“Ever been able to” is a strong way of phrasing a statement about someone you’ve known for like 6 weeks, Mike. But you are an edgelordy asshole so pointless hyperbole is definitely in your wheelhouse.
I mean, you’re right in this case, but you haven’t seen any of the flashbacks we did.
Normally I’d agree, but given Mike’s disturbing dedication to hurting Walky, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s somehow stalked Walky’s online presence to information gather at one point or another.
After the ‘I elaborately faked a website to record you crying’ thing I basically assume as much malicious intent and energy as is feasible from Mike.
Has he? I mean, Amber knows Sal, though she didn’t know she knew Sal or who Walky was… And apparently Blaine knew Sal’s best friend’s Dad, and Mike knew more about Blaine than he should have…
…Oh crap. I think Mike might know a lot more about a lot of things than he lets on.
Yeah. Anyone could notice Walky’s short attention span. And, Walky doesn’t act at all surprised about it.
Tbh, Walky probably has ADHD-inattentive, which would include that he’s always felt this way. Mike totally knows him well enough to develop this as a working theory.
(I recognize that I’m not qualified to diagnose people, that
I couldn’t diagnose somebody online even if I was qualified, and that Walky is a character in a comic strip. I’m just saying, he’d sure pass a casual internet screening for it.)
I know we’re on a floating timeline here, but there always seems to be SOME fast food restaurant trying to get into the spotlight by concocting a gimmick item that should not be, so you can just mentally substitute whatever the current Avatar if Indigestion is.
And the attack “stream” comes from an unexpected orifice, Making it hard to aim the attack effectively. Strangely, for some reason nobody wants to travel with the digestion bender.
Looking forward to the new licensed Dumbing of Age game, where-in you play Amber hiding in the bushes, moving benches and trash cans into Walky’s way to herd him toward his next class without letting him see you.
**raises hand**
I am not thinking about it constantly.
In fact, had I not just read this comic, I would have happily never known of its existence and never wasted any precious brain cells on this horrible, horrible knowledge.
I have stared into the KFC Cheetos Sandwich, and it stares back at me.
I’m vaguely pleased that more and more fast food chains are introducing non-meat alternatives – whilst also a bit irked that a lot of these cook them on the same griddles as the meat patties so they aren’t truly veggie/vegan. For people looking to cut down their meat consumption, great; for people who are veggie/vegan but not too fussed about cross-contamination, great – but for people who either don’t know but would care, or would otherwise happily try [insert chain name here]’s offering for the first time if they were doing it properly, not so much. And my concern is that the conclusion will be “these aren’t as popular as predicted, it’s not worth it” rather than “the market clearly supports having a dedicated griddle for the veggie/vegan offerings and doing it properly to maximise our appeal to this growing section of the population”…
It occupies considerably more brain space than novelty offerings, but that’s still a “when the topic of fast food innovations/the ease with which veggies can eat out comes up” thing rather than an ever-present driving force in my life…
There’s also another problem about the bacteria-grown meat as it is.
It’s not going to help reduce meat production at all, in itself.
Here’s the thing: About 50% of all meat is basically minced meat in one form or another. HOWEVER, it’s not like we grow a thousand cows; then we make steaks (NOTE: I’m using steaks as a short-hand term for products that are basically slabs of meat in this case) from 500 of them, and the minced meat products with the other 500.
No, we make steaks from 50% of the cow. Then the other 50% will become burgers and meat loafs and pates and whatnot.
So in other words; as long as the market for steaks remains constant, we’ll still need to keep growing them cows at the same number. At which point you might as well actually use the whole damn animal as efficiently as possible; rather than throwing it away for no good reason.
Of course, this might change in the future. Maybe they’ll manage to recreate the consistency of steaks. Maybe we will lower the demand of meat consumption all over. There are ways that the impossible meat can be a small part of an overall systemic change.
But on its own, it’s a marketing gimmick rather than a solution.
Reducing meat production will not help the environment. It takes twice as much farmland to sustain a vegan as opposed to an ordinary person, as well as the fact that B12, a vital ingredient in brain function, is NOT FOUND in non-animal products. The real problem the environment faces is habitat loss, and veganism simply increases the rate at which forests become cornfields. Fields are far more of a controlled environment than an animal pen. Only predators are regularly kept away from farm animals with other types of animal free to come and go as they please, meaning they get to keep their living space.
I don’t know where you got that “twice as much farmland” from, but given the inefficiency of raising meat animals rather than eating plants ourselves, that has to be wrong.
