Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics

@nindokag.bsky.social

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I draw a pencil-sketch comic page with a 1-hour time limit and post it here (almost) every day. I also sometimes post my music. I play accordion and Japanese taiko drums.

6-panel black&white comic about how random Chinese aunties keep coming up and grabbing the kid's hand and asking "Aren't you cold?"

Black and white one-page comic in which overalls guy discovers the source of a rat infestation under his kitchen

black and white comic in which overalls guy wishes the teens to invent a new genre of music that old guys like him will hate

Comic where I tell some protestors "Hey! you can't just compare Republicans to Nazis!" because "...you gotta ALSO compare them to the Confederacy, Jim Crow, post-Soviet kleptocracies, the North Korean cult of personality, Mafia families..."

Black&white comic about overalls guy not understanding retirement planning

A 6-panel black and white comic making fun of Richard Dawkins for giving himself AI psychosis after receiving a tiny bit of automated flattery from Claude

Comic panel 1: View out of the windshield of a car. My hands are on the wheel. We can see a stop sign ahead and a fork in the road. Me: "I remember this intersection from when I was a kid growing up in this town"

Comic panel 2: me and Spouse wearing our seatbelts, looking at each other. Me: "Left here leads to I-95..." Spouse: "What about right?" Me: "That's the thing! Mom ALWAYS turned left!"

Panel 3: aerial view of the car (it's a Toyota Corolla) at the stop sign. Me: "Every time, I wondered where right leads to". Spouse: "Well we don't have to return the rental car until 2:30..."

Panel 4: The car turns right. Speech balloons from the car: "Woo!" "Let's go!"

Panel 5: long panel showing a road winding through the countryside, passing trees, hedges, houses, a pond, etc. Me: "This road's been a mystery my whole life!" "It could go anywhere! A Terra Incognito in my hometown!" "Now that I'm back here as an adult I can... finally...."

Panel 6: The car arrives at an on-ramp to the highway. A sign says "95 south". Me: "Oh. It... leads back to I-95 by a less convenient route"

Panel 7: view of us inside the car again. Spouse looks at me worried and asks "You OK?" I just have a thousand-yard stare.

Panel 1: in a lush verdant landscape, an Australopithecus Africanus woman is smashing some flint to make a stone tool. A green snake coiled around the branch of a blossoming sakura tree leans down to talk to her.
Eve: "Hi snake, what's up?" Snake: "I've got a secret that will help you humans escape!"

Panel 2: Eve, scratching her head, confused: "Escape? From what? This place is great". Snake, frowning: "Well, actually, you're prisoners in a false paradise created by the demiurge Yaldaboath"

Panel 3: Snake smiles and points (with its tail) at a tree on a hill in the distance. The tree has red fruits and is radiating sparkle lines. Snake: "But, good news! You can free your minds with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good&Evil". Eve makes a thinking-emoji face. A male Australopithecus enters the scene, holding up his arm, palm-out. Adam: "Stop! Do not heed this poisonous serpent's wicked lies!"

Panel 4: Close-up on the snake, looking offended: "So first of all, I'm not poisonous"

Panel 5: Snake, looking smug: "I'm ~venomous~". Adam, looking nonplussed: "..."

Panel 6: Eve, impressed: "How do you know so much?" Snake, slightly embarrassed: "... I ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Being Technically Correct". Adam look dumbfounded. The background has shifted so we can see a second, much dumpier-looking tree, emitting sparkle lines on the hillside in the distance next to the first tree.

Panel 1: I'm standing in front of a castle surrounded by trees, a village, etc. There's a horse and guards with spears. I'm making a surprised face. "I've finally been isekai'd into a vaguely medieval world!" I say.

Panel 2: close-up on me making a Determination Fist and Star Eyes, I say "A chance to use my 21st century science to uplift these poor benighted serfs"

Panel 3: I'm in a wheat field waving my arms at a peasant dressed in rags. Me: "Good news, peasants! We can make a vaccine to eradicate smallpox!" Peasant: (speaks in unreadable runes)

Panel 4: Zoom out to show me in the middle of a field of mud, crops, peasants, and a cart pulled by an ox. Me: "...just as soon as I find a sterile lab environment, some glassware, a microscope..."

Panel 5: I'm making a frowning thinky-face. Me: "Should I learn glassblowing". The peasant offers me the handle of a sickle and points. Peasant: (speaks in unreadable runes)

Panel 6: I look at the sickle in confusion, like, what am I supposed to do with this? In the background, a figure riding a horse approaches.

Panel 7: The figure on the horse is now looming over me. He's got bracers, fur boots, a spiky pauldron, and an executioner's hood, and oh yeah a huge whip. He cracks the whip at me while I cower and cover my face. SFX: "WWWHHH-CHH!"

Panel 8: I'm on my knees in the wheat field cutting stalks with a scythe while the guy continues whipping me. "Did you know (ow!) the energy of a photon is inversely (ow!) proportional to its wavelength"

comic panel 1: I am one of 2 gamers on a couch. i'm holding a nintendo switch controller. Gamer 2 says "You a pretty big Zelda fan right?" me: "You bet!" speech balloon coming from the TV: "Ya ha ha! You found me!"

Panel 2: Gamer 2 looks at me conspiriatorially and asks "You ever... perhaps... go on AO3 and read... Zelda fanfics?" Me, looking slightly embarassed: "mmmmmaybe"

Panel 3: Close up on gamer 2, who avoids my gaze and fidgets with his fingers, shyly asking: "You ever read fanfics where... Link and Zelda explore their forbidden feelings for each other?

Panel 4: i'm making an exaggerated face of disgust. "Eww eww yuck no gross ugh barf you perv". Gamer 2 recoils in shame and has a big manga sweat drop

Panel 5: me, holding up a finger: "I'm strictly into Sidon/Link and Urbosa/Zelda". My thought cloud contains Sidon hugging link from behind and Urbosa picking Zelda up in a princess carry pose. Hearts everywhere.

Panel 6: me, looking still somewhat disgusted: "Link/Zelda? *really*?" Gamer 2, standing up and looking indignant: "Look, I don't yuck *your* yum"

Comic panel 1: I'm looking at a web page on my computer. The web page says "ALL THE JORBS". I'm looking over my right shoulder and saying "Famous computer-toucher Zack Burgermork thinks LLMs will take everyone's jobs by 2030"

Panel 2: Spouse is crochet-ing. Spouse says "Why are computer-touchers all so sure we're all so easily replaceable by the lies-and-plagarism machine?

Caption: "MEANWHILE IN COMPUTER-TOUCHER TOWN"
Panel 3: three software developers (you can tell because of their terrible fashion sense) are in an office. One unshaven man with a shirt that says "cron job" says "So... it turns out Claude o4 writes better code than me". The other two engineers say "Uh-oh"

Panel 4: engineer 2, with a bow tie and suspenders, says "If LLMs can take our jobs, they can take everybody's jobs?

Panel 5: engineer 3, a woman in an oversized hoodie with triangular glasses and a bowl haircut, says "Not necessarily. What if there are jobs that are harder than generating correct TypeScript code"

Panel 6: Engineer 1 and 3 cross their arms. Engineer 1 says "Impossible!" Engineer 3 says "That would mean we're not smarter than everybody else"

Comic panel 1: I'm putting on a bike helmet and backpack. Spouse: "Will you still have time to make comics now that you're starting your new job?"

Panel 2: I'm pushing an electric scooter out the door. "No proble, I'll just draw 'em on the train", I say, smiling.

