Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
The Messenger
indui
In a ruin-abound town cursed with bad luck, Kai and Kalla--a young boy and a fledgling dragonbird spirit--take on a quest in hopes the reward will solve all of their problems.
Monster's Garden
Ash G.
Champion pit fighter Kilo Monster was content to spend the rest of his days tending to his quiet garden alone... until he met a curious robot girl and her human family.
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
Three Panel Soul
Matt Boyd, Ian McConville
It's a pretty rigid format but we keep the content loose, you know?
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Angel's Orchard
Harry Bogosian
After the events in Demon's Mirror, Gerda has accepted her role as a Demon Hunter, and Cezar has traveled back to the Demon City. Demons have existed alongside humans for millennia, so things begin to return to normal. But an impossibly powerful Relic has been taken by one of the Demon Masters, and a silent war enters its final stages.
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
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I mean if you’re a good speedrunner you can clear a lot of games in a frighteningly short time. I doubt Walky’s capable of beating the entire Fallout series in under two hours, but it’s theoretically possible.
Maybe it is like those “thousands of video games” things at flea markets back when, where starting with 3 lives, starting with 2 lives, and starting on level 2 were counted as three different games.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, says the woman with Merge Mansion, Seaside Escape, Merge Mayor, Longleaf Valley, and Gossip Harbor on her tablet.
nah, Webtoon Treasure Hunt has conditioned me to never play ANY mobile game until it has a Treasure Hunt quest, bc the rewards are only given to first-time users
Marvel Snap, Gems of War. Free to play, no ads, no cooldown timers (I think Snap has a limit if you run out of cubs, but you have to suuuuck to hit that limit).
and def fluctuates depending on a game, i don’t think i’d have the attention span to ever be a streamer, personality /commentary aside but some games like the sims you play for like a week straight and never touch again for 3 months or replaying some old stuff like pokemon (i guess they never did make one with another save file but i always played on emulators)
I just recently created an infodump link list (my language of caring) for a dear one who was also just scammed. Would it help if I shared it here? May not be right away, but def. before next strip. It’s all USA resources.
Some people also use commercial identity protection services, VPNs, and other such online privacy tools to help protect their data from fraudsters and phishers and long-leggedy beasties…
Thank you so much Laura, I reported my incident to the FTC for whatever good that will do. Additionally, thank you for letting me know WhitePages exists, holy shit
Oh, you are so welcome, NG! It’s awful when it happens. I appreciate you for allowing me to infodump with you. I’m sending good vibes out through the aether webs for your safe recovery.
lol idk if i have adhd or anything but while some games are fun but i don’t think i could do 2 hours with commentary let alone a six hour stream (tho i know some ppl do have shiny hunting streams while casually talking), and sorry to hear that (and there are a ton of games out there but i don’t think i’d be as interested in personally playing them versus watching someone else playing in teh background while doing other stuff)
or a large steam library of games they never played, buti can imagine some person dedicating themselves to a specific mmo til the servers shut down lol
I have several triple A titles, a litany of classic games (from the pre-2015 era, not the pre-’95 era)… Around 100 games in my library total. I have played (ever) about 40 of ’em… And meanwhile my top two games played have watched racked more than 2k hours (probably more than 3k for the top game)… while Skyrim’s in position #3 with around 1100 hours (but only 750 on my current account).
I have an excuse though- while my tower is a robust build capable of handling everything I throw at it, my Internet is limited to DSL speeds; a 40+ gig game just takes too long to download.
TF2 is still one of my most-played games of all time, and it’s still going strong even though it’s over 15 years old. I love that stupid, broken, old game.
I remember reading that over 60% of steam games are purchased but never downloaded. I’m sure there’s some sort of a moral there, possibly using the words ‘late phase capitalist consumer culture’, but then I look at my own steam library, and the engagement each purchase has had, and I find I am in no position to offer advice to anyone.
Mine aren’t played because my computer broke and I haven’t been able to afford a new one for 4 years. I have to do everything on my phone, thanks economy!
