Skepticism about the motives of the opposite sex does go well with being single for a decade, as well. There’s a lot of almost willfully overlooking red flags that appears to occur in a lot of relationships.
Exactly. I have been single for over a decade and am seriously cynical about members of the opposite sex on profiles. Generally the mantra of “if it looks too good to be true then it generally is” tends to pretty much be a fact. its got to a point where I can spot a fake or some thing not adding up profile a mile off now.
Though his point of an 19 year old messaging a guy nearly twice her age does crop up on a regular basis, but its normally as they want a reality show sugar daddy (as they don’t want to *shock horror* work for a living) or want to brag about being with a more “experienced” guy. Sorry but if you have no common interests that I do, I don’t care how young and hot you are lol
It is the answer to life, the universe and everything, after all.
I’m waiting for him to complain that all of the diodes on the left side of his monkey body ache in pain.
Damn piss-poor work on D52’s side to set up her profile in such a contradictory fashion.
I’m wondering if this guy is just a wake-up call or if he’s going to be permanent cast. I did check and the cast page hasn’t been updated yet. Though he presumably wouldn’t be D52, and cast page space past that is fairly limited at this point, so possibly he’ll be on a later chapter’s page (much like KK).
Yeah its her hand. I try to have Ellie fiddle with her hands or hair as much as I can. This is just a nervous hand to face reaction in as much of a defensive pose as I can show in a tight panel. I worried someone might think it was his hand, but I was almost done and didnt want to redo it.
Well…..she isn’t really scamming him for his money, not straight out. Sorta inna roundabout way because she won’t do more than date him once to keep him from getting a refund….eh. Sorta is I guess….not something to be held against her although she is looking guilty in the last panel.
Good thing the professionals filled out her profile. Apart from getting caught, the fact that he actually was interested enough to read the profile instead of just checking out the picture makes him the best catch of the bunch so far (apart from the age difference).
It’s not entirely clear if reading her profile is interest or caution/suspicion. Especially if she messaged him out of the blue and he didn’t initiate.
I also wonder a little bit if he was the no picture 6’1″, brown hair, has a dog profile that was being assumed as Blind Guy.
What makes me laugh about the whole “Just for men”, get back to your natural hair colour………..well technically silver IS my natural colour its my hair after all.
The funniest one though has to be “touch of grey”. In other words pay full price get half the job done :P
You’re Steve Martin?
Holy cr4p!!!!!!!!!!
You make a wonderful jerk.
You are just dropping classic references left and right these days, Mr. B.
.
As to the OP: He’s definitely the smartest out of the bunch so far. If I were him, my first thought would definitely be “scam.”
Yeah. Some of us are classical guys.
Heyyy! Finaly someone with a head on his shoulder!
Ellie realize now she’s been walking into a trap since the beginning she started working there. As she can’t really explain anything on her profile without being found out about the scam.
The only way i can see Ellie jumping on a life raft is be replying: “Look buddy, you filled for a date and i answered your call. Do you want this date or not.
Which is exactly what you want to hear when you’re on a date with someone clearly out of your league. “Oh, I’m part of a social experiment, how lovely. Now, can I buy you a meal and hear more about how this is going absolutely nowhere now that I’m a data point on a graph?”.
Lukkai’s description isn’t necessarily a social experiment explanation. “It’s hard to find someone who can see past my tits” would be a valid complaint for Ellie, so staging a test of sorts to try to weed people out wouldn’t be odd.
Though the odd part is why she’d take the time to show up without him passing that test in messaging on the site rather than taking the time to meet him not knowing if he could pass the test or not.
True on both accounts. Though the latter could probably be explained away by wanting to check in person.
Probably the best response she can give that I can think of would be something along the lines of “My friend’s running my profile and I’m only just now realizing that she messed it up bad.” It would be pretty true, even!
A couple of my friends have suggested that to me as well. I’m curious of the amount of profiles that fall under that “Maybe lonely, yet pressured ” group.
I tried a dating site for a while, but I came to the conclusion that they don’t help with the problem I have with dating, and likely just make it worse.
Maybe they’ll get better for me in a couple of decades if direct brain interfaces become prevalent, assuming I give a damn at that point.