Also, the idea that other animals get to keep their living space is nonsense as well. If you cut a forest for a dairy farm, the deer don’t just move on to the farm. Some animals might do okay, but most don’t adapt well to living in that close proximity.
There is a hint of truth that probably led to these ideas – strict veganism isn’t the most efficient use of land for agriculture. Mostly because it doesn’t make good use of land that’s suitable for grazing, but not for intensive crop farming.
However, most livestock isn’t fed mostly by grazing or from land that can only effectively grow hay or other things people can’t eat. Vast amounts of corn and grain is grown for animal feed and much of that land could be used for human food instead – corn and grains mostly.
The studies I’ve heard of suggest a diet with much less meat consumption than modern America, along with dairy, probably makes the best use of available resources.
I’m not sure how true that is. I’m no expert, but I don’t think ground beef is just made from the scraps you can’t sell as “steaks”. Probably not the highest end cuts (filet mignon hamburg!), but most parts of a cow are regularly sold as steaks or roasts or something unground.
And yeah, every time I’ve looked into any of the meat substitutes, the high salt content is what’s turned me away.
Bold of you to assume he wouldn’t go to KFC if he was paying attention, Mike. I mean, it’s just before midterms. He’s probably just missing review. Not that that couldn’t bite him in the ass, but we’ve no indication he’s struggling in gender studies. I mean, I wish he was, because math has a reputation as a hard subject and so a lot of people think the answer is to drop it and take an easier math or no math, and gender studies problems would get the point across he’s struggling with studying, not just math, but that’s a me quibble.
It would definitely get the point across better. (I do think one of Walky’s problems is that he chose classes haphazardly as well – does anyone really think he’ll stay a Communications major? – and picking a higher math than he was necessarily ready for may have been part of that, but I still figure he can salvage it if someone helped him with study bootcamp and teaching the material more effectively than Jason. But also Amber WHY DID YOU CHANGE HIS GRADES AUGH.)
He’s a telecommunications major, not communications, but honestly he only picked it because he likes television and it has tele in it. I don’t think he’d stick with it.
No doubt that since time immemorial, the earls of Sandwich have had no greater allies than their peers in the duchy of Thingley. But probably this has more to do with his close friendship to the southern colonels.
Chekhov’s phone? Chekhov’s text message? Of course it will be an essential message which he is ignoring. His mom is on hand? His sister needs him? Probably much much worse.
I’ve been telling you, Amber, this was ludicrously high risk for no reward. I know you can’t hear me because you’re a cartoon, but I have said it anyway.
(I have no idea if Walky’s specifically in neurodivergent gifted kid burnout or not, but either way he needs some serious help with the ‘how to study’ and the ‘my self-esteem is tied to being the Smart One’ fronts.)
Why does KFC thinks making chicken with anything is a good idea?
Also, Mike is right. Walky can’t focus properly, and even with good self esteem he is still an immature man that probably has attention deficit or was too spoiled by his mom to the point of not thinking of relying on himself to have his own life.
Things I have eaten whilst pregnant this time around which my young children have also happily eaten, which may or may not be “normal”:
Hot Stilton and apple wrap
Ramen noodles with cream cheese and marmite
With my first I had HG. I occasionally had tortilla crisps, cheddar and black pepper (nuked) at 4 am, and had more chocolate milk than I probably. Had drunk in the previous 5 years combined. I also ended up 9 months pregnant and in my pre-pregnancy trousers coz I mainly had a strong aversion to food and was losing weight faster than the baby could gain it.
My second pregnancy I just had run of the mill morning sickness for 9 months. I mainly ate healthily because I had a toddler to feed, but still ended up about the same weight at full term as I was when I started.
This time around my younger toddler imitates me throwing up 😭🤦🏻♀️ (I have also been sick while rocking her back to sleep and with her climbing on my back to check I’m OK) and my big girl isn’t sure if she should let me kiss her because she doesn’t want to catch my germs… We’re about 4 months in.
Having to prepare and serve food for other people while thinking about the stuff turns your stomach isn’t the greatest. But as I can’t really put the just-turned-5-year-old in charge of the whole shabash and go take a nap, if their father’s working I have to do it. Then stop the little one from trying to steal stuff from her sister’s plate…
I’m not sure if ‘spoiled’ is the right word necessarily. Walky clearly thinks her love is conditional on him being the Good Smart One and he thinks that because he saw what happened with Sal. The fuckery there’s layered. (Thanks again, Linda!)
