Look Back In Anger, Part Two

76 thoughts on “Look Back In Anger, Part Two

  1. Nate…

    Nate, wasn’t the brightest bulb…was he…?

    1. It’s a legitimate strategy.

      1. So is corner camping.

        1. See.. no.. corner camping WORKS.

        2. Too true, too true ; _ ;

        3. My mom actually tried to do that for a full year… the problem was that she couldn’t get to the store in time one day and her numbers actually came up… now that’s ironic. She gave up trying after that.

        4. Pics or it didn’t happen

        5. Vance Finiraldi

          Same here. I call BS. XD

        6. Call it what you want, I’m just saying what my mom told me. She could have been lying for all I know, but I doubt it. She just has that kind of luck.

        7. And Turtling.

    2. What do you mean “was”?

      1. That is actually a good question. I really wonder why Tracy would want him back three years later given that she has *proof* that he really is treading ground?

        Of course, I’m assuming that Tracy was the one who initiated them breaking up. This may not be the case. Let’s wait for Nick to shed more light.

  2. I’m curious to see how Tracy and Nate hooked up in the first place.

    1. Me too actually….

      1. thirded

        1. fourthed that

        2. Fifthted?

        3. sixthed?

        4. C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!

        5. I love you! lol

        6. ooh nested comments

        7. Wow, sure is a long dark tunnel here.

  3. WHOA. She was even hotter back then!

    1. I second this

      1. I Third This

        1. I Combo Break This
          though i agree

        2. C-c-c-c-c-combo breaker!!!

          (5th’d…)

  4. Heh… I do the same thing with the lottery here. I’ve been playing the same sets of numbers for almost two decades now. And I just know that once I stop playing Lotto, my numbers will be chosen in the very next drawing. At least it’s only a $4-a-week habit and that it helps fund public education. :/

    1. That’s how I rationalized it too. Though I wasn’t even as smart as you and Nate about it… just hit the quick picks.

      1. I hate knowing this, but the vast majority of winners come off of quick picks.

      2. I specifically do quick picks only so that I never have to deal with an OCD need to play for fear that my numbers will be drawn the day I don’t.

        1. I just don’t play.

      3. Ive only played the lotto once, and I won a little over $500, saved the money I originally spent on tickets, and spent the rest of the money buying 5 quick picks a week till it ran out… not so smart, but I still was better off than I started out…

      4. Our lottery corporation makes available on-line all of the winning numbers from a few of their lotteries since their inception, and even includes a search function to see if your numbers ever came up.

        I’ve memorized three series of six numbers for the last twenty-five years, but I rarely play them. And I’m glad I don’t. The gap between getting just four numbers out of six was on average TEN YEARS!

  5. Assuming a pick-six with fifty white balls and a red powerball with possibly 25 choices, the odds are stacked against you unless even if bought 100,000 tickets for one drawing.

    Just saying, the odds never lie.

    1. But they are bound to come up eventually. Yes, statistically speaking, civilisation will probably have collapsed by then, but hey…

      By my reckoning, with no powerball the expected time to winning with 49 balls pick six and no powerball, drawing twice weekly (all correct for the UK National Lottery when I last played it) is about 134 millennia. 😀

      1. Your both wrong.

        The chances are 50:50
        Either you win, or you don’t.

        1. You fail at math. My guess is you fail at other things as well. Like being a troll.

        2. No, no it’s a quantum physics problem, you only have to figure out how to exist in the universe where you win the lottery.

        3. you can find a ticket. so you don’t need to enter. statistics is all lies.

        4. You know, if you’re going to make jokes about odds, you shouldn’t post them after comments expressed in terms of expected values.

    2. How about these odds:

      1. The lottery takes in a certain amount of money from sale of tickets.

      2. About 45% (in many lotteries) is returned to the purchasers in the form of prizes.

      3. Depending on income, the government(s) get up to 33%, plus the local (State) cut. We are now down to (at worse) about 30% payout. Considering Nate works in a store, I suspect he will take home, say, 40%.

