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No, different derivation. The “velo” for “bicycle” is a contraction of the original French word “velocipede” or “fast feet”. “Velociraptor” is “fast hunter”. B)
Actually we even have the adjective “véloce” which translates to “fast” or “nimble”. Anyway “véloce” and “vélocipède” are close derivatives of their latin origins, very much like “pedestrian” designates a creature that moves on his feet in english ^^
As for bicycles, it’s either “vélo” or “bicyclette”. The later, of course, is longer to say and as such more used litterary or by old people
Well, all this to confirm that we do not mistake “chasseur rapide” with “chasseur à vélo” :p
I feel like other Mesozoic reptiles where not interesting to Dina… can’t remember where that was from though. Might have been on tumblr or in comments. Pretty sure it was not in-universe discussion.
If I recall she enjoys the jurassic park movies for bringing out the fun in dinosaurs even though she doesn’t approve of all the artistic liberties they took with the science.
Something like Dinobot she might just come up with a headcannon about how the dinosaur DNA was messed up by Energon Radiation or some such. Have fun with it.
Somewhat interestingly, the Jurassic movies took all their scientific liberties in-universe, since it’s repeatedly stated in the movies and ancillary materials that the Jurassic park dinos aren’t actual dinosaurs and are actually just genetic playthings made by Ingen. This has been used to explicitly justify all the massive inaccuracies (like giant velociraptors), since the park was screwing with the genetics and both made mistakes and also deliberately made some things more ‘interesting’. By the look of the trailers this continues in the upcoming movie where they start making new pseudo-dinos out of whole cloth.
Dina is actually portraying the best defense against the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
“The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is a wild animal from the planet of Traal, known for its never-ending hunger and its mind-boggling stupidity. The Guide calls the bugblatter the stupidest creature in the entire universe — so profoundly unintelligent that, if you can’t see it, it assumes it can’t see you.” …..from Douglas Adams’ “Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
Nope, cannot pin down what Transformer that is. Granted that looks like a Decepticon and for some reason I can only name like, three of those guys. Yet I can name like 10 Autobots right off the bat.
He was a Decepticon in the original cartoon (first appeared in the ’86 movie), but this toy is Combiner Wars Cyclonus, who is neither an Autobot or Decepticon. He did fight for the Decepticons once, but he was sort of brainwashed at the time, and people tend not to let him live it down. He’s also a grumpy bastard, and when combined with a purple paint job and a jet alt-mode, yeah, that sort of reads Decepticon to most people.
But he’s currently working on a ship full of Autobots, his one friend (two if you count Whirl, and he wouldn’t) is an Autobot, and he’s gone from being an asshole to only being about 60% of an asshole.
Y’know, I never understood that. Why is it the Autobots have stuff like cars and trucks and stuff, while the Decepticons have friggin fighter jets and tanks?
Just wanna say this upfront, my knowledge of Transformers is limited at best. My knowledge stems mainly from the shows, and even those memories are hazy at best. So if my statements are erroneous, my apologies. In all honesty, I’ve been meaning to get into the series a bit more, but I’m lazy. Like… too lazy to even get that into it.
I’m even more ignorant, but I assumed it was meant to reflect the Decepticons’ aggressiveness and warmongering whereas the Autobots try to live in harmony.
Well, both sides have both, but yeah in the beginning the Autobots were all cars (it’s in the name really), while the Decepticons were…weird. Guns, boomboxes, a frigging camera (they needed three guys to become that one, because obviously you couldn’t manage a camera with just one), etc. But they also tended to have a lot of military hardware in their ranks, which means jets.
Didn’t last too long. By the seventh episode of the original cartoon, the Autobots had already picked up a jet and some dinosaurs. There have been a couple of different canon explanations over the years, not of all which I’m familiar with, but I think it usually goes back to most of the military types joining the Decepticons, while Autobots tended to be regular laborers.
You know, I’d be more impressed if it was G1 Cyclonus. Transforming that guy without at least one of his arms falling off halfway through was nearly impossible…
Nah, this universe’s Willis created Dexter & Monkey Master and lives on a cliff with a lawn made of solid gold. Sal seems like she’s know someone like that.
I did an interview with the guy some 25 years ago. While beating him at his own board game (can’t remember the name).
I think this deserved a ittle bragging .-D
West Australia’s pretty green in plenty of places. Just ignore those 3 deserts I think it is it has. And how big it is compared to all the green bits. And….yeah, alright, you may have a point…
Heh, I like how whenever the term “pop” comes up in the comic, everyone comments about what they call it. For the record, I use “soda” and “coke” interchangeably.
