The Dumbing of Age Book 12 Kickstarter hit $55K, and that means we’ve unlocked the twelfth and final magnet — DOOMSCROLLING AMBER! Amber’s magnet is gonna be about 2.5″x4″ and you can pledge for her to come along with your book by selecting the DOOMSCROLLING AMBER MAGNET tier!
If you want Amber AND a handful of other magnets along with your book, you can back the PICK THREE or PICK FIVE MAGNETS tiers, or go all-in and get ALL TWELVE MAGNETS by scooping up one of the COMPLETE MAGNET POWER tiers! (And of course if you back a DIGITAL PLUS MAGNET tier, you can choose her to come with your free Walky magnet.)
All the unlocked magnets can be seen in the spread above! There’s just 48 hours left in this campaign, so be sure to make your final selections! We cross the finish line on Tuesday night at 11:45pm Eastern.
Loading ...
People IRL: “Ana, why don’t you talk”
*shows this comic*
*after thinking about rabbit starvation*
Anyone experience this one? https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3506
Unless you’re talking about the specific topics, I was under the impression that that was universal, a notion I would prefer not to be disabused of.
it is unusual for the full chain of connections to occur in a single participant’s head in a matter of seconds.
But it can be a fun magic trick, to wrench the train of conversation to whatever popped into your head and then explain how you got there!
My Mum eventually realised that when I preceded a Discworld or Doctor Who quote with “I don’t know what reminded me of this…” what I meant was “I know exactly what reminded me of this, but explaining how I got there would take longer than the line itself.” Although I still did it sometimes, if I thought it was also interesting.
On the other hand, a “fun” way of bringing conversations to a wrenching stop is to do the opposite. “Hey, isn’t it weird that we’re talking about April Fools jokes because my T-shirt reminded you of a TV show?” (Actual example from my pre-teen years.)
I don’t have a train of thought. I have a pinball of thought. And it takes all my spoons to keep it in play.
Are we related?
Been awhile since we those two ladies! They need to make a return.
Why some people don’t want to ask me what I have been thinking when I have been quiet for a while. I once got into a thought process in my head after seeing a license plate. This made me think of the Minnesota one (was not even close to Minnesota at the time), which talks about being the land of a thousand lakes. I then pondered whether Minnesota or Maine had a greater percentage of their respective areas covered by water (ie: lakes, ponds, rivers, swamps, etc) and got into the process of how you would figure that out inside my head. I still don’t know whether satellite imagery would be a good method due to tree and plant cover, and how seasonal wetlands should be counted. I am still curious about which one has a greater percentage though.
Holy shit. Finally, someone puts it into words.
Sometimes. Mainly when I was younger, 15 years old
Maybe not by as many degrees of separation, but maybe.
The real fun is when you’re talking with somebody else with the same behavior, and you steer the conversation back to the original subject before they notice.
(Side note: All of the characters in that strip disappeared from QC…)
Not Brun!!! Nooooo!!! 😭
Brun hasn’t appeared since sometime in the 4600s IIRC.
Heh. A little, sometimes. (And that’s Brun’s best friend!)
Literally all the time. Especially if it’s a special interest or something I learned recently that I wanted people to share
I miss them!
Thinking too fast for others to keep up. Yeah, as an ADHD autista, I can totally relate! 😄
Brun needs to have some comic time, it has been far too long.
Yeah, I do that a lot.
Interesting that she seems to have delayed responses. She seems nice though!
that does seem endearing in a vaccuum although hopefully they can be more focused/in the moment in other cases, don’t wanna be contemplating seahorses in a situation where you’d be run down by a car
And that’s why hyperfocus is a symptom of a disability, not a “superpower” as neurotypicals so often want to say (as if being disabled were somehow shameful).
God what a mood
Well, now that she’s immediately became everyone’s new favorite character with her first lines, what are we thinking: Boostette, Boostella, or Boostina?
I’m going with “Power” for the moment. Maybe “Rod”
I suggested Ronni yesterday as a gender neutral form of Rodney.
