[1146] Rough Day
└ posted on Thursday, 16 January 2020, by Novil
- Calvin: Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
- Douglas Adams: A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
- Cantankerus: They’re all so dumb, and I’m their boss! (Sob! Sob!)
- Sandra: Rough day at the office?
- Richard: I’ve started to root for the supervillains in action movies.
Preach on, Richard. I work retail so I feel ya!
Leomon wrote:
My sympathies.
that ceasaron third panel brings back so many memories…(I’m pretty sure I actually have somewhere the comic too)
No plan survives the first contact with the enemy and no software survives the first contact with the user.
I have worked in programming and it’s not only suprising how users manage to breaks things no matter how well you test the software before. The change requests, especially late requests, can be pretty ridicilous, too:
Customer: ‘Hey, we know there are only two weeks until delivery of your device. But it can already do X, so it should be easy to add Y without delay and extra cost, right?’
Me inside: ‘WWWWHHHYYYY????’
Me ourside: ‘Sir, that feature would need considerable software and hardware changes. We will have to check order times, but my first estimation is that it would take another three month and a low six digit sum.’
Even better when the machine is already installed in a production line and you are supposed to install and test things in a one hour maintenance window with an attached potential monetary penalty for every minute the system comes back online too late.
That’s why I changed to a less stessfull job.
Oh wow! A couple of nice blasts from the past. I definitely still have the books.
https://www.asterix.com/en/the-collection/albums/asterix-and-the-goths/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/569429.Mostly_Harmless
I was not introduced to Calvin & Hobbes until I emigrated to the US.
Every time people invent better idiot-proofing, nature invents a better idiot.
Niiiiiiice, a bit of Asterix!
What do you think of the new ones (…and the Picts, the Missing Scroll, the Chariot Race, and the Chieftain’s Daughter) done by Conrad and Ferri? I love them – you would honestly think Uderzo was still at it. The writing is razor-sharp as well. I’ve got the Picts translated in a Scots dialect, the first such GN to be done that way, and the character names are brilliant.
The 3rd panel is from Asterix, isn’t it? I’ve read Calvin, HHGTTG, and Asterix. I really enjoyed early HH.
(It’s just that I reached the 4th panel before high school. Now I’m in retail.)
Funny story, I ended up following Sandy and Woo because of the Calvin and Hobbes stripe…
That one the very one up there…
One solution for face to face dealings (selling, meetings, retail, and related) is actually mirrors. People are less likely to go full idiot with a ready audience, which may be only seeing themselves acting in this fashion but even an audience of one is enough.
The same can be done over the phone, just preface every conversation with ‘this call IS being recorded for quality control purposes.’ bonus points if you get someone on the other end after that ‘please be advised this call may be recorded…’ ditty.
@ cathulion:
That’s from Asterix.
Asterix and the Goths, i presume
Facts
The customer is not always right.
Managers don’t always know the more than their subordinates.
If it can go wrong it WILL go wrong.
People are always dumber than you think.
Well I have always rooted for Willy E. Coyote o catch that damn bird…
And for Tom to catch that annoying mouse…
So say what you will but Revenge of the Sith ending is the best.
Woa, Douglas Adams and Asterix references in the same place ? I so never expected that to happen ever…
Also, I’m genuinely surprised at how many people know Asterix outside of french speaking countries, didn’t realise it was that famous.
@ Whirlwound:
In Asterix, Uderzo was both the artist and writer only after Goscinny’s passing. Asterix and the Goths was written by Goscinny. Sometime I wonder how his books could ever be translated (looking at you Asterix in Spain) given his love for puns and play of words.
@ Swedish Chef:
In my experience as a translation reader. The fix was to get a translator with a big love for language puns.
@ Paul Kauphart:
He’s as big as Tintin in Spanish-speaking countries!
Sometimes I forget Oliver is German, and then he throws in an Astérix reference right alongside Calvin and Hobbes. As an American, I probably wouldn’t have recognized it without a decade of French classes.
Asterix! I haven’t seen anything from that in so long that I’d even forgotten about it. Now if you’ll forgive me, it’s time to scour the internet looking for where I can binge the movies…
Thanks for the comic!
There are Asterix movies, come on… they’re kinda widely known.
But, to be fair, It was a Belgian friend who introduced them to me, so I might be overestimating their fame around here.
“The result of making the world fool proof, would be to populate the world with fools.” attributed to Benjamin Franklin.
@ Paul Kauphart:
Asterix and Tintin are the most widely published Euro comics in the USA. You can find them in any decently stocked bookstore, or used to when I was growing up.
@ Paul Kauphart:
A lot of my family of choice knows Asterix and Obelix, but then again, I’ll freely acknowledge that we’re not exactly typical Americans. (For instance, we acknowledge that there’s a world outside of the United States!) I started reading them when I was stationed in the UK for a few years, while two of my partners got exposed to them through language classes.
… I know I was going to add something else, but I just lost about half an hour looking through our Asterix and Obelix books and laughing! I’d complain, but time well spent, actually.
