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I’d sure like to move on from this fucking pandemic
HNY
“This Tweet is from an account that no longer exists.”
That’s on point for March 666th, 2020. (kidding. It’s March 672’d today, 666th was Monday)
Wow, that was fast. It was active a few hours before I posted
Original: https://www.tiktok.com/@squadteamforce/video/7047219667496357167
1/1/2022: the day I finally watched a TikTok on TikTok!
I can’t speak for Ana but I’m not sure why you would the issue here is actually fear and not the deep societal changes that the pandemic entailed. That decades from now people will still refer to this era as pre and post-pandemic in a similar way that people refer to pre and post-9/11.
Funny thing is I was in the army when 9/11 happened, and it wasn’t long before everyone in the army was coming and going from different war zones. I think the similar situation is happening right with our healthcare workers.
In either case, Happy New Years everyone. I’m sure things will get better. Well at least until the cost of global warming becomes too high…
Or not even the “deep societal changes”, which some like to pretend we could just reverse, but the actual disease which has killed millions and left 10s of millions more with long term disabilities. Which is currently overwhelming hospitals in parts of the US, despite being mitigated by vaccination and previous exposure.
Yeah, I officially have Long COVID after a breakthrough infection three months ago, and if I have a medical emergency right now? I’m screwed. The hospitals in my area are COMPLETELY overwhelmed, because we’re one of the areas that got hammered in the initial Omicron wave. (It’s on its way to the rest of the country, mind you.) So I’m, y’know, vibrating with anxiety, hoping my random pains are just my joints and tendons and not blood clotting, dealing with the medical consequences of, near as we can tell, going to the doctor for a sinus infection on the exact wrong day. If there had been ANY effort to get Delta under control when it first emerged, I might not be sick now.
It SUCKS. I am angry and bitter and even though we’re discovering some of this was stuff I had before I got COVID (who’s been causing all of this fatigue? It was MCAS all along!), COVID made it drastically worse and more acute. And while we’re going through one of the biggest mass-disabling events in history, it has been made abundantly clear that the people in charge of making policies don’t give a shit about anything but ‘the economy,’ while completely ignoring the fact that millions of people dead and even more permanently disabled is going to crash the economy even harder and more longterm than a good enforced shutdown would have done. And that’s before we account for the medical workers who are leaving their jobs because they’re too burned out from having to deal with endlessly watching people die and having to deal with the effects of a virus getting politicized. We’re watching the healthcare system collapse. Fear is the reasonable response, especially when you’re a disabled person who can’t opt out of needing medical care.
I am soso sorry you’re going through all of that. One of my friends (who also has Lyme) also got hit with Long Covid. That’s the entire reason I’m trying my best to keep us from getting it as long as possible. I don’t want my 5 year-old to grow up with it.
Arizona’s hospitals were already on the brink of being overwhelmed and as of I think it was a couple of weeks ago we’d only had 40ish cases of omicron. Gee I wonder why we’re having such a giant spike now. x_x All because everyone “Is going to get it anyway” and “you can’t tell me what to do!”. Sigh.
Wow, deep take here.
“Are you stressed about worldwide changes due to a major healthcare crisis which is still killing people, filling up our hospitals, altering everything about our way of life, and overwhelming our healthcare professionals to the point of quitting or straight up harming themselves? Have you tried just ignoring it?”
Sometimes things suck, and we’re allowed to talk about them. We’re allowed to have feelings about them and hope they pass quickly. We’re allowed to be unhappy about unhappy things without being told to “just get over it” by the heads-in-sand brigade.
There’s a time and a place for “don’t stress about things you can’t control,” but it doesn’t work for everyone.
Also “during a pandemic which has now lasted for two years specifically because a lot of people decided to stop worrying about it” is not really one of those times.
Now in all fairness, if it were only the people who stopped worrying about it who were to blame it might even already be mostly over. Unlikely, but possible. That a few heads of state ruled that poor countries could not get access to cheap treatment and vaccines meant tremendously more.
being afraid is wasted energy.
Psychiatrists hate them!
Learn to stop being anxious about things with one weird trick!
“Just stop being
pooranxious!”Cheezus Fucking Christ, Daniel.
You can stop with your self-colonoscopy now. Or at the very least not try to include the rest of us in it.
Dumbing of Age book 12: Feeling Things Sounds Dumb
We do not feel afraid. We feel compassionate towards our fellow human beings who are suffering and/or dying needlessly, and angry towards the so-called ‘humans’ who cannot muster up the bare-basic concepts of both self-preservation and species-preservation to accept MINOR PERSONAL INCONVENIENCES that could’ve limited if not outright ended this by now, and angrier still at those who decided to politicize the whole thing for money and power.
