Wapsi Square Forum

Empathy takes time to develop.

Linky: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/we-were-stupid/

Yay on time.

I been there, kid.

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So last week was jokes.

This week is Heavy Stuff.

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Take her to Monica, Cricket.

I think they're both right. Empathy does take time to develop, and it takes even more time to develop to the point that it can get out in front of things like sudden impulses and in-group peer pressure. There's a period in there where the best empathy can do is chase after us, vainly shouting "For the love of God, don't do it!" into the wind.

At that age, we all tend to do things that we regret later, once we take the time to really consider the consequences of the stupid-ass stunts we just pulled. It's sort of the interpersonal version of the "Darwin award candidate" surf going on in that "That's a moron" video DinkyInky linked to last week... we wouldn't have done it if we really thought about it first.

Been there, done that, got the guilt.

I'm liking Krystle more and more when she's not around her partner in crime...

except that it would be a hella lot of work for Paul i would love to see the girls go on a bounding camp out or some such with their mentors

Just tell me I'm not the only one to have experienced what Krystal described in the last panel.

Lits of quotable stuff. I hope Paul posts this page to his neglected tumblr.

Ah yes - "When we were young and stupid, we were Young. And Stupid."

How many times did you follow the other lemmings over a cliff because it was the thing to do? Not just developing empathy, but things like separating yourself from the herd, recognizing a poor choice, and other such stuff is hard work to develop. You often get attacked by the other lemmings for daring to disrupt "normal!"

Such is the generation of cliques and outcasts.....

AnotherFairportfan wrote:I been there, kid. . . .

Dave wrote:. . . Been there, done that, got the guilt.

Gyrrakavian wrote:Just tell me I'm not the only one to have experienced what Krystal described in the last panel. . . .

Nope.

I think most people have done it . . . the only question is if they admit it, even to themselves.

Kids are vicious, and many adults have just learned to hide it better.

--FreeFlier

FreeFlier wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:I been there, kid. . . .

Dave wrote:. . . Been there, done that, got the guilt.

Gyrrakavian wrote:Just tell me I'm not the only one to have experienced what Krystal described in the last panel. . . .

Nope.

I think most people have done it . . . the only question is if they admit it, even to themselves.

Kids are vicious, and many adults have just learned to hide it better.

--FreeFlier

Nope. I was always the victim. Burying yourself in books tends to make you if not forget, at least, not care how bad it gets to you.

When I dared defend myself in the early days, the People in Power punished me, not them, so I retreated within.
In later years, I'd get into one publc fight a year(usually being cornered by said bullies), defending myself, which usually made them leave me alone, because I did my best to not hurt anyone.

Out of school, dealing with myogynistic men trying to bully me, I used the best weapon ever...words.

As a parent, I've turned off my filter completely, and if I see parents bullying other parents, or Heaven forbid, the kids...well, then I don't filter anything but the profanity.

I know exactly what I'm doing. Kids are defenseless...adults should never bully other kids, especially if I'm in earshot.

I don't stoop down to their level, but rationally tell them how much trouble they are in. If they take a swing at me, they usually miss me by a mile and fall on their rump. Then I call proper authorities.

Yes, fighting stupidly solves a lot, but leading by example is stronger.

Never fight stupidly- always know what you are doing

DinkyInky wrote:

FreeFlier wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:I been there, kid. . . .

Dave wrote:. . . Been there, done that, got the guilt.

Gyrrakavian wrote:Just tell me I'm not the only one to have experienced what Krystal described in the last panel. . . .

Nope.

I think most people have done it . . . the only question is if they admit it, even to themselves.

Kids are vicious, and many adults have just learned to hide it better.

--FreeFlier

Nope. I was always the victim. Burying yourself in books tends to make you if not forget, at least, not care how bad it gets to you.

When I dared defend myself in the early days, the People in Power punished me, not them, so I retreated within.
In later years, I'd get into one publc fight a year(usually being cornered by said bullies), defending myself, which usually made them leave me alone, because I did my best to not hurt anyone.

Out of school, dealing with myogynistic men trying to bully me, I used the best weapon ever...words.

As a parent, I've turned off my filter completely, and if I see parents bullying other parents, or Heaven forbid, the kids...well, then I don't filter anything but the profanity.

I know exactly what I'm doing. Kids are defenseless...adults should never bully other kids, especially if I'm in earshot.

I don't stoop down to their level, but rationally tell them how much trouble they are in. If they take a swing at me, they usually miss me by a mile and fall on their rump. Then I call proper authorities.

Yes, fighting stupidly solves a lot, but leading by example is stronger.

I completely agree with leading by example and using words to right most battles represents a level of maturity that unfortunately is seldom the case in so many. I my self do my best to use words however if that same adult raise a hand towards that child in anger than i am gonna stop using words and start using my walking stick.

oldmanmickey wrote:

DinkyInky wrote:I don't stoop down to their level, but rationally tell them how much trouble they are in. If they take a swing at me, they usually miss me by a mile and fall on their rump. Then I call proper authorities.

