190

Nearby
Posted on March 8, 2021 by David M Willis
The newest Dumbing of Age bonus strip is about NINJATITAN and is now available to all patrons of the Dumbing of Age Patreon!  Go check it out!  Or better yet, pledge up to also read tomorrow's strip today!

190 thoughts on “Nearby”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    was it Pro Ass Fishing

    or Genital Jousting

    1. Doctor_Who

      Now, I could open that link in a private tab so that I never have to worry about something called “Genital Jousting” showing up in my browsing history, but I’m not sure how to also keep it out of my Brain History.

      1. Switchchris23

        It is a legitimate game on Steam, a Comedy game. you can probably find videos of it on youtube.

        1. Sunny

          It even has a story mode.

    2. CC

      Asher is hallmates with yandev

      1. Br44n5m

        BURN!

      2. Delicious Taffy

        Damn, you didn’t have to kill ‘im.

      3. Gon

        I came here for this joke, and I’m satisfied

    3. Deanatay

      *insert smartass remark about joysticks here*

    4. Demoted Oblivious

      I don’t know about those ones, but I sure miss making video games. Medication is a real damper on that. Remembering why I’m not involved then kills things completely.

  2. Sirksome

    Meh. College is a scam anyway. It mostly for networking than actually teaching you anything.

    1. Regalli

      I mean you also can’t network if you’re perpetually staying in your room to masturbate.

      Either way this is the most sympathetic Asher has ever been in a strip, by far.

      1. Doctor_Who

        You can if you have an OnlyFans!

        1. Delicious Taffy

          That’s a lot of debt to take on when you could just do that from home instead.

        2. RowenMorland

          But then you’d be lying about being a sexy college co-ed, and I don’t think anyone would.

      2. William Leonard Reese Jr.

        I don’t know. Found him to be pretty sympathetic when he was blackmailed into helping Blaine.

      3. Sirksome

        He said “hallmate” if he’d said “roommate” I might’ve felt bad for him.

        But yeah he’s being an okay boyfriend right now, but he’s also not being blackmailed. It’s easy to be a decent guy when times are good. We’ll see how he is when the drama starts to kick up again. As soon as Daisy has Jennifer write an article exposing Indiana based organized crime we’ll know where Asher really stands.

        1. Regalli

          Oh, yeah, misread. Nah, I do feel for him being in a situation where he had to steal money to try and get away from his family and then almost immediately got drawn back in due to one of his grandfather’s stooges going full supervillain, with all the bad ideas that implies. I’d like the kid to be able to get out. I’m not sure I think he’ll be able to, and no matter what him being implicated in a murder and kidnapping that ended lethally aren’t great, but if he was willing to steal tuition money so it didn’t have strings attached that’s a sign he did sincerely want out. Like Faz, I’m not certain what options he practically had.

          But when I read it as roommate, I went ‘well damn’ and thought it was funnier to say this was his most sympathetic.

        2. BBCC

          He definitely was sincere about wanting out. Blaine mentioned grandpa was still upset about it.

        3. thejeff

          On the other hand, his plan for getting out of the life of crime still involved stealing a bunch of money, so …

        4. Zach

          Care to suggest an alternative?

          Ratting out his family would be safer, you suppose?

          I doubt stealing from people he fears was his first choice.

        5. thejeff

          Oh, I don’t know. Plenty of people find ways to go to college without stealing tuition. Most of those ways suck, but they’re also not crimes.

          If you want to get out of a life of crime, perhaps you could do it by not doing crimes.

    2. Nono

      To be fair, it’s also very good at teaching you that education is useless if you don’t network.

      1. BarerMender

        Shit. I didn’t know about the networking part.

        1. Needfuldoer

          I went to night school specifically to learn networking!

          I forget how to calculate IPv4 net masks manually, but I can still fumble my way around Cisco, Brocade, and Aruba gear.

        2. BBCC

          Lots of business programs will teach networking too.

    3. BBCC

      Sounds like someone had some useless profs. 😛 Mine were pretty great, so I can’t complain too much, though we likely went through different education systems so I might not be able to comment much. I know jack and shit about American universities.

      1. BBCC

        And even less about non-American universities outside Canada.

      2. Regalli

        I had some really great professors in college, but that hasn’t translated to getting a job, which is what college is usually sold as a stepping stone for.

        Which is as much the fault of the job market as anything else, but when you consider college as A Thing You Do For Better Pay (and early adult independence in a more controlled environment) and not wanting to learn more for the sake of learning, yeah, undergrad doesn’t really help you much in a lot of cases.

        1. Regalli

          * In the US, I should clarify.

        2. BBCC

          Makes sense. There’s a lot going into that job market, like folks not being able to afford retirement.

      3. Anna

        Yes, I didn’t study in the US, my studies were partly great, I learned a lot about doing research and analysing things; they were cr*p for getting a job; and they were cr*p for networking. I don’t regret them as such, as thankfully where I studied universities aren’t expensive to go to, but I do wish I’d had time for a second degree in some other field.

