well, THIS way it becomes a legitimate reason not to read the book
Reltzik
We needed one of those!
At the end of the day, AI is the hero after all.
Kimi
I had a class that was mandatory for me to take where a guy used his own book. The next year he ended up banning laptops from his class because people were using them to do other stuff. I felt bad for them, because I only survived that class through playing solitaire. Nowadays with everyone having smart phones (which you can hide in your lap), I don’t know what he would do.
Decidedly Orthogonal
I’ve had one prof use their own textbook. They refunded every student their cut of the book cost. I’ve been very lucky.
I’ve also withdrawn from a course because the prof was just awful. Not a bad person, just a truly terrible lecturer. So I don’t know what I’d do as your laptop-banning prof, but as a student I’d drop their course.
VicMortimer
I had a few use their own book.
But they were REALLY cool about it. One just handed out copies on the first day of class (ring comb bound from the copy shop), another we had to buy it for the cost of printing from the copy shop, the other one handed it out a few pages at a time at the start of class. I think those were spirit duplicated, if I remember correctly. (Not sure I do, it’s been over 30 years now, and I’m not going to dig through that box in the back of a closet to be sure.)
Needfuldoer
I had a teacher whose method was to read you the answers to the next quiz, then spend the rest of the class playing clips from SNL on some new website called “You Tube”.
Unfortunately for him, we were his first night class that filled out the end=of-semester review questionnaire honestly. He got canned, but we didn’t have to retake anything. (It was a pretty basic class anyway.)
Either that or like, “5,000 tristan kowalskis in north america alone, 20% of them are female” (either bc trans or just having it as a gender neutral name like Jordan”)
Alas like famed Bellerophon, ye err and fall in pursuit of heights beyond the reach of mortal men. Yet, be unashamed, undaunted for though thy goal hovers forever out of reach, lightning-wreathed, there lies nobility in the attempt.
clif
Do I recognize that prose? Are you an artist by any chance?
True Survivor
No, I just made that up. I am not an artist (at least not a published since high school were a got a few works in print via kids’ contests). My mom is a poet though. Thanks for asking.
Weatherheight
Poetry worthy of (looks up random Greek poet that isn’t Homer or Sappho) Simonides of Ceos of. Very well said
A lot of us older generation still use Facebook. It’s good for promoting events to large community groups at once, and also various groups for shared interests are easy to manage. It has a much more local community focus than other types of social media. Also the way you can filter your friend list with each post to share to only specified audiences has not been as well established on other sites.
Stares at all the family members that only wish me a happy birthday through Facebook even though they have my number and could call or text. Glares at all the jobs and other events where you have to apply or rsvp through Facebook.
It’s like they keep on trying to male fetch happen. At least it is better than all the government alerts and information posts that are done on twitter (I refuse to call it x) that you now need an account to see. Looking at you fire department forest fire alerts and updates. It was fine when you didn’t need an account but ridiculous now that you do. I really think that those accounts should be like what Facebook does, with being public and not necessary to log in to see it. Or the government just stops using it for alerts and updates, but they seem to not want to do that for whatever reason. I miss being able to read the National Park Service’s funny tweets.
I noticed that people often forget birthdays and so their only reminder is from social media. I got way fewer well wishes after I smoked my facebook.
Hard agree on everything you said about Twitter, though. Deleted my account shortly after the fascist takeover and the complete loss of non-account holder functionality is grating when it’s got such wide use.
You don’t have to log in to the FEMA or NOAA-NWS websites. Eh, you can get those alerts pushed to your phone and not have to raise a finger to “go” anywhere, if you like it that way.
Facebook is not business. Facebook is not news. Facebook is catching up with people I know. I barely notice all that other junk. Although it is sometimes amusing to see what They think interests me.
Kimi
FEMA or NOAA isn’t the same as the local fire stations/districts. When you are in a fire prone area in the summer and see the fire planes overhead, you tend to want to know where they are going. Unfortunately, sometimes they only post it on Twitter or Facebook (that one you can at least see without logging in) and don’t post anything on the fire district’s site. Fires can blow up sometimes if the wind hits them, as areas about 1 and 2 hours south of us found out last year. Keeping track of any possible fire danger in the area is always a good idea and shouldn’t be difficult. It also shouldn’t require a lot of trouble from the fire district to be able to do, as they need to focus more on the fire.
