Had a friend who was very fond/proud of his Sinclair ZX81.
After i went over the schematic a few times (it was very clever – the RAM refresh signal was also the video synch signal) and figured out where the characters lived in ROM, i wrote a small program that uised PEEKs and POKEs to turn the characters upside down on the screen.
There was an article in this month’s Linux Pro magazine about emulating various systems under Linux… which made me go get out my file of Commodore 64 robotics projects. I’m sure the hardware locations are different, but it was nice to imagine I could re-build those robots.
Probably not. Don’t forget, she was burned to ashes and those mixed with clay to form a golem; all that seems pretty final. Maya might be able come up with something, but considering how her work tends to have serious unexpected consequences, I’m not sure letting her try would be a good idea.
It might be possible to reduce Jin – and Bud and Brandi, too – to impotence by reversing whatever it was that Tepoz did which restored the girls’ personalities after they were merged into the Chimera, then physically split apart. When they were all mentally mixed together they were apparently unable to take any action on their own. Still, that would be…bad. Not as bad as Jin unwittingly ripping the Earth to bits, but still, not good.
Actually, Jin isn’t seeing things; she’s just looking at all of us readers through the computer screen. She has that power, and Bud doesn’t. Note where Jin is looking in the first panel.
There’s a 9 Chickweed Lane strip that features Juliette and Edda gazing outward through the borders of several oddly-shaped panels making up the first half of the strip; the second half is a view from the other direction, quite a distance behind them, still staring out the “window”, and one of them says something like “Where did they all go?”
I’ll have you know I rarely read this comic expressionless!
There’s a character in the DrowTales comic who addresses the comic reading audience in regular dialogue (even occasionally making references to ‘next update’). All of the other characters think it’s a slice of her insanity.
It does feel more like she’s just “seeing people stare at her” (ala Vanilla Sky bar scene), but the “i’m so crazy i can actually see past the 4th wall” idea had dawned on me too (blame Chuck Jones. “PEOPLE!! AAAAAAAAH!” http://youtu.be/Gc2L_7m_4mI )
Actually I knew a psychiatrist who liked to ponder the idea that those with schizophrenia were simply sensitive to actual voices and such that others were simply deaf to. .. or maybe he was just screwing with me, IDK. XD
It would be hard to be a friend of a psychiatrist. You would never know when you were being used as a guinea pig.
The thing in the strip that gives away the fact that Paul wasn’t breaking the fourth wall is that the people’s faces have no expression. If Paul was breaking the fourth wall, they would have been smirking, grinning or laughing at Jin. It was close enough to breaking the fourth wall to be fun, though.
It would be ironic if it turns out the the things the schizophrenic sees actually exist and they just lack the capacity to perceive and understand what they see completely.
I seem to recall a comedian remarking about people who wander the streets talking to themselves. He suggested that perhaps that person is actually talking to a counterpart somewhere else in the world who is doing the same thing.
I’ve already put the link to that cartoon here 2x, and I don’t want to be accused of spamming. But yeah, advance to 6:45 for that scene.
Now if Jin poked someone and a spring popped out of their head and she said “SO? SHE’S MECHANICAL” maybe THEN it would be a nod to that looney toon. ^_^
People should watch the whole cartoon to get the full experience, though. I can spot several things that they did earlier that help set up the joke before they finally uncorked it. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t spot Peter Lorre, though. I’ve never seen him in a role quite like that, so that didn’t work quite so well with me. (I figured it out based on a comment.)
Nah. That’s not the creepy part. The creepy part is that she has delt with this for the past 6000 years… this time.
…and if her mother is supposed to settle her.. then how bad was she when she was manipulating everything and setting the course of the world? THAT is creepy.
Well, fortunately the calendar machine was running while she was manipulating everything during the many resets, and that controlled/fixed her little problem.
… but not perfectly. I remember another strip where Brandi said, “What we percieve as schizophasia…” I think the idea was that the machine could only compensate for so much stress on Jin and that the stress on Jin would get worse toward the end of the cycles. Fortunately she doesn’t have as much stress now, but what helped her is completely gone.