Yes, fighting stupidly solves a lot, but leading by example is stronger.

I completely agree with leading by example and using words to right most battles represents a level of maturity that unfortunately is seldom the case in so many. I my self do my best to use words however if that same adult raise a hand towards that child in anger than i am gonna stop using words and start using my walking stick.

I do my best to make sure said adult is focused solely on me...way too pissed off at me to even think of touching the kid. There's a reason I play a tank class in RPG's.

"Hate me? Good. Hate me more. Hate me so the kid is no longer the target..."

If not, those officers will be here soon enough anyway when I dial three digits and my phone ends up just out of foot crushing reach, but within dispatch earshot.

But I hear ya. If there were no other way, I probably would beat said adult smarter(can't beat 'em stupid, they already are).

DinkyInky wrote:But I hear ya. If there were no other way, I probably would beat said adult smarter(can't beat 'em stupid, they already are).

"Not even duct tape can fix stupid. It can, however, muffle the noise."

I typically break a few bones of an assailant- that usually slows things down

DinkyInky wrote: There's a reason I play a tank class in RPG's.

Now i am curious. I wonder what a study of what type of person plays what class in a RPG would show. I usually play a tank class myself.

Sgt. Howard wrote:I typically break a few bones of an assailant- that usually slows things down

Agreed Sarge. Not saying people know me around here or anything but the wife did call the cops once when i and my bro in law was out chasing a guy who was trying to break into my car parked in my yard. Their first question was do we need body bags or have they not caught him yet?

oldmanmickey wrote:

DinkyInky wrote: There's a reason I play a tank class in RPG's.

Now i am curious. I wonder what a study of what type of person plays what class in a RPG would show. I usually play a tank class myself.

My preference is a 3.5 Warlock, if you can survive lower levels until you get some HP and buff up the Eldritch Blast and get some useful blast shape invocations by the time you get to 5th level you are about as good as an archer with strength bonus for his bow, but you never run out of arrows and you have a lot more range. Not to mention your weapon attacks against Touch AC and if you catch your opponent flat-footed in an ambush you're going against Basic AC (10 with tons of + on your attack roll) I had one Warlock that was so buffed that he would get a hit against almost anyone as long as I didn't roll a nat 1 (+13 when all the buffs stacked which was most of the time). You can't play a Warlock with a small party, but with a large party of more than 6 characters having range and firepower would make for some short fights and greatly reduce party losses. One GM would let me repurpose Sickening Blast as a healing spell if I deliberately invoked it in reverse with a 50/50 chance of doing healing instead of damage, because we had lost all our healers from our tanks and meat shields not doing their jobs.

Yeah, I really like playing Warlocks, but I like playing Warlocks with healing spells better.

oldmanmickey wrote:

DinkyInky wrote: There's a reason I play a tank class in RPG's.

Now i am curious. I wonder what a study of what type of person plays what class in a RPG would show. I usually play a tank class myself.

I've never played D &D but according to a rather extensive (100+ questions) quiz I've taken a few times, I'm a level 3 neutral good/chaotic neutral human cleric. EDIT Found it! What D&D Character Am I?

In games like The Elder Scrolls series, I tend to want to 'do all of the things' with a preference for rthe more balanced races/classes and ranged weaponry/magic. I'm m the guy who would enchant arrows with soul-stealer traps so I could enchant more gear.

In Minecraft, I've got a couple of different bows I keep on my character witg various high level enchants. I'm pretty sure i've got more enchants on my bows than I do on any of my swords.

In Skyrim, the first things I focus on leveling are Smithing, Enchanting, and Speechcraft. In fights, I use a sword, shield, and heavy armor, and prefer to charge enemy bowmen. My gear is almost always self-made, so I have the best gear I can get.

Once I max that stuff out, I move to archery and sneaky stuff.

Besides enchanting and Shouts, I hardly ever use magic. I can kill a legendary dragon with a sneak attack bow shot followed by hitting it in the face with my sword several times faster than I can with destruction magic.

I have no idea what that makes me. A spellsword? Magic knight? I don't know the terminology. All I know is my weapons and armor are friggin awesome.

oldmanmickey wrote:

DinkyInky wrote: There's a reason I play a tank class in RPG's.

Now i am curious. I wonder what a study of what type of person plays what class in a RPG would show. I usually play a tank class myself.

Ah, let's see... my last half-dozen D&D characters, not necessarily in any particular order, all 4E except as noted:

* A pixie shaman.
* A warlord, thrown-sword specialist.
* A gnome bard (blatant ripoff, with a twist, of a fairy-tale character with some inspiration from a Disney Princess movie, only female in this list, only one I've also used in any other context).
* An eladrin fighter/ranger. When asked what he does, he usually shows two sword-hilts and says "I dance". He means it.
* An archer warlord, in a very large group that also had a pacifist cleric.
* A barbarian/cleric (3.5E, and if I were doing it over again I'd make the character sheet pure cleric and roleplay it pure barbarian).

What type of person would that indicate I am?