The Times Between 28.

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I almost didn’t do this page, but decided I wanted it even if it didn’t play well. I can’t tell what other people will resonate with anyway. Better to just do what I want and hope for the best. I read a big chunk of archive the other night just to see if I was remembering the comic being better than it actually was and I have to say for the target audience of white males who are me it really holds up. I made a comic that is very much tailored to my very specific tastes. I guess it’s good that enough people also like it enough to keep me going.
I don’t know when these out of continuity pages are going to stop. I feel like if I try to go back to the actual story before Grandpa is in a nursing home I’m just asking to be disrupted badly again. I honestly don’t know how long that will take for sure. I do know that I’m becoming extremely anxious about everything though. The patreon fell officially below 1000 patrons, which doesn’t cause a lot of problems financially since I ask for such a small amount, but something about hitting that number then falling below it really really upsets me.
Which is kind of why I stopped looking as my numbers in general years ago. I’m too easily swayed by numbers. As far as I know there may well be only 1000 people who read this comic regularly. There are a fair number of people who want it to keep going enough to sling me a buck every month, there are some who go a little further, and there’s a little core of people who absolutely shower me with support. It’s enough for me to do alright. Possibly much more than I deserve. Ideally I should be finding ways to make more noise and get attention but now, more than ever, I’m just so tired. I’m still in some kind of emotional holding pattern over Grandma, and no resolution for Grandpa isn’t good either. Then there’s the stuff I can’t talk about. The continual emotional damage never has a chance to heal. I dunno. There’s nothing to do really but keep soldiering on. Hopefully I’ll reach some sort of haven if I just keep marching.

Just for the historical record, Queen Elizabeth the second died today. She was 96 and I think the last member of the royal family to actually serve in the military in World War 2. Other people can praise or condemn her. I just wanted to make a note of it. I kind of think it would be funny if they dissolved the monarchy now just as Charles was going to get to be king at long last. The thought of him having the prize taken from him after waiting so patiently amuses me greatly.

Anyway, if you’d like to support my work there are links above and on the sidebars. I will see you Monday, I suppose, unless we meet again before then. Later days, straights & gays.

A minor edit, since I’m likely to forget by Monday. The Teen was given a new laptop ere she graduated High School, sky blue in color. It was damaged almost immediately and barely used. The damage was to the screen and little else. The brain of the thing was intact, but it was rendered unusable. As with many things happen in our family a solution was put off, over and over, until last year sometime it made its way to my hands. I too put off any attempt at repairs but the other night I just decided to take it apart. I’ve watched many electronics repair videos over the last few years and it occurred to me that the thing was most likely modular & I could just replace the screen if I could find a part. My guess was it was connected with a simple ribbon cable. So I found a video that showed this exact type of computer being taken apart and sure enough replacing the screen was a straightforward affair. I found a replacement, and a generic power cord, as the original had been lost before it found its way to me, and repaired the thing. Everyone was very impressed, but honestly any of them could have done it just as easily. Electronics seem to be constructed in such a way to make repairing them as easy as possible. But I had the knowing and they didn’t, so it seemed impressive. Which I suppose how it always is.

Additionally the password to unlock the thing was lost & it refused to update itself from the microsoft servers, in spite of having a working connection. Microsoft was not helpful in any way, so I booted it in safe mode and did a factory reset. Whatever information was stored in it is lost, but it isn’t a useless, and expensive, piece of garbage anymore. Seeing as no one could get to the information stored on it either way, and it had been locked away for 5 years or so, I reasoned that this was as good a solution as I was likely to get. It sits next to me now, ready to be returned. Hopefully it, like myself, has a few more years of useful service left in it.

28 Comments

Jo is the spirit animal for every sub out there.

And if I recall, Prince Charles once said he wishes to be reincarnated as a deadly virus that kills billions of people, because there are too many of us. So I would love to see him robbed of his unearned prize and all the royal assets used to combat covid to spite him.

Well, there are too many of us.

Possibly. But what is a good solution?
Should we build a moon colony, to decrease the earth’s population? What can we do at this point in time?

By what definition are there “too many of us”? Who gets to write that definition and how likely are they to die in the “Prince Charles Plague” in order to thin the herd?

