Firstly, thank all of you for the various holiday well wishes. I appreciate them and reciprocate, even if I didn’t reply to every single one.

My holiday was a bit different than I expected in that on Xmas day my cousins were suffering from a puking flu, so 50% of xmas was cancelled. It was very strange for me in that I don’t plan anything for the days when I have to go somewhere other than to go somewhere, so I didn’t have anything in particular I had to do. So I didn’t really do much of anything. Mostly I just rested from the events of the previous day.

We gathered grandpa up from the nursing home and brought him to first Xmas. He’s gained weight and isn’t as mobile as when he went in, so it’s harder to move him now. Made even more difficult by the fact that my back injury makes it difficult for me to lift or support anything over a few pounds.

We got him there and back, but my side hurt from trying to keep him from falling over at one point.

Anyway, we’ll have to exchange gifts with the cousins sometime after new years by the look of it. No way could Mom, dad, or I tolerate getting flu bad enough to make you vomit. I got a shot for this years flu but who knows if that’s even what they’ve got.

Without the structure of other people’s expectations we didn’t exchange gifts until the evening when I remembered that we hadn’t.

Honestly, it’s still not the worst Xmas I’ve had by a long shot.
We’ll do another little gift exchange when my sister’s family visits.

As I think I said on Wednesday, my brain doesn’t really register what we do now as Xmas anyway. It’s so far removed from the very specific ritual we used to do that it’s functionally like we haven’t had Xmas in seven years or so for me. Maybe longer. My sense of time is questionable at best.

It puts me in mind of the Narnia books with the white witch. Always winter, never Xmas…

I guess I didn’t really do nothing. I made the comic, or at least the art. I guess I don’t register it as doings something in the same way as other things. It’s more like breathing than playing a game or something. I have to do it to live. Anyway, I’ve been sleeping at such odd times that I want to go to bed now at 8PM. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t really. I guess I will. I see that it will still be December on Monday, so I won’t wish you a happy new year just yet. But I’m thinking about it. I have every intention of wishing you all well! Not now… Later, precious. For now I will wish you a safe weekend. Until next time, modern posing, retro play!

19 Comments

All ears indeed!

Someone had to be first to nibble that low hanging fruit :)

lmao I would’ve done it if you didn’t

I dunno though, I think Ed nibbled her ears first.

I keep forgetting that Nina has a brother

Great stuff, Jackie. The scene where Jess dresses up our dapper Ed, cries a little, and tells him about how Nina is worthy of his awesomeness comes back.

Is the word Hyperbole used in casual conversation these days? That seems doubtful.

I’m sorry that your experience has been tainted by the ignorant. I assure you there are places in the world where learning isn’t reviled.

Some of us hear – and use – the word hyperbole frequently.

Since they were very young, my children have had an ongoing competition with each other (and during their educational years, with their classmates) on who has the better mastery of the English language. They not only frequently use the _word_ hyperbole, they also frequently use hyperbole itself.

While others say things like, “Hey dude, look at my big muscles!”, your kids seem to say: “Hey dude, look at my big words use!”

I like your kids’ point of view!
:D

The beauty of it is that while they – like me – could never beat up the big kids, they *could* reduce the muscle-bound jocks to a blank stare.

You save all that unnecessary bruising of the knuckles, and still get to walk away from the encounter while the big kids are trying to figure out what you said.

I get the feeling that a lot of you led largely bully free lives if you simply got to walk away from a verbal sparring contest.

For what it’s worth:

In my kid-days, + school days, I was: bullied, hit, attacked, and threatened with violence, + sexually harassed, + threatened with sexual crimes, just like every other [boy + girl, + kid], that you can name.

…And that went on, until I was about 11, and- my growth spurt made me get bulky, and get about six feet tall.

…After that- the bullies didn’t bother me much- since no one wants to start a physical fight that they might lose.

So…, after I got big- the bullies + d*cks of the school would just give me the names of: “f*g!”, and, “get out of here, f*g!”.
And that was that.

Cheers.

I was personally never that intimidating, but I must have been strong-looking enough that bullies didn’t really want to start with me.

I’m not directing this ideaat anyone, but I think that it fits in with this discussion:

“And then a pall would come upon a land, newly tutored, in the idea that dullards abound in every clime.”

-Walt Kelly, from his comic strip, Pogo [tm].

A short version of that: “There are idiots everywhere.”

Obviously it’s never used in casual conversation! Never ever!
/irony

See, now youre being hyperbolic!

Stomach flu (not a real flu, actually gastroenteritis ) and sinus flu (the one that has a vaccine, influenza) aren’t related at all. Both caused by viruses, but you won’t be warded from one and the other won’t lead to the other. It’s the number one thing I battle all season when people with exposure to small children tell me the flu shot doesn’t even work. Not to be pedantic or know-it-all on your comic, just one of those things I hyperfocused on getting to the bottom of at a weirdly young age and forever now want to spread the information on. Like the difference between yellow jackets and bees. Or how to put a possessive on words correctly.

Yeah, I kinda thought everyone knew that. Not sure why the term “stomach flu” even came about–we’ve known what influenza is for a long time. Although usually the vaccine doesn’t work because it’s just for the wrong strain of the virus–they always have to simply guess which strain might be an issue by the time flu season hits.

2770 Hype Beast.

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