2. Would there have been a negative reaction if a female had made the exact same post?
I have not considered your gender in this matter; only the words on the page.
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PS: Good god. Look at this wall of text!
A pretty wall, if I may. It spares me the hassle of having to word my thoughts, by simply plusoneing* you.
What Marten needs to do now is explain the situation, as he should have done at the beginning before the drama could begin (and before it worsens).
Who knows? Maybe Ginger will propose a callback prank at Tai. That would be awesome. I mean, Marten is obviously being pranked, even though I haven't quite yet forfeited my initial idea that Tai is trying to expand his dating pool. Tai is prone to do shit like that. She's the kind of person who can be mildly malicious at times, like everyone can, but is able to bring out disastrous results just by being not quite crafty enough to foresee the actual result of her ploys. So maybe she's trying to help Marten, or maybe she's just having fun at his expense, or maybe both. No matter the answer, what she's doing is irresponsible. I like the character enough to give her the benefit of the doubt. But she deserves a callback nevermind her intent. A playful callback has my preference, but it's just me.
.
*I love making verbs up on the fly, it really is one of the best perks of the English language.
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
This one. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1170) Yes, I am counting that.
Wait, when did Sweet-Tits bag Marten?
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That was the chick that asked Marten out (who he promptly informed he already had a girlfriend), and then ended up going out with Steve. I can't remember what her name was off the top of my head, but I do remember she was in school for Marine Biology or somesuch, and was technically jailbait for the first couple of dates that she and Steve went out on.
Or I have my characters crossed. Someone please hit me with the correction mallet if I'm wrong?
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Also, Jeph tweeted that Marten has slept with 3 people since the strip started. I can only remember Dora and Padma. Who am I forgetting??
This one. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1170) Yes, I am counting that.
Wait, when did Sweet-Tits bag Marten?
In Dora's dream :P
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OmegaEntity, you have got your characters crossed - you're thinking of the red (as in ginger) haired girl Cosette, rather than the red (as in London bus) haired girl who crops up as a background character all over the place and is generally felt to be SweetTits.
On the intern question, I can totally imagine a scenario where the ginger-haired intern has been so nervous and excited and wound up about this internship that she is immediately jumping to its defence when something seems to be threatening her vision. I have reacted similarly in the past to people treating me like an idiot, and I suspect that as a librarian intern at Smif college she probably is something of a feminist. In a situation where a man is in a position of authority (or appears to be so), I am often on the defensive against being patronised due to extensive past experience. Her reaction could be similarly-based.
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I'm pretty sure that we have been told that the girl in the dream is a random girl, not Sweet Tits.
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OmegaEntity, you have got your characters crossed - you're thinking of the red (as in ginger) haired girl Cosette, rather than the red (as in London bus) haired girl who crops up as a background character all over the place and is generally felt to be SweetTits.
On the intern question, I can totally imagine a scenario where the ginger-haired intern has been so nervous and excited and wound up about this internship that she is immediately jumping to its defence when something seems to be threatening her vision. I have reacted similarly in the past to people treating me like an idiot, and I suspect that as a librarian intern at Smif college she probably is something of a feminist. In a situation where a man is in a position of authority (or appears to be so), I am often on the defensive against being patronised due to extensive past experience. Her reaction could be similarly-based.
Huh. Could have sworn that she had that dream after the freakout over Marten being asked out by her. Hold on, lemme do an archive dig.
EDIT: Alright, yep. Definitely had my chars crossed.
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Gonna need help with this week's WCDT. can't post a poll via tapatalk.
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Any of the moderators can add a poll. Just let us know what it should be.
Cross-species? I like the idea. Florence from Freefall could make a guest appearance. As an organic AI she'd be different from both the humans and the AnthroPCs. Watching her interact with Mieville could be really fun.
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*I love making verbs up on the flyverbing
Fix'd
(http://madshakespeare.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/calvin-and-hobbes.jpg)
I'm pretty sure that we have been told that the girl in the dream is a random girl, not Sweet Tits.
It don't think it has been confirmed either way in comic, so calling her Sweet Tits is neither right nor wrong...although Dora wouldn't know it was her.
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That was the chick that asked Marten out (who he promptly informed he already had a girlfriend), and then ended up going out with Steve. I can't remember what her name was off the top of my head, but I do remember she was in school for Marine Biology or somesuch, and was technically jailbait for the first couple of dates that she and Steve went out on.
Or I have my characters crossed. Someone please hit me with the correction mallet if I'm wrong?
The technically jailbait (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=224) Marine Biology (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=219) character was Ellen.
The one who asked Marten out when he was dating Dora (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1322) was Cosette.
And Dora in this comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1323) looking her best, lol.
I miss the blonde with black tips look on her...
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I got it. I actually had some free time to get on the 'puter.
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I felt CompSarge was merely joking around. Sorflakne on the other hand felt hostile.
I was joking around, I swear! :psyduck: No bigotry intended!
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Note that I said "felt hostile"... I hardly believe it was like that either. Words are funny.
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*I love making verbs up on the flyverbing
Fix'd
I feel so verbed right now...
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That's what happens when you Schmorgluck. You get verbed.
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That's what happens when you Schmorgluck. You get verbed.
Noun verbing is excellent, and not a new thing at all.
Consider: Plough (a field with a plough), Roof (a building with a roof), Shell (the enemy with shells), Thatch (a roof with thatch), Sail (a boat with a sail), Map (territory and record it on a map) etc. etc. etc.
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"But me no buts"
Often attributed to Shakespeare, but actually from Henry Fielding. However, Shakespeare did write: "Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle", and: "Thank me no thanks, nor proud me no prouds".
Here is a collection of instances of this construction (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/X_me_no_Xs)