        1. Anna

          Oh God how did I get Asher.

        2. King Daniel

          jealous

        3. Common sense

          could be worse, could be booster.

        4. BBCC

          It sounds like they were trying to train you for academia more than anything else, yeah. My history degree was much the same – which I suppose makes sense, many people do go into academia from history, but it isn’t fun if your goal is to go into museums or something else. We had lots of departmental events for networking though. My MLIS did lots of theory but also lots of practical projects and group assignments so that helped with networking a little (and again, events) and learning to do things related to the job.

      4. Eric

        My thoughts, too. If you didn’t use the opportunity to learn, you wasted your money.

    4. Jamie

      As a transfer student, I gotta say my community college time was way more educational overall than my R1 university time. In, like, book stuff and shit. OTOH, I learned a lot more people-stuff at university just because I got pushed into stuff like being a team lead, learning why you don’t promise indefinite support for a project you’re not being paid for, some tutoring, etc.

    5. Zaxares

      It depends… For some careers like medicine or law where you do ABSOLUTELY need to know specialized information in order to practice, college is mandatory. But for other careers? Some of them you can learn to do through on-the-job training. Others, as you point out, are largely about networking and schmoozing in order to land deals, and those don’t need formal education as much as you need a natural talent for reading people and knowing what to say to get them to like you. For the latter two job categories, you’d be better off with technical apprenticeships or in-house training, or just moving in the right social circles.

      1. Sirksome

        You’re right. There are certain careers you do need special training and education for. But personally speaking from my college experience and those of my friends the American university system seems more about gatekeeping access to those career paths behind a paywall.

        1. Otl1973

          Most careers that don’t require certification (medicine, law, usually education, some types of engineering, maybe some others) don’t generally require a related degree, but especially for people without demonstrated experience – meaning most just starting out – the degree offers some indication of at least a minimal level of relevant knowledge and (hopefully) ability. Also, it usually means the person has been exposed to the fundamentals, hopefully in a useful way. In my field (software), I’ve dealt with many people without a relevant (or in some cases any) degree, and while many of them could write code (sometimes pretty well), they almost never had the background to design systems or create things that could be extended or maintained by others. Having a proper foundation really does sometimes help…

        2. skartling

          Interesting. I do software (front end) and didn’t go to college for it and from what I’ve heard the degrees were generally horribly out of date. Also I’ve not ever met someone new to the job who knows how to keep things maintainable regardless of whether they went to college. Perhaps the degrees are better where you’re from.

        3. thejeff

          A good software engineering program will teach you algorithms and design that don’t really go out of date. The tools and languages used may well be, but the concepts won’t.

          It doesn’t really substitute for on-the-job experience, but that’s true the other way around as well.

      2. Ava-Ann

        Tell that to all the job postings requiring a BS or BA for data entry (and I’m referring to my own job, kind you)

    6. AbacusWizard

      Parts of college are a scam, but not the whole thing. Tuition is a scam. Textbook prices are a scam. Grades are a scam. Degrees are a scam. But actual classes and clubs can be awesome.

      1. Clif

        The math courses were worth it and the science courses could have been. Required courses were invaluable for learning to BS intelligently on demand. Computer lab access was important at the time and definitely worth it pre personal computer. Textbooks were definitely a scam, but learning to use a library and self-educate was priceless. Nowadays the Internet and Amazon Kindle with a touch of Youtube largely replace the library, but the process is the same. I got my money’s worth, but it was a lot cheaper back then. When I when back to grad school somewhere near the end of my working career, it was mostly paid for by Texas based on being a Vietnam era draftee. I didn’t regret it, but if I accumulated a huge debt at that point it might have been different.

        My expectation is that 2-year Community college will, sometime in the next decade, be available at tax-payer expense and will repay itself many times over in taxes paid from those that take advantage of it.

    7. Demoted Oblivious

      I’ve done three rounds of post secondary education. Two diplomas and a degree. Thus far they’re the only worthwhile things I’ve done as an adult. It’ll be three out of four if I ever finish building this house(home).

    8. Ob

      Education is basically a piece of paper that says “I was able to endure this torture for 4 years”. Many companies look for that kind of proof so they know the employee is capable of enduring their torture as well.

  3. Suet

    So it is a pullover.

    Thought it was just a shirt with a funky string.

    *Is it really code for that? Or is the hallmate just using Python?*

    1. Geneseepaws

      This is a question that is legit.

      1. Clif

        Snerk.

    2. hof1991

      Using python sounds like a euphemism too.

      1. Agemegos

        If it’s the pyjama python, certainly!

  4. RassilonTDavros

    As much as I don’t trust Asher, I do like that we’re getting some actual development of his character and his relationship with Jennifer.

