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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net ⋅ 1d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social ⋅ 2dDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social ⋅ 23d
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Every preorder is a gift for Future Me (which I always forget about, so it’s a SURPRISE gift, too!)
Oh, I had to set up a spreadsheet to make sure I didn’t pre-order from multiple places, or buy in-store while still waiting on the arrival of a pre-order (or, at least, KNOWINGLY buy in-store and accept that I was gonna have an extra).
This is me with crowdfunding
This. I have backed like 300+ projects and every time one comes or finishes from years ago it’s like christmas.
Sometimes I forget candy in my coat pocket, which is a kind of fun surprise gift for future me. Unless it melts.
It’s better to have forgotten candy in one’s purse, or at least as long as it’s well-packaged. Is there anything quite like finding a forgotten fun sized bag of M&Ms in Easter colors in your purse in June?
(Yes, that highly specific example did happen to me, and to make it even more confusing, I think it was June of 2020, so I really have no clue where or when I got that bag of candy.)
If you find a small bag of M&Ms while helping your mom clean up your recently-deceased grandma’s home, be very complete in reading the bag for clues as to which decade it was produced. Don’t ask me how I know.
Check for red dye #2. Could be worth something.
Finding half a Dairy Milk bar I’d forgotten about in my pocket is fun.
Finding half a Wispa Gold I’d forgotten about in my pocket means it’s time to Google “getting caramel out of anorak fabric”.
When I was going through a rough patch, I decided I needed to hang on at least long enough to see the Avengers movie.
For me it was seeing how Babylon 5 turned out. Good thing season 5 got uncancelled.
When I think about ways I would change the past if I were rewound into my younger self with current knowledge, “getting WB to confirm Season 5 in time for JMS to *not* have to blow up any semblance of pacing or depth in writing the end of Season 4,” is actually on the list. (It *is* less of a priority than getting Florida to move off of butterfly ballots before 2000….)
Procrastinating death is a method that works for me. I order books online.
I am highly in favor of procrastinating death, but it’s a question of means and not motive.
Though hanging on until in-comic nightfall with Carla still waiting in Briscoe is certainly a motivator.
That’s certainly a unique perspective on the act of buying Cigarettes.
It’s a compromise: a commitment to persisting and an installment on your payment plan towards death.
I am glad Asher at least seems to grasp the irony.
The counterpart to a sexy lesbian suicide pact is a… sexy gay existence pact?
Dude. I think you’re onto something here.
it would be quite a a delicious dramatic scene if he dumped jen and told ethan “you’re worth liviing for” right in front other XD
Yesssssss
Ooh, avatar is correct
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Aughties me for his prudent savings. and ‘Teens me for finally getting a sustainable exercise program.
I would like to thank earlier me for marrying well the second time.
How about another game it isn’t too early?
1. What’s something that you do that you consider an investment in your future self, akin to pre-ordering toys like Ethan?
2. What’s something you used to collect or still collect for it’s own pleasure?
First one’s college for me. Prospective job hirers at least take the paper that says “I Did A Thing” into consideration (even if they still want you to have 3-5 years of experience for an entry level position).
Second one’s video games and consoles. It’s not like I’m an avid collector – I just grab stuff I remember having or playing in my past.
2. Forgotten Realms 1st edition stuff.
1. Uhhh… Eat? I guess? I don’t really consider it though. I don’t make plans for myself really. Maybe that’s changing? Or maybe I’m just erratically making promises I don’t know if I can keep. Like how my marriage failed when I was struggling with the decision to divorce them or make myself dead.
i’d love some more comfy-cute/casual outfits to go out with/in with friends
Books on both counts. I’m waiting on delivery of the Wildseed sequels by Octavia Butler.
My library is 500 strong excluding comics. I also collect book-themed things like picture frames, coaster, cushions. I’m crocheting a big floor-cushion of one of my favourite books (same title as my username).
Also, pets are good futyre-investments.
if you collect enough books, you won’t have room for the book-themed stuff
–Dave, ask me how i know
1. I don’t.
2. Collect? I have a lot of books and videogames. Wouldn’t say I collect videogames though, I just buy them because I want to play them. I recently met the guy who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for most PC games in the box. Nice guy.
1. Time spent learning Tensorflow.
2. Ebooks
1. I’ve never really thought about it in those terms, but I guess comics, especially since my local comic shop closed and I started getting them mail order.
