Mary probably wanted to get close with Ruth based on their interaction over the dingdong bandit, but now feels betrayed since she’s not really the figure of vengeance she could use to get that hit of delicious delicious schadenfreude.
Schadenfreude: it’s what keeps the church together.
Horrible people tend to be very ignorant in certain areas, which makes them assholes.
I know this one guy, hard science major, could tell you anything you wanted about nuclear physics…. but he thinks any other science or study is pointless accept his own. Especially space science, biology and psychology. Thinks all the research money should be in nuclear and particle physics. He’s smart, witty and if it wasn’t for his proudness towards his own ignorance and close-mindedness, I might even like the guy. Alas, what a jerk.
Just let him have any major health crisis and he will be singing the praises of bio-medical research. Or ask him how particle physics is going to help contain ebola.
Eh, I suppose Patrick Stewart could work in a pinch… Not quite as known for the dramatic pausing as Shatner, but if you specifically ask him to ham it up, I’m sure he’ll oblige.
So not true. Sisco’ s “You. Are. In. Trouble. BIG TROUBLE.” glare combined with his voice in low volume with sub space harmonics timbre was like standing at the plate facing Dave Stewart fixing you with his Death Stare from the mound, right before he unleashed that fast ball. Avery Brooks played Sisco like a 24th century Hawk: just as tough, but a highly educated and trained insider with a jovial side, rather than an outsider who revealed his full persona to almost no one. Hawk could bring the Serious Whoopass,but often his sheer menace was sufficient.
When confronted by a hostile alien, Kirk will punch it in the face.
When confronted by a hostile alien, Picard will make a speech bringing it around to his point of view.
When confronted by a hostile alien, SisKo will make a speech bringing it around to his point of view, THEN punch it in the face, so it remembers.
I’ve often felt that SisKO (happy, Doom?) was the Winston Churchill of Star Trek captains. “We will fight them on the sea, we will fight them on the land….we will never surrender.” He was confronted with a constant threat of overwhelming and nearly absolute evil on his doorstep, and he refused to compromise with it. There are some folks who argue he caused the Dominion War by ignoring their demands to stop traveling through the wormhole. I think if he HAD capitulated it would have been much worse, cause given what we know about the Dominion they would have been unlikely to simply ignore the Alpha Quadrant and all those potential threats to their perfect order. Instead, they probably would have taken the opportunity to build an overwhelming fleet on their side of the wormhole and launch a surprise attack against all powers. In terms of captains, Sisko is less of a diplomat than Picard because he has to be. He’s not cruising through the galaxy in a powerful ship seeking to make peaceful first contact. He’s maintaining a presence on the border of the Federation with various hostile powers all around him. He has to use a very different combination of diplomacy and force than Picard, and sometimes that means making back room deals or getting his hands dirty in ways Star Fleet would not approve of (In the Pale Moonlight, anyone?). That doesn’t make him better or worse than any other Starfleet captain (except Janeway, of course). What it does mean is that he is the best possible choice for the post he was given.
Also, he was the only captain willing to punch Q in the face for being insufferable. And say what you will about Q’s comments regarding him…the omnipotent little bastard never did dare to show his face on DS9 again after that.
Kirk does a McGiver: builds a cannon out of a hollow log, mixes up a batch of gun powder, loads some diamond crystals, BOOM. Unless the hostile alien was a space babe, but I don’t think it was his fists he used in those scenarios. And if it was a computer, he shorted them out by sending them into a recursive feedback loop. PICARD I don’t remember making speeches to the Borg to win them over. I did like him trading stories around the campfire with the alien captain who was willing to give his life to establish friendly communication. SISKO I don’t recall using speeches or fists on the Founders OR Gul Dukat (right guy?).
Naw, he mostly handled the Dominion and Cardassians with a little space ship called the Defiant, a prototype warship he personally spent several years inventing with the explicit purpose of blowing the federation’s enemies straight to hell. Yet another reason you do not mess with the Sisko. The list of ways he is awesome is so long the only surface large enough to write them all down on is his penis.
And since I’m now blatantly stealing his material, I’ll go ahead and plug http://sfdebris.com/ Hands down the best and funniest reviews of Star Trek across every series, with deep character and scientific analysis alongside hilarious commentary.
Nothri: nice analysis of Sisko, I like it very much. But I will add one qualification. The time he gave some to Garick (?sp?) for arranging the destruction of that Romulan ship/negotiator, framing the other side, and thereby paving the way for the Romulan Alliance, Sisko showed he wasn’t willing to do The Full LeCarre, ala Spy Who Came in From the Cold; he played Lemas to Garick’s Control–and Garick sneered because he wasn’t willing to do ANYTHING that might be necessary to win.
Ok, I meant nothri’ s Churchillian comparison, I’m not touching n’s comments about Sisko’ s penis … although, is it true that he had DEFIANT tattooed on it? I look forward to checking out sfdebris. If it truly is the best and funniest take on Trek it’ll be hella treat and if it isn’t it the very pinnacle it probably will still be a treat: there’s some damned good Trek-ish stuff been done.
Shatner inserts his own dramatic pauses, though. If Shatner were to ever actually try to read a dramatic pause from a script, he’d instantly turn into a massive black hole and destroy the universe. Either that or he’d burp the pause. It’s kinda 50/50.
Don’t worry. I’m assembling a cast to produce an audio track so you can just listen along as you look at the pictures. We’ll do the dramatic pauses, so you don’t have to.
D’ya think Mary bought it? (Alas, somehow I doubt it.) Anyway…
The Great “Help Yotsuyasan Choose
A New Gravatar” of 2014, part 2:
Electric Boogaloo!