    Otherwise it wouldn’t sting when it all inevitably comes toppling down.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Side note— does Asher’s design make anyone else think “Ash Ketchum, if he actually grew up?” I almost wonder if that was Willis’ intent.

      I should note I know next to nothing about Pokémon and have never actually watched the show because my parents thought it was too violent or something

      1. Regalli

        I mean maybe, but the thought of Ash Ketchum without a hat is just… wrong.

      2. BarerMender

        Oh, Pokemon. I thought Ash Ketchum must be a Dick Tracy character. Son of Sam, right?

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Son of Delia, to be specific.

        2. Casi

          possibly son of oak as well, if you believe the fan theories

        3. Regalli

          Nah, Oak’s the stepdad.

        4. Delicious Taffy

          In the third movie, Delia talks about an old friend of hers who looks suspiciously like Ash.

  5. Nono

    First instinct was to go ‘nooo Asher’s sabotaging Jennifer’s education’ but, wait, no, Jennifer’s doing it to herself. He just made reasonable suggestions.

    Then again, he did go ‘are you dropping the class? Are you? If so, we’ll get lunch!’, so, hmm.

    1. Suitora

      I think he meant that they could get lunch together on a regular basis. Not using lunch as a bribe.

    2. Bryy

      Yeah, Asher comes off as severely apathetic. Plus, not at all concerned about Billie’s mental state more than he is getting her to skip class.

      1. C.T Phipps

        Is there any reason to be concerned about her mental state? She seems sober and happy whenever she avoids her old friends.

        1. Bryy

          “I’m not bisexual anymore lol i got laid by a man”

        2. King Daniel

          Well, Jennifer never thought she was bisexual to begin with, to be “fair” to her.

        3. thejeff

          “I’m not bisexual, I just like girls sometimes like everyone does” is a different stance than “I really just like boys. The girl thing was just a phase.”

          Assuming that’s where she is now, which isn’t really clear.

        4. Demoted Oblivious

          As a guy I wish I could like guys too, instead of toxically, “just lik[ing] girls sometimes.”

          (n.b. nothing wrong with people in general, I just have a propensity to getting into hideously toxic relationship. And yeah, I know I’m the common theme. Been single for 6 years and counting. No sign yet of me being attracted to healthy normal people.)

        5. Edwin I Callahan

          If you read this strip regularly, you have reason to be concerned about the mental state of every single character.

        6. Needfuldoer

          This is the only correct answer I’ve seen so far.

      2. BBCC

        I’d argue she’s not skipping class, she’s considering dropping. It’s the first day of class. She can almost certainly get into another one at a different time slot.

    3. Regalli

      I mean, he may have already known this was The Class She Shares With Her Ex, doesn’t take much of a hunch for that to be Awkward. It’s early enough Jennifer can potentially still add a different class in place of this one (if she can find one with an opening and a teacher who’s cool with it.) Doesn’t have to be sabotaging her education to foresee the disaster and go ‘how about sushi?’

      1. Mr D

        He got a text to pick her up, I’m pretty sure she must have told him enough.

    4. Jamie

      Dropping gender studies isn’t exactly a huge blow to your education unless it’s a requirement for your major. Dropping a class on the first day is also a deliberate non-issue for every college I’ve ever seen.

      1. JenGen

        Yeah, this is kinda a non issue. You usually can get at least a week to drop a class and maybe even join another with no penalty at all

  6. Wagstaff

    Why is game development of all things a code word for such activity??!?!

    I ask again, WHY?

    1. Nono

      Something something joysticks.

      1. Deanatay

        You. You get me.

      2. Demoted Oblivious

        Button mashing, twiddling, flight yoke, peddals, combos, and then the really perverted stuff: boot-strapping, development enviroments, writing, syntax, words with special meanings, use cases, domain specific language, and most fun of all, delivering after compiling and a successful build process. (as always quality control can be done once it’s in the hands of the user)

    2. Geneseepaws

      “Python,” “Pearl,” “Co-ball.” Ok that one isn’t a solitary activity. Code monkey like Fritos, like Mountain Dew. Code monkey like you.

    3. DaveM

      As someone who was employed for almost 2 decades as a games programmer, and another decade as a non-games programmer (yes I’m somewhat old), I can confirm that metaphorically speaking “programming” is INDEED code for what some (incorrectly) refer to as “The sin of Onan”. It isn’t obvious until you look back apon it, but it is indeed a different manifestation of the same desire.

    4. 3oranges

      I don’t know, but I remember in university hearing someone mention they were making a video game, and someone else replying “yeah, isn’t everyone”.

      …And now I kind of wonder about it.

      1. Edwin I Callahan

        At one time, my youngest son was thinking about doing video game design. Based on what he said about it, 3oranges, you can take that statement literally.

  7. Kyrik Michalowski

    Jennifer clearly has her priorities set, and fast food clearly comes first.

