239

Weird
Posted on August 28, 2012 by David M Willis
Now, Japan has different rules for eye contact, and some of you folks may recall that Dina is of Japanese descent.  But she has also lived her entire life in America (as has her parents), so this behavior is unrelated. Also, here's the last panel sans dialog on Tumblr.

239 thoughts on “Weird”

  1. Uniqueantique

    Aw thats cute.

    1. Joe H

      I agree.
      Who’s got a new ship he’s sailing on? This guy.
      And I dub her, AmberXDina

      1. Valdrax

        Couldn’t you have used some cutesy couple portmanteau name, like Dinamber or Malleysaurus?

      2. shadowsneakz

        We NEEED that.

  2. otusasio451

    I feel your pain, Dina. I feel your pain.

    1. DudeMyDadOwnsADealership

      Thing of it is, what Dina say’s she assumes of other people in the center panel is probably right on the money, save most of’em just aren’t aware it’s so, like she is.

  3. Yotomoe

    Never look a gift amber in the mouth

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      An Amber in hand is worth two in her bush.

      1. Khantalas

        Don’t put all your eggs in one Amber.

        1. Liam L

          Ding Ding Ding! we have a winner!

        2. Jehosaphat

          Ding Ding Ding! You won the award for creepiest avatar!

        3. Liam L

          Perfect gravatar for that

          and if it helps, think of it as an IRL Hitmonlee

        4. Rowen Morland

          That didn’t help… that didn’t help at all…

        5. Valdrax

          Now I know why Hitmonlee doesn’t have a nose or mouth. Now I know!!

        6. Luke

          It’s like a Securitron.

        7. Khantalas

          Your mom won the award.

          The award was my penis.

        8. Ziaheart

          She needed a nickle to get to the ceremony?

        9. Yotomoe

          Damn, I wish I had my own Hitmonlee

        10. Plasma Mongoose

          If you have the gene-splicing technology yoy could make one of your own.

        11. Yotomoe

          But what if it does not obey me?

        12. Gordon

          Just leave it in the pokeball until you get a high enough badge.

          Are you new here?

        13. Khantalas

          But what if this one follows the anime rules instead of the game?

        14. Yotomoe

          But it’s my only pokemon!!!

        15. Pyr05

          Then you’ll have to suffer through it taking naps, loafing around, and doing moves other than what you asked until it smartens up or faints. It’s the price to pay for IRL Hitmonlee.

      2. Yotomoe

        Don’t count your Ambers before they hatch.

        1. Khantalas

          Don’t change Ambers in midstream.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          Amber makes the heart grow fonder.

        3. Khantalas

          Home is where Amber is.

        4. Plasma Mongoose

          Ambers who wear glasses shouldn’t throw stones.

        5. Khantalas

          Amazi-girl is immune to criticism, so don’t you tell her what to do.

        6. Rognik

          I think you missed two idioms there before adding Amber. Wherther that makes things better or worse, I have yet to determine.

        7. Plasma Mongoose

          Amber is in the mouth of the beholder.

        8. Wonder Wig

          Confucius say, “Man with hand in pocket feel Amber all day.”

        9. Plasma Mongoose

          Keep your Ambers close, your Dinas even closer.

        10. Khantalas

          Silence is Amber.

        11. Khantalas

          ((Wait no that made no sense.))

        12. Random Guy

          Pee is also amber.

        13. meanderling

          You gotta break some Ambers to make an omelette.

        14. Tualha

          These puns are Amberassing.

        15. SkepticJ

          Grin Amber it.

        16. Jackson

          A stitch in time saves Amber.

        17. Kryss LaBryn

          Don’t go making mountains out of Amber.

        18. lordphulish

          Don’t look a gift lion in the amber.

          Ha! Mixed comic metaphor!

    2. Maestro

      Maybe she’s born with it… maybe it’s Amber.

    3. Heimdallw32

      Today is a good day to Amber!

      1. Heimdallw32

        ohgod. Random Gravitar picking Joe made that creepy.

        1. SkepticJ

          Amber? I hardly know ‘er!