Yeah, once I saw it in the first panel I stopped reading to check the comments and see if someone is going to be a dick about it makes a big deal out of it.
I still stand by the idea of auto-correcting “soda” in the comments section, as well as tagging “pop.”
Calling things that aren’t Coca-Cola, coke, just doesn’t make any sense. that’s what coke is short for. That would be like if I called every girl katie, because it’s short for katelyn and every guy jon because it’s short for jonathan.
You do know the original formula for Coca Cola included enough coca leaf that a glass contained almost 10 milligrams of cocaine, right? They stopped using that formula in 1903, but the company still produces significant amounts of raw cocaine as part of their manufacturing process, which gets sold for use in making purified cocaine for medical usage.
I hate tell you MrZombieScordo, but referring to men as “guys” undermines your point. The word “guy” is derived from Guy Fawkes, whose claim to fame was helping blow up the British Parliament.
Further, “Coke” is an officially trademarked name for Coca-Cola. It’s the only product that has the honor of two names.
I call it “frisdrank”, literally “fresh drink”. We also use “iets fris” (“something fresh”) to mean various cold drinks, including soft drink, juices and lemonades. Basically every non-alcoholic drink except for tea, coffee and tap water.
Soda/Pop: any carbonated syrup water
Cola: any carbonated syrup water based on the taste of kola nuts
Coke/Coca Cola: a brand of cola which originally included an extract fom the coca plant
Ethan is really sweet here. Ethan has become a lot more relaxed and chill lately, I like it. The fewer secrets you have, the lighter your heart becomes.
Cause he’s a cheap knock off of renamed Hotrod, 1 of the cooler Autobots back in the day. He probably got his name changed because it has potential other meanings, but still…
Wait, Damn you Daniel the Human & Sister, you’ve infected me. Least I don’t have his liking of Airraid too…
Hasbro lost claim of the trademark to “Hot Rod” for action figures. That’s why they haven’t used it since 1987 and have started opting to call him “Rodimus.” I believe Mattel has it and won’t let go.
Also, Hot Shot was conceived as an update to Bumblebee (it’s on his early model sheet) but Hasbro had also lost the trademark to that at the time. (They got it back in time for the live action movie.)
So they’ve lost the right to use the names HotRod & HotShot? Bugger.
Still, probably won’t change the Sister’s mind, she likes the character Hotrod (hopefully innuendo avoided), she grew up watching the 1980s movie with hr brothers. Seen the video tape, it. Is. DEAD…
I’ve lived in various areas and heard various descriptions of fizzy sweet drinks: from soda, pop, soda-pop, soft drink, cola, and even carbonated beverage by an odd friend of mine.
Ethan does seem less stressed out now it was mentioned, it seems he his.
Danny has had a drink tonight, is going to say something he shouldn’t now that Amber-Amazi is here.
Man when I get fidgety in public I try to have my DS or my phone handy so I don’t get myself worked up and bite my nails real bad. It’d suck to be on their levels.
Darn it, Willis! Don’t imply or tease, tell us! Just what shenanigans did those two get up to? Probably something innocent and superhero-themed, given the parties involved but I’d still like details.
So, Amber isn’t totally satisfied with her night so far! Was she hoping to run into Sal out there? Did she fail to find sufficient wrongdoers to pummel?
The implication you seem to be missing is that Amber got into toys that she can occupy her hands and part of her mind with while dealing with social interactions. Case in point the transformer that mysteriously changed from a robot to some kind of jet in between panels.
Stim toys are a really common way for people on the spectrum to channel anxiety/over-stimulation. Therapists often try and teach it to neurotypical people as well, but they just call it “mindfulness” (my therapist gave me a stim toy as a gift once how lovely).
Love the idea of Dina becoming Amazi-Girl’s sidekick, but she would need some other name than “Dino-Girl”. “Amazi-Girl and Dino-Girl”? Just doesn’t sound right.
Actually, I think Becky came up with the better name a few panels ago — “Dinosaur Chick”.AMAZI-GIRL™ and Dino-Chick sounds MUCH better.
Has Dave ever tried a Rubick’s Cube? I use them in the same way that he / Amber use transformers. Less worry about damaging something valuable [metaphor not intended].
So, about 10 years ago I go to Bristol comic convention, meeting up with a number of internet friends for the first time in person. While there I buy BINALTech Hound. Now, I don’t suffer from social anxiety issues, but one friend’s comment online during the week was something along the lines of “Lorcan was full of energy and bounding around all the time, except when he was playing with his transformer, and he was totally focused on it”
I have yet to come across an English synonym for “carbonated beverage” that I actually like. CB itself is too formal. Soda, to me, is just unflavored mineral water. Pop is a music genre. Soda pop sounds outdated. Fizzy drink sounds childish. Soft drink is stupid (It’s not soft, it’s prickly!). Cola is just a small subset of drinks with bubbles in them. Coke is a specific brand.