    Also, her sudden hesitance about dropping out of the class makes me wonder if Ruth and her can be on good terms again.

    1. thejeff

      Can’t remember if McAwesome’s was one of the places Ruth fought with her about going to because they had booze.

      1. BBCC

        It’s the sushi place they fought over, yeah.

      2. Needfuldoer

        It’s also the place Becky, Dorothy, Joyce, and Walky went that one time.

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/ami/

  8. Jane

    Oh, so he has a “project” on SubscribeStar that he updates a couple of times a year, then?

  9. cmasta1992

    Well I wanted to give Asher the benefit of the doubt but kinda hard to defend the nudge he gave Jennifer there.

    1. C.T Phipps

      I dunno, he seems like he’s just being supportive.

      1. Zaxares

        That was my thought too. Skipping a single class (in favour of food) isn’t quite the same as dropping it entirely. Despite his words, it’s fairly obvious that one doesn’t need to drop a class entirely to get lunch early. He’s not wrong either; a single missed day isn’t likely to seriously affect your grade, especially in this day and age when you can e-mail your professor for study materials or just review the lecture online (this IS the age of Zoom classes, you know).

        I still don’t know if Asher has truly reformed himself from his early days and he was only dragged into Blaine’s scheme due to inescapable circumstances, but based on his recent interactions so far he’s definitely matured a lot. It just remains to be seen if he genuinely wants a complete break from his crime family, or if it’s something he’s willing to turn to now and again if things don’t go his way.

        1. C.T Phipps

          Well he’s an accessory to murder at best and actively a murderer at worst. That’s not something you can walk away from.

        2. JBento

          Nonsense, you can toally refuse the medal.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          Sure, in a fair and functional justice system.

        4. Zaxares

          We don’t know if Asher actually ordered the hit on Blaine though. For all we know he just went to his grandfather and said “Hey, did you know this guy is trying to blackmail me for his personal dirty stuff?” Crime families don’t tend to look kindly on that. Maaaaybe Asher could have said that knowing what the likely result would be, but still… Not the same as actually ordering the hit.

  10. Octopus Ink

    What ISN’T code for masturbation, these days?

  11. Stephen Bierce

    *plays “Pac Man Fever” on the P.A. speakers*

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      Wait, wait. Are those the Public Address or Penny Arcade speaker? Because, you know…

  12. C.T Phipps

    Poor Ash. You have already crossed the moral event horizon.

    No redemption or sweet glasses babe for you.

  13. BBCC

    Awww, this is cute. Good job, Asher and Jennifer.

  14. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    So. . . I actually find Asher, still odd to me that it’s spelled Asher instead of Ashur but whatevs, to be one of the more interesting side characters in the story so far.

    They seem to be . . .simultaneously a Knight of Cerberus and one of the more Morally Ambiguous members of the cast.

    A dick as a teenager, who did not retaliate and accepted that he deserved to be decked for what he did to Sal, who wanted out of the Mafia life (speaking of which is it ever specified what kind of group that is? Like Italian Mafia, Russian Mafiya, Triad, Tong, etcetera?) but upon being blackmailed for his familial connection. . . went along and then *used* those self-same connections to take revenge (either directly or by informing his Grandfather on Blaine’s actions).

    Like I find him SUPER interesting and I want to see what Willis ends up doing with him.

    1. Agemegos

      Asher, son of the patriarch Jacob, founder of the Tribe of Asher, is a different eponym than Ashur, grandson of Noah and forebear of the Assyrians.

    2. Mr D

      Korean Mafia apparently

    3. Yenklette

      Yeah, I think it’s easy to hate him because he’s been put in these really unlikable roles (Sal’s betrayer, dumb supervillain dad plotline stooge, Jennifer’s new relationship), but I kind of like him so far and don’t want him to just be, like, yet another Pure Evil Villain.

      I also kind of like that Jennifer’s being allowed to be bisexual and have a supportive relationship with a man. Does it suck that she’s basically going back into the bisexuality closet with it? Absolutely. But I don’t like the “bisexual women who date men are trading down” joke that people like to make. Men are fine, y’all are just biphobic.

      I shipped Ruth and Jennifer hard, but I’m not inherently against this yet.

      1. DrunkenNordmann

        I thought people had more of an issue with Asher being… you know, in some way connected to a literal mob hit, with him being a man.

      2. Suzi

        I also find the “bisexual ends up with a man means they’re denying their bisexuality” and the whole “She’s bi she doesn’t know it yet” thing I keep seeing problematic.

        First off, she never claimed or wanted to be bisexual. She identifies as straight with some exceptions, and we don’t need to push a label on anyone who doesn’t want it. Secondly, as a bisexual androgynous who views genders entirely equally, the whole “bisexuals want women but date men” thing is very popular right now and horribly biphobic. Despite what everyone wants us to believe, there is very little difference between genders when it comes down to it, and ending up with one or the other doesn’t erase someone’s identity. But Jennifer isn’t even doing that, as she never wanted or claimed to be bisexual or pan.