Hello again, everyone! Not much response to my initial inquiry posted with yesterday’s comic… I know I am by far the most well known member of the posting community here, but I hope that is because you were waiting to see other options to judge them against one another! And not just because you were all like, “Yotsuyasan? Who the smeg is that and why should I care what his bloody Gravatar is?” Ha ha. 😀
Anyway, since I started this, I figure I must press forward. And so, tonight I have debuted my second option! Unlike my first option (the custom Ruth presented yesterday) and my final option (the horrifying truth of which you can learn tomorrow), this one is not based on Dumbing of Age characters, but is a wholly original design.
So, what is this one? Well, assuming you are reading this within 24 hours of when it was first posted, you should see it there to the left!
This is the avatar I use pretty much everywhere else I post online that allows for avatars, and it is based on the main character (who may be a gratuitous self-insert) in a series of my own creation, Boy Scouts ½. The two super-deformed figures represent two different versions of the same character who’s name is Matthew Atanian. (By a strange and staggering coincidence, this might just happen to be my own name! Shock!
If you wish to have a closer look at the illustration of the figure on the left, Matt in his natural male form, please click here. For the figure on the right, Matt’s cursed female form (yes, it is a Ranma ½ based fic) who goes by the alias Matty Hayes, please click here.
Huh… “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” That’s new… (To me, at least.) Did I inadvertently do something wrong, or is that just a standard thing to posts with links to other websites in them?
Really? I must use those words a lot, then, because all of my comments (all, like, five of them ever) require moderation.
Of course, I change my name every time I comment to align with that comment, so that could have something to do with it. We all have to have our schticks, I suppose.
Ah. That makes sense… I don’t usually have cause for excessive linkage!
Hopefully it doesn’t take too long. Just out of curiosity, since I can see my own awaiting moderation comment, is it publically visible in the interim, and you can all see my initial post? Or is it only visible to me until it is approved, and yet you can see (and reply to) my own reply to my initial post? (If the later, odd to allow replies to an invisible post…)
Oh wow… After all of that, I just noticed quite the typo! “I know I am by far the most well known member of the posting community here…” Wow, I sound full of myself, eh?
I assure you, there was supposed to be a “not” in there…
I could! But I thought, since I had three options, it might be fun to do it this way. 😀
If, after tomorrow’s reveal of the final options, I don’t get any feedback, then I shall just pick for myself. But if I do get feedback, then the majority shall rule!
Re-reading the comic this morning, ir is a good thing Ruth’s face in panel 3 is cut off on one side by panel 4, or else I just might have had to extend this whole fiasco by another day by throwing in a last minute entry of a second Ruth option. She is rather adorable in that panel…
Oh, I’m sure Joyce is gonna hyperventilate all over the place, but beyond that…yeah. Though there might be expulsion threats if the folks upstairs find out the RA is having a sexual relationship with one of her floormates.
I expect Joyce will do as you suggest, and probably also say something stupid and insensitive, but in the end come around and be supportive of her friends. (And jealous that someone else gets to crawl up into them and be safe and warm forever.)
Despite herself, it is her way to love and (eventually) accept her friends. This is the gal that stood up to her folks for Dorothy, after all!
Yeah. That’s what I like about her for sure. One thing to be a kind person when you have no biases towards other people. Quite another to be a kind and caring person towards people when your entire worldview has been shaped to believe they are sinners and heathens bound for hell. Joyce is a genuinely good person, and that’s all the more remarkable because she’s had to swim against the current of her own beliefs this whole time.
Just because you think someone is bound to hell doesn’t mean you hate them. For pentecostals, any miner sin bumped you down to hell. Unless you happen to have prayed for forgiveness the moment before death or the rapture you were screwed. A lot of young people used this logic to justify being friends with heathens. All my friends were going to hell, but it’s not like I hated them.
some of the nicest, most generous people I have ever met, believe a woman cutting her hair justifies her an eternity in hell. Christians are weird like that.
Is there an equivalent of the shatnes (?sp?) test (not Shatner test) for mixing ores contrary to scripture? The Law is a bear: I’m always forgetting whether you can eat pizza while wearing polyester with a dilithium crystal in your pocket.
Unless Mary can make others care Liahansen…like admin because Ruth is an RA…otherwise …
This strip was cute, liked better than yesterdays, which while cute, was a bit too close to violence with sex – which is not cute.
Remember, if something doesn’t match your personal tastes, it’s completely horrifying and the people involved are deviants and won’t you please think of the children!
Joyce just isn’t fully committed to the condemn part. Which is why she needs to get her ass to Mary’s bible study! Come on Joyce! You’re not even a tenth as spiteful as you should be. WAKE UP!
I believe you will find that if anything Billie would be majoring in DRAMA.
But let’s not kid ourselves. We’re mistaking majors for personalities. I’m pretty sure Mary isn’t majoring in heinously annoyingly dumb bongo, after all.
Well, she should get dressed before 3:00 p.m.! She does have a roommate, does she just parade around in front of her wearing nothing but panties and arm bands? If so, maybe it does help confirm some speculation regarding Mary’s vehemently anti-gay stance. (*cough*closeted*cough*)
As for the other thing… well, what does she expect, when she’s such a dickhead?
Was Mary about to say what it looks like she was about to say in that second strip? “stupid c….” I think the C-word there wasn’t “Christian”. It looks like Ruth saved her from a sin.
Yes, absolutely! I hope Agatha’s most dramatic moment at school is when she goes to do her laundry and it looks like there aren’t any washing machines open, but THEN she notices there’s one machine left.
We should make a montage of their cute moments, their hilarious moments and their mutually abusive moments separately. They would tell such a different story about their relationship.
Ruth and Mary both need non-sexual friends for narrative purposes.
Well Ruth does. Marys can be hypocritical hookups or FWB.
Danny performed this function in Roomies.
