Walls of text, finally. Sort of had a lot of trouble with this one, so, uh, yeah… i dunno. Just tired i think.
-wwwwwwwrrrrrrrr
Virus Comix News
Subnormality and some other stuff too.
-
RSS Feed
Subnormality and some other stuff too.
Walls of text, finally. Sort of had a lot of trouble with this one, so, uh, yeah… i dunno. Just tired i think.
-wwwwwwwrrrrrrrr
Virus Comix News 
April 12, 2011 at 12:18 am
Three things: I’m at least 15 years older than your characters and I still identify. Great file name. What no alt-text?
Also: you rock. Don’t go changing.
April 12, 2011 at 12:22 am
Sadly, too many of us are willing to change everything we are to be potentially accepted for a bottom-rung job.
I like it when your comic don’t make me laugh or even contain a defined joke but make me smile at the end all same.
April 12, 2011 at 12:54 am
Love your comics, walls of text warm my heart! keep on writing and drawing!
April 12, 2011 at 12:58 am
I have found flight attendants to be very nice people. I bet PHG would be one of the nicer ones.
April 12, 2011 at 1:03 am
Reminds me of the last job I was at before I quit.
I’m willing to put up with a rough job so long as my life outside the job is fine. Work-life separation. You make your money, and then you get off and live your life! Ideally, you’d try new things, things that only remotely interest you and gain wildly varied life experiences and friends from it! Spend as much time as physically possible outside your apartment on evenings and weekends. Also, challenge yourself to NEVER talk about your job outside of work. It’s amazing how hard this is, but how fulfilling it becomes.
But this was the biggest problem with my last job. Sure, I worked with assholes and had dumb bosses and was given workloads that made no sense, but after work, I couldn’t escape it! I was in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and I quickly exhausted what there was to do there. Maybe I’m just a little ADD like that, but it was the most severely depressing time of my life only because I couldn’t have a life outside work, aside from maybe wandering aimlessly around the Walmart.
Life got better, I found new work in a new location, and although the job still leaves a lot to be desired, life is good, that is my life outside of work is good, and that’s enough for me :-).
Speaking of which, what are you still doing on the computer?!
April 12, 2011 at 10:53 am
I like you good sir or madam. Please keep existing. ❤
April 25, 2011 at 4:18 pm
@Ben: That’s one of the nicest and most tender comments I’ve EVER read on the internet.
Winston Rowntree not only appears to make great comics but to attract great people too 🙂
April 26, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Aw Go… you make me blush. ;D
April 12, 2011 at 2:08 am
I love how your characters always seem to end up discovering the forgotten underworkings of society that everyone forgets about. The stuff we take for granted in comics. Like a regional office for something. It makes it all seem that much more real/sad.
April 12, 2011 at 4:57 am
The pink hair…noooooooooo……
April 12, 2011 at 5:07 am
I’m pretty sure that interviewer guy is me in a decade. Or so.
P.S.: Pink hair was so much better than um… that.
April 12, 2011 at 5:34 am
i hoped so much that he was the secret supermanager who was trying to get a more honest picture of her. and then give her an amazing job. and then remove all the conflict and darkness from the comic-…actually, i somehow suspect that this job won’t work out.
April 12, 2011 at 11:46 am
You know, I was suspecting the same ending?
April 12, 2011 at 3:38 pm
As did I, right from the start. When he was asking about her greatest strength I was so sure. I was very surprised and a little winded by the lack of it.
April 12, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Yeah, I was really feeling the lack of motivation angle, but there was no big reveal at the end like I’ve come to expect.
The middle part was still beautiful though.
April 13, 2011 at 2:00 am
I would have expected that ending from any other author, and i did thought about it for a sec, but i think i would have been a little disappointing to have a happy ending, this girl still has a looong journey ahead of hear before reaching catharsis.
April 12, 2011 at 5:43 am
<3!
April 12, 2011 at 6:15 am
Nooo, pink-hair girl is now just hair girl.
April 12, 2011 at 6:25 am
I’m not yet searching a job, but I relate to this.
“They asked me what my long-terms goals were and why i wanted to work here and I told them what i knew they knew i knew they wanted to hear even though neither of us believed it.”
So true.
April 12, 2011 at 6:32 am
fuck menial jobs, fuck’em all to hell.
