Selkie's winter weather kit prioritizes insulation and heat retention as much as shielding from the cold temperatures. Insulated thermal underwear, insulated jacket, and special pockets sewn in by Grandma to hold portable heat pads close in.
I believe I mentioned this before, but Selkie goes through a LOT of portable heat pads.
Yeah, a good thermal wetsuit makes for the ultimate in warm underwear. If subzero temp saltwater isn’t a problem while wearing it, it’ll make your winter gear a tropic paradise.
Todd may want to look into getting something like this for Selkie. http://store.activheat.com/ActiVHeat-Womens-Heated-Hooded-Soft-Shell-Jacket-p/2jkfhssbl-gl-promo-allday.htm The gloves and jacket heat themselves with battery power. It’s rather pricey, but I figure it’d be worth it to make Selkie more comfortable during the winter. And batteries are easy enough to carry around on your person, so she could always keep some with her just in case. Plus I’m sure in the Selkie world they can be given a cooler look that Selkie would like.
I like that you created a gilled, lunged, exogenetic mammal. But I am starting to think that she is either an alien or created in a lab. Most mammals are endothermic, even the platypus and the echidna.
Ah, yes. Gonna fess up that I didn’t consider moisture/hydration concerns, but thinking about it I don’t feel dehydration is an issue. I can’t see an aquatic lifeform like Selkie sweating, so retaining moisture shouldn’t be a problem.
What would be an interesting problem though (and thank you both for making me think of it) is gill-flushing with all those layers.
I think you could probably make an argument that Selkie’s people don’t align exactly with current taxonomy or species classifications. They are exothermic aquatic and egg-laying like amphibians, but they have hair and mammaries like mammals, and they have gill-like structures like fish.
I don’t know the details of Selkie’s biochemistry or her normal internal temperature, but the events of the past—however long it’s been in the strip—suggest her species leans towards the cold-blooded. (Though I’ve read it all I may have forgotten a detail or two.)
Could someone get Selkie some hunting socks in her size?
Have a heart and think of Todd’s finances, you guys! Pricey special battery powered jackets? Super high tech brand name jackets? Yes, definitely worth it to keep Selkie warm… but don’t forget Selkie has lost clothes before while at school.
(My kids lost at least one sock or glove every day they went out bundled up and any part of the outfit could be mislaid, up to and including illicit pajamas they hadn’t bothered to take off before they got dressed.)
Possibly the only reason Sel gets to keep her expensive custom made footwear is that it wouldn’t fit anybody except her and when one of her sneakers mysteriously ends up under a chair in the teachers’ lounge the conversation goes “What in the world is that!?” “Oh, it’s a sneaker… I think” “Yeah, gotta belong to that Selkie kid in third grade.”
We kept our kids in Columbia and other name brand stuff for winter. It’s a bit pricey, but we determined it was worth it– after spending too much money on cheap stuff that didn’t keep them warm or dry.
This is why they have OUTLETS. (White Sierra and North Face both have outlets near where I live.) Sure, sometimes they end up in an odd-colored jacket or something, and they’ve never had anything but basic black in snowpants, but we’re not trying to make a fashion statement here anyway.
(although my son’s blue and orange snowboard boots (<$20 at REI) turned out to be fashionable in a vomit-into-the-back-of-the-mouth sort of way. I know he gets all kinds of compliments in the lift line.
Have you ever given thought to exactly what Selkie will eat? We eat, basically, cows and pigs. in France they eat horses, but we won’t. In Korea they eat dog, but we won’t. In the South American jungles they eat monkey, but we won’t. But I was just thinking of the old TV show Alien Nation. They were also completely carnivorous, but they did not have preconceived cultural opinions on what was good meat and what was disgusting meat. Meat was meat. They ate it all.
So far we’ve seen Selkie eat cow (the chili on the hotdog and the steak at Barb’s, plus cheese, and the meatballs from spaghetti day at school), pig (the hot dog and ham at Grandma’s) chicken and tuna (canned), salmon (the first day from Woolmart) and eel (fresh-caught). And carp (the goldfish).
Also, I looked at the electric coat Craythey linked, and noticed it has fake-fur trim. Does Selkie have any problems with leather or fur?
Well, I don’t think she’d be categorized as a mammal.
