Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt

[Willie the Duck]

Wow, that's Sven? I thought this was Hanners trying to get a random customer to donate. He practically looks 20 years younger.

Previous Sven looked 25-29 to me, so that would be hard, but it definitely looks like a younger, thinner guy.

[Mordokai]

Sven? As in, Dora's brother, horndog Sven?

Didn't the guy used to have glasses?

I don't know, I'll be the first one to admit I'm slow on the uptake sometimes(or rather, often), but if it weren't for the name specified, I would never have figured it out this is him.

[Wraith]

His hair is also a different colour (it's usually that darker shade all over), his eyes are rounder, and his nose has changed shape, too - it's usually almost straight rather than notably concave. Wiki for reference.

I think Jeph just forgot how to draw Sven, filled it in with a tall, brown-haired guy, and called it a day. This version looks more like a skinny version of Angus.

[Rodin]

Dallas to Houston looks like the perfect place for a high speed railway (and, indeed, it's at least planned to be built).

It's been planned to be built for the last 10 years. I'll believe it when I see it

I've never been sure who would ride it if they did build it, except people with family in both cities. Neither Dallas nor Houston are particularly touristy towns. If the people I knew in Houston are any indication there also isn't a whole lot of respect between the two cities. Would business travel be enough to justify the cost of high speed rail? I have my doubts.

I don't get Sven's moral quandary here. There's nothing morally unethical about donating to something you might benefit from. I mean, I suppose there could be if the cause was to make murderbots fueled by kitten blood. Altruism that you benefit from is just a good investment.

[Vinyadan]

Sven: "I think you should make sure she gets some automated lubrication system, possibly something watermelon-scented. We-- I mean, she-- I mean, who doesn't like watermelons? We all like watermelons".

It's been planned to be built for the last 10 years. I'll believe it when I see it

I've never been sure who would ride it if they did build it, except people with family in both cities. Neither Dallas nor Houston are particularly touristy towns. If the people I knew in Houston are any indication there also isn't a whole lot of respect between the two cities. Would business travel be enough to justify the cost of high speed rail? I have my doubts.

Well, sure, better not to make leaps of faith But it's not really a matter of respect or tourism, it's mostly a matter of business. You can have more workers riding between the two cities, and shorter time distances help bring the hubs closer together, at which point more businesses can interact with each other. Whether it would be worth it for Texas in general, though, that's a different problem.

[Wraith]

It's an interesting layer to Sven's moral growth. A couple of years ago he wouldn't have bothered asking the question at all, but now he's at least stopped to think about it. I like that, rather than him having an immediate ephiphany and flipping to Goody Two-Shoes.

Nothing in this exchange suggests he is against the idea after all, he just wants to make sure it's not obviously selfish or creepy.

[Agi Hammerthief]

Nothing in this exchange suggests he is against the idea after all, he just wants to make sure it's not obviously selfish or creepy.

it’s only creepy if he donates the exact amount an upgrade for an automated lubrication would cost.

[Max_Killjoy]

It depends on what sort of mass transit you're talking about and just how little density there is. High speed rail doesn't exist in Texas because there's nowhere worth visiting between the major metropolitan areas, and said areas are a loooong way apart. Similarly, a town like China, Texas (population ~1K) probably doesn't need a bus service.

However, there are a lot of places with significantly larger populations (20-50K) that don't make any provisions for people without a car - not even sidewalks. Not having rail is unsurprising, but no bus service? My village is only 7K people, and it has a bus specifically for taking people to and from the town center and shops. It's not a big bus, it probably seats only 20 people or so. But it's there.

Again, it's cultural. There are different expectations between the two countries. Density explains the lack of heavy mass transit like a national rail network. Car culture explains the lack of other forms of travel such as buses, cycling, and provisions for pedestrians. And even within the USA that varies from place to place, because the USA is flipping huge.

The county I live in has a few hundred thousand people, split between "light urban" and "fairly rural". There's a bus system. Buses are a regular sight in the city area. It's well-funded and wide-reaching.

But... every bus you see is only 1/4 full at best.

Many people who work in the city live in the rural areas that by land area dominate this and neighboring counties, and there's no way to set up a bus route that would functionally move them around. Some people who live in or near the city work in places that will never be serviced by a bus, including me.

[Max_Killjoy]

Wow, that's Sven? I thought this was Hanners trying to get a random customer to donate. He practically looks 20 years younger.

I only know it's Sven because Hanners called him Sven.

[Wraith]

it’s only creepy if he donates the exact amount an upgrade for an automated lubrication would cost.

Is it more or less creepy if he donates that and then adds 0.69 cents to the total? I feel that May would probably appreciate the gesture.

[Felius]

Ok, Hanelore's lack of normal common sense on how to set up an anonymous donation for a small value was actually funny and genuinely made me chuckle, I will give QC that.

