1181 Drowned Rat.

by

First of all I’ll say that I intend to make the various desktop images that people have asked for from the various panels they have cited. When time permits they will appear in the underblog. I think the RSS will bring that to you automatically. If you don’t RSS, which I don’t, I’ll try to remember to tweet it. The list is as follows:

Nina looking at the rain.
Jo enjoying the rain.
Probably some panels from tonight.
Probably some panels from Friday.

XD

If you honest to got want to buy prints of any of these I can set it up on Deviantart for print on demand. It’s pricey, but they do quality work. At least they always have for me in the past. Everything seems to be falling apart these days, so who knows. In any case I think only one person has ever requested a print and actually bought one, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t jump all over getting that set up right away.

I got a flu shot today, because I just don’t want to fuck with the flu this year. Or really any year from this point in my life onward. I’m sick of other humans rolling around in their filth and then spreading it really. Cover you’re fucking mouths, you braying cattle. I’m sure this is all unnecessary to say in my blog, because anyone who would read my comic is obviously a cut above the average monkey. So I hereby deputize you to call people on their shit when you catch them hacking ALL OVER THE GODDAMN ORANGES LIKE WE LIVE IN THE FUCKING THIRD WORLD YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS SHITHILLS! I WANTED ORANGES! WRAAADKNF{SOINF{OFNF{OFBO}OBBO}FG]EWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I digress…

People like that are why we have to have a CDC. Why we will all, eventually, be consumed by legions of horrifying undead. Also terrorists and weaponized plague, but let’s not discount flue epidemics either.

When it comes to disease we are at the mercy of the stupidest of our kind. It is a chilling thought.

I started customizing my spare Trailcutter figure the other day. I gave him a little flamethrower nozzle on one are and stripped some paint off. I’m not sure what else I’ll do, but it’s a pretty neat start. I made the nozzle from Beast Hunters Arcee’s bow/claw weapon. It’s a total pile so who cares what happens to it? I’m thinking of using part of it to make him a shoulder mounted rocket launcher, kind of like the gen one Slag Dinobot had. Tralcutter has a ton of ports for stuff actually. He can be loaded out with weapons if you have some, so I think he’ll make a good new Decepticon, or maybe another unlikeable Autobot. XD

58 Comments

I teach in a Title I POOOOOR district. My kids are not always the brightest pennies in the jar . A high schooler offered me their Chapstick.

I’m like— uhhh, no. I’ll pass. She then tried to convince me that it’s “not like I have cancer or anything”. Umm. Still no thank you :)

Teenager. Title I (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged) side of town. Lip balm.

No. Um, just, no. Nothing personal, no disrespect intended, but self-preservation mode starting up… And honestly, even if she came from the snooty side of Beverly Hills, I would decline (probably with revulsion, there).

Personally, I welcome the stupidity, because if they’re dumb enough to spread the contagion, and dumb enough to not get their flu shots or medication, then eventually the issue will sort itself out.

Nature has a lovely way of dealing with stupidity like that.

And then u realize that she went to their townhouse (I think it was a townhouse) rather than her own home. This ship grows stronger by the day

I was looking through the archives of Questionable Content and saw a shoutout to a little comic called between failures. I then proceeded to read every single comic in under 24 hours. Bravo, you talented storyteller/artist/dude/guy/grand poobah. Not only have I binged on your comic, but I intend on stopping by every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to see the new comic as it comes out. You sir, are a super cool dude.

Kay, thanks.

I am always amazed how different people can look when their hair is wet. It’s almost like they transform into a completely different person.

Most of the time when I am around people who I know for sure got a flu shot I see them get sick immediately afterwards. Sometimes very sick and sometimes for a long time.

I’m not sure if they actually have a bug though because no matter how much time I spend around them I don’t get sick off of them. Perhaps its just a reaction to the flu shot but not actually infectious. Either way they feel like crap.

The worst case was my boss during a temp job who got the shot and like the rest of those who did got sick soon afterwards. Got it deep down in her lungs and because I worked closely with her proceeded to cough on me 8 hours a day. I never got sick no matter how much she sprayed me. It took her months to shake the cough reflex she got from that (some people have no discipline with coughing so that might be part of it).

The illnesses I’ve seen these people get are worse than what I suffer from the occasional unlucky cold. You can have ’em. I’ll just take the hit and let my immune system get stronger from it.

Sounds like illusory correlation to me.