      4. The more tickets you purchase, the nearer to average payout you end up. So, for Nate’s $4.00 per week, over time, he should average about $1.60 in prizes.

  6. wtf — why is she so pissed about playing the lottery?!?!

    1. Seriously?

      The lottery is a tax on poor and stupid people.

      Humorously?

      How’s Nate gonna treat her to a six-pack of Keystone if he spends all the money on the Lotto?

      1. oh I’m down with the tax idea… I just didn’t see how she’d be so vehemently angry at someone else wasting their money.

        odd juxtaposition: old-nate’s poor lotto-playing logic with the new-nate, the guy who’s the store’s bookkeeper.

      2. I agree, NobodySpecial–if he took that $1 or $4 per week, or whatever, saved it, and eventually invested it, he’d have a better chance of actually making money over the next 40-50 years.

        1. that would be $192 a year if it was $4 a week… over 50 years, that would be $9,600, lets say he starts investing half way through though, at 25 years he has an extra $4,800 to invest, if he makes an average GOOD return on a safe investment of 2%, that would be $2,400 base line, if we round up, taking into consideration re-investment of all dividends, we arrive at a rough estimate of $13,000 over 50 years… (that is including the cash he saves by not buying the tickets to begin with and the dividends from investing it.)
          Thats not bad, but its not gonna do much, pay the bills in a really really really shitty studio apartment for seniors for maybe a year… assuming housing prices dont increase…

          Odds of winning the lotto EACH time you buy a ticket 1:195,249,053 as of 2009, over those 50 years, at 4 tickets a week, one will have purchased 9,600 tickets, making your raw chance of winning, 1:20,338.4.

          The minimum you can win in the powerball lotto jackpot, is 20 million, the biggest winning jackpot, lump sum payout, after taxes, was 177.2 million, if you win a jackpot = to the most ever payed out to a single ticket, you would be making 13,630.7 % more money, meaning, compared to your change of winning, you WOULD be better off investing…unless your one lucky bastard, or just really dont think 13 grand is going to make a big difference in your retirement…

        2. Why do you assume 48 weeks?

        3. he failed the beginning math a bit i presume he was thinking $4 a week x 4 weeks a month x 12 months a year and didn’t give a thought to there being 52 weeks a year 😛

        4. Why wait so long to invest? Once you’ve built up $200 (one year), start investing, say in an “Average” fund, like one that mirrors the Dow Jones Average.” He could also do slightly more risky investments, that return 4% over inflation, and get $26k. More, as he gets older, he should be able to afford more savings. Add a Christmas bonus, or half, and he could easily double or more what he puts in each year.

    2. She’s not pissed about playing the lottery. She’s pissed about playing the lottery as a plan to fund their future life, which is totally justified.

      1. Holy crap…the last dozen strips have basically been setting up the juxtaposition of Rose (bad girlfriend) and Tracy (decent girlfriend)?! Has the world gone topsy-turvy?!

  7. I mostly wanna know how they went to hating each other. Or rather, how Nate started hating Tracy…

    All very intriguing.

  8. And now we see where the animosity between Nate and Tracy began.

    Knowing what was happening before it cut to Rose’s chat with Aya, I wonder if we’re gonna see how much willpower Nate has.

  9. Not quite shoure that is the entire reason they broke up. If it is though it seems rather weak.
    Whats with the comments below? Makes it sound like youre closing up shop, which i really hope you havn’t because I really like this comic.

    1. If you’re referring to the State of the Comic post, don’t worry. There is a planned ending, but there are a lot of comics yet to be made before TG is over.

  10. This is a prime example of the gamblers fallacy

  11. Don’t go to Vegas, Nate…they’ll bust your kneecaps. 😉

  12. The sad thing is my parents actually DO that, they spend a Fortune trying to win a Fortune, tried convincing them how stupid it is but its like talking to Nate AND Rose at the same timne :S

  13. Wait , they’re both working at the same friggen place but she’s going to get pissy cause “he” doesn’t have a 5yr plan???