So, you’re hoping to have relations with Sandra Bullock in “Demolition Man” because the exchange of bodily fluids is just plain disgusting, right?
I’m not confident I’d be able to get the hang of the three sea shells, so I’ll stick with my own timeline.
This would explain why I keep meeting all the weirdoes.
Kinda looks like she stole the bottom half of something Anise owns, though. Hopefully any damage that occurs will fall under “goth look” and not “slob look.”
Rusche: In panel 3, that should be “who’s” (who has) not “whose” (possessive).
.
I’m really digging this comic. You do a tremendous amount of visual variety; I can’t recall ever catching you recycling to save time.
I can remember some, but they were early (first comics didn’t have backgrounds). Latest one I remember with a recycled background is from Black Friday arc (Window Shopping, current post date 08 Jan 2014), but that wasn’t recycled to save time, just recycled as necessity for the page.
It can certainly look nice, but to be honest I wouldn’t actually care if he recycled backgrounds when it fit (such as the discussion with Caleb in the Jeep). It’s kinda’ nice not to have recycled backgrounds, but the occasional recycled (or rotating recycled or panned portion of a larger) backgrounds seems fair to me.
She could so get out of this by saying she uses the website to find dates hoping to fins something genuine, but unless they are smart enough to read her profile and notice something is off she just takes the free meal and bails.
Ellie’s advice for this dude: you’re single because you’re constantly looking under the hood. Stop analyzing everything, ya freak, and enjoy the fact that you’re 37 and being seen in public with a 19 year old who looks like this.
Yeah, but she’s not going to be offering anything sexual, so “being seen in public” is pretty much all she’s offering. From a public perception/status marker view of a date, blonde hair, blue eyes, and likely back problems does rank fairly high up there, as it’s much less about your own personal preferences rather than the hive mind assessment from the outside world.
If you’re looking for a friend/intellectual partner, you aren’t dating them. You’re looking around classrooms for like minded people, libraries, conferences …
No. Dating is not sexual. At least not on a physical level. It’s an abstract dance of interpersonal language couched in terms that are not sexual.
These particular dates are not sexual. Dates are the ways in which people separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. If you want to find someone to do sex things with. Those other places you mentioned also have people looking for sex, so that particular argument isn’t really a valid one.
No, you’re missing the point. I’m not saying any of these dates are ‘supposed’ to end in bed, but the idea of dating is that a relationship starts. Relationships, except for the really, really broken ones, have two people who are also physically intimate – sometimes for procreation and sometimes for personal enjoyment. Frequency and level of physical intimacy will vary, but as I said, one does not usually date someone they find unattractive.
Dating is not sexual anymore, and that’s thanks to the rise in asexual awareness.
Many asexuals will assert that they are romantic, and thus, will date other people to find their romatic relationship – with, of course, no sex or undertones thereof. While sexuals are most likely looking for someone to end up in bed with (maybe in the far future, maybe that day), and due to that, giving it sexual undertones, dating having sexual implications is no longer as all encompasing as it used to be.
You could also quibble about the meaning of the word “date.”
If any of that isn’t clear, ask, and I’ll try to clarify.
What percentage of the population is asexual?
The exact number is unknown, but they are a very vocal minority clamoring for visibility for some reason unbeknownst to me. Current estimates put it at 1% or less of the population – but that number can expand rapidly depending on how you define “asexual.”
The science so far has yet to find a distinct genetic marker or marker set that indicates asexuality, obscuring things even more. There are patterns (mentioned in http://www.medicaldaily.com/asexuality-real-how-rare-orientation-helps-us-understand-human-sexuality-332346), but those same patterns often apply to homosexuals as well (for example, gay men are more likely to have an older brother than straight men). In contrast, there is a known genetic marker set in homosexual men – and it’s linked to their mother’s fecundity. The lack of finding a distinct marker set is most likely due to insufficient research, but it is possible it doesn’t exist.
So, how does this relate to the word “date” and the changing definition? That’s a bit of guesswork.