So you can take your ‘StOp BeInG aFrAiD’ and you can go sit in the corner until you figure out how to live in a society.
Not even getting into the part other people covered already, a person can’t just “move past” an ongoing phenomenon. It’s happening, it’s still happening, and it’s still gonna be happening for a while most likely, and we all want it to be over. You’ve said quite a silly thing.
Here’s to another crappy New Year.
The worse part is, there’s not even a cryogenic freezer I can tumble into to skip this shit.
Not all of us can be as lucky as Fry.
We don’t all have The Luck of the Fryish.
The thing is, there’s no way to know that the future won’t be way worse, and more evidence than not to suggest it will be.
Not much of an upgrade to go into stasis during COVID and wake up in the middle of the climate wars…
” The end of the pandemic is ALWAYS three months away. “
I remember back in March 2020 thinking “well, no big deal, we can all just not go outside for like a month.”
hahahaha
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne
Funny thing, Nerf Now! actually had a strip last New Year’s about people mistakenly thinking next year is gonna be better just because of some arbitrary day on the calendar.
Not to be cynical or anything, but I for one am NOT gonna make that mistake this year.
Renounce magical thinking and embrace empirical evidence!!!
I always knew Auld Lang Syne as a song about looking back, it’s as much a funeral or farewell song as it is a new years song. Very easy to sing Auld Lang Syne without thinking the new year will be any better.
Yeah, Auld Lang Syne is a song of looking back, not forward.
The chorus roughly translates to ‘we’ll drink to times past’.
After 2020 and 2021, I’m not gonna make the mistake of assuming 2022 will be better than the previous year.
Since this is “Hallucination Mike” that means that Amber is thinking it of herself. Having another voice in your head is not easy, especially when it is a combative and/or demeaning.
I know Amber is far from perfect but I feel bad for her since we both have to listen to someone in our heads.
She already had “the other voice”. But Amazi-girl, flawed as she was, was a much healthier coping mechanism than mind-Mike. And here he’s outright saying why Amber let AG go and adopted Mike instead: it’s self-punishment.
One could Argue that Mike is in a way healthier because instead of making a separate persona to slip into she’s got mind Mike actually cutting into the heart of the matter and calling her on it. Forcing her to acknowledge it and not just shove into a box onto ignore.
“Amber let AG go”?
Not sure what you mean by that.
Yeah, Amazi-Girl is still around – she’s the one who does Derby with Sal, Malaya, and Marcy.
“I know Amber is far from perfect but I feel bad for her”
I think that this is actually one of the strength of this comic. Most of the characters are heavily flawed and to really shitty things. Right now most prominently Joyce, Becky and Amber. But they all still remain sympathetic to some degree because we see that they are struggling. They all lived through so much trauma. And while all of them did pretty shitty things this arc, one still kind of can understand their motivation.
I spend a lot of time these last few strips being annoyed/creeped out by their actions and feeling really bad for them at the same time.
idk, fictional characters being sympathetic even when they’re not being perfect? sounds pretty fake.
Happy New Year everyone, enjoy your fireworks and midnight celebrations.
Y’all do fireworks? Lucky.
I get fireworks too, but I just made a new tradition where I put an empty glass bottle into two ziplock bags and throw it against the wall as hard as I can.
It feels HELLA good.
We used to when I was a kid and we lived in the suburbs. Now I live in the middle of nowhere and the only fireworks(or guns) that I can hear are miles away.
I am fortunate enough to live in a community that has had a fireworks club of sorts (which has evolved into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization) for over 75 years, made up of volunteers who are all qualified pyrotechnicians as opposed to someone who went to a roadside stand and knows how to light a fuse. Our city is also sited along the Mississippi River and hemmed in to the east by bluffs rising 500-600 feet above the city. One of these bluffs has a city park which normally provides outstanding views of the valley and city below, and conveniently also furnishes an excellent stage from which to set off displays for events such as New Year’s and Independence Day while people line the streets below to view the aerial effects. So yeah, we did fireworks for New Year’s Eve — two shows, actually; an “Early Bird” show at 6:00 PM and the grand extravaganza that touched off at midnight.
happy 10pm on new years eve
Someone’s a Mountain of discontent. Don’t worry, the future called to ask me to tell you 2022 looks a lot like it’s siblings.
Be careful of people using live ammo to celebrate the new year.
Be careful around live ammo in any situation.
Be careful around people, for that matter
I mean yeah, but different level of careful. People may forgive you, live ammo never will.
