Probability may have been one of the hardest courses I took as a math major, DoA-age. Quite possibly because it was calculus-heavy and calculus was not my strong suit.
Years later I took a course in discrete mathematics, which gave me a lot of the tools that would have made my probability course much more manageable — if discrete mathematics had been, y’know, invented back when I was DoA-age.
vlademir1
Considering the general consensus when I was doing my CS major (in the late ’90s), before I dropped out for money reasons, was that Probability and Statistics were the most difficult parts of the requisite Math curricula for those of us pushing for Math, Physics, Engineering and Computer Science majors, I’m unsurprised by that. That consensus included the grad students in our group, not just us undergrads.
Sol Karas
So many people I hear saying statistics is hard, whereas in my university, statistics was the class you took for easy peasy math credit (I took intro calc because I took pre-calc in high school and BY GOD I WAS GONNA MAKE IT COUNT).
TachyonCode
As long as I’m not doing fourth-dimensional geometry or programming in binary, I’m amenable to learning more maths.
BarerMender
Statistics for math majors is a different thing. You derive all the formulas they teach in easy statistics.
BarerMender
We had two semesters: probability first and statistics second. I was well in my twenties and experienced as a gambler, so probability was no problem. But I missed the first class in statistics, and when I came in for the second, I had no idea what was going on. I walked away. I could’ve dropped the class and got money, but I couldn’t be bothered. I took an F.
So what are you going to do now that you found him Walky? Clearly you have thought this all the way through. Though I can’t blame you for wanting to take off your pants and watch stuff on youtube, that is how I spend my weekends.
It’s not a Moon and Russian Unicorn are my favorites
Lux
I just listened to RU, and I think my favorites list is: Not the Future, Seagulls, H.O.T.H. (yes it spells Hoth), Bushes of Love, It’s Not a Moon, Russian Unicorn. Don’t Stare at the Sun (a High School Musical BLR) would be after Seagulls.
There’s not really a lot to rein in yet, at any rate. Like, they haven’t really done anything too wild, just happen to walk near him. Of course, I’m sure it won’t *stay* like that for long.
Seeing as Asher hasn’t yet seen them, and they are apparently far enough from him that they could just slink away, that would be the obvious thing to do at this point. But impulse control has never been one of Walky’s strong suits, and it’s not like we’re going to get our dose of wacky hijinks from calm and rational behavior.
Yeah this whole adventure reeks of “look how cute and functional Walky and Amber are together, and clearly they should be together after all especially since Sal doesn’t even care.”
Vaarsuvius the wizard tells Elan the bard that the imp they’ve encountered is trying to summon a more powerful fiend. Elan is concerned, but Vaarsuvius assures him that it’s extremely unlikely the imp could successfully summon something dangerous to high-level characters like them.
Elan calms down. Like one in ten? No, far less likely than that. Elan flees.
As an incredibly powerful fiend is summoned, we get the two lines above: Elan explaining to Vaarsuvius that one in a million is a sure thing, and Vaarsuvius annoyed that probability doesn’t work properly in their world.
I can never tell whether Willis’s characters are Asian or just white people with black hair until it’s explicitly stated in the comic. Anyone else?
Mmmyeah. Honestly I still remember the conversation where most people seemed to assume Asher was Hispanic. It’s a thing that might be good to learn how to stylize more effectively in time.
How to draw a stylised cartoon character such that their ethnicity is always easily discernable while not going too far and turning into stereotype sounds like quite the challenge.
Meagan
Yeah I agree. Especially for multiracial people, I think they actually *shouldn’t* be obviously of a certain ethnicity a lot of the time, or it is potentially indicative of stereotyping.
KM
It also gets harder when everyone is basically wearing a shirt and jeans….
Kyoulkoa
As half Asians, my siblings and I get confused for other ethnicities all the time.
Depends on the character, I guess? Like, Dina is easy to tell, particularly given the last name, but I am not sure if Alice is Asian but inclined to think she is. Billie I guess would potentially stump me, but it’s been so long that I’ve known she was Asian, anyway, I can’t remember if there was any surprise there. Malaya, I knew wasn’t white, but didn’t know she was filipina until it came up in like an ask or something on Willis’ twitter.
