Today’s comic is one of those strips where jefbot and i could not be more different, since I rarely ever use my air conditioning in my car or apartment. It’s just one of those things that was instilled in me back in my youth by my dad. Although he seems to use the AC more in the house and car nowadays (mom’s influence, perhaps?) when I was a kid we’d all just have to roll our windows down if we were in the car or go outside if we were in the house and think cold thoughts.
So how ’bout y’all? To AC or not to AC?
And, hey! The return of the BOTling! As first seen in this strip: JEFBOT.325_Toy Story
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Sorry for the late comic strip. Been working on getting the new and improved JEFbot Vol.1 book ready for printing so it will be available in time for the San Diego Comic Con, and got a little behind on everything else. I’ll have shots up of the proofs on the JEFblog soon!
A/C, definitely. Unless it’s cold, in which case it would be the heater. 🙂
heheh. yes, i have no trouble using the heater, Insectoid.
do i spy an updated Insectoid gravatar!? looks cool!
and, hey! check you out: you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! as always, wear them well, as these have little A/C units for your eyeballs:
😎
You do indeed; I made a fresh one as a vector image in Inkscape, so that I could add more detail. (You can see a blown-up version here.)
Ahhh… cooled eyes. 😎
ooh, the embiggened one’s even cooler!
lolz. i love Ac. I LOVE AC. the wheather keeps getting hotter. AC is the second greatest gift god gave men apart from fire.
Almost made it to first place.
the only time i really wished i had a good a/c unit was when i lived by myself in Sherman Oaks, CA, and my apartment would get sooooo hot at night, that i couldn’t sleep. i had a wall unit, but it just didn’t cut it.
and yep, you were only about 30 minutes from getting the Shades, jf#300!
I hate refrigerated AC, it gets right up my nose. If you know what I mean?
AC tends to dry out my eyes as well, Jim.
Heh, I’d figure the Cornfather would be use to the A/C. Because like the Cornfather I am also a big guy, and us heavy people tend to perspire more. So I use the A/C more frequently when I’m out and about.
in Real Life, the Cornfather uses his a/c way more than i do, Michael! (although he still uses it even though he lost 70 pounds and is a skinny guy, now.)
Both Popbot and Jefbot have their hands on top of the wheel. Love that.
Just roll down the window, Cornfather.
heh. that’s totally the way i drive, Maryz – with my hands on top of the wheel. and i suspect bot has the window “child locks” on. 🙂
My car bakes all day in a parking lot without shade. I use the AC to survive.
And also because if I drove with the windows down, I would have to let go of the delusion that no one can hear the music I’m playing or realize I’m singing along (I’m thinking of getting a bluetooth as a disguise).
i hear ya, Sarah W – i have to put one of those sunshades up in my window or my car becomes an oven. and i totally drive with my windows down all the time while i’m singing. i mostly don’t care until i get close to my neighborhood. 🙂
AC. I’m in the friggin’ South, I cannot emphasize AC enough (both at home and in the car). Somehow my parents remain immune, and my dad will even bust out a sweater in 70° weather.
yikes! i can generally wear pants and long-sleeved shirts in the warm, socal weather without breaking a sweat, JOE, but a sweater’s pushing it.
I am just about to become independent and yes, my house and car WILL be an icy hell powered by pure spite! That and I’m buying an industrial vacuum cleaner ‘cuz my parents always buy the most pathetic sucking machines.
a good vacuum cleaner’s important, Diego – i hate rolling over a tiny piece of tissue paper ten times with the vacuum ‘cuz the suction’s too weak to pick it up.
Yes! As a northerner I do this exactly. I love me some cold.
as a northerner, you probably have some thick blood, Ranmarru. being from socal, mine’s pretty thin.
AC all the way. Me and my dad’s side of the family are usually most comfortable in cool to cold environments. I think we have some kind of internal heater to keep us warm.
On a side note, is it just me or does young popbot resemble Tom Sellek?
internal heaters are important, 52pickup! i run pretty cold, especially my feet, which i swear get colder than ice, at times.
and the Tom Selleck resemblance of Popbot’s gotta be the ‘stache. thank the gods he shaved that!