Panel 3: ( indecipherable scribbles, as if they were drawn while being bumped about on a moving vehicle )

Panel 4: ( indecipherable scribbles, as if they were drawn while being bumped about on a moving vehicle )

Comic panel 1: Some people are in line at a bank. Shout from off-panel: "FREEZE!"

Panel 2: dramatic angle of a guy in a trenchcoat and ski mask busting in with a gun and a sack. "Put 100 grand in this sack and nobody gets hurt!" he yells.

Panel 3: Side view of him pointing the gun, saying "The rest of you lay down on the floor!" A woman in the background who has her hands in the air looks at the gun and thinks: "?"

Panel 4: She yanks the gun out of his hands with a big "YOINK!" sound effect. Surprised, he just says "Hey!"

Panel 5: from off panel he says "no fair, you're supposed to be terrified" while we see the woman unfolding the gun with SFX "slide" "twist" "flip".

Panel 6: she has transformed the gun into toy Megatron's robot mode and holds it aloft for the crowd to see. There are surprised faces in the background.

Panel 7: some of the people from the bank line earlier surround the masked man, looking extremely angry, grabbing him by the shoulder and rolling up their sleeves for a fight. "Rats!" he says

Panel 1: I stand outside a skyscraper, looking up. (If you know San Francisco you may recognize the specific building this is supposed to be...) The top of the skyscraper disappears into a layer of grey clouds. I'm really tiny.

Panel 2: I'm stepping out of an elevator on the 37th floor. The elevator says "Ding" and the doors are closing. I'm facing a huge floor-to-ceiling window that looks out on a cityscape. (If you look closely you can see the Bay Bridge and the cranes over at the Port of Oakland). My thought cloud: "Wow! That's some view". Speech balloon from off screen: "Wellcome, Brotherr"

Panel 3: I turn around to see 3 people in identical uniforms and identical emotionless creepy grins. A sign on the wall says "Welcome Home" in cursive. One of the three: "Arre Youu Heree Tto Joinn Thhe Workatopiia Familly"

Panel 4: I am now surrounded on three sides by the creepy people. Their expressions are completely unchanged. I look around nervously. I say : "Umm... Im here about the job interview for data scientist at Munchlax? I'm Nindokag... Did I get off on the wrong floor?" The guy behind the desk steeples his fingers and says "Mmembership Includess Yogaa Classess, Ffree Caterring, Eternaal Happinesss, Aand Fasst Wii-fii"

Panel 5: guy behind the desk, creepy grin still unchanged, slides a form towards me and holds out a pen. I am recoiling, but I'm boxed in by another creepy guy behind me holding a coffee cup. The coffee cup says "Do what you Love". Guy behind desk: "Ssign Herre Tto Bbecome Onne Oof Uss". Guy behind me: "Youu Willl Nnever Neeed Tto Lleave Becausse Thiss Willl Bbe Yourr Hhome". Voice from off-panel: "Nindokag?"

Panel 6: cool guy in ponytail and sunglasses leads me away. "I'm Jay Stellers from Munchlax. The interview is this way." Me: "Are they--". Jay: "We just rent co-workign space from those guys. Signing up is optional." Three hands reach after me from the edge of the panel. Voices from off-panel: "Gget Preemium" "5% Disscount"

Comic panel 1: i'm going through a big box of CDs, taking them out of their jewel cases, and organizing them into binders. I have a look of intense concentration. There's more boxes of CDs stacked up in the background. "Should Rocky Horror go next to Bat Outta Hell (because Meat Loaf) or next to Saturday Night Fever (because soundtrack)

Panel 2: i'm looking confused-ly at two CD binders labeled "disco" and "funk". "Do I need a disco binder? can it merge with the funk binder or are they too different? Is Daft Punk disco? Is Herbie Hancock funk? Does Stevie Wonder go there or in 'soul' with Aretha Fraklin?"

Panel 3: I'm sliding a disk into a binder labeled "Motown". There's another binder labeled "Bollywood" and more albums scattered around. "Does the Cowboy Bebop OST go in the Jazz binder or do I put it in a 'Japanese' binder with Kodo and Shonen Knife?"

Panel 4: I'm pulling my hair in frustration. "Every new taxonomy only makes more exceptions! Where the fuck do I put Bjork?" My friend, with his hair in a "man bun", in the background: "In the trash? With all the other disks? After you rip them to MP3s so they can have multiple genre tags"

Panel 5: i pause, about to put a cd in a binder labeled "Sea Chanty", and stare blankly into space for a while

Panel 6: i'm clutching an armful of cds and binders labeled "prog rock" and "accordion". There's too much to hold and stuff is falling everywhere. "But... I might... I might need..."

Panel 7: man-bun guy: "You might need 'Sun Microsystems JDK 1.4.2 installer for Power Macintosh?" me, sheepish expression: "I was gonna make Warhammer terrain out of it"

Comic panel 1: I am at the counter at a cafe, holding a credit card. There is a tall glass of coffee and a croissant on a plate on the bar. The barista is holding an oat milk container. She says "You want more oat milk than that?"

panel 2: I say "Yes plz". She says "Say when" and starts pouring. My thought cloud: "I'm such a slut for oat milk"

Panel 3: I start to say "I'm suc-" and then cut myself off with a thought cloud: "STOP! That thought was NOT for saying out loud"

Panel 4: i am looking confused and sweaty. Thought cloud: "DON'T say 'i'm a slut for oat milk'. That's not a thing normal people say." Speech balloon: "I'm a--"

Panel 5: close-up gets tighter in. I'm more worried and even sweatier. Thought cloud: "Do NOT say that. Say literally ANYthing else besides 'slut for oat milk'."

Panel 6: I cheerfully say "I'm a mutt for sloat elk!"

Panel 7: silent panel, the barista stopped pouring and is making a very skeptical face at me. I'm grimacing.

Panel 8: I leave my coffee and croissant behind and run away, out the door.

Panel 9: some time later i'm walking down the street with Spouse and i point at the coffee shop across the street. "And that's why I can never go back to that coffee shop again" I say.

Comic panel 1: sidewalk showing an open doorway with a sign outside that says "Open Mic Night 6-9 pm". Inside the doorway, a sign with an arrow points up the stairs.

Panel 2: a guy with a goatee is sitting on a stool under a spotlight playing a guitar. He is super nervous and sweat drops are flying off his face. There's a music staff in the background but it's all wiggly and keeps starting and stopping. "Oops!" he says. "Sorry, uh, lemme try again"

Panel 3: Goatee guy is slumped over a table with his face scrunched up in embarrassment. I approach the table and wave, saying "Hey man I liked your song". He answers "But I totally bombed! I was so nervous my fingers cramped up"

Panel 4: "First time?" I ask. "Yeah..." he says. I lean forward and cup a hand next to my mouth. "We've all been there! Wanna know a secret?" I ask.

Panel 5: I'm smiling and gesturing with both hands. "As the musician all you can hear is your own mistakes but the listeners might not even notice. They hear the good parts"

Panel 6: "So if you mess up, don't apologize! The audience probably liked it more than you did" i say. We fist bump. "Thanks, that really helps" he says. A speech balloon from off-panel says "Nindokag is up next"

Panel 7: I am standing in the spotlight in front of the microphone, wearing a kilt and playing an accordion. "Here's my latin jazz remix of the song it plays when you fight Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy V" i say. A wiggly music staff comes out of the accordion.