        2. fatemaster1

          Don’t go making Ambers out of molehills.
          Truth is in the eye of the Amber.
          You’ve got to break some eggs to make an Amber.
          Amber is golden.
          Amber is where the heart is.
          Absence makes the Amber grow fonder.
          People in glass houses shouldn’t throw Ambers.
          People in Amber houses shouldn’t throw stones.
          Don’t count your eggs before they Amber.
          Don’t Amber your eggs before they hatch.
          Don’t put all your Ambers in one basket.
          Today is an Amber day to die.
          Slow as Amber in January.
          A stitch in Amber saves lives.
          The pot calling the Amber black.
          Curiosity killed the Amber.
          Going to Amber in a hand-basket.
          Dying for an Amber.
          The Amber at the end of the rainbow.
          The pot of gold at the end of the Amber.
          Duck, Duck, Amber.
          Ring around the Amber.
          Free the Ambers.
          Let loose the Ambers of war.

  4. Wonder Wig

    You should talk to the boy in the other hall; I think you’d like him. Lemme know if you find out why he’s ordering all those pajama jeans.

    1. Khantalas

      Yeah maybe in this continuity they can actually be happy together (even if only briefly).

      1. Wonder Wig

        It’s actually a play on from the mouse-over text to an xkcd comic.

        1. Yotomoe

          that seems like an incredibly convoluted reference for anyone to get ever.

        2. Wonder Wig

          True, but I like to entertain a niche crowd.

        3. Khantalas

          I don’t read xkcd nearly enough (read: at all) to get that reference.

        4. Anonymous

          I *do* read xkcd frequently, but until you said that I didn’t know you were referencing that comic. Also I don’t know what you just said because I was thinking about Batman.

      2. vlademir1

        Yeah Mike and Dina were an interesting couple in the other continuity.

        Don’t look at me like that, Wonder Wig said “ordering” not “wearing”.

        1. Khantalas

          Mike / Walky / Dina OT3?

    2. Animal

      It’s the best she could do.

  5. Plasma Mongoose

    Makes sense to me and in some cultures, looking someone in the eye is concided aggressive.

    1. Yotomoe

      You shouldn’t stare a dog in the eye too long or they may start growling.

      1. William

        I just stared my dog in the eye and she lost interest.

        1. Yotomoe

          clearly she thinks you’re not worth it.

    2. John

      It’s how you say, “Come at me if you think you’re hard enough,” in Dog.

      1. John

        Aw, I lost my Mike gravatar.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          Monkey Master, Willis gives it to you!

        2. Rognik

          Someone got added to the gravatar rotation (yesterday?), but I’m not quite sure who. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

    3. Barf Ninjason

      And I’m with those “some cultures” on that. It does feel aggressive to me. I get the occasional glance of eye contact, but I find prolonged eyeball staring really makes me uncomfortable and exposed. And the way so many insist on it just seems to be like.. forcibly prying into the soul.

      But how much does it even tell you really? Ultimately eyes are just wet ocular sensors.

      1. begbert2

        Well, for example, if somebody is skittish about eye contact it tells you they’re weak-willed, or hiding something.

        Hey, don’t look at me like that, I didn’t make the rules.

        1. Barf Ninjason

          Ok, fine, you didn’t make the rules but you should realize they’re wrong; that is an inaccurate assumption based on cultural biases.

      2. thomas0comer

        I feel the same way.

    4. Jetstream

      Yup. Not this culture though, and this one is the one she’s living in.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Details details… 😀

        1. Khantalas

          Amber is in the details.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          The Amber doesn’t ooze far from the tree.

    5. Rognik

      I admit, I rarely look people in the eye. I’m not sure exactly where I’m looking, but it’s not the mouth. Only people who should be looking you in the mouth are people who lip-read.

      And, I’m sorry to do this, but “concided” is a pretty bad typo there. I’m assuming you meant “considered”, but that’s not just one letter off there. I’m sorry, but my grammar nazienthusiast personality demands that I comment on it.

      1. Raoullefere

        My inner grammar nazi commends you for a job well done. Heil Verbal!

      2. begbert2

        I prefer to stare at the breasts, myself, when applicable.

        1. LuckyStar7

          I prefer to stare at Amber’s BREAST MODE T-Shirt, myslf.

        2. Prodigal

          It actually says “Beast Mode”, but a “BREAST MODE” shirt would probably sell pretty well, don’t you think?

  6. MaZe

    Kiss now.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Dina is looking in the right place to start.

      1. Yotomoe

        I imagine Dina doesn’t know how to go about doing that. Dinosaurs didn’t kiss.

        1. Historyman68

          Citation?

        2. Chibi Squirt

          <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=dinosaur+teeth&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=iCN&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=Ick8UOKfPOiH6QHS_4GgDg&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1239&bih=666&quot; title="Here ya go!"

        3. Chibi Squirt

          Oooh, html FAIL liek woah.