FYI — The name Asher is a boy’s name of Hebrew origin meaning “fortunate, blessed, happy one”.  In the Bible, Asher was one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the patriarch of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. So my first thought was that he might possibly be of middle-eastern (Israeli/Palestinian) descent.
My working assumption is that he is Middle Eastern, but for Walky that’s subsumed into the Asian category.
According to the 2010 Census, Evansville is 80% non-Hispanic white, 12% black, 3% Hispanic, less than 1% Asian. The kicker here is that as far as the Census is concerned, anyone whose origins are in the Middle East falls into the White category.
Charlotte
I mean, the Middle East is geographically Asia. Asia is really large.
(Using “Asian” to refer exclusively to East Asians is not correct.)
The more stylized the art style, the more difficult it can be. We assume that Sarah is African American, but nothing about her design doesn’t read Afro Cuban, or straight up African.
In fact, same goes with nationality. We know Jason has a British accent because we are *told* he has one. Rachael could have a subtle Texan accent. Ruth could have a French Canadian accent.
Ruth was raised in Toronto, with one parent from the US…even if Mr Lessick was a Francophone, there was basically no chance of Ruth picking up a FC accent. If her father did have one, whatever traces would manage to make their way into hers would certainly have been obliterated by the other kids at school. (I’m not bitter…it’s been 20 years…I’m totally over it. >_> )
BBCC
Ruth is from Kaladar. It’s a teeny tiny unincorporated area that’s part of a municipality of 2500 people give or take. It’s about two and a half hours away from Toronto.
Roborat
And apparently everyone there is named Frank, even the girl.
If it’s any consolation, race is one of the hardest things to get across in webcomics.
Fo instance, I still can’t tell which of Jeph Jacques’ characters are black, which ones are Indian-as-in-from-the-subcontinent-of-India, and which ones are from South America.
Not just in the comics. I had a co-worker who was an immigrant from south Asia, but Latinx people would sometimes speak to him in Spanish because they assumed he was Mexican.
Meagan
This whole conversation, but your comment in particular, reminds me of Trevor Noah’s shtick about wanting to come to the US to “be black,” and finally getting to Miami, and Latinx people assuming he was Latinx.
108 thoughts on “Smokebreak”
Ana Chronistic
Walky: bad at probability
Cholma
I don’t he’s taken that class. ;p
Tacos
Not with his math grades.
Marsh Maryrose
Probability may have been one of the hardest courses I took as a math major, DoA-age. Quite possibly because it was calculus-heavy and calculus was not my strong suit.
Years later I took a course in discrete mathematics, which gave me a lot of the tools that would have made my probability course much more manageable — if discrete mathematics had been, y’know, invented back when I was DoA-age.
vlademir1
Considering the general consensus when I was doing my CS major (in the late ’90s), before I dropped out for money reasons, was that Probability and Statistics were the most difficult parts of the requisite Math curricula for those of us pushing for Math, Physics, Engineering and Computer Science majors, I’m unsurprised by that. That consensus included the grad students in our group, not just us undergrads.
Sol Karas
So many people I hear saying statistics is hard, whereas in my university, statistics was the class you took for easy peasy math credit (I took intro calc because I took pre-calc in high school and BY GOD I WAS GONNA MAKE IT COUNT).
TachyonCode
As long as I’m not doing fourth-dimensional geometry or programming in binary, I’m amenable to learning more maths.
BarerMender
Statistics for math majors is a different thing. You derive all the formulas they teach in easy statistics.
BarerMender
We had two semesters: probability first and statistics second. I was well in my twenties and experienced as a gambler, so probability was no problem. But I missed the first class in statistics, and when I came in for the second, I had no idea what was going on. I walked away. I could’ve dropped the class and got money, but I couldn’t be bothered. I took an F.
Deathjavu
Real world probability, he might’ve been right. Narrative probability, the odds jumped to 100% as soon as he said that.
He Who Abides
I’m a Correllian, kid. Never tell me the odds.
Benjamin Gavric
Never underestimate how badly smokers need their fix
not someone else
This is the part where being the pair of characters possibly closest linked to Cartoon Logic gets inconvenient.