Could have been at first. But having noticed the link before I actually went back and asked all the sick folk and not sick folk (in the days just after the shot) at the last couple of work places and every flu shot person got some level of illness and only one of those who refused became ill in the next couple of days. No where close to enough people to be considered any kind of study. Still well within “coincidence” sure. But I think the last couple where I actually asked around could come under the word “observation” rather than “illusion”. *shrugs*

google thimerosol-used as a preservative in flu vaccines.

Mercury is in it? Government thinks its safe? Hmmm…. that bears more looking into but I don’t think it would cause the sudden cold and flu like symptoms I am seeing. I mean maybe over time but in the same week?

Still, cool to know. Thanks.

‘Illusory correlation’?

Like the healthy teenage girls that dropped dead after getting the HPV shots?

Alright guys. A) The mercury that they use in the production of flu shots is removed before they give it to people. Traces may remain, but not enough to kill you. In fact, mercury naturally occurs in the human body in larger amounts than exist in any vaccines.

B) I got the HPV vaccine a few years ago and am perfectly fine. Here’s what the CDC and the FDA have to say about it: “All serious reports for Gardasil have been carefully analyzed by medical experts. Experts have not found a common medical pattern to the reports of serious adverse events reported for Gardasil that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine.

As of December 31, 2008, there have been 32 U.S. reports of death among females who have received the vaccine. There was no common pattern to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine.”

C) If we’re going to go on a tirade about how vaccines are a conspiracy and they’re less healthy than to just get the diseases, let me just say this: Children die from measles, mumps, and rubella every year because they haven’t gotten the vaccination that prevents those diseases. Children(and adults) die from the flu every year because they haven’t gotten the vaccinations. People die of hepatitis which is easily prevented by a vaccine. No matter how obnoxious tetanus shots are, I’m glad that I’ve had those and not tetanus. Tetanus is very lethal. Pretty sure there’s a whooping cough one now, which kills infants every year. Not to mention that even if you were to survive these diseases they’re miserable to have. People who don’t get vaccines and don’t vaccinate their children are a large part of the reason why scientists are afraid that smallpox is going to come back, and there have been increased cases of tuberculosis sprouting up all over the place. And for the “strengthening your immune system” argument– you do know that vaccines expose your immune system to the disease in small quantities and usually in dormant forms so that when you are exposed to the real live thing your immune system recognizes it and knows how to kill it faster, thus strengthening your immune system with reduced amounts of misery and far less chance of death, right?

*Steps down from soapbox*

Rant over

I’m sure this was clear by the entire point of my rant, but just to clarify: Whooping cough kills infants every year, not the vaccine.

Interesting points…
Do You have any links to these studies and reports?

As an aside:
From my own personal experience, I would not say tetanus is ‘very lethal’.

I’ve been vaccinated for Anthrax. Well, I have a 75% better chance of surviving it, anyway. They quit issuing the vaccine about the time I was supposed to get my fifth (out of six) one.

As far as I know, the flu shot is a vaccine. Vaccines are weakened or dead versions of the actual disease-causer, so you build up resistance. Getting slightly sick immediately afterwards is normal in that case, due to two reasons.

1: the disease-causer might not be entirely dead
2: your body IS fighting off a disease-… even if it only thinks it’s the real deal.

If the flu shot isn’t a vaccine, I’m talking out of my arse and you should ignore me.

Yes, the influenza shot is a vaccine. Your description of events is also technically correct. The body is reacting to — and developing antibodies for — what your immune system thinks is the real virus. Some mild symptoms are inevitable, and range from very mild (my increased irritability) to moderate (reduced flu-like symptoms for a day or so).

I can’t think of anything better to turn up on my doorstep on a rainy day than a soaking wet, beaming Brooksie :-)

Hey Jess, you still haven’t kissed her? What are you waiting for? :D

So now, I can’t wait for Carol to give Ed a lift home, since we have already seen that he doesn’t have a car.

Carol: “Oh, so you live in the same building as Brooksie?”
Ed: “Say what?”

Personal Experience Time. Not an off-the-wall second-hand anecdote. I get a flu shot every year because:

1. I have a long medical history of respiratory illness (pneumonia, pleurisy, chronic asthmatic bronchitis, COPD caused by second-hand smoke) and
2. The company pays for them.

So far, in 14 years, the sum of my reaction to the influenza vaccine has been (more than normal) grouchiness for 1 to 3 days afterward.

I, on the other hand, normally get every damn thing that comes down the pike because of my compromised immune system(Diabetes). In the 10 years prior to my starting to get the flu shot every year, I never had a case of the flu. I got hit with Pneumonia once n that period, but no flu.