I’m not sure if Walky’s ADHD or not – it’s not just inability to focus, and a lot of his issues can be explained by ‘well if I don’t NEED to study, why should I learn material I already know?’ without understanding or being taught studying’s a skill in itself – but if he is I dislike the implication I’m getting here that that’s a sign of his immaturity or a moral failing? Like, that specific brand of burnout is particularly rough because you get a lot of ‘but if you can do *interesting thing* you can do *really difficult overwhelming thing with lots of internal steps so you freeze* so clearly you’re just lazy!’ and its friends, like ‘but you’re so smart! You’re just not applying yourself’. (As an example of the internal steps thing, I can: forget to eat; remember I need to eat but get overwhelmed by options; decide on a potential option but get tripped up on all the things that must be done to prepare even a premade food; and successfully make a food but then need to overcome my lack of inertia to get and eat said food. None of these are hypotheticals. I’m deliberately excluding my more autistic-leaning sensory issues here as well but ADHD can come with those too. Existing is hard.)
That makes more sense of why he was so afraid of telling Dorothy about his grades, Dorothy like his mom is obsessed with School curriculum so maybe he thought her love for him was limited to weather or not he could keep up and how successful he was at his grades much like his mom.
Because let’s be honest if the love and affection your own mother gives you wasn’t unconditional then it’s hard to be convinced that any girl you’re dating would give you any different treatment.
I almost fell over once at work because somebody opened a door for me. I wasn’t feeling at all well so had had to consciously plot out “walk so many steps, extend arm, apply force towards me to open door, hold door, walk past, let go” and having to recalculate what was needed on the spot involved me forgetting to remind my legs that they needed to remain upright and support my body weight…
He told the first aider who strongly advised me to go home, ideally not under my own steam… I called my husband to come get me.
He definitely started off with the “I don’t study and I get straight As” mindset. Those kids tend to hit a brick wall after class progresses past review material because they never learned how to study. Been there, done that.
It’s especially rough because those first few weeks of review encoirage and reinforce old habits.
Yep. Me and my best friend were both like that. And now we’re in absolute hell, with no clue how to study or what “studying” even means. PS: We’re the equivalent of 11th graders in US terms I think. Next year we’re applying for colleges *sweats*
I always used to tell my sister she was the smart one coz she did actually work hard (she is also ridiculously smart, and good at working out what answers people are looking for in exam settings). My brother had a photographic memory and I applied the bare minimum of effort needed to coast with grades I could comfortably live with.
When school actually got hard, it was a struggle to adjust. I also struggled with “if I don’t try and I fail then it’s because I slacked whereas if I do try and still fail it’s because I’m just not good enough and I’m a failure and everybody who has ever believed I was intelligent will be disappointed in me…” thoughts. I was working on recovering from clinical depression without professional support at least part of the time that this was an issue which may have been a contributing factor in just how paralysing these thoughts were for me…
But yeah, being freaked out by bad grades and not sure what to do about it or how to actually apply oneself is a reasonably relatable thing, even if Walky does it with more whinging about how studying is boring and e.g. antagonising people who are trying to help him than I can approve of…
I had this…plus a teacher who basically punished me for working diligently – I’d finish less than a quarter of the way through the work period…then I had a choice between sitting bored for the next almost-an-hour or try to find something to keep me interested and spend a half hour tied to my desk after school.
I kinda want Walky as canon ADHD rep since we’ll never get autistic Dina explicitly confirmed,* but at the same time I REALLY don’t wanna see how Linda responds to that. (I’m already guessing half her responses in my brain and they all make me want to throw my phone.)
* She’s an adult and a woman and some doctors refuse to diagnose either (don’t ask me, I will rant,) she can cope past the really stereotypical points most doctors would look for, people of color are misdiagnosed frequently and awfully, and on the off chance she spends the time, effort and money and someone says ‘yeah you’re probably autistic’ they’ll also say ‘do you really want the paper diagnosis if you can manage without it? Because there’s a lot of state policies that will complicate your life at best and discriminate against you at worst.’
Some places have literal registries, also a formal DD diagnosis like autism automatically disqualifies you from immigration and from certain jobs (basically anything which requires a psych evaluation
Did Mike guess that Amber helped with his grades? He probably knows that she’s good with computers and he’s not surprised she stalks walky to see how he reacts to his grades being better than expected.
Ethan tearing his heart out and stamping on it (at his own suggestion) has radically changed Mike’s outlook on the world. I suspect that he’s trying to find an alternate outlook on the world and path to travel but it’s only been a few days.