It’s like the “Voluntary Human Extinction Movement” They’re there to encourge *you* to commit suicide in the name of the enviornment. *They’re* not in any hurry to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Which I find funny because life will go on even if we’re not here and some other species may find ways to destroy the environment. These people need a hobby. Let natural death take its course.

“Too many of us” is just a plain, evil argument. If someone wants to have kids, let them have kids! If someone DOESN’T want to have kids, then let them NOT have kids! I personally find that to be a better means of population control than any radical ideology of culling! This is also why anti-abortionists need to go pound some fucking sand! They legitimately don’t know what they’re talking about!

Had worse experience with a battery that wouldn’t charge. Went to a computer store to get a replacement battery. Guy took it out, could not find anyone with a compatible replacement battery. Used the computer without a battery for a while. Until it wouldn’t boot. Took it in and got a replacement power adapter. Worked fine, except for a buzz on the audio output that happened whenever there was high power usage. I figured tge new adapter’s output wasn’t smoothed properly. After a while tried the original power adapter again, just because why not? Worked! With no buzz.
Now the thing sometimeS worked and sometimed not. Always worked, but buzzed, with the new adapter.
Decided to try the old adapter with tge new adapter’s power cord (i.e., the cord from tge adapter to the wall socket.)
Works perfectly.
Decided to put the battery back in. Worked on battery only when I had a power failure. Nice. Didn’t lose what I was working on. Had a chance to save.
But although it works on battery, it won’t boot on battery. It’s like I have to kickstart it with the power adapter and then it’ll run on battery only.
I remain puzzled. New replacent batteries still unavailable.

Jo is not alone in never having anyone talking to them in a smooth, low, closeup voice. Her reaction here seems very real and likely. Thanks for sharing!

One thing I’ll say is I’ve always felt like I’m not the target audience for this comic; it seems meant to be relatable, but I actually can’t relate to most of it. And yet, I still enjoy reading this comic, so that just goes to show that this is a good comic even to those outside your target audience.

Im enjoying the out of narrative comics! i’ve always liked your short bits as much as your bigger narrative arcs and its refreshing at the very least. Also, of course, anyone who’s a fan of your work would rather you take care of yourself than push yourself to breaking.

The whole concept of “pushing through it” is mostly bunk anyway. Schedule regular maintenance for your tools (including your body and mind) or they will force maintenance at their own time.

in related news, i am deeply deeply jealous of brooksie in this scene. in person close whispered asmr from a much taller and more assertive girl? that’s The Dream.

“I just wanted to make a note of it. I kind of think it would be funny if they dissolved the monarchy now just as Charles was going to get to be king at long last. ”

Rumour has it that he was completely alright with not being king–there are way more constraints on a Royal Majesty’s behaviour than a Royal Highness. A little less leeway on what is considered acceptable behaviour–like, say, admitting to wanting to be his mistress’ tampon and advocating for eco-fascism.
I will neither condemn nor praise Liz–she was my Head of State and now she isn’t–but King Chuck is a far more divisive character.

“[…]target audience of white males who are me it really holds up.”
Oh I dunno–it holds up for a white woman who is me, too. I can’t donate because I went to grad school instead of getting a job, but someday! Someday.

If you’ll pardon them, here are some thoughts by me, an American dude:
…and before I’ll begin, I’d like to say I know as much about The British Royal Family, as much as I know about French pastry, which is really…almost nothing:

I had read an article that suggested that, the man who is now King Charles, could…if he wanted to, be the King [for about 2 or 3, or so, years], so that he can show that- he can do a very good job as the Monarch, and then give [the position of the King] to his son, Prince William.

The news article then went on to say- it is [legally?] impossible for Prince William, or any other Royal family member, to [jump ahead of] King Charles, and take the job of the King away from him.

I think it is in the British laws, that for Prince William, or any other Royal family member, to legally take [the position of the Monarch] away from King Charles, I think that both [the British Government and the Royal family] would have vote that they approve of this other person’s [taking over] the position of Monarch, from King Charles.

I don’t know if King Charles will take that option, of being the King for 2 or so years, and then passing the position of King to his son, but it would be interesting to watch that, if he does. I wonder.