Schizophrenzia would seem to be the closest thing to what Jin’s experiencing. There can be a wide range of symptoms, including visual and auditory hallucinations so real you can’t tell they’re not. Fortunately Jin appears to be a Disorganized type (hallucinations, occasionally child like behavior, etc, etc) instead of a Paranoid type (anger, anxiety, delusions of persecution or grandeur) which reduces the chance she’ll blow the Earth away in a moment of madness. Reduces, doesn’t eliminate.
Yes, Monica interpreted it as schizophrenia, too. The way Jin talked about being “fragmented” and the way she was jumbling completely unrelated things together as she talked was another symptom.
what I like is that Jin has a legit system going on here- for people with hallucinations but no dellusions, often just learning to recognize and ignore hallucinations is the way to go.
Ok, if you and the Abyss don’t settle down back there and quit poking into each other I’m going to turn this philosophical vehicle around and we’re going right back to the Id.
I did my best to notice
When the clock began to chime
Up to the platform of the Sphinx
I was caught but I was kind
And sometimes I get nervous
When I hear what Tina says
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Drink the brew
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Pay my respects to Bud and Brandi
Send my condolences to Jin
Give my regards to Kat and Shelli
They always did the best they could
And so long to Amanda
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You’ve gotta let me go
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Will your demons be alright
When you dream of home tonight?
There is no message we’re receiving
Let me know, is your heart still beating?
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
You’ve gotta let me know
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Budd seems to always be doing her best to be pissed off at the /fact/ that Jin is insane, right now. It’s rather stupid. Instead of trying to help keep the world-destroying-beastie stable, she seems to prefer to antagonize.
My problem is that if I poke attractive young women like the characters in your comic, I get slapped… and considering the women in your comic series, that could be fatal.
Well, of course! That explains everything!
Damn. she caught me. Better pull up my pants.
POKE 47196, 201
lol… Damn I’m old.
You’re not the only one!
3d0 g
Dang, I forgot what that address does… (I know, I know… it varies from OS to OS…)
Yeah, me too.
Had a friend who was very fond/proud of his Sinclair ZX81.
After i went over the schematic a few times (it was very clever – the RAM refresh signal was also the video synch signal) and figured out where the characters lived in ROM, i wrote a small program that uised PEEKs and POKEs to turn the characters upside down on the screen.
It loses something in translation but, with BBC Basic, you’re looking at “?”s and “!”s.
There was an article in this month’s Linux Pro magazine about emulating various systems under Linux… which made me go get out my file of Commodore 64 robotics projects. I’m sure the hardware locations are different, but it was nice to imagine I could re-build those robots.
There’s a new Commodore 64 coming out soon…
poke 53281,0
poke 53280,0
hey I remember! but did you have VARPTR???
Trash80 basic.. 
and as for CBM… any good game was ALL peeks & pokes…..
Jin’s look in the first panel . . . priceless .
Basically from her description, her phantom audience must be former members of Congress, or high schoolers during a math class.
a possible inside joke would be that ‘we’ are infact the invisible people.
Oh ya think? XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc2L_7m_4mI
Advance to 6:44
Jin IS looking directly ‘out’ at the fourth wall in that frame. I sure hope more than several people read Wapsi Square, though!
maybe only a couple have two way monitors
Wow, 2000 pages? I can’t even imagine drawing that many pages…
And yet I’m holding 130 pages of just one of *your* comics right here…
I seriously hope there is a way to revoke Jin”s golem card.
Probably not. Don’t forget, she was burned to ashes and those mixed with clay to form a golem; all that seems pretty final. Maya might be able come up with something, but considering how her work tends to have serious unexpected consequences, I’m not sure letting her try would be a good idea.