I think he does actually think of Amber as a friend and – even though Walky irritates him and he’d happily break him emotionally if he thought Amber wouldn’t be furious about it – he doesn’t want her to be unhappy.
He can be shitty at showing it (e.g. because he knows Ethan will tolerate a hell of a lot of crap from him, he took “don’t mess with Danny” as “mess with me instead” – although it turns out that actually this gave Ethan the confidence to put himself out there and start doing the happy casual hook-up thing… Effect on Mike himself TBD) but I don’t think he’s just an asshat through and through, and I think he is aware that Amber is pretty vulnerable psychologically atm even if he isn’t entirely sure how to support her with that without being a dick about it – but I think this is his way of being there for her…
Note that it wasn’t just “mess with me instead”, but “mess with Ethan to make Danny jealous”, which judging by the last Danny appearances seems to have worked pretty well.
Say what you want about Mike (please, the guy deserves it) but he does have people pinpointed pretty accurately, even if Walky isn’t the hardest guy to pinpoint.
Panel three: There is something about Amber’s expression and half-hidden mouth and flying eyebrows which tickles me to no end. Very good stuff by Willis.
so all these loose threads are going to slowly catch up to the birthday party that might be happening and then there’s gonna be a big event that’s going to cause major story changes?
Three cast members are going to die, four will hook up in the aftermath, two will be injured, and one will become addicted to Flat-Earth conspiracy theories.
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Walky loves you, Colonel Sanders
I’m actually less surprised by this than the fact that the KFC Cheetos sandwich is a real thing.
Same.
How about that Colonel Sanders hated KFC?
Well, it probably was at the time this was written. It seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.
Good thing, too. I tried it, and it was nasty.
Did you try the “mac and cheese covered chicken strips” that are at the climax of the Colonel Sanders dating sim
Wow, Billie looks like a zombie today
She and Walky could both use some braaaaains.
Well, withdrawal sucks :/
It really fucking does, even when it’s mild.
Billie’s is not mild.
Panel 1: I knew it! Walky’s a robot!
…why are you all looking at me in that manner?
“Ever been able to” is a strong way of phrasing a statement about someone you’ve known for like 6 weeks, Mike. But you are an edgelordy asshole so pointless hyperbole is definitely in your wheelhouse.
I mean, you’re right in this case, but you haven’t seen any of the flashbacks we did.
Normally I’d agree, but given Mike’s disturbing dedication to hurting Walky, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s somehow stalked Walky’s online presence to information gather at one point or another.
After the ‘I elaborately faked a website to record you crying’ thing I basically assume as much malicious intent and energy as is feasible from Mike.
Has he? I mean, Amber knows Sal, though she didn’t know she knew Sal or who Walky was… And apparently Blaine knew Sal’s best friend’s Dad, and Mike knew more about Blaine than he should have…
…Oh crap. I think Mike might know a lot more about a lot of things than he lets on.
Well, one of her friends, maybe not her best friend. Still.
I mean it is Walky. You don’t really need to spend much time with him to draw the conclusion Mike did.
Yeah. Anyone could notice Walky’s short attention span. And, Walky doesn’t act at all surprised about it.
Tbh, Walky probably has ADHD-inattentive, which would include that he’s always felt this way. Mike totally knows him well enough to develop this as a working theory.
(I recognize that I’m not qualified to diagnose people, that
I couldn’t diagnose somebody online even if I was qualified, and that Walky is a character in a comic strip. I’m just saying, he’d sure pass a casual internet screening for it.)
“Ever” doesn’t necessarily mean his whole life. It can mean “As long as I’ve known him.”
*plays “Junk Food Junkie” on the hacked speakers*
I know we’re on a floating timeline here, but there always seems to be SOME fast food restaurant trying to get into the spotlight by concocting a gimmick item that should not be, so you can just mentally substitute whatever the current Avatar if Indigestion is.
So what does digestionbending look like, anyway?
Like Bloodbending, complete with doubling over in agony and wishing you were dead.
It can be countered with TumsBending.
And the attack “stream” comes from an unexpected orifice, Making it hard to aim the attack effectively. Strangely, for some reason nobody wants to travel with the digestion bender.
Taco Bell’s Dorito taco shell opened the floodgates.
It could go back to McD’s BigMac, but it may go back to the Earl of Sandwich?
Denny’s Maple Bacon Sundae (which BTW was good, but Way Too Sweet)
I’m sorry, the what.
It’s exactly as it sounds.
Actually, it’s worse – Willis apparently knew about this abomination six months ago.