2. Books. Doctor Who and Discworld merch, especially the stamps. Although I’ve got really far behind in actually putting the stamps in the album, which probably puts them in category one — every new Little Brown Envelope I buy increases my commitment to have time in the future to do something with them.
1. I don’t like to make bad investments
2. do memes count? I had pokémon cards in the 90s I guess.
1 – Finishing university. 2 classes are left and this is pretty demanding because i’m working full time at the same time.
2 – I used to collect a series or horror book called ”Passepeur” (It’s a french canadian thing) and I have the complete collection (Only 27, but it’s the only series I have completed and physical.
I also try to get my Nintendo games in physical. It was first to be able to lend them to people, but now it’s more to have a good amount of them. I don’t have many, but I still go get them myself.
1. Transition. I know it’s a joke that trans people talk about nothing else once they make their realizations, but I’m finding it takes most of my energy and focus. Just all the random things I’ve had to learn that could easily amount to multiple diverse bachelor minors.
2. Gaming stuff? Dice? I’m not sure any more. Ah! Stories of food I’ve eaten different places
1 I suppose collecting video games to play in the future.
2. D&D dice despite the fact that the two campaigns i play in are done on a virtual platform.
1. I’m continuing to pay off my car in hopes that one day I’ll be free from the payments on it. I’m SO CLOSE and yet SO FAR. It’s not even terribly expensive anymore since I refinanced, but the economy and owning a house means that I keep spending more money than I intend to.
2. I can’t collect anything for the sake of collecting anymore. I get nightmares about packing or forgetting something. I still have a huge collection of Pokemon plushies, safely contained in the basement.
I was gonna say some needlessly depressing shit like “I don’t invest in my own future”, but y’know what? I’m teaching myself how to play both the piano and electric guitar by copying what I hear, and that’s just flat-out an actual skill, and it’s one I’ll be able to use for the rest of my life.
As for collecting, the only consistent thing is comic books. Except I actually read the damn things instead of hoarding them away because “They might be worth something later”. Fuck the stupid culture of “If you’re into something, make sure it stays immaculate for when you sell it in the future, which is Inevitable™”, books are made for reading, and if they take a scuff or stain because I was reading them in a careless spot, so fucking be it.
I’m warming up to them, now. Ethan isn’t seeing Asher as just some sexy thing in his self-desctructive path, and instead is bonding with him.
I hope this leads to Asher thinking of his situation with Jennifer and decide what he wants for himself, and while I hate the “you just need a loooove partner to pull you out of your depression” trope, Asher might do Ethan a lot of good.
to beat a dead horse a little, Ethan’s accidentally having a more emotionally intimate conversation than Walky and Lucy ever did. So many ways this can go wrong, but at least zero-chemistry isn’t one of them.
Steady social interaction is one of the things that can help with depression. Of curse therapy and if necessary medication are still recommended.
curse therapy is one of the more interesting by-products of the Great Return of Magic to the world
All of which makes me wonder if cursed therapy actually requires magic.
We saw it with Ruth! They just kind of stuck her in rooms with people to be vulnerable and sincere without judgment and she was already feeling better. Kinda nice seeing Ethan’s light come to his eyes again.
Oof this is dark.
maybe i’m just numb to it but other than being concerned for a close friend, i feel like i’ve heard ppl their age and younger say ‘edgy teen’ stuff about wanting to die and only like a small percentage were serious. but at least they’re seemingly supporting each other and not going to actively encourage any more ‘destructive’ behaviors other than the cheating
I had suicidal ideation for a while (From 22 to 30, i’m 31 now) and joking about wanting to die was making me farther from the noose.
So thoses jokes can be only for coping with reality
There’s a difference between “augh, I have three different midterms going, I want to die”, and “contemplating my continued existence is awful and has been for a period of time”, though.
They’re both placing their darkest moments in their past though, while talking about making commitments to keep living. I find it kind of… nice?
Yes! Uplifting, while acknowledging that they were in a very dark place indeed.