And for extra measure, be careful around situations as well.
Yeah. Might I note that live ammo is FAR more predictable than people.
This is true. At least if walking in front of live ammo, I know for sure it’s gonna probably kill me. With people it’s only about a 60% chance.
I was really getting at the fact that at least live ammo always follows consistent physical rules, whereas people are very much more unpredictable in their behavior.
Not to mention they can cause you fates WORSE than death.
Live ammo without people around pretty much just sits there. Takes people to make it dangerous.
It sounded like a war zone outside my apartment for like 20 minutes after it hit midnight
happy 2022 ya nerds
Happy new year, dumbs. Because it’s Dumbing of Age
Happy New Year! I have nothing new for y’all, but there have been some new faces in the comments this last year, so I’m resharing the video I posted for New Year’s last year:
https://youtu.be/uIJW4HT_1m4
(It’s a Dumbing of Age fan video, not just random shit.)
Awe how cute and wholesome!
” All that is solid melts into air… “
Thank you for posting this! I remember how happy it made me the first time. Was that really a whole year ago? Damn.
Ooooh woooaaaah that’s so lovely!!! I guess I have been commenting here for less than a year then.
…oh yeah cos I started hanging out here when this other webcomic i used to comment on ended, and that was in early Jan 2021.
Well thank you then ^^
(Did you make this???)
Yup, I made it. And thank you!
The video is very awesome, congratulations.
I’m not new, but apparently missed it last year – thank you for reposting.
Also, I think it’s fitting today’s comic much better than last years: “And I want to feel somethin’ again”
I’m glad Amber is, in a way, at least acknowledging that she’s gone through the wringer and that there is an other side to what she’s going through now.
But fuck I hate Mike and I can’t wait for him to be well and truly gone.
To be fair, this isn’t Mike’s fault. As much as we’d like to blame him, Amber’s brain is doing this to herself.
I know, but even seeing him puts me on edge.
and In My Honest Opinion, for all that the form it’s taken is… concerning, a lot of this is stuff she’s needed to hear/tell herself/resolve for a long time now.
Hey Schpoon! Happy New Year!
And in case I forget later, would you mind dropping your Discord handle real quick?
Same as here, you need the numbers as well?
Those would be necessary, yes.
Schpoonman#2114
Thanks slick!!!
Happy New Year y’all!
And that’s all I’m saying about THAT. No well wishes or happy goals. I’m not jinxing it this year.
Kudos to you for renouncing magical thinking and embracing empirical evidence!!!
Especially since I’m pretty sure that out of all goals you make during the year, those made during New Year’s are the ones you’re LEAST likely to keep.
Oh, I never do resolutions for exactly that reason. But I’m renouncing any and all positive ‘our year’ type comments for this year in particular because I’m not jinxing it. 2021 taught me hard. Although 2020 ended well – Agent Orange is no longer in the White House.
Yeah.
If it’s important enough to need a resolution, it’s probably important enough to just start doing it.
Trying to affix significance to a resolution makes it harder to do, and then you feel worse when you fail. I gotta stop drinking so much caffeine but I’ve long since stopped going “this is my last one, tomorrow I stop” because when I inevitably return I just feel worse, which makes me less willing to quit.
Happy New Year, I’m going to predict that 2022 will be dreadful.
This way, I won’t be disappointed if it is terrible and if it isn’t then I can be happily surprised.
Yeah, every minute spent existing this year’s just gonna be another token going into the incomprehensibly large video poker machine we call “the universe”.
The optimistic take on pessimism! I like it.
Oh right, strip.
Yeah, Amber is worrying as hell and I hope she improves. Feeling things is good.
Happy New Year! I have no doubt 2022 will have it’s own terrifying news, but that seems normal at this rate. I’m just glad my area’s got more rain than usual this winter.
Ouch
man Hallucination Mike is quite a good friend
Happy New Year! The boundaries between each year are imaginary and things won’t improve just because we’ve crossed one. Get ready for another shitshow.
Look, as long as Organization XIII doesn’t try to doom the planet in a more immediate sense than usual, 2022 can’t be that bad.
Do not invoke the laws of dramatic irony.
True, it only ever seems to work when things can get worse. Nobody ever tempts fate and winds up with a positive result, I’ve noticed.
Don’t tempt fate. If Trump suddenly renames himself to Pmruxt, I know who to blame.
Do you think that if Mike made it through he would have gotten like this? Or would he become like Amber by charging himself with self loathing from his past mistakes?
