Spidrift wrote:Alex is in a very weird place; he's actually socialising with a gorgeous model. Fantasy and reality have got horribly scrambled in his brain. He's really behaving quite well, considering that there are no patterns in his experience for what to do here.
Neither did Ace, before he started dating Brooke, but he still handled himself better than Alex is doing.
I get that he's startstruck and all, but he's steadily inching towards 'obsessed fan' territory.
that is why I said that as long as we don't see him imploring to the Great tomato God to make Sandra fall in love with him he is okay, so far
Optimus Kate wrote:Staring at people, especially if they are unaware of it, for long periods of time is generally creepy.
It's also a sign of aggression/dominance in the animal kingdom, which is probably why most people don't like being stared at. Residual instincts.
true, but 'creepy' implies some feeling of personal threat. alex is so completely harmless that, at least to me he comes across as just a bit pathetic.
Yeah, back when I was dependent on public transportation I used to get stared at all the time. It doesn't matter if the person seems threatening or not, it was always creepy and unsettling. Even getting stared at by a child is creepy to me.
one person might think, "he is looking at my ugly pimple" when he was actually just looking at how interesting it was that the person was wearing a white shirt and has red shoes and blue slacks (giving an example)
Optimus Kate wrote:Yeah, back when I was dependent on public transportation I used to get stared at all the time. It doesn't matter if the person seems threatening or not, it was always creepy and unsettling. Even getting stared at by a child is creepy to me.
That's where the "creepy child" motif comes from, of course. But the funny thing here is that Sandra doesn't appear to have noticed that she was being stared at. Must have been a good film.
(She could be in trouble if the comic ever changes genre and she gets an authentically dangerous stalker; not even noticing such would probably be very dangerous. Alex avoids the sense of becoming a seriously scary figure, for me, because he didn't really seek Sandra out and start acting this way; the situation just fell into his lap. He is, in effect, a probably-mostly-harmless ordinarily enthusiastic teenage fanboy who's being transformed into a pseudo-scary stalker by accident. Now, Marie's offer to scrub Sandra's back in the shower - that struck me as crossing a line somewhere...)
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Spidrift "Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by. Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.
Optimus Kate wrote:Yeah, back when I was dependent on public transportation I used to get stared at all the time. It doesn't matter if the person seems threatening or not, it was always creepy and unsettling. Even getting stared at by a child is creepy to me.
like i said before; creepitude is determined by who in the scene you identify with.
if it's the starer, you then you'd be reminded of all the times you felt confused and overwhelmed by your feelings in someone else's presence.
if it's the starer, then you'll be reminded of all the times you've felt self-conscious and uncomfortable as a result of people looking at you.
i identify with neither so i just find alex a bit pathetic, in that way that teenage boys tend to be.
There's nothing wrong with being a teenager with a huge crush on someone you find interesting and attractive. There's nothing wrong with being unaware of how you're coming across either. But in general, this is a creepy thing to do.
I mean, I'm creepy sometimes without meaning to be. IRL I have a super deadpan voice (think Chelsea Peretti) so I say stuff all the time to be funny and it turns out being unintentionally weird because I always sound really serious. But I like when people point it out to me so I can remember for the future.
So don't stare at girls you think are cute. It's creepy.
Remember it for the future. You're welcome. I saved you from freaking out your crushes.
is there a difference for "the target"(or how they see themselves) if a person actually stares or they simply glance from time to time?
Alex in the movie was definitely staring Sandra, but what if he actually watched the movie and here and there he glanced at Sandra with admiration? or would the "target" assume the person was staring?
Optimus Kate wrote:
So don't stare at girls you think are cute. It's creepy.
I think I get what you're saying; someone really needs to say this to Alex, hopefully before Sandra actually notices. I'm think Marie may be the only one who could though.
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Yeah I'm sure Alex just doesn't realize what he's doing (he looks like he's daydreaming kinda?) and if Sandra noticed at all it would be super awkward. Marie could probably let him know how weird it is. Who knows though, she may sabotage him just for her own sake.
Wiseguy, honestly, I think glancing is different. There's a guy at work who glances at me frequently and I know he likes me, but I don't mind because attraction is a normal human trait. I check people out sometimes too. You're going to want to look at people you find attractive. The difference is, people glance because they don't want to be rude. People who openly stare don't care. And if a person is showing clear signs of discomfort (note -- not what Sandra is doing here but if she noticed Alex staring she may have reacted nervously) and you are still staring at them, you should stop. Lots of guys who stared at me on the bus probably thought they were paying me a compliment, but if they read (or cared about) my body language they would see that it made me very uncomfortable. There's a level of respect here. You can check people out and glance their way without full on ogling them.
I'm not saying Alex is ogling her but that's because I know him as a character. If he were a complete stranger sitting next to Sandra you wouldn't really know, would you?
Is it just me, or has Sandra been drawn to look younger the past couple strips? She looks like she's 16 in this strip, not the 20-something she was when introduced in Ma3.
She is indeed a wonderful artist who could doubtless turn her hand to anything, but from what I've seen, I don't get the feeling that she's very interested in depicting some of those bits in all their wrinkly Lovecraftian glory.
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Optimus Kate wrote:Yeah, back when I was dependent on public transportation I used to get stared at all the time.
So you're saying it's worth it?
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She looks like she's 16 in this strip, not the 20-something she was when introduced in Ma3.
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