2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

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Gotoh
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Gotoh »

Eisu wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:57 pm
Now, you may also search for Domenico's agency but... does Sandra even know what Domenico's agency name is? Hahahaha... all signs kinda really indicated to "No".
You make a lot of fair points, which support my suspicion that Sandra never bothered to get any of their contact information. But on this part, in particular, I'll admit I hadn't thought of that either.

That said, I wouldn't put it past Domenico to assume his name was good enough for the agency, nor would I be surprised if we find out Zoé insisted on giving it a proper name - after another round of "negotiations".

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Spidrift
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Spidrift »

Eisu wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:57 pm
I'm not the writer of this series, so my say is not final on this (nor do I know what Dave's plan for this is), but how do you google search for someone when you don't know any of their last names?
You don’t search for names, you search for things you know about them. Alex and Marie should be trivial; they run a Sandra fan site. Even if Sandra couldn’t remember the URL for that, it should be pretty well the first thing that comes up when Sandra searches on her own name (which I assume she can remember), let alone her own name plus Carmen Camellia. And that site should have a contact e-mail address or whatever for the people running it. They’ll want to know what happened to their idol, too.

Or Sandra should have a vague idea of the name and address of Pierre’s bakery. Track that down, find the contact details, send Pierre a long, cringingly apologetic message saying “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but for old time’s sake, please pass my e-mail address or the following Montreal phone number to Cammi”. His shop is opposite Domenico’s office; Cammi must come past occasionally.

Or ask DiDi if she can remember the street address of the place she stayed in Paris. Or Google her own name as before, look for photos that Domenico took, and check the copyright info. Work outwards from there. There must be plenty more options I’m not thinking of.

It’s incredibly difficult not to be locatable online, if anyone just cares to try.
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Itrogash
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Itrogash »

Eisu wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:57 pm
I'm not the writer of this series, so my say is not final on this (nor do I know what Dave's plan for this is), but how do you google search for someone when you don't know any of their last names? This is the search result I get for just putting in Lavali:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Lavali& ... e&ie=UTF-8

It would not point to any specific person at all (Except for Andrew Lavali's Linked in at the bottom and that's an Executive Director of a company, which is a position way higher than our Lovely Lavali (spin off name, coining it now)).

You may search for DMG but Lavali's not a developer of the games over there, she's mostly a PA type person (doing things like errands mostly( so she wouldn't really be listed in the developer staff section of the website and you really hardly see a PA name on a game website section (or staff names of a company website most of the time) and you COULD contact DMG to say, ask for a person, but most of game website's contact is for games development or games error and stuff like that. You don't contact a company and say, "I know Lavali, can you connect me to her?" and I don't think the staff who's answering those e-mails would take it seriously. The development section of a games company usually don't handle answering the e-mail of those asking about the games, they have especially hired staff for that and usually they're not as directly connected to the development staff as it is.

I could imagine typing "Lavalii Paris DMG" into Facebook search would narrow search enough, especially if they have some common friends. Facebook search is really amazingly, creepily accurate like that.
Eisu wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:57 pm
Searching for Alex and Marie without knowing their last names is pointless due to the fact that those names are too common.


Didn't they have a famous game blog? Which was also the first to post pictures of Sandra? That shouldn't be too hard to find.
Eisu wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:57 pm
As for being back at DMG, this is still DMG Montreal and only in this strip recently have she been in contact with the boss of this side of the company. So one of two things why she wasn't able to make contact with Lavali (which really is the only person she really knows from DMG Paris other than Tristan and Tristan hates Sandra) is a) contact between DMG Paris and Montreal might be only on a professional basis and not on a "can you contact this person (who's not even, as I said, really on a developmental level staff member), our model wants to talk to her" kinda basis or b) Contact between the two branches is really only boss-to-boss kinda thing so Yvan really wouldn't be able to ask the other boss for Lavali (whom the boss probably doesn't even know exist).


I... Uh, As someone who worked for several international corporations I find it hard to believe. Big companies like this usually put a big emphasis on free flow of information. There is usually unified directory which clumps all employees into one global address book. I really see no benefit in putting effort into keeping branches so separated. If Sandra has at least basic access into IT system she should be able to find anyone from company in Outlook address book.

Gotoh
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Gotoh »

Spidrift wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:01 pm
You don’t search for names, you search for things you know about them. Alex and Marie should be trivial; they run a Sandra fan site. Even if Sandra couldn’t remember the URL for that, it should be pretty well the first thing that comes up when Sandra searches
Sandra isn't tech savvy, she didn't even know what a Wii U was until Gary gave her an impromptu crash course.

