I will be spending this Labor Day laboring on the update. Please look for it this evening.
UPDATE: I find the most curious ways of shooting myself in the foot. Please hold on a bit longer…
UPDATE UPDATE: Life’s kicking me in the pants at the moment. I haven’t forgotten.
Title: The Whiff of Discernment
(The Oistrem leans to sniff at the evidence.)
Oistrem: The Strasmin that carried this... yes. That Strasmin lives...
(The Oistrem rears back and casts a wary glance at the nearby ridge where Yme is lurking.)
Oistrem: And is close by.
Latest Comics
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#643. The Whiff of Discernment
31 12491 May 21, 2026
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#642. Multiple Layers
18 4586 May 19, 2026
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#641. This One Thing
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#640. Dregs of Probabilities
12 127 May 12, 2026
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#639. Sufficient
28 8907 May 07, 2026
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#638. Given the Chance
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#637. Over the Ridge
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#636. Filler: Dramatic Disjuncture
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#635. Trying to Stay Quiet
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#634. Fortuitous Find
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Botaram Returns Today!
What’s going on…
Still not dead, but now having some health concerns in addition to other worries. This isn’t shaping up to be a good year…
Nevertheless, I am assigning a firm date for Botaram’s return; I expect to be back in the saddle on Monday, September the third. I trust that I will not be proven wrong.
To those who are still checking in, I thank you for bearing with me.
Nevertheless, I am assigning a firm date for Botaram’s return; I expect to be back in the saddle on Monday, September the third. I trust that I will not be proven wrong.
To those who are still checking in, I thank you for bearing with me.
More Tomfoolery
More limericks, for the nonce:
A Strasmin who sought Botaram
Said “I fear that my plan is a sham.
When I stammer, or yammer,
It hammers my grammar—
A glamour flim-flammer I am.”
An Oistrem was heard to complain
That her brain was too plain to contain
The pain and the strain
Of her deigning to feign
An arcane campaign of disdain.
“I’d abstain from all ledgerdemain,
For I’m fain this domain to explain.
But again, it pertains
To disdainful refrains
Which remain too insane to restrain.
“I’ll explain ere I get a migrane,
For this chain or chicane is my bane.
And my gain, in the main,
Lies in what I maintain:
That my brain, split in twain, is insane.”
…inuviabentidguvor-
jiokundialunedikor-
pevasoziurandi-
asmalidrukanti-
bisgarwisalalunizor…
A Strasmin who sought Botaram
Said “I fear that my plan is a sham.
When I stammer, or yammer,
It hammers my grammar—
A glamour flim-flammer I am.”
An Oistrem was heard to complain
That her brain was too plain to contain
The pain and the strain
Of her deigning to feign
An arcane campaign of disdain.
“I’d abstain from all ledgerdemain,
For I’m fain this domain to explain.
But again, it pertains
To disdainful refrains
Which remain too insane to restrain.
“I’ll explain ere I get a migrane,
For this chain or chicane is my bane.
And my gain, in the main,
Lies in what I maintain:
That my brain, split in twain, is insane.”
…inuviabentidguvor-
jiokundialunedikor-
pevasoziurandi-
asmalidrukanti-
bisgarwisalalunizor…
Still Alive…
Dealing with personal issues, some of which are good. My brain keeps finding ways to work on things that are not Botaram, so perhaps I needed another break.
This is no excuse for shirking my duties, so here are some Botaram limericks while I work this out:
A Strasmin once said, “My intent
Is at odds with what I think you meant.
What you do with your rod
Makes you smile and nod,
But the bent of my rod is to frent.”
There once was an Oistrem named Guaz-
marenchubiavhufarataz-
hulemdiorivu-
stamcapuhitiwu-
suntalahinumashabaz…
(second draft)
There once was an Oistrem tagged “Guit,”
Who said “Now that I’ve gotten to it,
I strongly intuit
This gooey conduit
Will not suffer me to pass through it.
“It was simple from far off to view it,
But if I press on, I shall rue it,
Though I hew it, the goo, it
Renews just as true. It
Is prudent, I think, to say
‘This path brings me no closer to my objective and I shall reconnoiter to find one that might bear better fruit.'”