Well, Charles III could always abdicate (resign). Then the next guy in line, presumably his son William, gets the job.

Parliament had to pass a special law to allow Edward VIII’s abdication, His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act 1936.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping Parliament from passing another special law if Charles decides to abdicate, but it would have to be his decision. No British monarch has been involuntarily removed from power since 1688.

It’s not enough for the UK government to pass legislation changing the succession rules. So would Canada, and Australia, and every other independent commonwealth nation, or he’d continus being their king.
All those parliaments did that recently when the succession stopped preferring males over females.

As a fellow Canadian, the monarchy really doesn’t mean anything to me. If anything else, I firmly believe that Canada has a right to its own Republic interests. But, at the same time, I’m not going to call for bloodshed over it. We’re better people than this.

But, I also heavily scoff at the notion that the Monarchy is needed to unite us all in the name of equity. Equity is through the collective will of the people, not of the arbitrary existence of a royal bloodline. Plus, the notion of equity through a monarchy is debunked thanks to the thriving of the United States of America.

“Electronics seem to be constructed in such a way to make repairing them as easy as possible.”

Not Apple hardware … changing the disk on an old iMac entailed undoing something like 26 screws and was the equivalent of a kidney operation where you have to start through the chest. But it turned out it could be done. Then it are the second disk and I had to do it again.

As someone who almost always just lurks and doesn’t join in the conversation, feels odd to chime in, but anyways.. Thank you for doing the comic. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of folks who would love to be donating to that Patreon if they could, myself included. We just don’t speak up, and I knooow, the care and feeding of artists is through high grade friendly commentary. ^_^ The fun of being a really heavy duty introvert and not speaking up on things, yay!

Target audiences! So far, a lot of friends of mine have been enjoying the comic over the years. And you’ll find a fairly large range of demographic there, from white male to various people of color, of various genders. For me at least, it’s that you write the characters with a distinct realness to each of their personalities. And they grow over time as well, which is something harder to find. You’ve also got a good talent for the comedy, and doing it without being -mean- to folks. That’s also a very difficult thing, because comedy needs so many elements to come together smoothly.
Case in point, and gods am I dating myself here.. But back in the time of Bewitched, my family used to have dinner’s with Dick York (the first Darren / male protagonist, for those wondering and not willing to break out IMDB), and he’d regular try lines and such that he’d thought of out. And usually after delivery, he’d ask if it was too fast or too slow, if they felt the order of it was good, and if it felt like ‘good’ laugh. It’s definitely not an ‘easy’ thing to get consistent good delivery of wit. You’ve got it pretty smooth in here!
So don’t push yourself to hard on this. A ton of us have been very happy with you writing what you want here. If you feel the need for more heavy storyline stuff and it isn’t coming to you, then just make notes for it on the side, until you get the right mindset to tackle it.

On to repairs.. I do computer repair myself (as well as bicycle), learned do it initially due to doing stupid things to my computers as a kid in a rage. Like the joystick thrown at a table for the computer ‘cheating’. After a short enough time, m’dad just thunked down manuals and/or hardware in front of me and told me to fix it myself, if I couldn’t keep my temper. Still remember being handed the MS-DOS manual and told to ‘have at it’, after I formatted the -wrong- drive because I was doing things too quickly while annoyed at something. Buh-buy C drive. ;) These days, a good chunk of my friends bring their computers to me for fixing, or at least ask my input on stuff that’s easier, frequently going, “I just can’t understand how to do these things!”
To them, I do things like pointing at their car and going, “I understand on a basic level how the car works. I understand the science behind the engine, and so on. I even can look at how to do things for cars online and have a real good chance of doing it right.. but. To me? Car repair is feck’n magic. We all have our skills. Aaand on that note, I’ll do your repair, reformat, and windows reinstall in exchange for an oil change.” ^_^

… Right, okay, that’s enough being social for one day, back into the cave with me!

Guess I don’t pick up on things real well, but I really can’t tell your regular storylines from out of continuity comics. As long as they’re actually experienced by the characters and affect them moving forward, I think they’re entirely valid.

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