It’s a good thing English isn’t my first language, or I’d have to choose one of them.
Soft drink refers to lack of alcohol content, not…prickliness, I guess? Hard drinks are anything with an alcohol content over .5% by volume. Technically soft drinks don’t need to be carbonated, but most people don’t use the term to refer to juice, milk, etc.
It’s pretty interesting that, seeing Dina having social anxiety issues, Amber tries to take her away, while it was Ethan who accommodated her so that she didn’t have to be alone.
Amber also pretty quickly got brainstorming about how they could further accommodate her.
“How did we figure out how to channel all that nervous energy again?”
So they both kind of had the same two step approach. Offer to escort her out, then once she decides to stay start working on ways they can make that easier for her.
Which I think is really great, because social anxiety tends to get someone branded as strange right from the get go.
It’s nice to see everyone accommodating Dina’s anxiety and not make a scene out of it. Oh hey, girls got a sweater fort going on. Someone pass me a pop?
I think so, too. I think her attack may have been a meltdown and her covering up with the coat may have been her way of blocking out all the visual information (“stop the faces”) coming to her mind. My friend, who also reads this strip, specualted about how she may have a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum. He has Asperger’s and he saw a lot of himself in Dina.
I, however, see myself in Amber in that I have social anxiety and I like to fidget or have a stimulation toy with me in social situations. These stim reactions can be common in both autism spectrum disorders and anxiety, which is why I think Dina and Amber get along well.
Gotta ask, how far into the Combiner Wars thing does Cyclonus get released? Daniel the Human is rather interested (it’s kinda scaring me a bit, he’s got that convertion-idea-face…), but down Under there’s only the 2nd wave of limbs out, Daniel needs the torso for Menasor, already got Superion. I think he’s even got another Silverbolt to make into a custom. Kinda hoping I’m safe…
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QUICK, SNARL, STAT
*is handed Snarl*
Dina: Mammals are weird.
I think Dina would enjoy a Beast Wars Neo Archadis. It’s got Dino feathers
I think Dina would get stuck on this:
Is a fast-moving velociraptor
*Philosiraptor*
A velocityraptor?
Given that “velocity” is the actual origin of the word “velociraptor”, it’s hardly surprising. (They were supposedly quite fast.)
*sigh* It’s a good thing he’s not French, he might think it means ‘bicycle hunter’.
No, different derivation. The “velo” for “bicycle” is a contraction of the original French word “velocipede” or “fast feet”. “Velociraptor” is “fast hunter”. B)
Actually we even have the adjective “véloce” which translates to “fast” or “nimble”. Anyway “véloce” and “vélocipède” are close derivatives of their latin origins, very much like “pedestrian” designates a creature that moves on his feet in english ^^
As for bicycles, it’s either “vélo” or “bicyclette”. The later, of course, is longer to say and as such more used litterary or by old people
Well, all this to confirm that we do not mistake “chasseur rapide” with “chasseur à vélo” :p
she just wants Ethan via proxy tho
Why else do you think she’s playing with his toys from another universe?
Toys are wonderful.
Especially GoBots.
Vendetta.
Would you have preferred a joke about Erika Moen’s current webcomic?
I love OJST. I read it every Tuesday. (and yes I changed to this grav just for this joke)
Oh Joyce, Sex Toy?
That reminds me of the “Vibe Saber” incident.
I’m waiting for Willis to do a strip over there. She does love her guest cartoonists.
I don’t know who that is!
A webcartoonist who currently does Oh Joy Sex Toy.
Go…Bots… O.o
Don’t pretend you don’t love them.
That was one of the three Transformers I had, as a kid.
Well that certainly transformed Amber.
It has made her more optimus-tic.
As long as she has her gears, she should be fine.
Otherwise she would have a bumblebee in her bonnet.
Arcee this has become a pun thread.
Amber’s jacket is so Ratchet.
I hope nobody Swoops in and steals it from her.
I wonder if I need to Hound more people into contributing to this thread.
Hopefully you won’t have to prowl to long. People will come up from the undertow.
Do you guys really want a Spike in comments that badly?
Maybe people will Drift in and Slapdash a transformers pun at some point.
Hopefully you won’t have to Minicon anyone into doing it, It’s be great if they just Allspark into action…
Puns eh? Maybe I should give it a Whirl.
Hopefully this won’t end up being Overkill.