[otakuryoga]

she seems awfully familiar with the steps necessary to funnel funds illegally COVERTLY

[Max_Killjoy]

Sometimes Hanners shows that it runs in the family, from both sides.

Wildly impractical and needlessly complex, from her dad.

Reflexively shady and grey-ops, from her mom.

[Morquard]

Don't forget when we met Hanners the first time she was actually working FOR her mom, double and tripple checking accounting reports to find who is embezzling the money. So she knows how to follow money trails even through shell corporation, and I guess you do pick up a thing or two on how to set them up as well, when you do that.

[Gnoman]

I don't remember that. She described herself as a "professional counter" who would count things that people sent her.

[Mechalich]

I don't remember that. She described herself as a "professional counter" who would count things that people sent her.

It was a big later on, her mom hired her to do a job that involved tracking some money lost via complex accounting. I think the idea was that Hanners was ideally suited to actually open up some sort of titanic billing matrix and manually check everything.

Of course, it seems Hanners wisely chose to change careers to barista-ship when she did, because her old job was surely overtaken by an AI.

[theangelJean]

It was a big later on, her mom hired her to do a job that involved tracking some money lost via complex accounting. I think the idea was that Hanners was ideally suited to actually open up some sort of titanic billing matrix and manually check everything.

Of course, it seems Hanners wisely chose to change careers to barista-ship when she did, because her old job was surely overtaken by an AI.

Oh? An AI, like, May, maybe? *speculates*

[Rodin]

Oh? An AI, like, May, maybe? *speculates*

Can't be. May went to jail instead of her server being fired out of a cannon. Into a volcano.

[mucat]

Dammit, Tai, that's a ****ty thing to joke about, plus you're not actually joking, are you?

Driving tired and hungover is less likely to get you arrested than driving drunk, because your BAC is back down to something reasonable, but there is no way in HELL you are fit to drive at that moment. I often find myself telling people "cut Tai a break; her neurochemistry is not our business". But the moment someone (fictional or real) HINTS at getting behind the wheel in less-than-optimum condition...well, if they were suddenly to sustain painful facial contusions while someone else in the room suddenly had corresponding knuckle bruises, I'll gladly swear in court that they were both ten metres apart when the potential murderer happened to trip and faceplant into a table.

[John Cribati]

Okay, so clearly some nerves have been struck here, but there really isn't any indication in this fictional scenario that either of them will be driving? Like "a drive" just means that they are in the car- anybody could be behind the wheel. Likely some sort of designated driver situation, given the whole... bachelor party thing.

[mucat]

If so, then I happily withdraw my rant.

Still sounds to me like Tai is imagining herself or Dora at the wheel for an exhausted and hungover, but not technically drunk, slog back across the prairie...but if I'm wrong, I'm glad I'm wrong, 'cause I do like both Dora and Tai. (If it were real life, though, I would be threatening Tai with a hellstorm of misery no matter how much I liked her. Or because I liked her, and wanted to put an end to this nonsense now. Fortunately, in real life we have vocal cues, scenes longer than six panels, and the ability to ask clarifying questions, so I'm pretty sure I have only done that in cases where the person really had driven, or was planning to drive, impaired in some way.)

EDIT: And since I went and ranted right past the main point of the strip -- dream big, May! And I love Bubbles' bone-dry snark as always.

I hope Hanners has a realistic sense of how many zeros belong on the end of this fundraising goal. To enable May to be an actual fighter jet would probably not, at this juncture, be the healthiest thing...

[Mechalich]

Still sounds to me like Tai is imagining herself or Dora at the wheel for an exhausted and hungover, but not technically drunk, slog back across the prairie...but if I'm wrong, I'm glad I'm wrong, 'cause I do like both Dora and Tai. (If it were real life, though, I would be threatening Tai with a hellstorm of misery no matter how much I liked her. Or because I liked her, and wanted to put an end to this nonsense now. Fortunately, in real life we have vocal cues, scenes longer than six panels, and the ability to ask clarifying questions, so I'm pretty sure I have only done that in cases where the person really had driven, or was planning to drive, impaired in some way.)

There are no prairies between Northampton and Montreal. It's a 4.5 hour drive, mostly through Vermont, almost entirely on Interstates and their Canadian equivalent (also, it's currently impossible in the real world, because a bachelorette part is 'nonessential travel').

People, especially people in their mid-twenties, drive tired and hungover all the time, it's not illegal even if it is not ideal. How tired and hung over is debatable, but in general any time you party till 3 am the hotel's checkout time is too early. This does not imply any alcohol in the system, or even any significant impairment, just that the drive will be miserable on account of the night before.

[mucat]

There are no prairies between Northampton and Montreal.

Yes, where did I get the word "prairies"? Damn; I must be tired, or maybe hungover. (Actually it's probably because I have the Dolls of New Albion soundtrack playing in the background: "Several hundred years before / A gambler and a monk embarked / On a long trek across the endless prairies of the North." Great song, but it is not actually set between Vancouver and Northampton.)

