Math books are frikkin huge. Not quite ‘library dictionary’ or ‘church bible’ huge, but, IME, the largest books a normal person would have to carry on a daily (or near daily) basis.
You’ve never lugged around a college chem or biology book have you?
Kamino Neko
No…no I haven’t. I’ll bow to superior knowledge, then.
Math texts are still top ten contenders. >_>
KHNO
or had to study translation… One dictionnary for the language you translate from, one for the language you translate to, and one for both – plus the book to translate. Glad there isn’t a book on how to on the top.
waldosan
it’s not just one text book that gets you, it’s when every class makes you get either a text book or at least 3 “normal” books. considering that a full time student can have anywhere from 4-8 classes a day depending on how much of a scholar they are that’s a lot of weight to be carrying around all at once. it makes the lockers they offer at my community college a very practical solution.
Led
Studying literature also makes for a heavy book bag, especially when you have to carry two 500 page novels (ofc available in hardcover only, not as pocket books), some papers to jot down notes on, a related book or two (usually really big) and a thick clump of papers with related texts…
If it’s a calculus text, oh yeah! The usual pattern is to have both the differential and integral calculus, and maybe some differential equations, in one book. that’s two quarters or semesters worth of stuff. Oh, and they’re usually hardcover. So yeah, a calc text can be a real tome.
Looks like you put a lot of thought into it Mike! (points the finger) Actually I remember one time I almost fainted afer giving blood at the uni and getting a load of shopping on the walk home but the real culprit was my course text book.
I like that Mike is being subtle now.
Stolen
mike’s always been subtle. now he’s just being sneaky about his asshole-ishness. dont worry, he’ll go back to being painfully blunt soon enough.
Blah
Who’s to say Mike didn’t slip bricks in to Walky’s bag?
I think that’s just a myth. I mean, my roomate mysteriously died, had breeze blocks tied to his legs, and was tossed into a river shortly after I found out I was failing math and biology, and instead of As I got questioned by the cops.
No0ne
So did you blame him for your failing math and bio so decided to off him? I don’t know about the rest of you guys but it seems like a poor motive for murder, let alone enough to get a warrent to bring in somebody for questioning just because your room mate was killed… Unless of course you were renting an aparment togeather that would be slightly more warrent worthy… but if you were staying in the dorm that doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to bring some one in for murder… Although I it probably depends on many many other things to…
Stevie Windup
No, it’s based on some colleges apparently having a rule that if your roommate dies, you get all A’s for the semester due to the mental trauma. Not sure whether it’s true or not.
My two roommates were also roommates in college, and they had a friend whose roommate died, and their friend then got all As for the semester. No sign of foul play, though.
What did all you people do?? I never carried more than one or two books to class, for that class. And rolling luggage has been around for at least as long as modern college… =|
Dragging your books around in “rolling luggage” will save you from other distractions as well… companions of the opposite sex. Goes well with a pocket protector.
Me either. Assuming they are full time students, how can they just carry everything around? It’s pretty standard to have atleast 3 textbooks and a notepad. Plus if you’re like me you like to carry water and maybe a snack. Plus you gotta carry homework assignments, and…Well, you get the picture.
If you’re a Music Major, you snag one of the lockers in the practice rooms if they exist and stash your instruments and books and whatnot in there.
If you’re lucky, you can rent a locker from the university if they exist on campus, for non-music majors.
Otherwise, you stash things in the dorms.
In my case, I commuted in from home, with three clarinets (and a sax for a while), stashed them in my music locker, and still had to haul a bag around. C’est la vie…
Trevor
You have you rent your lockers? Thats dumb. At my school its a free for all. Whoever puts a lock on the locker first wins.
No0ne
I’d totally get as many locks as I can, put them on as many lockers as I can find, then sell them to the poor souls wo didn’t get there before me. :O Money ftw!
Stolen
i did something along the lines of that for my high school senior prank. me and a few friends bought a buttload of those cheap locks with the keys. stuck them on every locker in school and then left the keys in a huge-ass pile in front of the office doors.
Erin
When I was at school, (secondary) you couldn’t get a locker til your final year, and then you had to pay a £40 deposit for it. You got the deposit back when you left if it was in good condition.
Saying that, they only got the lockers in about two years before I left. Was a great help when you’re doing 2 highers and an advanced course. waaaay too many books :S
I could go to classes back in university without a bag if I wanted to. Generally I never had more than 2 classes a day, and with stuff being mostly online, I could get by with my PDA if I didn’t mind looking like a dork (iPaq with sleeve = GINORMOUS).