@ Gamesman:
Corollary. If things can not go wrong — They will.Gamesman wrote:
Corrolary If things cannot possibly go wrong they will.
@ Gamesman:
As a French who read the comic book, I confirm
This here is one of the consistent background radiations of my life
I’m not sure where my brother and I first got hold of Asterix & Obelix. Possibly Children’s Digest; I know that was our first exposure to Tintin…
*goes off to check the wikipedia page on English Translations of Asterix*
National Geographic May 1977: “The Celts: Europe’s Founders” *Vive les Celtes!*
Random wrote:
No, every time people invent better idiot-proofing, idiots say “hold my beer and watch this!”
Happened TODAY:
My boss: “There’s this issue in this system. Here’s a case where it’s not working correctly. The programmer who made it isn’t working for us anymore. Can you fix it?”
Me: *looks at code*
Me: “Okay, I can fix the issue for the specific case you mentioned, but the rest of the system will remain broken until it’s written from scratch”
My boss: “Okay, just fix this issue”
As a Latin-American, I have always thought that ‘Mafalda’, by Quino, in many ways is heir to the idiosyncrasies of ‘Asterix’, by Goscinny and Uderzo, Merluzius (in Spanish) or Cantankerus (in English) is a great example. Grat Job!
@ Random:
Is it a corollary to Murphy’s law?
I’ve started rooting for the villains in real life. Clean the world off and start over again from scratch.
I actually am for very very long time. I was protecting “innocent people” from “freaks” as a kid. But after many years I realized they were actually right. “Humanity is too fool, they can’t be good”. I thought it’s some madman’s quote. But it actually isn’t. It’s true.
If I was comic character, I would definitely be a major villain that hates humanity for its foolishness and evilness.
Well i don’t root for supervillains per se… But I do prefer anti-hero books lately…
@ Smoutwortel:
Goscinny had to admire Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge’s work on Asterix in Britain. In one frame a stall keeper says “Tu penses que ce mélon est trop cher?” and the customer says “il est”, appearing the next frame with a melon on his head.
In the English version, because Bell and Hockridge always provided alternate puns where they couldn’t generate an English pun from Goscinny’s texts, it read “So you think this melon isn’t fresh?” “It is rather, old fruit.” Goscinny loved it.
Elsewhere in the same album, the legionaries hiccuped to “hIc” “haec” “hoc”. In French, the word for the sound of a hiccup is “hips” so Bell and Hockridge were able to include a pun which Goscinny could not.
I can vouch for the great puns in the English translations of the Astrix comics. I had read several of them back when I was a lot younger. I’m not surprised that a lot of other people got the strip. Astrix has a cult following in the USA and the kind of people who enjoy the misadventures of Asterix and Obelix would be inclined to get into webcomics.
Nooo, I was really hoping for a whole arc full of untitled racoon game 🙁
I hope that Oliver and Powree can one day return to this ‘strip. With original art/text for the first 3 panels, and done in a 4 panel square, this might make a good t-shirt. (text would have to be larger) Or poster. Not saying I’d buy one, just saying that “I’m the last intelligent man” despair is something widespread and deep-rooted.
AndyB wrote:
This is because in French, a bowler hat is called a “melon hat”.
By Toutatis!!
We’re getting crossover after crossover.
“Common sense isn’t a girft. It’s a punishment, because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it.”
Rooting on supervillains is not what you do on normal basis?
I’m also sure that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.
My reasoning:
1. Considering the sheer number of planets in the universe it is only logical that intelligent life evolved at least on one of those planets.
2. Since no intelligent life exists on Earth, it therefore must exist elsewhere in the universe.
Welcome to the club. What took you so long to root for the real underdog?
Not in trouble yet Richard, so long as the villains aren’t to heinous, if you start rooting for the likes of Gihren Zabi or Char Aznable circa 0093 of the Universal Century then you might be going off the deep end.
Richard, I started rooting for the Villains long ago.
@ Magthere:
Sieg Zeon.
So by villains in action movies you mean those guys whose plans usually hinge on very specific things that usually happen only because of chance, hero stupidity or basically only because the movie demands it? Who instead of just killing the heroes, let them go over and over again? Who make their plans completely obvious to everyone or that failing, actually explain how their plan is going to work before actually finishing that plan?
Those action movie villains? You sure you’re any smarter than those you cry about? Just curious about that… XD
There is a body of opinion that Elon Musk is one.
Started? Started? boy i started cheering for super villains when i was like 10 years old.
The never ending joy at the end of the movie. The always continues luck the heroes have. I got sick of it.
Plus, those villains have interesting ideas, would you not like to see there plans come to fruition once? Make the world suffer a bit, and the world as a hole will most defiantly try to improve the world after that.. instead we have Oil spills, Tax evasion, and today Global warming..
You know what they say, creation comes after destruction.. GO at em Mr Villain.
@ Gamesman:
As a matter of fact the customer sometimes doesn’t even know what he really wants, so he comes at you with the wildest ideas!
I agree with everybody in the first three panels (on the posters).