ChronosCat

Yay for clock-filled background in panel one! (And I really mean it this time; that's really cool.)

The first definition I heard (which I've always understood to be the first definition; at any rate it was over 15 years ago, immediately following the first time I heard the term "Mary Sue" at all) included a part about the character stealing the spotlight from the series' true main characters. Unless one thinks one can determine better than the author who the story's main characters should be, this by definition limits Mary Sues to fanfiction. While the more modern definitions I've heard leave that part out, I think it does illustrate one of the big problems with how the term tends to be used: often reviewers and "fans" use the term when they think a female character is getting more attention than the male characters they think the author should be focusing on.

Oops. I didn't bother clicking the links, and saw that the first one was to the main story and just skimmed ahead. I've never actually considered the "Mysterious Leader Guy" to be Noah. For one thing, none of the other characters in that story had ever (or have since) appeared in the main story (and the only one who has appeared in even any non-canon strips is Dan)*. For another, Mysterious Leader Guy had an orb floating over his shoulder for the first few strips (I actually thought it was all the time, but looking at the story again the orb disappears when they get into the bandit cave), which has never been the case for Noah even in shadowy cloaked form. I must admit however, comparing that image with the one from your third link, what we see of their hair under the hoods is effectively identical. I wonder if it's just a case of re-used character designs, or if Dan actually intended MLG to be Noah? * EDIT: Actually, looking over the story again, Dan's martial arts instructor looked a lot like Greg. Still, the majority of the characters in the story were new.

No, it's obviously this guy! Well, this strip wasn't entirely narration and dialogue free, but the only narration in was a time reference, and all the dialogue was in untranslated "meows". And it also is integral to the plot! (Actually, there was a truly narration and dialogue free strip not too much later.)

I'm an atheist myself (or agnostic depending on one's definitions, as my refusal to believe anything with 100% certainty overrides my belief in there not being a God or gods) and I try to avoid religious terms when swearing. "Damn" is a hard habit to break, but I have been pretty successful in removing "Oh my God" from repertoire of exclamations. Because I don't like offending people unnecessarily, I've also done my best to replace most other swears with non-offensive (usually silly) replacements, though my results are mixed. When I was in school I had several teachers tell me that I needed to learn metric because one day the country would be switching to it. I've since forgotten most of the metric I learned in those classes, but I wish we had switched as a nation (and actually still wish we would, even though I'd have to re-learn a bunch of terms), as it's way simpler than the imperial system. (I don't do a lot of the sort of measuring that would require switching between one set of Imperial units and another, but when I do I find it really annoying trying to figure out. Of course, it doesn't help that I never actually learned Imperial units in school...)

Yay for half-starburst background in panel one, and blurry-disk sunburst in panel three! ...After all this time of drawing Rhoda buff, I wonder what the chance are of Dan drawing her that way accidentally the next time she shows up in the main story?

Yay for sunburst/starburst background in panel three! I suppose that depends on if Dan has figured out the next part of the plot in enough detail to start in on it. Based on tweets and commentaries, several of the recent strips have been written last minute, and Dan has been suffering from a lot of writer's block. He hasn't said so outright that I can recall, but I think this Catalina+Rhoda romance sub-plot has been mostly filler (at least in the sense that Dan has been using it to stall for time).

The Soviet Union had a shuttle program too. However, development was years behind the US, and the project was suspended for budgetary reasons and eventually cancelled before they could do any manned space flights. (They built a workable shuttle and got one unmanned space test flight in, though.)

Yay for starburst background in panel six!

Yay for sunburst background in panel four! (It's debatable whether it truly counts as a sunburst, as the central disk isn't well defined, but I get tired of cheering for starbursts all the time.)

I think at this point most if not all of the US is doing things to limit it's spread, though how severe the efforts are vary by state and city. In my area, restaurants may no longer allow people to eat at them; it's all drive-through, delivery, or in some case "order ahead then we'll bring it out to your car". My bank has gone drive-through only as well, and the libraries, churches, and local theater are closed. And I live in the backwoods of Maine (there haven't even been any confirmed cases in my county yet, though the state as a whole does have 42 at this point).

I forgot I hadn't commented on this one yet. First of all, yay for bubbly background! Secondly, I'd probably go with "A", as "Hi" is my standard greeting (I even use it on animals that don't talk) and while that look isn't a bad one, it isn't the sort of thing to have a lot of affect on me either.

Yay for starburst background in panel six! I have nothing else to add.

The way that cord is hanging down in front of the books left me wondering for a second what a "Bestia" was...

The Amish don't reject metalworking, glassmaking, etc. - they just chose to stop accepting most new technological advancement after a certain point. So while they may be refusing to change their culture with the times, they certainly aren't rejecting civilization completely.

My mother and sister are vegetarians, and they generally only bring it up if someone is going to be buying or preparing food for them (and isn't already well aware of the fact). I personally haven't encountered anyone obnoxiously campaigning for vegetarianism; if you have, please don't judge all vegetarians by them. As for Jehovah's Witnesses, they're just following the directives of their religion. I don't know if that disqualifies them for the "obnoxious nerd" category, or if it just means that the religion promotes obnoxious nerddom.