I doubt it. There’s not really any kind of Deadlock in this thread yet.
If we’re lucky this will go into Overdrive.
Careful. We don’t want to cause any Shockwaves.
Yeah, I can’t abide any of that Jazz.
Well, I wouldn’t want to Barricade others from joining in on the fun.
True, don’t want to Grimlock anyone out of the fun…
She does have a certain spark about her
I think we’ve Bludgeoned the pun
Yeah, the puns are getting a bit Scattershot at this point.
Megatron.
Such a Deluge of comments Sideswipes people who are late to the joke.
You guys are on a roll, you’re going all out
Hopefully this thread of puns doesn’t Breakdown.
Hopefully people will be in it for the Long Haul.
This whole comment chain is a Prime example of what people can do if given the incentive…
Oh, we can come up with more Transformers puns. All you have to do is Straxus.
By buying toys? Crack is cheaper. ^_^
Doing the math on that is depressing. I hope Transformers aren’t as ludicrously priced as Warhammer miniatures.
I wouldn’t be too surprised if Willis has spent more than $10,000 on Transformer merch over the years.
Yeah, but those are collectors items. They hold value alright and sometime even appreciate. It won’t ruin him.
The only way a collector’s item doesn’t ruin you is if you sell it. I don’t get the impression that Willis takes that out any more than I do.
Ah, but surely the Willis himself has become more valuable over the years, which allows for such trappings.
He’s an Internet Pornlord, money probably isn’t an issue.
“Pornlord of the Internet” sounds like a 1940’s pulp magazine story.
They should get her a Dinobot.
Has Dina ever watched Beast Wars? She might like Megatron better.
They should make some feathered Predacons.
Here you go: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Archadis
Sweet. Does Dina like Archaeopteryx, or is she exclusively into dinosaurs?
It is something of a question lately if Archeopteryx was an avian dinosaur or a non-avian dinosaur.
Well it’s still technically a dinosaur so maybe. And if so, I wonder if that would extend to other bird Transformers.
How about other flying/marine reptiles? I always found them a little more interesting than Dino’s.
I feel like other Mesozoic reptiles where not interesting to Dina… can’t remember where that was from though. Might have been on tumblr or in comments. Pretty sure it was not in-universe discussion.
Maybe. I mean, they’re also Archosaurs like birds and dinos.
Pterosaurs are archosaurs. Ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were not (plesiosaurs are Archosauromorpha though. Not totally clear what ichthyosaurs are)
Are…are you some kind of wizard? A wish granting genie?
He created Dina, Shattered Glass Ravage, and canon Leslie/Robin pornography, so the answer is obviously yes.
Solid reasoning.
While not Predacons, the Slash toy from AoE is a good feathered raptor. And in the comics, BW Grimlock also has feathers.
someone get Dina some dinosaur toys
Like Dinobot?
Too bad he is super-scientifically inaccurate.
Then maybe those, uh, flexo-things that Ethan tried to sell once after some boxes fell on his head.
If I recall she enjoys the jurassic park movies for bringing out the fun in dinosaurs even though she doesn’t approve of all the artistic liberties they took with the science.
Something like Dinobot she might just come up with a headcannon about how the dinosaur DNA was messed up by Energon Radiation or some such. Have fun with it.
Should could always forgo the transformers and get some Jurrasic Park action figures.
I just saw a commercial for a Jurassic World version of those Hero Mashers toys. Those seem like they’d keep hands busy.
(I’m not sure if that would help Dina, though. Different people need different things to help them.)
Somewhat interestingly, the Jurassic movies took all their scientific liberties in-universe, since it’s repeatedly stated in the movies and ancillary materials that the Jurassic park dinos aren’t actual dinosaurs and are actually just genetic playthings made by Ingen. This has been used to explicitly justify all the massive inaccuracies (like giant velociraptors), since the park was screwing with the genetics and both made mistakes and also deliberately made some things more ‘interesting’. By the look of the trailers this continues in the upcoming movie where they start making new pseudo-dinos out of whole cloth.
Well, so is Barney.
Cyclonus?! I don’t have one yet! My Tailgate is lonely! Gimme!
Yes, I just demanded Amazi-Girl hand over her toy. My gravestone will read “But it was Cyclonus.”
“My Tailgate is lonely!”
Is that some sort of sexual innuendo?
Huh. I want to expand on the double-endendres, but I don’t know nearly enough Transformers’ names.
Well we have Thrust, Erector, Hardhead, I mean really it’s not like the problem is a scourge, just ramjet one in there.
Tailpipe, Midnight Express, Clench and Thrust, Powerhug, Hot Rod, Erector, Discharge.
