What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Monster's Garden
Ash G.
Champion pit fighter Kilo Monster was content to spend the rest of his days tending to his quiet garden alone... until he met a curious robot girl and her human family.
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Three Panel Soul
Matt Boyd, Ian McConville
It's a pretty rigid format but we keep the content loose, you know?
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Angel's Orchard
Harry Bogosian
After the events in Demon's Mirror, Gerda has accepted her role as a Demon Hunter, and Cezar has traveled back to the Demon City. Demons have existed alongside humans for millennia, so things begin to return to normal. But an impossibly powerful Relic has been taken by one of the Demon Masters, and a silent war enters its final stages.
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
The Messenger
indui
In a ruin-abound town cursed with bad luck, Kai and Kalla--a young boy and a fledgling dragonbird spirit--take on a quest in hopes the reward will solve all of their problems.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
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I’m not faceblind, but I kind of do that with hair. Someone will be asking me if I know someone, start describing them, and I’ll be like, “Okay, but what does their hair look like?”
anime hair colours help me *so* much with telling characters apart. I’m bad with both faces and names, so I tend to think of people in terms like Anna’s – but I try not to actually say any of it.
(and at the moment, reading Namesake is *really* damn confusing, because not only can I not tell the two main characters apart, I’ve forgotten how many versions of one of them exist now…)
When I first saw Frozen, I got really confused at the beginning because, since baby Kristoff and baby Elsa had pretty much the same hair, I thought they were the same character.
That’s actually part of the reason hair and eyes in anime gets pretty all over th place in therms of colour and style. There isn’t much facial variation in the earlier style.
Ohh, I know that one. Sometimes I accidentally seem really attentive, when I tell someone “Oh, you changed your glasses!” – when the truth is “Dammit I remembered you by those glasses, I almost didn’t recognize you!”.
I’m the other way around. I always forget peoples names but I am really good at remembering faces. I often go “Oh its that actor from [another movie]”, when watching movies.
Same here. Since Kindergarten, forget names remember faces. Silver Lining, I have become skilled enough go through a whole day without the person I am hanging with finding out I can’t remember their name…
I’m like that too. With new people, I need some time to get to know their name (it helps if I see it visually, e.g. reading it on a list at least twice, or write it out), but I’ll even recognise old school colleagues which I haven’t seen in ten years on the street just because of their face. And then I’m annoyed by myself, because I cannot for the sake of anything remember their name.
I’m also always bugged out if someone, e.g. my parents talk to me about somebody I once or twice met in my past (like very distant relatives), and I just can’t remember them, but if I saw them again, I’d knew why and how I know them (just not their names).
Me three. I am good with faces but terrible with remembering names. I have a next door neighbour that I have known for nearly 10 years, and who I talk to regularly. I forgot his first name, even though I have been given it at least three or four times, and I sure as hell can’t ask for it now.
This is a source of mild amusement/frustration with me and my girlfriend. She’s always rattling off names of her friends/customers/family members, and I just cannot remember them. So I’ve got her to start referencing the time/place I met people, rather than their names, as that sort of thing gets embedded in my memory, whereas a name just sorta fizzels out in there, lol.
It kind of reminds me of when I’m at work and a customer who came in a week ago is like “remember me!?” (Which by the way don’t do that) and I’ll be completely clueless until they order and I’m like “oh they’re the person who gets marinara on their steak” or “oh this is the asshole who wouldn’t stop talking politics at me”
I’m always surprised by how many people at the stores I go to always remember me. I don’t rely on it even then. (What’s even more surprising is they still recognise me without my kids, and will ask where said kids are.)
Only place I assume I’ll be remembered is the local Chinese place down the road and that’s because she even recognises me over the phone at this point.
Hah, I used to get that when we were doing computer repairs. I’d know who they were on the phone because of caller ID (no way I’d be able to tell from the voices); but they’d see me in the grocery store and come up and ask me how their repair was coming along, and I would have NO idea who they were.
So I’d say, “Remind me which computer was yours?” and they’d tell me what the issue was with it, and then I’d know who they were, ha ha.
Do you have any idea how long it took in grade 9 me to realise that I had two girls in both my drama class and phys ed class? They took their hijabs off for phys ed (our school was big enough that there were separate boys’ and girls’ classes), so I don’t see how I could have been expected to recognise them, once they looked like completely different people.
Eeeeh, no. Speaking as someone with autism who has *enormous* trouble with faces, we generally do fine remembering *people*. Leslie giving her name, and the context of how they know each other, would have been more than enough.
One conventional neurotypical response in situations similar to this is, “I don’t remember your name, but I never forget a face.” For me, it is definitely the opposite.
But more than anything, I can much more reliably identify people by the way their voices sound,
Back before I was diagnosed (i.e. before I knew that I had more of a reason than most to have a hard time with faces), I would say that my brain would store faces, names, and who someone was separately. I could, generally, connect any two of those. Sometimes I would be able to place the face & who the person was without remembering their name. (Especially if I, as Anna obviously did, failed to pay sufficient attention to the name at the time.)
As a moderately faceblind person myself, my first reaction is usually not, “Who are you? Do I know you?”, but an internal monologue of “oh shit! Who am I offending by not recognizing them?”, while my external babble is along the lines of “Oh! You!”, while I desperately try to figure out who they are.
That said, Anna’s first comment to Leslie was “I like what you’ve done with your hair, it distracts from your big nose,” so, maybe?
(I’m not very good at identifying facial features, but I have been known to fail to identify people I know when they radically change their hair.)
I’m pretty good with faces, but terrible with names. My nieces & nephews, half of whom are over 30, I still frequently call by the wrong names. It runs in the family though. My mother still sometimes calls me & my brother by the wrong names.
“Now I know I’m being used
That’s okay because I like the abuse
I know she’s playing with me
That’s okay ’cause I’ve got no self-esteem”
– The Offspring – Self Esteem
There have been multiple Wonder Womans. Lynda Carter, Gal Gadot, Susan Eisenberg. Lucy Lawless voiced her once, which is the most obvious casting ever.
You try fitting all of those in a single desk organizer.
Her name is Bloodrose. I believe she’s appeared in “full” a grand total of once either here or in the Walkyverse (to be precise, in a drawing Willis put on tumblr of the SEMME squad she was part of in the Walkyverse, not in any of the strips themselves).
It’s because there are so many different uses for paper and they each have different optimal requirements for best performance while the general use paper is ok for everything, but not particularly excellent for anything.
Because there are so many types of printers, there are so many types of paper compositions, there are so many types of intended uses, and there are so many types of price points. In an allegedly digital world, printing is the ultimate reminder that the world is immutably analog.
Because you need fancy paper for printing certificates, regular paper for printing everyday documents, and cheap paper for ruining your printer by filling it with paper dust.
That looks like the aisle where they stock all those small packs of specialty paper and pre-cut sticker forms.
Also because colored paper is fun. I’ve designed a system with handouts where different things I give the kids are on different colored paper depending on its purpose. (So things that would be stressful like assessments is on mellower lilac whereas information I want to be easy to find in their notes is on bright blue or rose).
I suggest fetlife.com for information about dom/sub relationships. Not that I have any personal knowledge of said relationships, but I know they have lessons on site.
Don’t you be placing limits on Leslie’s love! I love myself in all kinds of places just fine. In the car, public restrooms, library, mueseums… you can love yourself anywhere!
(If anyone else is in the same position, I assure you that it is entirely safe, for work and otherwise, and goes to the official Staples site. This is a real thing.)
I bought an Easy Button years ago. The novelty wore off after a few minutes, then it sat in a drawer for months until I turned it into a push-to-talk game chat pedal. They’re surprisingly robust for a cheap plastic toy.
In my college dorm, we planned to use the casing of one with a custom big red button that said “Hard.” Then we were gonna fill it with concrete, and put them next to each other on the community lounge table.
