Comic for Thursday, May 31st, 2018
Still sort of running on dregs here to keep things going. Work is being a pain in the arse, the problem is that I hadn’t really planned on it being a pain in the arse as we passed our major deadline, but it seems like offshore is not going to hit their targets, so now I’m doing their work too. I mean, I sort of saw that part coming (given that’s how offshoring work usually works) but I dunno. Didn’t plan around it well I guess. Working a few India timezone shifts to ‘manage’ offshore resources sort of wrecks havoc on my schedule (I’ve never been good at sleeping off schedule). Its always a fine line between trying to actually get them to what they need to do and just doing it myself. Plus, my work has really upped the amount of tedious company meetings about how we are going to optimize my time, somehow by spending more of it pointless meetings.
…sorry, the ranting got out into the rambling box. Back to rambling, PastUtopia! Rambling! Not ranting!
I am starting to wander what inadvertent rule is causing Mium to weight buying new suits so negatively. You never can tell with him sometimes. A few glimmers into Naomi’s past. I guess we have seen very little of that so far. Well, we’ll probably see a little more in time. Maybe not as important to the story as someone other people’s past, but I’m sure some people would want to know more about it.
Also, I feel I should call out we hit a major milestone on Patreon at 30! That’s incredible, and you are all amazing, and thanks so much. Makes me feel a little worse about how little content there’s been there in the couple weeks, but hopefully that’ll get me to work on it harder.
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The Consul has a really good memory! Color me impressed.
Hi,
just wanted to leave a quick “Thank You”. I’m going through a bit of a rough time at the moment. Your comic gives me some moments to smile and chuckle a bit, in a time where there is not much else to laugh about.
So… thank you. a lot
PS: About your poll: I clicked I dont like google ads, but thats only because they are infected with this “you are the xth customer an won “insert crap here”. Just give us some personal info for future scams”-popups
Hey, it is great to hear you enjoy reading it, and I hope things look up for you! Always glad to hear someone’s gotten some entertainment off our little corner of the internet. The commenters and people who let me know they enjoy reading the comic have definitely been the driving force in keeping it going so long.
Regarding ads, that’s fair. Personally I don’t much like ads, so I’m sympathetic to the idea of getting rid of it. For the time being I’ve canned the Google ad. My objection to it has always been that it tends to be non-applicable a lot of the time. I don’t know what region your in, but from what I understand particularly internationally served ads were almost always junk ads, and they paid me very little for them, so I think everyone is better off with it gone, though I can’t guarantee it’s gone for good.
Naomi is such a doofus. She is clearly smart. She has proved that when she actually uses her brain for thinking she is good at it. But that does not stop her from being a complete and utter doofus.
Her world is such that meeting the leader of your country did not register. And the worst part is that seems like it is actually in character for her, because she is, as mentioned, a doofus.
Like, the Consul clearly knows who she is, and she asks Mium right in front of her is she is, indeed, Naomi. Such a doofus.
Really like the Consul so far though.
Naomi might be a doofus, but she is an adorable doofus, so that’s okay.
Indeed. I like the Consul’s flat-faced reply, though. Honestly she should expect this of anyone Peter works with – they are all too smart for their own good, and all focused on their own thing, often to the extent of paying no attention to anything else.
…I just so happens Peter and Mium’s “thing” involves the entire planet and more, and Kally seems to consider Peter’s scheming her business.
…59 suits, 61 ties and 19 pairs of dress shoes? That’s a lot of house explosions! (Also, how did he survive two house explosions such that he lost a tie, but not a suit? A suit covers a lot more area than a tie. Logically, being a much smaller target, a tie should be less likely to get burned or hit by shrapnel…)
Don’t get me wrong: It’s a hilarious line! But, I think his sentence would make more sense if he had said “explosions” instead of “house explosions”. (And it would still be funny.) Also, why would MIUM specify that these were house explosions when “explosions” covers it nicely without giving away too much information?
… because if what explodes is your house, you may not lose what you are wearing, but you will lose what is in your wardrobe. Which is often multiple sets of clothing.
Some of the better stuff was at the dry cleaners.
Oh, of course! (In my defense, I was tired last night…)
AHhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa……Naomi’s so good at paying attention to who she’s met before. (And also has to ask “Am I who she’s referring to (today)?”) Yet that just seems so….her! (The “are you kidding me…” stare by the Consul just ties it all together with a nice little bow.)
I also love “house explosions” is plural. So uh…how many houses has Peter lost recently?? I remember when he stayed over at Tyler’s and when Atter’s “minions” visited that apartment, but that doesn’t sound like that was all…. Maybe he should just try storing some clothes in the Consul’s Office building somewhere? Seems an unlikely place to attempt wiping off the map a second time, especially with how…visibly the first try failed.
(Curious what kind of “wardrobe changes” she’d be making. (Is that question even safe? Given present company….))
There was also the decoy apartment that got blown up, which I suspect some degree of investment went into, potentially at least serving as storage for nonvital resources.
It sounds to me like it was less than 19, unless Muim wised up about the dress shoes.
I recall one boss who kept a set of flannel pajamas at work. If she was ever required to stay at work past her bedtime, she made a wardrobe change so everyone knew it.