        4. Historyman68

          Ok, good point

    2. Rognik

      I kinda thought that was why the last panel was supplied with no text.

    3. DaJoshMaster

      Oh my gawd… that Gravatar is so amazing here. ^_^

    4. Tan

      I read this comic, then went looking through the comments for the “Now kiss.” This is close enough.

  7. Khantalas

    Dina you must cease and desist being adorable at once or I shall be forced to love you and hug you and call you Dina.

    1. Khantalas

      And I get the guy who dated Dina in an alternate continuity as my gravatar. Go me.

      1. Yotomoe

        I feel like “slept with” would be a better word for it, but whatevs.

      2. Bekah

        Dina “dated” Mike. Not the other way around.

        1. Khantalas

          To be fair Dina was one of the few characters to ever get an emotional rise out of Mike.

          The rise was “unbridled rage”, but still, points for Dina.

      3. Rognik

        Which I note you promptly replaced with an anime face in a mirror. One I don’t recognise, though. Who is that?

        1. Khantalas

          The king of idiotic asshole protagonists, Hisao Nakai.

        2. Cybersnark

          You obviously haven’t met Prince Baka (yes, that’s really his name) from Level E. His people actually call him “the Asshole Prince.”

  8. alicemacher

    I am going to DIE (Cheese forbid) from acute squee-age if Dina gets any more adorably awkward. ♥

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      I believe that otaku refer to that feeling as moe (mo-a).

      1. Liam L

        isn’t a moe just a character archetype? that’s what tvtropes would lead me to believe.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          Yes moe is the official term they used in anime/manga marketing to describe series featuring lots of moe-inducing characters.

          The original term was a fan word to describe the feeling you get from a character that makes you all WAFFY and protective.

        2. Liam L

          The character that comes to mind when I think of a moe is Fluttershy.

        3. Khantalas

          I personally think of Hanako Ikezawa, but that is just me.

        4. Plasma Mongoose

          Hanako givews off the classic moe vibe, scars notwithstanding.

        5. Andiemus

          Katawa shoujo?

        6. Plasma Mongoose

          YES

        7. Rognik

          There are many different flavours of moe. Personally, I think it made anime worse, but that is just my opinion. I don’t want to get into that here.

      2. Kamino Neko

        Mo-eh, not mo-a. That would be spelt…moa.

        1. davidbreslin101

          All those 9-foot tall feathery anime characters from New Zealand…

  9. Uniqueantique

    I used to have a supervisor that stared at my mouth when ever we talked, both American born and bred. This is not usual interaction. I always had to go to the bathroom and check my teeth to see if I had spinich stuck in them or something.

    1. Kryss LaBryn

      I do that myself if I’m having a hard time making out what someone is saying (for example, in a noisy environment). I can lip-read to a certain extent, and with what sounds I *can* make out, it lets me separate what sounds they’re *actually* making from what they *might* be saying. I don’t mean to be rude; it just beats saying “What?” every third word.

      Mind you, I find I don’t often actually make eye contact, but when I do notice I’m doing it I do try and deliberately do it to be polite. But I kind of don’t see the point (for me); I get much more information from body language as a whole than just from the eyes, so I’m probably more likely to unconsciously be looking at your shoulders or centre of mass. And that’s with me being a Canadian born and bred. Okay, a slightly weird and socially awkward one, true…

      1. thomas0comer

        I look at people’s center of mass, too. I’m not sure why.

        1. Roborat

          Do you play a lot of first person shooter games?

  10. Bekah

    I’m of Welsh descent, born and raised in Canada, and I also prefer looking people in the mouth when they talk.

    Mouths are weird. Lips are like… this gasket thing on the edges of a hole in your face that’s all slimey on the inside. Your tongue is two muscles wrapped in a chemical receptor that you alter the shape and position of in order to produce different sounds.

    brb, going to look up all the pictures of mouths the internet has to offer.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Remember to keep the safety on.

      1. Bekah

        Yes. Good advice.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          I hope you did it in time.

    2. Yotomoe

      Bekah, go ahead and sit down. Sit in this chair right over here.

      1. Bekah

        If my addiction to action movies has taught me anything, it’s that nothing good ever happens when someone makes someone else sit in a chair.

        1. Yotomoe

          If my understanding of references to “To catch a predator” and other such programing, I agree.

  11. LimeTH

    Oh man, Dina, you’re breaking my heart here.

  12. Regalli

    Aww, Dina sweetie… I can sympathize.