What a weird way for Leslie to be walking through the store. Kind of reminds me of the time I was pretending to be a Tyrannosaurus to better understand their struggle of having tiny arms.
I’ll copy and paste a key finding from my write-up about it:
”
Based on my experiences with getting dressed, I have come to the conclusion that T-Rexes most likely did not wear sports bras. Limited mobility in one’s arms certainly makes putting on a sports bra quite a challenge. I did not experiment with other forms of bras, but it seems reasonable to me that the T-Rex would either have worn front-close bras or gone bra-less.”
Anna and Mindy are still roommates/close friends as of right now, yes? And that pretty disastrous date was like, the day before. No idea how the rest of Mindy’s night went.
This is just wishful thinking, but maybe there’ll end up being some moment where Anna’s just slightly miffed at Leslie for blowing off her friend like that. Maybe chew her out a little. Not a lot, not in a big speech or anything, just some mild annoyance. And not because Leslie deserves it necessarily, but it’d be nice to display a singular sympathetic moment from her character, I’m up to here with this same misanthropic brown woman archetype being played out here, yknow?
Well maybe she’d surprise us goddamnit I’m just tired of this archetype being played straight and if anyone could subvert it it’s Anna since we know the least about her
Leslie, she’s just not that into you. *Now* is the time to realize that.
I have had exactly this same interaction with someone — I can’t say exactly that we had dated, but we’d had several date-like events, including a theater performance that she had invited me to — but when I ran into her outside a supermarket, and it took her a couple of seconds to remember who I was, that was when I realized that I was never really on her radar.
Leslie, that is you right now. The heart wants what it wants, but crushing on someone who doesn’t remember your name is…not likely to result in the heart’s desired outcome.
Having had time for reflection, I’d say that it’s life. A crush is a crush, and love is love, and sometimes these two different things coincide; but often they don’t, and c’est la vie.
No… Leslie no, You could do much better… Seriously what is it with people’s taste in mates in this series? X_X (guess they don’t call it “Dumbing of Age” for nothing).
The only person with good taste is Becky, whose type seems to be “particular, feminine, routine-oriented, loyal, and kind” (e.g. Joyce and Dina).
Joyce has decent taste, I guess. But every other romantic pursuit in the comic has some serious issues. Which, I mean, reflects reality? But, gah, wanting people who are bad for you: a theme.
Huh, it kinda is. Especially compared to Mindy, whose nose is just a line indicating the bottom of it. But Leslie’s nose really is bigger than Robin’s, Becky’s, and various other characters she’s interacted with recently.
but I voted earlier today, and I.. don’t actually know who Sayid is. was she the one who was told not to talk about billie sleeping with the RA? she seems cool so far
That’s Nash you’re thinking of. Sayid’s the guy whose skateboard Amazi-Girl made use of to chase down Toedad’s car (he’s also appeared in some bonus comics and Slipshine since then, as I recall).
Now that I think about it how many lesbian characters are in here now ? Not counting Billie or Dina because there Bi there’s Leslie, Becky, Daisy, Mindy, Anna, Grace, Mandy,Sierra, Anna, Mindy and God knows how many I’m forgetting.
So, right! There are fifteen ladies who love ladies in this cast. Seven are confirmed lesbians.
There are far fewer men who love men (gay or bisexual men). That list consists of Ethan, Danny, and…huh. Probably just those two, unless I’m forgetting someone important.
I was thinking about it the other dayy and trying to remember what it was that first attracted me to this comic. Now, of course, it has all the lesbians and otherwise sapphic ladies going for it. But that wasn’t as much the case at first, and not even by the time I started reading (like, I don’t remember exactly when I started, but it was before Becky showed up on campus).
Basically, I’ll dive into a piece of media just for the rep, but here I just lucked out, I guess.
Dina identified herself as basically sapiosexual, and there are a few other gay/bi guys around. I mean, first of all, there’s big bisexual Mike. Then there were a few who’ve only shown up in smaller roles. One I think was Bryan, and I forget the names of the others.
Anyway, there are way more female characters than male characters in this comic. The imbalance in number of gay/bi characters feels pretty proportional.
There’s at least one slipshine with a gay couple (and that wasn’t Ethan Danny). And we have been introduced to several, though no one else is a major cast member.
A) Dina’s not a lesbian. She’s been into guys in the Walkyverse and her only statements here are that she’s unsure if gender matters to her and she’s not overly worried about it.
B) Ruth is bi.
C) Grace, Mandy, and Sierra are all bi.
D) Marcie’s not a lesbian, she’s bi.
E) We don’t know Malaya’s orientation. She didn’t specifically like boys or girls in the Walkyverse, but did like Ultra Car, leading some of us to think she’s demi, but we don’t have any confirmation.
So we have four lesbians, not counting Carla since I’m not sure if she calls herself one (not all homoromantic aces describe themselves as gay or lesbians since many feel the ace part more keenly than their romantic orientation).
No, that’s Nash. Sayid works at Galasso’s w/ Becky (he was the one who saw Becky picking off the sausages for Joyce) and he gave Amazigirl his skateboard so she could go rescue Becky from Toedad. He was also in a slipshine with I think Bryan?
Anna doesn’t want to date Leslie because she recognizes Leslie lacks confidence and is just plain stupid when it comes to choosing the right partner.
Got no time for that kinda mess.
I’ve had thoughts like that, but for me they come from a lack of confidence/insecurity. Like, yeah, I’d like to date someone, but would I really be interested in someone with bad enough taste to be interested in ME?
I have the opposite problem. Anybody who’d be above my standards to the extent that I’d consider trying to have a relationship with them is waaaay too good for me, and I’d feel awful about subjecting them to being in a relationship with me.
I have a bit of both. But really I am managing it and probably getting better (it’s been a while since I’ve really thought about my feelings toward a relationship, though, so it’s hard to be sure).
Anna reminds me very much of the co worker I’m trying very hard not to stab right now, as she Facebook stalks an ex-employee’s upcoming wedding and provides running commentary on what’s wrong with everyone in it.
“Can you believe she’s planning on wearing a sari to this wedding? I can’t believe Timothy (the husband) is OK with that, it’s going to ruin a perfectly good ceremony.”
“What the hell is up with this stupid dot shit? Lady, you got off the boat over four years ago, you’re in America now, time to get with the program.”
“Oh look, he’s actually taking language lessons for the benefit of the parents. That’s adorable.” *Makes whip crack noise a bunch of times*
I’ve had thoughts like that, but for me they come from a lack of confidence/insecurity. Like, yeah, I’d like to date someone, but would I really be interested in someone with bad enough taste to be interested in ME?
You know, I think that Leslie is growing. I feel like she’s slowly climbing the ladder to a mutually respectful relationship. She got over Robin, didn’t force herself to be with Mindy out of pity and maybe, just maybe, Anna will be another epiphany that helps her to find someone she can be happy with in the future.
If breaking into someone’s home and wholly ignoring every boundary they put up in order to try to browbeat them into accepting your advances isn’t abusive I don’t even know what is anymore.
Robin was a stalker who blithely ignored every boundary and chipped away at Leslie’s sense of control over her own life.
And Anna verbally abuses everyone in her presence. I’d defer to Mindy on whether Anna does this within her romantic relationships too, but it would be surprising if she stops. Imagine this level of meanness from somebody who knows where you’re the most vulnerable.
Try as I might, I can’t help but be pissed off at grown-ass people who actively pursue relationships with shitty people because satisfying the butterflies in their stomach apparently trumps having self-respect.
My mother is notorious for doing this, and what makes it even more maddening that she’s a strong, proud and ambitious woman otherwise. Like, JFC mom, you wouldn’t take this shit from your coworkers, but you’ll let your husband disrespect you like this?
The LA Times is running a special report series about a successful businesswoman who married a guy who’s an abusive, shitty conman. And it was like her fourth marriage. I’m just staring at her like “what the hell are you thinking?! ARE you thinking?!”
Generally when it comes to romantic decisions, “thinking” doesn’t really play a large role.
