QoW Update - comic for 12/20

[Aeire]

Is now up

[Haesslich]

Gee, no wonder his brother is sullen and non-verbal.

They do sound like the type of family that it'd be cool to visit.... once. Just to say you did so.

[az]

Wow, I love you. This episode kicks ass. Intelligent and sexy.

I registered just to post this, but it took time and now I'm not first post

[Amoryl]

i'm almost begining to think he's not exactly the creep i accused him of. instead he's merely boring and likely somewhat self absorbed. i mean clearly kestral is boring of the convo in areas she has no understanding of nor interest in, yet that doesn't even slow him. personality wise, however, he's much like the annoying smart people i've known that try desperately to prove how smart they are by talking endlessly about things to people who don't understand any of it.

"i feel smarter by discussing Thermal Dynamics to a highschool drop-out bricklayer"

or in this case "i feel smarter by discussing complex math to a girl who works part time at a toy store with my YOUNGER brother"

[Sechen_Rob]

A friend of mine sent me a link to this, and it's kind of eery. I once had this exact conversation with a girl, even bringing up Godel's proof. It wasn't that I wanted to seem smart, but she commented that she already took calculus and didn't understand how there could be more math. I figured that this incompleteness argument would be something she would understand and that would demonstrate that there was more to mathematics.
Even so, I admit it was pretty stupid.

[ZotKitty]

Wait a tick ... Kestrel is a tech support person. She understands computers and "spinny disc movie players"* and everything else inside-n-out. How can she have that much trouble with math? Don't techies need to have taken a lot of it?

*You get three ZotKitty-points if you can identify the reference and post the link to it.

Also, is it me, or does she have a lock of hair right down the middle of her nose that's gotta be obscuring her vision?

I like Jack now. He seems a decent fellow, if a little nerdy, but that's not a bad thing.

[Sechen_Rob]

I've done a fair amount of tech support, and there isn't much Math involved usually. Working on electronics is like fixing a car: You just need to know how to fix a specific problem, you don't need to be able to build the whole machine. Tech support people are usually trained in common problems and how menu systems work, not math.

[Amoryl]

besides, thats why god invented calculators, and mathmatics programs

[Ambystoma4]

It depends on the degree.

CIS, Computer Information Systems, or MIS, Management Information Systems, depending on where you go to school, the highest math needed is College Algebra.

Computer Science degree from an Arts and Sciene college will have the highest math as Calculus 1.

CS from an engineering college will have Calculus 3, two units of physics, and one more math of your choice.

Most techs will have a MIS/CIS degree; programmers usually have a CS.


Kestral had the oppertunity to change the subject.
Just because some one has no clue about a subject it doesn't mean that they're not interested in trying to learn about it, and just because people work at a certain job doesn't mean that the aren't smart. People can teach themselves alot of things. Learning doesn't just happen in the classroom.

"Annoying Smart." No. He's not brow beating her or being condescending. He's just being geeky.

[Ambystoma4]

besides, thats why god invented calculators, and mathmatics programs

You have to know what you're doing to be able to use both; I have a special hatered towards mathmatical programs prcisely becasue of.

[HiFranc]

Welcome az and Sechen_Rob.

I think he's just mentioning it because he has nothing else to talk about. Even I'm a better conversationalist and I haven't been out out with a woman yet. All I'm saying is I'm not surprised he's single.

Zot, you're talking about the time when she got a call from an ignorant pig who demanded that he got a man as woman couldn't possibly understand technical stuff and she fixed it but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Ps.
I work in tech support and maths does come in useful: converting Kbits to KBytes and vice versa (bytes to KB and MB and vice versa etc) to help customers.

[GrassyNoel]

i'm almost begining to think he's not exactly the creep i accused him of. instead he's merely boring and likely somewhat self absorbed.

Kestrel doesn't think he's boring: "But do continue".

Better he talks all the time than tells Kestrel nothing about himself. Now she knows quite a lot. Whether it's good or bad, at least it rings true; why would he make that kind of stuff up? Anyway he could be rambling on and on because he's nervous and excited. Is that wrong?

[Winged Outlaw]

As an engineer, I loved this comic. There

[GabrielTane]

Wait a tick ... Kestrel is a tech support person. She understands computers and "spinny disc movie players"* and everything else inside-n-out. How can she have that much trouble with math? Don't techies need to have taken a lot of it?

*You get three ZotKitty-points if you can identify the reference and post the link to it.

Zot, you're talking about the time when she got a call from an ignorant pig who demanded that he got a man as woman couldn't possibly understand technical stuff and she fixed it but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Nope... I think Zot is talking about the time that Kes went to go puchase RAM at the local computer store and ended up traumatizing almost the entire sales staff. I posted the links to the three coms that dealt with it in the 12/15 Comic Discussion Thred (I think that's where I posted them).

Ok Zot... which one of us is right?