Panel 8: the wiggly music staff continues. The goatee guy, seated at the table, has his hands clamped over his ears and is making an expression of confusion and dismay

Comic panel 1: I look into an empty bottle and say "I'm out of tums again"

Panel 2: Spouse asks: "How does anyone go through tums so fast?" I put my hands on my esophagus region and respond "I have constant heartburn unless I eat six a day"

Panel 3: we are sitting at a table for a meal. Spouse: "Did you ask your doctor why you have heartburn so much?

Panel 4: I am stuffing kim chee into my mouth with chopsticks straight out of the jar. "He couldn't find anything wrong with me"

Panel 5: I am chugging balsamic vinegar right from the bottle "I guess the human body"

Panel 6: I'm putting sriracha on a pickle "Is just full of mysteries"

Comic titled "The Samsara of Software Suckitude". It is laid out in an outer circle and an inner circle. The outer circle has four panels going clockwise. Arrows point from each panel to the next, in a never-ending loop. The inner circle also has four panels going clockwise with arrows pointing from each to the next in a never-ending loop.

Panel 1, inner: software dev 1: "How us small new company take users from old big company?" Software dev 2: "Make good thing. Give away free."

Panel 1, outer: User 1: "We could try moving to that new <software>". User 2, shrugging: "I guess"

Panel 2, inner: the software devs are in poses of celebration in front of a chart of line going up. Software dev 1: "Line go up! Hooray!" Software dev 2: "IPO! Get rich!"

Panel 2, outer: User 1: "Seems like all my friends are switching to <software> now" User 3: "I should try it too"

Panel 3, inner: software dev 2: "Investors want more money. Get more money from users." Panel 3, outer: User 2, angry: "Ugh they were already cramming <software> full of ads, spyware, and censorship and now they're forcing AI on us too?"

Panel 4, inner: chart of line going down, software dev 1: "Oh no! Where users go?" Software dev 2 makes surprised pikachu face.

Panel 4, outer: User 1: "I can't stand using <software> anymore. It sucks too bad." User 2: "What can we do?"

(return to panel 1)

Comic panel 1: I bust in through the living room door very excited. I'm carrying a bag with a durian in it. "Hey guys guess what I found at the market" i say. Stink lines emanate from the bag. Two roommates are on a couch nearby playing video games. Roommate one: "Oh god what's that smell" roommate two: "You are NOT allowed to bring durian into this apartment!"

Panel 2: A finger is pointing out the apartment door. I'm sadly sulking out cradling my durian. Me: "Fine! I'll eat it out in the stairwell"

Panel 3: sfx: "SLAM". I'm standing in the apartment building stairwell frowning and holding my durian. A neighbor is looking out the window and smoking a cigarette.

Panel 4: Neighbor, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and scowling: "Neighbor would you take that elsewhere?"

Panel 5: I angrily walk down the stairs. Me: "Fine! I'll go outside!!"

Panel 6: wide shot, exterior, nighttime - i'm walking away from the door of the apartment building. There's a row of streetlights illuminating some bushes and park benches. Me: "I'll just eat my durian alone... in the dark... on a park bench... like it was a shameful drug habit or somethin"

Panel 7: I'm sitting on the park bench and have the cracked-open durian in my lap and i'm eating it with a spoon, smiling and saying "mmm mmm"

Panel 8: I glance behind me and see, on the next park bench over, there is a drug addict holding a hypodermic needle in one hand. He's got a rubber hose tied around the elbow of his other arm and he's pulling it tight with his teeth. There is one of those "..." balloons above both our heads.

Panel 9: The drug addict says: "Is that durian? Gross!"

Comic Panel 1: My kid (drawn by her real-life self) is lying on the couch huddled up in a blanket. There's a bowl near her head (in case she needs to throw up). She says "I'm sick! I need entertainment!"

Panel 2: I come over and say "You could read a book". Kid, eyes squeezed shut: "My head hurts. Read me Calvin & Hobbes"

Panel 3: I'm sitting on the other end of the couch, near her feet, reading out loud from a book. Me: "OK so... in the first panel, Calvin is holding-" Kid: "No! Don't describe the pictures. Just read the words."

Panel 4: Me, confused: "Really? but--" Kid, angry: "Just! The! Words!"

Panel 5: Me, confused, reading: "Munch munch" "WHUNK" "GAAAA!" "GRRRRRR" "OOF!"

Panel 6: Kid, smiling: "Ha ha ha! I love that one!"

Comic panel 1: player 1 is playing the popular board game about birds, "Wingspan". He's looking at a hand of cards. There's tokens, dice, a little cardboard birdhouse, wooden eggs, etc. on the table. Player 1: "Hmm. I'll -- wait, no, I'll... I'll 'lay eggs'. "

Comic panel 2: Player 1 moves some tokens around. player 1: "activate my burrowing owl... cache a mouse token... fly my chimney swift to the wetlands... and I'm outta cubes!"

comic panel 3: Player 1 looks satisfied and counts up points. "Hm hm hm yes, excellent game, I got 38 points"

comic panel 4: camera pulls back to show hitherto unseen players 2 and 3 at the table. Player 1 waves to them. Player 1: "Oh hi! were you guys also playing Wingspan?" Player 2: "Yeah. How did your game go?" Player 3: "Did you know turkey vultures defend themselves by projectile vomiting?"

Comic panel 1: the Kandyman (an evil robot made of candy from classic Doctor Who season 25) is looming over a frightened 15th Doctor and Belinda Chandra. Kandyman: "Remember me Doctor?" Doctor: "It can't be! Ace and I destroyed you on planet Terra Alpha!" A single beautiful tear runs down his cheek.

panel 2: me and spouse are watching this episode on a laptop in bed. We're frowning at the screen. Spouse: "They really scrapin' the bottom of the barrel for recurring villains huh"

Panel 3: Kandyman, having grown to gigantic size and stretching out a gigantic hand towards the tiny protagonists: "I'm the God of Candy now cuz everything's 'gods' this season" Doctor and Belinda are running away. Belinda says "That cursed 3.5-inch floppy must've summoned him!" The sky in the background is filled with floating candy.

Panel 4: The doctor is being hooked and lifted into the sky by giant candy canes. The trees have turned into giant lollypops. The giant God of Candy has picked up the TARDIS and is squishing it between his candy fingers. Doctor: "The sonic doesn't work! the TARDIS doesn't work! Nothing works!" Kandyman: "My reality-warping powers are far beyond your puny comprehension!"

Panel 5: The Doctor is restrained by a giant roll of Life Savers wrapped around him. Belinda is holding a toaster and a fork. Doctor: "Belinda, stick the fork in the toaster!" Belinda: "Why??" Doctor: "Just trust me!" A single beautiful tear rolls down his cheek.

Panel 6: me and Spouse are watching the episode and frowning at the laptop. Voice of the Kandyman from the screen: "AAAAA THE TOASTER IS BANISHING MEEEEE". Spouse: "It's hard to care about these Pantheon eps when the story has no rules". Me: "No there's exactly one rule -- whatever BS they try 5 mins before the end of the episode will be what works"

Comic panel 1: caption: "Disagreeing in person". Two people are walking down the street. one says "I kinda like talking to strangers on airplanes". The other says "Weird! I hate it. Anyway where do you wanna get lunch?"