Some of us just tend to fall for people who aren’t horrible. Changing the type you’re attracted to is really hard.
Have… Have we really seen enough of Anna to just dismiss her as “an awful person” like so many people here are? She’s got a real shitty *attitude*, I’ll give her that, but it seems like jumping the gun a little to imply she’s straight-up abusive like some of the people here are.
I’d put it more that she seems created to fill the “yeah, jackasses exist of all stripes” role.
It’s a thing you sometimes need to do with a work that’s filled with lots of great people of one group, an acknowledgement that jackasses are jackasses, and being a member of a disenfranchised group doesn’t mean you can’t also be a jackass.
Now, being outright *abusive*, that’s a different level of awfulness. You can be a jackass and not be outright abusive. But at the very least, yeah, Anna seems like a jackass.
No, I’d say that their self-esteem is probably a close equivalent. Indeed, I suspect that a second Leslie/Mindy date may start with Mindy finally losing her temper with Anna when she catches her inflicting emotional abuse on Leslie.
Ethan discovered his orientation all of 5ish months ago. I hope by the time he’s Mindy’s age he’s not directly comparable on the self-esteem and self-direction front.
True, she’s based on Mike which is horrible, but I do find it tiring to read so many comments that just call a character horrible over and over. even when I agree, it still feels a bit icky.
hmm. I went back and counted (somewhat unreliably because there’s some conflict about who should be running my brain atm): three horrible’s, an awful, an abusive, and a shitty. apparently that’s what my brain considers “over and over”. I suspect there’s some confirmation bias in there… and/or some being tired of it already from previous comics.
Quick question – my brother likes to buy figures online, some of which are bootlegs. I’ve been hearing about how sometimes these bootlegs contain dangerous, acidic chemicals. Does anybody know how to tell if a given figure is safe?
I don’t know much about the topic, so I did a quick google-search. It seems they can be toxic, as the companies behind them probably use cheaper material and have less controls of harmfulness of the chemicals (or something like that). I don’t think there is a way to tell if a figure is safe or not – maybe if the smell is really bad (like, not like plastic, but chemicals). Simply handling the figurines (even bootleg ones) shouldn’t cause any dangerous disease than handling plastic bags would, but if you are really unsure, the only advices I could think of is to definitely not sleep in the same room as the figurines are in (especially if they smell really bad after taken out of a package), and/or making sure that he buys as little bootleg figurines as possible.
I wonder. Anna’s first reaction reads positive to me, but she sure didn’t recognize Leslie. And then she probably remembered what Mindy had to tell about their date and chooses to be abrasive on purpose?
Willis, it’s not fair to make a cliffhanger out of Joyce and the communion cup! Now we will have to speculate for days if she fainted.
Gotta admit, one of the things that unsettle me the most about Anna is that she really, really looks like a cartoon version of myself – but every time she opens her mouth is to say something insensitive or mean that reminds me of hurtful people I’ve met |’D;;;
I am astounded to find myself in a comment thread of about 150 comments — where nobody has yet mentioned the obvious: that Leslie has a “binder full of women”.
No, ‘woman’, singular. One Ms Diana Prince, specifically.
I wonder if Willis has ever thought of creating a character that is like Wonder Woman, a tall, heavily built woman with long black hair and expertise in martial arts and then launch her at Leslie?
Just got to add that I love Anna’s blank expression in panel 5. It’s an early warning signal of just how totally she forgot the whole incident with Leslie and Becky and (thus) how little impact Leslie made on her.
Possible real problem: Depending on what Mindy told Anna about the abortive date, it is quite possible that, now Anna knows who she is, she may want to get revenge for her roomie’s humiliation, mostly because hurting people is something that she likes doing.
I’m seeing a future strip where an uncomfortable Becky is in the position of being a caregiver to a crying Leslie who wants to know why all her picks for partners turn out to be mentally unstable, abusive, assholes or mixtures of the three.
Makes me wonder if her parents are to blame for this. The whole “Like parent like spouse” kind of thing where a person is looking for someone similar to their opposite (or maybe same in Leslie’s case) sex parent.
Hrm, calling her bad is maybe a bit much cause I understand the like, feelings that lead to this, but hrm, still hope it doesn’t go this way and she’ll get hurt. :s
“What we had together had a bad tendency to explode.”
Sexual/romantic chemistry/interest can sometimes make damned fools of us all and make us miss red flags we would be more on guard about.
And that can suck because it can mean going after somebody that is not at all healthy for you because internally you’re coming up with rationalization after rationalization for why that’s just a coincidence or not a big a deal as it seems.
We know from seeing Leslie that she’s got a fairly attuned sense of self-preservation that kicks in. Even when she was drowning in romantic feels for Robin, there was a part that recognized that it was demeaning to her. Same with Mindy, a part of her recognized that trying to continue out of pity would trap her with someone with the same negatives she carries and reinforce negative brain patterns.
I suspect in time the same self-respect and self-preservation will kick in here and recognize that Anna is not just confident and butch and doing something to her downstairs bits, but actually an asshole who will exacerbate her insecurities.
But if it doesn’t, that doesn’t say anything about Leslie other than how blinding that attraction can be to things that matter and lead one into negative situations.
In short, attraction can be a son of a percussion instrument sometimes.
Is it okay if I get personal here for a bit? I’m at a loss for what to do right now regarding my relationship with a friend of mine and I have no one to talk to about it.
So like, for about a year I let a friend stay in home after he got unfairly kicked out of his house. He left a while ago and didn’t say goodbye and hasn’t tried to contact me or anything until recently saying he wants to see me again when he’s in town, and I guess I don’t know how to react. I’m angry with him for basically just leaving without a word, and I want to say that, but I don’t know how to approach it without ruining our friendship. He’s been a good friend to me but now I don’t know how to feel.
So, like, what should I do? Do I tell him off? Do I just put it aside and pretend it’s not bothering me?
ah, a Words problem. How to communicate your feelings in a way that’s likely to have your friend understand and talk about it, instead of just feeling hurt himself and escalating.
you explained it well here to us, so that’s a good start. How is *he* with words? how do you think he’d react if you just copy&pasted what you’ve written into an email? How comfortable would *you* be with doing something like that? (I have so many bizarre issues with words myself)
and, do you have any guesses as to *why* he left without a word?
I would probably approach it from the angle of telling him not to do that again. Emphasizing what you want to change generally makes reasonable people less defensive, even if you go on to vent at them about how shitty that was to do.
Even if he has a good reason for ducking out like that, he still better be able to understand why you’re upset. If he responds badly to that, then the friendship was already ruined. Your feelings matter too, not just his, and you have a right to be mad.
I dunno. I can’t speak from experience, but something about the situation is raising some red flags for me. Be careful in careful not to let him walk all over you.
“I would probably approach it from the angle of telling him not to do that again.”
hmm. I’d approach it more from the angle of telling him what that felt like from your perspective, then seeing how he responds (ie whether he actually cares that you had feelings). Maybe that’s me being too conciliatory, or being socialized as a girl (and having only recently gained the capacity to even talk about feelings)…
I kinda feel like, since I have no power to actually *make* people change, telling them not to do something (and then feeling more angry and helpless when they do it again) is less useful than getting information about whether they’re likely to do it and whether they’ll put in effort if I ask. That seems a little fucked up now that I put it into words.
And now I’m remembering times when I wish I had just told the person to do the damn thing and let myself be angry.
And I do still have trouble asking people to do things, because I remember the days of being surrounded by people who would punish others for telling them what to do, or for asking for things.
I’m also approaching this with the assumption that the ‘friend’ is likely to be reasonable but not particularly stable or healthy himself; I missed whatever red flags you’re seeing.
I only meant that it’s where I would start, before moving on to explaining what the problem was with it, rather than going the other way around. Though I’d probably be less inclined to ask them to not do that again than I would be to tell them that pulling that shit a second time would not be okay. An approach more like yours is a good option as well though.