A Danny-Ruth friendship would be interesting now.
I am glad for the Mary appearances. I want her to be a villain, I love to hate.
I want her to be just a little less Qartoonishly Qunty . Just enough so her vile hate has a contrast, against a pale goodness. Just enough to make her hate even more real.
Did 4 years of… Theatre in high school. I can confirm that’s the only way to refer to…Theatre.
Sort of related, wasn’t there a tumblr post about the cast’s majors? I don’t remember if it said anything new or just compiled what is known. I don’t even know if willis made it.
Mary needs to be ‘volunteered’ for some drug experiments at the Medical School. I’ve heard they need a control group of bitter, disgruntled people who love Jesus to test some recently developed tranquilizers. The tests on mice, guinea pigs, ferrets and horses didn’t do so well, but they’re expecting more positive results with people.
To be fair, Mary would have to be pretty dim to fall for this. Right after she talks about lesbianism being a sin in front of Billie, the first thing Billie does is go straight to Ruth’s room and then they perform a really obvious ‘I hate you so much but you’ve got to come to my room a lot to do my laundry and me’ routine yeaaah probs not the best of ideas
Like I said in the past Mary too must discover the power of girls love herself, maybe try to major in it in a bit voyeuristic sense at start to see that Bible is a bit outdated in that direction ^^
I think I’m starting to like this version of Mary? She’s starting to sound like a supervillain. Perma-squinted evil eyes, gratuitous messing with the good guy’ lives, and now DRAMATIC… PAUSES.
I am confused as to why Billie and Ruth care at all about what a neighbour thinks about their tryst, much less caring enough to put on this whole song and dance to throw her off the trail.
I thiiiink it’s because Mary wants Ruth’s position as DA and she can somehow use the information against Ruth. But I don’t really know how either. I am a little confused as well.
I think Mary might have a problem with it because of her beliefs, but the fact Ruth would be dating someone she has some level of authority over would be the biggest issue for her.
I don’t understand still, maybe I am missing something here. Who cares if the two of them date, Ruth can’t get in trouble for it can she? Who cares what Mary knows or doesn’t know. Oh no they are dating, the school can’t punish that, if they did, it would cause bigger problems. Someone explain to me why we are so worried about Mary knowing about this, I don’t see what she can do? None of the people that hang out with Billie are going to care, well maybe Joyce, but she will get over it. Shes slowly starting to loosen up and that is great.
I’ve been wondering the same thing since this story arc started. Is it a Christian thing? A college law against homosexual relationships? Or is there something about RAs not allowed to date? Is there something about Mary?
I’ve never been this confused since I watched the Deathly Hallows. I spent both movies asking myself “Why are they running away from those stupid, nameless gypsy guys that we’ve never even heard about? Why can’t they just blow them up?”
Willis has mentioned it above, but it’s the idea that the RA is in a position of authority over the people in their wing, and so it’s inappropriate for the two to be dating. Ruth could lose her job.
It depends a lot on how much Ruth were bragging when she said that the higher-ups let her be as long as she runs a tight ship. If her position was not secure I think the fact that she hit Mary in the FAAAACE (sorry) unprovoked would be reason enough already.
But I think the exact mechanism is less important. The fact that someone is out to get them not because their actions but because of their sexuality is… not comforting. Mary may or may not find a way to use it against them, but in the meanwhile she can make their relationship a lot more difficult.
Of course, she could have just been fortunate there, with the students not wanting/caring to report her for that. Now, they’re dealing with somebody who will.
This is America! Violence abound, but heaven forbid any sexy shenanigans! 😉
In all seriousness, when I was an RA in Ohio (not the same college, but still in the Midwest region), one of the rules was that we weren’t allowed to have relations with our residents.
Sorry. I have a learning disability. I use dictation software most of the time, I just don’t have it on the computer I am using now. My laptop is convenient, but it has a terrible microphone. I meant to say “Why do I find Mary so attractive”.
I, for one, was able to derive your meaning, sir, so no worries. And hey, on a purely physical level, I would agree that Mary is attractive.
Of course, I still want her to fall down an open elevator shaft, from as high a floor as possible… But at least she can die knowing she looked good on the way down!
I agree with you on “attractive,” but if you ignore for the moment that we are communicating via text, and thus the different spellings and the capitalization make my joke rather fall apart, then of course “Mary” is a verb! And if you do it occasionally, that must imply you do it more than a few times and in a manor that is not lasting… so you must have a lot of alimony to pay!
There all so focused on the romantic angle (which yeah I get it: titillating/draaaama) and I guess I can see why for Ruth it would look better to be seen publicly abusing Billie as per usual because she probably assumes everyone’s too scared shitless of her to say anything since they’ve been putting up with that for this long. But Ruth has already pulled enough crap to be justifiably removed as RA. If no one believes Mary about Ruth/Billie being together her plan B could be to just bring up the physical abuse/threats against students which there are sooo many witnesses too and honestly I think that’s likely to be what gets her in real trouble.
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but Ruth majors in PAIN
better watch it, Mary
Mary probably wanted to get close with Ruth based on their interaction over the dingdong bandit, but now feels betrayed since she’s not really the figure of vengeance she could use to get that hit of delicious delicious schadenfreude.
Schadenfreude: it’s what keeps the church together.
So it takes a girl like an Old Testament plague to really wind Mary’s clock.
sending bears to kill kids over minor insults is what really gets her going.
Yep. Malcontents gotta do their thing.
“…with a minor in women studies”
It’s amazing how well this reference fits.
Mary delenda est
Now for full historical accuracy I think you need to say that at least once on every comic, regardless of what it’s about.
It’s…it’s not the worst thing to do.
I understood that reference!