Panel 2: caption: "disagreeing online". A person in a hoodie is bent over a laptop in a dark room. Their face is partly in shadow under their hood and is a teeth-bared, veins-popping mask of rage. They're banging on the keyboard. Typed text: "You have BETRAYED your quiet-airplane comrades and supported the ENEMY by liking a post from @coolguy13 who reblogged from @eggtartZ, a KNOWN airplane-stranger-talker"

Comic panel 1: A tech CEO guy (bald, black turtleneck) stands in front of a giant screen showing a giant chart. The chart shows an exponential curve going up and to the right. The x-axis is labeled "year" going from 1995 to 2030. The y-axis is labeled "intelligence" and is a series of words - from bottom to top: "Bug", "Lizard", "Dog", "Toddler", "Dolphin", "High Schooler", "PhD", "Einstein", "Superhuman", "God", "Supergod"

The CEO is looking smug and pointing. he says "This evidence shows irrefutably that the intelligence of AI is on an exponential curve. By 2026 it will replace all human workers and by 2030 replace God. Any questions?"

Panel 2: I am in the audience. I raise my hand and ask "Yeah I have a question: what units is your Y-axis in?"

Panel 3: the CEO looks evasive and says "It's, uh... and ordinal heuristic metric of smartitude". I pound my palm with my other fist and shout "WHAT. UNITS. MOTHERFUCKER?"

Comic headline: "Improve office communication by replacing tired cliches!"

Panel 1 (with an "X" for "don't do this"): an office drone holding a coffee cup says "I'll circle back to you with those data points later".

Panel 2 (with an arrow and an "O" for "do this instead"): a wizard says "All will be revealed in the fullness of time."

Panel 3: (don't do this): A different office drone points at a chart and says "Fourth quarter revenue is in line with projections from our spreadsheet"

Panel 4: (do this instead): The wizard waves his staff at the same chart and says "It is just as prophecy foretold!"

Panel 5: ("don't do this"): different office drone says "This meeting could have been an email"

Panel 6 ("do this instead"): the wizard looks all menacing and there's lightning in the background. he says "You dare summon me from my tower for such trifles?"

Comic panel 1: caption: ""How autistic is Japan?" someone asked me. An obviously nonsensical question. ... and yet, consider:" I am pondering a Gundam plastic model kit shop with a big Gundam statue out front.

Panel 2: Caption: "Social interactions that do not require eye (or skin) contact". Two Japanese guys in suits are bowing to each other. There is a "No" symbol around a handshake.

Panel 3: "Things clearly labeled, rules explicitly posted" - street sign with lots of signs and arrows pointed at things

Panel 4: "Social situations with predictable scripts to follow" - a woman is doing a jikoshokai (self introduction) to a group of her new coworkers

Panel 5: "Culture that encourages going deep on one special interest" - three people are respectively doing ink brush calligraphy, ikebana / flower arranging, and playing a game of go. They all have expressions of intense concentration.

Panel 6: "Lots of facts about trains to memorize". A boy is looking intently at a train schedule while a shinkansen/bullet train goes by on an elevated track overhead

At the bottom of the page, there's a drawing of myself looking at the reader and saying: "(plz understand I am saying this with nothing but love for my autistic bretheren and... is "sistren" a word?"

Comic panel 1: me and Spouse are carrying bags. I'm saying: "I'll use my hard-earned 日本語 [japanese language] skills to get our tickets". I am making a fist of determination. Spouse says: "I bought 'em online last week" and holds up a phone showing a QR code.

Panel 2: we're standing in front of a huge, confusing train system map labeled in Japanese. I have a roller bag next to me. I touch the map and say "Then, I'll use my skills to read the train system map". Spouse says: "Google maps says platform 12" and points left.

Panel 3: with a somewhat defeated posture, I look down at a plaque and say "I can... translate this historical plaque?" Spouse holds phone up to it and says "I have an app for that"

Panel 4: I am laying facedown on a row of train station chairs (taking up four chairs with my horizontal body). I say "Why did I even come to Japan... there's no use for me... everything is phone now... humans are obsolete..." Spouse frowns sympathetically.

Panel 5: Spouse points at a hotel worker behind a hotel front desk and says "You can ask this guy about changing our reservation". I approach the desk and say "すみません、質問があります" [excuse me, i have a question].

Panel 6: The hotel worker smiles and says "Don't worry, this is a big tourist spot so we all know English". My face is all squeezed up in anguish as I say "ちくしょう" [dammit!]"

Comic panel 1: a bunch of shadowy figures are sitting around a table, their faces hidden by hoods. They are rubbing their hands together and cackling. Conspirator 1 gestures wildly saying "... and then we make the Wuhan biolab leak the virus!" the others respond "MWA HA HA HA"

panel 2: conspirator 2 asks "Then the pandemic kills everyone?" conspirator 1 responds: "No! We want them to THINK that but it's actually as harmless as a cold"

panel 3: conspirator 2: "then why..." conspirator 1: "To trick everyone into taking the vaccine!" conspirator 3 raises a hand: "And the vaccine kills everyone right?"

panel 4: conspirator 1: "No, but it fiddles with their DNA!" conspirator 3: "Is this before or after the mind control chip?" Conspirator 4: "Wait! Guys! We're forgetting the most important part of any evil conspiracy!"

panel 5: Conspirator 4: "Giving the entire plan away by making common words and phrases spell out clues like a crossword puzzle from a children's cereal box!" the other conspirators: "oh right!" "almost forgot" "I'll get right on that"

Panel 6: we are now back to reality in this panel. A guy with a crazed expression and messed-up hair and beard stubble is shouting "WAKE UP SHEEPLE!" at me, pointing at a giant sign he's holding. I am scratching the back of my neck and saying "ummm..."
The sign has the word COVID with the letters standing for "Communist cOld Vaccine fIddles wit ur Dna" and then "19" is explained as "666 + 1 (world government)"

Comic panel 1: I am standing with my daughter behind a railing at Kiymizudera (a famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan). I'm pointing down off the balcony towards the tree tops below. I'm saying: "...Edo period legend says if you leap from the balcony of Kiyomizu temple and survive, your wish will come true". My kid looks bored.

Panel 2: I'm standing in front of an enormous bronze Buddha statue, which is seated in lotus position with a bunch of offerings in front of it. I'm saying: "...this Daibutsu survived the fire and Todai temple was rebuilt in the Heain period-- where'd she go?" I'm looking around for my daughter. She's hiding behind the Buddha's head and giving him "bunny ears" with her fingers

Panel 3: we're looking across a lake at another temple. The temple is reflected in the still water surface, as are some trees on a tiny island nearby. I'm saying: "Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu built Kinkaku temple as a..." daughter interrupts, yelling: "I'M SO BORED OF TEMPLES!"

Panel 4: daughter is arms akimbo and shouting at me: "We've been to a bajillion temples and they're all the same! My feet hurt and I wanna go back to the hotel and charge my Switch and I don't care about the Heian period! It's a stupid period that didn't even have ninjas!" I respond: "OK, OK, no more temples."

panel 5: she looks leery and asks: "Promise?" I kneel down and stick out a pinky finger and say "Promise."

Panel 6: we are standing in front of a torii gate flanked by statues of kitsune (fox spirits) at the Fushimi Inari Taisha. Daughter is glaring at me furiously (sfx: "glare"). I am saying: "No, this one's a SHRINE!!!"

Comic panel 1: Caption: "Biotech advanced until complete physical sex change could be achieved with a few pills." A person standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror, with an open pill bottle next to the sink, stretches the waistband of their pants, looks down at their crotch, and says "wow!"

