E.g. organised contact sports, or outdoor pursuits, such as hiking, climbing/abseiling, seeing what the tallest wall/furniture she can jump is,, etc. before your minds turn to the gutter.
They’re not Canadian. I put it down to Natural Talent. There is Oblivious, there is DENSE, There is Clue-Less, and then there Oh-My-Dog!!!
Atsali is most definitely in a Class by Herself. Tina should be seeing Her Aura as Cobalt Blue [just from the stray Cerenkov Radiation.]
On the subject of “Evil Weeds,” I have to say I’m impressed Castila is letting her rattle on, and dig herself deeper, when she must be bursting at the seams trying to keep sarcasm, and even any hint of a Smile, out of her voice.
You’re right. I love Paul’s art, but his reversed use of lighting tails on speech bubbles for phone conversations has confused me more than once. I didn’t realize why I was confused by it before you spelled it out. Thanks!
I don’t think it’s all that bad. The boxes without any arrows belong to the person *not* visible in the panel (i.e., on the other side of the phone). The boxes with arrows point to the person in the panel, regardless of whether they’re jagged or not. Seem’s straightforward to me.
No, do not listen to the Wonky One!
When you have a tail (or two), you learn to let your pants ‘ride low’ on the off chance they will suddenly appear (and you do not want a tail-panty wedgie!!!)
Atsali reminds me very much of high-functioning autistics I’ve known, some very closely. (Examples, my daughter and my best friend/honorary brother) Can be brilliant, but at the same time clueless about social norms and context.
Autism is not required in that department.
Take it from someone who knows, mere introversion will supply the same lack of cluelessness for simple lack of social contact.
Yeah, nobody seems to get that. She pretty much brought it up herself a while back. Big Sis is somewhere on the aspergers/high functioning autism spectrum.
Things that get automatically processed by most people emotionally/socially, folks like her, and… me, have got to fiddle our way through intellectually, and it takes longer.
The key point of the Asperger’s label [as opposed* to a label of High-Functioning Autist] is in their difficulty with social interactions. These difficulties are characterized in not just being confused or disconnected, like any autist may be, but in actually being anti-social or simply just having significant difficulty connecting or relating to others. (Wikipedia has a short summary of the matter, for those wanting a clearer idea of the social interaction expectations associated with Asperger’s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome#Social_interaction ).
Put more simply, the consistantly bubbly, easily affectionate, openly compassionate Astali doesn’t meet any of the key expectations of Asperger’s, whatever other label she may qualify for.
*While Asperger’s and High-Functioning-Autism shared some confusion in assignment within early autistic categorizations, until Autistic Spectrum Disorder subsumed earlier labels, Asperger’s ended up retaining use for its distinction in referencing specific social impairments atypical to general spectrum labeling. As such, there’s basis for someone having the terms associated with one another, but they’re not actually seperated in the manner such an association would entail. Rather, if you say “High-Functioning Autism” you’re already including those with Asperger’s, but if you specifically utilize the term Asperger’s on its own you’re specifically referring to those high-functioning autists who also have specific difficulties with social interaction [as, afterall, there wouldn’t otherwise be any need for a further distinction in labeling].
Speaking as an autist who has encountered many other autists over the years, this just isn’t something autists [from the perspective of typical labeling expectations] would confuse. See, a key trait of autists seems to be in having a nature of processing data through a pattern-based methodology (ie, A leads to B leads to C), which makes us more aware [than a neurotypical individual] of things that link directly to one another, while [as a tradeoff of sorts] making us more inclined to miss surrounding subtleties or outside patterns, along with our fairly consistant inability to grasp social nuances. Autists are also prone to over-fixation, due to our difficulty in switching focus on a topic, a difficulty that can be compounded by the attempt potentially causing us extreme neurological pain (I’m not sure how typical that element is, but it does seem likely to be at least part of the basis for why those with low-functioning autism seem to react so strongly to interference). In summary, it should be quite rare for an autist to *not* be able to properly link together pieces of a direct, mechanical discussion such as the one in the comic above and, rather, it should actually be extremely unusual for an autist to be distracted on the topic they’re focusing on in such a manner.
As such, it may even be fair to say that what’s being expressed could actually be considered as a polar opposite of what you’d expect from an autist. Rather, it’s more readily associable to any cognitive circumstance wherein maintaining attention to context is an issue, such as ADD/ADHD. My friends on that spectrum end up having extreme difficulty maintaining context, quite similar to the comic above [though with far less of a ditzy-seeming presentation to it]. The individuals on that spectrum whom I’ve encountered tend to have trouble grasping the need to tell people when they’ve changed topic within their own thoughts, and similarly seem to have trouble matching to topic shifts others present. Meanwhile, from my experiences, an autist would be more inclined to hammer in on a specific topic for an overly long period of time, until they feel a pattern has been properly resolved to its conclusion.