I thought gender issues had to do with cultural diversity between men and women… but since I never studied it in college I can’t say I really know for sure.
More or less…sex only came up in terms of the politics involved.
bramblepatch
It’s still perfectly possible that Joyce will come up against something that will completely break her brain, even if they’re just talking in terms of the politics involved.
Pagannerd
My “Debates in World Archaeology” module module has a section on gender in archaeology, which I think is supposed to be about how, from the antiquarian era up until around post-processualism, archaeologists allowed their cultures’ view of male-female relations to colour their assumptions about the male-female relations of the cultures they were studying.
I say “I think” because my lecturer got flustered and started speaking at length about how when she was young in the 80s’, she was confused about whether Boy George was a man or a woman.
Their children would be even more disturbing… Then again maybe if Anti-Joyce and Mike had kids the kids would turn out normal because when they grow up they don’t want to be like mom and dad O.o But we will never know… cause Anti-Joyce is dead.
I’ve been suspecting this for a while, but each new strip seems to reinforce it. Mike has trouble expressing his assholery directly in this continuity. His Twitter and his class notes are rife with derisive comments about Your Mom, but his actual dialogue? He’s either silent or says something that could be passive-aggressive at best. Perhaps like original Amber, he’s only able to open up (and be truly menacing) when it doesn’t have to be face-to-face.
Also, I think this is the youngest we see Mike. So he could be working on it. Also, he seems to not constaintly scowl all the time so he is either working on that too or he is faking kinder facial expressions to throw people off guard.
Mostly because of his I’m-totally-not-putting-my-book-in-your-bag-so-I-don’t-have-to-carry-it in the first panel there.
You know, since he only just met him the previous day, putting his book in Walky’s bag isn’t exactly a smart thing to do. If it were me, I’d be bumming the book off once I found it.
I feel for the uphill both ways thing. I literally have to walk uphill both ways on my way to the train to get to school, with a ten pound bag, no less.
If you bummed his book Mike would sell your mom to pay for it. Repeatedly. Probably in a way that would devalue your mom’s secondary market value and cause a collapse of your home town’s economy.
That’s not much of a threat, he’d do that anyways. Quite frankly, I could get a lot of good animation paper if I sold a textbook without the cost of having had bought it.
Plus, seems like I’d got on Mike’s nerves with that. Win/Win.
And this is the second day, so unless they met before they moved in he’s only known him for little over a day.
bramblepatch
Well, I think the theory is that as his roommate, Walky will be a little easier to keep track of than, say, Joyce would be. And easier to completely ruin the life of if he does anything with Mike’s stuff.
I’m not sure how that meshes with Mike being perfectly willing to walk off and let Walky get eaten by jaguars, though. You’d think a jaguar attack would stand a good chance of damaging the book.
105 thoughts on “Uphill”
Jen Aside
Is one math book really that heavy??
Mike’s book + Walky = WUSS
JackNapier
Depending on the book, yes. Very yes.
Kamino Neko
Math books are frikkin huge. Not quite ‘library dictionary’ or ‘church bible’ huge, but, IME, the largest books a normal person would have to carry on a daily (or near daily) basis.
FireShard1
You’ve never lugged around a college chem or biology book have you?
Kamino Neko
No…no I haven’t. I’ll bow to superior knowledge, then.
Math texts are still top ten contenders. >_>
KHNO
or had to study translation… One dictionnary for the language you translate from, one for the language you translate to, and one for both – plus the book to translate. Glad there isn’t a book on how to on the top.
waldosan
it’s not just one text book that gets you, it’s when every class makes you get either a text book or at least 3 “normal” books. considering that a full time student can have anywhere from 4-8 classes a day depending on how much of a scholar they are that’s a lot of weight to be carrying around all at once. it makes the lockers they offer at my community college a very practical solution.
Led
Studying literature also makes for a heavy book bag, especially when you have to carry two 500 page novels (ofc available in hardcover only, not as pocket books), some papers to jot down notes on, a related book or two (usually really big) and a thick clump of papers with related texts…
Digidestined of Trust (Tim)
Must be one big Bible, unless they’re study Bibles, but math book are definitely GINORMOUS!
dchorror
We don’t know if he’s only carrying one book. And paper and notebooks get really heavy really quick.
Robert in San Diego
If it’s a calculus text, oh yeah! The usual pattern is to have both the differential and integral calculus, and maybe some differential equations, in one book. that’s two quarters or semesters worth of stuff. Oh, and they’re usually hardcover. So yeah, a calc text can be a real tome.