But I do have a switch and I do tend to play one game at a time. But I’m autistic so it might be related lol
I have sometimes played like 10 or 13 idle games at the same time. Tabbing around from Cookie Clicker to Clicker Heroes to Swarm Simulator to Realm Grinder to NGU to Idle Champions to Shark Game while trying to stay on top of Crank, it’s easy to feel like you’re making good use of your time, progressing in all these simultaneous vectors.
The phrase “executive function” refers to a set of skills. These skills underlie the capacity to plan ahead and meet goals, display self-control, follow multiple-step directions even when interrupted, and stay focused despite distractions, among others.
Yeah, I think looking at Joe being romantic and Dorothy trying to fix him and Lucy (and his altercation with Amber!) has made him not feel like learning about gender right now.
Walky kinda playing fast and loose with his grades and classes considering how he’s consistently having academic drama. I’d worry he drops out if I didn’t know that was impossible.
We don’t actually know his schedule (I think) so he might genuinely don’t have classes the rest of the afternoon. (I been told college students in the US can manage their classes like that, which might or might not be true).
American former college student here. In the first semestor of my senior year of college, I only had classes on Monday and Wednesday. It wasn’t intentional, but that’s how it worked out. I certainly didn’t complain.
…though Monday and Wednesday could get quite intense.
I know we don’t see every character’s every class, but we do see an awful lot of Walky not in classes when other people are in classes. Maybe he’s skipping a “telecom” class later, to avoid Lucy.
I think he’s probably okay there, like judging by the stuff with Amber, he’s genuinely doing better academically. It’s his private life that is currently fucked.
does attending classes have a real impact on grades? I mean, it would be nice to know what material to study, but can absence actually lower your grade even if you learn for the exam on your own?
Depends on the class, honestly. Some will have participation grades factored in. Some professors will ‘cap’ your grade (No A if you miss too many classes). And some classes are very lecture-heavy, with no real way to study for an exam if you’re not in class (though having a friend who is willing to share notes might help).
And in other classes, if you show up on exam day and pass, that’s all the professor will care about.
Freshman year, Calculus 1, me and a couple of friends crunched out our grades before the (extremely weighted) final, we were all looking at nearly perfect scores on the final to bump us up to As, and we’d have to basically miss it for us to drop from Bs to Cs.
I don’t know about them, I didn’t study much after that.
Some classes move real fast, with problem sets after each lecture to help you absorb the material. If you skip the lecture, the problem set may seem impossible, and the text material may be unhelpful. If you skip the problem set, you are seriously falling behind.
Even if it’s not a participation required class, you have to be really disciplined about keeping the same pace as the class, and the instructor has to have handed out a syllabus, that they keep to, so you don’t have to remember to pester someone who shows up to know when the tests are.
Participation class doesn’t even mean participation is graded. You do learn things from being there and asking questions and hearing other people ask questions you didn’t think of, and hearing different perspectives.
I wouldn’t describe what Walky is feeling as jealousy so much as…A missed connection with someone. Hard to say if he misses Lucy so much as as he misses an assuredness that Lucy (and at one time Dorothy) represented.
At the moment, he seems calm, but something tells me that Dorothy gave him other advice, only this time it is to apologize to Lucy, what this boy will do later is obviously uncertain…..
Still, Walky/Dorothy will always be my favorite.
I hope he doesn’t apologize to Lucy. He has done a lot of work growing a spine, and accepting the whole “this is all your fault” blame game from Lucy would be a set back.
Depends on what the apology is for. For not being in love? Ridiculous: he has no such obligation. For not helping Lucy to form realistic expectations of their relationship until it was pried out of him, when he knew she was laboring under a serious misapprehension? Yes. Think of it also as an opening for Lucy to apologize for putting so much pressure on a shiny new relationship.
Emotions are what they are, but how we let them move us is our responsibility.
Well that’s the thing — I picked this job so I can work and be lazy at the same time.
But also, I seek to make my own games one day, specially for this comic. Playing games is something I should do both for that and for sustainable stress relief, but haven’t felt the drive in so long…
One of my goals is that when I’ve finally earned enough from commissions saved up, that I’m to take a break from them entirely and focus on making a fan game, a game I want to make.