Not staying in touch I can understand. I’m terrible at doing that, even with people I care deeply about. It’s not one of my better qualities. What bothers me about is the skipping town on someone who helped him out in a significant way, without so much as note or a “thank you”.
I dunno, I just can’t imagine a plausible scenario where I would do that. Admittedly, I’ve lead a comfortable, low-drama life, so there’s no doubt tons of good explanations that wouldn’t even occur to me.
Still, if I were going to give this guy a chance, I would not be super quick to trust. Like, I’d give him a chance to apologize and explain (who knows, maybe that’s why he got in touch), but I wouldn’t be lending the guy money or anything.
it might also be useful to think about what matters to you here. do you want him to acknowledge that it was a dick move? do you want him to promise not to do that again? do you want him to jump in a time machine and make it un-happen?
yeah; it’s not clear to me – was this an “I have no idea if he’s even alive” scenario or an “I found out he moved out from facebook posts and his stuff being gone” scenario?
I had a roommate who pulled the former, and reappeared three weeks later several timezones away, and he wasn’t a *bad* guy, just had some mental issues that he wasn’t handling well. The sort of person I’d be fine being casual friends with, but would never ever rely on for anything ever again ’cause he didn’t seem to be anywhere near working on that issue.
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“I just remembered ’cause I was thinking of Mindy’s enormous-ass caterpillar eyebrows and my eyes drifted slightly downward”
The way Anna is talking here kinda actually makes me think of faceblindness and remembering people by a single distinctive feature.
I’m at least 90% sure that has nothing to do with what’s actually going on here, but still.
I’m not faceblind, but I kind of do that with hair. Someone will be asking me if I know someone, start describing them, and I’ll be like, “Okay, but what does their hair look like?”
anime hair colours help me *so* much with telling characters apart. I’m bad with both faces and names, so I tend to think of people in terms like Anna’s – but I try not to actually say any of it.
(and at the moment, reading Namesake is *really* damn confusing, because not only can I not tell the two main characters apart, I’ve forgotten how many versions of one of them exist now…)
When I first saw Frozen, I got really confused at the beginning because, since baby Kristoff and baby Elsa had pretty much the same hair, I thought they were the same character.
That’s actually part of the reason hair and eyes in anime gets pretty all over th place in therms of colour and style. There isn’t much facial variation in the earlier style.
It is the Japanese variation of the Veronica/Betty effect. Draw the same body, change the hair, much faster to draw that way.
Ohh, I know that one. Sometimes I accidentally seem really attentive, when I tell someone “Oh, you changed your glasses!” – when the truth is “Dammit I remembered you by those glasses, I almost didn’t recognize you!”.
Same, I’m absolutely awful at faces.
especially with movies lol
I’m the other way around. I always forget peoples names but I am really good at remembering faces. I often go “Oh its that actor from [another movie]”, when watching movies.
Same here. Since Kindergarten, forget names remember faces. Silver Lining, I have become skilled enough go through a whole day without the person I am hanging with finding out I can’t remember their name…
I’m like that too. With new people, I need some time to get to know their name (it helps if I see it visually, e.g. reading it on a list at least twice, or write it out), but I’ll even recognise old school colleagues which I haven’t seen in ten years on the street just because of their face. And then I’m annoyed by myself, because I cannot for the sake of anything remember their name.
I’m also always bugged out if someone, e.g. my parents talk to me about somebody I once or twice met in my past (like very distant relatives), and I just can’t remember them, but if I saw them again, I’d knew why and how I know them (just not their names).
Me three. I am good with faces but terrible with remembering names. I have a next door neighbour that I have known for nearly 10 years, and who I talk to regularly. I forgot his first name, even though I have been given it at least three or four times, and I sure as hell can’t ask for it now.
This is a source of mild amusement/frustration with me and my girlfriend. She’s always rattling off names of her friends/customers/family members, and I just cannot remember them. So I’ve got her to start referencing the time/place I met people, rather than their names, as that sort of thing gets embedded in my memory, whereas a name just sorta fizzels out in there, lol.
It kind of reminds me of when I’m at work and a customer who came in a week ago is like “remember me!?” (Which by the way don’t do that) and I’ll be completely clueless until they order and I’m like “oh they’re the person who gets marinara on their steak” or “oh this is the asshole who wouldn’t stop talking politics at me”
Unless you’re literally there at the same time every week or something its a big ask to expect staff to remember you just by seeing you, yeah.
I’m always surprised by how many people at the stores I go to always remember me. I don’t rely on it even then. (What’s even more surprising is they still recognise me without my kids, and will ask where said kids are.)
Only place I assume I’ll be remembered is the local Chinese place down the road and that’s because she even recognises me over the phone at this point.
Hah, I used to get that when we were doing computer repairs. I’d know who they were on the phone because of caller ID (no way I’d be able to tell from the voices); but they’d see me in the grocery store and come up and ask me how their repair was coming along, and I would have NO idea who they were.
So I’d say, “Remind me which computer was yours?” and they’d tell me what the issue was with it, and then I’d know who they were, ha ha.
Do you have any idea how long it took in grade 9 me to realise that I had two girls in both my drama class and phys ed class? They took their hijabs off for phys ed (our school was big enough that there were separate boys’ and girls’ classes), so I don’t see how I could have been expected to recognise them, once they looked like completely different people.
Eeeeh, no. Speaking as someone with autism who has *enormous* trouble with faces, we generally do fine remembering *people*. Leslie giving her name, and the context of how they know each other, would have been more than enough.
Anna’s just an asshole.
One conventional neurotypical response in situations similar to this is, “I don’t remember your name, but I never forget a face.” For me, it is definitely the opposite.
But more than anything, I can much more reliably identify people by the way their voices sound,
Could be both!
Back before I was diagnosed (i.e. before I knew that I had more of a reason than most to have a hard time with faces), I would say that my brain would store faces, names, and who someone was separately. I could, generally, connect any two of those. Sometimes I would be able to place the face & who the person was without remembering their name. (Especially if I, as Anna obviously did, failed to pay sufficient attention to the name at the time.)
As a moderately faceblind person myself, my first reaction is usually not, “Who are you? Do I know you?”, but an internal monologue of “oh shit! Who am I offending by not recognizing them?”, while my external babble is along the lines of “Oh! You!”, while I desperately try to figure out who they are.
That said, Anna’s first comment to Leslie was “I like what you’ve done with your hair, it distracts from your big nose,” so, maybe?
(I’m not very good at identifying facial features, but I have been known to fail to identify people I know when they radically change their hair.)
I have serious trouble telling faces apart, too. I actually tell people apart more by their voice and how the way they walk sounds.
As another moderately faceblind person, so much this.
I’m pretty good with faces, but terrible with names. My nieces & nephews, half of whom are over 30, I still frequently call by the wrong names. It runs in the family though. My mother still sometimes calls me & my brother by the wrong names.
Leslie no
This.
yyyyup.
Pretty much.
(Leslie: “Leslie yes!”)
LESLIE NO
So very no
This is one of her longest running problems. She likes horrible, mean people.
“Now I know I’m being used
That’s okay because I like the abuse
I know she’s playing with me
That’s okay ’cause I’ve got no self-esteem”
– The Offspring – Self Esteem
You just won a slice of internet points
You got to the Offspring first! Good on you. I keep having to quote that one.
Beat me to it.
Leslie, stop, sit down, and reexamine the trends in how your love life goes wrong.
STILL COUNTS AS A WIN FOR BECKY, GODDAMIT!!!
What’s the Lesbian Love Sleuth scoreboard show? Does this make it Becky 2, Joyce 1?
Leslie nooooooooo
stop chasing awful people, you deserve better
. . . . . Wonder Womans? . . . I’m not sure whether that is an euphanism or not and I am now wondering just what it could mean.
MOst likely Wonder Woman paraphernalia. You kknow, taking in account the movie came out recently?
Probably toys.
Action figures.
