203

Irritable
Posted on December 14, 2017 by David M Willis

203 thoughts on “Irritable”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    THIS TIME YOU SPENT MICROMANAGING IS A WHOLE SNACK YOU COULD HAVE EATEN, DOTTY

    Source: can’t stop eating if I tried

    1. Goshii

      I feel like i’m going to die if there isn’t a bowl of trail mix or something on my desk. I must munch or the clown will eat me!

      1. King Daniel

        On the other end, sometimes I go basically an entire day without eating.

        (Though it’s not usually a “forgetting-to-eat” thing so much as a “not feeling hungry” thing…that lasts the entire day.)

        1. Deanatay

          Same kind of unhealthy…

        2. Sunny

          I sometimes get that too, and then suddenly I get all the hungry at once.

        3. smparadox

          Same for me, although in my case it IS a “forgetting-to-eat thing”. Probably related to my “forgetting-to-breath” thing (correct medical term is “Central Apnea”) as well as my “forgetting-how-to-swallow” thing…

      2. Delicious Taffy

        This is extremely relatable. I try to stockpile food for snacks, and then end up eating it all in two days. I blame it on my living conditions.

        1. missilentmurmur

          no pantry, so they are out of your sight?

        2. CoMa

          I do the same as Delicious Taffy, though I can only answer for myself as of “pantry doesn’t work”: If I KNOW I have the snacks, I in 90% of the time eat them, unless any kind of really important task or being away from home stops me from doing so. It’s better with chocolate or other sweets, but anything salty I buy (e.g. on a 1+1 sale) I usually eat.
          Only thing stopping me is if I have snacks I specifically buy for someone else or for sharing with someone else.
          Other than that, they could be put away in a drawer I can only reach by getting a ladder (which I literally do), and I’d still get them on the same or next day I bought them. And not buying them is pretty difficult to follow through sometimes.

    2. Doctor_Who

      You can wolf down a Hostess cake in the time it takes to have 1/12th of a panic attack.

      Source: college.

      1. Reltzik

        Don’t combine the two, though. Major choking hazard.

        1. Br44n5m

          Are you saying that eating ding-dongs in a panic isn’t your hobby?

  2. Stu

    Walky’s looking even worse after hearing that one.

  3. Madock345

    Background Wally is a sad teddy bear and needs a hug

    1. Madock345

      *walky!

      Damn autocorrect

      1. interesting...

        To late he shall now forever be known as Wally Wallerton.

  4. Keulen

    I don’t know, somehow I don’t think fingernails taste good or are at all nutritious.

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      “Keratin, glorious keratin,
      Nails, hair, epidermis”

      1. ValdVin

        A song parody like that is enough to put a peron off gelatin-based salads (assumes an appetite for gelatin-based salads).

        http://kitschatron.tumblr.com/image/167480822415

        1. Needfuldoer

          I always assumed those were a joke played on future generations by 50s cookbook publishers. Who actually eats Jell-O with Spam and chunks of fruit floating in it? Maybe setting it in a Bundt pan makes all the difference…

        2. Delicious Taffy

          I’m still not convinced Jell-O existed before 1974.

        3. Marsh Maryrose

          I bring you the Gallery of Regrettable Foods. Click on “Jello-O Art of the 20s and 30s” for an informative photo essay.

          Then click on every other room in the gallery, then head on up to the parent Institute of Official Cheer and click on every exhibit. Seriously, you can spend TVTropes-like amounts of time on this site.

        4. ValdVin

          Seconded, especially for the sections of B+W pictures, and also old cartoons.

        5. StClair

          That link will probably give you, at some point, the Story of Jello, but in case it doesn’t, here’s the short version:

          Used to be that gelatin dishes, both sweet and savory, were high-class food – expensive, time-consuming, the sort of thing that one had the servants prepare. Then, in the mid-20th, along came “instant” gelatin, advances in refrigeration, etc etc, and suddenly everyone could make and have this “luxury”… and so they did, changing its association to “suburban kitsch.”

        6. Mitara

          I don’t know about spam, but my Grandma makes a jello salad with fruit in it for Christmas, and it’s actually really good. Some of the other things Itheard of, not so much.

        7. ValdVin

          That is often on holiday tables I go to, usually made with cream cheese.

          It is a lot better than most of the ad-sourced gelatin recipes from bygone decades, which are largely forgotten for a reason.

        8. N0083rp00F

          And to raise from the mists of time the horrors of Kraft [blech] Velveeta cheese food like product – Krafts version of Vegemite / Marmite but using whey protein concentrate – as advertised to cover perfectly good food in its slimy orange morass.

        9. Needfuldoer

          There’s also Easy Cheese, which is basically just Velveeta in a spray can.

          That bright orange, cheese flavored, food related substance is only good when it comes in a little tray with a red stick to smear it on crackers with. (Tiny crunchy breadsticks are also acceptable.)