Panel 2: Caption: "After all, every cell has at least one x-chromosome awaiting the right activtation signals." A scientist in a lab coat and goggles is looking at a test tube while another looks through a microscope. There are magnified images of chromosomes on the wall behind them. One scientist says: "Going the other way was harder, but the Y-chromosome only codes about 60 proteins"

Panel 3: Caption: "People who hate freedom tried to ban the treatment". An angry man waves a flag. The flag has a male and female symbol with a brick wall between them. He says "Sickos will transition twice a week! for kinky sex purposes!" A woman next to him literally clutches her pearls and says "think of the children!"

Panel 4: Caption: "What they hated most was: now that passing was easier, identifying targets of their prejudice was harder". A man narrows his eyes and holds out calipers and a ruler towards a woman's face. He says: "Hold still while I decide if I think you're a real woman". She looks creeped out and says "No!"

Panel 5: Caption: "But cheap at-home chemical synthesis made bans unenforceable, just as it had done for the abortion pill". A person eagerly watches a box, similar in shape and size to a 3-d printer but full of chemistry equipment, as a timer on it counts down.

Panel 6: Caption: "Some trans elders had mixed feelings about all this." An old woman holding a walker says: "Back in my day, transitioning could cost you everything... it really meant something! Kids these days have it too easy"

Comic panel 1: a tiny indistinct human figure stands alone on a long, dark, empty street with dark empty buildings looming oppressively above them. The sky is lit by fires somewhere in the distance. Caption: "After the USA surrendered to the fascist coup, I felt like I didn't wanna live in this world anymore"

Panel 2: The tiny indistinct figure is standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down. Some scraggly plants cling to the edges of the cliff. We're looking up so we can't see what's below the cliff. Caption: "But, suicide is exactly what the fascists *want* us to do. They wanna kill us, we shouldn't make it easy for them."

Panel 3: I am looking up in a redwood forest. A circle of trees reaches straight up, converging at the vanishing point in a tangled canopy of needles. Caption: "I should do the exact opposite. So what's the opposite of suicide?"

Panel 4: I am lying facedown in the leaves and roots on the forest floor. A beam of sunlight illuminates a tiny seedling just sprouted. I lift my head and look at it. Caption: "If suicide is a psychotic break with your life, where you decide to stop living... Reverse Suicide is a psychotic break where you decide to *start* living"

Panel 5: In the foreground a hermit crab is crawling out of a spiral snail shell and reaching towards a bigger, empty conch shell. My face is watching it from the background. Caption: "If everything's doomed and nothing means anything, then, I can do whatever I want. I'm not tied to anyone's system of values or anything I used to be"

Panel 6: Spouse looks at me with amusement and says "That just sounds like your midlife crisis". I am frowning and gesticulating wildly. I say: "Reverse Suicide is more different than a midlife crisis!"

Comic panel 1: Fox News report. The chyron on the bottom says "...ACTIC EMPEROR GORBLAX DEMANDS SURRENDER OF EA..." we see a hideous monster with one eye and two mouths wearing a crown (emperor Gorblax). Behind it is a bunch of Star Destroyers. Gorblax speaks with a speech balloon that is in the shape of dripping slime. Gorblax says: "Surrender, earthings. My fleet is invincible." In front of this there's a generic middle-aged white guy in a suit and tie offering commentary. He says: "Gorblax will do a better job than the woke elitist deep state! Vote 'surrender'!"

Panel 2: it's another news segment some time later. Gorblax is speaking again and saying: "All Earth puppies shall be disintegrated". The Fox News guy says "... just liberal fearmongering. He won't ACTUALLY disintegrate puppies. He knows that would be unpopular."

Panel 3: The news report shows a picture of outer space, with Earth at bottom left. A big satellite s under construction in orbit. It has a drawing of a puppy with a 'no' sign across it. It has a sci-fi death-ray thing. The caption on the image says: "Orbital anti-puppy ray nears completion". Fox News guy is sweating and smiling uncomfortably. He says "See, this is actually good, because... um... puppies give people rabies! Gorblax is keeping America safe"

Panel 4: Gorblax speaks: "I'll cancel the ray in exchange for 1,000 cubic meters human blood tribute" Fox News guy, looking relieved: "I told you he wouldn't really do it! Just another brilliant negotiating tactic"

Panel 5: picture shows a beam of energy from the ray on the satellite striking the earth. Caption: "Gorblax receives tribute, activates ray anyway". Fox News guy: "As I was saying, puppies have been taking advantage of America way too long"

Comic panel 1: There is a banner in the background reading "TECH COMPANY REUNION". I'm drinking tea and talking to some guy with a beard who's drinking beer. I ask: "What you been up to lately?" The guy says "Have you heard of the DAO?"

panel 2: i get very excited, waving my fists in the air and making anime eyes. I say "Oh yeah! I'm really into the Dao too lately! Have you read Zhuangzi?" in the background, a Bagua (the yin/yang surrounded by the eight trigrams) appears

panel 3: I continue: "You know the story in Zhuangzi where the ruler of Fan is hanging with the King of Chu when he hears Fan has been conquered..." In the background there is a completely unhelpful map of Warring States China circa 260 BC showing the states of Qin, Chu, Han, Wei, Zhao, Qi, and Yan.

Panel 4: I continue: "And he just calmly drinks his tea and the king's like how can you be so chill?" (i calmly drink my tea to illustrate. I'm holding my pinky finger out daintily.) "he says 'the destruction of Fan doesn't destroy what matters nor the preservation of Chu preserve what matters'" The other guy sneaks a look at his watch and says "..."

Panel 5: "From a certain point of view, Fan's not yet destroyed and Chu's not yet preserved" Thinking about that a lot lately, re: the destruction of the USA". i have my hands behind my head looking melancholy and wistful.

Panel 6: I finally stop talking and the other guy has a chance to respond, he frowns and says "Uh i said the D. A. O. Distributed Autonomous Organization?" I instantly react with intense disgust, sticking my tongue out and holding out both hands palms-out in a push-away gesture.

comic panel 1: My Spouse is wearing a rebreather mask and using a power tool (an orbital sander) to sand a barrel. Sound effect: BRRR BRRR BRRR. Clouds of dust come off it. I am poking my head into the background of the panel, watching and smiling.

Panel 2: Spouse is sitting under a blanket on the couch with arm around our kid. They're looking at a book together. Spouse is pointing at a page and speaking Chinese. Translation of the Chinese text: "...need the multiple of 8 that's closest to 50". The kid says in Chinese: "so bored!". I'm looking on from the background again and smiling.

Panel 3: Spouse is on a stage, waving their hands over a bubbling cauldron and looking mischevous. They're saying "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!". I'm watching from the front row.

Panel 4: Spouse is wearing safety gloves and pouring viscous chemicals from two jugs to mix in a beaker. There's a cylinder with clamps on it and a paintbrush on the workbench. I'm looking on from the background and smiling.

Panel 5: I'm making a weird face with big eyes and a wiggly mouth and touching the tips of my fingers together. Spouse, holding paintbrush, looks at me quizzically and asks "What"

Panel 6: I say "You're SOOO COOOL!!" my eyes are hearts and there are hearts and stars in the speech balloon. Spouse blushes and has a big anime sweat drop.

Comic panel 1: I am typing on my laptop with very bad posture on the couch. Thought cloud: I COULD do this manually but I'm gonna save myself SO much time by writing a shell script to automate it!"

Panel 2: I'm typing on my laptop outside in the garden. it's balanced on top of a fence. Thought cloud: "Why isn't apt-get installing the dependencies for ffmpeg? What dya mean 'repository deprecated'?"

Panel 3: I'm typing on my laptop on the bathroom counter next to the sink. "Mantic Minotaur is EOL already? Should have picked an LTS version... I should back up before upgrading..."