Yep: homecoming, chess club, math class, the nominal topic does not matter, till she’s plowed under and the ground where she stood is salted.
redhead have (on average) higher pain tolerance. As do women.
Do we know Mary’s? I thing it might be theatrical criticism.
No, I’m pretty sure that it’s…
…theatrical criticism.
Why’d you put that pause before… …theatrical?
AHHHH, now I’m doing it!
Because it sounds enough like…
… theatre that the alt text applies.
Studio art. So lots of critiques.
I prefer to do my art in…
…the atrium.
With a candlestick ….
Wait, this is Clue right?
Nah, Clue is Ruth’s and Howard’s lesser known cousin…
CLUE LESSE
Nah, it’s probably poli-sci
Who knew Mary was intelligent…?
We never said that Mary was dim, just a horrible person.
Horrible people tend to be very ignorant in certain areas, which makes them assholes.
I know this one guy, hard science major, could tell you anything you wanted about nuclear physics…. but he thinks any other science or study is pointless accept his own. Especially space science, biology and psychology. Thinks all the research money should be in nuclear and particle physics. He’s smart, witty and if it wasn’t for his proudness towards his own ignorance and close-mindedness, I might even like the guy. Alas, what a jerk.
Just let him have any major health crisis and he will be singing the praises of bio-medical research. Or ask him how particle physics is going to help contain ebola.
I’d be interested to hear his answer.
I guess nukes would technically work…
Not necessarily.
Well, Ebola’s technically only a problem in the few countries it has hit due to lacking sanitary facilities…
The flu, though, absolutely.
That person wouldn’t happen to be Dr. Sheldon Cooper would he? Because I saw that episode of BBT.
That episode is EVERY episode of BBT.
Damn it Mary.
Now Now. Only our lord and savior can damn things.
And Mary. By Proxy. She helpfully points out who to smite.
Mary: put on this earth to be the little laser pointer on God’s sniper rifle.
“HEADSHOT!..Thanks, Mary.”
If she’s the laser, then who is God’s spotter?
Jesus?
Jesus did a 360 no scope. Came right back around.
God doesn’t need a spotter. He rocks the l33t MLG 360 no-scopes.
I didn’t even know I was supposed to be reading these out loud
So much catching up to do
As if you need to read it aloud to put a mental dramatic pause in that line of text.
If a dramatic pause is in order, we need to get Shatner to do a reading of tonight’s comic!
Make it so!
Eh, I suppose Patrick Stewart could work in a pinch… Not quite as known for the dramatic pausing as Shatner, but if you specifically ask him to ham it up, I’m sure he’ll oblige.
I think a Horatio Caine impersonation will do, at the very least.
Just don’t get the Sisco involved. He doesn’t pause. He only punches. That is why you do not mess with the Sisco.
So not true. Sisco’ s “You. Are. In. Trouble. BIG TROUBLE.” glare combined with his voice in low volume with sub space harmonics timbre was like standing at the plate facing Dave Stewart fixing you with his Death Stare from the mound, right before he unleashed that fast ball. Avery Brooks played Sisco like a 24th century Hawk: just as tough, but a highly educated and trained insider with a jovial side, rather than an outsider who revealed his full persona to almost no one. Hawk could bring the Serious Whoopass,but often his sheer menace was sufficient.
Plus, Sisco often solved problems with diplomacy and other means. He was a complete Star Fleet officer.
When confronted by a hostile alien, Kirk will punch it in the face.
When confronted by a hostile alien, Picard will make a speech bringing it around to his point of view.
When confronted by a hostile alien, SisKo will make a speech bringing it around to his point of view, THEN punch it in the face, so it remembers.
I’ve often felt that SisKO (happy, Doom?) was the Winston Churchill of Star Trek captains. “We will fight them on the sea, we will fight them on the land….we will never surrender.” He was confronted with a constant threat of overwhelming and nearly absolute evil on his doorstep, and he refused to compromise with it. There are some folks who argue he caused the Dominion War by ignoring their demands to stop traveling through the wormhole. I think if he HAD capitulated it would have been much worse, cause given what we know about the Dominion they would have been unlikely to simply ignore the Alpha Quadrant and all those potential threats to their perfect order. Instead, they probably would have taken the opportunity to build an overwhelming fleet on their side of the wormhole and launch a surprise attack against all powers. In terms of captains, Sisko is less of a diplomat than Picard because he has to be. He’s not cruising through the galaxy in a powerful ship seeking to make peaceful first contact. He’s maintaining a presence on the border of the Federation with various hostile powers all around him. He has to use a very different combination of diplomacy and force than Picard, and sometimes that means making back room deals or getting his hands dirty in ways Star Fleet would not approve of (In the Pale Moonlight, anyone?). That doesn’t make him better or worse than any other Starfleet captain (except Janeway, of course). What it does mean is that he is the best possible choice for the post he was given.
Also, he was the only captain willing to punch Q in the face for being insufferable. And say what you will about Q’s comments regarding him…the omnipotent little bastard never did dare to show his face on DS9 again after that.
There is a GODDAMN “K” in “SISKO” you… URRGHH!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgIOdcBkkzg
Kirk does a McGiver: builds a cannon out of a hollow log, mixes up a batch of gun powder, loads some diamond crystals, BOOM. Unless the hostile alien was a space babe, but I don’t think it was his fists he used in those scenarios. And if it was a computer, he shorted them out by sending them into a recursive feedback loop. PICARD I don’t remember making speeches to the Borg to win them over. I did like him trading stories around the campfire with the alien captain who was willing to give his life to establish friendly communication. SISKO I don’t recall using speeches or fists on the Founders OR Gul Dukat (right guy?).