Also it kinda makes Asher not wanting to give up on him and Jennifer, knowing he thinks they can be better together, make sense, knowing he doesn’t mean “better than dropping his friend into a world of trouble” or “better than setting up scenarios for kidnapping/murder due to/to get out of blackmail”… He genuinely means “this person who is spiky and mean sometimes was HURTING and I want her to be OK and I know what that hurt feels like and we can help each other get better and be good to each other and support each other and be healthy, together and separately” and for him “getting and being better” means moving away from “aloof, brooding, loner biker dude” (because that dude was alone, brooding and aloof because he was depressed and isolated and MISERABLE) towards somebody more laid back, with a goofy side who can vibe with Walky easily.
For Jennifer, it means being able to maintain the status quo of cool girl-head cheerleader-problem solver. It means cracks not showing and people not seeing the messy inside. That means keeping people at a distance.
If she didn’t pretty much literally pick him up and THROW him at Ethan, and if Ethan weren’t simultaneously hot, also dark and broody, but also not fundamentally mean and he accidentally opened up about the thing he cared about and allowed things to be emotionally real here, and totally DTF, their ship would have no chance.
As it is..? Asher’s going to fall hard, I think, and then feel like a real dick when he allows himself to realise how much Jennifer didn’t think he was serious and didn’t mean to call his bluff. Assuming she and Ruth don’t end up hooking up/having a 3some with Jason in the name of helping Dorothy (I don’t think Jason would..? But
Or possibly Ruth and Jennifer genuinely thinking that they should offer to hook up so he can hook up with Dorothy without any guilt, because she’s straight so it’ll work out better than either of them hitting on her and she clearly needs to fuck her problems out /s totally missing the bit where he’s about to maybe become her TA and accidentally getting him fired again…?
I wonder if part of the reason he’s so furious about Mike’s death isn’t just that his friend is dead but he realized he was in love with Mike and possibly reciprocated.
So there’s the “What if?” moment.
Even though Mike and Ethan would have been terrible together.
He’s also jealous of Mike. Why does he get to die but not I?
I lost someone at that age and I overly romanticized the bond we had after the fact. I think with Mike being dead Ethan forgets about a lot of the awful stuff and just focuses on the times they hooked up and imagines that it was some big love story.
I’m still sensing a slight disconnect.
It’s been a while since I’ve had suicide ideation, barring exceedingly fleeting moments on especially rough days, but I found it oddly helpful to tell myself, “I can always die later.” Like, that’s certainly not a longterm solution, but in the moment, it helped me feel like I had agency in at least one thing in my life, that I was the one choosing to continue to live and that no one but me got to make that decision for me.
And I think that eventually led to me realizing I didn’t want to die, exactly, that I needed to change my circumstances and to find ways to make life bearable. It took time, but it happened.
Thank you for sharing that. I’ve been having fleeting moments myself lately, and I like your idea.
I watched a documentary about the Golden Gate Bridge, and the people who visit it to die, and they talked to a cop who had talked the most people off the bridge. Apparently, he tells them something similar, that if help or whatever he’s suggesting doesn’t help, they can always come back. It’s not what I would have thought to say (and I’ve been in that place myself several times, I just wouldn’t necessarily say this myself), but clearly it clicks. If it helps people, then fine, why not? Funny how many of us seem to work when we’re in that specific sad hard place.
Funky Winkerbean, Book 17: I’m Happy I’m Living Long Enough To Get Lung Cancer
too optimistic
Revised title: “I’m Living Long Enough to Get Lung Cancer”
That’s the Funky spirit
Now that you mention it, yeah, the word “happy” doesn’t really go well with Funky Winkerbean.
Asher no lung cancer is bad.
No lung cancer is good.
Lung cancer is bad.
Commas are important people!
That’s what Uncle Comma always said.
familiar, yes. not the specifics, but the outline(s).
Getting lung cancer is better than being dead, right?
…Right?
Appropriate avatar is appropriate.
ppl can recover ,and asher prolly won’t go down the breaking bad route
(and to that one guy yes i’m saying ‘prolly’ on purpose and won’t change that no matter how many times you ‘correct’ me in the replies :P)
Lung cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to survive (Small-cell carcinomae are fatal nearly 100% of the time). The good news, however, is that cigs don’t have lasting carcinogenic effects, meaning that the moment you stop smoking, you stop increasing your chances of getting lung cancer.
Cigarettes have OTHER effects on your health that do last a little bit after you stop, though, but Asher’s young. If he stopped now, he’d get back to something close to unimpeded respiratory/cardiovasculary health shortly
Imagine the damage one could do if they smoked a whole carton of Decepticons.