Panel 4: i'm typing on my laptop while lying on the floor with the cat. "Instead of manually backing up, I'll create an automatic incremental backup process with cronjobs and rsync"

Panel 5: I'm using my laptop while hanging upside-down. "Oh no it's wasting 20GB backint up .venv/ and node_modules/ dirs from all my working copies of git repos... could I make rsync read my .gitignores?"

Panel 6: Spouse comes in and asks "Are you SURE Linux is worth all the time you spend futzing with it?" me, furious: "Windows! 11! Puts! Ads! In! Your! START MENU!"

Comic panel 1: I am having a meeting over video conferencing. I'm at a desk and there's a bunch of little people in boxes on the screen of my laptop. One of them is saying: "OK that feature shouldn't take me more than 2-3 days". I respond: "How about ticket #1362 - do we think this is a must-have or a nice-to-have in milestone 4.5?"

Panel 2: whole panel shows the 8 people in little boxes on the screen. One is chugging from a coffee cup. One has a cat on her lap sticking its tail in her face. One is saying: "There's a security hole someone could use to ransack user data"

Panel 3: the person on the call continues: "It's a P1, we can't release..." I am staring into space with a completely vacant expression. My thought clouds say "ransack", "ransack..."

Panel 4: i am starting to bop my head while singing inside my thought cloud: "...she'll ransack Pakistan and run a scam in Scandanavia"

Panel 5: I am doing some of the dorkiest dance moves imaginable while singing inside the thought cloud: "She's a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize. She put the miss in misdemeanor when she stole the beans from Lima"

Panel 6: dorky dancing intensifies. Thought cloud: "tell me WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO"

Panel 7: voice from computer: "Hello? Nindokag? I asked which one you recommend". I am looking stupefied and sweating profusely. I say: "UHHH my audio cut out there sorry could you repeat the options?"

Comic panel 1: I am shopping at the grocery store. I'm in the cleaning supplies aisle. I'm picking up a broom.

Panel 2: I'm holding the broom over my shoulder and a shopping basket in the other hand. A random shopper asks me: "Excuse me, what time do you close?" Me, puzzled: "Huh? You mean what time does the store close? 9:00 I think"

Panel 3: a second random shopper asks me: "Can you tell me which aisle ranch dressing is in?" Me, looking increasingly confused : "Sorry, I don't... I don't work here"

Panel 4: A third random shopper asks me "Where are the bathrooms?" I am looking agitated and waving my arms around: "I don't work here! I'm carrying a broom because I need to buy a broom!"

Panel 5: I look down at the broom and think: "Apparently if you carry a broom, everyone thinks you work at the store. How can I use this to my advantage?"

Panel 6: I am at a meeting of store managers. There's a sales chart behind me. I'm still holding the broom in one hand , and slamming my other hand on the conference table. I say: "Next item on the agenda: 'we' should really start carrying Korean nori". The store managers look neutral.

Comic panel 1: In a darkened room, a man is giving a slideshow presentation to an audience. On the screen we see a craggy, snowy mountainside. The presenter is muscular and gesticulating wildly. He's wearing a skintight outfit with a symbol of a mountain on the chest, and a knitted cap on his head. He says:
"There I was, about to set a world record for first solo ascent of Annapurna's south face, when basecamp radios that a 100-year blizzard is bearing down on my position - and I'm still above 8,000 meters, in the Death Zone"

Panel 2: On the screen wee see the mountaineer wearing a thick parka, cleated boots, goggles, and mittens. He's hanging from a rope on a steep mountainside, holding an ice pick, and grinning widely. In the background behind him there is a tiny figure we can barely see, burdened with an enormous amount of baggage, like a backpack bigger than he is.

One of the audience (who we only see as shadows) raises a hand and asks: "I have a question: who's that carrying all the bags?"
The presenter answers: "That's just my sherpa, Lhakma"

Panel 3: the presenter continues: "ANYWAY i'm hanging on a sheer ice cliff as the storm rages and just praying the pitons hold in the ropes above me!" he is holding his arms up in a position that mimics hanging from a rope. His eyes are wide.

Panel 4: the shadowed figure in the audience raises a hand again. The presenter looks frustrated. The audience member asks: "If you're first to clime this route, how are there already pitons above you?"

Panel 5: The presenter answers: "My sherpa installed them the night before. ANYWAY-" he is interrupted by the audience member saying "Kinda seems like Lhakma was first to solo the south face"

Panel 6: The presenter fidgets with his hands and frowns. He says "Sherpas don't count for world records. They live up there and climb Himalayas every day so it's not impressive when they do it". Audience member turns to another and asks: "Why aren't we watching Lhakma's slideshow?"

Comic panel 1: a drawing of a Factorio game in progress. There's a little engineer person standing in the middle of a huge labyrinth of conveyor belts, electric wires, drills, furnaces, inserter arms, etc.

Panel 2: It's nighttime, I am closing my laptop and laying down in bed. I say "I wanna make an ammo belt to feed the turrets at the wall. And redo my messy green science production. But I should really quit and go to bed early tonight"

Panel 3: I look over at the clock and it says "1:58 AM". I make a shocked face and say "HOW...?"

Panel 4: it's the next morning, the sun is shining in the window. I have stubble and my face is all bleary and scrunched up. I'm nursing a coffee cup. My thought cloud is full of conveyor belts. Spouse says: "What do you like so much about that game anyway? A computer programmer coming home from work and doing more process optimization in a game...

Panel 5: spouse says "Isn't that a bit like a bus driver taking a vacation by going on a drive?" I shrug and say "I guess my brain's lust for shape rotation is insatiable"

Comic panel 1: I am looking through a magnifying glass and holding a soldering iron in one hand and a roll of solder in the other. There's a circuit breadboard in front of me held up by two alligator clips, with various electronic components on it. I say "This circuit is almost done! Time for the pièce de résistance!"

Panel 2: close-up of my hand holding up a resistor

Panel 3: i'm still holding up the resistor, and making a dumb pose with a big doofy grin. My daughter is standing next to me glaring at me with her arms folded.

Panel 4: I look serious and point at the resistor. I say "See it's a joke because this is a" - she interrupts and says "I GET it, it's just not funny". She's turned away.

Comic panel 1: I'm looking terrified and shouting into a phone: "911?? THERE'S A CRIME IN PROGRESS!!"

panel 2: I'm peeking out between the venetian blinds. I say "A gang of thugs are breaking into my neighbor's house! They're armed! The address is XXXXX"

Panel 3: close-up of my frightened eyes seen through the gap in the venetian blinds. "Holy SHIT they DRAGGED the dad out of his house!! His kids are screaming!! They're kicking the tar out of him on the sidewalk!"

Panel 4: we see a slice of the scene through the gap in the venetian blinds. Two shadowy figures are shoving a third, whose hands are tied behind his back, into the open back of an unmarked van. "The criminals are stuffing him in a van! It's a kidnapping! I'll read you the license plate number"

Panel 5: "Identifying features? Yeah they're all wearing some kinda gang sign -- black vests that say ICE"

Panel 6: I'm angrily yelling into the phone: "Quick, send somebody to arrest these motherfuckers and rescue my neighbor!" "..." "Whaddya mean you 'can't'? What good are you then?"