As of seven years ago, when I had to go on Dialysis, The clinic required I get the flu shot. Every year I have gotten a flu shot, within a week or so I get wracked by “flu-like symptoms” , sometimes for WEEKS.

This past year I actually suffered symptoms for a month and a half and had to listen to the nurses say “Oh Well, at least you didn’t get the flu. That’s impossible ’cause you had the flu shot!” Eventually I had to be in the hospital for a week while they tried to figure out what was wrong. They never did decide what I had, “But it can’t be the flu! You had a flu shot!”

Right. The flu shot is a vaccine. Dead or weakened version of the virus, to make your immune system recognize it. Getting somewhat ill afterward would be natural, as your immune system fights it off. A healthy immune system should clear it up and get it over with in no time. A not-so-healthy one, though….

Anyone who’s had a biology education to high school level should know this. At least the part about vaccines being dead/weakened versions of whatever they immunize you against.

Saying that flu-like symptoms can’t be the flu is a half-truth: it is the flu, or at least the part of the disease where your body fights it off, but it’s not infectuous and it’s not the type of flu you’d otherwise get.

“Not infectuous” should be “there’s not the same risk of infecting people”. You won’t be sick for as long, and infecting people would probably give them that weaker form if it’s not dead completely.

I hear ya! The others aren’t really listening. Saying things like “weak” flu symptoms. Which is not really what is being described but a few of us understand. :)

Not only does she know its not Jo’s place from previous, but Jo herself said she was going to a friend’s place today, so its not really an issue

“U shud maek bakrunds 4 al teh paenls frum evry paeg uv dun evar!”

I kid, I kid, I SWEAR I KID!
And may my tongue shrivel up and my teeth explode if I ever type something that….. THAT again.

Rain Jo is a happy Jo! And a happy Jo is a cute Jo.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
I now have the best looking wallpaper on my computer I have ever had. Cannot thank you enough. Yes I’m a little strange, sorry can’t help it. : )

I had secretly hoped for more of a wet-shirt effect, but I guess whatever she’s wearing is too thick to get translucent anyway. Adorable Brooksie is adorable, though.

Brazilian reader here. I might be culturally oversensitive (common for Brazilians) but I got a bit offended by the whole “Like we live in the third world” thing, lol.
We’re not “monkeys” over here, we know about diseases and how to avoid spreading them. =P

Well I am considered to be a “Irst world” citizen, but here in France, only few people get a flu shot. A couple of years ago, the health minister call everyone to get it, then the pandemia-to-be vanished before a quarter of the shot could be done. And therafter we discovered (well some knew it already, was’nt really rocket journalism) that she has interests in the medical industry. So even less people get flu shots now.

That said, for people without risks and some caring relatives, it’s rather better not to have it since the virus get stronger with the vaccines, and our bodies stronger (if it’s benigne only) with catching the flu every so and so. So I am definitely not licking any public transports seat, but I have no problem to kiss my sick girlfrieng goodnight.

Um, excuse me, but I think of ALL of South America, Brazil is the last country I — or many in the U.S. — would refer to as ‘Third World’. Culturally oversensitive? Yeah.

And by the way, the next time you’re criticizing U.S. citizens, have a care how wide the brush with which you paint us is. This from an individual who has the Brazilian Consulate steps away from his place of work. Thank you.

Yeah, that’s on you, dude. I wouldn’t consider Brazil a third world country. I doubt anyone would. Maybe you’ve got a little bit of a persecution complex going on? You wanna tell me about it? Were the other countries mean to you again? Was it Denmark?

*Sniff*
Denmark stole my lunch money!
Nah, Denmarkians are awesome. I’ve got a Denmarkian in my RPG party.
I should probably adk him the correct word for a person from Denmark…

You are ‘culturally oversensitive’…

Also: there are parts of the U.S. of A. that would be considered ‘third world country’.

“…So I hereby deputize you to call people on their shit when you catch them hacking ALL OVER THE GODDAMN ORANGES LIKE WE LIVE IN THE FUCKING THIRD WORLD YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS SHITHILLS! I WANTED ORANGES! WRAAADKNF{SOINF{OF…

…But I digress…”

I submit Crave as a candidate for the best rant EVAR.
HI-LARIOUS.

Also, you’d probably hate me.
:'(

god I hate the flu last time I got nailed by it..I was spewing like a firehose outta both ends for week..ich makes me sicking thinking about it.

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
SOMETHING SOMETHING SOMETHING
IM HAAAAPPY AGAIN
I just watched that movie.
I give it 8 skyward jazz hands/10.

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