As for “Alien Nation”, I believe they could not eat some dairy unless it was spoiled (gone milk being their form of alcohol) or they’d get violently ill. They also had a habit of melting in salt water LOL.
I think she’d have the intellectual sense not to try and eat leather, if that’s what you’re asking. Also, unless raised with it, I don’t think most eight-year-olds care whether they’re wearing a real animal skin or a synthetic one.
I think that Selkie, as a meat-atarian, would be open to most meat sources, but might hesitate at “friend animals” like dogs and cats. Exotic stuff like monkey or kangaroo she would probably be willing to try.
Also, Selkie’s willingness to suck the eyeballs out of a still-flopping fish suggests no problems with leather and fur to me.
Easier said than done, really. Even if Todd’s job would allow him to move (which is not a given), he’d run into some *massive* issues if he tried moving right now, while he’s still in the trial period for Selkie’s adoption.
Once the home visits and surprise inspections are all done? Then he could move anywhere he wanted, provided he’s capable of supporting himself and Selkie after the move.
Before then, however, it’d be viewed as very suspicious at *best* if he tried moving. Especially since it’s likely that they checked to see if he’s likely to be moving in the next few years and they got a “nope, I have no plans to move anywhere in the next five years” (or however many they checked for).
Basically, it’d raise some red flags that would suggest his motives for adopting Selkie were less than pure – which would be bad for everyone involved.
The resuable heat pads aren’t a heck of a lot more expensive than the disposable ones (in fact they’re often about the same price). She should consider an upgrade, to avoid risking running out.
*about to leave the cozy warmth and walk into -15C outdoors* Warm winter wear indeed should be insulating, but for humans it also needs to pass off some of it, or else you’ll sweat and then freeze. Layers, layers, layers.
The fact that Selkie is feeling overheated while wrapped up means she is at least partly endothermic.
When I had a girlfriend with a Burmese python, I learned some things about cold-blooded animals like reptiles. The most counterintuitive thing was that wrapping the snake up, no matter how much, would not make it warm — you’re just wrapping in the cold. If Selkie was cold-blooded, wearing all this gear would not make her warm, it would just keep her from getting any colder once outside.
(This is why the snake would come into bed with us at night. It loved the mammal heat, and snuggled all around us. There’s no snuggling like snake snuggling.)
The reticulated python, 30-40 feet long as an adult, is the only species of snake ever documented to have eaten a human. A Burmese python, a ‘mere’ 8-12 feet, would be able to kill you, but it probably won’t try to eat you.
All lifeforms generate some amount of heat, how much depends on their activity level. Exothermic & endothermic don’t mean cold blooded and warm blooded, they refer only to how the amimal’s body temperature is controlled. Your girlfriend’s Burmese python liked to snuggle because that’s an easier way to keep warm than moving around a lot.
Selkie is overheating because, as has been said in the 2nd panel/transcript/comments, there are warming packs under all that winter wear.
Cold weather sensitivity sucks, as I’ve known firsthand since I almost lost my ears to frostbite. Blasted weather reports were way off the night before, instead of a 10 minute walk in the 20s F it was a 10 minute walk in -50 F, followed by another 15 minutes walking (before a ride from a lifesaving snowplow) in it thanks to my work not being back open though it was supposed to be.
Fourth panel: “If. Looks. Could. Kill.”
If you want to improve Selkies life, you might look into extreme sporting gear, or Omni-Heat Columbia kids’ wear = )
Yeah, a good thermal wetsuit makes for the ultimate in warm underwear. If subzero temp saltwater isn’t a problem while wearing it, it’ll make your winter gear a tropic paradise.
… when it gets to be that weather, she needs some form of goggles as well. It really helps protect the eyes from freezing shut.
Heh all perents do this, weather or not your cold blooded.
Got that right!
hahaha i remember my time as a walking mummy during the winter back as a child
Must make it very difficult to move around a lot, plus the gills get all covered up – tightly – too.
Todd may want to look into getting something like this for Selkie. http://store.activheat.com/ActiVHeat-Womens-Heated-Hooded-Soft-Shell-Jacket-p/2jkfhssbl-gl-promo-allday.htm The gloves and jacket heat themselves with battery power. It’s rather pricey, but I figure it’d be worth it to make Selkie more comfortable during the winter. And batteries are easy enough to carry around on your person, so she could always keep some with her just in case. Plus I’m sure in the Selkie world they can be given a cooler look that Selkie would like.