Comic panel 1: I am playing accordion and singing. There's a music stand in front of me. "You're never alone / you're never disconnected / you're home with your own / when company's expected / you're well... -- you're well pro--"

Panel 2: I'm frowning down at my keyboard and moving my fingers around trying to figure out the melody. I say " -- you're well pro -- is that G natural or G flat? -- you're well pro-TEC-ted -- it's flat why is it flat"

Panel 3: I pick the music book up off the stand and hold it in front of my face looking at it more closely. I have a shocked expression. "WhaaaAAAAtt?? an F#m7 ?? In this key, at this place in the chord progression? no WAY that should sound any good!"

Panel 4: "Why does that sound good?" (picture of a musical staff with an F#m7 chord drawn on it) "Oh ho ho HO, Leonard BERNstein, you magNIFicent bastard!" I am making a face that is hard to describe but it shows that I am impressed by Leonard Bernstein's magnificent bastardry.

Shouting from off-panel: "IT'S 11:30 PM STOP PRACTICING ACCORDION AND GO TO BED!!"

Comic panel 1: three space marines from warhammer 40k are standing around. There's a castle-style window and a couple of viewscreens in the background. One viewscreen shows a bunch of blobs descending from the sky towards a fortress on a hill. The other shows a close-up of a gribbly tyranid monster. One space marine says "The tyranid hive fleet approaches our stronghold, brothers."

In the foreground is the space marine captain. He has some extra skulls and a double-headed eagle on his armor. His shoulderpads are bigger than his head. He's he only one not wearing a helmet. He's scowling and his veins are bulging out of his forehead in an expression of permanent roid rage. He's saying "Then we shall make our final stand here. We fight till the last man! For the Emperor!"

Panel 2: An imperial guard dude in camo fatigues points at a map of the planet. He says "Captain, there's still time to evacuate all the civilians from the planet. We could save--" the captain interrupts him, yelling: "No! No retreat! Only tragic final stand!" His arms are crossed.

Panel 3: An Eldar Farseer with a pointy helmet covered in runes appears on the viewscreen. "Hi, this is the Eldar -- ops I mean Aeldari -- we were in the neighborhood and noticed the Tyranids. Let us discuss joining forces against our common--" the captain interrupts, shaking his fist and yelling "No! No diplomacy! Only tragic final stand!"

Panel 4: an imperial commissar with a fancy hat and epaulets on his uniform looks out the castle window with binoculars. He says: "You know, the don't actually outnumber us all that much. We have superior firepower and a defensible position. With the right tactics we could prevail." The captain waves his arms and yells "No! No winning! Only tragic final stand!"

Comic panel 1. i'm at some kind of dinner party. A woman holding a wine glass says "I got solar panels on my roof AND switched to an EV". a random guy next to her says "cool I wish I could afford that". A second woman eating a salad says "You're still eating cheese, though. I've been vegan since 2019". I'm chewing something.

Panel 2: I say "You know what's a surprisingly good way to cut your CO2 emissions? installing more insulation in your house!"

Panel 3: I say "The vast majority of your home's energy use is heating and cooling. You can easily cut that in half by preventing heat leakage. You save a lot on bills, so it pays for itself"

Panel 4: the second woman has a thinky face and says "Wait it's that easy? saves money and I don't have to give up anything?" Me, holding my teacup: "Yeah!"

Panel 5: She crosses her arms and frowns and says: "How am i supposed to impress people with my superior virtue if it's not arduous, conspicuous or expensive?" I have an exclamation point above my head.

Comic panel 1: some cars are driving on the highway through a San Francisco cityscape. There is a giant billboard by the highway. The billboard says: "1. Intercom is a complete customer service platform. 2. Intercom is the leader in AI customer service."
Speech balloon coming out of one car: "Billboards in San Francisco are always so weird"

panel 2: View inside the car. Spouse is driving and i'm looking out the window. Outside the window is a billboard that says: "QZE is the number one JXV for PDMS" with a picture of an egg being cracked into a frying pan. I am saying: "JVX for PDMS? what the HECK does THAT mean?"

Panel 3: view from outside the car again, the highway curves around, there are 2 more billboards. One says "The smart way to fire all your employees" with a picture of a robot giving a thumbs-up. The other says "Is your CTO ready for AI disrupt AI CTO customer?" with a picture of a rocket. Speech balloon from car: "Do companies have any actual humans look at these before they pay to put them up?"

Panel 4: car drives past two more billboards. the first says "I'm sorry but I cannot fulfill that request. It goes against OpenAI use policy". The second says "{response: "ERR ChatGPT 4-o Credits Expired"}"

Comic panel 1: four drummers are playing taiko drums in unison on a stage. Behind them is a curtain that says "year of the snake" in Chinese. There's an audience in front. we can't see their faces. Sound effects: tsu DORODOKO DOKO DON tsu DORODOKO DOKO DON

Panel 2: the song done, they all bow, and the audience claps.

Panel 3: after the show, me and Spouse are waving good-bye to other members of the taiko group. Eveyone is wearing matching black outfits. Spouse is holding a bubble tea. I have a gear bag over my shoulder. Our kid (drawn by herself) is playing Nintendo Switch and i'm trying to get her attention and tell her to come with us.

Panel 4: the three of us are walking. I'm making a thinky face. Me: "It's weird how much better I feel after the concert compared to this morning". Spouse, smiling: "We got exercise, did creative expression, and socialized with people we like - of course we feel good!"

Panel 5: I'm saying: "But, as a being of pure logic, my mood should be affected only by the integral of my utility function over the probability density curve of future world-states". Spouse is drinking boba and looking very skeptical

Panel 6: i continue cheerfully: "The world is exactly as doomed as it was before the concert, so my mood should be identical. Logically." Spouse is making an intense "are you fucking serious" face. Our kid (drawn by herself) is rolling her eyes and saying "har har har". Me: "This is also why it doesn't matter if I sleep or not"

Comic panel 1: a game of StarCraft is happening. We see a Protoss nexus with probes collecting minerals and gas, there's pylons, some other kind of building is warping in. Thought cloud: "Everything's great: I've got five bases, I'm on top of the tech tree, minerals and gas coming in fast..."

Panel 2: another location in the game map. There's a bunch of Zerg flyers (mostly mutalisks, with one overlord and one guardian) moving northwest to southeast. Thought: "Here comes the attack wave. Oh dear that's a lotta Mutalisks - time to rally my - Huh??"

Panel 3: the Protoss base. Aside from a single Zealot and some probes, there are no units around, only various buildings. Thought: "Where's all my units? How could I forget to make units?"

Panel 4: a gateway is selected and queueing up five Dragoons. A probe is starting cannon warps. Thought: "Spam production hotkeys! Set waypoints! Carriers take too long, all stargates make scouts! All gateways make dragoons, all probes warp in cannons! Faster, faster!"

Panel 5: The mutalisk swarm is attacking the protoss base and spitting tons of acid balls at the nexus, which is on fire. Thought cloud: "Too late! Here they come! AAAAAAAAA"

Panel 6: I wake up in bed. I'm squinting and holding my head. I say: "Why does my brain always express anxiety through the medium of StarCraft dreams?"

Comic panel 1: a snowboarder is gliding down a mountain, holding a cell phone at arm's length in his right hand. He thinks: "Who needs a GoPro? This phone video's gonna be radical. Nothing bad will happen as a result of me holding it out like this."

Panel 2: the snowboarder hits a partly-buried rock. SFX: CRONCH. The phone flies out of his hand. "Oh no" he says

Panel 3: close-up of the snowboarder's left foot. Screws have come loose and are falling out of the snowboard bindings as a result of the damage from hitting the rock. "Oh noo" he says.