April 12, 2011 at 6:56 am
😦
I hope the pink hair comes back again at some point.
Awesome comic
April 12, 2011 at 7:09 am
I can soooo relate…
It so hard/almost impossible to motivate myself in everything. School jobs and hobbies alike.
The real problem is that there is no likely solution. 😦
April 12, 2011 at 7:50 am
Looking forward to seeing what happens next. She’s waaaay too much like me and I’m middle-aged so what does that tell you? Really enjoyed this, as always.
April 12, 2011 at 8:09 am
I think you’re channeling one of my kids here.
April 12, 2011 at 8:39 am
does this comic mean that pink haired will never find a job that’ll accept her for her (e.g. this job, the waitressing job)???
that really sucks for PHG
April 12, 2011 at 10:11 am
I like this a lot. Nice artwork, nice, solid storyline without an attempt to put some major, cathartic pearl of wisdom to the end. The PHG is a truth speaker.
If long comic books are called graphic novels, should these be called graphic short stories?
April 12, 2011 at 10:45 am
My favourite bit in this one is the panel where Reg is talking about how unenthusiastic he was applying for his present job, and how he still has no idea what his long-term goals are…and in that very panel we see he was named Employee of the Month. I laughed so hard over that. It’s so true: human resource departments get it into their heads they have to name someone “employee of the month” as a “motivator,” so they pick whoever has the fewest customer complaints or who’s shown up, on time, the most often that month, or who hasn’t spat in the coffee maker, or whatever.
April 12, 2011 at 10:51 am
Update! I always have a better day when I check Subnormality and see a new comic.
Bit of a Mary Sue in this ‘un? Who am I to say though, not like I know you. But I definitely see myself in her shoes, maybe I should go apply for a random job out of my comfort zone.
And for those worried, this is not the first time PHG has changed her hair color… methinks maybe after her interview they’ll let her have it back after she gets the job. (I hope for her sake..)
It’s great to see you getting back into a bit of a story line format again (not to suggest I don’t love the poster-worthy one-shots you’ve been up to mostly the past few months) and we all love a good PHG comic. How’s Sphinx-y doing by the way? ^_^
Anyway, I’m leaving you a wall of comment so I’ll peace out now. Lot’s of love and still crossing my fingers for a Subnormality book to place upon my coffee table. ;D
April 12, 2011 at 10:59 am
Also, in the section where PHG is talking about her childhood:
“I guess and then suddenly… AAAH! You’re done school and you have to get out”
Should be “You’re done with school” I think.
…don’t normally point these things out but I thought you might like to know.
April 12, 2011 at 11:25 am
I *adored* this comic. What a lovely conversation. I can totally relate.
I read the wikipedia article for Subnormality the other day and it mentioned that pink-haired girl’s hair has the tendency to immediately change from pink to brown (and back). I feel like her hair change here was in reference to that article, and that made me smile.
April 12, 2011 at 11:49 am
The passage about how, being born into (relative) plenty, makes it tougher for us to find ambition came as a big forehead-slapping moment. “Oh… OH! Oh god, that’s it!”
April 18, 2011 at 10:31 pm
Ain’t that the truth. I’ve watched a driven company owner raise children with all the advantages “because they shouldn’t have it as hard as I did growing up”, then wonder why none of them have any ambition or any pride in working out life’s annoying little problems and succeeding against the odds.
April 12, 2011 at 11:56 am
Just want to approve of Zombo.com being on the interviewer’s computer.
Amazing comic as always.
April 15, 2011 at 1:13 am
I got my hopes up for being the first person to notice, but knew it was unlikely. But, excellent.
April 12, 2011 at 12:42 pm
This came at just the right time in my life. Thank you.
April 12, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Wow, you just took the words out of my heart. Everything I ever wanted to say to people about where I’m headed, who I am or what I’m thinking most of the time, summarized in a comic. God bless you man.
April 12, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Not again. Pink hair girl is back to being a drone. why couldn’t she have a different superpower? But i think she would make a good flight attendant, just hoping she won’t work with sex crazy pilot and downer stewardesses
April 12, 2011 at 1:41 pm
“Do you speak jive?”
Oh lord. 🙂 I’m so old.
April 12, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Wow, after a day with two interviews for internships I don’t even want, this hits the spot.