Consider it a good thing that Ethan buys Megatron instead of an actual gun.
Megatron isn’t a smoking gun? I am so disappointed.
lol as enjoyable as them flirting is, i’d hope asher would just use some mouthwash before any potential makeout (tho idk if ehtan would notice/care at this point) so they don’t have to deal with the taste of cigarettes
I thought he quit.
No, he’s still alive.
At least until his grandfather finds out how he got the money to buy cigarettes.
He was trying, but when Jennifer was being like “bro ur not all cool and aloof like i want u to be” I think he started smoking again? Unless that was a one-off.
Human bodies are gross though so I would say use mouthwash anyways.
We have not seen him with a cigarette since https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/hard/ (and the immediately following strips). Whether that means he’s quit again or just hasn’t happened to be smoking on-panel is unclear.
But either way, Ethen did have his tongue down Asher’s throat, like, an hour or few after that, so he presumably has accepted such risk.
Aww… I think? This is kind of cute in a weird way. I want them to be friends.
“No, I get it. Every family pack of toilet paper purchased is a commitment to, you know… sit it out. A determination to push through the shit of the future. I mean, that’s 48 rolls, man. Think about it.”
Where’s Ruth
Getting roped into another one of Jennifer’s social games.
She’s not in the current scene. This is a form of violence.
you could’ve stopped after word 2
Planning wacky hijinks with Jenifer to save Dorothy.
Therapy can help, but talking about it with someone who understand is also good.
Today I learned the Bible says being overly cheerful early in the morning is as bad as cursing. “For those who greet their neighbor with bright smiles and bright tones at sunrise, it shall be as if they were cursed” or something like that. I think it’s in Proverbs.
I bring this up when Joyce is neither a Bible believer anymore nor anywhere near the plot and also probably have trouble getting up in the morning due to her period, but it’s still pretty hilarious, right? Imagine if Sarah had busted out that verse any of the many days Joyce woke her up by smiling at her. . .
“He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.” (Proverbs 27:14)
Ah, thanks. So Yahweh, not a friend of the morning people eh.
The best kind of friend: one who will tell you when you’re doing something that will come back to bite you.
This really, really gives more credence to the idea that parts of the bible are just people having a bad time writing personal vent fanfiction. (That’s my explanation for kids being killed by a bear for mocking a bald man, I could almost see the author visibly shaking as he pens his magnum opus after the neighbours kids were particularly cruel one day towards his own receding hairline).
A lot of some of the most… loyalty dedicated (*cough fundamental cough*) churches will downplay certain parts of the bible. Especially when getting into the weeds of the ‘laws’ sections, which most modern folk fail a surprising amount of.
Because its easier to get people on-board coming to Happytime Church when they are not being branded a sinner by a law out of Iron Age ideology.
Of course, we have been told of Joyce’s old church that heavily edits and interprets the Bible for its particular, tiny sect. But we also know Joyce knows the entire New Testament by heart and even thought it through to make the contradictory parts make sense so that it could be the literal, inerrant word of God. She would have to know Proverbs 27:14 and probably have some thoughts about it, come to think of it.
Yes, but anything inconvenient in the Old Testament is waived by the assertion that Christians are not bound by the old covenant. The restrictions on seafood do not apply either, for example. Joyce is not really sinning against Proverbs, nor would she let that worry her.
Except of course for certain EXTREMELY SPECIFIC verses in Leviticus, of course.
–Dave, Paul probably rolled a dreidel a few times to pick out exactly which ones, then he made it _everybody’s_ problem
This comic is a mood, maybe I’ll get to the last panel stage of things eventually
I haven’t been properly suicidal for a couple years now (thanks antidepressants) but i still have a massive block when it comes to imagining myself persisting for years and decades.
On one level it feels nonsensical to think about the future when I’ve been depressed and suicidal for so long. Like, why bother when i could just end up killing myself.
But on the other hand it’s also just kind of the ultimate excuse for procrastinating hard decisions or the building of healthy habits. “Why worry about the future, I’m probably gonna die before I’m old anyway.”
Idk just thought I would share.