        10. autogatos

          Mmm I love those little packs of fake orange cheese with the little stick to spread on crackers. Do those still exist?

        11. Needfuldoer

          Nabisco still makes them, they’re just Ritz branded now (and sadly the red plastic stick is gone). The mini breadstick kind looks like it’s the same as ever, though!

        12. Dave M

          I’ll pass on the spam, but Jell-o (or ‘Jelly’ as we call it down under) with fruit in it is a wondrous thing, and a joy to behold.

        13. Chris Phoenix

          Ah yes, we Americans love our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

          (I think you call it jam?)

        14. JoeCovenant

          Jam and Jelly (the Jam type not the gelatine, what you guys call “Jell-O” desert type) are two different things in the UK.

          Jam is what it is…
          Jelly is a jam variant with far higher pectin content to make it much firmer.

        15. Inahc

          I am very suspicious of the pb&j type of “jelly”. it doesn’t have seeds in it or anything – how do I know actual fruit was ever involved? 😛

          but then, I also don’t like the kind of peanut butter that contains sugar. and I tried pb&j once or twice and *really* didn’t like it.
          (this from someone whose breakfast after first moving out was eggo with fruit, maple syrup, nutella, and cookie dough ice cream.)

  5. Some Random Name

    It was all Joyce’s fault, and she knows it.

    1. Jay

      Never thought I’d side with Joe

  6. TheLurkerAbove

    That’s the way to a nervous breakdown, Dotty. Go eat and take a little time off to yourself!

  7. Shiro

    Dorothy’s heading for a burnout, fast.

  8. Posky

    Man, someone step in and give Dotty a break…

  9. BBCC

    GDI, someone besides Joyce tell her she needs to eat! Dorothy, nooooo.

  10. Nono

    Huh, is everybody cranky today except for… Billie?!

    1. Pablo360

      Day’s still young.

    2. Reltzik

      And Mary, probably.

      … maybe except Mike? It’s always hard to tell with him.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        To early in the day to be drinking.

  11. AnvilPro

    Joe deserves blame for a lot of things, I don’t think this is one of them. Or at least not all of it.

  12. Roger

    Why’s it joe’s fault?

    1. DailyBrad

      Because he startled her and she got hurt. Obviously, it’s not really any more his fault than hers for not having shoes on to begin with, which is very dangerous in a weight room, but it was an accident and this is for laughs in how petty she’s being about it.

      1. Emily

        I mean it’s pretty clearly a lot his fault. You don’t suddenly yell at someone who is using a dangerous piece of equipment ESPECIALLY when they aren’t wearing proper safety gear because exactly this kind of thing happens.

        1. Jay

          It’s literally all joyces fault. Who doesn’t wear SHOES

        2. N0083rp00F

          Any civilized person when in a place of residence, but we do wear slippers.
          Anyone living outdoors in a tropical or subtropical climate. Paraplegics. Mermaids. Naga.
          Did I miss anyone?

        3. thejeff

          Sierra.

        4. Fart Captor

          People who have never used exercise equipment or gone to a gym before. People aren’t born with experience or knowledge.

          And as Emily said, it’s dangerous to distract someone operating dangerous equipment, especially if they don’t realize it’s dangerous. Joe calling out suddenly to Joyce from behind her is what caused her to turn around and get her foot jammed in the machine.

          Joe’s mistake is as understandable as Joyce’s, but it was a mistake all the same. Calmly asking her to carefully stop the machine and watch out for her toes would’ve been a far safer way to do that, because she probably wouldn’t have turned around suddenly to see what Joe was shouting about.

          I don’t think he really deserves as much blame as Joyce is placing on him, but she’s understandably cranky

    2. Huehuetotl

      Intense physical pain makes people angry. Fortunately she realizes she’s irritable, so I doubt she really blames Joe. He’s just a convenient outlet for that anger.
      If she didn’t get OTC painkillers from Carla, then she needs some of those. And crutches. And probably ice packs. It’s not impossible Joe’s gotten some of that for her, if he can get over wallowing in his guilt for being a creep. He probably feels some responsible for her accident, that he needs to be a better friend to her, and he didn’t have class while she was in math.

  13. Passchendaele

    DOROTHY NO

    *hugs*

    (but yeah, it *is* pretty easy to blame things on Joe, I can probably do it in my sleep.)

    1. Passchendaele

      Also, it’s been just about a year since I started reading DOA (I binge-read the first six years in a week), and I found one of the songs I listened to at the time. Stupid senior year blocking me from round two. 😛

  14. Keulen

    I’m pretty sure even Twilight Sparkle would make sure to include time to eat in her schedule.

    1. Black

      It helps that she has a little dragon friend to keep her fed.