Until!
This is no excuse for shirking my duties, so here are some Botaram limericks while I work this out:
A Strasmin once said, “My intent
Is at odds with what I think you meant.
What you do with your rod
Makes you smile and nod,
But the bent of my rod is to frent.”
There once was an Oistrem named Guaz-
marenchubiavhufarataz-
hulemdiorivu-
stamcapuhitiwu-
suntalahinumashabaz…
(second draft)
There once was an Oistrem tagged “Guit,”
Who said “Now that I’ve gotten to it,
I strongly intuit
This gooey conduit
Will not suffer me to pass through it.
“It was simple from far off to view it,
But if I press on, I shall rue it,
Though I hew it, the goo, it
Renews just as true. It
Is prudent, I think, to say
‘This path brings me no closer to my objective and I shall reconnoiter to find one that might bear better fruit.'”
Until!
Progress and Sonnet
This block is taking longer to resolve than I hoped. Here’s a sonnet in the meantime:
In soaring through the world, from rest to rest,
Emergent to recumbent, dust would claim
The briefest spark, the right to take a name
And drink of life while life shall lend a breast—
But when what we imbibe does not digest,
And turns not into pleasure, nor to fame,
But curdles, lying heavy, who would claim
There’s aught to favor in that draught distressed?
Now from the cream let’s separate the jest,
Dyspeptic humor none should stomach, lest
We take it to the heart and cast our blame,
Unheeded, on the teat. Were time repressed,
We’d still endure this sharpest sort of test,
To either lose our ground, or find the flame.
Botaram vita est.
In soaring through the world, from rest to rest,
Emergent to recumbent, dust would claim
The briefest spark, the right to take a name
And drink of life while life shall lend a breast—
But when what we imbibe does not digest,
And turns not into pleasure, nor to fame,
But curdles, lying heavy, who would claim
There’s aught to favor in that draught distressed?
Now from the cream let’s separate the jest,
Dyspeptic humor none should stomach, lest
We take it to the heart and cast our blame,
Unheeded, on the teat. Were time repressed,
We’d still endure this sharpest sort of test,
To either lose our ground, or find the flame.
Botaram vita est.
Reverse Filler 2
UPDATE: I’m still alive and I’m still tending to Real Life stuff. I should be back on track by Thursday.
Reverse Filler
Next Entry
Still collecting Chax’s thoughts. I’ll try to have it done on Monday night.
UPDATE: I apologize, I’m not as collected as I thought I would be. I hope to be more collectable tomorrow.
UPDATE: I apologize, I’m not as collected as I thought I would be. I hope to be more collectable tomorrow.
Filler Art: Interrupted Momentum
Apologies…
I’ve been in a loop lately which goes like this:
1) Fail to get an entry done in time.
2) Having failed with the last entry, I stay up until 3 AM supposedly trying to get the next entry done, but actually I just spend the time goofing off and thinking around it until I’m too tired to do anything.
3) Be exhausted / busy with other tasks all next day, which causes me to…
4) Fail to get the next entry done in time.
It’s possible that I’m trying to push the story in a direction that it doesn’t want to go, and my subconscious is rebelling. I’m going to try to straighten all this out this weekend and get it jumpstarted by Monday. Until!
UPDATE: I think I have it figured out now. Watch this space…
UPDATE UPDATE: Next entry in progress. It should be up in an hour.
1) Fail to get an entry done in time.
2) Having failed with the last entry, I stay up until 3 AM supposedly trying to get the next entry done, but actually I just spend the time goofing off and thinking around it until I’m too tired to do anything.
3) Be exhausted / busy with other tasks all next day, which causes me to…
4) Fail to get the next entry done in time.
It’s possible that I’m trying to push the story in a direction that it doesn’t want to go, and my subconscious is rebelling. I’m going to try to straighten all this out this weekend and get it jumpstarted by Monday. Until!
UPDATE: I think I have it figured out now. Watch this space…
UPDATE UPDATE: Next entry in progress. It should be up in an hour.