Naw, he mostly handled the Dominion and Cardassians with a little space ship called the Defiant, a prototype warship he personally spent several years inventing with the explicit purpose of blowing the federation’s enemies straight to hell. Yet another reason you do not mess with the Sisko. The list of ways he is awesome is so long the only surface large enough to write them all down on is his penis.
And since I’m now blatantly stealing his material, I’ll go ahead and plug http://sfdebris.com/ Hands down the best and funniest reviews of Star Trek across every series, with deep character and scientific analysis alongside hilarious commentary.
SisKo, not SisCo.
Nothri: nice analysis of Sisko, I like it very much. But I will add one qualification. The time he gave some to Garick (?sp?) for arranging the destruction of that Romulan ship/negotiator, framing the other side, and thereby paving the way for the Romulan Alliance, Sisko showed he wasn’t willing to do The Full LeCarre, ala Spy Who Came in From the Cold; he played Lemas to Garick’s Control–and Garick sneered because he wasn’t willing to do ANYTHING that might be necessary to win.
Ok, I meant nothri’ s Churchillian comparison, I’m not touching n’s comments about Sisko’ s penis … although, is it true that he had DEFIANT tattooed on it? I look forward to checking out sfdebris. If it truly is the best and funniest take on Trek it’ll be hella treat and if it isn’t it the very pinnacle it probably will still be a treat: there’s some damned good Trek-ish stuff been done.
Shatner inserts his own dramatic pauses, though. If Shatner were to ever actually try to read a dramatic pause from a script, he’d instantly turn into a massive black hole and destroy the universe. Either that or he’d burp the pause. It’s kinda 50/50.
Don’t worry. I’m assembling a cast to produce an audio track so you can just listen along as you look at the pictures. We’ll do the dramatic pauses, so you don’t have to.
D’ya think Mary bought it? (Alas, somehow I doubt it.) Anyway…
The Great “Help Yotsuyasan Choose
A New Gravatar” of 2014, part 2:
Electric Boogaloo!
Hello again, everyone! Not much response to my initial inquiry posted with yesterday’s comic… I know I am by far the most well known member of the posting community here, but I hope that is because you were waiting to see other options to judge them against one another! And not just because you were all like, “Yotsuyasan? Who the smeg is that and why should I care what his bloody Gravatar is?” Ha ha. 😀
Anyway, since I started this, I figure I must press forward. And so, tonight I have debuted my second option! Unlike my first option (the custom Ruth presented yesterday) and my final option (the horrifying truth of which you can learn tomorrow), this one is not based on Dumbing of Age characters, but is a wholly original design.
So, what is this one? Well, assuming you are reading this within 24 hours of when it was first posted, you should see it there to the left!
This is the avatar I use pretty much everywhere else I post online that allows for avatars, and it is based on the main character (who may be a gratuitous self-insert) in a series of my own creation, Boy Scouts ½. The two super-deformed figures represent two different versions of the same character who’s name is Matthew Atanian. (By a strange and staggering coincidence, this might just happen to be my own name! Shock!
If you wish to have a closer look at the illustration of the figure on the left, Matt in his natural male form, please click here. For the figure on the right, Matt’s cursed female form (yes, it is a Ranma ½ based fic) who goes by the alias Matty Hayes, please click here.
Huh… “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” That’s new… (To me, at least.) Did I inadvertently do something wrong, or is that just a standard thing to posts with links to other websites in them?
It can be set up so that certain keywords or tags require manual approval.
Really? I must use those words a lot, then, because all of my comments (all, like, five of them ever) require moderation.
Of course, I change my name every time I comment to align with that comment, so that could have something to do with it. We all have to have our schticks, I suppose.
Posts of first time commenters are always put into moderation, I think.
Or it’s talking about moderation that does, ’cause my comment totally just went into the moderation queue. Or I just comment too rarely.
That makes a lot of sense. It’s a good way to weed out trolls and spam bots before they, you know, troll and spam.
If there are two or more links in your comment, it goes into the moderation queue.
(Pretend my first comment was a reply to Yotsuyasan’s comment, because that’s what I meant it to be.)
Ah. That makes sense… I don’t usually have cause for excessive linkage!
Hopefully it doesn’t take too long. Just out of curiosity, since I can see my own awaiting moderation comment, is it publically visible in the interim, and you can all see my initial post? Or is it only visible to me until it is approved, and yet you can see (and reply to) my own reply to my initial post? (If the later, odd to allow replies to an invisible post…)
Can’t see it yet, though Willis’s moderation is silent and swift, like a snowy owl upon a fresh dish of Mac n’ cheese. swoosh!
I like Mac & Cheese! And in other news, I seem to have been Willis approved! Huzzah!
It’s because of the link. He probably wants to make sure you aren’t a derailing spam-bot.
I’d say an excessive use of anchor text may be….linked to it.
Oh wow… After all of that, I just noticed quite the typo! “I know I am by far the most well known member of the posting community here…” Wow, I sound full of myself, eh?
I assure you, there was supposed to be a “not” in there…
You could just pick the gravatar you like the most.
I could! But I thought, since I had three options, it might be fun to do it this way. 😀
If, after tomorrow’s reveal of the final options, I don’t get any feedback, then I shall just pick for myself. But if I do get feedback, then the majority shall rule!
Okee doke. I guess I don’t really get it, but far be it from me to stand in the way of somebody’s harmless fun!
Glad to hear it. I was assuming sarcasm.
Re-reading the comic this morning, ir is a good thing Ruth’s face in panel 3 is cut off on one side by panel 4, or else I just might have had to extend this whole fiasco by another day by throwing in a last minute entry of a second Ruth option. She is rather adorable in that panel…
I love how this is gonna end up being a drama exclusively between them three, because you just know nobody else is gonna care
Oh, I’m sure Joyce is gonna hyperventilate all over the place, but beyond that…yeah. Though there might be expulsion threats if the folks upstairs find out the RA is having a sexual relationship with one of her floormates.