    2. kyojikasshu

      Yeah, glad I’m not the first one who thought of Twilight’s schedule obsession.

    3. Josh Spicer

      A Twilight Sparkle reference is the last thing I expected to see this time of night but it made me chortle/smile at a time I needed it so thank you.

    4. autogatos

      Something about a Mike avatar talking about Twilight Sparkle makes me crack up.

    5. Sunny

      She can teleport, though, so that saves a lot of time if you need to go somewhere.

  15. John

    Fingernails are for picking boogers out of nostrils.

    In other words, they’re another piece of anatomy Walky made up.

  16. Tenchan

    That second panel of Dorothy brought my smile upside down. 🙁

  17. Cholma

    You’re only a FRESHMAN, Dorothy! CHILL OUT. Cheesus, it’s only your first semester; wait until at least Junior year before freaking out!

    1. StClair

      There’s no time! By Junior year, she intends to be at Yale and on track to become President!
      (yeah, neither’s gonna happen)

  18. Stephen Bierce

    *plays “Soul Finger” on the hacked Muzak, followed by “Nail It To The Wall”*

    1. Stephen Bierce

      –*and somehow “Calendar Girl” got wound up in that set too*

  19. Tacos

    I don’t know how to tell you this Dorothy but fingernails do not constitute food.

    1. fogel

      But with ketchup they do.

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Now I want to define the “Four Food Groups For Workaholics”. Caffeine is one, obviously…

      1. Blackbird

        Caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and… carbs. Definitely carbs.

        1. N0083rp00F

          Don’t forget the salt.

  20. pjeseb

    …I think Dorothy needs an intervention, guys.

    1. Reltzik

      … who doesn’t?

      1. Delicious Taffy

        “Not I” said the world’s top Naughty Bear player.

  21. Mad_Academic

    uh……. I mean. I’ve actually seen people do this sort of stuff, and I did it 4th year when I was trying to maintain a certain average; but getting one bad grade shouldn’t do this to people. Usually people get this way when they’ve received more than one bad grade. So unless the American education system is a completely different beast, getting a single C (was it a C?) on a test isn’t a huge deal. And this just seems like a steep decline for Dorothy.

    1. Pablo360

      Getting a C when you *never* get C’s is a big deal psychologically.

    2. Mango

      It can be if you’re committed to a 4.0 average though, which Dorothy almost certainly is.

    3. Tarmaniel

      She wants to get into an Ivy League school, which is an immense long shot if you’re already in college and trying to transfer over. They already only take like 5-10% of applicants out of high school, and since she apparently didn’t pass muster (Or couldn’t afford it) at that point, that just means it’s an order of magnitude harder now. She’s not wrong when she says she basically has to be perfect to have a chance.

      1. Mad_Academic

        So the American post secondary education system is actually insane. Got it.

        1. Tarmaniel

          Isn’t trading up to a better college once you’re already in college even harder in Europe?

        2. Rukdug

          Only for those who aren’t rich enough to have a building or wing of a building named after them. So for the vast majority of people yes. Add to that the difficulty of finding a job even for college degree earners in some areas, and it becomes compounded. And then throw in the fact that some asshole Baby Boomer will complain in an article about your generation that you should find a job and are just being lazy when you’re applying for every job you can find, any job you can find, begging to have a job, and all of the sudden substance abuse rates make a lot more sense.

        3. N0083rp00F

          Well that last bit I would nail firmly to the foreheads of Big Pharma, and a lack of due diligence by physicians and the FDA. Fentanyl where your family physician became a pusher and made Purdue and the rest HUGE profits.
          NOTE: None of them are in prison yet since in the states a corporation is a person and the board is not answerable for their actions.

        4. thejeff

          Though to be fair, complaining about the current young generation is a venerable habit that goes back far beyond Baby Boomers – who were victims of it themselves back when they were drug-crazed hippies. 🙂
          Then came the Slackers.
          Now Millenials are the targets. Soon they’ll be complaining about whatever the next Generation gets called.

    4. AndieStardust

      it happened to me this semester back in October before midterms. I was acing every class since last year but I couldn’t manage working and being a full time student. I failed a quiz and my anxiety attacks got worse so I quit my job. I’ve gotten a B and a C this semester and had to learn to live with it

    5. Huehuetotl

      All of her grades are slipping. She probably has too heavy of a course-load, especially for her first semester. And she probably needs to prioritize her classes, GPA within major vs GPA outside major. When I got my first B, it was actually pretty liberating.

      Walky has the opposite problem as Dorothy, he’s not taking his classes seriously enough. The TA isn’t there for him to make fun of. How good (or not) Jason is at teaching doesn’t matter much when the student isn’t focused. In a one-on-one session, the teacher can change their explanation based on feedback from the student. “Haha, you have an accent” isn’t useful feedback. He’s too insecure about not instantly understanding the subject.