It might be possible to reduce Jin – and Bud and Brandi, too – to impotence by reversing whatever it was that Tepoz did which restored the girls’ personalities after they were merged into the Chimera, then physically split apart. When they were all mentally mixed together they were apparently unable to take any action on their own. Still, that would be…bad. Not as bad as Jin unwittingly ripping the Earth to bits, but still, not good.
I don’t know why, but I just love Bud’s “That’s creepy” line.
Probably because she’s so right. XD
Actually, Jin isn’t seeing things; she’s just looking at all of us readers through the computer screen. She has that power, and Bud doesn’t. Note where Jin is looking in the first panel.
LOL
I’m SO glad I wasn’t the only one thinking that!
*poke poke poke*
nope, we’re not here at all
You had better hope Jin doesn’t poke you. “I think that’s another indestructible golem. Let me test that.”
There’s a 9 Chickweed Lane strip that features Juliette and Edda gazing outward through the borders of several oddly-shaped panels making up the first half of the strip; the second half is a view from the other direction, quite a distance behind them, still staring out the “window”, and one of them says something like “Where did they all go?”
http://comics.com/9_chickweed_lane/2002-06-11/
oh good so I wasn’t the only one that saw that :3
I’ll have you know I rarely read this comic expressionless!
There’s a character in the DrowTales comic who addresses the comic reading audience in regular dialogue (even occasionally making references to ‘next update’). All of the other characters think it’s a slice of her insanity.
I’m NEVER expressionless when reading Wapsi. I usually have a delighted grin on my face.
Is Jin using using Unfiltered Perception technology?
Just “breaking the fourth wall”. Seems like a little joke on Pablo’s part (good one, Pablo!) XD
I like it.
Gratz on 2000 pages! Can’t wait til 3k!
Don’t break the fourth wall! DON’T BREAK THE FOURTH WALLOHGODNOOOooooo!
No breaking of the 4th wall, I just thought it would be creepy to look past us.
Oh yes it is quite creepy and i am sure there are quite a lot of people starring at her xD
It does feel more like she’s just “seeing people stare at her” (ala Vanilla Sky bar scene), but the “i’m so crazy i can actually see past the 4th wall” idea had dawned on me too (blame Chuck Jones. “PEOPLE!! AAAAAAAAH!” http://youtu.be/Gc2L_7m_4mI )
Actually I knew a psychiatrist who liked to ponder the idea that those with schizophrenia were simply sensitive to actual voices and such that others were simply deaf to. .. or maybe he was just screwing with me, IDK. XD
It would be hard to be a friend of a psychiatrist. You would never know when you were being used as a guinea pig.
The thing in the strip that gives away the fact that Paul wasn’t breaking the fourth wall is that the people’s faces have no expression. If Paul was breaking the fourth wall, they would have been smirking, grinning or laughing at Jin. It was close enough to breaking the fourth wall to be fun, though.
It would be ironic if it turns out the the things the schizophrenic sees actually exist and they just lack the capacity to perceive and understand what they see completely.
I seem to recall a comedian remarking about people who wander the streets talking to themselves. He suggested that perhaps that person is actually talking to a counterpart somewhere else in the world who is doing the same thing.
First two panels reminded me of an old Bugs Bunny cartoon.
“Look! Out there, in the audience.”
*gasp* “PEEEOOOPLE!”
There’s a joke in Godspell – one of the cast is about to tell a story and then freezes.
Jesus asks what’s the matter?
“There’s people out there!”
“Don’t worry – they’re all your brothers and sisters.”
Oh, Okay … But I’m an only child!”
“Ah, well – so was I.”
I’ve already put the link to that cartoon here 2x, and I don’t want to be accused of spamming. But yeah, advance to 6:45 for that scene.
Now if Jin poked someone and a spring popped out of their head and she said “SO? SHE’S MECHANICAL” maybe THEN it would be a nod to that looney toon. ^_^
People should watch the whole cartoon to get the full experience, though. I can spot several things that they did earlier that help set up the joke before they finally uncorked it. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t spot Peter Lorre, though. I’ve never seen him in a role quite like that, so that didn’t work quite so well with me. (I figured it out based on a comment.)