She doesn't know about Alex and Marie's blog, because Marie never told her about it. Marie only introduced herself as her fan. Lavali's a gopher, the execs at DM aren't likely to know who she is. It'd be like asking Bill Gates who's the coffee boy at Microsoft's main office. And as Eisu pointed out, Domenico fired Sandra. So even if she did try to contact his agency, he isn't obligated to reply.
Spidrift wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:01 pm
Or ask DiDi if she can remember the street address of the place she stayed in Paris.
The same Didi who can't even remember who she dumped 5 sec. ago? :-\

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rogermart
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by rogermart »

Gotoh wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:45 pm
Spidrift wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:01 pm
You don’t search for names, you search for things you know about them. Alex and Marie should be trivial; they run a Sandra fan site. Even if Sandra couldn’t remember the URL for that, it should be pretty well the first thing that comes up when Sandra searches
Sandra isn't tech savvy, she didn't even know what a Wii U was until Gary gave her an impromptu crash course.
Sandra may not know about new videogames (she has the old school stuff hands down), but she knows about Google Analytics. (which Tatiana doesn't know and I still WTF about that)

http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips- ... ho_you_are

So she knows about Google Analytics but doesn't know how to Google? I find that hard to believe.
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Gotoh
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Gotoh »

@rogermart: And in that link, she thought the web counter was a date.

She might know a little about how to use Google, but her net-fu doesn't seem to go much further than that (for now).

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Taliesyn
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Taliesyn »

Gotoh wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:52 pm
@rogermart: And in that link, she thought the web counter was a date.
No, she didn't. She was making a wise-ass comment that visitor counters are woefully outdated.
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Gotoh
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Gotoh »

No she wasn't, she honestly didn't know what it was for. She even admitted it in the third panel.

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rogermart
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by rogermart »

I don't think we're reading the same strip.

Sandra said "That it's 1996" because that's when web-counters became popular in websites. And in the third panel, Tatiana explained the meaning of the web counter being at 1, Sandra said that she wasn't thinking about Tatiana's point (she is at the beginning of her career and no one knows who she is). Then she proceeds to recommend Google Analytics.

Sandra even knows how to work that website's views:

http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips- ... icsed_them
That's what i do... i drink and i know things...

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Eisu
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Eisu »

No she wasn't, she honestly didn't know what it was for. She even admitted it in the third panel.
Err, no... she was making a wise-ass comment about how using a web-counter is akin to the website being in 1996... she didn't think it was a date... that was kinda the joke... what she meant when she hadn't thought of it in the third panel is the fact that she's starting at the bottom and nobody knows her.
So she knows about Google Analytics but doesn't know how to Google? I find that hard to believe.
I never said she doesn't know how to google... what I'm saying is that she doesn't know the specifics to google up said person.
I could imagine typing "Lavalii Paris DMG" into Facebook search would narrow search enough, especially if they have some common friends. Facebook search is really amazingly, creepily accurate like that.
Assuming Lavali has a facebook... Sandra might have done a facebook search only to find out Lavali (who likes to keep a low profile) doesn't have one... (especially these days with the news of a lot of people deleting their facebook accounts)
Didn't they have a famous game blog? Which was also the first to post pictures of Sandra? That shouldn't be too hard to find.
As Gotoh mentioned, Sandra probably don't even know they had a gaming blog. She just knew that they were her fans and that Alex is her nerd-advisor. Remember, to Sandra, they're still high school seniors. In her mind, she probably didn't think they'd have a net career or anything like that.
Or Sandra should have a vague idea of the name and address of Pierre’s bakery. Track that down, find the contact details, send Pierre a long, cringingly apologetic message saying “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but for old time’s sake, please pass my e-mail address or the following Montreal phone number to Cammi”. His shop is opposite Domenico’s office; Cammi must come past occasionally.
She could do this but who's to say she hadn't but the moment Pierre sees the name Sandra Arden he might have just deleted it without reading it's content due to his anger. No point having a long cringing apologetic e-mail message if the person receiving it never read it in the first place. Sandra really did burned a lot of bridges ^o^
It’s incredibly difficult not to be locatable online, if anyone just cares to try.
I do not agree with this cos a couple of years ago, I've tried searching for an old artist friend of mine who was well known online in the early 2000s but came out with almost no result other than extremely old news. It can be difficult to be locatable online even when people try. Of course, arguably, Sandra's well known NOW as compared to my friend who was well known then but only remembered by people who knows them now so it should be easier to search for her name but again, searching for her name is not something she would think of due to the fact that she probably thinks nobody is really connected to her in that sense (not knowing that they actually are) cos to her, Alex is just a high school senior nerd advisor and Marie is a high school senior friend of hers who's a huge fan of hers and does part-time mo-cap jobs on the side.
You don’t search for names, you search for things you know about them. Alex and Marie should be trivial; they run a Sandra fan site.
Except that they do not run a Sandra fan site... they run a video gaming blog that featured Sandra in several of their articles but Sandra doesn't know about this. And searching for just Sandra and her net fame (which she probably doesn't even know blew up that bigly) would result in several articles and trying to find the exact one that was written by Alex and Marie might be too difficult but then again, she doesn't even know they have a website in the first place to even know that they made articles about her.
I... Uh, As someone who worked for several international corporations I find it hard to believe. Big companies like this usually put a big emphasis on free flow of information. There is usually unified directory which clumps all employees into one global address book. I really see no benefit in putting effort into keeping branches so separated. If Sandra has at least basic access into IT system she should be able to find anyone from company in Outlook address book.
Isn't something like this between the companies themselves? Sandra's not a DMG staff member to get access to this. Though I suppose, if she knew about this, which she probably don't, she can ask Gary for help on it but she might think that Gary probably wouldn't know Lavali so she might dismiss that idea outright.
You make a lot of fair points, which support my suspicion that Sandra never bothered to get any of their contact information. But on this part, in particular, I'll admit I hadn't thought of that either.
Sandra did get their contact information, but it's all on her phone (and these days, where else would you put the contact info you just got anyway) which is not with her and not knowing she would get fired and deported, she might've not even save any information in the clouds.