Earlier definitions of “date” didn’t involve sex at all, or even necessarily really liking a person. You set a “date” with your dentist or doctor, or you set a “date” to go shopping with a friend (possibly because they’re more knowledgeable about what it is you’re shopping for). Previously, the verb used for what you describe was “court.” I think – and I have no source for this – the definition and implications you and I think of came about in the 60s.
As for why the “modern” change, it’s extremely recent; roughly 2006 is when the asexual movement started gaining traction. With social media beginning to form then, and what the asexual identified people used to promote their viewpoint, what most likely happened was that the term began to be used in much the same way words are spread now: one person changes the definition slightly, a group accepts that definition and begins spreading and insisting on that new definition, and then a sufficiently large group accepts the new definition and it becomes the standard. “Date’s” sexual undertones have, in effect, become neutered through this process. We can see a similar result in changed definitions with the word “feminist.”
So less than one percent of the population gets to redefine what ‘dating’ is?
The Tyranny of the Shrill Minority, indeed.
Honestly dating is what two people define it to be.
There were a lot of female platonic friends in high school and college that I was interested in and we’d do things together that could otherwise qualify as dates, but the intention was that it wasn’t a date, so it wasn’t.
For blind dates, it’s always seemed to me that the first date is primarily about discovery. It’s to make a determination if this is something to go somewhere romantic, go somewhere platonic, or to be considered a mistake not to be repeated.
This situation, to me, most closely resembles a blind date, as they’re quick message-to-meet situations, so even if Ellie wasn’t a plant, there’d be little-to-no actual knowledge of each other so the first date would be primarily learning about each other, and the question of direction would be determined over the course of the date (though, once again, it’s predetermined for Ellie that the direction is no where).
But that’s just by my definition. It’s authoritative only in the realm of my own opinion. It’s quite valid for it to be laughably false through another person’s view.
In five minutes the jutsu is going to wear off and he’s going to discover he has been having a conversation with a chunk of wood inexplicably floating in the air.
Looking at this comic again, I’m seeing that I’m forgetting author comments. A person wearing a hoodie is a sign of them hiding something. I believe hairstyles to cover one eye in an indicator that Ellie’s deliberately blinding herself here.
That or she’s mimicing Anise with a brighter shirt and no headband.
94 thoughts on “Conflicting Traits”
It was bound to happen eventually. Someone looked past her boobs and actually examined her profile. As unbelievable as that as.
Everyone’s a skeptic about something.
With some people, its other people.
Skepticism about the motives of the opposite sex does go well with being single for a decade, as well. There’s a lot of almost willfully overlooking red flags that appears to occur in a lot of relationships.
Exactly. I have been single for over a decade and am seriously cynical about members of the opposite sex on profiles. Generally the mantra of “if it looks too good to be true then it generally is” tends to pretty much be a fact. its got to a point where I can spot a fake or some thing not adding up profile a mile off now.
Though his point of an 19 year old messaging a guy nearly twice her age does crop up on a regular basis, but its normally as they want a reality show sugar daddy (as they don’t want to *shock horror* work for a living) or want to brag about being with a more “experienced” guy. Sorry but if you have no common interests that I do, I don’t care how young and hot you are lol
Didn’t Ellie say nobody over 30?
When did they ever listen to anything Ellie said?
They’re just using her and Quinn to get what they want.
Just like almost every schemer, player on the planet?
No Wai!
Yeah, but judging by the last comic she also said “men only” and didn’t get that.
Totally a clerical error. That’s also why she’s currently dating a guy almost twice her age.
If I had a nickel for every time a cleric mixed up Soft vs Revive needed for a situation…
She’s well outside Randal Munroe’s age/2 + 7 = acceptable age formula.
What does Randall Munroe’s age have to do with it?
Munroe WISHES that was his formula. Last I knew, the Chinese had been using it for centuries.
FOURTH. Or something. Yea.
Two to the sixth power!
I’m claiming 42th!
No idea if I’ll actually write it. But I’m claiming it.
It is the answer to life, the universe and everything, after all.
I’m waiting for him to complain that all of the diodes on the left side of his monkey body ache in pain.
Damn piss-poor work on D52’s side to set up her profile in such a contradictory fashion.