    Aspie here- I make eye contact now, but it took until high school for me to do so consistently. Usually I just looked at the ground or their shirt or a book or something.

    1. Andiemus

      I’m not one (at least not officially and it’s not something that usually goes undiagnosed so it seems safe to assume) but eye contact makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Even with people I’m really close to.

      1. TheLastOutlaw

        I can make eye contact with most people but some just give me the creeps, for those I usually focus on the nose, it’s close enough for etiquette.

        Though yesterday I ended up talking to someone who’s eyes were like pits of madness, complete with twitching and everything. It was like a trainwreck, I couldn’t not look.

        1. Shadlyn Wolfe

          I make and break eye contact. I am creeped out by people who give really intense eye contact, but it does help connection to let your eyes meet theirs, then unfocus to take in the face, then back, and then to the side, an so forth.

          I probably look shifty as hell to some folks.

        2. Ziaheart

          I look at people’s eyes when they’re talking. When I’m the one talking, I’d usually look at the space around them. Helps me think better, or something.

        3. Valdrax

          Most people can tell you’re looking at the nose instead. It’s a good way to drive some people to distraction since it’s close enough to eye contract to make you paranoid that there’s something wrong with your face that’s more attention getting.

    2. Ziaheart

      I had a blind friend. He usually points on of his ears at the source of the sound. And then when he remembers to make “eye contact”, he’d close his eyes and then point his nose slightly above where the sound was coming from.

    3. davidbreslin101

      At 32, I occasionally remember to make eye contact when talking to someone. I dread accidental eye contact with random people in the street.

    4. JohnE

      Yeah, that’s Dina’s real issue: Asperger Syndrome or a related PDD. That statement about how she thought everyone had trouble reading others but was just better at hiding it is a classic sign of Asperger Syndrome. As an aside to everyone here who says that they don’t look people in the eye when talking to them, you might want to consider that you too may have a PDD. Lack of normal eye contact is pretty much a dead giveaway. That’s what got me diagnosed (along with the fact that I feel certain flavors on my skin instead of tasting them.)

      1. Yumi

        Is that like tasting smells? Cuz no one seems to understand what I’m talking about when I say that

        1. LuckyStar7

          I DO
          POLLUTION TASTES NASTY

        2. Icalasari

          Yummy nummy popcorn air

    5. L.K. Crocuta

      I’m an aspie, but actually pretty good at eye contact. On the other hand, I’ve often been accused of staring at people while I’m thinking about something because I just look at one point in space without noticing whatever or whoever is there.

  13. Jehosaphat

    Hey, at least she isn’t staring at Amber’s chest?

    1. Khantalas

      “Dina, my mouth is up here. Up here, Dina.”

      “But your breasts are the jiggling part.”

    2. Bekah

      Dina’s using her peripherals.

      1. Yotomoe

        I always stare about chin high so I can alternate without looking suspicious.

    3. Raoullefere

      You should never stare at a girl’s chest when she’s in Beast Mode. Even Dina knows that.

      1. LuckyStar7

        BREAST MODE INITIATE

  14. Joe

    Dina… Dina makes a compelling point.

  15. Ryan Balis

    Dina wants to kiss you. Deal with it!

  16. Kitsuner

    I’m glad I’m not the only person who has a hard time not watching people’s mouths move. I’m less glad that the other person is a cartoon.

    1. Rognik

      Correction: comic book character. The difference is between the drawn character moving or not. No movement, so not a cartoon (character).

      1. Historyman68

        Wait, the drawings aren’t moving for you? Fuck, am I the only one?

        1. TheLastOutlaw

          Were you hanging out with Dana?

        2. Historyman68

          I wish.

      2. DSL

        Add in the word “animated” for accuracy. I and lots of other people draw cartoons that don’t move.

  17. vlademir1

    ..and here we see the Dina showing her predatory nature as her sights are drawn to the movement of quickly fleeing prey.

    1. Yotomoe

      I’m gon’ bite yo lips off

  18. Khantalas

    I just realized my comments are far creepier with Hisao as my gravatar instead of Mike.

  19. AstroRocket

    Ship away, last panel. Ship away.

  20. Jesse

    I know I do the “Look at someone’s mouth while they’re talking” thing.

    1. Khantalas

      I generally split the difference and focus on the nose.

  21. Bean

    Is it wrong that I’m a little sad about this impending character development?

    Not because it’s bad…but because there’s something oddly pure about someone who’s never concerned themselves with doing what everyone else does, and it always seems a shame to spoil it, like a loss of a little bit of individuality.