Last appearance together in person: https://www.dumbingofage.com/carry/ No Roz / Joe interaction, but interesting Joe / Joyce (a couple of days after Joyce tells Joe everything he does matters, that he matters)
and Walky / Dorothy interactions (they’re about to go “on pause”).
I’d like to ship Dorothy and Joyce, but Dorothy had no response at all to Joyce’s big face hug. Walky and Joyce seem to be absolutely allergic to each other.
They actually have a Gob-load of banter, though. Whether that banter is friendly is up for discussion, but given that both give and take, and given that they mutually consent to remaining around each other with regular frequency, they must at very minimum tolerate each other, and quite possibly enjoy the back-and-forth.
However, that doesn’t necessarily make them compatible, given that Joyce has demonstrated at virtually all times an apparent type for absolute units…
Walky is a hurt flirt a la the toy at Dorothy’s head. Both time he’s been super mean to Joe is when he’s been in relationship gray areas and Jor has been with Joyce. Joyce is as ‘the sweetest ever’ like Lucy and rapidly throwing off the authoritarian stuff Walky didn’t know he subscribed to as well. She’s not as academic forced as Dotty, still likes cartoons, makes time for her friends and is considered objectively attractive among the cast. I’m not saying it is that, but I’d definitely not be surprised.
Yes. I read it as observing and pondering her concerns for Joyce. This is not typical Joe behavior. For that matter, it is not typical Joyce behavior. Dorothy looks thoughtful, as she did at the end of yesterday’s strip.
Oh hey, Walky said “Ah’m”. A minor detail, to be sure, but I like the idea that Sal’s accent is rubbing off on him since he’s started reconnecting with her. It’s kinda sweet, in a way.
The spacing between letters. It’s actually “kerning” but “keming” is a joke variation on the word because the “rn” looks like an “m” if impropertly kerned. (I grew up in my grandpa’s print shop, so I might know a little bit more about typesetting than the average human.)
I don’t know if she has ADHD but I do that to albeit with .y phone or switch playing tetris which relaxes me while playing a strategy game or a turn based game.
re the alt text: my mom used to run a secondhand furniture store and one day she got a double flicker table lamp to sell. you can guess what it looked like on the sign she made. (one of her coworkers pointed it out to her and she changed it before any potential buyers saw it)
(tbh I’m still not sure what a double flicker table lamp is)
So bad that one day, taking a Chicago “L” train route to work, I thought I was suddenly struck with enlightenment.
I was just sitting there, watching the world go by, and suddenly my head felt absolutely CLEAR. There was no noise in my head: no regrets for the past, no worries for the future, no pain, no fantasies of what I could have been, no guilt, no self-doubt, there was NOTHING. I saw and heard and felt and smelled EVERYTHING.
For the rest of the day, when I worked, I JUST worked. When I ate, I JUST ate, and when I rested I JUST rested. Everything I did, I poured my full attention into. Everything I saw was nothing more than it was, just its reality, and that reality was perfect.
I texted my spouse: “Holy shit… the Bodhi Tree is a Red Line train and we are all Buddhas in waiting.”
It took a couple of days to wear off. I never even knew until a year or so ago that what had been affected, and I’ll never know the cause, was my executive function.
Haha yep, I think that’s the idea behind the expression! ^^ I’m pretty sure the most traditional use is as a reply to being asked if you’re drinking when at the pub; it’s kind of a way of saying that obviously you’re there to drink and not some other absurd reason such as arachnid fornication.
Walky said what he said in yesterday’s strip because he’s envious of Joyce and Joe. He just breakup (probably) with a girl he likes, he knows that it’s mostly his fault and then he sees these two be all lovely doves, it’s understandable that he feels annoyed.
from scared joe to sad walky
whiplash man
are they walking off together
could be interesting if those two get some paneltime
joe should make walky try to lift some weights
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 18h
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
It's #webcomicday? We have a special day???
Well, my name is Pat McHoarney and I draw 69 Mouse-Ear Blvd, a multigenerational story about women who all have sexy legs and probably other features. There was a grandmother, but she wasn't hot and so she died off-panel.