Doctor_Who
Plus side: if they need to get away they can just paint a tunnel on the wall and walk through.
BBCC
Too late, Walky! Willis says Sal backstory, so tough cookies.
Hi, Asher! You look weird with stubble.
Kyrik Michalowski
So what are you going to do now that you found him Walky? Clearly you have thought this all the way through. Though I can’t blame you for wanting to take off your pants and watch stuff on youtube, that is how I spend my weekends.
Screwball
Penny for your thoughts…
https://youtu.be/U9t-slLl30E
Aeromechanicalace
I hate Brenda!
Screwball
Don’t fall asleep…..
Don’t. Fall. Asleep…..
Keulen
I don’t know why I hadn’t heard of something this glorious until now.
Ele
I can easily watch Seagulls Stop It Now on infinite loop…
Jon S.
Gotta throw in “Not the Future”, “Hostiles On the Hill”, and “Bushes of Love” for the full effect, though.
Maveric1984
It’s not a Moon and Russian Unicorn are my favorites
Lux
I just listened to RU, and I think my favorites list is: Not the Future, Seagulls, H.O.T.H. (yes it spells Hoth), Bushes of Love, It’s Not a Moon, Russian Unicorn. Don’t Stare at the Sun (a High School Musical BLR) would be after Seagulls.
Schpoonman
I hope Amber reins this in.
That’s a weird thought, rooting for Amber to say “Okay, this is going too far,” but here we are.
DailyBrad
There’s not really a lot to rein in yet, at any rate. Like, they haven’t really done anything too wild, just happen to walk near him. Of course, I’m sure it won’t *stay* like that for long.
Marsh Maryrose
Seeing as Asher hasn’t yet seen them, and they are apparently far enough from him that they could just slink away, that would be the obvious thing to do at this point. But impulse control has never been one of Walky’s strong suits, and it’s not like we’re going to get our dose of wacky hijinks from calm and rational behavior.
Darkoneko
Normal Amber has even worse social anxiety than Walky, so sure
NerdHerder
Amber: Go on
Deathjavu
Amber is on board with both the youtube and the pants removal parts of this plan
Meagan
Yeah this whole adventure reeks of “look how cute and functional Walky and Amber are together, and clearly they should be together after all especially since Sal doesn’t even care.”
Schpoonman
Good, then Walky finds out that Amber changed his graded so they can go back and fix it.
ShinyNeen
Hey, look on the bright side. Now you won’t have to spend hours on stakeout duty!
Agemegos
“Now you won’t have to hang out with Amber!”…
Stephen Bierce
Nicked by nicotine.
Reltzik
So now Walky needs to figure out if he’s still bad news. I wonder what kind of asherance he’s looking for.
ShinyNeen
Either way, Walky’s hopes of getting out of this easily are going up in smoke.
Marsh Maryrose
He’s not likely to sal-ly forth.
adjudicus
If he wanted to really get out of this he could fake a heart attack and call an amberlance
JBento
Maybe the next few strips will ansher that question.
Kern Wallace
“And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.”
Svankensen
One in ten is quite unlikely, but one in a million is a sure thing.
Meagan
I’m assuming the quotes mean that this is a quote from something, what, pray tell?
C.
TVTropes says it’s from Order of the Stick.
Deanatay
Yep, as is Svankensen’s.
Roborat
Oh, thanks for that. I assumed it was from one of the Pratchett books.
Zero
Order of the Stick, but in the other order.
Vaarsuvius the wizard tells Elan the bard that the imp they’ve encountered is trying to summon a more powerful fiend. Elan is concerned, but Vaarsuvius assures him that it’s extremely unlikely the imp could successfully summon something dangerous to high-level characters like them.
Elan calms down. Like one in ten? No, far less likely than that. Elan flees.
As an incredibly powerful fiend is summoned, we get the two lines above: Elan explaining to Vaarsuvius that one in a million is a sure thing, and Vaarsuvius annoyed that probability doesn’t work properly in their world.
Zero
Given that Vaarsuvius acknowledges that’s true, it would be more logical to listen to Elan.