Not a euphemism, DC is still putting out WW as a comic.
I’m guessing it means she has comics printed on paper?
There have been multiple Wonder Womans. Lynda Carter, Gal Gadot, Susan Eisenberg. Lucy Lawless voiced her once, which is the most obvious casting ever.
You try fitting all of those in a single desk organizer.
We’re gonna need a bigger desk…
Binders full of Wonder Women.
I’m guessing doodles.
Oodles of doodles.
Damn it all.
Stickers!
My first thought was comic books.
Ok, my gravitar is… hair?
It’s some kind of running gag that the character Bloodmoon never appears fully on-screen (in-panel?).
Oh, hey. Bloodmoon.
Her name is Bloodrose. I believe she’s appeared in “full” a grand total of once either here or in the Walkyverse (to be precise, in a drawing Willis put on tumblr of the SEMME squad she was part of in the Walkyverse, not in any of the strips themselves).
*Bloodrose!! (Dang, I Googled it and everything, still got it wrong)
‘Bloodmoon’ is a worthy name as well.
Bloodrose has ‘appeared’ twice in DoA.
Quite the little garden of Bloodroses in this comment thread!
…Why are there so many types of printer paper, anyway?
It’s because there are so many different uses for paper and they each have different optimal requirements for best performance while the general use paper is ok for everything, but not particularly excellent for anything.
Same reason there are many types of just about anything.
Because there are so many types of printers, there are so many types of paper compositions, there are so many types of intended uses, and there are so many types of price points. In an allegedly digital world, printing is the ultimate reminder that the world is immutably analog.
Because you need fancy paper for printing certificates, regular paper for printing everyday documents, and cheap paper for ruining your printer by filling it with paper dust.
That looks like the aisle where they stock all those small packs of specialty paper and pre-cut sticker forms.
Also because colored paper is fun. I’ve designed a system with handouts where different things I give the kids are on different colored paper depending on its purpose. (So things that would be stressful like assessments is on mellower lilac whereas information I want to be easy to find in their notes is on bright blue or rose).
That is genius, and I’m using it when I finally am teaching. Thank you.
I had really hoped we had seen the last of Anna.
Even if most days we see the FIRST of Ana?
I see what you did there.
She needs another organizer to store her Supergirls.
She’s got a type.
It’s a terrible type, but it’s hers.
Is it “disrespectful and uncaring of my feelings” because that’s horrible.
God Dammit Leslie.
Noooooo go back to the church! I want to see more of Joyce!
Also, Leslie no.
Be kinder to yourself.
Eihter Leslie a glutton for punishment or she has very low standards which complements her bad taste.
Or a really sub fetish.
One can indulge one’s sub fetish without having horrible people as one’s dom, Leslie.
i am intrigued by your suggestions and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I suggest fetlife.com for information about dom/sub relationships. Not that I have any personal knowledge of said relationships, but I know they have lessons on site.
Leslie pls nooo :c not to tell you who you can’t or shouldn’t be attracted to, but. this can only end in tears :C
Dammit Leslie you deserve someone better.
Les, a Wanda Pierce has a message for you.
Leslie pls love yourself
Y’know, once you get home. Not in the paper aisle at Staples.
Don’t you be placing limits on Leslie’s love! I love myself in all kinds of places just fine. In the car, public restrooms, library, mueseums… you can love yourself anywhere!
just keep pushing the Easy Button until your stress is fully relieved.
I was VERY hesitant to click that link…
(If anyone else is in the same position, I assure you that it is entirely safe, for work and otherwise, and goes to the official Staples site. This is a real thing.)
Wow, they still sell those!
I bought an Easy Button years ago. The novelty wore off after a few minutes, then it sat in a drawer for months until I turned it into a push-to-talk game chat pedal. They’re surprisingly robust for a cheap plastic toy.
In my college dorm, we planned to use the casing of one with a custom big red button that said “Hard.” Then we were gonna fill it with concrete, and put them next to each other on the community lounge table.
Right? I mean, the paper aisle is ridiculous. There’s plenty of nice comfy desk chairs around. Treat yourself.
What a weird way for Leslie to be walking through the store. Kind of reminds me of the time I was pretending to be a Tyrannosaurus to better understand their struggle of having tiny arms.
Dunno, let’s check a reference image.
http://dumbingofage.bigcartel.com/product/dumbing-of-age-rarrr-poster
Yes, I can see it.
rarrrr!
What did you learn?
I’ll copy and paste a key finding from my write-up about it:
”
Based on my experiences with getting dressed, I have come to the conclusion that T-Rexes most likely did not wear sports bras. Limited mobility in one’s arms certainly makes putting on a sports bra quite a challenge. I did not experiment with other forms of bras, but it seems reasonable to me that the T-Rex would either have worn front-close bras or gone bra-less.”
[Insert Dina impression pointing out that T-rexes were not mammals and therefore, etc. here.]
Nonsense
I would like to point out that while not mammals and therefore lacking mammary glands, even birds, which are also dinosaurs, have breasts.
I know, I eat chicken. /sarcasm
I just figured it was an inevitable reply.
Nope, according to the rule of sci-fi, any species, anything, even robots; if they are female, they have breasts.
I’m pretty sure there are corners of the internet you just made sad.
I feel like those are probably internet corners I would want to sadden.
Your contributions to science are appreciated.
Don’t forget about Anna, aggressively staring at the reams of multi-color copy paper with her arms at her sides for some reason.
For a second, I though that was Anna’s much milder doppleganger. That could’ve been a happier event. :p
(Also, fyi, if I disappear over the next few days, I’m probably dead. It’ll take me a bit to get back from hell. :p)
After what we told you about keeping your desk tidy?
My desk organizer is crammed full of enforcement of the Tyrest Accord. http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/magnustidy5.JPG
This is the next logical step for Magnus. He already keeps his desk tidy in a desk tidy. Changing his alt-mode into a desk tidy is just efficient.
Anna’s nose looks far bigger. Also, Leslie don’t do this no stahhhhp.
Anna and Mindy are still roommates/close friends as of right now, yes? And that pretty disastrous date was like, the day before. No idea how the rest of Mindy’s night went.
This is just wishful thinking, but maybe there’ll end up being some moment where Anna’s just slightly miffed at Leslie for blowing off her friend like that. Maybe chew her out a little. Not a lot, not in a big speech or anything, just some mild annoyance. And not because Leslie deserves it necessarily, but it’d be nice to display a singular sympathetic moment from her character, I’m up to here with this same misanthropic brown woman archetype being played out here, yknow?
Anna is DEFINITELY not the sort to care about Mindy’s hurt feelings.
Well maybe she’d surprise us goddamnit I’m just tired of this archetype being played straight and if anyone could subvert it it’s Anna since we know the least about her
Leslie, she’s just not that into you. *Now* is the time to realize that.
I have had exactly this same interaction with someone — I can’t say exactly that we had dated, but we’d had several date-like events, including a theater performance that she had invited me to — but when I ran into her outside a supermarket, and it took her a couple of seconds to remember who I was, that was when I realized that I was never really on her radar.
Leslie, that is you right now. The heart wants what it wants, but crushing on someone who doesn’t remember your name is…not likely to result in the heart’s desired outcome.
Ach, that’s a bummer.
Having had time for reflection, I’d say that it’s life. A crush is a crush, and love is love, and sometimes these two different things coincide; but often they don’t, and c’est la vie.
Just so.
No… Leslie no, You could do much better… Seriously what is it with people’s taste in mates in this series? X_X (guess they don’t call it “Dumbing of Age” for nothing).
The only person with good taste is Becky, whose type seems to be “particular, feminine, routine-oriented, loyal, and kind” (e.g. Joyce and Dina).
Joyce has decent taste, I guess. But every other romantic pursuit in the comic has some serious issues. Which, I mean, reflects reality? But, gah, wanting people who are bad for you: a theme.
What’s the problem with Walky’s (I’m having a jamais vu moment here, is this really his name?) taste?