You could probably use ‘Rodney” as a gender neutral name pretty easily. The fact that we don’t is probably more to do with the fact that it’s kind of a bad name that isn’t going to sound right.
Maybe “Rhoda” could work?
There’s always an obvious option that somehow slips my mind.
That’s been my headcannon since Booster mentioned having a twin.
Lol, I accidentally flagged my own comment. That’s a first.
Power Sanchez sounds great! Are we sure they are not triplets?
I’ve been advocating Boostette, but Boostarella would also work.
I’ve been a real fan of Twister as their name until official. It’s gender neutral, is a fusion of twin+sister and ends with a “er” suffix to thematically match with Booster’s name.
That name just makes me think of the kid from Rocket Power…
my brain landed on “Grill” for some reason and refuses to vacate
Beester. Like with Scooter and Skeeter on muppet babies.
Which makes me wonder how Tim Curry is doing.
Last I heard he was in space, escaping capitalism. So probably pretty well.
Frankly, given that she’s already ten times more interesting than Booster, as both character and person, I’d rather she have her own identity, free and clear.
Blister
“Booster” ends in “-er”, so the feminine version should be either Boostress or Boostrix.
Booster is their chosen name, iirc, so all bets are off
New favorite character. Now to go down to the tags to find out their name!
Oh…
yesterday, twoster was popular
I like you, kid. Hang around, but not in the direct path of all the drama.
depends on what carla drags her into if she’s actually able to get her to acknowledge each other quicker
tho surprise d carla gave up as easily as she did, other htan being late to class
oh i love her. oh she’s rocketing up the best girl ranks. im going to cherish her forever.
It’d be funny if they never got a proper tag.
All relevant strips soon to be tagged “Seahorses”
Not “Uhyouregone”?
Seahorses are cool.
Very easy to forgot how fucking weird they are. There’s nothing else quite like these guys! Such a cool animal.
Seahorses are one of the most effective predators in the animal kingdom- the shape of their snouts minimises disturbances in the water when hunting for prey.
Also, my god the camouflage. A nearby aquarium has some seahorses on display. I spent a solid ten minutes spotting bits of coral or weed that were actually seahorses, and I still don’t think I got them all.
I am entirely convinced that Willis learned this and wrote the comic around it.
But if that’s true that’s mad fascinating because I didn’t know that and will not parrot it to everyone I know. I’ve been here BoosterTwin. I’ve been in this situation so many times.
They’re neurodivergent!!! 😍
They may not have a name yet, but this strip still makes me so happy!!! 🥰🥹
*plays “Seahorse Dreams” by Kubbi on hacked muzak*
I refuse to believe neurotypical people are weird enough not to do that.
Thinking about seahorses isn’t a neurodivergent-specific experience, but I think this instance rules out neurotypicality. Neurotypical people usually don’t think so hard about seahorses that it slows down their mental processing enough to miss conversation cues. Or so I’m told.
@dana well ppl do get easily distracted to where they ignore ppl but most of the time they’re on their phone tho at least if we know that her ignoring carla wasn’t outta annoyance/malice/pettiness it does make her more
sometimes i have a hrd time hearing /udnerstand ppl but other than a delayed thing i’d be agitated by loud noises
I diverge in the other direction! I’m much more easily distracted by the outside world than by my own thoughts. Incapable of not listening when someone talks, unless and until something else distracts me from that. I hate it when two conversations are going on at the same table.
Plenty of hyperfocus nonstop for hours – when it’s quiet.
Heh, I’ve been heard to say things like “no, I don’t mind waiting. I brought my brain along, so I have lots of things to do.”
… like about one third of this comic’s cast?
(This is not criticism, mind you)
Okay, closer to one fourth. I had to check the cast page.
Possibly neurodivergent I mean I have done this while hyperfocusing also I have bad hearing but neurotypical folks are also capable of day dreaming and may have bad hearing.
Also could be drugs. Probably not here, but I’ve known drug enthusiasts getting into this kind of state while enthusing.
“Sooster.exe is not responding” vibes, with a side of “I have a mouth, so I must eat”
This is a weird strip, Willis! No tags!!