April 12, 2011 at 3:03 pm
delightful, this pretty much sums up the life of someone in his 20’s nowadays.
April 12, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I love PHG. In some ways she reminds me of my daughter, sorry to be the old fart busting into the kid’s room. But anyway, yeah, Winston has nailed the vibe of the generation. Excellent art with walls of text rule.
April 12, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Woohoo, pink haired girl is back! Thank you, great work as always.
April 12, 2011 at 5:37 pm
and another awesome comic!
how do you come up with this true deep stuff all the time?
btw “look at her hair her hair is amazing” ^^
April 12, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Whoa! this comic just hit me right on the spot, i reacently graduated college (2 years ago actually, and i know that makes me like 1% top on earths born with luck scale), and i really can´t manage to see my options in life,
either i can get a crappy job that pays good, or follow a passion job that I can really say it pays…
But either way, I´m being pressured to choose and either choice is like a choice of a lifetime, hell my hair is not even pink (metaphorically) anymore, anyway, i guess what i get from this comic is a big loud: “YOU´RE NOT ALONE”, so thanks
April 12, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Haha!
April 12, 2011 at 8:26 pm
I wish I had something pithy to add, but I don’t. All I can do is say thank you for caring enough about your audience to keep putting your heart into this, something that so many can identify with, and ask that you please don’t ever stop.
April 13, 2011 at 9:28 pm
I second this
April 12, 2011 at 10:39 pm
I feel bad for PHG, and see her reflected in many of my friends who went to college and got degrees, who now work shitty jobs to pay off massive student loans. Did I really miss anything by not going? Right now I work on helicopters for a living, and I didn’t go to college for that. Make damn good money, too. Maybe I could’ve benefited from a formal education, but I pursue knowledge anyway, and I don’t need to pay thousands of dollars to read a book and think about it. Anyone can do that. As for lacking direction, shit man my job isn’t how I define myself anyway. My family and friends give me my sense of belonging and my kids are my pride and joy, my constant satisfaction. Maybe I don’t have PHG’s problem because I never felt the pressure to be hugely successful that a college degree implies.
tl/dr: fuck post-college expectations, your shitty job doesn’t have to define you.
April 13, 2011 at 1:24 am
What if you work for the university you never went to, to maybe in a year get some free classes? Even if I know that there will never be any magic in going to college now?
April 13, 2011 at 3:00 am
And thus why I’m going back to school- better to dig a governmental debt hole than to continue to founder around trying to get some job that I don’t know the right answers to get, that I’ll probably hate if I get it.
April 13, 2011 at 3:14 am
I think I’ve eaten there.
Food was all right.
April 13, 2011 at 8:21 am
i just got made redundant and i feel exactly like this. glad to know im not alone!
April 13, 2011 at 8:45 am
here I am, sitting in my towel, on my bass amp, living another daily ritual, checking for the latest subnormality, AND IT WAS HERE TODAY! school will be a little easier today, thanks WR
April 13, 2011 at 2:23 pm
I love this Girl more every new comic!
By the way, that “only destination” sign in the office, is a way to say that we are gonna see this guy appearing in her life again?
April 13, 2011 at 3:01 pm
I’m leaving my resume on monday, you rock rowntree.
April 13, 2011 at 6:45 pm
I can completely relate to this. I’m a guy in his mid 20s about to have another stab at higher education and this episode really nails some of the worries I currently have. Whoever said that this reflects the mindset of someone in the 20s is correct, it really does.
I love these comics, got me back into comic reading. Don’t ever stop.
April 13, 2011 at 6:53 pm
I identify with this one so much. Even when I’ve actually managed to get myself somewhere I really liked, it always seemed like there was an element of falling into it. I simply haven’t been one of those hypothetical people they are looking for in the interview, where they have a grand plan for themselves and they know what they are doing and whatever bottom-of-the-hierarchy job they get just happens to be a perfect alignment between what they want and what the company wants.
Instead, it’s more like: “I’m applying here because I need a job and this one isn’t blatantly one of my worse options and might actually work out, and it might or might not be suitable in the long term, but if I haven’t done this before I can’t really tell what it’s like until I actually start doing it. And it’s definitely not the job I’ve always wanted, because there is no such job, and the few that I might fantasize about are ones I’ll probably never get, because I don’t have the innate talents involved and/or I don’t want those jobs badly enough to feel constant driving ambition towards them. And I wish it wasn’t considered such a terrible thing that I’m settling for a position that’s OK and not some kind of dream job.”