    1. Leorale

      I find it shocking that nobody’s commented on Dina’s quirks before. Was she homeschooled? I can’t imagine the jerks on a school playground being very kind to her.

      1. Khantalas

        You would be surprised at what people can ignore. If I survived until college without anything other than the lightest teasing, most anyone can.

      2. BD

        It… could be that she’s just done the same ‘hide behind a door’ thing so much that the bullies simply didn’t notice that she was there? Or kept losing track of her.

        1. gangler

          Once you’re in a large enough school the best way to avoid any of that really is just to stay off the radar. So long as you’re not the loudest thing in the room at any given moment there’ll always be more obvious targets.

          Plus with Dina it seems like a lot of the things you’d say to her might not necessarily lead her to engage in the type of immediately showy emotional response some types of bullies enjoy. I mean, Raidah and the gang called her retarded, she noted the condescension without seeming to be effected by it at all and only upon getting home did she reveal that she’d even given anything they’d said a second thought. Not the most gratifying person to pick on if you enjoy a more responsive target.

    2. Historyman68

      But with a little help, she can remain weird without alienating people quite as much, and be far happier than otherwise. Hopefully.

      We shouldn’t idealize antisocial/asocial behavior because it’s “pure” or something- it can suck for someone who lives with it to always feel like they’re different and have no idea why or what to do about it.

      1. gangler

        I think it’s natural to a certain extent. We’ve all felt different at some point and we’ve all had times when we just wished we didn’t care. There’s a part of us that truly admires somebody who not only is different but in entirely unaffected by it. How it seems from my end anyway.

    3. clay

      I doubt this subplot is just going to be “AMBER FIXES THE BROKEN WORTHLESS DINA, WHAT A GOOD PAL”. There’s probably more to Dina than Amber (or Raidah, for that matter) can figure out at first glance.

      1. lordphulish

        Wait, so it’s not like in She’s All That, where they take off the glasses and let the hair down and now she’s “fixed”?

        1. Joe

          It’s more like Not Another Teen Movie, where they take off her glasses and let the hair down and then promptly slam her into a wall because GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKER, SHE NEEDED THOSE TO SEE, THAT FUCKING HURT LIKE A bongo!

        2. Historyman68

          Haha classic.

  22. BD

    I wonder how Dina came to that conclusion in panel 3? She clearly knows how to research, although whether that applies to stuff other than dinosaurs… That’s not a conclusion you come to one day – that’s several years of observation at work, probably. But we know so little about her (she has two parents, has Japanese heritage by Word of Willis, likes dinosaurs…) that it’s unwise to draw conclusions at all.

    Personally, I feel that her sentiment in panel 3 is sorta true. We all hide better or worse, but in the sense that we’ve… deluded ourselves into becoming social creatures. We _think_ we understand others, and they _think_ we understand them, and so everyone’s happy. (cf. fangirly reactions to popular fiction, insert your favorite: “He/she understands me!”)

    1. Rognik

      I’d say the reaction stems from a bit of projection. We all sort of assume that everyone sees things the same thing. I mean, we may have come to an agreement as to what blue is, but maybe what I see as blue looks yellow to you, and vice versa. She doesn’t understand social interactions, so she assumes everyone has the same problems, but they put on a better face. Seems kind of logical to me.

      1. BD

        Yeah, you’re right, that makes sense.

        …although, re-reading it, she’s basically saying that she herself has been ‘hiding it’ as well, or trying to. It’s that self-awareness that sticks out for me. Is it common, then, for someone in that position to not look further into it, if only to figure out what’s going on?

  23. Raen

    IIRC, looking in someone’s eyes is belligerent in Asia and polite here; looking to one side is deferent in Asia and dismissive here; staring into someone’s mouth is weird everywhere.

    1. BD

      Be sure to mention that to your dentist, who will probably be amused by it.

      1. Khantalas

        Staring is distinct from studying, though.

    2. Ziaheart

      Unless you’re in a deaf-mute society.

  24. Courier

    Hm. Tentatively, I think there’s a possibility of her being one kind or another of high-functioning autistic- NVLD or Asbergers perhaps. Not saying it for certain, but being one myself I can’t help but see some similarities between her mannerisms and mindset and those of a “textbook” case of NVLD or Asbergers.

    1. vampireslug

      That’s pretty much what I was going to say… I myself have a difficult time with certain social interactions.

