Sticking to your Batarangs

 

This was inspired by the phrase "sticking to your guns" and the knowledge that Batman doesn't like guns. Robin is on my mind because we nicknamed our daughter Robin before she was born to keep the gender and name a surprise. Batgirl shows up in this comic because when Lucy was born, we all got wristbands with 'BG-Conrad" on them and I was wondering why they were calling her Batgirl when clearly she was a Robin but then I realized it was 'baby girl.' 

Happy almost-Birthday to my Niece!

Text:
Robin: Did you get Batman to change his mind on the issue?
Batgirl: Nope, he's sticking to his batarangs on this. 

Introducing Lucy

The first comic inspired by our infant! She is cute and talented. This comic came to me in the middle of the night (of course we were not sleeping since yeah we have a baby). Maybe she will inherit my super sneeze which I inherited from my grandmother (have heard that it can wake the dead).
I'm thinking the person in the comic is Simon Cowell and this is a talent show of sorts. 

Also, Happy Anniversary to my parents!

Text:
S: Your baby is cute, but without special talent.
L: She can sneeze - without losing her pacifier.
S: Ok, one special talent.

Flours for Mother's Day

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! Especially mine :) 
It's my first Mother's Day as a mom! But I'm writing this beforehand and scheduling it because my baby is coming tomorrow (two weeks before Mother's Day) so I don't have any motherly wisdom to impart yet. Maybe next year I will. I do know that I'll be super busy with a newborn so it's possible my comic update schedule could change. I also have learned that you can't just substitute any flour for another in a recipe - they are different and behave differently. Specifically with the gluten-free ones - coconut or almond flour can't swap out for wheat flour directly. But there are many recipes that call for whatever specific flour so just use the proper one - it's easier than adjusting usually. 

Text:
M: I got you whole wheat, semolina, cake, and gluten-free.
L: Ah, a lovely bunch of flours for Mother's Day!

Gaston in Valheim

So the game Mark is playing is Valheim and it's on his computer, not the Switch, but it was easier to draw him using the Switch rather than seated at a computer. It's a survival game so you have to build a house and boat, and hunt and gather food, and fight off the dwarves and trolls. When you hunt the deer, you can gather a hunting trophy from them sometimes which is their ANTLERS which I believe you can use in all of your decorating. There are birds in the game from which you can gather feathers - not sure if you can gather eggs which would allow you to make a proper breakfast every morning to help you get laaaaaaarge. Until you're roughly the size of a barge. Now that I look up the lyrics, I see the verse about hunting was just in the live-action version, not the animated original Disney version. Here's the live-action lyrics - they actually are a bit different but still carry the original theme strongly. 

And now I have that song stuck solidly in my head, but maybe you do too. 

Text:
M: *playing game which has deer hunting*
L: You should carefully aim for the liver. Then shoot from behind.
M: Is that fair?
L: I don't care.

Surprise Birthday Party

 

Well that would be awkward. Happy Belated Birthday to my amazing husband! His birthday didn't fall on a Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday this year, so he didn't get a spot-on shout out. But usually the birthday party doesn't fall on the day, so maybe this is ok. And the last comic was for our baby's due date, which actually this one would fit for that too. Oh well. Just keep scheduling, just keep scheduling... 

How many people would you need to invite to a party to have the best odds of having someone randomly be the birthday person? I feel like that'd be a cool statistics problem to figure out, but I don't feel like devoting the brainpower to it. Let me know if you do!

Text:
Title: Surprise Birthday Party
A: So, who's birthday is it?
B: *thinking*
C: *shrugging*

Blowout Sale

My mom sent me a picture of an item in Cabela's and I saw the End of Season Blowout Sale sign in the background of the photo and that's how we got to this comic (for the unaware, Pampers is a diaper brand). If you don't know why a diaper brand having a blowout sale is funny, you are probably more mature than me. Ask any parent of a young child to explain this comic to you. Also, not sure when 'end of season' is for diapers...

My kiddo's due date is today, so yes this comic is a scheduled post because who knows when this kid will decide to make an appearance. This is also a warning that there's a possibility that the frequency of comics could change as I adjust to life with a newborn. I hear they're a lot of work. My kid has been tracking large so there's a decent change we will have already met our child when this posts (I hear only a small percentage of kids are born on their due date). I'm trying to write up all the comics in my backlog and schedule them to hold me over for a bit, as my sleep schedule will suffer and nobody wants to write things while cranky. 

Text:
M: Cabela's is having an End of Season Blowout Sale.
L: I wonder if Pampers will have one, too....

Degeneration

 

Oh those youths. This is in honor of those doing their senior project, I feel like they could be the next generation but I honestly don't know where those breaks are. According to Wikipedia, yeah the generation following mine would include current college seniors (and high school ones too). Good luck anyways on your senior projects! I'm a Millennial (not to be confused with amillennial), which apparently has two 'n's in it. Who knew, not me. I should remake this comic. Ok, it's good now. I feel every generation thinks the following one is the Degeneration. Talking about the next generation has me thinking about Star Trek. Post-Millennials is referencing a belief about the end times timeline - there are many strong opinions on when the Millennium will happen and I'm still surprised that there's two 'n's in there. 

Text:
M: What do you call the generation after us? Are they Post-Millennials?
L: Degeneration.

