Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 13, 2024

So it’s Friday the 13th… What could go wrong?

No self-esteem issues there.

I was going to skip making a comment but the problem today is too great a chance to pass up to be the first. This will be my only chance.

At last they updated the comics! I usually get the new ones by 7 AM CET but at 13:30 they still hadn’t updated.

Not what I expected in Rat’s journal!

Looks like Pig’s responses might be!

Considering it’s Friday the 13th, the streak is definitely going to end

Diary of a Wimpy Rat. I can see it now.

I dunno, maybe I should try that. Power of positive thinking, you know?

Dr Jill checks the family Chinese stock and “gift” portfolios every day. And the mayor of Moscow’s wife’s next payment is due any day now.

Make Rat great again…

Stuart Smalley“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”

Usually my lucky day, no kidding.

Isn’t that what a lot of people use Facebook for? Posting how great things are going. But not posting not-so-good things. I’ve read that can cause distress in others: they read about the wonderful things going on in their Facebook friends’ lives, and comparing it to their own lives.

MRGA

Looking at the weeks past strips, rat lies a lot to himself

I kept a daily journal for about a year and a half when I was in middle school. The first few entries contained what arguably passed for innermost thoughts and feelings at that age, but in no time at all it turned to ridiculously vague one-sentence descriptions of what I deemed to be the day’s most memorable activity: “I went to school.” “I watched TV.” “Grammy made dinner.” “Today was Christmas.” I can’t even call it a waste of time, because it took no more than a few seconds a night.

I started keeping another when I was eighteen and have been at it ever since. My entries are much meatier now, but while occasionally they include innermost thoughts and feelings, they’re mostly lists of the day’s activities, albeit more extensive lists than before. If I do comment on how something made me feel it’s often pretty superficial: “It was very nice.”

There was a time when I would regularly go into much greater depth about what I was thinking and feeling. In those days I would also frequently refer back to journal entries years after the fact. I stopped doing that ages ago, though, because I found it more upsetting than anything. It’s a bitter thing to be reminded how optimistic I was about something that ended badly, or how much I enjoyed the company of someone with whom I’ve since fallen out, or how firmly I held opinions which now seem so ignorant. Mostly, though, I just found a lot of those soul-bearing entries to be pretentious, especially when I was still writing them with the full expectation of refering back to them later. These days I never look back from a distance of more than maybe a few months, more often weeks, and from such a short vantage point I never have much trouble remembering why a certain dinner was very nice or whatever else I wrote.

Morning Steph, will you please wake up Luckovich, he’s had the same comic on for a week! Thanks, have a great day.

An odd fact, if the 1st of the month is a Sunday, that month will have a Friday the 13th.

ah, the head in the sand approach. I like it

Ignorance is bliss, just not for the rest of us. A little honest reflection can go a long way.

Maybe he should get a red baseball cap MRGA.

“If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” —The Joker, “The Killing Joke”

No different from anyone else? Do most people actually do that?

I kept a journal in my 20s. Reading it now looks like a different person wrote it

The extremely weird “Aspen Review” (which was published for a few months in the late 60s or early 70s?) was a multi-media magazine that usually arrived as a box of odd artifacts.

One particular issue was “The British Box” and included a contribution by John Lennon, namely his “London Diaries” in the form of a tiny “book” marked off into 365 spaces for the days of a year.

The entries were mundane to the extent that most days said “Woke Up, Went to Work, Came Home, Went to Sleep.” The days when he recorded intimacy with his wife included “FW”. (I’m sure you can work that out for yourself.)

Last time I checked, the individual issues were being sold on eBay for several hundred dollars each… collectors items, you see. Also, last time I checked, every issue was in print online. I had to do a little searching but found the site pretty quickly with the search term “Aspen Magazine.”

A typical cat’s journal.

More than or less than but different from, Rat.

I’ve tried to keep a journal. Went back and read the few entries and felt silly. I don’t want my inner thoughts read by anyone. They’re between me and God.

That does not sound like a Rat day to me.

An egotist is arguably the last person who should keep a journal.

And Saturday? You guessed it.

I used to… my lawyer advised me to burn it :D

A positive side of Rat that I have not seen in a while.

I keep that stuff in my head, where it belongs.