I need an adult!!!
I’ve done this intentionally & unintentionally so I already really like this character!
And in the span of six panels everything now makes perfect sense.
*scrolls to find out their name* oh, there’s no tag. DAMN YOU WILLIS!
This.
Prediction: This will be Joyce’s Autistic Mentor™
Not even a tag.
Ooof.
I’m going to assume ‘Gold’ and there was some very geeky theme naming going on.
Huh.
…have there been any previous strips that have a character speaking, without having a single tagged character? This might be a first.
Missed opportunity to tag her as “uh you’re gone”
oh, a ninja, huh?
Maybe other characters will start the conversations and then Dina will pop in and finish them.
Feel like at this point they deserve a placeholder tag, but I guess that undermines the joke a bit.
I can’t remember any!
This and the season montages are maybe the only strips with no character tags. Until a tag appears.
How are we supposed to find these strips in the future? 🙁
squicka-squicka-squick Slim Shady
Reminds me of Azumanga Daoih’s meme about the difference between ADD and ADHD.
Which, suffering, I recognized much.
Yep
lol yeah i was like “so the new character is osaka then”
It was a strange but welcome experience watching Osaka live out the adorable, comical version of my childhood.
The hand gestures seem familiar.
it just seems like a regular pointing? tho idk if booster has something similar but that might be an artistic style/choice as opposed to parallels with body language mirrorring of other charas
Gonna be real hard to find this comic down the line.
Presumably if/when we learn the character’s name Willis will go back and retroactively tag her appearances
I hope we never find out her name, just a series of increasingly ridiculous circumstances keeps cutting everyone off before they use her name
Damn you, Willis. I want a name.
Well that’s not the reason I expected. lol.
Also I just want to add that I adore this character and would kill and/or die for her
Ah, this must be one of those “many benefits of being a marine biologist” that I keep hearing about.
please don’t get between becky and dina please don’t get between becky and dina please don-
If any relationship in this comic is making it to the end, it’s gonna be that one.
other than a passing ‘oh she’s cute’ i don’t think there’d be any relationship drama/conflict that way esp since they’ll be ‘married’ in the future lol
Who art thou, new character?
If it wasn’t so late at night, I would start on tiny underwater carrage pulled by seahorses. Driver would be an ell-like creature with a long stick reaching out in front from which dangles a.strand of seaweed to motivate the hungry seahorses forward. But now I’m going to put this tablet on a charger and sleep. We’ll see what transpires tomorrow.
Ohhhhh jeez yeah i know exactly what that’s like
Eurigone, her parents were big fans of Euripides’ play Antigone. Booster didn’t change their name because it was gendered wrong, their birth name is Antipides.
Weren’t those the Greek tailors? Euripides and Eumenides?
Eumenides was the tailor, Euripides was the customer.
Euripides Imenedes, although he might have been a launderer for the mob too, his partner’s name is Bernice Documents.
No, the tailor is just named Epi. When Euripides, you ask him “Eumenides”? And he nods sagely and says “Epimenides”.
I already like them
C’mon, she has to have a name now! We spent an entire comic on her!
guess we can have pools on what comes out first, her name, or jocylene to joyce lol.
lol i’d love to see her and dina interact. tho adhd /auditory processing aside, if her ‘tuning out’ of others is strong enough to phase out carla, it’d be impossible for me to absorb any actual lessons from profs if i was here
That’s where having a note-taker omes in handy.
Oh, this is a goddamn mood. I’ve got a bad ear, anyway, but sometimes, I am just Really Spaced Out, often thinking about animals, etc.
Some days I feel like a seahorse
I am now shipping her and Carla.That is simultaneously the best counter balancing and matching of energy I’ve seen for Carla.
I like Booster’s twin
Now she has to find that person from last strip and tell her about seahorses.
Wait, I think I remember… there was a red-headed student who talked to her, right? …Was it Ruth? I’m pretty sure Ruth was there.
There could’ve been someone else, but if so, I guess they just didn’t leave much of an impression.
How long until Carla dusts off her “name in lights” Rube Goldberg machine?