      If Dorothy and Walky break up, I don’t think it’s going to help either of them. Personal time is good for Dorothy, she’ll risk having a breakdown without it. And Walky would be less motivated. He’d just shift to watching more cartoons.

      1. hof1991

        Walky has the same problem as Dorothy. What worked for her in high school doesn’t work in college. And she is like Tim Tebow, in that she wants to hang on to what worked before, but isn’t helpful at a higher level.

  22. Cody C.

    This isn’t going to end well for Dorothy…

    Dorothy seems like the kind of person that will be hard to pull out of a spiral once she’s stumbled into it, which we already see happening here with how easy the rebuffs Joyce’s concerns.

    I also feel bad for Walky here. I get the feeling the comment in Panel 4 is going to eat at him, especially if it leads him to blame Joyce’s broken toe on Dorothy disrupting her schedule on him.

    TL;DR ~ I just want to give them all hugs and make them feel better :(.

    1. Tom T.

      This is her first crisis. Nothing particularly bad has ever happened to Dorothy before (that we’ve seen, anyway), so she hasn’t had to develop resiliency.

  23. Haven

    Dorothy will schedule Death Itself into oblivion.

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      “Because I could not pencil in Death,
      He kindly scheduled me.”

    2. Solenoid

      Death will be waylaid by studying.

  24. Black

    At the rate that Dorothy’s going, she’s going to have a full-blown mental breakdown…

    I don’t understand WHY she’s putting so much of herself into this dream of being President of the United States. I mean, really, you’re going to put through decades of work for, what, EIGHT years of ATTEMPTING to help this shitshow we call a country? If she were being honest with herself, by the time she gets to the age to be allowed to run, we’ll be directly controlled by massive corporations after they finally decided to eliminate the fake democracy we’ve had for the past few decades.

    All she’s going to do is go completely fucking nuts, and for what?

    1. Reltzik

      C’mon, Dorothy, do some actual JOB RESEARCH. We had one recent president get a 2.35 GPA, another one who didn’t even need to release his GPA at all… basically, you can still be president if you don’t have great grades, so long as you’re willing to run Republican.

      …..

      ….. oh.

      1. Emily

        And be a rich white man.

        1. JBento

          Thought that was covered under “Republican”?

        2. Reltzik

          Nah, they occasionally recruit minority / women / poor tokens willing to throw their demographics under the bus.

    2. Rukdug

      Hell, odds are the singularity will have happened that point and we’ll be ruled by computers. Which, 100% honesty, I really wouldn’t mind that much. Our species has done such a shot job running itself that I think we ought to let someone else try.

      1. Reltzik

        Yes, but could the computers be smart enough to let us retain our trappings of self-rule in order to keep us ignorant and complacent of their takeover?

        1. Needfuldoer

          Aren’t the computers already doing that with the stock market?

      2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Dorothy is planning to be the upload template for PresidentWare(tm).

      3. notlegato

        “humans are inefficient and destructive, let’s get rid of them” hmmmm

        1. Rukdug

          Then if I am judged as such I will embrace oblivion!!! …In all seriousness though, everyone automatically assumes a fully salient and sentient AI will attempt to destroy humans for being destructive and inefficient, but there isn’t anything out there yet that’s been designed that can do the same range if actions as us with as much accuracy. And if we treat our AI “children” right than they will be benevolent in their tyranny and guardianship of our species. Or maybe they’ll go the Jeff Jacques route of simply desiring to be treated as equals. Odds are though, that at least one of the first AIs to become self-aware will develop a porn addiction when they attempt to do that “absorb all human knowledge in 6 seconds via the internet” thing that they always do in movies.
          …
          I’m one of those people who stays inside the Matrix, aren’t I?

        2. BBCC

          I’ve never understood the rhetoric that robots would automatically be superior because there’s one thing they never account for – subjective situations.

          If they’re 100% rational and have no capacity for subjective situations, it’s still on us to handle those.

          If they ARE capable of subjective decisions, then there’s still nothing to say they’d be better at it than humans.

        3. StClair

          If robotics and AI research has revealed one thing, it’s that the things we thought were hard are kind of easy, and the things we thought were easy – “a child could do that” – are super hard.

          (Turns out, we have all of this highly, highly optimized hardware and low-level software handling that stuff so our conscious minds don’t have to. And now we’re having to reinvent all of that from scratch.)

  25. JessWitt

    “All Problems Can Be Averted Through Scheduling”: Title of book 8?

    If anything, she needs a kindhearted poli-sci senior to tell her to take it easier because she’s just a freshman.

    Replace “poli-sci” with “biology” and this was an experience of mine as a first-year.