In short, a difficulty in perceiving conversational abstracts doesn’t at all relate to a difficulty in perceiving basic progression flow of conversations. ^.^
To clarify, I’m not intending to make any implications towards Astali’s neurological state, I’m just stating that the association isn’t in itself an intuitive one solely off the comic in question. That is to say, my topic is in what expectations one would have of autists, not in the expectations one might have of Astali specifically.
I think she’s just very relaxed.
Paul has given us examples of her showing off, and as she matures she may be able to “Hulk Out” in a much more radical fashion if called on.
My grandfather, according to my mom, had this thing he did at the dinner table; he’d make this knocking sound under the table, and say “What’s that?? Sounds like a gun! And speaking of guns…”
Someone call for a clue-by-four? Castela’s in the non-plussed range over all this.
Clue her from orbit – it’s the only way to be four…
I feel like Castela is getting more and more flanderized as time goes on, or I’m missing some sort of tonal joke.
Whoops I meant Astali!
She could be playing it up for her sister. Slightly. But I’m betting she’s in bad need of a break from college study.
Atsali Gilchrist . . . new height in obliviousness daily.
Is it me, or is Castle getting to be as clumsy as Monica? Just LOOK at those scuffed-up knees!
Visiting the Canyon again?
Clumsy, or enjoys a bit of a rough-and-tumble*?
E.g. organised contact sports, or outdoor pursuits, such as hiking, climbing/abseiling, seeing what the tallest wall/furniture she can jump is,, etc. before your minds turn to the gutter.
I don’t see them, ness., as scuffed up though. Maybe just textured…
It’s been fairly well-established that she’s a bit (lot) of a tomboy. My daughter has gotten rugburn on her knees just playing with the dog.
I think Atsali has been partaking of the evil weed.
You could smoke the entire island of Jamaica, & still be more aware than this.
What you did there, BarerMender?
I see it.
They’re not Canadian. I put it down to Natural Talent. There is Oblivious, there is DENSE, There is Clue-Less, and then there Oh-My-Dog!!!
Atsali is most definitely in a Class by Herself. Tina should be seeing Her Aura as Cobalt Blue [just from the stray Cerenkov Radiation.]
On the subject of “Evil Weeds,” I have to say I’m impressed Castila is letting her rattle on, and dig herself deeper, when she must be bursting at the seams trying to keep sarcasm, and even any hint of a Smile, out of her voice.
I get confused by Paul’s art on phone calls. Entirely my fault.
I had to read this three times to figure it out.
(Usually, the voice at the OTHER end of the line has the lightning bolt tail on the speech bubble. Paul does it t’other way ’round.)
You’re right. I love Paul’s art, but his reversed use of lighting tails on speech bubbles for phone conversations has confused me more than once. I didn’t realize why I was confused by it before you spelled it out. Thanks!
⁉️ I must say that it incites some confusion in me as well. 😕
I don’t think it’s all that bad. The boxes without any arrows belong to the person *not* visible in the panel (i.e., on the other side of the phone). The boxes with arrows point to the person in the panel, regardless of whether they’re jagged or not. Seem’s straightforward to me.
@Great Scott, yeah, it’s the jaggedidity that throws me. The tailless box is ok, i can figure that out, but when I haven’t had enough coffee…
I hope the meeting of all of these isn’t a big bust.
It won’t be *a* big bust, it’ll be 4 big busts, consisting of 8 large boobs. (I hope there will be enough room in the panels to show all of them.)
Aw. come on Paul she’s not that daft is she?
There are those who might call Atsali a space cadet.
They would be mistaken.
She has much more rank and seniority than “cadet”. She’s a fully-commissioned space officer.
Armed with orbital bombardment of clue
Complete with partial view of the moon.
If nobody else is gone say it, I will. Girl! Pull up your pants!
No, do not listen to the Wonky One!
When you have a tail (or two), you learn to let your pants ‘ride low’ on the off chance they will suddenly appear (and you do not want a tail-panty wedgie!!!)
The positioning of her jeans tells us something about how she and Skylar have equipped their dorm room.
They have a mini-fridge. It must be an old Norge.
Yeah. Say no to crack.
Shoot, I just love that image of her that way. Had to make that my wallpaper!!!
We’ll, there’s Cleavage. And there’s Cleavage.
Anybody else wondering if Hellen Blair is related to Linda Blair? Kudos to Paul for that contextual reference.
I think it was chosen more for the rhyme.
Just what I was thinking.