*squee* BOTLING!!!!!!!! WEEBOT!!!!!! *dances around all happy like*
*coughcough* I mean uhhh, Good Morning BOTiverse and all you BOTvilians?
Love love LOVE the new comic. Seeing Botling made me squee fer real and people in the office thought I was nuts. Well, ok, I confirmed it for them.
And are you sure we aren’t related?! OMG! My Dad totally did the same thing! And now this old and thin and freezing all the time! Ohoh did Popbot ever do this one?
Open scene, Sweaty Pixie and PixieMom. Pixie Pop on Couch.
Pixie- Daddy why is it so hot in here?
PixiePop- The air is on.
PixieMom- Are you sure, it’s so hot in the house?
PixiePop – The air is on.
PixieMom – Ok we get that the air is “on” but what is it set to?!
PixiePop – …90.
Pixie -(faints from GD heat exhaustion)
And scene!
The only part of that scene that doesn’t happen is the fainting. My parents have this argument EVERY time I go to visit. Because we live in Florida and 90 in the house is not acceptable!
My parents are more the opposite of that. And, it’s not that my mother loves the heat (although she does enjoy it far more than anyone else in the family), she is almost literally allergic to A/C. If she’s going for a long car ride with someone she has to bundle up like she’s going to the Arctic to keep the A/C off her or she will actually get a cold. It doesn’t even take that much.
Now, I have a lot of trouble taking the heat. In the middle of summer I have to use the A/C to get the place as cool as possible. The reason is because I can’t fall asleep if I’m sweating. It doesn’t matter if I’ve been up for the past 2 days straight, I’m not sure a tranquilizer could put me to sleep even. I don’t even live in the Southern US and I have this problem. Although, if I had central air A/C (the heat is a forced air system) I would probably just keep it in the low 70’s or upper 60’s during most of the summer. As I’m reliant on a single window A/C unit to cool my place I rarely manage to have it that cool.
wow, your mom sounds like she needs a battery-powered space heater for long car rides with the a/c on, Razmoudah!
and i feel your pain – i absolutely can’t sleep in the heat either! i had an apartment with a huge wall that faced the setting sun, which would heat up the apartment at night and i would spend endless hours awake, waiting for the scant, few hours when it cooled off in the wee hours of the morning. i finally had to move out of there for fear of losing my mind from sleep deprivation.
WOO! i’m happy to see you got a *squee* from the return of the botling/jefbit, Pixie! (also happy you *squeed* in front of your officemates! heheh.)
Popbot definitely did this in Real Life, but it had the opposite effect on me than in the comic – as much as i tried to rebel from his teachings, i almost never use the A/C! even when i’m roasting. crazy.
HA! love your “scene.” my dad would also set the thermostat to a temp that kept the rest of us uncomfortable in the house, but he thought was perfectly normal – mostly because he spends most of his time outside in the patio!
Wait until you’ve gotten sick from overheating a few times. You’ll start to change your opinion of roasting yourself constantly after that, not that I took the heat well before then.
Well, we had a car with no A/C. The car that DID have A/C we used when needed. The dishwasher was a different story. Our dishwasher was simply a storage device for our fancy dinnerware, and we always did the dishes by hand. Even though my wife wasn’t Asian, her family was the same way… until she moved out. Now everyone uses the dishwasher, except my dad.
In my family if you don’t wash the dishes by hand you are kindly asked to leave the premises… Mind you we never have more then 20 dishes( for a large gathering) so it seems kind of a waste.
i don’t think i’ve ever had a dishwasher in any of the apartments i’ve lived in, Satoshieyes, so have always done dishes by hand since moving out of my parents’ house, oh-so-many years ago.
Yea I don’t live with my parents but I’m the host of a weekly poker game, but they would still kick me out of my own place if I used a dishwasher
ha! i think Mombot used her dishwasher for storing cooking stuff for years, too, until she recently got a new one, Stan. 🙂
If my dad ever sold his dishwasher, I’d recommend that anyone buy it — it wouldn’t have much mileage on it at all — like new!
