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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
TFW2005 @tfw2005.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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mccloud
Ethan: Alright, I’m off to my next test, wish me luck.
Amber:
Ethan: …That’s unnerving.
Amber:
?
Ethan: I haven’t heard any updates about Mike. Look, how many hours sleep did you get last night?
Amber:
Ethan: Maybe go get a couple more.
Although I understand the four-leaf clover, I don’t speak social media or emoji — so would someone please provide a courtesy translation of ‘left-looking eyes’ as well as the other emojis in the above post?
Left-looking eyes has the connotation of averting one’s eyes to not meet another’s gaze, such as for instance when being caught at something one is embarassed about.
Also known as “shifty eyes” (in large part because the right facing >.> is about as common as the left facing, making it overly specific as to which version you’re using when you refer to it by its facing).
Here’s some possible usages:
“Sorry, hun. Forgot to pick up the groceries. >.>”
“You mean, who ate the cake in THAT fridge? Uhh… >.>”
“Looks like we’re in for some overtime. Yaaaaay. >.>” [Though :/ or crying emoji would work better there].
“I rushed to the exam yesterday. Found out today I’d goine to the wrong exam room. Whoops. >.>” [Though, frankly, you’d probably want a stronger emoji for that one.]
Simply put, it’s an “awkward situation” emoji. You’re indicating awkwardness, as you would when not meeting someone’s eyes in a normal conversation.
:/ for grimace or sympathetic frown [“Sorry to hear your dad missed your play.. again. :/”], :X for lips sealed [ie, “can’t really say anything more about that”, or: “They say the epidemic has escalated even further. :X”] and :S for .. wincing, I guess would be the way to phrase it? [“Oh, look. More homework :S” or “Sorry to hear that you’ll miss the school trip. :S”] are all somewhat similar emoji concepts [in that they all are meant to indicate an aversion to the topic in question].
This changes things for me because half the time I read the “shifty eyes” emoji as “I’m looking at this REALLY HARD” or “Well, look at that…”
Like a sarcastic emphasis on ne’er-do-wells who follow through on being the garbage people that you expect them to be
-_- is the exasperated/”no, really?” face- it seems best suited for you, among the more common emoji forms. That said, the one you’re specifically referring to would likely be (¬_¬) or variations thereof. Since it uses ascii characters, it’s one of the more irregular ones, but I think it does a good job of properly expressing the intended tone.
I always interpreted shifty eyes only if at least one of each direction is used. Otherwise I assumed a pointed look.
Poop emoji.
DOWNVOTE
>_>
<_<
totes can't relate, nopesies
>_>
<_’-‘)> <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'’-‘)> <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^
Wow, that bugged hard. What’s the site’s escape character/command? I’ll fix it.
It’s usually a backslash. \\\\\\\\\\
or you can try \,, or/Nope, none of those worked. I put code tags around that whole second line and tried to escape things
didn't work.It could be worse. She could be speaking in hashtags.
Don’t give her/Willis any ideas!
She just might!
Or gifs
Yer sayin’ it wrong.
It’s “jifs,” right?
strange, I always pronounced it as “qev”
No, it’s “gif”. The X is silent.
That’s multiple jars of peanut butter.
Graphics Interchange Format. GIF. Hard G.
I choose to die on this hill.
Word.
Choosy programmers choose GIF. Like the peanut butter commercial. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2013-may-22-la-fi-tn-gif-creator-jif-peanut-butter-20130522-story.html
I thought everyone was supposed to go to .png because someone claimed they owned .gif?
GIF is patent-encumbered, and only supports up to 256 colors per image file, but mainstream PNG doesn’t support animation. Even distributing short compressed video files hasn’t replaced it, because it’s just that ingrained in the Internet by this point. It’s been around since the late 80s, and just about everything supports it.
It’s also pronounced like “gift” but without the T.
Going from memory here, but…
GIF uses the LZW compression algorithm, which was patented but had spread through various magazine articles at a time when the patent holders weren’t defending the patent.
GIF was standardized in 1989 with the GIF89A definition, which added some things to it as well, including the capability to stack several GIF-compressed images into a single GIF file as a way of making the compression of several related pictures more efficient.
About a year later, some bright spark noted this, and figured that if you put a sequence of frames in order, and had an image viewer which could automatically render them one after another in that order with a 1/30 second delay, you would have a crude sort of video playback. Animated GIFs quickly became an easy way of sharing a short animated clip.