  25. Timinane

    I can’t stand looking into eyes, some say I may have a paranoid fear you’ll charge at me like a gorilla. (Apparently someone wrote on the internet not maintaining eye contact was a sort of evolutionary left over from back when we were with gorillas and looking them in the eye caused them to charge at you, I just try and avoid looking like I’m purposefully looking down but it’s just the direction my eyes go when I notice what’s in my vision or am slapped in the face because I didn’t realise breasts were in my vision I look to the side, I must keep doing this I hate looking at breasts even when I’m just being shy and not realising I’m looking at breasts. (is this the site I come up as sodomuffin?)

    1. Andiemus

      I have that trouble. I look over their shoulder, but I’m pretty tall so it’s hard to tell anyway since I’m just looking down.

      1. Raoullefere

        I look people right in the eye. But I’m told many people fear I’m about to charge them. I never connected the two before.

  26. Kiboxful

    lol =)

  27. Pyr05

    If ‘Jurassic Park’ taught me anything, it’s that you have to watch what’s moving rather than the eyes. If not… well, you just may end up raptor pack meat.

    1. Effie

      Clever girl.

      1. LuckyStar7

        That is the creepiest Gravvie I have ever seen.
        Commenting that is making it worse.

  28. gangler

    People say you’re supposed to look at the eyes because the eyes are what express emotion. Pretty sure they don’t actually do that at all.

    1. begbert2

      Says the person with the glaring gravatar.

      It’s not the orbs themselves, silly. It’s all those flapping folds and muscles directly around them.

      1. TheLastOutlaw

        Truth. The way people look (or don’t look at you) during a conversation speaks volumes.

      2. gangler

        The surrounding facial muscles are certainly a component of nonverbal communication, but I’m moderately confident that even they are not a channel outside of communication continually displaying the emotional state of the individual, which is what many people seem to feel the eyes to be.

        1. Valdrax

          Actually, the eyes are a really good indicator of what’s going on in someone’s head because many of the muscles in and around the eyes are far more subject to unconscious control than conscious control. The old “windows to the soul” may be overstating things, but eyes give away a LOT, and most people are unknowingly good at picking up on what a person’s thinking from their eyes. (Humans are amazing at facial recognition.)

          For example, muscles around the eye are a great telltale of whether or not someone is faking a smile. Lens focus and pupil dilation can tell you a person’s alertness and arousal. Unconscious flickers of motion in the eye are a good way to detect discomfort and lies.

          Etc.

        2. gangler

          Fascinating. Never heard it explained like that before. That actually makes a lot of sense.

  29. Jack Faire

    Maybe it’s my ADD but I have always watched people’s mouths when they are speaking too because that is what is moving and thus that is what has my attention. It’s easier to understand them then when they mumble.

  30. HeatPhoenix

    Looking someone in the eye while talking is also showing your confidence and mutual respect.

    Body language people, we don’t get to choose how it works.

    1. Kryss LaBryn

      Except the meaning of it (like making eye contact) varies from culture to culture. Not even a nod is universal (although smiles are).

      1. thomas0comer

        Amongst animals baring teeth is a sign of aggression.

  31. Cheredarenee

    …does Dina have undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome?

    1. Arkadi

      Quite likely. She seems to fit the bill.

  32. CC

    Oh Dina… 🙁 Raidah you’re a jerk

  33. Akahane

    *ahem* I am here to inform you that this is the best comments section ever.

    1. LuckyStar7

      SANKIES!
      (^^)/*\(^^)

    2. Jehosaphat

      Well, thanks for that… Now I want to ruin it.

      You’re welcome. http://is.gd/P8KS1Z

  34. Charles RB

    Dawwwwwww, Amber and Dina

  35. ryan

    dina looks at people’s mouths when they talk not because of japanese heritage, but because her visual acuity is based on movement, like t-rex.

  36. Jimmy

    At 30 I still struggle with making eye contact. Not sure why just something I never grew up doing very much and it’s hard for me to focus.

  37. Effie

    I once read in a highly scientific periodical that when one looks at someone else’s lips it is indicative that one wants to kiss that person.

    Okay fine it was cosmo. But still. It’s nice to imagine that Dina is thinking about kissing amber in the second to last panel. XD

    1. Kryss LaBryn

      Really? With me it just means I can’t hear you properly. XD

    2. Amphankh

      Hardly true. I look at someone else’s lips because it’s the equivalent of interpretive real-life captioning.

  38. Cybersnark

    I tend to look at peoples’ hands, since that’s where the attack usually comes from.