Well, that was when they started test marketing it in limited locations.
Okay, was this strip originally written about the Popeye’s chicken sandwich, or shortage thereof?
This was written as-is.
Looking forward to the new licensed Dumbing of Age game, where-in you play Amber hiding in the bushes, moving benches and trash cans into Walky’s way to herd him toward his next class without letting him see you.
If that game existed I would definitely play it.
Maybe she could train a goose to follow him around and chase him where he needs to go.
Think I played that game on the Amiga, it was called Lemmings.
Come on Amber, you know Walky by now. He was part of Garbage Roof with you, what makes you think he is going to fix things without a kick in the ass?
Is that what it’s like on the opposite end of a relationship with an airhead? What a rush.
**raises hand**
I am not thinking about it constantly.
In fact, had I not just read this comic, I would have happily never known of its existence and never wasted any precious brain cells on this horrible, horrible knowledge.
I have stared into the KFC Cheetos Sandwich, and it stares back at me.
You speak for Us as well in this one matter. Together, we shall defeat the monster that is Willis’ obsession with crappy sandwiches.
I’d like to join your party.
Are you a cleric, there is always a need for clerics.
Druid, actually. But if you can find a cleric as well, we won’t need a fighter.
I’m vaguely pleased that more and more fast food chains are introducing non-meat alternatives – whilst also a bit irked that a lot of these cook them on the same griddles as the meat patties so they aren’t truly veggie/vegan. For people looking to cut down their meat consumption, great; for people who are veggie/vegan but not too fussed about cross-contamination, great – but for people who either don’t know but would care, or would otherwise happily try [insert chain name here]’s offering for the first time if they were doing it properly, not so much. And my concern is that the conclusion will be “these aren’t as popular as predicted, it’s not worth it” rather than “the market clearly supports having a dedicated griddle for the veggie/vegan offerings and doing it properly to maximise our appeal to this growing section of the population”…
It occupies considerably more brain space than novelty offerings, but that’s still a “when the topic of fast food innovations/the ease with which veggies can eat out comes up” thing rather than an ever-present driving force in my life…
Yikes, I was hoping that health regulations would require veganish foods to be cooked separately
Already disappointed that the Impossible Whopper is actually LESS healthy than a regular one (more sodium)
There’s also another problem about the bacteria-grown meat as it is.
It’s not going to help reduce meat production at all, in itself.
Here’s the thing: About 50% of all meat is basically minced meat in one form or another. HOWEVER, it’s not like we grow a thousand cows; then we make steaks (NOTE: I’m using steaks as a short-hand term for products that are basically slabs of meat in this case) from 500 of them, and the minced meat products with the other 500.
No, we make steaks from 50% of the cow. Then the other 50% will become burgers and meat loafs and pates and whatnot.
So in other words; as long as the market for steaks remains constant, we’ll still need to keep growing them cows at the same number. At which point you might as well actually use the whole damn animal as efficiently as possible; rather than throwing it away for no good reason.
Of course, this might change in the future. Maybe they’ll manage to recreate the consistency of steaks. Maybe we will lower the demand of meat consumption all over. There are ways that the impossible meat can be a small part of an overall systemic change.
But on its own, it’s a marketing gimmick rather than a solution.
Reducing meat production will not help the environment. It takes twice as much farmland to sustain a vegan as opposed to an ordinary person, as well as the fact that B12, a vital ingredient in brain function, is NOT FOUND in non-animal products. The real problem the environment faces is habitat loss, and veganism simply increases the rate at which forests become cornfields. Fields are far more of a controlled environment than an animal pen. Only predators are regularly kept away from farm animals with other types of animal free to come and go as they please, meaning they get to keep their living space.
I don’t know where you got that “twice as much farmland” from, but given the inefficiency of raising meat animals rather than eating plants ourselves, that has to be wrong.
Also, the idea that other animals get to keep their living space is nonsense as well. If you cut a forest for a dairy farm, the deer don’t just move on to the farm. Some animals might do okay, but most don’t adapt well to living in that close proximity.
There is a hint of truth that probably led to these ideas – strict veganism isn’t the most efficient use of land for agriculture. Mostly because it doesn’t make good use of land that’s suitable for grazing, but not for intensive crop farming.
However, most livestock isn’t fed mostly by grazing or from land that can only effectively grow hay or other things people can’t eat. Vast amounts of corn and grain is grown for animal feed and much of that land could be used for human food instead – corn and grains mostly.
The studies I’ve heard of suggest a diet with much less meat consumption than modern America, along with dairy, probably makes the best use of available resources.