Rowen Morland
Looks like you put a lot of thought into it Mike! (points the finger) Actually I remember one time I almost fainted afer giving blood at the uni and getting a load of shopping on the walk home but the real culprit was my course text book.
I like that Mike is being subtle now.
Stolen
mike’s always been subtle. now he’s just being sneaky about his asshole-ishness. dont worry, he’ll go back to being painfully blunt soon enough.
Blah
Who’s to say Mike didn’t slip bricks in to Walky’s bag?
David Herbert
Ah, heavy bags, the one thing I don’t miss about school.
Also, I love how Mike’s all “Bye” for jaguars. Then again, he’d get the room to himself if Walky’s dead.
cappadocius
Plus, it’s an easy A for the semester!
Malph
I think that’s just a myth. I mean, my roomate mysteriously died, had breeze blocks tied to his legs, and was tossed into a river shortly after I found out I was failing math and biology, and instead of As I got questioned by the cops.
No0ne
So did you blame him for your failing math and bio so decided to off him? I don’t know about the rest of you guys but it seems like a poor motive for murder, let alone enough to get a warrent to bring in somebody for questioning just because your room mate was killed… Unless of course you were renting an aparment togeather that would be slightly more warrent worthy… but if you were staying in the dorm that doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to bring some one in for murder… Although I it probably depends on many many other things to…
Stevie Windup
No, it’s based on some colleges apparently having a rule that if your roommate dies, you get all A’s for the semester due to the mental trauma. Not sure whether it’s true or not.
Heather
I hate it when that happens!
agentksilver
My two roommates were also roommates in college, and they had a friend whose roommate died, and their friend then got all As for the semester. No sign of foul play, though.
Jen Aside
What did all you people do?? I never carried more than one or two books to class, for that class. And rolling luggage has been around for at least as long as modern college… =|
Virnin
Dragging your books around in “rolling luggage” will save you from other distractions as well… companions of the opposite sex. Goes well with a pocket protector.
Teowulf
Weird that Mike and Joyce don’t have bags. I don’t think I ever could survive college without mine.
Ascension
I feel the same way, but there are many who do not share my sentiments.
Ascension
Our sentiments, I should say.
Darth Cariss
Me either. Assuming they are full time students, how can they just carry everything around? It’s pretty standard to have atleast 3 textbooks and a notepad. Plus if you’re like me you like to carry water and maybe a snack. Plus you gotta carry homework assignments, and…Well, you get the picture.
Bickendan
If you’re a Music Major, you snag one of the lockers in the practice rooms if they exist and stash your instruments and books and whatnot in there.
If you’re lucky, you can rent a locker from the university if they exist on campus, for non-music majors.
Otherwise, you stash things in the dorms.
In my case, I commuted in from home, with three clarinets (and a sax for a while), stashed them in my music locker, and still had to haul a bag around. C’est la vie…
Trevor
You have you rent your lockers? Thats dumb. At my school its a free for all. Whoever puts a lock on the locker first wins.
No0ne
I’d totally get as many locks as I can, put them on as many lockers as I can find, then sell them to the poor souls wo didn’t get there before me. :O Money ftw!
Stolen
i did something along the lines of that for my high school senior prank. me and a few friends bought a buttload of those cheap locks with the keys. stuck them on every locker in school and then left the keys in a huge-ass pile in front of the office doors.
Erin
When I was at school, (secondary) you couldn’t get a locker til your final year, and then you had to pay a £40 deposit for it. You got the deposit back when you left if it was in good condition.
Saying that, they only got the lockers in about two years before I left. Was a great help when you’re doing 2 highers and an advanced course. waaaay too many books :S
Dierna
Mike doesn’t need a bag. Notice that he put his math book in Walky’s bag. It’s why Walky’s bag felt heavier. *lol*
mpark6288
I didn’t even notice that the first time. Awesome.
agentksilver
Ohhhhhh. I didn’t notice that. That’s so clever. No wonder Mike was looking around all suspiciously like that last time we saw him.
Sakimei
Well, it’s still the first day. I don’t think I brought anything my first day since it was all syllabi.
Although that kinda contradicts this since they actually had to take notes and had homework right away. 0.0 Inteeense
LurkerAbove
I could go to classes back in university without a bag if I wanted to. Generally I never had more than 2 classes a day, and with stuff being mostly online, I could get by with my PDA if I didn’t mind looking like a dork (iPaq with sleeve = GINORMOUS).
Ragnal
Gender studies. Am I the only one imagining Joyce freaking out from learning about premarital hanky-panky?
…or is gender studies something completely different?