My wife always jokes that her parents DID use the dishwasher — the dishwasher happened to be HER.
ha!
We use the A/C but only after it gets hotter than 80 in my house.
The car is a different story. I hate recycled air, so I just roll down the windows and let the wind do its job. Unless I have my son in the car, and then I alternate between A/C and window cooling.
“above 80” is a good rule, McClaud! when it starts getting above that, it’s just not fun.
and i almost always use the “roll-down-the-windows” method, too; when i was driving back from Phoenix a week or so ago – when temps got over 90 degrees – my passenger practically begged me to use the a/c. i reluctantly complied.
I use the air conditioner in my apartment and vehicle but only as a last resort. I first try opening windows. Then if I’m still hot, I close the windows and turn on the air conditioner. FWIW, I’d think this strip was funnier if you drew icicles hanging off of Cornfather’s eyes, nose and mouth.
unlike bot, i agree with using the a/c as a last resort, Rainey – it’s gotta be crazy hot for me to turn it on.
and, while it’s not the style of this strip, i like the Looney Tunes imagery of the icicles!
Surprising you actually do that, given your small frame. But, I admire the determination/ Hell-bentness.
i don’t actually do that, Anime fan – i’m the exact opposite! it takes a lot to get me to turn on my AC. maybe bot will learn that lesson someday…
I DO THIS TOO! YEAH MAN!
But freezing, is not something I do. Never.
May I have the Greatly Humiliating Shades of The 19th Comment?
(If there is such a thing)
i do much better in the heat than i do in the cold, ShadowShuffler! i think bot’s drive to carry out the promise from his youth warms him in the cold environment of his car.
and, yes – you may have those Shades. but they are of the Inviso-type:
Awww, JB was so cute when he was younger… WHAT HAPPENED!
sadly, what happened to the botling happens to us all, Nathan C.
AC only comes on if its stifling in the apartment. my car gets blasted to the point where I need to wear long sleeves in my car. 😛 the heater is never on in the apartment because we live on the third floor so we steal it 😛
that’s mostly why i never use the heater, either, DJ – i don’t think i’ve ever lived on the bottom floor. oh, and also cuz i live in L.A., which is rarely ever really cold. also, i’m afraid of being asphyxiated by carbon monoxide.
Michigan can get a little cold >> even when you pile on 3 or 4 extra blankets.
The AC use last month shot our electric bill up but is to be expected in the summer
I am also a large fellow who needs AC.. It was worse when I was 450 pounds and basically needed AC to live.. But now that I’m 250 I still need it.. Specially after a five mile run..
Also my truck is one of the hottest places I’ve ever experienced so it’s either AC on or windows open.. During the winter it’s nice though all that heat it gives off really helps
after a five mile run, i think i’d need more than AC, Satoshieyes – i’d need to jump in a cold pool! congrats on losing all that weight!
When I was a kid my mom and dad would get the air conditioner in their bedrooms while me and my sister sweltered in the heat and we had no air downstairs. I hated my parents for that so I swore when I got a house of my own, when I paid the bills the air would be on when it was hot and I would never go to bed hot again.
Sometimes you can make all your dreams come true cause that air is on when the temps hit 90 and above!
i’m glad you were able to make that dream a reality, TPC! that said, i think it’s pretty funny that you knew your parents were living it up in the AC while you and your sister had to suffer! maybe they were helping you two build character?
Gotta go AC. I don’t think I ever turn the AC off in the car, just adjust the temp. I think I’d die without AC. Good news is I don’t need it super cold like the people who like their cars and homes like a meat locker…that can get super expensive! $$$ Now that I think of it, my office is hot. Get me facilities so they can crank the air! 🙂
hope you got the air adjusted in your office, sean luke. if not, i think that’s a good reason to call it quits and go home for the rest of the day!