I honestly think Mike would be to Amber and Ethan what Joe is to Joyce now, just maybe less emotionally constipated about it, the way Joe loudly announces he wants nothing to do with Feelings until Joyce is sad about something so he suddenly throws himself into being gently emotionally supportive to such a degree that it contradicts any stated belief that he’s “bad at feelings.”
For lack of a better term, he’d do his Mike thing in a nice way, but without the idea of “I’ll manipulate you into being better.” If Amber were in a bout of self-loathing, Mike would just bluntly try to cut through it.
That’s part of why he died, I think. A Mike who knows what wrong he did would actually be supportive, and the idea of it being for an underhanded reason probably wouldn’t work with Ethan and Amber, since the both of them were friends with Mike for years and wanted him to be good to them.
Happy New Year everyone! In lieu of resolutions, I would like to invite you to join me in posting some fun things you’d like to do next year.
– Go rock climbing
– Visit Canada
– Have a conversation in Japanese
It doesn’t matter if you do them or not, the idea is to look forward to the future.
– Write and publish a computer science class
– Run a marathon
– Sing Barbershop music safely
– Long hikes with my family
– Invent a musical instrument
— Create goals later at some time other than New Years, so I actually have high chances of committing to them
If you do all these at once I will buy you the beverage of your choice.
I just need to meet a Japanese speaker in Canada that likes to rock climb.
– learn how to play Go
Was Hikaru no Go involved in making this decision?
Nope, just happened to receive a fancy new Go set as a gift
Write fanfic.
This is mine…though the goal is less to write it (I write a lot in my head all the time), and more to actually finish it and post it online.
That’s the hard part.
– get just a little bit better at watercolours
– either get serious about Turkish or start learning another language
– go back to uni
– work a bit more, save up a wee bit, buy a new bicycle, cycle to Portugal
– start putting music on soundcloud, maybe join a band, also get better at xenharmonic music
– finally commit the goddamn geological time scale to memory, and learn the basics of plant evolution (that last one I got started on already!)
Gotta say, I especially like that last one!
sigh
Someone call an exorcist and free poor Mike’s ghost from the torment to be stuck with Amber! Or is the other way around?
The time code you posted for the “clever girl” scene in Jurassic Park was like 10 MINUTES OFF from midnight!!!
Although I do admit, it is a rather appropriate start to yet another awkward year…
still though
DAMNYOUWILLIS
Side thought, there’s still time left to post a redaction illustration (possibly with a velociraptor attack) if you can pull it off.
What should the time code be, then?
There are different releases of Jurassic Park out there. Figures the time stamp would vary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_(film)#Release
speaking of creature features, my favourite paleontology podcast recommended Black Water for its uncommonly accurate portrayal of saltwater crocodile behaviour (one of the hosts is a crocodilian specialist). They also warned it was a fairly grim movie. It’s just 90 minutes of minimalist survival horror in the mangroves of northern Australia.
And fucking god, for pure sustained dread and curse-out-loud jump scares (entirely justified might i add), this was a scarier movie than any of the monster/zombie/serial killer flicks i’ve seen this month (And i’ve watched a few).
if anyone has this sort of movie to recommend, not only with real animals as antagonists (no shortage of these) but animals that actually look and behave in a reasonably accurate way… i’m interested!
I’ve acquired Super Adult Joyce. Standing by. Standing by.
This is just close ups, is Joe overhearing just off panel?
Unless he moved recently, I’m pretty sure Joe is standing by the door.
For Willis’ perennial posting of that Spiderverse leap of faith meme on NYE, it was almost predetermined that he’d come up with his own twist.
Well done.
Bonne année to all.
Oh my God, when is Amber going to get some therapy? Being a mental and emotional mess seems to be her only defining characteristic and she’s been the same way for 15 years or however long this strip has been running. IU’s a big school with a med school attached—a lot of times a resident clinic will see students for free.
He literally said being a broken mess WAS Amber’s main defining characteristic lol
Aaargh it’s sooooo tiresome though!
Damn commented outside of the chain
Hey she hasn’t been the same since the strip’s launch.
She’s gotten worse. Way worse. Constantly sliding downhill worse.
Which, like, that’s real af. Stories about overcoming are good, but so are stories about goin’ through it. I had like eight full years of “oh christ, let a bus hit me today” and I’m only saying eight because I can’t remember far back enough.
Oh don’t get it twisted I think it’s asinine. I think it’s boring. Amber’s become a parody of herself, serving no other purpose than to be the “angsty” one in the cast. A trope catcher.
Happy New Year to everyone!!!
Yes, Amber, this includes you, like it or not.
plot twist:
mike actually died because DYW couldn’t stand having him off-camera so much.