I wonder if Booster’s interest in psychology is related to an attempt to better understand and communicate with their twin.
……huh.
Or it’s a coping mechanism for they interesting… haha
I want her to tell me ALL the seahorse facts.
I did not know that seahorses did not have stomachs either! :O (They DO have a digestive tract, but unlike most fish they do not have a true stomach and so they do indeed need to keep eating throughout the day.)
gonna find a job at a DMV somewhere after she graduates
Is this the only update with no tags at all?
<..>
:O
The only update with no tags so far!
(I’m sure she’ll be tagged once she’s named on-screen.)
The timeskip ones at the end of Is A Song Forever, with no dialogue and no characters don’t have tags.
There have definitely been others, like the timeskip ones and probably a few more.
Uh is my new favorite character.
Relatable
So she just registers that people are there too late? The heck is she doing in class????
Daydreamers deserve an education too.
I know some people can only focus when they’re distracted or spacing out. Like they need a part of their brain busy to absorb information.
Please, don’t disappear like Lyle.
I still strongly relate to Booster in an autistic way, and it runs in the family and now I hard relate to Boosister in an autistic way.
Just today in the market I was zoned in on calculating fibre content in biscuits and the cost of groceries compared to the 30$ in my account. Did not register store person who was concerned by my wall-staring and asked “are you okay?”
Few seconds later, automatically responded to the unrelated question of do I need help finding anything and said “Nope” with a thumbs up.
“You’re not okay?”
Finally understanding, I promptly replied, “Definitely not” and left the store.
Good times.
You earn one internet because this story made me laugh multiple times.
Ticka ticka- Slim Shady
I like this one already.
It’s Boo!Sister time.
Huh, I did not get an RSS notification for today’s comic either. Your unescaped > appears to have permanently broken my RSS feed…
I think someone yesterday mentioned that you could replace it with a “>” and solve the issue.
Rereading this, I feel like she is experiencing a lag to the matrix. 😛
If you haven’t pledged for book 12, do it, maybe if we get it to another multiple of 5, he’ll do a Halloween Peter magnet.
Am I missing something or is there no option on the kickstarter to get all 12 books if you don’t live in the US?
(I’d ask on the kicktsarter site but only backers are allowed to comment there.)
You can get them all in PDF form.
Yeah!!! I actually just pledged for them myself!!! ✌😋
I assume it has to do with the shipping being higher, out of the range he can eat a third of it. If you buy books 1-6 from the normal store, it’s the cost of 5 books. So if you don’t get a response before the kickstarter runs out, there’s that.
It costs $120 to ship all the books outside North America, and if something goes wrong, that’s something I can deal with and re-pay for on an individual basis — which is why it’s possible in the online store. But on the scale of shipping out 1000s of pledges, if something went wrong, that’d basically put me out of my house. And so I limit the All The Books tiers to domestic backers.
Huh. I do this sometimes and somehow it didn’t cross my mind as a possibility.
ALRIGHT these twins are starting to feel like a personal attack (lol)
So they do talk and can hear what other people are saying around them! I was hoping we’d find out Booster’s twin’s name soon, guess we gotta wait a while longer.
Or they can read the sign and/or read lips. Lots of Deaf folks also use vocal speech.
The idea that Boosister was ignoring Carla on purpose was fun.
The idea that Boosister is not only Just Like That, but hasn’t even entirely registered what Carla’s deal is, is so much better.
Maybe when Carla realises she’s not being ignored on purpose, and this isn’t about her, they can be friends!
(“Maybe when Carla realises this isn’t about her…” Yeah, never mind.)
depends on what’s worse, being ignored on purpose after she was being a bit of a snarky smartass in the middle of class or just carla’s presence not being strong enough to be noticed ‘in the moment’
Nice to see that David Lynch’s “Angriest Dog In The World” has made a comeback 😉
Sooo basically Carla is to a sea horse as food is to attention?
Carla : attention :: a seahorse : food
*BUFFERING*
Can’t wait until Charlie is tagged properly
Hey, spoiler alert!