Gianni
I thought gender issues had to do with cultural diversity between men and women… but since I never studied it in college I can’t say I really know for sure.
Keleso
The Gender Studies class that I took was essentially a survey of feminism.
Kamino Neko
More or less…sex only came up in terms of the politics involved.
bramblepatch
It’s still perfectly possible that Joyce will come up against something that will completely break her brain, even if they’re just talking in terms of the politics involved.
Pagannerd
My “Debates in World Archaeology” module module has a section on gender in archaeology, which I think is supposed to be about how, from the antiquarian era up until around post-processualism, archaeologists allowed their cultures’ view of male-female relations to colour their assumptions about the male-female relations of the cultures they were studying.
I say “I think” because my lecturer got flustered and started speaking at length about how when she was young in the 80s’, she was confused about whether Boy George was a man or a woman.
Undrave
Walky’s a wimp XD
I’m guessing Mike doesn’t need a bag since he got a mule.
Wackd
I think any fear we had that Mike’s not an asshole in this universe can finally be put to rest.
Joebo
Okay, now I’m gonna go with this being the start of their whirlwind romance.
Qaxis
Well, he has an hour to make it up the hill. He might just make it.
No0ne
Not if the Jaguars get him first…
TexasNinjaBuzzard
Jaguars are all white and say “HAY GUYZ!!1!”.
Erin
“I can has you for munchies?”
R
I hope Leslie is the teacher for the course. 🙂 From the guest strip, it would seem to fit.
I wonder when/if Robin’s going to appear.
R
Wow, I really am permanently Joyce
skies
She’s a lesbian. It’s gender studies. I have zero doubt that you are right about this.
Cinder
Aw! Lol. Mike. <3 He's not, like, gonna have a thing for Joyce, is he? That kind of seems unnatural just to even think about it.
No0ne
Their children would be cheerfully distructive…
“I had your MOM for a nickle… It helped I asked nicely too…”
Fnerd
Weeell, he did sleep with Anti-Joyce in It’s Walky!…
No0ne
Their children would be even more disturbing… Then again maybe if Anti-Joyce and Mike had kids the kids would turn out normal because when they grow up they don’t want to be like mom and dad O.o But we will never know… cause Anti-Joyce is dead.
RaijinK
I’ve been suspecting this for a while, but each new strip seems to reinforce it. Mike has trouble expressing his assholery directly in this continuity. His Twitter and his class notes are rife with derisive comments about Your Mom, but his actual dialogue? He’s either silent or says something that could be passive-aggressive at best. Perhaps like original Amber, he’s only able to open up (and be truly menacing) when it doesn’t have to be face-to-face.
RaijinK
Oh. It took me a second glance to notice Mike sneaking his book into Walky’s bag. Still, not exactly direct, so my theory holds.
Chris
He was kind of like that in Its Walky though.
No0ne
Also, I think this is the youngest we see Mike. So he could be working on it. Also, he seems to not constaintly scowl all the time so he is either working on that too or he is faking kinder facial expressions to throw people off guard.
Mostly because of his I’m-totally-not-putting-my-book-in-your-bag-so-I-don’t-have-to-carry-it in the first panel there.
dchorror
You know, since he only just met him the previous day, putting his book in Walky’s bag isn’t exactly a smart thing to do. If it were me, I’d be bumming the book off once I found it.
I feel for the uphill both ways thing. I literally have to walk uphill both ways on my way to the train to get to school, with a ten pound bag, no less.
Undrave
If you bummed his book Mike would sell your mom to pay for it. Repeatedly. Probably in a way that would devalue your mom’s secondary market value and cause a collapse of your home town’s economy.
Someone
That’s after he devalued your mom’s secondary ‘market’. I’ll let you decide that one.
Seerow
It takes a LOT of nickles to pay for a college math book. I’m not sure Mike could sell your mom that many times.
Gianni
Mike could do it
dchorror
That’s not much of a threat, he’d do that anyways. Quite frankly, I could get a lot of good animation paper if I sold a textbook without the cost of having had bought it.
Plus, seems like I’d got on Mike’s nerves with that. Win/Win.
Chumpy
Walky is Mike’s roommate.
No0ne
And this is the second day, so unless they met before they moved in he’s only known him for little over a day.
bramblepatch
Well, I think the theory is that as his roommate, Walky will be a little easier to keep track of than, say, Joyce would be. And easier to completely ruin the life of if he does anything with Mike’s stuff.
I’m not sure how that meshes with Mike being perfectly willing to walk off and let Walky get eaten by jaguars, though. You’d think a jaguar attack would stand a good chance of damaging the book.