Elizabeth Holmes is in prison for defrauding investors through her blood-testing company, Theranos. Her partner, Billy Evans, is now trying to raise money for a company that describes itself as “the future of diagnostics.” nyti.ms/3FbtZm9
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 18h
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
The New York Times @nytimes.com ⋅ 5d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 3d
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if they’re shitty mobile merge games, a LOT of them, bc cooldown timers
Too real
I mean if you’re a good speedrunner you can clear a lot of games in a frighteningly short time. I doubt Walky’s capable of beating the entire Fallout series in under two hours, but it’s theoretically possible.
The trick is to only play Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout New Vegas; otherwise the series has actually beaten you
Maybe it is like those “thousands of video games” things at flea markets back when, where starting with 3 lives, starting with 2 lives, and starting on level 2 were counted as three different games.
It’s an idle pass time, so it should be idle games.
I like Cookie Clicker, but Walky might not have the patience to play long enough to build up inertia.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, says the woman with Merge Mansion, Seaside Escape, Merge Mayor, Longleaf Valley, and Gossip Harbor on her tablet.
Merge Sweets, Merge Inn, Merge Restaurant
Merge Inn is great, bc it stars Gadget Hackwrench
You’re sleeping on Seaside Escape. It’s got a decent plot, well-rounded characters, and it’s queer as hell. I love it.
nah, Webtoon Treasure Hunt has conditioned me to never play ANY mobile game until it has a Treasure Hunt quest, bc the rewards are only given to first-time users
Marvel Snap, Gems of War. Free to play, no ads, no cooldown timers (I think Snap has a limit if you run out of cubs, but you have to suuuuck to hit that limit).
merge dragon, merge magic my beloveds
Re: last panel
mood
oh noes why pika jail
and def fluctuates depending on a game, i don’t think i’d have the attention span to ever be a streamer, personality /commentary aside but some games like the sims you play for like a week straight and never touch again for 3 months or replaying some old stuff like pokemon (i guess they never did make one with another save file but i always played on emulators)
hey man there plenty of streamers with ADHD!
also re: pika jail, i recently fell for a scam in which i lost all my paypal balance and my discord account to IRL team rocket
support really appreciated
Sorry to hear that.
Oh noes! Scams suck. I’m so sorry to hear that.
I just recently created an infodump link list (my language of caring) for a dear one who was also just scammed. Would it help if I shared it here? May not be right away, but def. before next strip. It’s all USA resources.
Very much appreciated, yes 🥺
Hi NG,
Here ya go, NG. Sorry, just saw this.
The Trade Commission has a step-by-step guide for victims of fraud:
https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-do-if-you-were-scammed
Report and recover from identity theft:
https://www.identitytheft.gov/
To report international cybercrime:
https://www.ic3.gov/
More in a bit…
Hello again,
A few more consumer finance protections:
https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau:
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/
If the mail was involved, you can contact the USPS inspector general:
https://www.uspsoig.gov/hotline
Hello there,
For victims of online harassment and exploitation, here’s how to Opt-out from data brokers and protect your personal info online:
https://yourdigitalrights.org/data-brokers
https://www.whitepages.com/suppression-requests
https://www.wired.com/story/delete-yourself-from-internet/
Some people also use commercial identity protection services, VPNs, and other such online privacy tools to help protect their data from fraudsters and phishers and long-leggedy beasties…
https://www.usnews.com/360-reviews/privacy/identity-theft-protection/aura
https://www.eff.org/pages/tools
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/vpn/
Some reason Akismet is now deleting all my comments. I’ll try again later.
In the meantime, PayPal and Discord likely have fraud/scam help centers you can use, too, to try to get your money and account back.
Hmmm… comments getting deleted again. Let’s try this.
Here are the PayPal scam pages:
paypal.com/us/security
paypal.com/us/security/learn-about-scams
We’ll see if this posts…
OK, so this works. Here are the Discord safety pages:
discord.com/safety
discord.com/safety/protecting-users-from-scams-on-discord
discord.com/safety/common-scams-what-to-look-out-for
Hope you recover well and safely and soon!