Of course you usually can’t say that, although if you’ve felt out the interviewer a bit and you’re relatively young it seems like you can get away with being kind of uncertain, in a vague, “I’m still looking into such-and-such-careers” type of way. Instead it’s “I’m looking to apply and expand [some set of skills]”, or “I have a passion for [overblown description of something mildly related to the actual unremarkable task of the job]”, or whatever.
And there are the really odd interview questions, like trying to explain some difficult situation or conflict you handled. Which is weird for those of us who don’t normally think about customers or clients or coworkers specifically as problems to be solved, or if we are actually good enough at avoiding drama that we don’t have any really interesting stories.
Not to even get me started on the “greatest weakness” crap. My real greatest weakness is a constant waffling between trying to empathetically view people as not too different from myself, and restrained anger at how stupid other people act. My second greatest weakness could possibly be euphemized as poor time management skills, but even then I have to wrap it up in terms that make it seem as minor or soluble as possible to make it seem acceptable. They might be OK with “I do better in a team environment with a clear structure and deadlines.” They definitely don’t want to hear “If something seems pointless, time-consuming and dull, I probably will put it off indefinitely, unless I do it out of a sense of responsibility to save someone else from having to do it, or else I’m relentlessly nagged and threatened through the whole process.”
Anyway. Um. Rant complete?
April 13, 2011 at 6:54 pm
“Very good P.H.G. !
Let the dice rule and skip the Shitmans.
Show “them” you aren’t just another mollusc.”
I hope Reg did offer her something to drink. Well… not too much. “Good luck P..?? B.H.G.!!”
She IS a mollusc !! Yes ?
Warning!
This funny video is only in a superficially far-fetched way related to this comic.
Vaclav and the pean:
(Wikileaks could also be involved)
April 13, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Frighteningly spot on!
April 13, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Now that I think of it, most of my life decisions were made by (a) other people and (b) dice. Pink, furry dice.
Then again, what kind of cold, calculating person has a Five Year plan? I mean, it’s good to plan ahead, but someone who knows what they’ll be doing in five years is most likely planning an assassination.
Also, when did you change the archive numbering system? Why did they start at 330 anyway?
Also, is that self-reference I see in panel 22? “You haven’t used too many words or anything” Nice, Rowntree.
April 13, 2011 at 11:11 pm
I want to be a flight attendent.
April 14, 2011 at 1:13 am
Well why don’t each some of us who live in a particular area gather up together and start own business that doesn’t require talking to those people?
Any business, and you already know that the workforce is at least going to be polite.
April 14, 2011 at 1:26 am
I was made redundant last year, I worked a one month temp job then a one month actual job that I walked away from. It really wasn’t me and my lifelong depression was destroying me. When I started I was happy and excited but, four weeks later, I hated waking up because it meant I was going to work.
I am a really smart guy who works hard but has no long term goals. I don’t see the point. Doesn’t mean I won’t do an amazing job. I truly envy people with a passion for their jobs and wish I felt that. I am a pretty good drawer and painter but I have no passion for art. I have been described as a good writer by a professional writer but it is not me.
I have never learned who I am. And, to quote Danny Glover, I am getting too old for this shit
This cycle of strips has been truly amazing.
April 14, 2011 at 6:43 am
Is it bad that I like my job when my said job is account auditing? Just eight hours a day of tallying money and time and making sure everything is in order and by the book.
I’m really not sure why I get such pleasure out of it when most people would find it one of the most mind-numbingly tedious pointless work and the cause of irritation to others (that’s what we auditors do, audit accounts and find flaws. Nothing personal.)
On the other hand I’ve had jobs teaching small children and doing QA work on video games, both of which made me want to shoot myself, and I’m currently applying to be a college prof just because it would pay much better than crunching Excel 40 hours a week. A bit torn, so feeling this comic quite a bit too.
April 15, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Of course it’s not bad! If it’s something you like to do then that’s great.
I say, even if you disagree about the office politics and the ‘soulless’ nature of office work, there’s still some jobs out there which can provide satisfaction.
I’d certainly not want to teach, at any rate. I’m starting an office job and I prefer that.