LOL that girl is SOOO clueless.. and yet she can be SOOO brilliant! guess that shows that brains and clues don’t always go together! 😉
Anyone suspect a new part time job for Atsali. She is after all a devil girl who can really fill out a bikini.
Atsali reminds me very much of high-functioning autistics I’ve known, some very closely. (Examples, my daughter and my best friend/honorary brother) Can be brilliant, but at the same time clueless about social norms and context.
Autism is not required in that department.
Take it from someone who knows, mere introversion will supply the same lack of cluelessness for simple lack of social contact.
Yeah, nobody seems to get that. She pretty much brought it up herself a while back. Big Sis is somewhere on the aspergers/high functioning autism spectrum.
Things that get automatically processed by most people emotionally/socially, folks like her, and… me, have got to fiddle our way through intellectually, and it takes longer.
The key point of the Asperger’s label [as opposed* to a label of High-Functioning Autist] is in their difficulty with social interactions. These difficulties are characterized in not just being confused or disconnected, like any autist may be, but in actually being anti-social or simply just having significant difficulty connecting or relating to others. (Wikipedia has a short summary of the matter, for those wanting a clearer idea of the social interaction expectations associated with Asperger’s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome#Social_interaction ).
Put more simply, the consistantly bubbly, easily affectionate, openly compassionate Astali doesn’t meet any of the key expectations of Asperger’s, whatever other label she may qualify for.
*While Asperger’s and High-Functioning-Autism shared some confusion in assignment within early autistic categorizations, until Autistic Spectrum Disorder subsumed earlier labels, Asperger’s ended up retaining use for its distinction in referencing specific social impairments atypical to general spectrum labeling. As such, there’s basis for someone having the terms associated with one another, but they’re not actually seperated in the manner such an association would entail. Rather, if you say “High-Functioning Autism” you’re already including those with Asperger’s, but if you specifically utilize the term Asperger’s on its own you’re specifically referring to those high-functioning autists who also have specific difficulties with social interaction [as, afterall, there wouldn’t otherwise be any need for a further distinction in labeling].
Grammar correction: [once] Autistic Spectrum Disorder subsumed earlier labels
Speaking as an autist who has encountered many other autists over the years, this just isn’t something autists [from the perspective of typical labeling expectations] would confuse. See, a key trait of autists seems to be in having a nature of processing data through a pattern-based methodology (ie, A leads to B leads to C), which makes us more aware [than a neurotypical individual] of things that link directly to one another, while [as a tradeoff of sorts] making us more inclined to miss surrounding subtleties or outside patterns, along with our fairly consistant inability to grasp social nuances. Autists are also prone to over-fixation, due to our difficulty in switching focus on a topic, a difficulty that can be compounded by the attempt potentially causing us extreme neurological pain (I’m not sure how typical that element is, but it does seem likely to be at least part of the basis for why those with low-functioning autism seem to react so strongly to interference). In summary, it should be quite rare for an autist to *not* be able to properly link together pieces of a direct, mechanical discussion such as the one in the comic above and, rather, it should actually be extremely unusual for an autist to be distracted on the topic they’re focusing on in such a manner.
As such, it may even be fair to say that what’s being expressed could actually be considered as a polar opposite of what you’d expect from an autist. Rather, it’s more readily associable to any cognitive circumstance wherein maintaining attention to context is an issue, such as ADD/ADHD. My friends on that spectrum end up having extreme difficulty maintaining context, quite similar to the comic above [though with far less of a ditzy-seeming presentation to it]. The individuals on that spectrum whom I’ve encountered tend to have trouble grasping the need to tell people when they’ve changed topic within their own thoughts, and similarly seem to have trouble matching to topic shifts others present. Meanwhile, from my experiences, an autist would be more inclined to hammer in on a specific topic for an overly long period of time, until they feel a pattern has been properly resolved to its conclusion.
In short, a difficulty in perceiving conversational abstracts doesn’t at all relate to a difficulty in perceiving basic progression flow of conversations. ^.^
To clarify, I’m not intending to make any implications towards Astali’s neurological state, I’m just stating that the association isn’t in itself an intuitive one solely off the comic in question. That is to say, my topic is in what expectations one would have of autists, not in the expectations one might have of Astali specifically.
Did Castela lose her muscles?
I think she’s just very relaxed.
Paul has given us examples of her showing off, and as she matures she may be able to “Hulk Out” in a much more radical fashion if called on.
Love the icon, Dave.
What odds, indeed? 😀
My grandfather, according to my mom, had this thing he did at the dinner table; he’d make this knocking sound under the table, and say “What’s that?? Sounds like a gun! And speaking of guns…”