Are you describing transformers, or porn star moves?
Yes.
Dipstick. Shothole.
I’ll give you all the sexually suggestive Transformer names I can think of off the top of my head.
Ramjet, Thrust, Slag (for the Brits!), Clench, Powerglide, Drill Nuts, Erector, Discharge… Yeah I’m running out of things here.
Hahaha I lost it at drill nuts
You’ve really gotta look out for Black Discharge.
MMMmmmaaaaybeeeee?…
Transformers: Anxiety in Disguise
MTMTE could use that as an alternative title.
Anxiousbots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Depressioncons!
Dina then discovers the joys of collecting Transformers, and makes it her goal to collect as many Dinobot toys as possible.
You now see Dina doing a Grimlock impression.
…that’s probably not in-character, but awwww.
Dina is actually portraying the best defense against the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
“The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is a wild animal from the planet of Traal, known for its never-ending hunger and its mind-boggling stupidity. The Guide calls the bugblatter the stupidest creature in the entire universe — so profoundly unintelligent that, if you can’t see it, it assumes it can’t see you.”
…..from Douglas Adams’ “Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
The Bugblatter Beast is just a reverse cat.
So, if it falls it never lands on its feet?
Nope, cannot pin down what Transformer that is. Granted that looks like a Decepticon and for some reason I can only name like, three of those guys. Yet I can name like 10 Autobots right off the bat.
Amusingly, a running gag in the comic is that freaking everyone mistakes Cyclonus for a Decepticon.
Funny cause I would’ve sworn that was Skywarp.
Wait, he isn’t a Decepticon? Not to be robot racist, but the dude is purple. That’s usually a Decepticon thing.
He was a Decepticon in the original cartoon (first appeared in the ’86 movie), but this toy is Combiner Wars Cyclonus, who is neither an Autobot or Decepticon. He did fight for the Decepticons once, but he was sort of brainwashed at the time, and people tend not to let him live it down. He’s also a grumpy bastard, and when combined with a purple paint job and a jet alt-mode, yeah, that sort of reads Decepticon to most people.
But he’s currently working on a ship full of Autobots, his one friend (two if you count Whirl, and he wouldn’t) is an Autobot, and he’s gone from being an asshole to only being about 60% of an asshole.
Y’know, I never understood that. Why is it the Autobots have stuff like cars and trucks and stuff, while the Decepticons have friggin fighter jets and tanks?
Just wanna say this upfront, my knowledge of Transformers is limited at best. My knowledge stems mainly from the shows, and even those memories are hazy at best. So if my statements are erroneous, my apologies. In all honesty, I’ve been meaning to get into the series a bit more, but I’m lazy. Like… too lazy to even get that into it.
I’m even more ignorant, but I assumed it was meant to reflect the Decepticons’ aggressiveness and warmongering whereas the Autobots try to live in harmony.
Well, both sides have both, but yeah in the beginning the Autobots were all cars (it’s in the name really), while the Decepticons were…weird. Guns, boomboxes, a frigging camera (they needed three guys to become that one, because obviously you couldn’t manage a camera with just one), etc. But they also tended to have a lot of military hardware in their ranks, which means jets.
Didn’t last too long. By the seventh episode of the original cartoon, the Autobots had already picked up a jet and some dinosaurs. There have been a couple of different canon explanations over the years, not of all which I’m familiar with, but I think it usually goes back to most of the military types joining the Decepticons, while Autobots tended to be regular laborers.
I remember there was a trafic light Transformer. So y’know… that happened.
In the current comics he isn’t a ‘Con. Just an ex-zombie millions of years older than Optimus or Megatron.
whoa, cool
Going by the tags, Cyclonus.
It’s Combiner Wars Cyclonus.
Yeah I sorta surprised myself by knowing which specific Cyclonus toy that is.
You know, I’d be more impressed if it was G1 Cyclonus. Transforming that guy without at least one of his arms falling off halfway through was nearly impossible…
Oh hey wait a second.
I see what you did there.
You got Sal to conveniently leave before Amber arrived.
So your theory is that the text she got was actually from Willis? That’s pretty meta.
Nah, this universe’s Willis created Dexter & Monkey Master and lives on a cliff with a lawn made of solid gold. Sal seems like she’s know someone like that.
…with a lawn made of solid gold.
The extravagance shouldn’t end there. And by that, I mean it should be maintained by a Lamborghini lawnmower.
A lawnmower of solid gold – just taking that out of the garage would require a construction crane.
I think you are really overestimating the payouts on creating a successful cartoon series.
And you are seriously underestimating the payouts of a sold gold lawn. Well, payouts in gold lawn clippings, that is.