Hi again,
Here’s the Better Business Bureau scam tracker. They also provide free dispute resolution services for disputed transactions:
bbb.org/scamtracker
It can also help to freeze your credit record:
usa.gov/credit-freeze
There are also free internet security tools to help protect small businesses. (As a freelancer, you qualify!)
consumer.ftc.gov/features/identity-theft
Good luck!
-Laura
I think you mentioned California a while back, too, right? If that’s where you are, these law enforcement resources might also help:
oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa
oag.ca.gov/consumers
Here’s the nationwide scam enforcement office:
fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety
Oh shit, thank you so much once again, those will be helpful as well
Oh, you are so welcome, NG! It’s awful when it happens. I appreciate you for allowing me to infodump with you. I’m sending good vibes out through the aether webs for your safe recovery.
lol idk if i have adhd or anything but while some games are fun but i don’t think i could do 2 hours with commentary let alone a six hour stream (tho i know some ppl do have shiny hunting streams while casually talking), and sorry to hear that (and there are a ton of games out there but i don’t think i’d be as interested in personally playing them versus watching someone else playing in teh background while doing other stuff)
Why do you think gamers have so many games? What, you think they’re playing just one the entire time?
or a large steam library of games they never played, buti can imagine some person dedicating themselves to a specific mmo til the servers shut down lol
Man, y’calling me out.
I have several triple A titles, a litany of classic games (from the pre-2015 era, not the pre-’95 era)… Around 100 games in my library total. I have played (ever) about 40 of ’em… And meanwhile my top two games played have watched racked more than 2k hours (probably more than 3k for the top game)… while Skyrim’s in position #3 with around 1100 hours (but only 750 on my current account).
I have an excuse though- while my tower is a robust build capable of handling everything I throw at it, my Internet is limited to DSL speeds; a 40+ gig game just takes too long to download.
Yeah but they were on sale…
TF2 is still one of my most-played games of all time, and it’s still going strong even though it’s over 15 years old. I love that stupid, broken, old game.
I remember reading that over 60% of steam games are purchased but never downloaded. I’m sure there’s some sort of a moral there, possibly using the words ‘late phase capitalist consumer culture’, but then I look at my own steam library, and the engagement each purchase has had, and I find I am in no position to offer advice to anyone.
Mine aren’t played because my computer broke and I haven’t been able to afford a new one for 4 years. I have to do everything on my phone, thanks economy!
But I do have a switch and I do tend to play one game at a time. But I’m autistic so it might be related lol
Steam sales can be a hell of a drug.
Humble bundles and bundles 12.00 bucks for like 10 games
I have about 2500 games from a couple of charity bundles and I’ve played three of them. . .
I have sometimes played like 10 or 13 idle games at the same time. Tabbing around from Cookie Clicker to Clicker Heroes to Swarm Simulator to Realm Grinder to NGU to Idle Champions to Shark Game while trying to stay on top of Crank, it’s easy to feel like you’re making good use of your time, progressing in all these simultaneous vectors.
I don’t think it’s wise to fuck spinners… sounds painful.
What does that final panel mean, anyhow? Executive function? Is that something on the computer?
The phrase “executive function” refers to a set of skills. These skills underlie the capacity to plan ahead and meet goals, display self-control, follow multiple-step directions even when interrupted, and stay focused despite distractions, among others.
Oh, yes. That thing that feels so tough for me.
So, here, Walky is saying that his brain picks a new game at random every 5 minutes?
picks a new thing to do so he’s not bored every…
–Dave, it may be a game
And sometimes, just getting out of bed.
Executive summary, no pun intended: managing attention to get things done in sequence.
Thanks, everyone, for all the answers!
How else you gonna clear it when the fucking mower is jammed?
Owwwwwwwwsswwwww!
They don’t stop.
So, does Walky not have any classes this afternoon, or is he ditching?
What class are Joyce et al going to anyway?
I think the implication is that he’s skipping or maybe he only had math today.
Since the class is with Roz, it should be political science with Robin.
Between Robin and Roz, I’d be sorely tempted to skip that one.