April 17, 2011 at 12:35 am
I never quite understood the whole idea of work being soulful or soulless. I mean, let’s assume there is no external locus of meaning, wouldn’t that mean no matter what we do, it’s our responsibility to find meaning in it? We can nod our heads to the assumptions of others and say “such and such is pointless and frustrating, but wouldn’t it be fulfilling to do this?” or we can buckle down and get past all the stuff we don’t like (in my case office politics) and mine the experience for gems.
In my case I found that my day job was much like my hobby, namely composing music. Music consists of sets of often contradictory rules and patterns, where the composer is tasked with generating an organized pattern from which coherence is derived. I take the various elements, either sounds and time or amounts of money and time and balance them, order emergent out of what appears to be chaos. Some might balk at my contention, but really, how many people truly enjoy structurally atonal music?
Sometimes it just strikes me how similar it all is and I just get a sense of synethesiac awe out of it. Haha, a Cantata of Overhead Analysis in C Minor.
Then again, I’m a ‘spergy fellow, so neurotypical mileage might vary.
April 14, 2011 at 10:17 am
I’ve never wanted to manage a business. But reading Subnormality, I feel as if I want to, just so I can protect and encourage the Pink Hair Girls of this world, and never ever ever ask them to change who they are. *sigh*
April 14, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Searching for work myself at the moment, so this is familiar. Slightly different from PHG in that I’m actually looking for work in an area I care about, even if the form has undergone a bit of a shift since the PhD. Unfortunately my sidestep means I’m lacking in the experience department, and bluffing my way through is neither possible, nor compatible with my crippling honesty.
April 14, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Ward Air… Wow, haven’t heard that name in a looooong time. Heh, I rather like these oh-so-subtle clues that the author is a Canuck.
For those not in the know, Ward Air was a small airline out on the prairies that evolved into Time Air, which then got bought and turned into Canadian Regional, under Canadian Airlines, and then later got merged into Air Canada. Every now and then, at Canadian airports, you can actually still see DHC-8 equipment that has WardAir stamped on it that hasn’t been repainted in the 25 years since that airline stopped existing.
April 14, 2011 at 7:43 pm
The last two strips = BRILLIANT, WINSTON.
I’ve been thinking the past several days about how fucking horrible everything is, how you have to sell out and be a corporate suit if you want a decent financial life anymore – not even teachers and public servants in the US will have any rights anymore soon. I’ve been thinking I should just work some shit job and be done with it – just sell whatever time I have to sell and live minimally – but I know I’m capable of doing so much more. We all are. I’m so repulsed by the corporate rhetoric of “entrepreneurial, hard-working, goal-oriented” – resumes, cover letters, suits, interviews, internships, etc. that I think I would rather die than sell my soul to one of those demons.
Your work speaks to me and so many others, WR. You’re such an inspiration, and I hope you keep going, for all of us. Don’t give up because there is meaning and purpose in what you do and share right here, even if the rest of life sucks balls. Thank you so much.
April 14, 2011 at 7:46 pm
All our hair’s about to turn brown when Harper gets majority next month. Sigh 😦
April 14, 2011 at 9:10 pm
I could hardly read the text in this comic. I had to squint; it was very small and close together.
April 15, 2011 at 2:25 am
This comic seems to really get to the root of what our generation is about. I can’t describe it better than that but I really *feel* this comic and enjoyed it.
April 15, 2011 at 7:04 am
These past two comics have been sublime. Story of my life and of most everyone I know in our collective generation. Like Andrew said, I really “feel” them.
*Many* kudos to you, “Winston,” for expressing this experience so cleverly and compassionately!
April 15, 2011 at 12:59 pm
I liked it, but I think maybe PHG opens up too easily – I understand that maybe she is lonely and wants to rant, but the speed at which she does it seems a little unrealistic
but I did like the feelings discussed here, they certainly ring true with me and let me say that whenever I see an update on the website, it makes my day. Keep up the good work Winston 🙂
April 16, 2011 at 1:04 am
This reminds me of exactly me. A small commuter airline had an ad out, and I applied literally on a whim (and desire for free air travel to visit the folks). They called me back before I got home from the interview, and it worked out for two years–best job I ever had before they let me go over some bullshit.