…Brings a whole new meaning to “You Damn Kids Get Off My Solid-Gold Lawn!!”
It’s like a rubik’s cube for cool people.
Excuse you Rubix cubes are already cool.
Poor Rubik, always getting pushed out of the name of his own cube…
Where did the word “Rubix” come from? Was it a trademark thing?
Phoneticising “Rubic’s”. If you only heard that and didn’t know it was named for the inventor you would probably spell it as “rubix”.
I did an interview with the guy some 25 years ago. While beating him at his own board game (can’t remember the name).
I think this deserved a ittle bragging .-D
Pop?! What is is this pop you speak of? Down here, we have all kinds of flavors of Coke.
Soda dammit
Sodey water!
Carbonated syrup water.
with caffeine
Soft drink or fizzy drink ftw!
Proper Aussie terms right there. ^_^
Thats kiwi to you mate!
Some people struggle with the distinction.
Using the word ‘distinction’ to describe Aussies and Kiwis? THAT I’d struggle with! *BA DUM TISH* *ducks thrown fruit*
Close enough, NZ is practically the 7th and 8th states of Australia already.
I got the impression it was more like the Shire: everyone ignores it unless they want to visit somewhere pleasantly uneventful.
NZ is a lot greener than Australia in a literal sense, like how Ireland is greener than England.
West Australia’s pretty green in plenty of places. Just ignore those 3 deserts I think it is it has. And how big it is compared to all the green bits. And….yeah, alright, you may have a point…
Lolly-water.
Pop!
And I’m from MT, not the midwest!
It’s a kind of music.
Everybody talk about
Ah, a fellow Southerner.
You just need to move to the right place to know what pop is
Like the Neverland Ranch?
Heh, I like how whenever the term “pop” comes up in the comic, everyone comments about what they call it. For the record, I use “soda” and “coke” interchangeably.
Yeah, once I saw it in the first panel I stopped reading to check the comments and see if someone
is going to be a dick about itmakes a big deal out of it.I still stand by the idea of auto-correcting “soda” in the comments section, as well as tagging “pop.”
Soft drink.
I haven’t live in Detroit since the ’90s, so I’m over it.
Calling things that aren’t Coca-Cola, coke, just doesn’t make any sense. that’s what coke is short for. That would be like if I called every girl katie, because it’s short for katelyn and every guy jon because it’s short for jonathan.
My headcanon is that people call it that because they assume it’s made of cocaine, due to its seeming addictive nature.
Okay, that isn’t *really* my headcanon, but I wish it was!
You do know the original formula for Coca Cola included enough coca leaf that a glass contained almost 10 milligrams of cocaine, right? They stopped using that formula in 1903, but the company still produces significant amounts of raw cocaine as part of their manufacturing process, which gets sold for use in making purified cocaine for medical usage.
I hate tell you MrZombieScordo, but referring to men as “guys” undermines your point. The word “guy” is derived from Guy Fawkes, whose claim to fame was helping blow up the British Parliament.
Further, “Coke” is an officially trademarked name for Coca-Cola. It’s the only product that has the honor of two names.
I call it “frisdrank”, literally “fresh drink”. We also use “iets fris” (“something fresh”) to mean various cold drinks, including soft drink, juices and lemonades. Basically every non-alcoholic drink except for tea, coffee and tap water.
(Dutch, BTW.)
Do you call chocolate milk frisdrank as well? I haven’t noticed.
(For those not familiar with the Netherlands, they have a lot of chocolate milk here)
Soda/Pop: any carbonated syrup water
Cola: any carbonated syrup water based on the taste of kola nuts
Coke/Coca Cola: a brand of cola which originally included an extract fom the coca plant
Ethan is really sweet here. Ethan has become a lot more relaxed and chill lately, I like it. The fewer secrets you have, the lighter your heart becomes.
Not having to pretend to be Joyce’s boyfriend has to be a considerable relief.
Exceeeept that his parents don’t know they’ve broken up, right? It’s going to come back.
Apparently this school has two parent visitation events that happen in pretty rapid succession.
They broke up fairly recently. I doubt Ethan’s first reaction would be to contact his parents.
I think it’s also helping that his best friend is on good terms with him again, which hopefully will not be sunk by any sort of Danny-related drama.
The transformers thing is just Willis talking through his characters.
As opposed to the fundie Christian background thing and the social anxiety thing?
When I was a kid, a lump of clay helped.
Koosh balls. So soothing. Squish squish squish. I destroy three or four of them a year through overuse.
My friend got a job only after she started taking her koosh ball to interviews.