Woomy
I can never tell whether Willis’s characters are Asian or just white people with black hair until it’s explicitly stated in the comic. Anyone else?
not someone else
Mmmyeah. Honestly I still remember the conversation where most people seemed to assume Asher was Hispanic. It’s a thing that might be good to learn how to stylize more effectively in time.
KM
How to draw a stylised cartoon character such that their ethnicity is always easily discernable while not going too far and turning into stereotype sounds like quite the challenge.
Meagan
Yeah I agree. Especially for multiracial people, I think they actually *shouldn’t* be obviously of a certain ethnicity a lot of the time, or it is potentially indicative of stereotyping.
KM
It also gets harder when everyone is basically wearing a shirt and jeans….
Kyoulkoa
As half Asians, my siblings and I get confused for other ethnicities all the time.
DailyBrad
Depends on the character, I guess? Like, Dina is easy to tell, particularly given the last name, but I am not sure if Alice is Asian but inclined to think she is. Billie I guess would potentially stump me, but it’s been so long that I’ve known she was Asian, anyway, I can’t remember if there was any surprise there. Malaya, I knew wasn’t white, but didn’t know she was filipina until it came up in like an ask or something on Willis’ twitter.
Sol Karas
In the Walkyverse Billie was just Caucasian, but people misidentified her as (part) Asian so much that Willis just made her half-Chinese here, IIRC.
Bicycle Bill
FYI — The name Asher is a boy’s name of Hebrew origin meaning “fortunate, blessed, happy one”.  In the Bible, Asher was one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the patriarch of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. So my first thought was that he might possibly be of middle-eastern (Israeli/Palestinian) descent.
thejeff
That was my take as well.
Kamino Neko
Asher is the first one I’ve been surprised they they were called Asian…and him I didn’t read as white…figured Middle Eastern, most likely.
Marsh Maryrose
My working assumption is that he is Middle Eastern, but for Walky that’s subsumed into the Asian category.
According to the 2010 Census, Evansville is 80% non-Hispanic white, 12% black, 3% Hispanic, less than 1% Asian. The kicker here is that as far as the Census is concerned, anyone whose origins are in the Middle East falls into the White category.
Charlotte
I mean, the Middle East is geographically Asia. Asia is really large.
(Using “Asian” to refer exclusively to East Asians is not correct.)
Antonio Tyler
I draw “black dot” eye characters (like Hergé but without the talent and racism) and I always found it difficult to depict race, especially before I started using color. I even made one character’s race being incorrectly guessed a running gag.
The more stylized the art style, the more difficult it can be. We assume that Sarah is African American, but nothing about her design doesn’t read Afro Cuban, or straight up African.
In fact, same goes with nationality. We know Jason has a British accent because we are *told* he has one. Rachael could have a subtle Texan accent. Ruth could have a French Canadian accent.
Comicking is hard, yo.
Kamino Neko
Ruth was raised in Toronto, with one parent from the US…even if Mr Lessick was a Francophone, there was basically no chance of Ruth picking up a FC accent. If her father did have one, whatever traces would manage to make their way into hers would certainly have been obliterated by the other kids at school. (I’m not bitter…it’s been 20 years…I’m totally over it. >_> )
BBCC
Ruth is from Kaladar. It’s a teeny tiny unincorporated area that’s part of a municipality of 2500 people give or take. It’s about two and a half hours away from Toronto.
Roborat
And apparently everyone there is named Frank, even the girl.
Rabid Rabbit
If it’s any consolation, race is one of the hardest things to get across in webcomics.
Fo instance, I still can’t tell which of Jeph Jacques’ characters are black, which ones are Indian-as-in-from-the-subcontinent-of-India, and which ones are from South America.
Marsh Maryrose
Not just in the comics. I had a co-worker who was an immigrant from south Asia, but Latinx people would sometimes speak to him in Spanish because they assumed he was Mexican.
Meagan
This whole conversation, but your comment in particular, reminds me of Trevor Noah’s shtick about wanting to come to the US to “be black,” and finally getting to Miami, and Latinx people assuming he was Latinx.
Lacuna
*Walky watches Seagulls Stop It Now on his laptop*
*Mike walks over*
*Mike shuts the laptop*
Mike: What? Yoda said stop it.
DailyBrad