April 16, 2011 at 8:55 am
I really liked this one but for some reason I was expecting her to ask “So when’s the interview?” and for him to say “That WAS the interview” right at the end…I’ve probably been watching too much telly.
April 16, 2011 at 10:29 am
Thanks, now Im reminded about how much my own life sucks. Some days I wonder if I should just take a sniper rifle up into a clock tower and be done with it.
April 17, 2011 at 9:34 am
No. Why make the lives of others suck too? It’s not fair.
April 16, 2011 at 12:31 pm
See now while I can relate I actually fell into a job that I notonly enjoy, allows me to be a scruffy, bearded semi-social lunatic. (I’m a scientist as if there weren’t enough clues)
April 17, 2011 at 5:34 am
My current boss is an asshole and cut my hours and I’m looking for a new job right now. Good timing, Winston. It’s like a nice pat on the shoulder reminding me everything’s gonna be all right. Or not. I feel understood all the same.
April 17, 2011 at 6:45 am
Everything is gonna be alright. We’ll all be dead some day
April 17, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Okay, so, the fact that I feel like you’re speaking directly to ME in many of these comics… Is that insane? Like, delusions of reference?
Either way, keep doing this. It means a lot to me.
April 25, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Is that insane?
Not at all; it just means Winston is a good writer. (Me too.)
April 18, 2011 at 4:12 am
Dziękuję.
April 18, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Applying to places on a whim is one of my favorite hobbies! I once applied to a funeral home a few blocks from my parents’ house. The people who worked there must’ve thought I was out of my mind!
April 18, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Wow. She’s getting into that again. Man, that’s depressing.
Look, I know life’s brutal and all that jazz, but I hope for the happy ending at least for the fictional characters. If I can’t have it, at least they can have it. At least [i]someone[/i] can be happy, be he fictional or not.
Please tell us there is a happy ending in store for her.
April 18, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Reality Bites.
The best jobs I’ve had have been a lesson in “It’s not what you know but who you know”, and them knowing enough about you to be willing to take a risk that your allover experience would be valuable.
The worst jobs I’ve had have been the ones I’ve needed. And have had to lie to HR in a positive, proactive and forward thinking manner to justify them hiring me. They’re not impressed with a long term goal of “putting food on the table, paying the rent and buying gas.”
And at the end of the day, you need a life beyond what you do, even if it is that all encompassing wonder dream job.
April 19, 2011 at 12:39 am
I love the way your comic reminds me that it’s not just me. Thank you so much for that.
April 19, 2011 at 10:55 pm
I was planning to jokingly write, “Stay out of my brain, Winston!”, but seriously, I opened up this page, because I’m under a lot of stress; like, verge-of-tears stress, but now, I feel fine.
So poke around my brain all you want.
April 20, 2011 at 7:33 am
Your comics always have so many words I blanch when I first glance at them, but they’re words well spent and they are always worth reading. Thanks.
April 20, 2011 at 11:03 am
Ah, I forgot to ask: How much of this wall of text is based on a true story? Based on the dialogue, you seem to have some knowledge of the hiring practices of airlines.
April 21, 2011 at 3:48 am
Read through the entire collection. Just wanted to say, thanks for existing and keep it up. You’ve all ready made a difference in my life.
April 22, 2011 at 8:35 pm
I remember when I first got here not long ago and had the pleasure of reading the entire collection in one bite. My brain orgasmed for about a week 😉
April 24, 2011 at 10:42 am
New tagline next to Ripley : “Virucomix : giving your brain happy endings since 2004.”
April 26, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Another Ben huh? Shit… looks like I need a new name. Benjy it is!
April 26, 2011 at 7:04 pm
But rather… welcome!
April 22, 2011 at 6:19 am
I’d love to know her name
April 22, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Haha, the jock coming out of the bar with “Go Yotes” on his jersey looks like the jocks around my campus. Our mascot is a Coyote so everything is “Go Yotes!” 🙂
April 22, 2011 at 8:29 pm
This strip really spoke to me on several different levels: I’m younger than either one of those characters (probably– PHG could be in her early 20s?) but it resonates all the same. I’ve gotten held back from advancing as far as I want to because the jobs I want to have I don’t have enough experience for to apply or that they don’t exist at the moment. I’m sure there are people out there who would be jealous of the free time I have and this also relates to the immediate preceding comic about being worried about looking for a job and then worrying about wasting your life and your time. There’s a big struggle conceptually between people who say you should be doing what you WANT to do regardless of how much of an impact it has on your life… you know, be yourself and all that other non committal kind of advice which clueless if well meaning individuals give to you because they don’t have anything meaningful to tell you but their heart is in the right place and perhaps to a degree they are also jealous that you want to at least be out there doing your own thing and being truly independent. Well right now I can’t be independent. I’m living at home with my parents and grandmother, and sure I love them to death but it seems like every time I start to make progress on getting out on my own some new problem arises which means I have to head all the way back to square one, like a revolving door and you cant get out of the cycle.