Brilliant! It’s so true. I love Jr. Jefbot! My dad was the same way… still is! I crank my AC, and sometimes I leave the windows down too!
having the AC on with the windows down is quite indulgent, Funnyshaffer! see what our fathers make us do!!? 😉
We used (and still often do) OAW (Open All Windows) I tend to find Airco to cold after while, due to my size there are always bits an pieces of me directly in the airflow which damn near gives me frostbite, that and I actually anjoy heat 😉
i like the term “OAW,” Icarus! i think my neighbors just called it “poor man’s air conditioning.” heheh.
holy cow, two coments and two responses from the author :O When you make your big Break as an Acotr I now get to tell people I know you. XD 😉 😛
heheh. i can’t wait, Icarus! 😉
In Maine, we only use A/C for like a month and a half.
ha! well, at least not using AC is much more cost-efficient, DaHoboJoenMe!
I’m a “warm” so A/C is preferred. However, I’m on a budget, so house A/C only when it gets too stifling, and lots of fans.
Car A/C pretty much all the time.
Popbot may simply be getting older and less willing to deal with it. I notice for instance that I don’t miss dealing with snow any more. I don’t mind snow per se, or the cold weather, but I’m happy not to deal with a lot of the side-effects.
i’ve lived in SoCal for so long that i really don’t do well in snow, Jeffrey. i went to new england for Webcomics Weekend a couple years back, and it was so cold, i thought my tongue was gonna freeze.
Definitely A/C. It’s a necessity when driving in Arizona during the summer (doesn’t seem to matter where.)
would you believe i made the entire journey from L.A. to Phoenix without the use of a/c, Striker? i got great gas mileage! on the way back i was traveling with a friend so i had to turn it on. needless to say, my mileage wasn’t as awesome.
I grew up in Houston. If you didn’t use AC there, you died. Figuratively speaking of the time.
yikes! okay, if it came down to life and death, using a/c wouldn’t be a difficult choice for me, Redfuzzy. 🙂
Ah, AC. As much as I respect it, and enjoy it (especially times of combined high heat AND humidity), in the car and the home, on the silly little savings I have… I keep ’em off as long as I can stand it.
(sadly, my roomies have a lower heat tolerance than I. >< )
ugh. yeah, heat and humidity make it difficult, Holaved. when my mom and i were in Hawaii last, i pretty much had the a/c pumping in the car and hotel the entire time. 🙂
Good googaly moogaly, man! I mean, I know it’s no AZ or TX, but still! At least you had the awesome beaches and nothing but healthy respect for SPAM as far as the eye can see!
MMMmmmm, SPAM.
agreed: mMMmmm. SPAM!
Of course the heat is nothing to: Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!
I love that avatar…
Ah! Fahrenheit 256.2, my old nemesis! We meet again! But this time, I have freezy pops!!
Othar is a such a carefree and terrifyingly obsessed man.
Dammit, now I want a popsicle.
Crap. Now I want a Popsicle too. If only I could build some mechanized man who could make, freeze, and bring a Popsicle to me.
When I’m at my parents house the AC is set to a nice 72F. When I’m at my college apartment though I just use a fan (which is currently on right now) unless it gets really hot. Seeing as both locations are in the boiling hot state of Texas the use of the AC and/or fans is generally not something to argure about.
BTW, how hot is it in LA? I might be visiting that area in a few weeks.
for the most part, i can get by using just a fan during even the hottest of times in my current apartment, GB! but when i was in Phoenix a couple weeks back, turning on a fan was like turning on a hair dryer.
L.A.’s beautiful right now! i think we had a high of 80 today, and it’s about 63 degrees here right now (at night in west hollywood.) don’t hold me to those temps in a few weeks, tho…
actually I always have the AC on for not that reason. I absolutely must have it cold wherever I am. I like to be cold, which is why when its summer I’m chugging water like I’m in the desert… but my car is always driving at 60 degrees interior temperature.
glad you’re not doing it to spite your dad like bot here, steve. heheh. and i chug a lot of water during the summer, too – it seems to just evaporate from my skin at an accelerated rate!