I’m wondering if this guy is just a wake-up call or if he’s going to be permanent cast. I did check and the cast page hasn’t been updated yet. Though he presumably wouldn’t be D52, and cast page space past that is fairly limited at this point, so possibly he’ll be on a later chapter’s page (much like KK).
And, technically, Ellie is party to a scam to keep him from getting a refund.
He knows.
Abort! Abort!
No, his thinking is either catfish or gold digger, not scammed by web site.
I ‘aint saying she a golddigger… cause she’s just a plain-vanilla scammer :)
Is that his hand on her neck?
Nope, her right hand, I think. She wasn’t briefed on what to do in this situation. :P
Yeah its her hand. I try to have Ellie fiddle with her hands or hair as much as I can. This is just a nervous hand to face reaction in as much of a defensive pose as I can show in a tight panel. I worried someone might think it was his hand, but I was almost done and didnt want to redo it.
No, it’s ZEKE!!!!
RUN ELLIE, RUUUUUUNNNNN!!!
Who is Zeke?
The serial killer, from Rosman, North Carolina?
Or was it Zork, the cereal eater who lives next door to Captain Crunch?
First introduced to SHOTGUN SHUFFLE in the-chain-part-iv located here: ==> http://shotgunshuffle.com/comic/the-chain-part-iv/#.VqBl0FJCJXc
Well…..she isn’t really scamming him for his money, not straight out. Sorta inna roundabout way because she won’t do more than date him once to keep him from getting a refund….eh. Sorta is I guess….not something to be held against her although she is looking guilty in the last panel.
Good thing the professionals filled out her profile. Apart from getting caught, the fact that he actually was interested enough to read the profile instead of just checking out the picture makes him the best catch of the bunch so far (apart from the age difference).
It’s not entirely clear if reading her profile is interest or caution/suspicion. Especially if she messaged him out of the blue and he didn’t initiate.
I also wonder a little bit if he was the no picture 6’1″, brown hair, has a dog profile that was being assumed as Blind Guy.
We’ll never know about his hair color until he uses Just for Men.
What makes me laugh about the whole “Just for men”, get back to your natural hair colour………..well technically silver IS my natural colour its my hair after all.
The funniest one though has to be “touch of grey”. In other words pay full price get half the job done :P
You’re Steve Martin?
Holy cr4p!!!!!!!!!!
You make a wonderful jerk.
You are just dropping classic references left and right these days, Mr. B.
.
As to the OP: He’s definitely the smartest out of the bunch so far. If I were him, my first thought would definitely be “scam.”
Yeah. Some of us are classical guys.
Heyyy! Finaly someone with a head on his shoulder!
Ellie realize now she’s been walking into a trap since the beginning she started working there. As she can’t really explain anything on her profile without being found out about the scam.
The only way i can see Ellie jumping on a life raft is be replying: “Look buddy, you filled for a date and i answered your call. Do you want this date or not.
She could argue that the profile was a) mainly to attract attention and b) at the same time a test of how thorough people are looking at her.
Someone who spots the contradictions has seen past the boobies.
Which is exactly what you want to hear when you’re on a date with someone clearly out of your league. “Oh, I’m part of a social experiment, how lovely. Now, can I buy you a meal and hear more about how this is going absolutely nowhere now that I’m a data point on a graph?”.
Lukkai’s description isn’t necessarily a social experiment explanation. “It’s hard to find someone who can see past my tits” would be a valid complaint for Ellie, so staging a test of sorts to try to weed people out wouldn’t be odd.
Though the odd part is why she’d take the time to show up without him passing that test in messaging on the site rather than taking the time to meet him not knowing if he could pass the test or not.
True on both accounts. Though the latter could probably be explained away by wanting to check in person.
Ooh, I like the depth of field effects!
A girl can do two things.
No, that’s Tired Guy’s niece and grand daughter.
… or Quinn doubling as her brother’s mother.
Two girls can be two things.
Or a thing, for that matter. And an item.
A thing can be made of matter.
As a matter of fact, yes.
Probably the best response she can give that I can think of would be something along the lines of “My friend’s running my profile and I’m only just now realizing that she messed it up bad.” It would be pretty true, even!
