Episode 521: Assignments

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Dave

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Zombie Cliche Lookout: A (Menial) Job for Everyone

One of my favorite parts of Max Brooks’ World War Z was where it talked about the way people had to adapt to a completely different social structure in the zombie apocalypse. People who were once very powerful were doing menial jobs and even taking orders from former subordinates. What it ultimately came down to was a question of skill sets. While a Chief Technology Officer is afforded a lot of power and respect in our world, their skills would be totally useless when it came to surviving the zombie apocalypse. Of course, this isn’t always the case. Mechanical engineers, doctors, and lots of other high-profile professions would still have extremely valuable skills, but for many of us (I build websites for a living, not a lot of demand for that in the zombie apocalypse), we’d be obsolete.

About this Episode:

BrickVoid wanted a closer look at the boxes and crates next to Murphy’s car, so I made sure to show a little more in this episode. Of course, when a character directly references them, they kind of need to be in focus.

Other News:

I want to do a bit of shameless promotion here, so if you guys haven’t already checked this stuff out, please do:

  1. I made another product review video where I smash coconuts, which is always fun. This time it was for a tomahawk, which I am marginally better at throwing than the combat shovel. Check it out here.
  2. I also wrapped up our third Let’s Play series with a game called Deadlight. You can check out the last episode, complete with a full review, right here. Or watch the whole playlist.

Discussion Question: Stuff or People

We’re going to hew close to the episode once again with this question: which would you rather be responsible for: helping a person to safety, or ensuring vital supplies make it back to base? It might seem like the person is the more important of the two, but losing vital supplies might doom multiple people. What do you think?

28 thoughts on “Episode 521: Assignments”

  1. Typo alert, Zombie Cliche Lookout, second sentence: menials–>menial 😀

    Same section, fourth sentence: “in on world” I’m not sure what the typo is here but there certainly is one. I’d suggest changing “on” to “one”, I’m pretty sure that doesn’t fit properly.

    Nicely done this time around, Dave, there’s only two typos! 😀

    • Not bad; both fixed.

  2. There seems to be a site functionality problem too: When I click the “back” button to go to the previous episode I get sent to some Deadlight series review instead. Since this page doesn’t have buttons for navigating the comic on it’s page, I’m assuming Dave stuffed up somewhere here! 😀

    • I had a similar issue myself. I clicked the “next” button and I was brought to a weekly creation.

      • Interestingly, the first and last buttons work just fine.

    • Aw hell, right you are.

      This one wasn’t actually me. The software the powers BotD was updated last night, and I’m guessing this is a regression issue. I’ll research it.

      • There’s a regression issue with the software all right! I sincerely hope they fix it for you! 😀 You should have the developers on speed dial! 😉

        • Hah, I wish.

        • Hmmm, cool new format your software seems to have given your page as when I logged into it at around 5:46 here in Australia, it had changed! 😀

        • The only thing you have to teach it how to render is the BCN link, but I would guess that’s easily fixed! 😉

        • Okay, that’s fixed now, and moved to the footer.

          Sorry for the chaos, I’ve spent a lot of time fixing things this weekend.

        • No worries, Dave, much appreciated here! If it weren’t for your efforts BotD might not even be what it is today! 😀

  3. Regarding the Discussion Question, I’d tend to say both. Why? Because without one you can’t have the other. It’s a bit like how the chicken has to get food to produce eggs. 😀

    • You do indeed need both.

  4. Grab-assing!? I laughed for about two minutes straight after I read that. Great way for me to start the weekend, thanks.

    • it must be a little difficult for Dave to photograph this lot actually doing that in LEGO, since it doesn’t really lend itself to that sort of non-verbal communication! 😀

      • Right you are; unfortunately, minifigs just aren’t articulated enough to pull off some of these concepts.

    • Hah, glad you liked that. It’s something I say a lot at work when people are screwing around.

      • It made me laugh too… I had never heard that before. I should try to reuse it someday.

        • Huh, well I wish I would have taken credit for coming up with it now.

  5. Asked question—I go with the Firefighter ranking. Life Safety, Incident Stabilization and Property Conservation. The person comes first and then the stuff. You can usually find more stuff but more not zed people is much harder.

    Unasked question —When is she changing her name to the Governess? She has spent the last few strips degrading Murphy and removing all his confidence as a leader. Now she is barking orders at the others. Her power grab seems pretty complete. Do you need us to send you lego fishtanks?

    • Hah, I could use some fish tanks 🙂

  6. Until 2 years ago I was of the mind that I would be the one staying back to ensure as many that could would make it back, and delegated supplies and logistics to others.

    I experienced a some “moderate” strokes this last year leaving me with some neurological “deficits.” Mind still works, bod not as well. So I would have to determine what is best for the group and maximize my remaining talents. Hopefully, as time progressed, I’d still be able to provide strategy and training to the community.

    I’m guessing I’m fast approaching the “Just leave me and I’ll delay them as long as I can” stage.

    • Wow, that’s quite a story, Luis. My father-in-law had a pretty major one a couple of years ago. It took a while, but he’s worked his ass off and gotten a lot back. Still not 100%, but he’s doing extremely well. I hope you can do the same. We don’t need any zombie bait.

  7. Interesting how different people take this question different ways. Most people assume you had to *pick* one. I, however, assumed the question to be which one would your *rather* do, assuming that someone was taking care of both….

    In that light, I would rather be in charge of supplies. Supplies don’t panic and don’t argue. Given the choice of getting a wounded or panicking person to go somewhere, that would not be my strength.

    • Hey Kim, I’m glad you pointed out that difference, since I hadn’t really noticed the trend. The way you answered is how I intended it.

  8. That’s a tough one. Depending on who’s hurt and how badly, I’d go for helping if the job wasn’t already taken by someone else. If I didn’t care for the person or in the case of the Zombie Apocalypse, I’d grab supplies.

    • Everything is relative, after all.