If she was in her pajamas at a 10AM meeting, you knew right away she was not a happy camper. She still managed to put on a bright and cheery face. Apart from the implications behind her explanation if anyone asked her politely if she realized she was still in her pajamas, the only other indication she gave that she wasn’t OK with the situation was the one time her boss made the poor choice of having her see him in his office after his 3pm meeting to call her attire unprofessional. As his office was in the center of our cube farm, we all heard how she felt about it at that time. Of course, that had the added bonus that the only reason she hadn’t been able to go home at 9:30AM that day was that he wanted her personal report at his 3PM meeting, and she’d explained to him at that time that she would not be able to go home, sleep, and be certain to be back in time for his 3PM meeting, so she would not be able to change.
> “(Curious what kind of “wardrobe changes” she’d be making. (Is that question even safe? Given present company….))”
I get the feeling the Consul has an undercurrent of disdain for formal clothing. She snarks about how her shoes being fashionable and feminine making them unsuitable for stomping, she is not wearing a tie or suit jacket in most of her appearances, and see her putting one on before the summit and before appearing on TV.
Sign me up for the “take a week off” faction. Just tell us first so we won’t worry. 🙂
I really enjoy the Consul’s sense of humor 🙂
Yes. Almost everything she says is pure gold. Really the best part is that she’s rolling with it.
So I mentioned before my theory that the best way to get on MIUM’s good side is to treat him like a real person and the fastest way to get on his bad side seems to be to treat him like “just a machine”. So the consul’s words, which category does she fall under? She is respectful (as much as she is to anyone, more than Peter or especially Miko is anyway), and even refers to Mium as one of those “nice blood covered PEOPLE” (caps not in the original, as you may have noticed). On the other hand she directly refers to Mium having “blown right through uncanney valley” and makes fairly constant mention to him being a cyborg.
So, do you think Mium will like her, hate her, be ambivilent, some other reaction, or do you think that his criteria for whom he likes and dislikes is completely different than my own theory?
I think Mium is on his way to liking her. I think the difference between liking and not liking is largely dependent on their acceptance of him as a person, and how likely they are to get in his way. Not necessarily in that order.
I have read PastUtopia. I feel satisfied now. I will go to sleep.
I feel you should go to sleep too, if you haven’t already.
I read everything, twice, and there was only one grammatical error that someone already commented upon. (oops, maybe 1 other)
And, if you feel the need to sleep tomorrow too, I will just reread this entire arc come monday.
And, i will be happy that the consul is good with people skills. Smiles inside.
Maybe MYM can learn a few things from her.
Panel 5: “1 have lost fifty nine suits, sixty one ties, and nineteen pairs of dress shoes in recent house explosions…”
Maybe Mium’s idea of footwear is just a little… weird… 😉 haha, fixed, thanks 😀
Panel 6: You’ve blown right through the uncanny valley to the rift of uncertainty.
You can probably leave “the” out, but you really need a connector “to” or something between the two phrases.
If you’d posted this like… 30 seconds earlier, I would had only update the page once… 🙁
Haha, fixed, thanks 😀
Please feel free to take next week off to catch up with your buffer. We would prefer you not burn out trying to keep up with the comic schedule.
I might… I was thinking I just sort of took a break, but I guess that was end of March, so it’s been about 2 months. Might not be a bad idea. I think in general the quality of stuff is better working out of the buffer, but I do feel bad about breaks.
I think that most people understand when the author needs to take a break. The only times when I’ve seen people complain is when the author doesn’t say anything for more than one update or when they go multiple weeks without putting anything up (not even fan-art or the like), and even then the most common thing people say is “is this comic dead?” Your pretty honest about even being late, so I really can’t see you just disappearing like what some people complain about (and even then it seems they are more complaining about not knowing rather than the author taking time for other things).
All that to say, I think you are worrying too much about it. If you need to miss an update or two or a weeks worth than just tell us and we will be fine. We are happy to see the updates, but we also understand that real life exists (even for webcomic authors).
But if you decide to just push through, that is fine too. Just make sure to take care of yourself. The last thing any of your fans want is for you to burn out or overwork yourself into illness or something.
Just good luck. I’m not sure I can say much more than that.
For me, it’s always the not knowing part. There’s a webcomic that I follow where the author/artist’s brother got into a rather nasty accident and, as far as I’m aware, still in a coma. In spite of that, they said that the comic’d be on an indefinite hiatus pending changes in his brother’s status. I’ve had others just suddenly cut out with no warning, story unfinished, no indication, and I’m left wondering if they’re dead or something. There’s another comic that I follow that hadn’t had an update in almost 3 months, but literally the day after I asked if it was still ongoing (the art takes QUITE a while it seems) that a new page was posted.
Don’t listen to these people! It is imperative that the comic must go on!
You may however quit your job if you like. Working for a living sucks anyway.
[Glider]:
I sympathize, but I’ve not yet found an alternative to working that can handle the whole “Need Food To Live”-paradigm.
With that in-mind, I wish the Esteemed Author “Good Fortune”, “Do What You Must”, “Please Try To Keep Us In The Loop”, & “Hope You Hurry Back Soon”.
Well, I’ll keep ya’ll posted however it goes, never fear on that front. The webcomic is always near the top of the my list of hobbies, so it’ll never fall off TOO much. Until we get to the end at least. And even than, I’ll probably just start another one or a sequel or something. I’m not very smart like that….