Unisys bought the patent in the 1990s and began trying to enforce it, so a group on USENET decided to create an alternative which wasn’t encumbered, leading to PNG. However, there were no animated PNGs at first, and the ubiquity of the format meant that the patent was basically unenforceable, and in any case expired around 2003, so GIF remains common to his day.
Those patents expired around 2005 or so. Gifs are fine now.
Peter Pan is superior to Jif in every way, and GIF is pronounced with a hard G.
Then perish.
You mean it’s not “jraphics interchange format”?
No more than it’s “light aymplification by ztimulated uhmission of radiation”, or “self-contained oonderwater breathing uhpparatus”.
Please don’t die on that hill.
Have the other guy die on that hill – G Patton.
That hill is littered with so many corpses you can build a fort out of them.
It’s spelled “jifs”, but it’s pronounced “Throat-warbler Mangrove.”
hahaha thank you XD
Too late for that
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/complicated-2/
The “hashtag” thing took me forever to understand that people were referring to the “pound sign” AKA the “number sign”
Octothorp.
Or “little tic-tac-toe board” if you really want to annoy people.
Honestly I think of it half the time as a sharp.
You want to really mess with their minds, call it an ‘octothorpe’.
Oh, Amber :'(
Ooh, has Ethan entered the flannel wearing phase of gay life? About a decade earlier than expected, but good on him.
Wait they’re making them take their finals right now? Double you tee eff.
It’s midterms.
Ethan might be referring to a medical test, since they seem to be still at the hospital.
Or he had to leave to take his test and has now returned to the hospital/University clinic to be with Amber again.
I know finals have limited rescheduling potential because grades have a hard date they’re due by, but that’s not usually the case for midterms in my experience. That said, any rescheduling would require scheduling with the campus testing center (already packed at the moment,) and there is probably at least one Douchebag Professor whose stance is ‘hey, YOU’RE not dead or comatose, now are you?’
(I expect Alex and Leslie would both allow rescheduling no questions asked, assuming theirs haven’t occurred yet. The new TA for the math class might have to go through Dr. Rees, who may or may not be aware a kidnapping occurred for all we’ve seen of him, either way we don’t have a proper ping on them.)
She already had Alex’s midterm https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/02-to-remind-you-of-my-love/solving/
Maybe he wanted to take the test. A bit of normalcy is how some people get through tough times. Just check out, go take the test, then come back after the mental break.
*plays the late Charlie Daniels’ “Still In Saigon” on the hacked Muzak*
Oof. Followed by Billy Joel’s “Goodnight Saigon”?
relatable
Like
It’ll be really bad when she starts talking in ASCII art.
She ends up slumped back in her chair, half asleep, only replying in AX.25 packet radio modem sounds.
Ah, the sweet sounds of packet.
BEEEBHAAAAAAALEELEELELELELELEELELEE
On the bright side, she didn’t respond with eggplant.
Peach emoji, sweat droplets emoji, eggplant emoji
<_<
Ah yes, THERE’S the social anxiety/severe introversion again!
… And there’s the professor who refuses to let ‘I was kidnapped yesterday and one of my best friends is comatose’ be a reason for test postponement, because if they let someone reschedule for a reason as petty as kidnapping and threatened murder by a mobster, where do you draw the line, I ask you?
Which is to say, that’s the most realistic piece of fallout from the kidnapping we’ve seen yet! *Sobs*
Maybe Ethan had the option, and he’d already studied, and wanted a break from thinking about the kidnapping to just get the test done. Or maybe his professor is terrible.
That is entirely possible. Means one less thing to think about, as well.
I’ve just had enough shitty faculty members and heard enough horror stories that odds are at least one of them is on that level. (Then again, the one who said he only gave excused absences for active military deployment, police custody, and ER admission with proof of each was a law professor, so maybe we should expect that from Sarah’s faculty. I’m pretty sure I’d found the online section of the same class before we were through the syllabus, because that was one condescending first session.)
There was a computer science prof at Michigan State who was famous for his “If you can prove you were feeding the ducks at the time, you get an automatic 100% on his final” escape clause.
… but witnesses could lie, and photo/video evidence could be faked… etc. etc.
And then some student showed up to the final with two ducks (because “ducks”, plural), and spent the entire test time feeding them.
Impressive.
But can the professor trust his own eyes?
…aren’t they looking right, though, from their perspective
Sympathetic face.
Like? What a fuckin’ boomer.
WTF?
“only old people use Facebook these days”, I’m guessing.