I expect Joyce will do as you suggest, and probably also say something stupid and insensitive, but in the end come around and be supportive of her friends. (And jealous that someone else gets to crawl up into them and be safe and warm forever.)
Despite herself, it is her way to love and (eventually) accept her friends. This is the gal that stood up to her folks for Dorothy, after all!
Yeah. That’s what I like about her for sure. One thing to be a kind person when you have no biases towards other people. Quite another to be a kind and caring person towards people when your entire worldview has been shaped to believe they are sinners and heathens bound for hell. Joyce is a genuinely good person, and that’s all the more remarkable because she’s had to swim against the current of her own beliefs this whole time.
Just because you think someone is bound to hell doesn’t mean you hate them. For pentecostals, any miner sin bumped you down to hell. Unless you happen to have prayed for forgiveness the moment before death or the rapture you were screwed. A lot of young people used this logic to justify being friends with heathens. All my friends were going to hell, but it’s not like I hated them.
some of the nicest, most generous people I have ever met, believe a woman cutting her hair justifies her an eternity in hell. Christians are weird like that.
Is a miner sin where you mix two different kinds of ores?
well shit.
Iron 13:7: “And the Lord sayeth, ‘Alloys are an abomination under the Lord'”
And typos. Verily, verily.
It has something to do with pickaxes.
Well, Mary would certainly think it a sin to mix zoisite and kunzite.
I should really be watching the remake
Mixing two kinds of ores, mixing two kinds of fabrics, let’s call the whole thing off.
Is there an equivalent of the shatnes (?sp?) test (not Shatner test) for mixing ores contrary to scripture? The Law is a bear: I’m always forgetting whether you can eat pizza while wearing polyester with a dilithium crystal in your pocket.
The point isn’t whether Mary knows, it’s whether anyone would believe her.
If you cant believe a Christian nudist, who can you believe?
A Pagan nudist?
That would be all of us… er them.
Yaoi characters. You can always trust yaoi characters.
There are lots of gay people in the theatre so it kinda counts as an educated guess.
Thespians are neato!
I wonder if either of them is a philatelist?
Thespian lesbians! Thesbians!
But is any of them a Victorian Silurian?
Her major is drinking. Minoring in being sexy. But I think she’s found a good balance between her degrees.
Unless Mary can make others care Liahansen…like admin because Ruth is an RA…otherwise …
This strip was cute, liked better than yesterdays, which while cute, was a bit too close to violence with sex – which is not cute.
It was consensual, good communication, making-them-both-happy pretend violence, though. Different strokes for different folks, style of thing.
Remember, if something doesn’t match your personal tastes, it’s completely horrifying and the people involved are deviants and won’t you please think of the children!
Yesterday was more S/M than it was violent. Like, it wasn’t exactly S/M, but it was close.
Mary, stop being right.
At least stop being FAR right. 😛
COME TO THE LEFT SIDE
WE HAVE EQUALITY
People who are already more equal than others don’t want equality.
Some do.
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” -George Orwell, Animal Farm
And we wouldn’t want those less equal than their betters to be equally equal, right?
I don’t care if she is right. But Mary, stop being a bongo! And know that some things just ain’t your business! In that sense, she’s not right!
Mary delenda est
DUM DUM DUMMMM… http://youtu.be/y8Kyi0WNg40
“Hey Maurice, going anywhere this weekend?”
“Yes, I am going to the…THEATRE.”
Where’s the post office? On Main Street, next to the… THEATRE.
The proper pronunciation of the word is … (dramatic pause) … theahtah.
So first Mary has to accuse Billie of walking out with sex hair, then Mary has to explain how she knows what sex hair looks like.
“It’s in my “Who to condemn and what are the signs” handbook. You’ve got yours, right Joyce? RIGHT!?”
Joyce just isn’t fully committed to the condemn part. Which is why she needs to get her ass to Mary’s bible study! Come on Joyce! You’re not even a tenth as spiteful as you should be. WAKE UP!
Is that like, anti-anti-Joyce?
We don’t know, she might be committed to the condom part.
…I need help.
Judge not and ye shall be judged.
Sorry guys, I had to. Inspired by David Herbert.
We were all thinking it.
Oh, thank goodness. I was worried that meme was over and I was old. Er. Older.
Some things are immortal.
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Do you mind if I steal that as an icon for a week or so? It just… speaks to me.
I believe you will find that if anything Billie would be majoring in DRAMA.
But let’s not kid ourselves. We’re mistaking majors for personalities. I’m pretty sure Mary isn’t majoring in heinously annoyingly dumb bongo, after all.
I got the impression that Billie has mastered drama.
True, but she’s probably President of the Heinously Self-Righteous & Intolerable Intolerant Stone Throwers Club chapter at OH.
I wrote IU; Spellcheck decided that Mary is the President of HSIISTC for all of Ohio.
That’s saying something, considering what kind of people live in Ohio!
“Theater”, on the other hand, requires no pause before it.
I don’t mean it’s unnecessary, I mean having no pause prior to that version of the word is a universal requirement.
What bug crawled into this woman’s regions to make her such a bongo?
Religion as a means of coping with an otherwise crippling inferiority complex and/or secret shame.
There’s something in Mary’s closet.
That something may well be Mary.
I’d wager it is a combination of feeling humiliated that one of them saw her naked:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/dressed-2/
Combined with getting dick slapped:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/male-anatomy/
Well, she should get dressed before 3:00 p.m.! She does have a roommate, does she just parade around in front of her wearing nothing but panties and arm bands? If so, maybe it does help confirm some speculation regarding Mary’s vehemently anti-gay stance. (*cough*closeted*cough*)
As for the other thing… well, what does she expect, when she’s such a dickhead?