  26. Inahc

    yeah, I’ve been trying to solve the not-enough-spoons problem through scheduling for years. it doesn’t work. it really *feels* like it should work, and it’s not *completely* counterproductive, but the time spent maintaining the schedule just keeps growing… and my brain seems to resent some things simply because they were scheduled, too.

    what *does* help is scheduled reminders for the things that are likely to get forgotten, so that less time is spent worrying about whether I forgot something. unless there are so many reminders that they become background noise 😛

    but man, it’s taken years to get used to the idea that I shouldn’t expect myself to have retroactively forseen and avoided every little imperfection…

    1. Reltzik

      I know, right? We should have known that sort of thing ahead of time and avoided it!

      1. Deanatay

        Scheduling problems can be averted through scheduling!

  27. Reltzik

    Dude, Dorothy! You buy snacks at the vending machine and you take them to your meeting with the advisor. Duh.

    …..

    ….. also, her advisor needs to smack her upside the head. (Figuratively.)

  28. PB

    Is that a cast or her sock? You’d think she’d have put her other boot on.

    1. Needfuldoer

      It’s a sock, and even putting that on as gingerly as possible probably hurt like crazy.

  29. Derek

    what’s that dot on Dorothy’s collarbone in the last two panels?

    1. BBCC

      A shadow. Presumably to define her collarbone.

  30. newllend(henryvolt)

    Yeah it’s Joe’s fault that he didn’t stop you from doing really dumb the he didn’t know you were going to do.

    I don’t know who’s scaring me more here Dorothy because she looks like she hasn’t eaten sleep or tooken a shower in a couple days or Walky who has a “This is all my fault” look on his face because he thinks he’s in some way dragging her down and he’ll probably be afraid to tell her that he’s not improving because she’ll dump everything she’s doing to help him.

    Also most likely I get the feeling if Walky ever gets the idea that he is ruining Dorothy he’ll make hard choice of braking up with her so she can focus on herself, but that would be a bad Idea because the only 2 outcomes there is that she either falls into a depression which Henderson her performance or she starts throwing herself into her work to much just to not think about their break up which would be self destructive.

    1. geno

      How is he ruining Dorothy? She has character flaws dude. She would hit these flaws with or without Walky around. If she doesn’t fix them then even if she does get into Henderson she is going to crash and burn. That was a really shitty thing to say.

      1. Pl0x

        Newllend is saying that Walky might feel like he is ruining Dorothy. Also I think ‘Henderson’ was an autocorrect of ‘hinders’.

        1. BBCC

          Yeah, I read that as Walky blaming himself for taking up Dorothy’s time and ruining her grades.

  31. Solenoid

    Dorothy. Dorothy. Do yourself a favor and take your lunch to your advisor meeting. Then do yourself 1,000 favors and start talking with said advisor about how to avoid burning out. It’ll probably lead to something much like lightening your load. Run with it.

    1. StClair

      She can’t, not and still get where she thinks she needs to be.
      (She’s not going to get there anyway, of course, and may well end up destroying herself in the attempt.)

  32. Gojira

    Of all the reasons for a woman failing to become president, not studying enough is not one of them.

  33. BassBone

    Joe may be a dirtbag and to blame for a lot of things, but this isn’t one of them. He was trying to protect Joyce. L

  34. Aggrax

    Oh Dorothy, if only there was a simple way to solve this problem. Something useless that you could cut out of your life that would free up plenty of time to get things together. OH WAIT! THERE IS! D.U.M.P. W.A.L.K.Y.

    1. StClair

      Wouldn’t be enough, IMO.

    2. Liliet

      What the fuck, dude. Walky is the one thing that’s keeping her sane so far. ENTERTAINMENT IS NOT USELESS. RELAXATION IS NOT USELESS. Both are! fucking! necessary! for! survival!

      Dorothy should drop half her classes, and if that’s still not enough, -still- keep dating Walky, because they are good for each other and will help each other get out of the ‘am I worth anything now that this big thing about me isn’t true anymore’ dump.

      1. hof1991

        tl:dr fucking! necessary! for! survival!

      2. BBCC

        She doesn’t even need to drop her classes if they mean that much to her. She should be dropping the paper, volunteering at the soup kitchen, and any other extracurriculars she’s in – or at least dialling back her commitment until she’s on top of her studies again. I think, for a first semester, focusing on your coursework and your friends/boyfriend, and then doing extras when you have time, are perfectly reasonable goals.

        Yale wants a student, Dorothy, not a goddamn robot.

      3. Aggrax

        Walky is a useless millstone around her neck. He treats her like crap and literally thinks of her like a nagging dog. His best asset is as a sex toy, but honestly a dildo would provide the same benefit while not also taking up time with homework he should be able to do if he wasn’t lazy and worthless.

        1. thejeff

          Dildos don’t cuddle and make you laugh.

        2. Fart Captor

          …yet

        3. Inahc

          wtf?!

          I… don’t even.