    Sorry but women threw away the depending on a man card, what 30 plus years ago.

  14. The lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

  15. I plan to start playing the lottery sooner or later. I’ll get to it.

  16. That doesn’t even make any sense. The odds don’t change – any given set of numbers, whether they are a quick pick or not, have the same probability of coming up. Each drawing is an independent event, not reliant on the results of previous drawings. You learn that much about probability in junior high…

    1. And yet, in every casino now, they have a board showing the last twenty numbers spun at every roulette wheel.

      The wheel has no memory and neither do the lotto balls. But people do. And unlike the wheel and the balls, they also have the ability to talk themselves into playing.

      1. What’s interesting is that some gamblers talk themselves into playing the numbers that came up more, and others into the numbers that were not picked…

        1. heh. unfortunately not a correct application of conditional probability. but at least they feel as if they have a system/comfort blanket.

        2. Were they rational, they wouldn’t gamble.

          If they wanted to get the maximal possible payout, they’d make one bet, the largest possible. Then, win or lose, walk away.

  17. I don’t know why, but Nate’s face reminds of of Les in this strip…

    I think its the facial hair.

    1. I’ve never pointed it out, but Les is also 18… the same age as Nate is here.

  18. You know something, I have to be honest.

    Right now both Treading Ground and Questionable Content are both running “break up the main character” angles. Being a long time viewer of both webcomics. I have come to…a sort of ‘realization’. That realization being; I’m more concerned with whats going on here at Treading Ground much, much more. (like 100x)

    At no….NO time, none, zip, zero, zilch time (…yes we’re working in even zilch time here people) during the Dora and Martin break up did I feel anywhere close to the feelings I felt to when Nate and Rose did…(maybe its because Rose showed tits, or maybe its because I have a thing for redheads I don’t know, but I’m getting off track) frankly I’m more compelled to Treading Ground than the more main stream QC.

    At no time have I ever allowed “OH SNAP” to be uttered (very loudly I might add, during a free period, in my collage computer room) to QC….I can’t say the same about Treading Ground.

    Seeing Rose Quite Literally: trip fall and land on the douche bags dick is by far the most humorous and oddly compelling thing I have both read and witnessed in my entire life.

    I have to give ya props Nick Night Shyamalan, you’ve managed to twist a good plot. Keep it up mate and don’t let the haters get to ya.

    1. Kevin, this made my day. Thank you!

      1. No problem chief, just don’t fuck it up like M. Night Shyamalan and make a comic strip storyline about Aliens with a weakness to water who have to fight killer trees that make the Aliens try and kill themselves by jumping into kiddy pools….actually that does kinda sound cool. Have Les as the hero, and have him riding on a war hound with twin shotguns =p

        The faithful are behind you mate, glad I could make your day. =)

    2. Gonna have to second this.
      All of this.

    3. While I agree that Rose’s actions were well-written (props to Nick for sticking with realism), I don’t know that comparing Dora and Marten’s breakup to Nate and Rose’s fiasco is a fair comparison. Jeph has been building the Dora-Marten breakup for quite a while now, and QC intentionally runs at an extremely slow slice-of-life pace. For one, I was quite frustrated/melancholy after reading the QC strip – because it’s depressing how Dora let her insecurity issues just screw things up. When I saw Rose banging douchebag, my reaction was something like “yep, it was bound to happen. Hope she learns…”

      I think both Nick and Jeph achieved exactly what they were going for.

  19. Unfortunately, I don’t think Nate’s lottery strategy works. In a way, it’s like cutting a loaf of bread sideways, instead of vertically. Same bread, same chance of winning. Personally, I can honestly say I’ve found more money lying on the street and sidewalks than I have won in lottery tix. I haven’t bought one in about ten years.

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