Ahem, dick*face*.
But whatever happened to turning the other cheek?
Was Mary about to say what it looks like she was about to say in that second strip? “stupid c….” I think the C-word there wasn’t “Christian”. It looks like Ruth saved her from a sin.
I dunno, what do you think she was about to say?
My theory is “Canadian”.
I am deeply offended that you would fully spell out the C-word!
What, it’s not like I said, “Belgium”.
Oops.
:-0
Holy Zarquan!!!!!
And there’s the funny! Mary is about to go into Mrs. Kravitz mode!
Lenny’s mom?
Are you implying she wants to know if Billie is “gonna go [her] way?”
Agatha’s super confused right now.
“No, I don’t think it’s theater. I’m pretty sure it’s journalism. Why’d you pause before you said that anyway?”
I love the idea that Agatha is having a normal, slightly boring time at college with all this drama going on around her.
Perhaps her secret identity is Captain Oblivious?
Yes, absolutely! I hope Agatha’s most dramatic moment at school is when she goes to do her laundry and it looks like there aren’t any washing machines open, but THEN she notices there’s one machine left.
DRAMA
Ya know, their smile in the third panel is just cute enough that I think I can just forget that the last panel even happened.
We should make a montage of their cute moments, their hilarious moments and their mutually abusive moments separately. They would tell such a different story about their relationship.
Mary’s mama didn’t raise no fool.
Nope, she raised a monster. Is there any redemption for Mary?
Well it’s not like she killed someone or drove someone to suicide.
That we know of.
I just want to note that this discussion happening between Mary and Mike gravatars is somewhat… theatralic?
Oh, Ruth’s been DRIVEN to suicide before.
Not yet. Mary delenda set.
“Set”?
Hm. Can I blame Spellcheck?
Ruth and Mary both need non-sexual friends for narrative purposes.
Well Ruth does. Marys can be hypocritical hookups or FWB.
Danny performed this function in Roomies.
A Danny-Ruth friendship would be interesting now.
I am glad for the Mary appearances. I want her to be a villain, I love to hate.
I want her to be just a little less Qartoonishly Qunty . Just enough so her vile hate has a contrast, against a pale goodness. Just enough to make her hate even more real.
If Billie was a Theatre major, I’d suggest switching over to Journalism.
Did 4 years of… Theatre in high school. I can confirm that’s the only way to refer to…Theatre.
Sort of related, wasn’t there a tumblr post about the cast’s majors? I don’t remember if it said anything new or just compiled what is known. I don’t even know if willis made it.
We didn’t bother with the pause… but we did have ninjas pop out of nowhere from time to time. Good times, before tuition was something to worry about.
Is Mary an art student?
With those kinds of pauses, she should think about… CSI.
B)
Yeeeeaaahh!
Maybe not an art student, but she certainly has investigation…….down to a science.
B)
I think it’s “journalism?”
Yes. Very much.
No need for all the… Theatrics.
Mary needs to be ‘volunteered’ for some drug experiments at the Medical School. I’ve heard they need a control group of bitter, disgruntled people who love Jesus to test some recently developed tranquilizers. The tests on mice, guinea pigs, ferrets and horses didn’t do so well, but they’re expecting more positive results with people.
Is that the circle of hate vaccine I’ve been hearing about?
To be fair, Mary would have to be pretty dim to fall for this. Right after she talks about lesbianism being a sin in front of Billie, the first thing Billie does is go straight to Ruth’s room and then they perform a really obvious ‘I hate you so much but you’ve got to come to my room a lot to do my laundry
and me’routine yeaaah probs not the best of ideasNo, sorry, Mary. I’m pretty sure it’s… … journalism.
http://www.dansdata.com/images/blog/tattoos/trans_itsjournalism.png
It’s journalism.
Actually, it’s ethics in games journalism.
We did get threats of sexual violence against women in the last strip.
The-a-ter, dahling, please, as my good friends Larry, Johnnie and Ralphie would say.
Mary is so sharp it hurts.
Like I said in the past Mary too must discover the power of girls love herself, maybe try to major in it in a bit voyeuristic sense at start to see that Bible is a bit outdated in that direction ^^
Now I imagine Billy overemphasizing her pronunciation like a bad actor
Shatner?
Mary with the calls
I think I’m starting to like this version of Mary? She’s starting to sound like a supervillain. Perma-squinted evil eyes, gratuitous messing with the good guy’ lives, and now DRAMATIC… PAUSES.
Adorable smiles are adorable
Mary speaks in UK English?
A lot of US people differentiate between “theatre” (with stages and plays and all that) vs “theater” (where you go to see a movie).
It’s also how the major is spelled at IU: http://www.indiana.edu/~bulletin/iub/college/2010-2011/departments/theatre-drama/major.shtml
Dang. Willis does his homework.
Which is something that he rarely shows his characters doing…
I think she bought it.
Did anybody else hear a more sinister version of the CSI:Miami YEEAHHHHHH after reading Mary say “theatre”?
I am confused as to why Billie and Ruth care at all about what a neighbour thinks about their tryst, much less caring enough to put on this whole song and dance to throw her off the trail.
It didn’t even work!
I thiiiink it’s because Mary wants Ruth’s position as DA and she can somehow use the information against Ruth. But I don’t really know how either. I am a little confused as well.
I think Mary might have a problem with it because of her beliefs, but the fact Ruth would be dating someone she has some level of authority over would be the biggest issue for her.
Why would you put a dramatic pause before… theatre?
Best Mary’sface ever 🙂
Seriously, Mary, did you see Blaine’s posing in the first couple strips before The Punch and think “Eh, I can do better” or something?
Whatever, Supervillain Mary is totally a venture I support.