        1. thejeff

          She never identified as “straight with some exceptions”. She explicitly didn’t identify as bisexual, because that’s only in porn. She claimed to like women sometimes, like everyone does. She didn’t want to identify as normal, because that sounds bad, but it’s as close as she came to claiming an identity. The hint recently that makes us think this is when she described it as a “phase”. Claiming to have gone through a phase where she was attracted to women is very different than claiming certain women are exceptions to her normal straightness. (To be fair, it’s not entirely clear that’s what she meant, but it’s the text we’ve got to work with.)

          Being in denial about your orientation is also a thing. “Compulsory heterosexuality” fits her behavior better than “Straight with exceptions”.

          Now, if she was identifying as bi, but dating Asher, that’s fine. It might even be that she’s mostly straight with a few exceptions, but that doesn’t fit well with her past descriptions.

    4. Thag Simmons

      Yeah he’s been an interesting character so far. Lot of potential

  15. ReFlex76

    Looks like Asher’s upgraded to Subtle Manipulation.

    1. C.T Phipps

      My contrasting view is Asher is 100% sincere and is doing his best to live a “normal” life by running away from the mob to be in college. However, he can’t escape his past.

      He must face Darth Grandpa alone.

    2. JenGen

      How??? He knows his girlfriend had a rough time cause of an awkward situation with an ex and is trying to help her take her mind off of it. She already left the class, no point in coming back in halfway, especially on a syllabus day

      I’m not saying Asher’s my favorite by a long shot, but I don’t think he’s manipulating Jennifer to drop Gender Studies.

      Besides, even if she does drop it I doubt it’s a core class for her major, a similar class that fills the same requirement can easily be added at sole point (if not this semester then another). As long as she’s taking the amount needed to stay full time not having a full load won’t doom her, especially freshman year

      1. KiaStirling

        Plus if she’s gonna drop it at all better to do it week 1 when she can get a refund and maybe get in a different class still.

  16. Mr D

    Can I mention just how weird american universities are from my PoV?
    As I understand it, you need to accumulate “credits” to get your degree? And as long as you get the classes for your career choice the rest of the credits are irrelevant?
    Like, that seems like a good way to get a wide but shallow education IMO.

    In my country, you don’t choose “major and minor” or whatever, You get a career education. “I’m studying to be a lawyer” means you only get classes relevant to lawyering. First years get, for example, introduction to roman law, Economics I (because you need to learn how to handle your money and know what your work is worth), Language I (Spanish in this case), Foreign Language (Usually English or French), Philosophy I…

    1. Deathjavu

      It’s a bit more involved than that. There are general education requirements that have to be met by any major. The within-major classes will have some options but will definitely require some “depth” with more complex, subject specific stuff.

      Only getting taught stuff for your career seems like an easy way to churn out a lot of idiot-savants who are clueless outside their profession, but I suppose that’s what all the school before college is supposed to be for.

    2. Uly

      Yes, American schooling from kindy upwards prioritizes breadth over depth. Students aren’t expected to specialize too early.

      1. Otl1973

        That depends on the field. My younger one was a music major, and that had so much “in field” requirements (like 4 years of music theory) that you basically had to specialize from the start or you wouldn’t finish in 4 years. Yes, there were also gen ed requirements and room for non-music electives, but you couldn’t just take an assortment of things and expect to graduate.

        1. Uly

          In some systems, your younger one would’ve been on a specialized track before leaving high school, or even middle school. (American grade lumpings, you may have to translate for other countries.)

    3. BarerMender

      American schools at least pretend to give us an education. My take is I didn’t go to school to get a job. I went for the education. I majored in math without ever intending to work in the field. Minored in French, English, and Botany because I wanted to. I was happy with the results.

    4. Loki

      That depends on the field of study. German CS student here. I think it’s fairly common in CS to have a minor (comprising about 1/8 of your whole degree in my case). And it can be, for example, medicine. So by the time you are done, you will have a basic understanding of anatomy, and if you later work for a company producing medical imaging devices, you will know what they are asking you to do.

    5. khn0

      Since the Bologna process back in 1999, the whole EU university system IS also a credit system. This was the point of many protests in many EU countries (especially Austra I don’t know why). ECTS was first thought as a way to facilitation acceptation of foreign students from the EU in EU universities, but very soon it morphed into actually affecting the programms, and a way to force privatization of universities fundings. That you get any control for credits and what you can do with them is a matter of finding the adequate university.

      By the time I got to the university, “Maîtrise” (highschool + 4) was the highest before taking the path to doctoring. When I left it, my Licence (+3) was already being threatened by +5 Master which replaced +4 Maîtrise with same content in fewer years, sinking the value of other diplomas. I left with certainty to be able to candidate for any public job as the law stated it, but few years after, you had to get a +4/+5 to candidate for some of them… So yeah, credit system is what changed my education’s status for the worse.