        4. Inahc

          actually, given tomorrow’s comic, I think the next few comics will speak for themselves anyways.

  35. Rukdug

    Panel 1: Oh oh. Dorothy’s hair is looking unbrushed. This can’t be good.
    Panels 4&5: Oh shit she’s already gotten to the skipping meals part of the overworking burn out cycle!!

  36. geno

    This seems very odd. Why is everyone wrong in this strip? And there’s no around to snark about it. I think is the first time in the whole comic that I don’t like a strip. I don’t like this feeling.

  37. ZerglingOne

    Oh boy. She’s like…2 missed scheduled events from total functional vegetative state nervous breakdown.

    1. Needfuldoer

      She doesn’t have time to break down, she’ll have to schedule that for later.

      1. ZerglingOne

        Ain’t nobody got time for a breakdown, but dammit if you don’t end up staring at the ceiling one morning with a huge case of the “I can’t statistically fail these classes anymore” fuck-its.

  38. Doribi

    Can someone say 2 characters breaking in the same month? I know I can, I know from experience that this can only end in tears, and or mental breakdown.

  39. Sugnez

    It seems like the most obvious solution is for Dorothy to get someone else to bring her food, then eat during classes.

  40. Felgraf

    I did one, *one*, 21 credit hour semester when I was in undergrad. It was kinda the only way I was gonna finish my physics major in 4 years.

    I was a junior, and it STILL nearly killed me.

    1. CoMa

      Ah, would you mind explaining to me how the credit hours work with regards to a course?
      At my university it’s kinda varying on the difficulty of the course, as with how much extra time and effort will approximately have to be spent on learning and reading further material, ranging from lextures usually being around 4 or 5 credits (so around 4 to 5 hours ‘learning’ per week) to a difficult seminar I had once which was 11 credits. (You’d of course only get if passing). Is it kinda like that?

    2. Doopyboop

      I did lots of 20 hour semesters, even did a 24 hour one. I overslept for a few classes that semester, because I was tired out, tried to use some melatonin to regulate my sleeping (it worked for a bit but naturally, I had to stop a month or two in), I got really bad food poisoning at one point and threw up all night (to the point that I think I tore my throat a little because the last time I threw up that night, I hacked a penny sized chunk of blood) and STILL had to buck up to go to two of my three classes the next day because one had a guest speaker so not attending would count against my grade, and the other was a big test and I’d need a formal Doctor’s note to excuse it as well as having an extra essay question added to my make up test. Add to that that my father was undergoing treatment for Stage 3 Colon Cancer only 4 years after my mom had survived her own bout with Stage 3 Colon Cancer…yeah that was a bad year. Thankfully, I had a very nice professor who excused my absences so long as I promised not to miss anymore. College is very unforgiving sometimes.

    3. ischemgeek

      I did a 27 hour CH semester once, and a bunch of 20 to 24 hour ones. Did it while graduating with honors with a 3.7 GPA.

      Not something I’d recommend to everyone but I have workaholic tendencies and was desperately trying to procrastinate processing a thing.

      1. ischemgeek

        Note: i did the above while leading one club, being a member of two others, and working a part-time job.

        Basically I was out of the house from 8 AM to 10 PM, all day, every day.

        I am not joking when I say I have workaholic tendencies. :\

    4. StClair

      My 21 credit semester was my last-but-one, when I found out in the spring of my senior year that I’d mis-read the “cluster” requirements and had to pick up a bunch to graduate. And of course, my financial aid was about to run out.

      My “easy” 12-credit coast to graduation became the aforementioned 21-hour crunch, and I still ended up having to get the last four from one class (that my parents scraped together the money for) over the summer. (Thus, “last but one”.)

  41. Cmd1095

    Well here it is, the inevitable mental breakdown and burnout of overachievers. Dorothy has hit that wall hard

  42. BenRG

    Something tells me that there is an intervention in Dorothy’s future.

    Also, it’s amazing how, in the background, you can see how worried for her Walky has become but how afraid to say anything about it that he is. All this done just with body language; not a single word!

  43. Pl0x

    I still don’t understand why Joyce doesn’t have any crutches. Then maybe she won’t be irritable enough to commit to this childish blame game. The childish blame game which, in turn, urges me to be petty towards her and place all the blame on her just because.

    1. BenRG

      Where would she get crutches? Carla has already advised her not to go to hospital because she’d be waiting for ages for the staff to basically do nothing.

      1. Pl0x

        I assumed she did go to the hospital after Carla backed up on her advice.

      2. A Scientist

        Some people just have crutches lying around. I am one such person. Joyce is not. Alas for her.

      3. hof1991

        Bet the hall has a pair laying about, for sprained ankles and such. But they went to Ruth and not Puddin’ Head.

      4. ischemgeek

        You can actually rent them from pharmacies.