They peek, she pokes!
That’s creepy, Says the centuries old girl made of clay and human remains with the power to destroy the solar system.
Still, it is creepy.
Nah. That’s not the creepy part. The creepy part is that she has delt with this for the past 6000 years… this time.
…and if her mother is supposed to settle her.. then how bad was she when she was manipulating everything and setting the course of the world? THAT is creepy.
Well, fortunately the calendar machine was running while she was manipulating everything during the many resets, and that controlled/fixed her little problem.
… but not perfectly. I remember another strip where Brandi said, “What we percieve as schizophasia…” I think the idea was that the machine could only compensate for so much stress on Jin and that the stress on Jin would get worse toward the end of the cycles. Fortunately she doesn’t have as much stress now, but what helped her is completely gone.
I know the one you’re talking about.
She says that it’s stressful because it’s road less travelled (i.e. she feels comfortable earlier because she’s already done it 56 times).
Is this based on a true medical condition?
Such as split personality etc?
Schizophrenzia would seem to be the closest thing to what Jin’s experiencing. There can be a wide range of symptoms, including visual and auditory hallucinations so real you can’t tell they’re not. Fortunately Jin appears to be a Disorganized type (hallucinations, occasionally child like behavior, etc, etc) instead of a Paranoid type (anger, anxiety, delusions of persecution or grandeur) which reduces the chance she’ll blow the Earth away in a moment of madness. Reduces, doesn’t eliminate.
Yes, Monica interpreted it as schizophrenia, too. The way Jin talked about being “fragmented” and the way she was jumbling completely unrelated things together as she talked was another symptom.
I shouldn’t have said “completely unrelated”, but still she was talking in a jumbled way. A true Schizophrenic might be even worse.
what I like is that Jin has a legit system going on here- for people with hallucinations but no dellusions, often just learning to recognize and ignore hallucinations is the way to go.
When you poke into the Abyss, the Abyss pokes into you.
Ok, if you and the Abyss don’t settle down back there and quit poking into each other I’m going to turn this philosophical vehicle around and we’re going right back to the Id.
*hands SoWhyMe “Best Comment of the Day Award*
Must…stop….laughing…before home office…personnel…arrive… *falls out of chair*
Outstanding!
Allright, who poked me? Jin?!
I smiled at you, Jin, nothing expressionless about that.
And if it’s NOT a fourth wall joke, Jin really is being pretty creepy. What IS she seeing?
She sees dead people… like Cathy and My Cage.
I did my best to notice
When the clock began to chime
Up to the platform of the Sphinx
I was caught but I was kind
And sometimes I get nervous
When I hear what Tina says
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Drink the brew
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Pay my respects to Bud and Brandi
Send my condolences to Jin
Give my regards to Kat and Shelli
They always did the best they could
And so long to Amanda
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You’ve gotta let me go
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Will your demons be alright
When you dream of home tonight?
There is no message we’re receiving
Let me know, is your heart still beating?
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
You’ve gotta let me know
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
My heart is vital, my hands are clay
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Are we Mayan or are we Aztec?
Wow, what inspired this? It almost perfectly matches up with the song Human by The Killers.
I got a mate at work sings Human/Dancers a lot of the time. I thought I would adapt it.
Ah, ever-practical Jin!
*poke*
Are we in a time loop? Call the Doctor to fix it!
(http://wapsisquare.com/comic/good-point/)
She can see us?!?!
(dives under the table)
*cricket noise*
*cricket noise*
I waved at her…but she hasn’t waved back…
That’s because you have to poke her!
At the very least, Jin is going to meet a lot of people that way.
Budd seems to always be doing her best to be pissed off at the /fact/ that Jin is insane, right now. It’s rather stupid. Instead of trying to help keep the world-destroying-beastie stable, she seems to prefer to antagonize.
She’s just asking an honest question, she is trying to help.
My problem is that if I poke attractive young women like the characters in your comic, I get slapped… and considering the women in your comic series, that could be fatal.