I haven’t even mention the active shooter across the highway situation a few years ago. The only reason we ever knew what was going on was from googling it after noticing the police cars and drones. I still can’t understand why they can have our phones go blaring off at 2am for an amber alert but can’t even send a simple text for an active shooter holed up right nearby. From what I have heard, we are not the only one to have issues with that (very locally based and requires people to sign up, if it even exists at all, and no standards). Not that amber alerts aren’t extremely important, but it seems like a weird set of priorities to not have an federal requirement for an alert system for active shooters.
I still use Facebook for the niche groups I’m in, and because a bunch of friends, family, and coworkers are still on it. I’m also closer to 40 than 30, so I’m an Internet Boomer and therefore in the prime Facebook demo. :\
I just use this one song to wake up in the morning and trip out to LOL.
It makes for great productivity music, but, I really wish there were a way to see the play without going in-person anywhere.
Kimi
I am starting to think that they should record broadway musicals with the original cast and then release it on dvds or something 20 years later. Not that new actors can’t do a good job, but musical parts are sometimes made with a specific person in mind and adjust the range of notes to that (or fit the actor’s acting style).
I’ve got Edison Blue Amberol cylinders which will never go out of style.
clif
+1
StClair
I think about this now and then. As someone whose parents still had a few 8-tracks and reel-to-reel tapes along with vinyl, and who personally went from cassettes to CDs to mp3s, there’s a small part of me that’s a little sad we will probably never see another new form of audio media – it’s all just data now.
morleuca
My first car had an 8-track player. I plugged an 8-track to cassette adapter into that, and then ran a cassette to 3.5 adapter from that to a discman on the passenger seat.
Just to note: there’s an extremely odd song based on that about Newton and Einstein, called Defining Gravity. https://youtu.be/yTQyFzTl5GA
It is A Capella, though, which would put some people off.
Not sure if I mentioned this before. If I did, sorry.
ngl i’m surprised she never added him as a ‘facebook’ friends if she befriended liz that way unless it’s because fb is more so “family/using real names” type of thing to where her siblings would see that she added him and being like “ooh i remember tristan ?”
Dorothy’s bowing out might actually be a silver lining for her. Her mental health’s been on a bit of a downer lately, which totally sucks, but skipping out on this project with Robin might’ve dodged her a bullet. Teaming up on that textbook was looking more like a recipe for disaster than success. Honestly, whatever they would’ve churned out probably wouldn’t have done much good for the class anyway.
Good for her. She’s saying “no”, she’s saying “no” because she doesn’t want to do it, and she knows she’s saying “no” because she doesn’t want to do it.
I like to think that she’s saying ‘no’, at least in part, because that human Exxon Valdez Robin asked her to.
HueSatLight
Most importantly it sounds like it’s what current Dorothy doesn’t want to do, it’s not a decision based off of min/maxing what 40+ year old President Keener would need her to have done in order to exist.
Yes, that would have been a complete waste of time and very stressful. If given a year she might do a decent job, but she’s a freshman my gosh. Yale would laugh in derision!
Totally, and even beyond her current willingness, a textbook, especially one on American political science, needs to tackle a wide range of theories and topics. Many of these are areas Dorothy has only just started exploring. It’s a massive undertaking that requires a depth of knowledge and understanding she’s still in the process of acquiring.
clif
I suspect you overestimate the scope of the typical introductory college level political science course.
Bash
Surely she cannot be expected to write a textbook for a class she has not taken. If she knew all the material she would not need to take the class. She’s good at school and studying but she still needs to attend lectures to learn things.
Devin
Nobody told Robin that though
Schpoonman
Something something Roz in Gender Studies last year.
Mark
I’ve lost count of the number of times I complained about some software’s lack of documentation and was told, essentially: well, then, why don’t you write it?
Schpoonman
There might be nothing I hate at any job more than “Well, then, why don’t you do it?” in response to someone clearly not doing their work.
Mark
Sounds like just the sort of project she would relish.
She barely managed to accelerate her heavy load a little and rejecting that project was the right thing to do and to be honest, Robin only shows sympathy for Becky.
That’s a fair point. Perhaps Dorothy’s perspective might have brought a touch of empathy to the mix. As for Robin, while I steer clear of labeling anyone as ‘lazy’—since I believe what’s often seen as laziness is usually more complex—I do have my reservations about her contribution level. It almost sets the stage for a classic collective action problem, with Robin playing the freerider. It’s ironically fitting, considering how central collective action problems and freeriding are to understanding politics. It’s like life imitating theory, or in this case, theory highlighting the pitfalls of group projects in political science.
Robin does not take a lot of what she does very seriously, but she is capable of being serious and of having sympathy for people other than Becky, for strangers even.
She fired her campaign manager and remaining campaign staff because they were hiding a rapist’s identity.