That’s an unamerican way to spell theater, Mary…
http://www.indiana.edu/~bulletin/iub/college/2010-2011/departments/theatre-drama/major.shtml
In my experience, as a US Theatre major, it’s the way theatre students spell theatre most all the time.
“Huh, I was thinking maybe-
*Shitshitshit I don’t actually have anything clever to say what would subtly suggest that Billie and Ruth are putting on a show that’s it!!*
-theatre”.
Stop it, Mary. Nobody likes you. Go back to your dumpster
Mary you are such a grouch!
ACTING!
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/jon%20lovitz%20acting.jpg
FAAAAACE
JOURNALISM
Two catch phrases in the same strip. Beat still my heart.
I swear, the Dumbing of Age comments section is a comic in and of itself.
Is it wrong that I find Mary adorable? I feel like it might be wrong.
Adorable but deeply flawed who may hurt other people by doing what she thinks is right… Sounds almost like a DumbingofAge character to me.
I don’t understand still, maybe I am missing something here. Who cares if the two of them date, Ruth can’t get in trouble for it can she? Who cares what Mary knows or doesn’t know. Oh no they are dating, the school can’t punish that, if they did, it would cause bigger problems. Someone explain to me why we are so worried about Mary knowing about this, I don’t see what she can do? None of the people that hang out with Billie are going to care, well maybe Joyce, but she will get over it. Shes slowly starting to loosen up and that is great.
I’ve been wondering the same thing since this story arc started. Is it a Christian thing? A college law against homosexual relationships? Or is there something about RAs not allowed to date? Is there something about Mary?
I’ve never been this confused since I watched the Deathly Hallows. I spent both movies asking myself “Why are they running away from those stupid, nameless gypsy guys that we’ve never even heard about? Why can’t they just blow them up?”
Willis has mentioned it above, but it’s the idea that the RA is in a position of authority over the people in their wing, and so it’s inappropriate for the two to be dating. Ruth could lose her job.
It depends a lot on how much Ruth were bragging when she said that the higher-ups let her be as long as she runs a tight ship. If her position was not secure I think the fact that she hit Mary in the FAAAACE (sorry) unprovoked would be reason enough already.
But I think the exact mechanism is less important. The fact that someone is out to get them not because their actions but because of their sexuality is… not comforting. Mary may or may not find a way to use it against them, but in the meanwhile she can make their relationship a lot more difficult.
She kept her job despite throwing a student into a coach in full view of the rest of the dorm, I can’t imagine this is any more risky.
Of course, she could have just been fortunate there, with the students not wanting/caring to report her for that. Now, they’re dealing with somebody who will.
This is America! Violence abound, but heaven forbid any sexy shenanigans! 😉
In all seriousness, when I was an RA in Ohio (not the same college, but still in the Midwest region), one of the rules was that we weren’t allowed to have relations with our residents.
I’m sure if she actually HAD thrown a student into a coach, instead of a couch, something might’ve come of it 😉
Ok, wow. Yes D:
HA! I forgot about this before I wrote my comment below.
He’s brought it up in the past in analogy to the Sal/Jason situation: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/bullshit-2/
If it weren’t for the whole”hate” thing, Mary would be pretty badass.
I’ve always felt that she’d make an excellent Adeptus sororitas.
Dumbing of Age AU where Mary returns to bathe the dorm rooms in the purifying light of the Emperor. Cinders! Cinders and ash!
That could work.
God damn it. Why do I Mary so attractive?
+1
I know what You mean. The term “hatefuck” comes to mind.
Since when was “attractive” an adverb and “Mary” a verb?
“I walked attractive to the park”
“Yeah, I Mary occasionally.”
Sorry. I have a learning disability. I use dictation software most of the time, I just don’t have it on the computer I am using now. My laptop is convenient, but it has a terrible microphone. I meant to say “Why do I find Mary so attractive”.
I, for one, was able to derive your meaning, sir, so no worries. And hey, on a purely physical level, I would agree that Mary is attractive.
Of course, I still want her to fall down an open elevator shaft, from as high a floor as possible… But at least she can die knowing she looked good on the way down!
(Probably not so much after she lands… Ew…)
I agree with you on “attractive,” but if you ignore for the moment that we are communicating via text, and thus the different spellings and the capitalization make my joke rather fall apart, then of course “Mary” is a verb! And if you do it occasionally, that must imply you do it more than a few times and in a manor that is not lasting… so you must have a lot of alimony to pay!
Thank you, thank you. I’ll see myself out…
I hate bongoes like Mary. She needs a big fat ass whoopin’.
Mary delenda est
And then when Mary finally reveals the secret, guess what, oh no there’s lesbians in the dorm, who cares.
The other lesbians?
I think Mary should take this story to the newspaper…
The problem isn’t the lesbian relationship, the problem is the relationship between an RA and her resident. This could easily get Ruth fired.
The-ah-truh
Mary would be more effective with that line if she put on sunglasses and was immediately followed by the Who.
Being Major Drama Queen, Mary knows real drama when she sees it.
There all so focused on the romantic angle (which yeah I get it: titillating/draaaama) and I guess I can see why for Ruth it would look better to be seen publicly abusing Billie as per usual because she probably assumes everyone’s too scared shitless of her to say anything since they’ve been putting up with that for this long. But Ruth has already pulled enough crap to be justifiably removed as RA. If no one believes Mary about Ruth/Billie being together her plan B could be to just bring up the physical abuse/threats against students which there are sooo many witnesses too and honestly I think that’s likely to be what gets her in real trouble.
*They’re
Mary needs to stay in her to be honest
Hey, my major is………………………………..theatre.
Since when was Mary omniscient? I thought that was her son…
I’ll probably never know if anyone would have gotten that joke, considering that people stopped looking at this strip about two years ago.