Alternately: My profile was made for me by people insisting I get out and start dating.
A couple of my friends have suggested that to me as well. I’m curious of the amount of profiles that fall under that “Maybe lonely, yet pressured ” group.
I tried a dating site for a while, but I came to the conclusion that they don’t help with the problem I have with dating, and likely just make it worse.
Maybe they’ll get better for me in a couple of decades if direct brain interfaces become prevalent, assuming I give a damn at that point.
So, you’re hoping to have relations with Sandra Bullock in “Demolition Man” because the exchange of bodily fluids is just plain disgusting, right?
I’m not confident I’d be able to get the hang of the three sea shells, so I’ll stick with my own timeline.
This would explain why I keep meeting all the weirdoes.
That’s a gorgeous outfit of Ellie’s there, by the way!
Kinda looks like she stole the bottom half of something Anise owns, though. Hopefully any damage that occurs will fall under “goth look” and not “slob look.”
I agree completely. Damn she looks fine.
I love her expression in the last panel. It’s spelling trouble for certain people, and it just plain looks good.
Rusche: In panel 3, that should be “who’s” (who has) not “whose” (possessive).
.
I’m really digging this comic. You do a tremendous amount of visual variety; I can’t recall ever catching you recycling to save time.
Good thing I scrolled through all the comments. I’ll just second your post.
I can remember some, but they were early (first comics didn’t have backgrounds). Latest one I remember with a recycled background is from Black Friday arc (Window Shopping, current post date 08 Jan 2014), but that wasn’t recycled to save time, just recycled as necessity for the page.
It can certainly look nice, but to be honest I wouldn’t actually care if he recycled backgrounds when it fit (such as the discussion with Caleb in the Jeep). It’s kinda’ nice not to have recycled backgrounds, but the occasional recycled (or rotating recycled or panned portion of a larger) backgrounds seems fair to me.
Oh, I’m not condemning the practice, I’m just saying if he’s recycled it was innocuous that I either didn’t care or didn’t notice.
Reporter!
Hopefully not. Least I Could Do did a story arc like that.
She could so get out of this by saying she uses the website to find dates hoping to fins something genuine, but unless they are smart enough to read her profile and notice something is off she just takes the free meal and bails.
Except she’s bailing regardless. So implying that his additional foresight gets him past that test needs to be done very carefully.
Ellie’s advice for this dude: you’re single because you’re constantly looking under the hood. Stop analyzing everything, ya freak, and enjoy the fact that you’re 37 and being seen in public with a 19 year old who looks like this.
Dawww, you say the nicest things! lol
Believe it or not, blonde hair, blue eyes and huge … eyes … aren’t everyone’s sexual holy grail.
Yeah, but she’s not going to be offering anything sexual, so “being seen in public” is pretty much all she’s offering. From a public perception/status marker view of a date, blonde hair, blue eyes, and likely back problems does rank fairly high up there, as it’s much less about your own personal preferences rather than the hive mind assessment from the outside world.
Dating *is* sexual.
I mean … it is, isn’t it?
If you’re looking for a friend/intellectual partner, you aren’t dating them. You’re looking around classrooms for like minded people, libraries, conferences …
No. Dating is not sexual. At least not on a physical level. It’s an abstract dance of interpersonal language couched in terms that are not sexual.
These particular dates are not sexual. Dates are the ways in which people separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. If you want to find someone to do sex things with. Those other places you mentioned also have people looking for sex, so that particular argument isn’t really a valid one.
No, you’re missing the point. I’m not saying any of these dates are ‘supposed’ to end in bed, but the idea of dating is that a relationship starts. Relationships, except for the really, really broken ones, have two people who are also physically intimate – sometimes for procreation and sometimes for personal enjoyment. Frequency and level of physical intimacy will vary, but as I said, one does not usually date someone they find unattractive.
Dating is not sexual anymore, and that’s thanks to the rise in asexual awareness.
Many asexuals will assert that they are romantic, and thus, will date other people to find their romatic relationship – with, of course, no sex or undertones thereof. While sexuals are most likely looking for someone to end up in bed with (maybe in the far future, maybe that day), and due to that, giving it sexual undertones, dating having sexual implications is no longer as all encompasing as it used to be.