[HiFranc]

Winged, but it's a date. Apart from that you're right.

Gabe and Zot: and the lights go blinkey blinkey

[Kadharonon]

...


...my boyfriend is/was a math major. (just graduated) And does this all the time. And was part of what attracted me to him, because he starts talking about crazy math stuff, and I'm just starting college and it makes me want to take the classes I'd need to take to understand what the heck he's talking about.


...I love this comic.

[Auburn_Vixn]

i'm almost begining to think he's not exactly the creep i accused him of. instead he's merely boring and likely somewhat self absorbed.

Kestrel doesn't think he's boring: "But do continue".

Better he talks all the time than tells Kestrel nothing about himself. Now she knows quite a lot. Whether it's good or bad, at least it rings true; why would he make that kind of stuff up? Anyway he could be rambling on and on because he's nervous and excited. Is that wrong?

But he IS talking about himself. He's talking about his career, and he's justifying the fundamentals of it--very elegantly I may say. After all, Kestrel started him by asking "What's the point?" If someone said that about your career wouldn't you explain why you love it (especially if it was to a hottie on a date)?

I personally find it sexy when a man (or woman) talks about something that he is passionate about. It is important to note Jack is not really talking above her either. He's trying to explain things to her in a way she could understand--and the fact he is doing that yet still speaking to her (rather than speaking down at her) shows he doesn't think of himself as being more intelligent than her and that he thinks she's smart enough to learn it. After all, the truly brilliant men understand that their brilliance wasn't blessed on them at birth but was achieved through hard work.

My fiance talks with me like that sometimes (and vice versa). I'm an Animator/Web Designer and he's a Senior Electrical Engineer. As can be expected, he has an easier time understanding when I talk about work than vice versa (though he can't draw a straight line to save his life--LOL).

Sometimes, I have to stomp on his foot and remind him I'm not an Alpha Nerd like him and didn't even take Physics 101 in college. He doesn't mean to talk too much, but it happens when he's excited.

Overall, it is very interesting and fun to learn about what he does--and I love the way he beams when he gets excited about a project. I know he also appreciates having someone listen to him (who wouldn't--I sure do). After all, if you can't talk to your sweetie just a little about what's going in your livelyhood, it's a rather lonely and boring place to be.

[Telcontar]

Working towards a Ph.D. degree in CS, I still needed to read the comic twice (more slowly the second time) to follow it, but I got a good laugh out of Kestrel's sarcastic comment nonetheless :-)

Probably few people in real life would choose such a topic as a conversation starter, but a comic has to exaggerate a little - and it really does it so well that it *could* be real after all.

Having attended many conference talks, I know perfectly well what it feels like to be totally lost after the introduction to a topic you have previously never heard of - only to have to endure half an hour of the same while being unable to distract yourself in any way or walk away. (Of course the speaker tries to make it understandable to everybody, but you may just as well try to win the lottery.)

So I have sympathy for Kestrel ;-)

[ZotKitty]

I think Jack is doing really well explaining this to Kestrel - seems like he honestly wants her to understand.

In a related point: Gabriel gets two ZotKitty-points (but not three) for being nearly right ...

My reference was taken from Chris Battey's guest-strip of March 6, 2003:

http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20030306.html

[HiFranc]

I'm still new here. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Note to self: be careful about going through the archives: need food and sleep.

[HiFranc]

I started reading a few of the comics after the one posted by Zotkitty and shows that Kestral's been here before.

[GabrielTane]

I think Jack is doing really well explaining this to Kestrel - seems like he honestly wants her to understand.

In a related point: Gabriel gets two ZotKitty-points (but not three) for being nearly right ...

My reference was taken from Chris Battey's guest-strip of March 6, 2003:

http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20030306.html

Y'know... I was thinking about that comic but was too lazy to check it. I forgot that the last panel had her talking to a salesman. Meh. I still got 2 points! [/happy dance]

[Jeffro]

And so the plot thickens. A belated welcome to everyone to the QoW forums here. I'm an old lurker. Aeire, once again you astound me with your masterful usage of both the written and the unwritten, should be interesting to see where this leads.

[Parker]

I think y'all are totally overanalyzing this. To me just looks like he's making conversation. Besides, she asked him to continue.

Grammatical error! "Within the constraints of it's programming". "It's" should be "its".

[GabrielTane]

I think y'all are totally overanalyzing this. To me just looks like he's making conversation. Besides, she asked him to continue.

Grammatical error! "Within the constraints of it's programming". "It's" should be "its".

*blink... blink... SMACK*

No grammatical nit-picking! Bad Parker! Bad!

I know the Welcome thread mentions that proper grammer should be used, but let's not point out an apostrophy. I screw up "its and it's" all the time. Besides, I'm sure if Aeire was worried about it, the Grammer Nazi would have hollowed out his skull with a rail-gun. Or a BFG. Or any other fun kid's toy.