(David Walkerton)
Leslie… no.
C’mon.
Ah jeez, am I going to go down the rabbit hole of comparing Leslie’s nose size to other characters to decide if it’s noticeably larger?
Huh, it kinda is. Especially compared to Mindy, whose nose is just a line indicating the bottom of it. But Leslie’s nose really is bigger than Robin’s, Becky’s, and various other characters she’s interacted with recently.
Oh for God’s sake- Justin when you thought she learned her lesson the last time you saw she pulls a 180.
This is what i feel right now: https://imgflip.com/s/meme/Captain-Picard-Facepalm.jpg
What fuck Android phone autocorrect you made a fool out of us once again, I got to up the anty now: http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/006/512/DoubleFacePalm.jpg
I love that you felt the need to correcting posting the wrong amount of facepalm.
Dammit, Satan. Not now.
The correct phrase is, “Damn you Willis”.
No, Leslie, just no.
oh hey, Sayid is in the poll now!
but I voted earlier today, and I.. don’t actually know who Sayid is. was she the one who was told not to talk about billie sleeping with the RA? she seems cool so far
That’s Nash you’re thinking of. Sayid’s the guy whose skateboard Amazi-Girl made use of to chase down Toedad’s car (he’s also appeared in some bonus comics and Slipshine since then, as I recall).
Now that I think about it is Daisy even relevant in this Comic anymore ?
Long as there is lesbian and superhero gossip/news around, yes.
Now that I think about it how many lesbian characters are in here now ? Not counting Billie or Dina because there Bi there’s Leslie, Becky, Daisy, Mindy, Anna, Grace, Mandy,Sierra, Anna, Mindy and God knows how many I’m forgetting.
Grace, Mandy, and Sierra are all bi.
Total wlw (women love women) characters:
1. Becky (lesbian)
2. Dina (probably lesbian?)
3. Ruth
4. Billie (bisexual)
5. Carla (lesbian romantic, asexual)
6. Daisy (lesbian)
7. Leslie (lesbian)
8. Grace (unknown)
9. Mandy (unknown)
10. Sierra (unknown)
11. Mindy (lesbian)
12. Anna (unknown)
13. Marcie (lesbian)
14. Malaya (bisexual [iirc])
15. Robin DeSanto (bisexual)
So, right! There are fifteen ladies who love ladies in this cast. Seven are confirmed lesbians.
There are far fewer men who love men (gay or bisexual men). That list consists of Ethan, Danny, and…huh. Probably just those two, unless I’m forgetting someone important.
I was thinking about it the other dayy and trying to remember what it was that first attracted me to this comic. Now, of course, it has all the lesbians and otherwise sapphic ladies going for it. But that wasn’t as much the case at first, and not even by the time I started reading (like, I don’t remember exactly when I started, but it was before Becky showed up on campus).
Basically, I’ll dive into a piece of media just for the rep, but here I just lucked out, I guess.
Dina identified herself as basically sapiosexual, and there are a few other gay/bi guys around. I mean, first of all, there’s big bisexual Mike. Then there were a few who’ve only shown up in smaller roles. One I think was Bryan, and I forget the names of the others.
Anyway, there are way more female characters than male characters in this comic. The imbalance in number of gay/bi characters feels pretty proportional.
There’s at least one slipshine with a gay couple (and that wasn’t Ethan Danny). And we have been introduced to several, though no one else is a major cast member.
Sayid and Bryan.
We’ve also met Eric Schtupenstein, who is presumably bi.
Pretty sure Marcie’s bi, since her Walkyverse version was part of Squad 48, the all-bisexual-girls squad.
Also, Mandy, Grace, and Sierra are known to be bi, for the same reason.
Mike.
Mike is whatever you don’t want him to be.
And ‘hatesexual’ or whatever permutation people come up with isnt a real sexual identity.
Mike always read to me as a straight dude who bangs guys for the reader’s laughs.
We don’t have any confirmation of his orientation, but word of Willis and Ethan have both confirmed he’s not straight.
Mike having an orientation involves him being an actual character first, and not a plot device who only fucks dudes if it leads to a funny scene.
He’s Gabe from Penny Arcade. He’s Peter from Family Guy. He’s every straight character who makes gay jokes because readers will laugh.
I was adding on to what Leorale said, not responding to you, Spencer. What you said is a valid complaint.
Oh, sorry.
No worries, I was being unclear!
Ruth is also bisexual.
Couple corrections:
A) Dina’s not a lesbian. She’s been into guys in the Walkyverse and her only statements here are that she’s unsure if gender matters to her and she’s not overly worried about it.
B) Ruth is bi.
C) Grace, Mandy, and Sierra are all bi.
D) Marcie’s not a lesbian, she’s bi.
E) We don’t know Malaya’s orientation. She didn’t specifically like boys or girls in the Walkyverse, but did like Ultra Car, leading some of us to think she’s demi, but we don’t have any confirmation.
So we have four lesbians, not counting Carla since I’m not sure if she calls herself one (not all homoromantic aces describe themselves as gay or lesbians since many feel the ace part more keenly than their romantic orientation).
Gotcha, sorry! I haven’t read the other Walkyverse comics (I’m not that into sci-fi-action stuff). Thanks for the info
It’s all good!
Hmmmm, I’m pretty sure this comic is actually about Daisy and there are just a lot of side plots. Comics gonna end with Daisy finally getting laid.
No, its gonna end the panel before.
Her endless frustration is a constant of the universe.
She’s like Charlie Brown if the football is boobies.
You have won the comment section for tonight (if not for all time),
Well damn, I will never be able to kick a football again, with that mental connection stuck in my head.
Noooooo—
There -must- be boobies. With chest windows.
(rushes off to commit fanfic)
Nope, Sayid is the skater boy who lent his board to AmaziGirl a while back. Also a Galasso’s pizza (and subs) employee.
excuse me but the term is sk8er boi
Well, it is if you are Avril Lavigne.
We Are All Avril Lavigne.
That’s Nash. Sayid is a guy. Musical, works at the pizza place, was in a Slipshine with his boyfriend I think.
No, that’s Nash. Sayid works at Galasso’s w/ Becky (he was the one who saw Becky picking off the sausages for Joyce) and he gave Amazigirl his skateboard so she could go rescue Becky from Toedad. He was also in a slipshine with I think Bryan?
I guess this is going to be a continuing arch then… I predict it will go badly.
Anna doesn’t want to date Leslie because she recognizes Leslie lacks confidence and is just plain stupid when it comes to choosing the right partner.
Got no time for that kinda mess.
“C’mon, girl, get your shit together.”
“… if I do, then will you go out with me?”
“No.”
I’ve had thoughts like that, but for me they come from a lack of confidence/insecurity. Like, yeah, I’d like to date someone, but would I really be interested in someone with bad enough taste to be interested in ME?
Self-confidence for days
To paraphrase Groucho, you “wouldn’t belong to any couple who’d have you as a member”?
I got over my insecurity somewhat,( and it was a big hill to climb). Hope you do too.
I have the opposite problem. Anybody who’d be above my standards to the extent that I’d consider trying to have a relationship with them is waaaay too good for me, and I’d feel awful about subjecting them to being in a relationship with me.
*hugs* (whoops, I actually got the “you are posting comments too quickly” thing, guess I should have made that a group hug instead
I have a bit of both. But really I am managing it and probably getting better (it’s been a while since I’ve really thought about my feelings toward a relationship, though, so it’s hard to be sure).
*hugs*
Leslie cut the date with Mindy short because she saw too much of herself in Mindy. Might be that Anna sees the same thing.
I thought it was because she was still getting over Robin.
It was a mix, she wasn’t over Robin entirely but she was seeing exactly how pathetic she’d acted around her.
Welll… here’s my breaktime, til this goes by. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Ohhh that’s right, Leslie went on a dinner date with Mindy but not quite with Anna.
So… Galasso’s anyone?