You could also quibble about the meaning of the word “date.”
If any of that isn’t clear, ask, and I’ll try to clarify.
What percentage of the population is asexual?
The exact number is unknown, but they are a very vocal minority clamoring for visibility for some reason unbeknownst to me. Current estimates put it at 1% or less of the population – but that number can expand rapidly depending on how you define “asexual.”
The science so far has yet to find a distinct genetic marker or marker set that indicates asexuality, obscuring things even more. There are patterns (mentioned in http://www.medicaldaily.com/asexuality-real-how-rare-orientation-helps-us-understand-human-sexuality-332346), but those same patterns often apply to homosexuals as well (for example, gay men are more likely to have an older brother than straight men). In contrast, there is a known genetic marker set in homosexual men – and it’s linked to their mother’s fecundity. The lack of finding a distinct marker set is most likely due to insufficient research, but it is possible it doesn’t exist.
So, how does this relate to the word “date” and the changing definition? That’s a bit of guesswork.
Earlier definitions of “date” didn’t involve sex at all, or even necessarily really liking a person. You set a “date” with your dentist or doctor, or you set a “date” to go shopping with a friend (possibly because they’re more knowledgeable about what it is you’re shopping for). Previously, the verb used for what you describe was “court.” I think – and I have no source for this – the definition and implications you and I think of came about in the 60s.
As for why the “modern” change, it’s extremely recent; roughly 2006 is when the asexual movement started gaining traction. With social media beginning to form then, and what the asexual identified people used to promote their viewpoint, what most likely happened was that the term began to be used in much the same way words are spread now: one person changes the definition slightly, a group accepts that definition and begins spreading and insisting on that new definition, and then a sufficiently large group accepts the new definition and it becomes the standard. “Date’s” sexual undertones have, in effect, become neutered through this process. We can see a similar result in changed definitions with the word “feminist.”
So less than one percent of the population gets to redefine what ‘dating’ is?
The Tyranny of the Shrill Minority, indeed.
Honestly dating is what two people define it to be.
There were a lot of female platonic friends in high school and college that I was interested in and we’d do things together that could otherwise qualify as dates, but the intention was that it wasn’t a date, so it wasn’t.
For blind dates, it’s always seemed to me that the first date is primarily about discovery. It’s to make a determination if this is something to go somewhere romantic, go somewhere platonic, or to be considered a mistake not to be repeated.
This situation, to me, most closely resembles a blind date, as they’re quick message-to-meet situations, so even if Ellie wasn’t a plant, there’d be little-to-no actual knowledge of each other so the first date would be primarily learning about each other, and the question of direction would be determined over the course of the date (though, once again, it’s predetermined for Ellie that the direction is no where).
But that’s just by my definition. It’s authoritative only in the realm of my own opinion. It’s quite valid for it to be laughably false through another person’s view.
Yep! There’s also brunettes! ;)
I have to wonder if he’s just a run of the mill (albeit suspicious) user of Tired Guy’s dating site, if he’s investigating the site.
Wow. Just opened this post on my laptop. The Sun’s rays in panel two really popped.
This took a turn 0-o now the only question is if the blind guy will interrupt this date
Your cover’s blown! Quick! Ninja vanish!
The news that Ellie carried smoke pellets in her purse that burst on contact with a hard surface would be not at all surprising.
Okay, maybe just a bit.
But not much at all. Like finding a quarter on the ground surprising.
In five minutes the jutsu is going to wear off and he’s going to discover he has been having a conversation with a chunk of wood inexplicably floating in the air.
Looking at this comic again, I’m seeing that I’m forgetting author comments. A person wearing a hoodie is a sign of them hiding something. I believe hairstyles to cover one eye in an indicator that Ellie’s deliberately blinding herself here.
That or she’s mimicing Anise with a brighter shirt and no headband.
Hell, the guys not even being a jerk, he’s absolutely right! LOL
It must be hard for Ellie… figuring things out a good week after everyone else did.
…Well. Not sure about Ellie, but I like this one. Hope he stays for a few strips.