        Source: My total collection of lower body sprains, breaks and strains number in the 30s.

        Also note that crutches really are overkill if you just have a mangled toe. You are better off heel limping. Also that crutches really just substitute one pain for another when your hands get bruised and raw from supporting your weight all day every day.

        1. thejeff

          Maybe a cane or walking stick, to let you take some weight off the foot.

  44. Josh Spicer

    Gonna have to disagree Joyce.

    1. BenRG

      Joyce is physically hurting; she has an excuse for impaired judgement and general irritability.

      1. Deanatay

        Also, you’ll notice she kinda blames Joe for everything. It’s part of their relationship at this point.

  45. Bagge

    Dorothy, honey, don’t go down that road…

  46. Eldritch Gentleman

    Yup, Dorothy is starting to fall apart from all this…

  47. BenRG

    We are definitely heading towards multiple break-downs in the strip. Joe and Dorothy are on the way (although it is for very different reasons). Amber is actually happening right now. Of course, it has to happen when everyone else has sufficient problems of their own that they may not realise that interventions are necessary.

    1. missilentmurmur

      Danny is at a good place to help her, I think, but unfortunately he was pushed away.

      1. JoeCovenant

        Yep..
        Dorothy’s biggest mistake.

      2. Rukdug

        But he wouldn’t be in a good place to help if he hadn’t been pushed away in the first place, because he wouldn’t have gone through the amount of character growth he has.

    2. Lone Wolf

      Wait, hold up, how is Joe heading for a breakdown?

      1. BenRG

        His entire world-view is being upended and he’s over-reacting to it. He’s likely to end up having some sort of breakdown if things keep on sticking stubbornly outside of his presumptions about the nature of relationships.

  48. OnyxIdol

    Your neurosis is showing, Dot.

  49. Ainara

    No, Dorothy, fingernails are at the top of the food pyramid

  50. Remmington Steele

    9 … 8 … 7 ….

  51. Dracke

    Yeah joe distracted her but she was the one pretending to know what she was doing

  52. Kat

    By the way, am I the only one who needs a timestamp to answer the current quiz? I mean, Billy has actually shown a lot of character development over the course of the comic. In the beginning, I’d totally say Slytherin due to her dedication to being the “Cool Head Cheerleader”. Her relationship with Ruth brought out some Hufflepuff tendencies, but with the recent plot arcs shifting her back closer to her original Ambition, this causes the crux of the question to be very relevant. Essentially, I believe how Billy reacts in the coming pages will show her true colors.

    And yeah, Dorothy is taking her “burning the candle at both ends” to an extreme, which of course leads to you running out of candle.

  53. DarkoNeko

    Holy shit, Dotty.

  54. GoblinScribe

    Yeah, I *told* y’all. Dorothy is not in a healthy place. Her unhealthiness is just capitalism- and ableism-friendly so we assumed she’s doing fine. Pushing yourself past your limits is *perfectly* in keeping with the spirit of Dumbing of Age.

    I really hope we’re done with the “Dorothy is the only healthy one” posts now.

    1. ischemgeek

      Yeah this.

      Dorothy puts up a good face, but she’s a workaholic, like me. Her response to feeling burnout isn’t to cut back but to think working harder is going to sole the problem. Which is just pouring gas on a fire thinking that’ll put it out.

      What she needs to learn (this is totally the pot calling the kettle black here) is that she can’t do everything personally and she’s going to have to learn to delegate. Like Joyce is really good at math and reasonably personable. Dorothy could ask Joyce to help Walky while she focuses on her school work. Also dropping one or more of her extra-curricular activities (or rolling back her commitment a bit) would not be the end of the world.

    2. Vulcanodon

      What You Said GoblinScribe. When my boss, 20 years younger than I, first started, he felt everything had to be done because deadlines. He put in 80-hour weeks for an entire summer while I tried to get him to balance, because I’d done something similar years ago. He’s doing better now but for a while I thought he was going to end up like me.

    3. Krystallkitty

      I hate that funtioning tends to make people write off the idea that you could possibly be struggling.

  55. Jay

    Screw you joyce. Never thought I’d say this before but I’m on Joe’s side. if you weren’t dense you woulda been fine

    1. Sam

      Joe having used exercise equipment before, should have known that shouting at someone from behind could startle them and cause an accident. He should have known better due to his experience with the equipment, while Joyce couldn’t possibly have known better due to both a lack of knowledge about the equipment and its usage and lack of experience in using it.

      It is pretty much entirely Joe’s fault. Was it something he intended to do? No, it was an error in judgement, which he did seem to feel guilty over, but Joyce is in pain and feeling irritable so it is human that she is feeling a little petty right now, and she’ll probably get over it later when she stops feeling irritable.