“Honestly, whatever they would’ve churned out probably wouldn’t have done much good for the class anyway.”
At least in part because the writing of any such book, let alone publishing and setting up in stores and process Robin wants to do to get the money funnel going, would make it such it doesn’t come out until the semester is over anyway. Which translating from comic to real world years is about a decade. Plus, even if it could be published literally tomorrow from actual magic, I *think* you can’t put assigned purchases into a class after the class is started. Least I’ve never heard of it.
137 thoughts on “Imagine”
Ana Chronistic
then Joyce finds out Tristan is LIVING with Tara, UNMARRIED
*new Joyce react frame*
*at least until she remembers she doesn’t care(?) about that anymore*
Ana Chronistic
*Jason asks ChatGPT to write the book*
Class: “why read something no one could be bothered to write“
AbacusWizard
Bold of you to assume the class was going to read the textbook in the first place.
Ana Chronistic
well, THIS way it becomes a legitimate reason not to read the book
Reltzik
We needed one of those!
At the end of the day, AI is the hero after all.
Kimi
I had a class that was mandatory for me to take where a guy used his own book. The next year he ended up banning laptops from his class because people were using them to do other stuff. I felt bad for them, because I only survived that class through playing solitaire. Nowadays with everyone having smart phones (which you can hide in your lap), I don’t know what he would do.
Decidedly Orthogonal
I’ve had one prof use their own textbook. They refunded every student their cut of the book cost. I’ve been very lucky.
I’ve also withdrawn from a course because the prof was just awful. Not a bad person, just a truly terrible lecturer. So I don’t know what I’d do as your laptop-banning prof, but as a student I’d drop their course.
VicMortimer
I had a few use their own book.
But they were REALLY cool about it. One just handed out copies on the first day of class (ring comb bound from the copy shop), another we had to buy it for the cost of printing from the copy shop, the other one handed it out a few pages at a time at the start of class. I think those were spirit duplicated, if I remember correctly. (Not sure I do, it’s been over 30 years now, and I’m not going to dig through that box in the back of a closet to be sure.)
Needfuldoer
I had a teacher whose method was to read you the answers to the next quiz, then spend the rest of the class playing clips from SNL on some new website called “You Tube”.
Unfortunately for him, we were his first night class that filled out the end=of-semester review questionnaire honestly. He got canned, but we didn’t have to retake anything. (It was a pretty basic class anyway.)
anon
Either that or like, “5,000 tristan kowalskis in north america alone, 20% of them are female” (either bc trans or just having it as a gender neutral name like Jordan”)
ValdVin
The real treasure was the Joyce red panels you GIFfed along the way.
Decidedly Orthogonal
I can’t quite decide if it looks like she’s growing, or retracting, vampire fangs.
IntangibleMatter
alt text: Ngl the mos self-destructive behaviour I see here is using Facebook in 2024.
Yumi
She only uses it to look up Tristan.
IntangibleMatter
*most, dammit. Typos will happen when you’re trying to beat the legendary Ana Chronistic.
True Survivor
Alas like famed Bellerophon, ye err and fall in pursuit of heights beyond the reach of mortal men. Yet, be unashamed, undaunted for though thy goal hovers forever out of reach, lightning-wreathed, there lies nobility in the attempt.
clif
Do I recognize that prose? Are you an artist by any chance?
True Survivor
No, I just made that up. I am not an artist (at least not a published since high school were a got a few works in print via kids’ contests). My mom is a poet though. Thanks for asking.
Weatherheight
Poetry worthy of (looks up random Greek poet that isn’t Homer or Sappho) Simonides of Ceos of. Very well said
katosen27
Willing to bet her church used it as a means of putting out news quickly.
Jo_cubstar
A lot of us older generation still use Facebook. It’s good for promoting events to large community groups at once, and also various groups for shared interests are easy to manage. It has a much more local community focus than other types of social media. Also the way you can filter your friend list with each post to share to only specified audiences has not been as well established on other sites.
clif
My family and friends I want to keep in touch with are on Facebook. G+ was better for following my interests, but they killed it.
adam Black
Were we in the same shared circles?
clif
Maybe? AI, Math, Science Fiction, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, NASA, Mystery, Physics, Fantasy, Google, String Theory, Cryptography, Tech, Cryptozology, Conspiracy Theories, Astronomy, Cosmology, RPGs.
adam Black
Literally the entire basis of Google Plus
M!a
Oh, run tell dat. I keep my Facebook account around for only two reasons:
1. I have many family members who cannot be reached any other way.
2. To keep my psychobongo sister from impersonating me to post a bunch of heinous toxic shit.
Kimi
Stares at all the family members that only wish me a happy birthday through Facebook even though they have my number and could call or text. Glares at all the jobs and other events where you have to apply or rsvp through Facebook.