    6. Thulcandran

      It’s got downsides, but the breadth is supposed to be for a well-rounded education where you have skills in, say, effective writing/reasoning, critical thinking, interpreting texts, etc., evenif your career plan is “get a business degree and work for my dad until I inherit the company.”

      I’m biased towards it, because if students weren’t required to take the surveys I TA for, they’d graduate college without ever hearing about, say, the Colfax Massacre or the lynchings of Chinese workers in their own very liberal city or that there absolutely were LGBTQ people aaaaaaall the way back, not just post 1880, with sources. And I’m real tired of “why do I need to know humanities to build a tech startup – WHOOPS we reinvented tenements!”

      1. Regalli

        Yeah, there’s value in STEM people having a basic understanding of How Humans Usually React, not How They Should Logically React, and humanities people having a basic understanding of scientific literacy. The US public school system is… not always the best in instilling these things in students. A broad education in that respect is useful. You also need it to look at the watered-down bullshit that makes up our standard curriculums and go ‘yeah, THIS is overly simplified, and this is just a flat-out lie but textbook publishers tailor their books to a very specific subset of the population, and while we’re at it let’s explore why that is and how it impacts society at large.’

        If you go for a Master’s degree or doctorate, those are usually specific in the way Mr D is describing – though I believe there’s still room for choosing a niche, in some broader programs.

        1. Thulcandran

          Yep, exactly. An advanced degree is about becoming a master of that discipline specifically, though even then you can wind up doing a couple external things – my degree is in History, but I’ve been doing linguistics for that (and Jason might’ve been taking pedagogy classes on the side, if his department would fund them).

        2. BBCC

          Yeah, my MLIS was entirely in library science classes. We got to pick between a handful of classes but it was still all library science.

      2. Geneseepaws

        Thulcandran: or workers being owned by the Company Store, of working 100 hours a week – straight hourly pay- no overtime, while paying for your own room and board.

      3. Mr D

        You see, while I understand that necessity in a place like the US, where education is, let’s say, not ideal sometimes (such as refusing to teach evolution or hiding atrocities during your history classes?), at least in my country the 12 years of regular schooling are meant to give us the bare minimum.

        In fact, in college we only have general education classes in the first year, and over 75% of students test out of them, since they are for people who are coming to college in their 30s or 40s to review.

        1. Thulcandran

          Oh! Yeah, if you actually fund K-12 education, it’s way less necessary.

        2. Regalli

          Yep. And have curriculums that aren’t tailoring themselves to Not Offending White Christian Parents, which tends to be how you get textbooks trying to soften the Atlantic slave trade. (They, at least, are specifically tailoring themselves to not offending the Texas Board of Education IIRC.)

          A great public school teacher will work around those limitations, but you’re just as likely to get That One Teacher Who’s Been Around For Forty Years And Keeps Threatening To Retire But Never Does, who can’t teach the material worth a damn because he spends too much time blowing up at the students who don’t respect him whatsoever. (… Unfortunately, real example. I walked out of the second semester of Algebra II understanding less than I did before.)

        3. Uly

          So you don’t really know anything about the US educational system, got it, but you’d like to cast aspersions.

          You need to think of each state as having its own educational system. Once you do that, you’ll rapidly find that some states, such as Massachusetts, score very well on international tests, routinely coming in the top ten or the top five – and other states, like Mississippi, just don’t. Average it all together and the US looks middling at best, but it’s a mistake to do that.

        4. Thulcandran

          I do, actually. I’ve TA’d in two states and was educated in a third, and I’m actually a big fan of a system that gives a well-rounded education to incoming students regardless of whether they were privileged to go to school in Salem or went through New Bedford. The secret to high test scores in NE is that states (Massachusetts and Connecticut at least, and though it’s not technically New England, New York is the same) have absurdly wide income-based disparities in education, and they count on the privileged scores to balance out the rest.

        5. BBCC

          I believe they were talking to Mr. D, who isn’t American, not you.

        6. Uly

          I was talking to Mr. D, but also – you seriously think India and China are testing all their students? No, they’re testing a select group, and it’s the same in lots of places that score well on those international rankings.

        7. Thulcandran

          I apologize – I was on my phone and tried three times to be sure I could tell who you were replying to, but apparently failed. And yeah – testing only the privileged is a tried-and-trie strategy plenty of places.

        8. Deathjavu

          Let’s get real about this, everyone’s curriculum is hiding their atrocities and massacres, for the obvious reason that the survivors – i.e. the perpetrators – are the ones writing the history books. If you think you’re the special exception….no. You’re not.

        9. Uly

          Indeed. The only way you get out of it is if you’ve always been so powerless that you were the one all the atrocities were perpetrated against – and if that’s the case it’s amazing you can write your own history books in your own language to begin with!