I’m not sure how true that is. I’m no expert, but I don’t think ground beef is just made from the scraps you can’t sell as “steaks”. Probably not the highest end cuts (filet mignon hamburg!), but most parts of a cow are regularly sold as steaks or roasts or something unground.
And yeah, every time I’ve looked into any of the meat substitutes, the high salt content is what’s turned me away.
Bold of you to assume he wouldn’t go to KFC if he was paying attention, Mike. I mean, it’s just before midterms. He’s probably just missing review. Not that that couldn’t bite him in the ass, but we’ve no indication he’s struggling in gender studies. I mean, I wish he was, because math has a reputation as a hard subject and so a lot of people think the answer is to drop it and take an easier math or no math, and gender studies problems would get the point across he’s struggling with studying, not just math, but that’s a me quibble.
It would definitely get the point across better. (I do think one of Walky’s problems is that he chose classes haphazardly as well – does anyone really think he’ll stay a Communications major? – and picking a higher math than he was necessarily ready for may have been part of that, but I still figure he can salvage it if someone helped him with study bootcamp and teaching the material more effectively than Jason. But also Amber WHY DID YOU CHANGE HIS GRADES AUGH.)
He’s a telecommunications major, not communications, but honestly he only picked it because he likes television and it has tele in it. I don’t think he’d stick with it.
Fool! No one denies the Duke of Thingley his sandwisch. Fool!
Maybe I’ve just watched Soul Eater too recently, but is that a reference to Excalibur?
Nah, just me running around with the background insanity of Galasso.
So different from your usual state of mind.
(Which is running around in circles with the background insanity of Becky.)
That is completely correct!
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/doozy/
Most people have forgotten the Duke of Thingley… But Bagge never will. Ever.
That is completely correct!
No doubt that since time immemorial, the earls of Sandwich have had no greater allies than their peers in the duchy of Thingley. But probably this has more to do with his close friendship to the southern colonels.
I feel like his phone buzzing will be important later http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/facetoface/
I doubt Blaine and Toedad can use Walky in their plans. He is a wildcard like Mike… No, Walky is a fool and Mike is a devil.
I thought Mike had texted him a picture of the sandwich, to distract him, because Mike’s a terrible person.
Chekhov’s phone? Chekhov’s text message? Of course it will be an essential message which he is ignoring. His mom is on hand? His sister needs him? Probably much much worse.
Dorothy is making a booty call?
*huech* at that concoction of a sandwich.
Oh I see we’re on this shoe to drop!
I’ve been telling you, Amber, this was ludicrously high risk for no reward. I know you can’t hear me because you’re a cartoon, but I have said it anyway.
(I have no idea if Walky’s specifically in neurodivergent gifted kid burnout or not, but either way he needs some serious help with the ‘how to study’ and the ‘my self-esteem is tied to being the Smart One’ fronts.)
Walkie is gonna be halfway to the other side the school at this rate.
Why does KFC thinks making chicken with anything is a good idea?
Also, Mike is right. Walky can’t focus properly, and even with good self esteem he is still an immature man that probably has attention deficit or was too spoiled by his mom to the point of not thinking of relying on himself to have his own life.
It sounds like the sort of food a pregnant NEET person would invent.
“That Time I was Reincarnated as a Pregnant Women in Another World” was a bold new take on the isekai genre. Horrific, but bold.
Makes me long for an anime adaptation of “So I’m a Warmech, so what?!?”
Ugh, now I’m imagining an Isekai Izakaya “KFC” in the works
Things I have eaten whilst pregnant this time around which my young children have also happily eaten, which may or may not be “normal”:
Hot Stilton and apple wrap
Ramen noodles with cream cheese and marmite
With my first I had HG. I occasionally had tortilla crisps, cheddar and black pepper (nuked) at 4 am, and had more chocolate milk than I probably. Had drunk in the previous 5 years combined. I also ended up 9 months pregnant and in my pre-pregnancy trousers coz I mainly had a strong aversion to food and was losing weight faster than the baby could gain it.
My second pregnancy I just had run of the mill morning sickness for 9 months. I mainly ate healthily because I had a toddler to feed, but still ended up about the same weight at full term as I was when I started.
This time around my younger toddler imitates me throwing up 😭🤦🏻♀️ (I have also been sick while rocking her back to sleep and with her climbing on my back to check I’m OK) and my big girl isn’t sure if she should let me kiss her because she doesn’t want to catch my germs… We’re about 4 months in.