Internet of Things State of Security

My talented little brother sent me the "S in IoT" phrase and linked the article mentioned. This same brother, when I sent him this article about the Mars Bar Rover, responded with "the future is here, and it's vaguely disappointing." Also, this same brother is a senior down at PCC and if you're also at PCC (how did you find my blog?) you should go to his Software Engineering Expo which is this week! Go find the info, I'm sure it's all over campus (or there's probably a poster in the AC lobby). Back in my day we made a super cool video and they played it in chapel or student body which was cool. 

To explain the comic, IoT stands for Internet of Things and references how so many smart items are now able to connect to the internet but are not at all secure so bad people can do unfortunate things via these items (hence there is no 'S' in the acronym 'IoT'). When in doubt, don't put it on or allow it to connect to the internet. We had to shop specifically for a baby monitor that just communicated from the camera to the tablet, no internet needed. I have no desire to have internet cameras in my house. If you do have IoT items, please change the default passwords to something secure (you can tape it to the item since those trying to hack in shouldn't be in your house, if they are then you have bigger issues). 

Text:
La: Did you hear about the casino that was hacked via their fish tank's smart thermometer?
Lu: Well, the "S" in "IoT" stands for "security."

Ode to Rogganart

 

If I try, I'm sure I could make a haiku about their amazing pastries, but at this time I've just made a quick little poem. Roggenart is an excellent European-style bakery and bistro that's nearby. We like to go there for breakfast and then go to a park (when the weather is nice) to enjoy our babkas and brioches and danishes or whatever has struck our fancy that morning. Everything there is super tasty and the staff is really nice. They have indoor seating and outdoor covered seating, which is nice on not-so-nice days when the park isn't a great option. To be fair, I also like American donuts, specifically the fresh kind from local small shops like the Donut Shack or down at the beach Duck Donuts or Sandy Pony, but there is just something super special about freshly baked buttery, fruity, chocolatey pastries. 

Text:
Title: Ode to Roggenart
"American donuts are very tasty
But you can't go wrong with a European pastry"

Stamina Wheel

 

We went out shopping one Saturday to a few stores and wow, I was really worn out at the end. It should not have been that tiring but it was due to me carrying around an extra 25lbs or so and also getting my nutrients leached out of me. The stamina wheel is a mechanism in many video games, I know it from Legend of Zelda, which shows your character's endurance level. It usually decreases when you do something strenuous like climbing a wall or using fancy fighting moves. 

Text:
M: You seem worn out after our shopping trip.
L: My stamina wheel is very small in the last month of pregnancy.

Bath Salts

This is referencing that event back in 2012 when a Florida man was attacking people and somehow he was affected by bath salts to do so. I never looked too much into it because it sounded gross and for the same reason, I'm not linking any articles on that event. You can look it up if you so choose. Well actually I just looked it up a little more and Today I Learned 'bath salts' is a term for a street drug which resembles Epsom salts. The bath salts we got are the top ones from this list - they aim to recreate a visit to the hot springs and they do make a relaxing experience. We have been to hot springs once (in Canada) and it was a nice time. We bought water shoes for the adventure but haven't used them since. 

Text:
M: I bought some fancy bath salts but the packaging is all in Japanese - do I put in a whole packet?
L: We don't live in Florida so it should be fine?

80's Fashion

 

I forget what prompted this conversation, but I agree with my husband here in that all those florescent colors and baggy, plastic-like material was a bad plan to begin with. I think Back to the Future Part II (but really the whole series to an extent) really embodies this. It's a classic movie, but wow the fashion or lack thereof was rather astounding. As this slideshow shows, it wasn't all bad but most of it was :)

Text:
L: Describe 80's fashion -
M: We want to be like the future, but ugly.

How to Keep a Secret

So far we have kept the gender (and name) of our soon-to-be-born kiddo a secret, with the due date quickly approaching we only have a little longer to keep it hidden. I know we have slipped up a few times but I don't think people have noticed (I think one person did but that individual seems to be keeping it a secret which is very nice). 

Is this a hypothetical conversation between my mom and my husband? Perhaps :) 

Text:
L: Why won't you tell us the gender of your soon-to-be-born child???
M: Can you keep a secret?
L: YES!!!
M: So can we :) 

Happy Little JUnit Test

 My husband and I were talking about testing and this scenario came to mind. The purpose of a JUnit test is to test a small area of your code. It should only pass if the code is doing what it is suppose to be doing - you should be able to change the input and see the test fail. Then you can design extra tests to verify that giving wrong or garbage input throws the expected exception. But if your happy path test passes no matter what you input, that's not really doing anything for you. 

Text:
L: Your JUnit test is useless - it never fails, no matter the input.
C: It's a happy test!

Al Dente Chicken

This one time, Mark and I were out for dinner and I ordered steak and he ordered chicken and the waiter asked me how I wanted my steak done so I told him, but then he asked Mark how he wanted his chicken done and Mark was not prepared to answer. I think he said 'all the way?' but I think at that point the waiter realized his mistake and probably cringed for the rest of the night. I don't even want to know what al dente chicken would be - apparently it means 'firm to the bite' which would probably mean very overcooked chicken, or possibly burnt? You don't want harden chicken.

Text:
W: How do you like your chicken cooked?
M: Al dente?