I like that you created a gilled, lunged, exogenetic mammal. But I am starting to think that she is either an alien or created in a lab. Most mammals are endothermic, even the platypus and the echidna.
Something tells me she isn’t a mammal.
Dave> what about lack of moisture with all the heat retention?
Not sure I understand the question.
I think it’s “won’t she get dehydrated, potentially damaging her gills?”
Ah, yes. Gonna fess up that I didn’t consider moisture/hydration concerns, but thinking about it I don’t feel dehydration is an issue. I can’t see an aquatic lifeform like Selkie sweating, so retaining moisture shouldn’t be a problem.
What would be an interesting problem though (and thank you both for making me think of it) is gill-flushing with all those layers.
You could also argue that they put slightly damp and warmed cloths over the gills for the winter months to prevent dehydration.
Well, it’s been mentioned that her species suckle their young. That’s pretty much the main criterion for mammal right there.
I think you could probably make an argument that Selkie’s people don’t align exactly with current taxonomy or species classifications. They are exothermic aquatic and egg-laying like amphibians, but they have hair and mammaries like mammals, and they have gill-like structures like fish.
Puts the platypus to shame.
Dave posted an anatomical diagram, way back in the way back.
Here is the anatomical diagram. WARNING It does contain some nudity. You can view it here.
It took me a bit to find it, but there you go.
I don’t know the details of Selkie’s biochemistry or her normal internal temperature, but the events of the past—however long it’s been in the strip—suggest her species leans towards the cold-blooded. (Though I’ve read it all I may have forgotten a detail or two.)
Could someone get Selkie some hunting socks in her size?
Have a heart and think of Todd’s finances, you guys! Pricey special battery powered jackets? Super high tech brand name jackets? Yes, definitely worth it to keep Selkie warm… but don’t forget Selkie has lost clothes before while at school.
(My kids lost at least one sock or glove every day they went out bundled up and any part of the outfit could be mislaid, up to and including illicit pajamas they hadn’t bothered to take off before they got dressed.)
Possibly the only reason Sel gets to keep her expensive custom made footwear is that it wouldn’t fit anybody except her and when one of her sneakers mysteriously ends up under a chair in the teachers’ lounge the conversation goes “What in the world is that!?” “Oh, it’s a sneaker… I think” “Yeah, gotta belong to that Selkie kid in third grade.”
We kept our kids in Columbia and other name brand stuff for winter. It’s a bit pricey, but we determined it was worth it– after spending too much money on cheap stuff that didn’t keep them warm or dry.
This is why they have OUTLETS. (White Sierra and North Face both have outlets near where I live.) Sure, sometimes they end up in an odd-colored jacket or something, and they’ve never had anything but basic black in snowpants, but we’re not trying to make a fashion statement here anyway.
(although my son’s blue and orange snowboard boots (<$20 at REI) turned out to be fashionable in a vomit-into-the-back-of-the-mouth sort of way. I know he gets all kinds of compliments in the lift line.
Have you ever given thought to exactly what Selkie will eat? We eat, basically, cows and pigs. in France they eat horses, but we won’t. In Korea they eat dog, but we won’t. In the South American jungles they eat monkey, but we won’t. But I was just thinking of the old TV show Alien Nation. They were also completely carnivorous, but they did not have preconceived cultural opinions on what was good meat and what was disgusting meat. Meat was meat. They ate it all.
So far we’ve seen Selkie eat cow (the chili on the hotdog and the steak at Barb’s, plus cheese, and the meatballs from spaghetti day at school), pig (the hot dog and ham at Grandma’s) chicken and tuna (canned), salmon (the first day from Woolmart) and eel (fresh-caught). And carp (the goldfish).
Also, I looked at the electric coat Craythey linked, and noticed it has fake-fur trim. Does Selkie have any problems with leather or fur?
Well, I don’t think she’d be categorized as a mammal.
As for “Alien Nation”, I believe they could not eat some dairy unless it was spoiled (gone milk being their form of alcohol) or they’d get violently ill. They also had a habit of melting in salt water LOL.
I think she’d have the intellectual sense not to try and eat leather, if that’s what you’re asking. Also, unless raised with it, I don’t think most eight-year-olds care whether they’re wearing a real animal skin or a synthetic one.