Similar to clay, if I don’t want to pick apart my fingernails and eyebrows, I just draw constantly…
I like the kooshball idea, too, I could stick it in a pocket for stealth-anxiety.
Stealth-anxiety: that knot in your stomach you get when you’re hiding and somebody is so close you can hear them breathe.
Now the question is, could you exchange an unopened transformer for a book if you saw Willis at a convention?
If it was a Hot Shot, maybe.
I sometimes lie awake at night wondering why Hot Shot was my favorite when I was little.
Because you were a slave to their marketing.
Cause he’s a
cheap knock off ofrenamed Hotrod, 1 of the cooler Autobots back in the day. He probably got his name changed because it has potential other meanings, but still…Wait, Damn you Daniel the Human & Sister, you’ve infected me. Least I don’t have his liking of Airraid too…
Hasbro lost claim of the trademark to “Hot Rod” for action figures. That’s why they haven’t used it since 1987 and have started opting to call him “Rodimus.” I believe Mattel has it and won’t let go.
Also, Hot Shot was conceived as an update to Bumblebee (it’s on his early model sheet) but Hasbro had also lost the trademark to that at the time. (They got it back in time for the live action movie.)
So they’ve lost the right to use the names HotRod & HotShot? Bugger.
Still, probably won’t change the Sister’s mind, she likes the character Hotrod (hopefully innuendo avoided), she grew up watching the 1980s movie with hr brothers. Seen the video tape, it. Is. DEAD…
Holy visual metaphor, Batman!
…does she have four limb-bots in that bag? She’s gotta at least have Offroad and Alpha Bravo, who need the work.
Amber! So cute!
Clearly we need to buy Dina one of these as a pet:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150512-bird-grows-face-of-dinosaur
Social anxiety attack..? Never heard it phrased that way before.
It’s not unusual…
To be loved by everyone!
I’m not sorry.
Huh. That might explain why I like to twist up paper in my pocket.
I’ve lived in various areas and heard various descriptions of fizzy sweet drinks: from soda, pop, soda-pop, soft drink, cola, and even carbonated beverage by an odd friend of mine.
Ethan does seem less stressed out now it was mentioned, it seems he his.
Danny has had a drink tonight, is going to say something he shouldn’t now that Amber-Amazi is here.
Danny hasn’t had any alcohol though that might warrant him blurting something unintentionally.
Billie and Walky are the only ones who’ve had alcohol tonight so far.
Drat cant type. Meant …it seems he is.
And also…’is he going to…
Throught transformers, that’s how.
…I meant that as a joke since I thought he meant Amazi-girl, but…
joke’s on me ? I guess.
Amazi-Girl is the channel for her anger issues, the Transformers are for her social anxiety.
…I guess.
Dina would like to be taken at face value and not have to confirm that she is sure.
if course, it’s hard to be taken at face value when they can’t see your faaaaaaace
Man when I get fidgety in public I try to have my DS or my phone handy so I don’t get myself worked up and bite my nails real bad. It’d suck to be on their levels.
Darn it, Willis! Don’t imply or tease, tell us! Just what shenanigans did those two get up to? Probably something innocent and superhero-themed, given the parties involved but I’d still like details.
So, Amber isn’t totally satisfied with her night so far! Was she hoping to run into Sal out there? Did she fail to find sufficient wrongdoers to pummel?
The implication you seem to be missing is that Amber got into toys that she can occupy her hands and part of her mind with while dealing with social interactions. Case in point the transformer that mysteriously changed from a robot to some kind of jet in between panels.
…That’s actually a pretty creative way to deal with anxiety. I might have to copy that.
Stim toys are a really common way for people on the spectrum to channel anxiety/over-stimulation. Therapists often try and teach it to neurotypical people as well, but they just call it “mindfulness” (my therapist gave me a stim toy as a gift once how lovely).
Just gotta say, Ambers face and eyebrows in that last panel are adorable
I especially love how Willis style means you have to specify face and eyebrows.
If they go any further, they may achieve orbit, then what’ll amber do?
I’ll bet Dina is going to become Amazi-Girl’s sidekick. And wear some kind of adorable dinosaur costume.
Amber, Dina and Danny will form some sort of Indiana Justice League. With Dina as Dino-Girl and Danny as Wonder-Bread.
Love the idea of Dina becoming Amazi-Girl’s sidekick, but she would need some other name than “Dino-Girl”. “Amazi-Girl and Dino-Girl”? Just doesn’t sound right.
Actually, I think Becky came up with the better name a few panels ago — “Dinosaur Chick”. AMAZI-GIRL™ and Dino-Chick sounds MUCH better.