You mean, the place where Becky works?
Yes, that would be about Leslie’s usual level of luck.
It’s a fun opportunity. A fun-portunity, one might say.
Anna reminds me very much of the co worker I’m trying very hard not to stab right now, as she Facebook stalks an ex-employee’s upcoming wedding and provides running commentary on what’s wrong with everyone in it.
“Can you believe she’s planning on wearing a sari to this wedding? I can’t believe Timothy (the husband) is OK with that, it’s going to ruin a perfectly good ceremony.”
“What the hell is up with this stupid dot shit? Lady, you got off the boat over four years ago, you’re in America now, time to get with the program.”
“Oh look, he’s actually taking language lessons for the benefit of the parents. That’s adorable.” *Makes whip crack noise a bunch of times*
Co-worker sounds like the woooorst.
But among Anna’s failings, she doesn’t appear racist at least.
She does seem to have the “overly blunt jerkass who thinks everyone needs to hear her gross opinions” thing down pat.
Um. Racist much?
If it applies, you should go over to her and say “It’s okay. You’ll find someone someday.”
Sounds like the coworker really wants to bang Timothy (or his bride… or both… for a nickel).
Bulldoze this person into the sea.
I’d say she’s jealous. And or racist.
I’ve had thoughts like that, but for me they come from a lack of confidence/insecurity. Like, yeah, I’d like to date someone, but would I really be interested in someone with bad enough taste to be interested in ME?
Self-confidence for days
This was supposed to be a reply, but my internet connection goofed it up.
Sigh. Well let’s strap in for this roller coaster of emotional self-abuse by proxy
Why bother strapping in? It’s gonna hurt either way…
Desk Organizer?!? Those two words don’t go together at all.
Oh, come on! I was looking forward all day to drunk Joyce, and I get this?
You really need to get a better type.
No Leslie! No! Bad lesbian! Bad!
You know, I think that Leslie is growing. I feel like she’s slowly climbing the ladder to a mutually respectful relationship. She got over Robin, didn’t force herself to be with Mindy out of pity and maybe, just maybe, Anna will be another epiphany that helps her to find someone she can be happy with in the future.
Yes! Anna and Leslie 4 Ever!
God dammit Leslie…
We’ve all fallen for the asshole before, lets be honest.
and this comic gave me a dream about the one I fell for, ugh.
but my dreams have mostly been fucked-up this week anyways.
Leslie Bean, ladies and gentleman, a smart woman who is addicted to abusive partners.
Sadly true. Really would like Leslie to give Mindy a second chance.
It may just be me, but I feel that calling Anna (or Robin) “abusive” really just diminishes the word.
If breaking into someone’s home and wholly ignoring every boundary they put up in order to try to browbeat them into accepting your advances isn’t abusive I don’t even know what is anymore.
Robin’s behavior was almost beyond abusive into some other category.
Robin was a stalker who blithely ignored every boundary and chipped away at Leslie’s sense of control over her own life.
And Anna verbally abuses everyone in her presence. I’d defer to Mindy on whether Anna does this within her romantic relationships too, but it would be surprising if she stops. Imagine this level of meanness from somebody who knows where you’re the most vulnerable.
Try as I might, I can’t help but be pissed off at grown-ass people who actively pursue relationships with shitty people because satisfying the butterflies in their stomach apparently trumps having self-respect.
My mother is notorious for doing this, and what makes it even more maddening that she’s a strong, proud and ambitious woman otherwise. Like, JFC mom, you wouldn’t take this shit from your coworkers, but you’ll let your husband disrespect you like this?
The LA Times is running a special report series about a successful businesswoman who married a guy who’s an abusive, shitty conman. And it was like her fourth marriage. I’m just staring at her like “what the hell are you thinking?! ARE you thinking?!”
Generally when it comes to romantic decisions, “thinking” doesn’t really play a large role.
Some of us just tend to fall for people who aren’t horrible. Changing the type you’re attracted to is really hard.
Leslie is cute in that last panel heh.
Have… Have we really seen enough of Anna to just dismiss her as “an awful person” like so many people here are? She’s got a real shitty *attitude*, I’ll give her that, but it seems like jumping the gun a little to imply she’s straight-up abusive like some of the people here are.
I’d put it more that she seems created to fill the “yeah, jackasses exist of all stripes” role.
It’s a thing you sometimes need to do with a work that’s filled with lots of great people of one group, an acknowledgement that jackasses are jackasses, and being a member of a disenfranchised group doesn’t mean you can’t also be a jackass.
Now, being outright *abusive*, that’s a different level of awfulness. You can be a jackass and not be outright abusive. But at the very least, yeah, Anna seems like a jackass.
…….I like the word “jackass”…
Catalina would approve.
Willis has confirmed that Anna is based directly off of Walkyverse!Mike in terms of her general attitude. And Mike is…not a good person, really.
Does that make Mindy Ethan, with worse self esteem?
No, I’d say that their self-esteem is probably a close equivalent. Indeed, I suspect that a second Leslie/Mindy date may start with Mindy finally losing her temper with Anna when she catches her inflicting emotional abuse on Leslie.
Ethan discovered his orientation all of 5ish months ago. I hope by the time he’s Mindy’s age he’s not directly comparable on the self-esteem and self-direction front.
True, she’s based on Mike which is horrible, but I do find it tiring to read so many comments that just call a character horrible over and over. even when I agree, it still feels a bit icky.
hmm. I went back and counted (somewhat unreliably because there’s some conflict about who should be running my brain atm): three horrible’s, an awful, an abusive, and a shitty. apparently that’s what my brain considers “over and over”. I suspect there’s some confirmation bias in there… and/or some being tired of it already from previous comics.
I have. She’s an asshole, who treats people with no respect. And from how Mindy acted, I can tell neither did she when they were a couple.
noooooooooo It’s gonna be Malaya all over again in shortpacked
Quick question – my brother likes to buy figures online, some of which are bootlegs. I’ve been hearing about how sometimes these bootlegs contain dangerous, acidic chemicals. Does anybody know how to tell if a given figure is safe?
I don’t know much about the topic, so I did a quick google-search. It seems they can be toxic, as the companies behind them probably use cheaper material and have less controls of harmfulness of the chemicals (or something like that). I don’t think there is a way to tell if a figure is safe or not – maybe if the smell is really bad (like, not like plastic, but chemicals). Simply handling the figurines (even bootleg ones) shouldn’t cause any dangerous disease than handling plastic bags would, but if you are really unsure, the only advices I could think of is to definitely not sleep in the same room as the figurines are in (especially if they smell really bad after taken out of a package), and/or making sure that he buys as little bootleg figurines as possible.
Hope this can help in some way.
I wonder. Anna’s first reaction reads positive to me, but she sure didn’t recognize Leslie. And then she probably remembered what Mindy had to tell about their date and chooses to be abrasive on purpose?
Willis, it’s not fair to make a cliffhanger out of Joyce and the communion cup! Now we will have to speculate for days if she fainted.
OTOH, she commented on Leslie’s big nose in their first meeting too, so I kinda think it’s just her.
i just quit my job there, just tonight, this is some messed up 5d mindgames you’re playing with me willis.
Gotta admit, one of the things that unsettle me the most about Anna is that she really, really looks like a cartoon version of myself – but every time she opens her mouth is to say something insensitive or mean that reminds me of hurtful people I’ve met |’D;;;
Leslie. Leslie please.
oh god this is going to be horrible
I am astounded to find myself in a comment thread of about 150 comments — where nobody has yet mentioned the obvious: that Leslie has a “binder full of women”.
No, ‘woman’, singular. One Ms Diana Prince, specifically.
I wonder if Willis has ever thought of creating a character that is like Wonder Woman, a tall, heavily built woman with long black hair and expertise in martial arts and then launch her at Leslie?
I thought of making one up a bit, but figured a political joke from the innocent days of 5 years ago might be a little obscure. Thanks.
Obscure, for this crowd?