Facebook’s core user base of mid-2000s college students are in their thirties now, that’s old to all the
damn kidsteenagers onVine but it’s Chinese spywareTikTok.You mean the website that commits treason and tells you what your parents are doing?
Can’t you find out what there doing by calling them, it would be faster and leave you both feeling better.
I dunno. I’m an Android user in an office of iPhone users, and I get my text messages “liked,” which apparently means “Acknowledged”? Doesn’t seem to be just a Facebook thing, anyway.
No no, only boomers “Like”, millennials and zoomers use the other reacts
Hey now, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pillowfort still use likes!
But you’re kinda right, tho. She shoulda said, “kudos.”
¬_¬
A favorite of mine!
Theraphy, theraphy for everyone
Theraphy?
The evolved form of Manaphy, the mythical Sea Pokemon.
Oh, boy, I can’t wait for everyone to get their own Theraphy! I hope Amber gets a shiny one, she could use it. But knowing her luck, the event is shiny locked.
If enough of the cast participate, it’ll be shiny Theraphies for all! Like the Zeroara event in Sword/Shield that just happenes.
I think Amber needs to be rebooted.
Abort, retry, fail?
Control, alt, delete?
Has Walky tried turning her off and turning her on again?
Off, now. On, absolutely yes.
Out of cheese error. Reboot universe and restart.
(with apologies to Terry Pratchett)
Question-mark mouth face
Nervous sweat drop
Every single comment that I make awaits moderation. In all of these years I don’t remember ever seeing one actually post. Maybe this one will, just for spite.
Nope, it did not. David, if you read these, please answer the burning question of why? Do you not like my name? Is that it? Is it because my children are more obsessed with Transformers than you are?
I can’t approve comments when I’m asleep
The Galasso avatar was
PERFECT
for this. 
Gotta admit, that’s a good reason.
Youve got two kids. Who gave you permission to sleep?
On the one hand, that’s a fair point.
On the other, it does seem a bit unfair that when he does find five minutes to sleep, you think he should skip the opportunity to moderate comments instead.
I’m sure he’s training the twins to take over moderation duties soon, though.
I should practice Willis’ kids sound awesome and cool.
The worst part about whats bound to happen to Blaine is it will hurt Amber financially and Faz’s mom will likely take it out on him.
In shory Willi’s are amazing.
The clear option is to build a cyber-clone that can take over the moderation duties instead. There is no way that can possibly go wrong!
I would just like to thank you, sir, for allowing me to see my name in lights as it were.
But, yeah, seriously, one of the bedrooms in my house is a shrine to Transformers, they are trying to copy the one that they saw a picture of in your house somewhere, the wiki perhaps. We have purchased the 1986 movie twice due to the disc being worn out — the VHS still works but is wonky.
Lazy eyes wide face
No, Ethan, I think that it’s the fact that the Warners refused to blame Amber and instead were insisting on ensuring that she was okay because anyone that their boy would do that for has to be a good person. Amber is once again having to deal with the dichotomy that she hates herself far, far more than anyone else does (at least anyone whose opinion should matter).
Very plausible, but I think that would still fall under the heading of “blew a fuse interacting with people.”
The Warners are also that exact brand of overwhelming niceness that can be exhausting, especially when you’re already drained.
The self-loathing does probably have a role there though, yes.
Ss”Clearly the opinions of rapists, bullies and those who defend them, specifically defend them by blaming the victims and their defenders are right.”Ss
“Starcastic comment”=Ss”Comment”Ss
Haha same…
Upvote
Heart
Amber.exe has stopped working
+1
dramatic_chipmunk.gif
This is not very “poggers”, I hafta say.
Left looking emoticoneyes and left looking emoji eyes are VERY different moods
She can descend into emoticons, but I draw the line at ASCII. She should have more self-respect than to use ASCII.
She’s a university student. She should use Uni Code.
The Consortium has been watching you, Reltzik.
You are granted entry.
I hope Amber will soon see a good therapist.
Personal interaction has been harder since quarantine so I feel like I’ve lost that ability myself.
He’s seen her do this before.
Better yet, he may have not, and he just really gets the directions her brain takes when it breaks for a bit
Oh no, does this means Mike’s parents showed up? Or worse, is Amber already broken and Mike’s parents haven’t even shown up yet? Oh my. Oh dear.
Mike’s parents turned up a few strips ago – they weren’t happy with what they saw but they understood he did the right thing.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/04-is-a-song-forever/cruise/
Here you go.
Thx! I was so busy wringing my hands about the possibilities that I forgot to, like, read the comic and stuff
I suggest you go back to June 27th