    7. CJ

      When I went to university pre-bologna, nobody cared if I showed up to lectures. In one of the years of student’s stike (I think those were against Bologna changes to studying) one lecturer asked people who hadn’t been attending if they really though it a good idea to try the exam without attending and we all just shrugged and said yes. I taught myself what I needed for the exam in four weeks with a really good textbook.
      It was different for lab courses, you needed to pass at least 2/3 of the tasks or sometimes all of them, so not attending wasn’t an option.
      But then, when I first watched American lectures on ITunes U, those lectures actually seemed to have the intention of interacting with students, not a lecturer rambling to himself. To me, it always seemed like in Germany, it’s not too much of a problem getting into an university, but actually passing is all on you, because they need to lose 30-50% of students before the higher-lever courses start anyways, whereas the American universities are hard to get in, but once you are in they actually have an interest in you passing with good grades.

    8. Daibhid C

      The UK has a weird mix: there’s no major and minor, but there’s “optional” classes you can choose between. It’s assumed that these optional classes will be vaguely related to the degree course, but if you’re an idiot, you can make a completely left-field choice without checking the schedule, and then be surprised that you sometimes have to be in two places at once, because nobody thought of making sure Celtic Civilisation was compatable with a BSc in Physics.

      (And then it turns out that you’re an undiagnosed dyscalculic whose physics career is going to collapse messily, but not too bad at the whole Celtic Civ thing. Unfortunately, you have no idea how to turn that into a degree, or even if you actually want to.)

    9. Liquid Len

      It can depend on the university though, and certainly the field of study. I wend to a school with a large Engineering program (Biomedical Engineering degree for me), so the credits were really divided into 3 major categories: basic courses (like all engineering students took basic calculus, physics, chemistry, etc., with many lab courses) major specific courses (for me, like strength of materials, advanced math, feedback systems, anatomy and physiology), and then your electives (I did a concentration in history).

  17. Deathjavu

    Cast and commenters alike are getting awfully excited about dropping/not dropping a class on the first day. Until I got to junior year 90% of the first days were just reading the syllabus…and usually the drop deadline is a few weeks into the semester. (Which means they have a few years to make up their minds).

  18. Rani

    …ok, I didn’t before, but now I buy it.

    Also are people seriously thinking Asher was serious about bribing Jennifer with lunch? Or that first day drops of a college course over a bad ex are abnormal? Who are you people?

    1. Scruffy looking nerfherder

      It’s a tale as old as time. People don’t like/trust a character so they try to infer everything they do as some sort of intrisinically evil action to justify continued hatred. Same thing happened with Raidah when she dared to commit the atrocity of not liking another person trying to flirt with and actively steal her boyfriend very openly.

      Makes him easier to dislike if he’s a mustache twirling villain secretly manipulating her for reasons unknown than he’s just genuinely being a supportive boyfriend trying to help his girlfriend in a situation that clearly made her uncomfortable.

  19. DailyBrad

    Maybe it’s a game about whacking off.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Silent Hill?

  20. Otl1973

    I’m not from a cold place, so have little experience with snow. But it appears that Asher must be wearing gloves (or his hand were damaged in an industrial accident…) while Jennifer appears to not be. Is that reasonable in that weather?

    1. King Daniel

      Depends on exactly how cold and one’s level of cold-tolerance, I’d say. It could be plausible.

    2. Rabid Rabbit

      If you look at the backgrounds, in the first panels they’re still inside: Asher just didn’t take his gloves off. In the last panel, Jennifer may have pulled her gloves on, we just can’t see — though she has clearly put her hood up, and Asher’s put a scarf on.

    3. Sam

      Any choice is reasonable depending on your exact tolerance level for cold considering some people wear shorts in snow and rain. I never wear gloves but other people will always wear gloves.

      Also, Asher rides a motorcycle and gloves tend to be recommended for that in case of accidents because if you’re falling off a bike that was moving at high speed, your hands will get shredded to a degree if you don’t have protection. That’s also why leather jackets and stuff are recommended too.

    4. Needfuldoer

      We know he’s a motorcyclist, and that jacket looks like riding gear. He probably just hasn’t bothered taking his gloves off since they’re already warm anyway.

      Boots, gloves, jacket, helmet, pants. All The Gear, All The Time.

  21. Bagge

    Seems like a healthy, supportive couple.

    1. JBento

      Bringing the total in the strip to three. What is this well-adjusted madness?!

  22. Newllend(henryvolt)

    Either way I’m sure his roommate is playing hard.

  23. brionl

    “I’ll be in my bunk” is code for masturbation.

    1. Sombrero

      “I’ll be in my bunk busy making a videogame” is overkilling it.

  24. Varangian

    McAwesome’s? McAwesome’s is still canon?? FUCK you, McAwesome’s!

    1. RassilonTDavros

      I wanna say it’s a sushi place in the Dumbiverse?