It’s like they keep on trying to male fetch happen. At least it is better than all the government alerts and information posts that are done on twitter (I refuse to call it x) that you now need an account to see. Looking at you fire department forest fire alerts and updates. It was fine when you didn’t need an account but ridiculous now that you do. I really think that those accounts should be like what Facebook does, with being public and not necessary to log in to see it. Or the government just stops using it for alerts and updates, but they seem to not want to do that for whatever reason. I miss being able to read the National Park Service’s funny tweets.
Schpoonman
I noticed that people often forget birthdays and so their only reminder is from social media. I got way fewer well wishes after I smoked my facebook.
Hard agree on everything you said about Twitter, though. Deleted my account shortly after the fascist takeover and the complete loss of non-account holder functionality is grating when it’s got such wide use.
Mark
You don’t have to log in to the FEMA or NOAA-NWS websites. Eh, you can get those alerts pushed to your phone and not have to raise a finger to “go” anywhere, if you like it that way.
Facebook is not business. Facebook is not news. Facebook is catching up with people I know. I barely notice all that other junk. Although it is sometimes amusing to see what They think interests me.
Kimi
FEMA or NOAA isn’t the same as the local fire stations/districts. When you are in a fire prone area in the summer and see the fire planes overhead, you tend to want to know where they are going. Unfortunately, sometimes they only post it on Twitter or Facebook (that one you can at least see without logging in) and don’t post anything on the fire district’s site. Fires can blow up sometimes if the wind hits them, as areas about 1 and 2 hours south of us found out last year. Keeping track of any possible fire danger in the area is always a good idea and shouldn’t be difficult. It also shouldn’t require a lot of trouble from the fire district to be able to do, as they need to focus more on the fire.
I haven’t even mention the active shooter across the highway situation a few years ago. The only reason we ever knew what was going on was from googling it after noticing the police cars and drones. I still can’t understand why they can have our phones go blaring off at 2am for an amber alert but can’t even send a simple text for an active shooter holed up right nearby. From what I have heard, we are not the only one to have issues with that (very locally based and requires people to sign up, if it even exists at all, and no standards). Not that amber alerts aren’t extremely important, but it seems like a weird set of priorities to not have an federal requirement for an alert system for active shooters.
zee
Yeah what 18 year old has Facebook? Shoulda been instagram
Needfuldoer
I still use Facebook for the niche groups I’m in, and because a bunch of friends, family, and coworkers are still on it. I’m also closer to 40 than 30, so I’m an Internet Boomer and therefore in the prime Facebook demo. :\
NGPZ
“Something has changed within me,
something is not the same.”
True Survivor
I don’t know what got you on to this Wicked kick, but I like it.
NGPZ
I just use this one song to wake up in the morning and trip out to LOL.
It makes for great productivity music, but, I really wish there were a way to see the play without going in-person anywhere.
Kimi
I am starting to think that they should record broadway musicals with the original cast and then release it on dvds or something 20 years later. Not that new actors can’t do a good job, but musical parts are sometimes made with a specific person in mind and adjust the range of notes to that (or fit the actor’s acting style).
ValdVin
Nods in “September Song”, specifically written for Walter Huston.
Mark
Nice idea but, 20 years later, would anyone still remember the format in which they recorded it?
ValdVin
I’ve got Edison Blue Amberol cylinders which will never go out of style.
clif
+1
StClair
I think about this now and then. As someone whose parents still had a few 8-tracks and reel-to-reel tapes along with vinyl, and who personally went from cassettes to CDs to mp3s, there’s a small part of me that’s a little sad we will probably never see another new form of audio media – it’s all just data now.
morleuca
My first car had an 8-track player. I plugged an 8-track to cassette adapter into that, and then ran a cassette to 3.5 adapter from that to a discman on the passenger seat.
NGPZ
Thankfully they’re sometimes available on the likes of YouTube, Archive, or DailyMotion.
On that note, did you know that the kid’s show LazyTown was actually based on an 90’s Icelandic stage play written by a former athlete?
It’s called LatiBaer, and it’s quite the trip as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwejdNi4onA
deliverything
Just to note: there’s an extremely odd song based on that about Newton and Einstein, called Defining Gravity.
https://youtu.be/yTQyFzTl5GA
It is A Capella, though, which would put some people off.