    1. Jason

      So says Ruth.

  39. lordphulish

    The trouble I have is that you can’t look into both eyes at once, unless you focus on the space between the eyes, and then it looks like you’re staring through the person. So then which eye do you look at? How do you choose?

    1. Tan

      Your problem is not with eye contact, it is with personal space. You are standing way too close.

      1. begbert2

        Or not close enough – at the proper distance you see their right eye with your left eye and vice versa, with the two images merging to form a single uni-eye to your view. (As an added bonus, at this distance you can lick their nostrils if you want.)

  40. chaotoroboto

    People with Autism are often taught to look people in the mouth when they speak, because it improves their understanding during a conversation. We have a bunch of customers who are on the spectrum and I’ve gotten used to it. Like I know if the autistic customers are looking me in the eye, they’re not paying attention.

  41. Bill

    I just focus on the right eye. I get confused with a friend of mine who has a wondering right eye.

  42. Sarghi

    But, I’m half deaf, how else will I know what someone is saying? It has to be more rude to keep asking “what was that?” and make people think I just am not paying attention.

    1. boomchuckpixyniki

      I am, too. I’ve avoided wearing hearing aids thus far, but they’re in the very near future. I read lips, but I also read eyes. That helps me a lot with clarifying meaning–not just sound. What throws me off, though, is when I’m teaching in a classroom (and not online, as I have been for the past two semesters) and a student comes up with a question having nothing to do with the current topic of conversation. Not having context coupled with the hearing impairment keeps me from being able to fill in the audible gaps.

  43. 13thprotector

    Well, social messes are hard to get over, but all you gotta do is get a hang of being around people, if you have to, subtly mimic them to have a better understanding.

  44. AY

    Coincidentally, my fibers studio is taught by a Japanese woman. When she mentioned being Japanese, she pointed at herself, but she explained the custom and said that usually a lot of the students seemed confused, because they think she’s just pointing at her nose.

  45. Riku

    Dina is so adorable

    Also they’re perfectly set up for some spontaneous making out in those panels… juuust saying

  46. halcyon1234

    “How did you overcome you awkwardness?”
    “I became a superhero”
    “…….. need a sidekick?”
    ENTER DinoKick!

  47. Aaron B.

    Dina is so precious. I want to put her in my pocket and take her everywhere.

  48. Luke

    It’s official: I’m a redneck man-Dina, except it’s guns and World War II… everything instead of Dinosaurs.

    …Mandina sounds like a tropical island chain in the South Pacific.

  49. Pingback: Asperger Syndrome in a Nutshell | FunBlog

  50. Descolada

    Well, I don’t know about other people, but I have to look at a persons mouth more or less in the event my hearing cuts out and I need to be able to understand what they’re saying without pointing out that I can no longer hear them. Even with conditions like mine getting some recognition on tv, people think that you can either hear all the time, or you’re deaf all the time, and its just not true.

  51. Jay Carr

    Hmm, from the evidence is far…I’d say Dina is dealing with Aspergers Syndrom. Basically an inability to read peoples social cues (emotions) as expressed through body language. That would explain why she stands in socially odd places and does socially strange things (with Aspergers, you can’t receive social feedback easily because most social feedback is given through body language, and Aspergers means the center of your brain that processes body language is not functioning. So it’s very hard to receive social feedback. As a result, you never feel the embarrassment or shame that causes the rest of us to conform to social norms. So you become…awkward. Though, ironically, you never feel awkward yourself.)

    It would also explain why she is looking at Ambers mouth. If she can’t process body language then the muscles movements around Ambers eyes would be of no interest to Dina. So she would look at the only motion that has any meaning to her: the motion of Ambers mouth.

    It’s just a guess, but I hope its true. Aspergers is not a widely understood difficulty and it would be great to see Willis shed a little more light on the subject.

    Granted…I could be wrong.

    1. DT

      I have Aspergers, the legit kind not the “I’m a dick on the internet and I self-diagnosed so be nice to me while I’m being a dick!” kind.

      And I see that in her too. I was actually coming on to try and discuss this, but you’ve said it in a much better way than I ever could have.