      1. Thag Simmons

        That’s correct

      2. thejeff

        Oh. It’s the sushi place.

        Then it does have booze. Jennifer’s enthusiasm is more concerning now.

      3. Varangian

        It’s a sushi place IN HELL

  25. PB

    Hmmmmmmmm.

    That’s all I have to say about this for now.

  26. BenRG

    I don’t trust Asher but, here and now, he’s being a supportive boyfriend. If anything, I think that he should be more concerned about Jennifer’s attitude towards academics.

  27. Keulen

    I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to just skip every college class, and I still don’t trust Asher.

  28. Sunny

    Can we take the alt-text as confirmation that Willis is making a video game? And I don’t mean that as code for anything other than that a video game is being coded and developed.

    1. King Daniel

      Wasn’t a Willis-made video game the origin of some early It’s Walky! characters, plotlines, and/or artifacts?

      1. thejeff

        Probably. There definitely was such a game.
        I can’t remember how much it was the source of IW! stuff and how much it just used stuff he’d already come up with like IW! did.

  29. JBento

    Weird how absolutely NO-ONE was concerned about anyone’s academics when Jennifer and Ruth were telling each other to drop the class, but as soon as Asher goes, “eh, if you’re not attending then food?” potentially dropping an ELECTIVE IN THE FIRST DAY is irreparable damage to Jennifer’s academic career.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Yeah, I think his “decided to drop the class?” was a perfectly reasonable question given the context he had.

      I don’t think he has any ulterior motive in this particular moment, aside from “lunch with his girlfriend”, but I don’t completely trust him yet either. We haven’t seen much of him, but what we have seen has been a mixed bag.

      1. JBento

        She might even have told him that – we don’t know what the text she sent him said.

  30. Sombrero

    Don’t try to fool me, Willis, I still don’t like Asher.

  31. DarkoNeko

    i-is it ? Never heard of that euphemism lol

  32. Jhon

    And ‘Ninjatitan’ is a for real dino. Dang.

    1. Deanatay

      *Imagines Thanos wearing a fukumen*

      Nah, must be a dino.

      1. Eldritchy

        He is purple, by ork logic he is Invisible!

    2. Demoted Oblivious

      Ok, yes, yes, getting to _name_ a dinosaur is awesome enough on it’s own, but really, the people that went with “NinjaTitan” deserve a god-damn medal for making shit MOAR AWESOMER!

    3. Alaric

      Ninjatitan is named in honer of Argentine paleontologist Sebastián Apesteguía, whose nickname is “El Ninja”. I’ll bet Dina would know that.

      1. King Daniel

        And the “titan” part comes from it being a member of the Titanosaurs, the last of the ol’ long-necks (and among the largest).

        1. Demoted Oblivious

          Thank you Alaric and K.D.! The layers of Awesome are just stacking higher and through pressure are crystalizing the bits at the bottom, preserving and petrifying it. I knew titanosaurs were the largest sauropods but it’s still nice to put all the aspects of awesome together. This is a great story. My kids loved learning about Ninjatitan yesterday, telling them about ‘El Ninja’ today is icing on the cake.

  33. Rabisch

    Jennifer looks so happy♡. And she and Asher are a great good looking couple. Can’t wait for see how her plan to combine a date between Ruth and her editor will go.

    1. JBento

      I mean, she sheems to have convinced Ruth already, and convincing Daisy probably takes nothing mor than “she’s a girl who fucks”.

      1. Rabisch

        But is Ruth into Superheros roleplaying?

        1. JBento

          Just mention the Leafs record, and she’ll fly… off the wall.

  34. zee

    Aaaaa this is cute

  35. Liam

    I’m sad that my favorite ship is gone but this guy seems nice and now I just want Ruth to find happiness.

    As always I look forward to how this story plays out.

    1. Samantha

      Same its so wierd to see Asher being normal and even not an open asshole and even Sal was able to move past well their past this Is hard to know how to feel about I miss Ruth/ Jennifer(Billy)

  36. Council

    Mmmmmmmmmmm…suspicious eyes…

    ..nah, this is fine. They’re cool. Asher’s cool. Thus far. Watch your bum, Jen.
    TrustButVerify.jpg.

    1. JBento

      Is Asher not watching Jenniefer’s bum? Is he not a butt guy? Damn, now *I*’m suspicious of Asher.

  37. Ian Clark

    Asher seems to be a decent guy. I’m not sure why everyone is ragging on him for having Blaine killed, Blaine blackmailed him into unwittingly assisting in a plan that involved kidnapping and murder. It’s not even about what Blaine deserves, at some point it’s just a matter of self-preservation.

  38. bcb

    So, is this hallmate a character we know?

    1. Needfuldoer

      Maybe one of the background extras we saw in Amber’s comp sci class last semester.

  39. Ryan

    I demand an Asher’s roommate Slipshine called “Busy Making a Video Game”!

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