Lavali's just a personal assitant so searching for her probably would get nothing, Pierre hates her so contacting him probably gets a instant deletion, Zoe, Tatiana and Domenico fired her so why the heck would they reply to her messages and searching for Cammi would yield in absolutely nothing cos she's keeping herself off-the-grid due to her CIA connec.... oh, wait... I've said too much... forget what I said... I'll be going off this forum for several months! *BAMF* Ninja smoke!!

dmra
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by dmra »

Eisu wrote:
Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:51 am


Sandra did get their contact information, but it's all on her phone (and these days, where else would you put the contact info you just got anyway) which is not with her and not knowing she would get fired and deported, she might've not even save any information in the clouds.
I appreciate that you're not the writer but the point about the phone just brings up the other big problem with Sandra's chloroforming. She had money, she had possessions all of which have apparently been stolen so add that to assault and kidnapping which you'd think Sandra might just have been a little put out about.

Presumably she is able to find the French police's contact details or perhaps she really is such a doormat that she doesn't think she's got anything to complain about.

Oh and I'm probably showing my age here but if all else failed presumably Sandra could have sent a letter to Lavali c/o DMG in Paris.

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rogermart
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by rogermart »

Eisu wrote:
Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:51 am
So she knows about Google Analytics but doesn't know how to Google? I find that hard to believe.
I never said she doesn't know how to google... what I'm saying is that she doesn't know the specifics to google up said person.
Sorry, I got what you tried to say. I was responding to Gotoh who said that Sandra isn't tech savy.
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Spidrift
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by Spidrift »

Sandra is as tech savvy as the plot requires. She knew about Google Analytics, which I confess I hadn’t heard of when that strip came out. (Never needed to get into that specific stuff.) And while it can be hard to trace someone who’s not got much Web presence, successful businesses and bloggers have a LOT of Web presence.

The general idea that Sandra couldn’t find any way to get in touch with anyone in Paris — which is what she said in the comic — simply requires both a terrible lack of initiative and ingenuity on her part, and a weird mental block on remembering any surnames or business names. Which, okay, may be a bit of a joke about the way that these comics rarely mention surnames, and also about the way that people use phones as external memory prosthetics these days, but still makes her look remarkably stupid. And Sandra isn’t usually one of the stupid ones in these comics.

(And if Zoé & co’s little plan depended on Sandra not being able to contact anyone in Paris, it had to assume that she was that stupid. It probably didn’t require that, but in that case, why retain her phone?)
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-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

OllieOrOlly
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by OllieOrOlly »

Things are ostensibly working out for Sandra, so it seems she either has gone teetotal or has gained a better control over her alcohol, although I'd wager the former as more likely.
I know she is the supposed star in the spin-off, but it feels like she is close to at least a cameo back in the core narrative.

Anyways~
Remember that naive if overly zealous fanboy of Sandra, who ended up becoming nothing but a sex toy for a duo of sociopathic nymphomaniacs? Remember that fanboy's childhood friend who is in still in the dark that her possible love interest is just a f**kboy now? Remember that stupid diamond heist plot that came out of and went nowhere? Not all threads need closure, arguably, yet it still seems like a lot of elements that were treated as important were ultimately filler.

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lordoffiling
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Re: 2018-08-14 Expansion Pack

Post by lordoffiling »

There’s one thing worth noting.

Sandra might not have what she needs to find anyone in Paris.

But everyone in Paris has *everything* they need to find *her*.
"Rather than simply enjoying these comics, we log in to these forums to argue about them. [...] We are some strange people, and I guess we have nothing better to do." - lordoffiling

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