Skipping. I think he’s feeling a Way about the shit in his romantic life right now, and trying to find a way to decompress.
that’s probably the most relatable coping mechanism ever
Yeah, I think looking at Joe being romantic and Dorothy trying to fix him and Lucy (and his altercation with Amber!) has made him not feel like learning about gender right now.
His gender studies class was last term though.
Walky kinda playing fast and loose with his grades and classes considering how he’s consistently having academic drama. I’d worry he drops out if I didn’t know that was impossible.
We don’t actually know his schedule (I think) so he might genuinely don’t have classes the rest of the afternoon. (I been told college students in the US can manage their classes like that, which might or might not be true).
It’s true.
At least it was for me 20 years ago.
American former college student here. In the first semestor of my senior year of college, I only had classes on Monday and Wednesday. It wasn’t intentional, but that’s how it worked out. I certainly didn’t complain.
…though Monday and Wednesday could get quite intense.
Now that I think about it, I think math is the only subject Walky shares with the rest of the characters, are there others he shares besides that?
None that we’ve seen.
Last semester it was math and gender studies, but he’s not in gender studies now.
I know we don’t see every character’s every class, but we do see an awful lot of Walky not in classes when other people are in classes. Maybe he’s skipping a “telecom” class later, to avoid Lucy.
I think he’s probably okay there, like judging by the stuff with Amber, he’s genuinely doing better academically. It’s his private life that is currently fucked.
Or _not_ fucked, as the case may be.
does attending classes have a real impact on grades? I mean, it would be nice to know what material to study, but can absence actually lower your grade even if you learn for the exam on your own?
Depends on the class, honestly. Some will have participation grades factored in. Some professors will ‘cap’ your grade (No A if you miss too many classes). And some classes are very lecture-heavy, with no real way to study for an exam if you’re not in class (though having a friend who is willing to share notes might help).
And in other classes, if you show up on exam day and pass, that’s all the professor will care about.
Huh, such a cap would have backfired on me SO MUCH. Like, end of semester, ‘huh, best I can get now is a C? Nice, bet I can do that without studying’
Freshman year, Calculus 1, me and a couple of friends crunched out our grades before the (extremely weighted) final, we were all looking at nearly perfect scores on the final to bump us up to As, and we’d have to basically miss it for us to drop from Bs to Cs.
I don’t know about them, I didn’t study much after that.
Some classes move real fast, with problem sets after each lecture to help you absorb the material. If you skip the lecture, the problem set may seem impossible, and the text material may be unhelpful. If you skip the problem set, you are seriously falling behind.
Even if it’s not a participation required class, you have to be really disciplined about keeping the same pace as the class, and the instructor has to have handed out a syllabus, that they keep to, so you don’t have to remember to pester someone who shows up to know when the tests are.
Participation class doesn’t even mean participation is graded. You do learn things from being there and asking questions and hearing other people ask questions you didn’t think of, and hearing different perspectives.
I wouldn’t describe what Walky is feeling as jealousy so much as…A missed connection with someone. Hard to say if he misses Lucy so much as as he misses an assuredness that Lucy (and at one time Dorothy) represented.
…So instead, video games.
At the moment, he seems calm, but something tells me that Dorothy gave him other advice, only this time it is to apologize to Lucy, what this boy will do later is obviously uncertain…..
Still, Walky/Dorothy will always be my favorite.
Mine as well. S.S. Walky/Dororthy is ready to set sail again–! Though I kinda warmed to Lucy, if nothing else to want to see her shine.
to cross fingers
I hope he doesn’t apologize to Lucy. He has done a lot of work growing a spine, and accepting the whole “this is all your fault” blame game from Lucy would be a set back.
Depends on what the apology is for. For not being in love? Ridiculous: he has no such obligation. For not helping Lucy to form realistic expectations of their relationship until it was pried out of him, when he knew she was laboring under a serious misapprehension? Yes. Think of it also as an opening for Lucy to apologize for putting so much pressure on a shiny new relationship.
Emotions are what they are, but how we let them move us is our responsibility.