If the fan and sliding doors are open in the house for 2hrs and its still not working, AC. My car, not AC I prefer having the window down. When its in my control anyway, when I’m with my mom she rolls the window up two seconds after I’ve put it down. Did your dad really have a stache!? I must see a picture.
yep! my dad had a ‘stache for the longest time, Nat. it was the fashion i suppose, back then. i’m sure my mom has a pic somewhere.
My mom loved the AC when we were driving through the southern states (Texas, especially). I personally can’t stand the smell of AC-ed air. It’s too sterile for someone who relies on her sense of smell to tell her about the world. I prefer to ride with windows rolled down and wear fewer clothes when it’s too hot.
Of course, I’m in Alaska. So it’s only an issue for about two months, June and July. The rest of the time, we’ll start our cars ten minutes before leaving to make the car warm.
Oh, funny story. When we were in California last year, my brother and I would get into AC wars. He slept out in the living room, where there weren’t any vents, so he’d turn the AC on high to cool off. I was sleeping directly under one of the AC units, and I get cold easily anyway. So he’d turn it on, and I’d go out a couple hours later and turn it off, then he’d turn it on…you get the idea. Finally, one night when I couldn’t sleep because I was too cold, I told him to go sleep on the porch if he was too warm, and if he turned it on again, I’d use the fuse box in my room to turn it off permanently and lock the door. I won that little skirmish. 😀
Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way you can be sure 😉 😛 XD
effin’ A!
heheh. sometimes you gotta bring out the big guns, T! i mentioned in a comment above how i can’t sleep if i get too hot, but the same thing goes for being too cold. at least when that happens, i can usually find an extra blanket, but when it gets too hot, it’s sometimes impossible to cool off. (at least down here in SoCal.) 🙂
i’m the same way, T – unlike bot, i like to have the windows rolled down so i can smell and hear the environment around me. BUT – if i did that in your Alaskan world, i’d freeze like a popsicle within 10 seconds of rolling down that window.
Lol, we’re not *always* a frozen wasteland! We’re looking to get up to 80 degrees today! (And me outside, working in that. Yick.) But with your thin blood, you would turn into a Jeffsicle eight or nine months out of the year, true. 😉
80 degrees!!? wow, that’s like socal weather, T! and, yes – my blood is too thin to protect me from jeffsicle-ism.
Crank it way up!!! Although it probably depends on the climate
it’s cranked, Jiro!
My apartment is fed by one half of a two-part central unit and my landlord controls the thermostat, so I get AC whether I want (or need) it or not.
i’ve never heard of that, reynard61 – that your landlord controls the thermostat!? i hope you both have similar temperature needs and comfort zones. 🙂
ok spent last 2 hours reading from start to current. sweet comic you got going, but what happened to Cel and the spaceships??? Or the hamster for that matter???
all will be revealed soon, espacole! (well, mostly. heheh.) thanks for jumping on board the BOTtrain! 😀
I’ve only ever once lived in a house with a central AC unit, and it didn’t do much for my room because of some shoddy workmanship. Whenever my room is above 75 I pop out the old window AC unit. I mean old too, we’ve had this thing since I was 12. It keeps the room cool (lest my computer overheat) but I feel guilty about using it if the weather isn’t climbing past 80…not that I turn it off.
In the car, my mom would use AC or heat whenever she felt like it. After her heart attacks that sometimes meant, when no one else felt it was necessary!
My dad however has never turned on the AC. Sometimes the heat, but never the AC. Luckily he always drives with the windows down because he isn’t too big on cleaning his car, and the smells might accumulate otherwise.
When I can afford a car my AC usage will probably be something like my mom’s.
i’ve never had a wall a/c unit that did me any good, Descolada! normally, cuz they’ve put those things in the living room at most of the apartments i’ve lived in, when i’ve really needed it in the bedroom (which is where i normally put my computer and work on JEFbot.) and when it gets hot in L.A., the small amount of cold air gets absorbed by all the heat!
I love the BOTling. He’s so cute! We hardly ever use our AC at home, but we have the car set to a comfortable temp – usually 74, but up or down as needed.