How about: The Raptor
Not to mention all her acquaintances would immediately guess her “secret” identity if she went with a dinosaur theme for fighting crime.
Am I a nerd for recognising Cyclonus on sight?
Yes. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Has Dave ever tried a Rubick’s Cube? I use them in the same way that he / Amber use transformers. Less worry about damaging something valuable [metaphor not intended].
Hmm, I fidget with stuff too, maybe I should keep some of my transformers on hand at home.
So, about 10 years ago I go to Bristol comic convention, meeting up with a number of internet friends for the first time in person. While there I buy BINALTech Hound. Now, I don’t suffer from social anxiety issues, but one friend’s comment online during the week was something along the lines of “Lorcan was full of energy and bounding around all the time, except when he was playing with his transformer, and he was totally focused on it”
It still totally throws me of that people actually call sodas ‘pop’. And that is, I think, the most important takeaway from today’s strip.
I have yet to come across an English synonym for “carbonated beverage” that I actually like. CB itself is too formal. Soda, to me, is just unflavored mineral water. Pop is a music genre. Soda pop sounds outdated. Fizzy drink sounds childish. Soft drink is stupid (It’s not soft, it’s prickly!). Cola is just a small subset of drinks with bubbles in them. Coke is a specific brand.
It’s a good thing English isn’t my first language, or I’d have to choose one of them.
Soft drink refers to lack of alcohol content, not…prickliness, I guess? Hard drinks are anything with an alcohol content over .5% by volume. Technically soft drinks don’t need to be carbonated, but most people don’t use the term to refer to juice, milk, etc.
It’s pretty interesting that, seeing Dina having social anxiety issues, Amber tries to take her away, while it was Ethan who accommodated her so that she didn’t have to be alone.
Ethan also offered to take her away.
Amber also pretty quickly got brainstorming about how they could further accommodate her.
“How did we figure out how to channel all that nervous energy again?”
So they both kind of had the same two step approach. Offer to escort her out, then once she decides to stay start working on ways they can make that easier for her.
Which I think is really great, because social anxiety tends to get someone branded as strange right from the get go.
It’s nice to see everyone accommodating Dina’s anxiety and not make a scene out of it. Oh hey, girls got a sweater fort going on. Someone pass me a pop?
The coat of solitude is apparently starting to jump dimensions.
…
This link is definitely not going to work.
Yup. See http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-03-27. How do you link stuff in comments?
<a href=”Linkydinky”>Words go here.</a>
Thank you. I’ve been wondering for ages how to do that.
HTML is fun.
(Also, I am amused by the fact I responded to that particular post with a Tedd grava…also, this Tedd is very good for being educational.)
I wouldn’t call what Dina has social anxiety. She seemed to struggle with information processing, which is much more related to spectrum disorders.
I think so, too. I think her attack may have been a meltdown and her covering up with the coat may have been her way of blocking out all the visual information (“stop the faces”) coming to her mind. My friend, who also reads this strip, specualted about how she may have a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum. He has Asperger’s and he saw a lot of himself in Dina.
I, however, see myself in Amber in that I have social anxiety and I like to fidget or have a stimulation toy with me in social situations. These stim reactions can be common in both autism spectrum disorders and anxiety, which is why I think Dina and Amber get along well.
Absolutely, yeah.
Hey, I think Willis just did one of those auto-biographical things, right there. I saw it. What he did.
I just got spam alleging to be from “Dr. Joyce Brown”.
Mail from the future !
It’s what Joe writes in the margins of his notebook before furiously erasing.
This is now canon!
Oh my…
The subject was: “Do this every morning with coconut oil.”
OMG thats perfect Willis! I use to do that but with playdoe!
Someone needs to get Dina some blackout glasses.
Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses?
Heh, funnily enough this is why I enjoy playing party games at parties. It is also why I get weirdly competitive about them.
Wait, Cyclonus?
Oh, what’d I do to deserve Mary.
You know what you did.
I can still remember
How Transformers used to make me calm
She can transform a Cyclonus without even glancing at it. Impressive.
Silly as it may be, i just want to thank you for even including social anxiety in this comic. It’s nice to be reminded that i’m not alone.
Also i’ve never had a god therapist so, hey, i learned of a way to deal with it! yaaaay!
Gotta ask, how far into the Combiner Wars thing does Cyclonus get released? Daniel the Human is rather interested (it’s kinda scaring me a bit, he’s got that convertion-idea-face…), but down Under there’s only the 2nd wave of limbs out, Daniel needs the torso for Menasor, already got Superion. I think he’s even got another Silverbolt to make into a custom. Kinda hoping I’m safe…