Not sure if I mentioned this before. If I did, sorry.
shadowcell
if Tristan is not on his way to becoming some sort of analyst i am going to be most put out
M!a
Long as it isn’t a data analyst. The kid’ll never find fucking work.
anon
ngl i’m surprised she never added him as a ‘facebook’ friends if she befriended liz that way unless it’s because fb is more so “family/using real names” type of thing to where her siblings would see that she added him and being like “ooh i remember tristan ?”
UrsulaDavina
Dorothy’s bowing out might actually be a silver lining for her. Her mental health’s been on a bit of a downer lately, which totally sucks, but skipping out on this project with Robin might’ve dodged her a bullet. Teaming up on that textbook was looking more like a recipe for disaster than success. Honestly, whatever they would’ve churned out probably wouldn’t have done much good for the class anyway.
HueSatLight
Good for her. She’s saying “no”, she’s saying “no” because she doesn’t want to do it, and she knows she’s saying “no” because she doesn’t want to do it.
M!a
I like to think that she’s saying ‘no’, at least in part, because that human Exxon Valdez Robin asked her to.
HueSatLight
Most importantly it sounds like it’s what current Dorothy doesn’t want to do, it’s not a decision based off of min/maxing what 40+ year old President Keener would need her to have done in order to exist.
Vanessa
Yes, that would have been a complete waste of time and very stressful. If given a year she might do a decent job, but she’s a freshman my gosh. Yale would laugh in derision!
UrsulaDavina
Totally, and even beyond her current willingness, a textbook, especially one on American political science, needs to tackle a wide range of theories and topics. Many of these are areas Dorothy has only just started exploring. It’s a massive undertaking that requires a depth of knowledge and understanding she’s still in the process of acquiring.
clif
I suspect you overestimate the scope of the typical introductory college level political science course.
Bash
Surely she cannot be expected to write a textbook for a class she has not taken. If she knew all the material she would not need to take the class. She’s good at school and studying but she still needs to attend lectures to learn things.
Devin
Nobody told Robin that though
Schpoonman
Something something Roz in Gender Studies last year.
Mark
I’ve lost count of the number of times I complained about some software’s lack of documentation and was told, essentially: well, then, why don’t you write it?
Schpoonman
There might be nothing I hate at any job more than “Well, then, why don’t you do it?” in response to someone clearly not doing their work.
Mark
Sounds like just the sort of project she would relish.
Coatl
She barely managed to accelerate her heavy load a little and rejecting that project was the right thing to do and to be honest, Robin only shows sympathy for Becky.
UrsulaDavina
That’s a fair point. Perhaps Dorothy’s perspective might have brought a touch of empathy to the mix. As for Robin, while I steer clear of labeling anyone as ‘lazy’—since I believe what’s often seen as laziness is usually more complex—I do have my reservations about her contribution level. It almost sets the stage for a classic collective action problem, with Robin playing the freerider. It’s ironically fitting, considering how central collective action problems and freeriding are to understanding politics. It’s like life imitating theory, or in this case, theory highlighting the pitfalls of group projects in political science.
Coatl
Politics in itself is a chaos that very few manage to face
StClair
“Oh no, I’m not brave enough for politics.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi
Bash
The way the project was presented, I think Robin expected a textbook to just appear. I doubt there would have been any collaboration.
Mark
Hee hee, why am I thinking of The Little Red Hen?
Miri
“You will do it yourself”
And Dorothy glared at her, then ate a whole textbook, flavoured by delicious spite.
Ruth and Jennifer might be so enthusiastically supportive of that they kiss… Hopefully Jason is involved/on board…
HueSatLight
Robin does not take a lot of what she does very seriously, but she is capable of being serious and of having sympathy for people other than Becky, for strangers even.
She fired her campaign manager and remaining campaign staff because they were hiding a rapist’s identity.
RocketRelm
“Honestly, whatever they would’ve churned out probably wouldn’t have done much good for the class anyway.”
At least in part because the writing of any such book, let alone publishing and setting up in stores and process Robin wants to do to get the money funnel going, would make it such it doesn’t come out until the semester is over anyway. Which translating from comic to real world years is about a decade. Plus, even if it could be published literally tomorrow from actual magic, I *think* you can’t put assigned purchases into a class after the class is started. Least I’ve never heard of it.
True Survivor
Poor Dorothy, so long has she been Joyce’s rock, that Joyce assumes her forever stalwart, blind to the growing cracks and crumbling dreams.
Coatl
And it is precisely those details that make one wonder how Joyce’s reaction will be if Dorothy rethinks her life.
Vanessa
This is actually the most healthy decision Dorothy has made for a while, good job! Very appropriate boundaries.
Coatl