I was in Denver for a safety convention the past few days, and there was a reception at an air and space museum. Guess what I saw: THE x-wing from in the hanger scene in Star Wars! Complete with R2D2 in the back. There was only one full size x-wing made; the rest were added digitally after the fact (or however they did it then) to make the hanger look full, or mini models for the space scene. I was in heaven. It was the highlight of the conference for me. 😀
*geek squee!!!!!!!!!!!!*
So, they had the fullsize Xwing? Wow, I wonder how much it cost XD but WOW O.o
i’m happy you like the botling, Shanna! hopefully, i can find excuses to bring him into the strip more often. 🙂
and thanks for posting the link to that x-wing in the comments of JEFBOT.441. i don’t know if i could’ve resisted jumping in that cockpit!!!
Dude, I’ve been away from this comic for a while. I just got caught up.
Anywho, in Florida, even if you turn it all the way up to 11, you still won’t get cold enough if it’s the middle of summer.
No dude thats for winter you dont even get a good breeze in summer
glad to have you back, NeoD! and i’ll agree with you about FL – i’ve only been there twice, but both times have been so hot and humid; when i went outside i felt like i needed to take a shower immediately cuz i’d be coated in sweat. 😛
had me a car once a oldsmobile ac broke on it and it kept over heating unless i had the heater on full blast to take heat off the engine so i had to drive around with my windows down all the time was great in winter though even with the windows down
same thing happened with my old toyota, neon5162. i could never use the a/c for fear of it overheating and would have to have the heater on most of the time. it’s something i’ve thought about incorporating into the strip!
Hahahaha,
I live in the south. You might die down here if you dont use the A.C.
Though I rarely use the heater in the winter because I love the cold, and waltzing around my home wrapped in a comforter as well.
Even when we lived in Anchorage we used the a.c.
XD
Anchorage, Alaska? The place six hours south of me?
🙂
i believe you, Batty! while i do better in heat than i do in cold, i think if i lived anywhere extreme i would either spontaneously combust or freeze solid. 🙂
I’m from Florida. To not have A/C is to DIE a horribly slow infernal death by heat suffocation.
it seems there a bunch of BOTreaders in florida, KB! i’m seriously gonna need to check on comic conventions over there. 🙂
I know we have AFO (Anime Festival of Orlando) in August. I can do research if you want.
I’m in London right now. I actually considered turning on the heat last night. I got really cold. Ugh… I miss Los Angeles weather.
i’ve only been once, but i loOOove london, Saeed! i’ve got to get over there again someday.
Meh, some like it hot, some like it cold.
it’s true, Jiro. as robert palmer once sang: some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on.
Only used it a few times, most of those times because it was hot enough I was starting to fear that I would black out from dehydration. I used to sleep in a room with all the pipes and vents going over it, any time it was cool in the house, it was a oven in my room, any time it was kind of cool, it felt like a freezer. You start to adapt and not notice that your sweating like a pig, or when your skin starts to turn blue.
yikes – sounds like you really learned how to adapt, Zolen! and your experiences remind me of my office – they only seem to turn on the a/c when it’s really cold out. when it’s warm, they just like us workers to stew in it. 😛
OK WHERE ARE YOU!
It’s been a WEEK! You never go this long without at least letting us know that you are still ok.
I HAZ A WORRIED!!!!!!!!
SOOO sorry, Pixie!!! just a bunch of “life stuff” going on that’s keeping me from JEFbot! nothing too crazy, tho. well, except that i’m getting a new apartment! just literally three doors down from where i’m living now, but boxing everything up again and getting ready to move is throwing my life into disarray. i’ll try and blog about it soon. thank you SO MUCH for the concern!!! xoxoxo
oh goodness, childhood drama
I like air conditioning in the house, but I don’t like to freeze in the car.
In the land of invisible air (Californians have commented on this) I prefer 80-2 after a frigid day at work where where the boss keeps the temp down 6 degrees below comfort level.
Yes, most people in the office wear sweaters and light jackets in the summertime.