Same. Except the antidepressant part. I probably need them, but it just fell like a hassle.
it could be a hassle. it wasn’t to much of one for me once i got the ball rolling. i just had to show up to a couple doctor’s appointments, and i was in a place where i could manage that much. but then the first pills i tried just worked, and had almost no side-effects for me, which is obviously not the case for everyone. i’ve just had to adjust my dosage a couple times, but overall, yay.
so, i don’t really have the same hassle-to-benefits ratio analysis that other stories provide, anyway i will say that no longer having to cope with crippling spirals of suicidal thoughts is really, really nice. and like, i don’t know how this shit works exactly, but that was a constant threat i had to navigate (mainly through constant distraction and alcohol and weed abuse, not that i’ve entirely stopped doing any of those things but they are no longer survival strategies, just things to do when bored).
like, i get depressive episodes still, but they’ve been so much lighter than before. it’s not fixed everything, i still have anxiety, and this avoidance mechanism that i described in my other comment is still very much making me vulnerable in various ways. (not the least of which is, economically, cos i still can’t get myself to give a fuck about saving up or anything.)
anyway, that’s just one story. i don’t know that you care, but if you are considering antidepressants, well, i do not regret taking care of myself that one time, in that specific way. it made my life better/less terrible.
I’ll share my antidepressant / anti-anxiety meds story as well, in case it can be helpful to someone:
The first antidepressant meds I was prescribed by my doc (my primary care physician) did seem to help somewhat with reducing feelings of depression after we found the right dose, but because I also have memory issues from other sources (ADHD / sleep issues), some days I forgot to take them, and it was one of the ones which have more negative effects to come on and off of them. For me, this meant a couple days where I had mood swings, which my ex noticed and asked me if I had taken my meds on those days.
So, my doc took me off of that, and we saw where I was at. I hadn’t made much progress in therapy, because as it turned out, some of that depression was related to my situation at the time with that ex. But, we left it there for a while, mainly because I never remembered to follow back up, but also probably because I was a bit worried about the same thing happening.
A bit later, I was seeing a psychiatrist, and asked for help with anxiety, but mentioned that I’d had trouble remembering to take the antidepressant med before. They put me onto another antidepressant / anti-anxiety med which had less serious side effects when you forgot to take it, and thus far, that’s worked pretty well for me in reducing anxiety. I definitely notice a difference in my baseline anxiety when I forget to take it, and haven’t really had side effects from it. Depression isn’t so much of an issue for me now, at least not an obvious one, but the med I’m on now is used to treat both.
Lately, I’ve been wondering if it might be worth asking about increasing the dose, to see if it helps me deal with anxiety related to avoidance behavior. But, I’ve been on it for a couple years now, and other than bumping up the dose when I first started on the med, that’s been the only change we’ve had to make.
So, not painless, but not much of a hassle, either. And in my case, even those mood swings from forgetting to take those first meds were mild-to-moderate, so while it wasn’t pleasant, it also wasn’t crisis-level, either.
I’m the opposite. Only very recently have I realized that I have just…assumed I’m gonna live to see my 40s or 50s. For some strange reason I’m under the impression that I’m going to live a long life despite the fact that I don’t exercise and eat like shit and also don’t ever go to the doctor or dentist. Like I HOPE I live for a while but I can’t exactly say I deserve to.
PLEASE go to the dentist, Yotomoe! Let them care for your teeth. You’re gonna need ’em for a while. The longer you wait, the worse it will get.
Anybody else reading in the last panel a degree of Ethan saying “looking forward to toying around with you” and Asher saying “looking forward to a damaging investment in you”?
omgggggg
this single strip sold me entirely on the two of them
Damnit Willis stop making me like Asher
Are you sure you’re masochistic enough to read this web comic?
I mean, I’m a Science Fiction/ Fantasy fan who is holding on until we can get to the good stuff.
It may take a while. None of the couples has started looking for a unicorn yet …and it seems those are hard to find!
Won’t be Becky and Dina looking for one of those. They aren’t supported by the fossil record.
[circles under his eyes visibly disappearing a bit once he’s indulged in the special interest and had a difficult emotional conversation] Oh this is good for him at least short-term huh
Oh man is his real. I preorder anime figures, and they OFTEN take 2-3 years to get to me- that’s normal. When I was at my worst one of my fears was that I would go and that my figures would trickle in every few months years after I’m gone. Worrying that my family would keep getting that kind of mail for me gave me so much guilt it kept me going. I’m doing better ish now and not in any danger, but those are the real things that you wouldn’t expect to keep you moving forward but do.
Well this is turning into a weirdly healthy mistake.