Panel 4: His left foot has come detatched from the snowboard and he's losing his balance, waving his arms in the air wildly to try to stabilize as the snowboard approaches an edge. The phone from panel 2 is sliding away downhill by itself. "Oh nooo" he says

Panel 5: There's a fork in the ski trail. The intended path is labeled "(blue square) Ridgeview". The phone is sliding that direction. A skier looks at it, confused. The other path goes straight down, is labeled "(double black diamond) Bonecrusher". The snowboarder is helplessly falling down that direction, head-first. "Oh nooooo" he says.

Comic panel 1: A highway going through the mountains. We see scattered trees on the hillsides, some cows grazing behind a fence, high-tension power lines and wind turbines in the distance, cars and trucks driving both ways.

Panel 2: close-up of hands on the steering wheel. There are raindrops on the windshield and the windshield wipers are going. The speedometer says 66 mph. A phone is stuck to the dashboard to the right of the steering wheel.

Panel 3: exterior shot of the car going up a hill.

Panel 4: close-up of the phone running a maps application. It says "100 mi to go".

Panel 5: close-up of the car's dashboard. It's an electric car. It says "Battery - 120 mi left"

Panel 6: maps app says 98 mi to go

Panel 7: Dashboard says battery 114 mi left

Panel 8: maps app says 94 mi to go

Panel 9: car dashboard says battery 102 mi left

Panel 10: the driver frowns

Panel 11: The driver and passenger (me) exchange worried glances

Panel 12 -13: the car reaches the top of the hill and starts rolling down the other side

Panel 14-15: the car dashboard says battery has 103 miles left, then 104 miles left.

Panel 16. Driver breathes a sigh of relief

Comic panel 1: i am holding a pad of paper and a pencil and sitting in a chair. My kid comes up behind me and asks "Are you really gonna draw a comic every day?". I answer "Well I'm doing my best!"

Panel 2: she draws some panel borders on a piece of paper on a table. I look on with interest. She says "I have a suggestion. Use this comic template I'm making."

Panel 3: close up on the comic template. Every panel is labeled the same thing: "Not Depressing"

Panel 4: I frown and ask "Are you saying you don't like the depressing ones?" She answers: "It's a COMIC, not a TRAGIC, Dad"

Comic panel 1: I am excitedly showing a USB stick/drive to my kid, who looks very unimpressed. She's sitting on the couch with her feet up, playing Kirby on the Switch. I'm saying: "I just designed an STL file for the first print-in-place movable accordion!" It'll only take 19 hours to print!"

panel 2: A cat is playing with a 3d-printer (a Prusa 3 Mini, specifically). Swatting at the loading tube. "Oops the cat got in here", i say.

Panel 3: I'm throwing the cat out of the door of the room, into a hallway. "You're not allowed in this room" I say.

Panel 4: i'm looking around the room , scratching my head and asking "where's my filament?". On the shelf next to me are several lego models (a King Boo, a James Webb Space Telescope, some kind of robot), and a small accordion.

Panel 5: the cat has the spool of printer filament and is all tangled up in it, happily clawing and biting at it like yarn

Comic panel 1: Me and spouse are standing in front of an open garage. I'm rolling up my sleeves. Inside the garage can be seen a bicycle, rake, watering can, and stacks and stacks of cardboard boxes. Spouse says: "No more putting it off. We need the space. It's time to sort the boxes in the garage."

panel 2: I'm bending over to dig through stuff and saying "Deciding what to get rid of is always so difficult. Literal years of my life are in these boxes. Each one is full of precious memories that I couldn't bare to--" (spouse interrupts): "Why do you have this bag of dried lichen?". they are holding out the bag the way you hold a really gross thing you don't wanna touch. Me: "I was gonna make Warhammer terrain with it"

Panel 3: I'm holding up a headband with a pair of styrofoam horns on it with one hand and a bottle of grey liquid with the other hand. "Hey look orange troll horns and grey body paint!" i say happily. Spouse cringes so hard they curl up into a ball.

Panel 4: I'm holding a book and frowning at it. Next to me is a box labeled "ethernet cables". I'm reading from the book: "Is your database ready for Y2K?"

Panel 5: Spouse is sorting out papers. I'm crouching next to an open box. "but what if we realyl need some blank VHS tapes someday?" i ask.

Panel 6: Spouse holds a box of rusty pipes and frowns at it. "Why do you have this box of rusty pipes?" I'm holding a stack of books. I answer: "I was gonna make Warhammer terrain with it"

Panel 7: Spouse is dumping an armful of papers into a recycle bin on the curb. I'm carrying a full plastic garbage bag in each hand and walking towards an overflowing garbage bin on the curb. "It turns out most of the decisions weren't so hard", i say. "Nope" says spouse.

Comic panel 1: i'm in bed in the middle of the night wide awake and staring at the ceiling. My spouse is asleep next to me. The caption says "3:00". The room is dark. A cat is walking on top of me. I'm thinking: "ICE will be coming to ethnically cleans my neighbors and I'm powerless to stop them"

panel 2: The cat is now sleeping on me. The caption says "3:30". the angle is different but otherwise it's the same as panel 1. I'm thinking: "Bird flu epidemic is on its way while everyone at the CDC is getting fired and an antivaxxer is in charge of the health department"

Panel 3: the caption is now 4:00. the cat is still asleep. Thinking: "Billionaire CEO oligarchs can now break all the laws they want as long as they pay the right bribes to the felon-in-chief"

Panel 4: the cat is making biscuits (i.e. kneading the blanket). I'm face down on the pillow. Caption says 4:30. "Code generation by LLMs will render all my programming skills obsolete and those were the only thing making me employable"

Panel 5: the caption says 5:00. I'm in fetal position. The cat is swatting at my toes which are sticking out the bottom of the blanket. "Social media killed journalism and with it our ability to construct a shared scoial reality, without which democracy can't work"

Panel 6: it's morning and me and spouse are getting dressed. My face is all scrunched up while I pull some pants onto my hairy legs. Spouse: "Did you sleep OK?" me: "No, my brain was playing all the greatest hits"

Comic panel 1: man with a long wet beard is taking a bath in a wooden tub. He has a glass of wine nearby and his scrubbing a sponge under his arm. He says: "In India there's these guys with just one leg with one huge foot at the end. They hop everywhere. Write that down." We can see some columns in the background. A guy in a toga is sitting at a desk on the other side of the room writing on a scroll. He looks skeptical and asks "Um, are you sure those are real?"

Panel 2: the man in the bathtub sips wine and says "I heard it from a dude who heard it from a dude, that's good enough" "Also elephants are afraid of mice. Write that down."

Panel 3: a third man in a toga and sandals suddenly appears between the columns, bursting into the room. He shouts: "Pliny the Elder! Mt. Vesuvius is erupting!" The scribe from panel 1 freaks out. Pliny the Eldger gets out of the bathtub, dripping and naked, and says: "I gotta go check this out! Don't forget to write that hedgehogs impale fruit on their spines to save it for later!"

Panel 4: there's a caption that says "1,000 years later". Two medieval monks with hooded robes and tonsure haircuts are reading a book titled "Historia Naturalis". There's torches and a crucifix on the stone walls, and writing implements on the table. One of the monks is saying "Wow, the ancients were so wise"

Panel 5: close-up of the monk's hand holding a quill pen, transcribing text into an illustrated manuscript. There is a fancy illuminated border around a terrible drawing of a hedgehog with fruit impaled on its spines. Underneath that, Gothic calligraphy says "The Lore of Beasts". The s's in "beasts" look like f's.