My ADHD relates, Walky
My record is 9
come to think of it….
besides the games I code for work, I haven’t legit played a game for fun in like…. months
heh. now ain’t that something
I know the feeling. Once something becomes work it becomes less like something one does for fun.
Well that’s the thing — I picked this job so I can work and be lazy at the same time.
But also, I seek to make my own games one day, specially for this comic. Playing games is something I should do both for that and for sustainable stress relief, but haven’t felt the drive in so long…
How about offline games? Like pencil-and-paper games? Sometimes those can help to reset the brain…
maybe.
I’ll see about digging through Pokemon nostalgia for old maze games…
I like picking up a print newspaper and doing the puzzles on the comics page. Kind of meditative.
Kevin gets it.
https://www.kevincomics.com/comic/the-side-hustle-shuffle/
One of my goals is that when I’ve finally earned enough from commissions saved up, that I’m to take a break from them entirely and focus on making a fan game, a game I want to make.
Is Roz still furious at Joe?
I think so, but she’s not the instant retaliation type, but I remember Liz, so…
Was she? I don’t remember. Why was she mad at Joe?
I don’t know that she’s given Joe much thought since their sex tape, but she’s also just so rarely around that I am probably forgetting stuff.
They don’t appear to have interacted in …. five years?
Unless you count “in a recording while Joyce watches“.
Last appearance together in person: https://www.dumbingofage.com/carry/ No Roz / Joe interaction, but interesting Joe / Joyce (a couple of days after Joyce tells Joe everything he does matters, that he matters)
and Walky / Dorothy interactions (they’re about to go “on pause”).
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/upgrade/ appears to be their last on-panel direct interaction (though presumably they continued to be in the gender studies class the rest of that semester)
Furious for doing what? I think he did act like a jerk when she was substitute teaching Leslie’s class, but she just seemed resigned.
Roz is furious because everyone.
Both Walky and Dotty are secretly not-so-secretly wanting to be the one Joyce is kissing.
I’d like to ship Dorothy and Joyce, but Dorothy had no response at all to Joyce’s big face hug. Walky and Joyce seem to be absolutely allergic to each other.
They actually have a Gob-load of banter, though. Whether that banter is friendly is up for discussion, but given that both give and take, and given that they mutually consent to remaining around each other with regular frequency, they must at very minimum tolerate each other, and quite possibly enjoy the back-and-forth.
However, that doesn’t necessarily make them compatible, given that Joyce has demonstrated at virtually all times an apparent type for absolute units…
Walky is a hurt flirt a la the toy at Dorothy’s head. Both time he’s been super mean to Joe is when he’s been in relationship gray areas and Jor has been with Joyce. Joyce is as ‘the sweetest ever’ like Lucy and rapidly throwing off the authoritarian stuff Walky didn’t know he subscribed to as well. She’s not as academic forced as Dotty, still likes cartoons, makes time for her friends and is considered objectively attractive among the cast. I’m not saying it is that, but I’d definitely not be surprised.
Or perhaps wishing they were getting kisses in general. Maybe from the person they just had lunch with?
enigmatic panel 3 dorothy is enigmatic
It seems that now he will try to let Joe progress as he should.
Yes. I read it as observing and pondering her concerns for Joyce. This is not typical Joe behavior. For that matter, it is not typical Joyce behavior. Dorothy looks thoughtful, as she did at the end of yesterday’s strip.
I was getting out the editor to update the count before i re-read that last panel.
sounds more sexual when it’s not “fucks”
That’s why you gotta be careful writing with icing on a cake for someone named Clint.
(if it’s all capitals you’re using, of course)
Unless “someone named Clint” is Ruth’s grandfather, then you should give him what he fucking deserves.
Good point.
Back in the days of Comics Code Authoritarianism, the word “flick” was indeed banned from appearing in comic books for this exact reason.
Drops a flick bomb.
2-3 games usually one on the PC Switch or Steam Deck and 2 ony phone usually solitaire while I listen to a podcast.
Oh hey, Walky said “Ah’m”. A minor detail, to be sure, but I like the idea that Sal’s accent is rubbing off on him since he’s started reconnecting with her. It’s kinda sweet, in a way.
Are we sure that’s not actually Sal?