This comic, before it shifts focus to ADHD, addresses what I consider the true difficulty with defining "nerd" and "geek": traditionally (or at least when I was growing up in the 80s & 90s) one of the defining factors was interest in genres (sci fi, fantasy, superheroes) and subjects (like computers) which are now mainstream. As such it could be argued that almost everyone is a nerd/geek, rendering the terms outdated. Alternately, the definition Justin was using is outdated - but the problem is many people still use that definition. I suppose one way to preserve something close to the traditional nerd/geek definition would be: someone who seeks out and enjoys something because it's sci-fi/fantasy/superheroes/etc is a nerd, while someone who could care less about those genres and only checks the stuff out because it's popular and/or they've heard it's good is not a nerd. But on the other hand, it probably would make more sense to just call the people in the first group "fans" of whichever genre rather than "nerds".

It all depends on your definition of junk food, and how the pizza is made. Personally, I only use the term to refer to unhealthy food that is eaten as a snack or otherwise not as part of a meal; if it is usually eaten as a meal (or as part of a meal) I don't count it as junk food. Also, at it's simplest, pizza is bread, tomato sauce, and cheese: not inherently unhealthy, if not exactly a complete nutritionally balanced meal (the right toppings can correct for that). On the other hand, pizzas often have so much salt and fat that they don't count as healthy, so I can see why someone might call them junk food.

I recently saw some news/documentary show(I forget which show) that had a segment on beer making. There was one stage where most of the ingredients had been mixed together but no hops added (and if I remember correctly didn't have any alcohol yet either); it actually sounded rather good. They they said the were going to add hops to give it bitterness. I know different people have different tastes and all, but as someone who is not a fan of bitterness, my first thought was "Why would you do that?!"

Grace remembered earlier in the party, she's just apparently so caught up in SCIENCE! (of magic) and being able to use a wand that she forgot again. (Which isn't to say someone couldn't remind her, I'm just saying once she's no longer so caught up in the moment, she'll probably remember on her own.)

That's a matter of opinion. I've been to see some wind turbines in my area, and I thought they looked rather elegant (not to mention really impressive in their scale when you got close to them). Mind you, I've heard plenty of complaints about them being "eyesores" and I can't recall anyone else defending their looks, so my opinion may be the minority. The issue of the danger to birds on the other hand, is something I'm concerned about. I wonder if some way could be developed to warn birds away from them?

Yay for starburst background in panel one! Yay for glowing circle background (with reverse-starburst overlay) in panel two! Technically, she always had the potential for it, she just would have had to have figured out how to suppress her Uryuom power. As soon as we saw that Uryuom using that wand at the end of Sister 3, I figured Grace would be able to use human magic as easily as anyone else now. I'm actually a little surprised Tedd and Grace hadn't realized the same thing yet, but I suppose Tedd hasn't had much time to investigate the changes to magic yet. It fits, but I wonder where he learned the term. While he watches some anime (and learned a few Japanese words and phrases), and enjoyed watching Star Trek with Susan, in general Elliot is one of the least nerdy of the main 8. I suspect most people do - and as I mentioned the other day, I suspect the nudity taboo is a big part of the problem. Because we can't easily compare our bodies to those around us, it's far too easy to assume one's body is below average and/or "not good enough". (The fact that naked people in classic art and scantily-clad people in the media are almost all very good looking doesn't help matters.) Of course, in Diane's case it's not necessarily body issues she's facing right now. Breaking a taboo takes a lot of confidence (or ignorance), and that might be the confidence of Grace's that Diane is currently envious of. (It could also be a combination of both types of confidence.)

I share Grace's views on nudity, if not her habit of actually spending time naked around other people (due to a combination of lack of self-confidence and lack of opportunity). However, if I had access to a Uryuom Worker Suit I'd probably want to wear it whenever I could; they're very cool outfits.

So I it didn't make sense to me that Grace would be so energetic when she hasn't had any food or sleep since using the "common magic" made her tired. I asked about it on twitter, and Dan's answer was "Adrenaline rush." Based on that, we probably haven't seen the last of sleepy Grace, and for the sake of her health I hope she gets something to eat soon. Well, it would increase the comfort of those who haven't gotten used to her being naked (and would be a good idea for situations where there's a risk of wardrobe malfunctions but not everybody around her knows about or is okay with that risk). ...But personally I think it would be more healthy if people who are going to spend a significant time around Grace learn to accept and get used to her being naked. While there are good reasons to wear clothing in many circumstances, I feel the blanket taboo against nudity is overkill and contributes to people feeling insecure about their bodies.

This story has been going on so long, that as a parody story I would expect Dan to start to run out of things to say before too much longer. I wouldn't be surprised if (and actually hope that ) before long he either does a fast-forward/time-skip to the end, or says "to be continued" and switches to another story. If he doesn't do one of those things, then we could a very long wait for the next story, as in a typical Video Game RPG Susan would probably be less than a fourth of the way through the adventure at this point, maybe a lot less (I don't know about Fable, but if I was playing a JRPG and had only completed two quests and acquired one companion, I wouldn't expect to be even a tenth of the way through the game).