On the more serious point, though...let's collect data. Driving simulation, where each subject is either (a) sober and well-rested, (b) drunk, with a BAC of 0.10, or (c) hungover, with a BAC that was recently 0.10 but is now 0.02 or less, and with 4 or fewer (or whatever number we decide on) hours of sleep.

If group (c) drives as well as group (a), then I'll apologize to you, and to Tai as well. (I'll apologize to Tai anyway, if she actually meant that she and Dora would nurse each other's hangovers in the back seat while their designated driver got them home.)

Thing is, we won't be the first to do this kind of study, and so far, the results are not promising. Hungover drivers are apparently as bad or worse than drunk drivers. One example study:

https://www.psychologicalscience.org...ing-drunk.html

People, especially people in their mid-twenties, drive tired and hungover all the time

So what? "People do [X] all the time" does not imply "[X] is not criminal, stupid, or criminally stupid".

Hell, I recall two cases from my own past that, while not involving alcohol, were at least as serious. Back in the late 1990's, I drove from Santa Cruz to Oakland after at least 72 hours without sleep. A few years after that, I drove a shorter distance but in trickier traffic, after an even longer period without sleep. I was hallucinating from lack of sleep in that second case, and kept driving.

I'm sure I thought my reasons (personal promise in the first case, professional commitment in the second) for being on the road in that state were critically important. They were not. I was an idiot, and am damned lucky I did not hurt someone.

it's not illegal even if it is not ideal.

The question of whether these things are illegal is totally unrelated to whether they are damnably unsafe. (And, frankly, their legal status depends more on how easy it is to detect and document the impairment than on how dangerous that impairment was.) If you drive while distracted or impaired and kill someone, you are a murderer. If the law disagrees, you are still a murderer, and on an unrelated note, that law is an atrocious one.

[Iruka]

Do people seriously drive to bachelor(ette) parties in their car?

So, did Jeph intentionally draw everyone like Marten today?

[The Glyphstone]

Why would they even go that far away for a bachelorette party, anyways? I didn't think Montreal was that renowned as a party city to warrant a multi-hour drive.

[georgie_leech]

Bachelorette parties aside... Didn't he already know how to draw Sven like not-Marten? Like, I'm pretty sure that he didn't look like Marten the last time we saw him...

[Rodin]

So, did Jeph intentionally draw everyone like Marten today?

He has a tendency of drawing features similar to other characters on the page. This is most noticeable with "anime eyes". If Momo is giving an anime expression on the page, other characters will have noticeably larger eyes.

This appears to be a similar thing. He struggled with drawing Sven, so Sven came out looking like Marten. So, a bunch of the others came out with Marten-esque features too.

Bachelorette parties aside... Didn't he already know how to draw Sven like not-Marten? Like, I'm pretty sure that he didn't look like Marten the last time we saw him...

From what I can tell, the last time we saw Sven was here. That was about 200 comics ago, which some quick and dirty math tells me is about 40 weeks ago.

Yeah, he forgot how to draw him. For whatever reason, Jeph doesn't seem to keep reference pictures of his characters or try to match them with previous appearances. He just wings it, which is how we wind up with Emily-Dora and Marten-Sven, and a Hannelore that lost a foot of height on her sabbatical.

[Wraith]

Reasonable quality hotels in Montreal, according to 10 seconds on google, are something like $70-150 per night, plus gas money for a ~600 mile round trip. That sounds like quite a lot of money to donate, especially to May who Dora and Tai mostly know as Marten's abrasive upstairs neighbour that they kinda met once at a party.

I mean, good for them for being such kind people and all, but to change their wedding plans for their friend's neighbour's jerk-ass roomate? Or have I got it wrong and *I'm* the Scrooge in this situation?

[Iruka]

Reasonable quality hotels in Montreal, according to 10 seconds on google, are something like $70-150 per night, plus gas money for a ~600 mile round trip. That sounds like quite a lot of money to donate, especially to May who Dora and Tai mostly know as Marten's abrasive upstairs neighbour that they kinda met once at a party.

I mean, good for them for being such kind people and all, but to change their wedding plans for their friend's neighbour's jerk-ass roomate? Or have I got it wrong and *I'm* the Scrooge in this situation?

I bet you already thought more about this than Jeph. Do the brides even organise the bachelorette party? Around here this is usually done secretly by the Best Man/Woman and mostly paid for by the guests.

[Ibrinar]

The ever changing art is a subtile hint that they aren't humans but androids with ****ty hologram projectors. They are roleplaying as humans from the time of the singularity, this all was a very big and dedicated LARP. (hmm that somehow reminded me of some webcomic with some kind of weregeek where the author just declared the whole weregeek stuff a big larp which was a rather disappointing choice anybody know the name? pre post edit: it was weregeek rather obviously^^)