Of course when that thought crosses my mind as it has often, I ground myself from self pity by remembering that while i may have a tough situation there are plenty of people out there who are far worse off then myself and while I wish I could do something to help them out, and partly it IS to wash the guilty off of myself about how my situation is something that a lot of people who DON’T have anything at all would be insanely jealous of, like having a house over my head and an internet connection and so forth, its like, there are so many people out there who need help and it seems like the world is completely ignoring their plight except when it comes on the evening news about some new tragedy… gets me depressed and then of course i swing into the thought of how when I am rich and successful that I will do as much as possible to help out those who are between the cracks of society, who don’t have any chance of making their life better because they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. … and we come full circle back to where I’m at right now: unemployed and willing to take almost any job right now just so that i can have a steady income. I’m living off of my tax return actually… and its depressing for me, but i cant complain because I’m still far more fortunate then a lot of people… and it goes on and on and on and i just wish someone could come along that could help me escape this cycle.
Well, thanks for reading and thank to the guy or girl who makes the comic for making strips like these that aren’t just two gamers on a couch… that it makes more of a profound statement, or at least makes you think. I’m not even sure where i was going with this entire comment, but I suppose, judging by other people’s long-winded posts that it can be therapeutic just to get it all out there, even among strangers.
April 23, 2011 at 7:16 pm
I think that we have found a successor to Sir Rowntree! You may serve as his/her squire, tending to his text-walls as you develop your own, learning the skills which will allow you to become triumphant when you eventually succeed him!
Good luck! It is a prestigious position!
April 23, 2011 at 8:42 am
Gods damn it! You’d think I’d have learned by now not to read your comics while I’m eating, but no, I have leaned nothing.
*cleans soup off of monitor*
If I have children I’m going to show them those Non-bullshit fables.
April 26, 2011 at 12:32 pm
loudest audible laugh from a subnormality strip ever. mainly cause I was so lost in thinking about my own life that I didn’t expect that little *absurdity* at the end. thanks.
April 27, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Thank you so much. It’s a great relief to know I’m not the only person feeling this way. I mean, I rationalize that I CAN’T be the only person thinking these things, but seeing the exact thoughts and worries down on paper (or screen, I guess), coming from another human being is just… comforting. Again, thanks. Peace.
June 7, 2011 at 6:07 am
This is scary. Just creepy. I came to this site through Cracked, and I was skipping through comics and stopped at this specific one, don’t even know why. I’ve been applying to airlines for months now, applied to 2 just the other day. A friend of mine who works for one told me they ask these same questions.. I still haven’t thought of decent answers. And I’m getting my hair dyed today (the bottom half is pink)..bought a suit yesterday.. and I too feel like my life is pointlessly headed nowhere fast. I’m 18, junior in college, and I know I’m wasting my life, honestly “I just wanna travel”. It’s the only thing I can think of that would bring me sincere pleasure before I die. I don’t even care about my diploma, I just wanna make some money to travel, and meet new people, and see everything, and die. The reality of life simply depresses me.. aided by the fact that I’m not even really living. But I guess I’m nowhere near alone in any of my sentiments; this is my generation, hell, my entire species.
November 16, 2011 at 7:13 am
i love words, i love colours. and now i love you.
May 30, 2012 at 10:55 pm
And here I thought fans of the Phoenix Coyotes were only theoretical…
June 16, 2012 at 8:15 pm
That really helps. I just recently graduated from high school and I’ve been stressing out over my future. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who doesn’t have a fool-proof plan from childhood–even if I’m only relating to characters in a comic. So thanks Subnormality guy, your comic has a lot of food for thought and has helped me get over quite a few issues.