Alex often presents herself as calm and in control, but if you think back to the time she was introduced the idea that John might like her was shocking to her. Once she realized that he was just a person and they weren’t the perfect match she dreamed of she was much more calm. Of course many relationships are far from perfect matches, which is why you don’t just toss aside a nice cake because the frosting isn’t exactly the kind you like best. Maybe you add some ice cream or some fruit, and you give it a go. A lot of people who read the comic find women like Alex attractive, but I assure you tastes vary wildly and even today she is not considered ideal by many. That’s the kind of thing you internalize when you’re young and it continues to plague you until you have some sort of success in romance. Even then it may well haunt your relationships because in the back of your mind you know the other person is just settling for you, or you’re convenient, or whatever. Reggie just dove in because intelligence is something he is attracted to very much (probably because he secretly doubts his own.) and everything else is something he doesn’t calculate the same way some men do. I wonder sometimes if Reggie really has a concept of what beauty is or if his always changes to suit the mind of the person he likes. I’ve only ever fallen in love with very slim women in spite of a preference for curvy ones and my brain just seems to be fine with that in the moment. I guess it’s something like that. I certainly won’t suffer a fool lightly, so maybe I’m more like Reggie than I’ve really explored in my own head. In any case we can assume that Alex has not had a lot of romantic experience and also being sheltered from the world in a way that only money can shelter someone she isn’t handling the situation with as much grace as she might as a mature woman in years to come. Ironically of all the people involved Reggie is the truest and least complex. His typical lack of deep thinking makes him accidentally virtuous. John seems to regard all things as somewhat impermanent because that matches his life experience. People don’t stay, they aren’t loyal, family betrays you, you move on and survive. In this way his life is actually tragic since, at his core, John is a good person. He just deals with his pain in the ways life taught him to. I suppose this sort of thing is why people watch soap operas or what have you. Hearts in conflict are something many people can relate to.

Anyway, the month is drawing to a close and I need to make some patreon things to keep the lights on here. The dust and smoke are nearly crippling at the moment and nothing alleviates the issue. Still, I must press on as must we all. I hope you have a pleasant start to your week and will see you return on Wednesday for more of this. Until then, remember not to be an April Fool.

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“Even then it may well haunt your relationships because in the back of your mind you know the other person is just settling for you, or you’re convenient, or whatever.”

Well hi, all of my insecurities, how have you been? Good? Awesome.

Cake and Lies is one of my catchphrases I miss saying.

Hang on…is that a throwback to 1045?

That may be.

Alex and Maddie speak of cake often.

/comics1/1473-icing-on-the-cake

Jackie, have you tried an air purifier? There are some good ones out there currently that are relatively affordable. ‘The dust and smoke are nearly crippling at the moment, and nothing alleviates the issue.’ Can confirm they Work from use on my end.

Agreed, and I’d like to again recommend looking up “Corsi-Rosenthal Box”, or at least strapping a single furnace filter to a regular square room fan.

We have several in the house, but it’s over 100 years old and not well sealed against airborne particles. They do their best but machines have limits too.

Cool cool. Okay here’s one of them for reference from best buy that does All from smoke, dust pollen to even germs of 540ft2

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/js-complete-5-in-1-smart-ionic-air-purifier-odour-eliminator-built-in-uv-c-germicidal-lamp-app-enabled-540-sqft-coverage/15302602

Free shipping and currently half off.

ozone generator? They’re not expensive.

My last gf stated assuredly that my type was “stocky brunettes” (she really had a turn of phrase) when it was more the other way around, i.e. stocky brunettes were by and large the only women interested in me at all.

Ey! Callback to the fuck cake!

I think the part about Alex calming down once she realized she wasn’t a perfect match with John, and then the following bit about perfect matches or lack thereof is what makes the Alex-John-Reggie dynamic interesting to me: all three are so well written, a great jumble of character traits, that I can believably see either pairing (or Alex with neither) as realistic outcomes as they grow, learn, and decided if this works for them or not.

Women are SO much more than their bodies. We guys get so caught up with physical attributes that when we fall for someone who’s not our preferred (imagined) “type” we are puzzled. I’m way older than you and my experience has been that a lot of guys, including myself, end up happily married to someone who didn’t fit the physical form we thought we wanted. And of course as we get older NONE of us fits that adolescent “ideal.” And what’s best is that it doesn’t matter!

:33 < i'm sorry but everytime I s33 the term "fuck cake" I tend to burst out laughing !! It's much too hilarious of a phrase not to laugh at it !! k33p up this great work !!

I will try.

I’m autistic, and functional. My current wife is OCD. Sounds like a madhouse, right? It works. Her organization and order gives me the stability I crave, and I help her to loosen up. One thing, the most important, is we realized in each other that it wasn’t something we were doing on purpose. She wasn’t making me clean and whatnot, she Has to have it clean. My first wife…didn’t understand. She wanted quiet family dinners, and I had to have a distraction, like tv, or at least the radio. I couldn’t stand the family gatherings she needed. My current wife, she understands when I have to go hide in the bedroom. etc.

This is why I think John is better for Alex than Reggie. I’m kind of tired of waiting.

Then leave.

Alex is so ridiculously good for Reggie. Her teasing will surely toughen him up a bit ?

Oh random, my heart emoji turned into a question mark x)

At times, John thinks to himself:

“Form does not differ from emptiness;
Emptiness does not differ from form.
That which is form is emptiness;
That which is emptiness, form.
The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness.
O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness;
They do not appear or disappear,
Are not tainted nor pure,
Do not increase or decrease.
Therefore in emptiness, no form,
No feelings, no perceptions, no impulses, no consciousness;
No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
No color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind;
No realm of eyes until no realm of mind-consciousness;
No ignorance and also no extinction of it until no old-age-and-death
And also no extinction of it;
No suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path;
No cognition, also no attainment.
With nothing to attain.”

Is that from, The Great Wisdom Heart sutra?
Cool!

Always useful if you find yourself drafted into a love triangle. Well, this is a special day so I won’t go further into it.

Cool!
:D

Fuck cake rhymes with bukkake, depending on how you pronounce bukkake ……

2965 Having Your Cake, And Another Cake Too.

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