Having to prepare and serve food for other people while thinking about the stuff turns your stomach isn’t the greatest. But as I can’t really put the just-turned-5-year-old in charge of the whole shabash and go take a nap, if their father’s working I have to do it. Then stop the little one from trying to steal stuff from her sister’s plate…
I’m not sure if ‘spoiled’ is the right word necessarily. Walky clearly thinks her love is conditional on him being the Good Smart One and he thinks that because he saw what happened with Sal. The fuckery there’s layered. (Thanks again, Linda!)
I’m not sure if Walky’s ADHD or not – it’s not just inability to focus, and a lot of his issues can be explained by ‘well if I don’t NEED to study, why should I learn material I already know?’ without understanding or being taught studying’s a skill in itself – but if he is I dislike the implication I’m getting here that that’s a sign of his immaturity or a moral failing? Like, that specific brand of burnout is particularly rough because you get a lot of ‘but if you can do *interesting thing* you can do *really difficult overwhelming thing with lots of internal steps so you freeze* so clearly you’re just lazy!’ and its friends, like ‘but you’re so smart! You’re just not applying yourself’. (As an example of the internal steps thing, I can: forget to eat; remember I need to eat but get overwhelmed by options; decide on a potential option but get tripped up on all the things that must be done to prepare even a premade food; and successfully make a food but then need to overcome my lack of inertia to get and eat said food. None of these are hypotheticals. I’m deliberately excluding my more autistic-leaning sensory issues here as well but ADHD can come with those too. Existing is hard.)
That makes more sense of why he was so afraid of telling Dorothy about his grades, Dorothy like his mom is obsessed with School curriculum so maybe he thought her love for him was limited to weather or not he could keep up and how successful he was at his grades much like his mom.
Because let’s be honest if the love and affection your own mother gives you wasn’t unconditional then it’s hard to be convinced that any girl you’re dating would give you any different treatment.
I almost fell over once at work because somebody opened a door for me. I wasn’t feeling at all well so had had to consciously plot out “walk so many steps, extend arm, apply force towards me to open door, hold door, walk past, let go” and having to recalculate what was needed on the spot involved me forgetting to remind my legs that they needed to remain upright and support my body weight…
He told the first aider who strongly advised me to go home, ideally not under my own steam… I called my husband to come get me.
They aren’t mutually exclusive. I had a bad case of both in uni.
He definitely started off with the “I don’t study and I get straight As” mindset. Those kids tend to hit a brick wall after class progresses past review material because they never learned how to study. Been there, done that.
It’s especially rough because those first few weeks of review encoirage and reinforce old habits.
Yep. Me and my best friend were both like that. And now we’re in absolute hell, with no clue how to study or what “studying” even means. PS: We’re the equivalent of 11th graders in US terms I think. Next year we’re applying for colleges *sweats*
I always used to tell my sister she was the smart one coz she did actually work hard (she is also ridiculously smart, and good at working out what answers people are looking for in exam settings). My brother had a photographic memory and I applied the bare minimum of effort needed to coast with grades I could comfortably live with.
When school actually got hard, it was a struggle to adjust. I also struggled with “if I don’t try and I fail then it’s because I slacked whereas if I do try and still fail it’s because I’m just not good enough and I’m a failure and everybody who has ever believed I was intelligent will be disappointed in me…” thoughts. I was working on recovering from clinical depression without professional support at least part of the time that this was an issue which may have been a contributing factor in just how paralysing these thoughts were for me…
But yeah, being freaked out by bad grades and not sure what to do about it or how to actually apply oneself is a reasonably relatable thing, even if Walky does it with more whinging about how studying is boring and e.g. antagonising people who are trying to help him than I can approve of…
I had this…plus a teacher who basically punished me for working diligently – I’d finish less than a quarter of the way through the work period…then I had a choice between sitting bored for the next almost-an-hour or try to find something to keep me interested and spend a half hour tied to my desk after school.
Same. Plus I*also* have ADHD and am raised by an ADHD parent who never figured their shit out so…
Walky, please get tested for ADHD. I swear it’s better to know one way or the other.
Signed, Your Fellow Walking-the-Wrong-Direction-When-Distracted Kin
(who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult)
Yeah, also ADHD here and it just clicked that he matches up VERY well
I kinda want Walky as canon ADHD rep since we’ll never get autistic Dina explicitly confirmed,* but at the same time I REALLY don’t wanna see how Linda responds to that. (I’m already guessing half her responses in my brain and they all make me want to throw my phone.)