Do we even know for sure that “Walky” really exists? When have we ever seen these “twins” in the same place at the same time?
gotta be careful with keming when you write “flick” in all caps
What is this “keming” of which you speak?
The spacing between letters. It’s actually “kerning” but “keming” is a joke variation on the word because the “rn” looks like an “m” if impropertly kerned. (I grew up in my grandpa’s print shop, so I might know a little bit more about typesetting than the average human.)
Relatable. Very relatable.
my gf could be playing BG3 and have her switch open to mess around with some other game.
Meanwhile I gotta devote 100% of my attention to one game, trying desperately not to die lol
I don’t know if she has ADHD but I do that to albeit with .y phone or switch playing tetris which relaxes me while playing a strategy game or a turn based game.
Joe’s gentle “Learn things” is making me smile too much. God, I fucking love these two together.
re the alt text: my mom used to run a secondhand furniture store and one day she got a double flicker table lamp to sell. you can guess what it looked like on the sign she made. (one of her coworkers pointed it out to her and she changed it before any potential buyers saw it)
(tbh I’m still not sure what a double flicker table lamp is)
Walky for the love of God dont play multiplayer in your state of mind
I have that problem SUPAH bad.
So bad that one day, taking a Chicago “L” train route to work, I thought I was suddenly struck with enlightenment.
I was just sitting there, watching the world go by, and suddenly my head felt absolutely CLEAR. There was no noise in my head: no regrets for the past, no worries for the future, no pain, no fantasies of what I could have been, no guilt, no self-doubt, there was NOTHING. I saw and heard and felt and smelled EVERYTHING.
For the rest of the day, when I worked, I JUST worked. When I ate, I JUST ate, and when I rested I JUST rested. Everything I did, I poured my full attention into. Everything I saw was nothing more than it was, just its reality, and that reality was perfect.
I texted my spouse: “Holy shit… the Bodhi Tree is a Red Line train and we are all Buddhas in waiting.”
It took a couple of days to wear off. I never even knew until a year or so ago that what had been affected, and I’ll never know the cause, was my executive function.
That sounds amazing.
Walky no
In the words of my people, Walky’s not here to fuck spiders!
(Re: Alt text)
Huh.
I am, in fact, almost never anywhere to fornicate with arachnids.
Not even when playing the Monster Musume dating sim?
Haha yep, I think that’s the idea behind the expression! ^^ I’m pretty sure the most traditional use is as a reply to being asked if you’re drinking when at the pub; it’s kind of a way of saying that obviously you’re there to drink and not some other absurd reason such as arachnid fornication.
Terriffic. Now I’ll have the rest of the day remembering Sheldon Cooper working out the logical ramifications of the Spider Man song.
I love how the kiss is drawn ! It do be like that when the small woman and the big man smooch
What do you prefer: a lot of games as many you can take, or playing with one in entire year?
“I’m off to not do classes, like a king among men.”
Huh. Kingship based, ultimately, on a class divide. How unprecedented.
Day saved.
Just wait until your brain gets bored of video games, Walky. It’s hard to compare an ADHD spinner pointing at nothing.
Walky said what he said in yesterday’s strip because he’s envious of Joyce and Joe. He just breakup (probably) with a girl he likes, he knows that it’s mostly his fault and then he sees these two be all lovely doves, it’s understandable that he feels annoyed.
DoA Book 14: Flicking A Spinner
Of course Roz will sudden appear, as someone has talked about some insecurity about sex.
Walky and Dorothy both glancing at a couple in love and wondering what might have been. A sense of lost possibilities at age 19.
there’s roz
help joe plz
Youth pastor voice: “You know who else was a king and had their executive function flicked by a spinner arrow 23 times?”
from scared joe to sad walky
whiplash man
are they walking off together
could be interesting if those two get some paneltime
joe should make walky try to lift some weights
Does anyone else think Roz might be feeling *sliiiightly* jealous of Joyce rn?
Maybe, but her expression just says to me,”you’re in the way.”
Hard to imagine, considering her last known opinion of Joe.
Walky should play Pizza Tower. It really seems like his kind of game.