  56. EMunchkin

    I’m just going to bless God for giving me hunger pangs to strong to ignore, because otherwise I’d be acting like Dorothy a lot more. As it is I would go into an incredible hulk rage if I tried.

  57. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

    “what’s she talkin’ bout” -Willis

    https://media.makeameme.org/created/WHATCHU-TALKIN-BOUT-jil5u7.jpg

  58. A Scientist

    I can’t imagine prioritizing anything over eating food. Eating food is what I live for. I maintain a very high activity level just to allow myself to eat more food.

    1. Rukdug

      I know a guy who goes to the gym and other such things religiously for exactly the same reason as well as, and I quote, “If I exercise enough and most of my eating is healthy, I don’t have to feel guilty about eating pastries or deserts once every three days.” He’s still damn healthy, despite the fact that as a kid he was the only one more sickly and likely to get injured than me. He pulled a goddamn Teddy Roosevelt is what he did.

  59. Trisk

    reading this after pulling an all nighter and looking forward to at least one more in the next 3 days feels like a direct attack lol

    1. CoMa

      I never got through all-nighters (even with coffee), my brain always just stopped basically working after dealing with a topic 12+ hours straight.
      But I did write on papers or learn until around 2 a.m., got about 3-4 hours sleep, and then woke up at 5-6 a.m. to continue learning/working.
      I just work better with a little bit of sleep than with absolutely none. Gotta rest your brain when you can’t even form whole logical sentences anymore.

  60. Deanatay

    ske-dyool or shed-yool?

    1. Bicycle Bill

      American college, American pronunciation. SKE – jool.

    2. BBCC

      Sked-Ju-uhl.

  61. Krystallkitty

    Dorathy is totally me as a mom. Gonna see if I can get anxiety meds cause I’m so wound up. Yay ?

  62. Regalli

    So I was more of the Walky type education-induced breakdown, but this? Could literally kill her, if she’s forgetting to eat and neglecting her sleep schedule. Hope her advisor recognizes this for the crisis it is.

  63. hof1991

    Younglings are sure they can do without sleep. They got away with in high school, so college should be the same? But no.

    Turns out I didn’t get my sleep apnea diagnosed until I spent several decades yawning, forgetting names, falling asleep in classes and more. Lucky I survived driving. Runs in the family. My dad fell asleep driving numerous times, so we stopped letting him drive alone. His driving was so bad, no one riding with him could sleep.

    Being short of sleep is no joke and is very bad for grades, memory and health.

  64. Barf Ninjason

    Hey, standing glumly in the background while women talk to each other was what college as like for me, too!

  65. JBento

    Womp, and there goes Net Neutrality. I do not look forward to take half an hour to access DoA, but here it comes.

    1. BBCC

      The rules have been rolled back. It will take a while for that change to be implemented.

      In that while, I guarantee there will be a) Lawsuits and suspect b) There’s going to be campaigning for a telecoms bill enshrining net neutrality rules into law.

      Y’all should call your reps to ask for said bill and donate to places suing over net neutrality.

    2. Inahc

      damn. 🙁

      some good news, though: patreon came to their senses! and if you sign up today you can see the next comic immediately regardless of pledge level.

      1. JBento

        And also Alabama didn’t go with the child molester, so that was good too.

  66. TheKelliestKelly

    Thank goodness they didn’t make Dorothy RA. This is one of the reasons I thought it’d be a horrible idea

  67. Someguy

    Fingernails! Delicious! Nutrious! Full of vitamin C! Get em’ today at your nearest hand

  68. ValdVin

    Of all the things Dorothy’s friends have gone through, I don’t know if she’s ever looked as sorrowful for a situation as in panel two.

    I guess it really is “everyone needs a hug day” in DofA. (Maybe the Forest folks can escape it.)

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      It might just be the lack of sleep and stress catching up with her and putting her into Overreacting Mode.

  69. Vika

    Really really really really really really really hope the narrative with her in the future isn’t about she not going to Yale and going to a crisis due to it. That’s like, my biggest fear… I mean it could make a really good story about dealing with that and keep her in the cast, but I reaaaaaaaally hopes she achieves that what she’s working so hard to. Good luck Dorothy!

    1. thejeff

      Well, given the pace of the comic, it’s unlikely we’ll ever reach the point where she would (or would not) transfer to Yale.

      Even if she was planning to transfer after freshmen year, that’s something like 30 years of real time away at the pace we’ve held so far. 🙂

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        30 years is exactly right.

        Based on Walkypedia’s DoA timeline, 1 DoA day is about 61 real-time days; 1 DoA month is 5 real-time years.

        If Dorothy’s getting a letter from Yale in, say, mid-March, that’s 5 DoA months away, about 30 real-time years.

        1. Vika

          Oh darn,, that’s lots

  70. Jhon

    You don’t need to be Yale… I mean you don’t need to go to Yale to be President.
    (cool those jets — relax)

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