I think that Selkie, as a meat-atarian, would be open to most meat sources, but might hesitate at “friend animals” like dogs and cats. Exotic stuff like monkey or kangaroo she would probably be willing to try.
Also, Selkie’s willingness to suck the eyeballs out of a still-flopping fish suggests no problems with leather and fur to me.
Hehe, I like how Selkie turned into a murloc for the first few panels.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Murloc
Well, Selkie is more than a fish, and more than a man… (If you get this one, you get a virtual cookie.)
I’m more than a bird! I’m more than a plane! I’m a birdplane! I’m a birdplane, a #@$%#*in’ bird plane!
“I’s can’ts puts mah ARMS DOWN!”
Just a thought but maybe they should move somewhere warmer?
Easier said than done, really. Even if Todd’s job would allow him to move (which is not a given), he’d run into some *massive* issues if he tried moving right now, while he’s still in the trial period for Selkie’s adoption.
Once the home visits and surprise inspections are all done? Then he could move anywhere he wanted, provided he’s capable of supporting himself and Selkie after the move.
Before then, however, it’d be viewed as very suspicious at *best* if he tried moving. Especially since it’s likely that they checked to see if he’s likely to be moving in the next few years and they got a “nope, I have no plans to move anywhere in the next five years” (or however many they checked for).
Basically, it’d raise some red flags that would suggest his motives for adopting Selkie were less than pure – which would be bad for everyone involved.
That looks like me in the winter!
The resuable heat pads aren’t a heck of a lot more expensive than the disposable ones (in fact they’re often about the same price). She should consider an upgrade, to avoid risking running out.
It’s entirely possible she is using the reusable ones, and the extras are just so she doesn’t have to be without any while the first ones ‘recharge’.
Total “Christmas Story” moment…
“I can’t put my arms doooooown!!”
“You can put your arms down when you get to school…”
………-sniffs- reminds me of when I moved up north…….I hate the cold’s!!!!
Also Another avi is up hears the link http://edward89.deviantart.com/art/Selkie-scout-358098480?ga_submit_new=10%253A1362620076
Thank you everyone who made the Christmas Story reference and letting me know I wasn’t the only one thinking it.
I didn’t want to make the reference because I had to live it when I was a kid.
*about to leave the cozy warmth and walk into -15C outdoors* Warm winter wear indeed should be insulating, but for humans it also needs to pass off some of it, or else you’ll sweat and then freeze. Layers, layers, layers.
The fact that Selkie is feeling overheated while wrapped up means she is at least partly endothermic.
When I had a girlfriend with a Burmese python, I learned some things about cold-blooded animals like reptiles. The most counterintuitive thing was that wrapping the snake up, no matter how much, would not make it warm — you’re just wrapping in the cold. If Selkie was cold-blooded, wearing all this gear would not make her warm, it would just keep her from getting any colder once outside.
(This is why the snake would come into bed with us at night. It loved the mammal heat, and snuggled all around us. There’s no snuggling like snake snuggling.)
I would be terrified of a Burmese Python trying to swallow me in my sleep. You’re braver than I.
As to the endo/exothermy, Selkie has heat pads tucked into her clothing, but she is also still indoors, so it’s a bit warm in that jacket right now.
The reticulated python, 30-40 feet long as an adult, is the only species of snake ever documented to have eaten a human. A Burmese python, a ‘mere’ 8-12 feet, would be able to kill you, but it probably won’t try to eat you.
All lifeforms generate some amount of heat, how much depends on their activity level. Exothermic & endothermic don’t mean cold blooded and warm blooded, they refer only to how the amimal’s body temperature is controlled. Your girlfriend’s Burmese python liked to snuggle because that’s an easier way to keep warm than moving around a lot.
Selkie is overheating because, as has been said in the 2nd panel/transcript/comments, there are warming packs under all that winter wear.
Actually, Didj, the layers of clothes have warmers throughout the layers to produce heat that is then trapped in the jacket to keep Selkie warm.
Cold weather sensitivity sucks, as I’ve known firsthand since I almost lost my ears to frostbite. Blasted weather reports were way off the night before, instead of a 10 minute walk in the 20s F it was a 10 minute walk in -50 F, followed by another 15 minutes walking (before a ride from a lifesaving snowplow) in it thanks to my work not being back open though it was supposed to be.
since no one else said it outright (but several suggested it) this is a particularly adorable strip. Great work!