      I don’t know if it’s Willis’ intention but the way she’s portrayed feels like a real case of the Aspergers… not some sort of Rain Man/Mercury Rising “Hollywood Autistic” kind…

      1. Jay Carr

        Only time will tell I suppose…

        But yeah, I agree, it would be nice to see an honest treatment of the condition. It’s so misunderstood right now… And yeah, far too many seem to self diagnose themselves so they can use it as an excuse. Not cool. While I am not Aspergers myself, I do have ADHD and I deal with the same issue. Some people self diagnose themselves as an excuse and then go around using said excuse to get away with acting like a jerk. Meanwhile those of us with legitimate needs are having our reputations tarnished…

        So, yeah, for the sake of those affected by Aspergers (like yourself) I hope Willis can treat the subject honestly. It never hurts to broaden peoples understanding of a real psychological difficulty.

  52. Daibhid C

    I spent my entire young adulthood being told “There’s no secret manual to life everyone’s seen but you. No instinct for social situations that you’re lacking. No-one really knows what to do, they just fake it”, and kept thinking “BUT HOW DO THEY KNOW HOW TO FAKE IT?”

    1. DarkVeghetta

      Sad to say this is the kind of bad advice that keeps poping up, and it really confuses the crap out of someone that lacks a part of the basic ‘obvious’ social cues and/or understanding of certain social expectations.
      Thankfully most of us are damn curious so many many questions later we might get an answer that explains it in the proper non-assuming light. If we’re lucky to have who to ask that is.
      And yes, there is a manual – most everyone red it before they where born except YOU. Enjoy. >.>

  53. Kernanator

    Clearly Dina is a Tyrannosaurus.

    1. Marshall Erickson

      Because she only sees what is moving?

  54. JohnColburn

    A lot of people mentioning Asperger’s, so I just want to add:

    For a really long time I thought I might have asperger’s; I fit a lot of the typical behaviors really well, and a couple of times other people suggested it might be my problem.

    In the end, it turned out that wasn’t actually my problem; My complete lack of social grace was actually a symptom of ADHD. It’s not that I couldn’t pick up on social cues or had any particular difficulty understanding people or their expectations; I just couldn’t focus well enough to pick up on any of it. I came across as rude an insensitive because I was usually too distracted to pick up on people’s expressions and body language, not because I couldn’t interpret those things when I did notice them.

    Not that Dina couldn’t/shouldn’t have Asperger’s, just that there are a lot of disorders/conditions that can lead to serious social dysfunction. Some of them are in the autism spectrum, and some just have the potential to cause social problems.

    In other news, these sorts of problems make games with a “Charisma” attribute seem somewhat less shallow. Charisma isn’t about charming and beautiful versus rude and ugly; it’s about being able to understand people versus having some problem that makes it hard.

    1. DT

      The very narrowly focused interest (dinosaurs) suggests Aspergers more than ADHD, though.

      1. DarkVeghetta

        Fact that there seem to be plenty of ‘normal’ questions/problems/issues she has never considered, despite what seems like methodical self-reflection and high intellect, gives further credence to Aspergers. ‘Obvious’ things coming as revelations at 20+ seems to fit on the autism spectrum nicely.

  55. Pingback: Dumbing of Age - “Breast Mode”

  56. TheOtherDibbler

    YES. I hate looking at people in the eye, it’s creepy. Looking at the mouth makes so much more sense, because that’s the thing that’s moving, and is where the important word sounds are coming from. This admittedly is also why I sometimes stare at random people, because they’re the thing that’s moving within my line of sight.

    1. DarkVeghetta

      Agreed, minus staring at strangers (dislike looking at unfamiliar people for more the a brief glance… feels weird to me).

  57. Gram91

    I gotta admit that my vision trails off to a person’s mouth momentarily as I’m having a conversation a lot of times.

  58. zombody

    SO MUCH AUTISTIC DINA
    THERE IS NO HEADCANON
    IT IS FLAT OUT CANON
    ALSO SHE IS DINOSAUR!NEPETA

  59. RandomPerson12

    Dina makes a good point, why DO we look people in the eyes instead of the mouth?

    1. DarkVeghetta

      I had NO idea why for YEARS. Turns out most people can judge emotion by looking you in the eye… somehow. I have yet to grasp how this works, but it turns out that because of it, not looking into someone’s eyes while talking to them is considered rude/aloof/jerkish. These are things that come naturally to most, but to those like me and Dina… not so much. Took me 28 years to ‘get’. At least most of it. I still don’t know quite how you’re supposed to judge emotion by eye contact yet – I say that mouth/facial muscles are far more telling and easier to read.
      Good for Dina to have learned about this phenomenon when she did.

  60. DarkoNeko

    That’s absolutly adorable.

  61. BrokenEye, True False Prophet

    She can’t see you if you don’t move

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