You’d have to go back to the limericks about Grover Cleveland’s out-of-wedlock progeny to trip this lot up.
Yes, but for the characters, 5 years IRL is about a month.
Just got to add that I love Anna’s blank expression in panel 5. It’s an early warning signal of just how totally she forgot the whole incident with Leslie and Becky and (thus) how little impact Leslie made on her.
Possible real problem: Depending on what Mindy told Anna about the abortive date, it is quite possible that, now Anna knows who she is, she may want to get revenge for her roomie’s humiliation, mostly because hurting people is something that she likes doing.
That’d honestly be incredibly redeeming in my eyes if she cares enough about Mindy to seek vengeance for her.
Annnnd we are back to unhealthy habits…
Oh wonderful.
Yup. Just peachy.
… No, Leslie. No. Don’t do this. Don’t get sucked into another bad relationship.
I’m seeing a future strip where an uncomfortable Becky is in the position of being a caregiver to a crying Leslie who wants to know why all her picks for partners turn out to be mentally unstable, abusive, assholes or mixtures of the three.
Makes me wonder if her parents are to blame for this. The whole “Like parent like spouse” kind of thing where a person is looking for someone similar to their opposite (or maybe same in Leslie’s case) sex parent.
*sobs*
I have a vicerously angry reaction to Anna…
Yes avatar….listen to that inner voice (comment)! Walk away. No…Punch her in the face then walk away!
Hmm, not sure if you were going for “viciously” or “vicariously” there?
viscerally.
Oh…I think I combined ferociously and visceral ….both are true
Oh Leslie, she’s done nothing but insult you. Use Becky as your good role model. This feel like when you see a friend actively flirting with a jerk.
No, bad Leslie, bad.
Hrm, calling her bad is maybe a bit much cause I understand the like, feelings that lead to this, but hrm, still hope it doesn’t go this way and she’ll get hurt. :s
Perhaps Leslie should take her own course?
Is Leslie attracted to Anna et al. because or despite their treating her like they do?
I think it’s Because. I mean there is virtually no similarity between Anna and Robin appearance-wise so it has got to be their personalities.
oh no.
That’s not fair, Willis. I already voted. You can’t dangle Sayid in front of me like that!
https://i.imgur.com/c4jt321.png
Comic Reactions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCVR2pjXc0
“What we had together had a bad tendency to explode.”
Sexual/romantic chemistry/interest can sometimes make damned fools of us all and make us miss red flags we would be more on guard about.
And that can suck because it can mean going after somebody that is not at all healthy for you because internally you’re coming up with rationalization after rationalization for why that’s just a coincidence or not a big a deal as it seems.
We know from seeing Leslie that she’s got a fairly attuned sense of self-preservation that kicks in. Even when she was drowning in romantic feels for Robin, there was a part that recognized that it was demeaning to her. Same with Mindy, a part of her recognized that trying to continue out of pity would trap her with someone with the same negatives she carries and reinforce negative brain patterns.
I suspect in time the same self-respect and self-preservation will kick in here and recognize that Anna is not just confident and butch and doing something to her downstairs bits, but actually an asshole who will exacerbate her insecurities.
But if it doesn’t, that doesn’t say anything about Leslie other than how blinding that attraction can be to things that matter and lead one into negative situations.
In short, attraction can be a son of a percussion instrument sometimes.
Without looking, you’re quoting Semisonic, right?
Boffo band.
This couldn’t POSSIBLY go wrong!
Ref the alt text: No, that’s paper, staples come in much smaller boxes. And, ironically, are the hardest items to find in a Staples.
Is it okay if I get personal here for a bit? I’m at a loss for what to do right now regarding my relationship with a friend of mine and I have no one to talk to about it.
sure
I’ve certainly used this space for personal things. You should feel welcome to too.
Thanks.
So like, for about a year I let a friend stay in home after he got unfairly kicked out of his house. He left a while ago and didn’t say goodbye and hasn’t tried to contact me or anything until recently saying he wants to see me again when he’s in town, and I guess I don’t know how to react. I’m angry with him for basically just leaving without a word, and I want to say that, but I don’t know how to approach it without ruining our friendship. He’s been a good friend to me but now I don’t know how to feel.
So, like, what should I do? Do I tell him off? Do I just put it aside and pretend it’s not bothering me?
ah, a Words problem. How to communicate your feelings in a way that’s likely to have your friend understand and talk about it, instead of just feeling hurt himself and escalating.
you explained it well here to us, so that’s a good start. How is *he* with words? how do you think he’d react if you just copy&pasted what you’ve written into an email? How comfortable would *you* be with doing something like that? (I have so many bizarre issues with words myself)
and, do you have any guesses as to *why* he left without a word?
I would probably approach it from the angle of telling him not to do that again. Emphasizing what you want to change generally makes reasonable people less defensive, even if you go on to vent at them about how shitty that was to do.
Even if he has a good reason for ducking out like that, he still better be able to understand why you’re upset. If he responds badly to that, then the friendship was already ruined. Your feelings matter too, not just his, and you have a right to be mad.
I dunno. I can’t speak from experience, but something about the situation is raising some red flags for me. Be careful in careful not to let him walk all over you.
Dang it, that was supposed to be a reply to Spencer
“I would probably approach it from the angle of telling him not to do that again.”
hmm. I’d approach it more from the angle of telling him what that felt like from your perspective, then seeing how he responds (ie whether he actually cares that you had feelings). Maybe that’s me being too conciliatory, or being socialized as a girl (and having only recently gained the capacity to even talk about feelings)…
I kinda feel like, since I have no power to actually *make* people change, telling them not to do something (and then feeling more angry and helpless when they do it again) is less useful than getting information about whether they’re likely to do it and whether they’ll put in effort if I ask. That seems a little fucked up now that I put it into words.
And now I’m remembering times when I wish I had just told the person to do the damn thing and let myself be angry.
And I do still have trouble asking people to do things, because I remember the days of being surrounded by people who would punish others for telling them what to do, or for asking for things.
I’m also approaching this with the assumption that the ‘friend’ is likely to be reasonable but not particularly stable or healthy himself; I missed whatever red flags you’re seeing.
I only meant that it’s where I would start, before moving on to explaining what the problem was with it, rather than going the other way around. Though I’d probably be less inclined to ask them to not do that again than I would be to tell them that pulling that shit a second time would not be okay. An approach more like yours is a good option as well though.
Not staying in touch I can understand. I’m terrible at doing that, even with people I care deeply about. It’s not one of my better qualities. What bothers me about is the skipping town on someone who helped him out in a significant way, without so much as note or a “thank you”.
I dunno, I just can’t imagine a plausible scenario where I would do that. Admittedly, I’ve lead a comfortable, low-drama life, so there’s no doubt tons of good explanations that wouldn’t even occur to me.
Still, if I were going to give this guy a chance, I would not be super quick to trust. Like, I’d give him a chance to apologize and explain (who knows, maybe that’s why he got in touch), but I wouldn’t be lending the guy money or anything.
Well I’m trying to talk to him. Just asked him why he left without a word.
Her goes nothing.
it might also be useful to think about what matters to you here. do you want him to acknowledge that it was a dick move? do you want him to promise not to do that again? do you want him to jump in a time machine and make it un-happen?
“What bothers me about is the skipping town”
yeah; it’s not clear to me – was this an “I have no idea if he’s even alive” scenario or an “I found out he moved out from facebook posts and his stuff being gone” scenario?
I had a roommate who pulled the former, and reappeared three weeks later several timezones away, and he wasn’t a *bad* guy, just had some mental issues that he wasn’t handling well. The sort of person I’d be fine being casual friends with, but would never ever rely on for anything ever again ’cause he didn’t seem to be anywhere near working on that issue.
*hisses loudly*
Those stacks of paper packages in soft colors are so incredibly satisfying to look at.
Paper packaging is underappreciated.
I totally had the same reaction
NO
NOOOOOOOOOOO