* She’s an adult and a woman and some doctors refuse to diagnose either (don’t ask me, I will rant,) she can cope past the really stereotypical points most doctors would look for, people of color are misdiagnosed frequently and awfully, and on the off chance she spends the time, effort and money and someone says ‘yeah you’re probably autistic’ they’ll also say ‘do you really want the paper diagnosis if you can manage without it? Because there’s a lot of state policies that will complicate your life at best and discriminate against you at worst.’
Can you point me at these state policies, especially if any of them would still be harmful to someone who’s long out of college?
What policies are these?
Some places have literal registries, also a formal DD diagnosis like autism automatically disqualifies you from immigration and from certain jobs (basically anything which requires a psych evaluation
With the rise of YouTube, streaming media, and advanced mobile phones, my attention’s been on the ropes too.
Did Mike guess that Amber helped with his grades? He probably knows that she’s good with computers and he’s not surprised she stalks walky to see how he reacts to his grades being better than expected.
I’m sorry, what? A KFC Cheetos sandwich?
Look, I’ve seen a Cheeto sundae today and I’m still riled up over it.
It’s really better not to know.
I was thinking my stomach might accept breakfast food and now I’m right back at “highly queasy” – thanks…
So, are these two going to, like, join forces or…?
Mike wWarner: chaotic neutral
Why do I get the feeling Walky’s phone was buzzing because Mike sent him a text about that KFC sandwich?
Aw, look at Mike being helpful. This is… cute and weird.
must be playin the long game
In which Mike brings a laser-like focus to the problem that Amber, as Walky’s girlfriend, is evidently narratively required to solve for him!
Meanwhile, in panel 1, Billie looks so done with this. I don’t know what she’s done with but she’s so done with it!
Sobriety.
Drinking, and she’s not happy about it.
Ah, ADD, it’s a condition I have a lot of famil…ooo, shiny!
Hey, now. As a person with ADD, I’m very bothered by your implication that we’re all
Oh, God. All people with ADHD are targeted by snipe-
Same he
as someone who nearly failed out of college because of undiagnosed ADHD, I am interested to see where this storyline goes!!
Panel 4: Mike’s expession is “NOT angry”. What is that about?
Ethan tearing his heart out and stamping on it (at his own suggestion) has radically changed Mike’s outlook on the world. I suspect that he’s trying to find an alternate outlook on the world and path to travel but it’s only been a few days.
I think he does actually think of Amber as a friend and – even though Walky irritates him and he’d happily break him emotionally if he thought Amber wouldn’t be furious about it – he doesn’t want her to be unhappy.
He can be shitty at showing it (e.g. because he knows Ethan will tolerate a hell of a lot of crap from him, he took “don’t mess with Danny” as “mess with me instead” – although it turns out that actually this gave Ethan the confidence to put himself out there and start doing the happy casual hook-up thing… Effect on Mike himself TBD) but I don’t think he’s just an asshat through and through, and I think he is aware that Amber is pretty vulnerable psychologically atm even if he isn’t entirely sure how to support her with that without being a dick about it – but I think this is his way of being there for her…
Note that it wasn’t just “mess with me instead”, but “mess with Ethan to make Danny jealous”, which judging by the last Danny appearances seems to have worked pretty well.
For those unfamiliar with the difference between ADD and ADHD, here’s an easy reference. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7b/7a/e7/7b7ae7c1c8ea7942b921ee38cde77ae4.jpg
My cat wonders why I am laughing so hard. I was hoping this was your link when I saw your post.
Ladies and gentlemen, the stalker of the campus strike against!
Say what you want about Mike (please, the guy deserves it) but he does have people pinpointed pretty accurately, even if Walky isn’t the hardest guy to pinpoint.
The role of extreme manipulator requires an incredibly-honed ability to read people. It’s one of the two requirements for the job.
Is the other requirement having no conscience?
Panel three: There is something about Amber’s expression and half-hidden mouth and flying eyebrows which tickles me to no end. Very good stuff by Willis.
so all these loose threads are going to slowly catch up to the birthday party that might be happening and then there’s gonna be a big event that’s going to cause major story changes?
Three cast members are going to die, four will hook up in the aftermath, two will be injured, and one will become addicted to Flat-Earth conspiracy theories.
So David, is your disdain for Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang rooted in racism?
I’ve been reading through It’s Walky and just HAPPENED to stumble on this one, today http://www.itswalky.com/comic/attention-deficit-disorder/
That’s wack. Places with such policies deserve to get lied to and/or miss out on some great people. >:(