Mine isn't this bad, but I can relate to the first-day-on-Adderall thing. It was wild when I walked into my messy bathroom an hour after that first dose and my brain just went: "It is possible, even reasonable for you to clean this bathroom, in a finite amount of time, without every moment filling you with dread. This task will not consume your whole ~~life~~ day." My brain had simply never done that before. I could just choose to do something and--perhaps more importantly--to stop doing something. I remember I was ~~hyperfixating~~ working on a hobby project at 11 PM on a work night and my brain went: "If you stop working now, brush your teeth and go to bed, this fun project will still be here for you to work on tomorrow. You don't have to keep at it until 6 AM and then go to work without sleeping." That seemed like such a foreign concept at the time. It was weird to hear that from my own brain, not in a "you're being bad" way, but in a "it's going to be okay" way. There was a lot of happy crying those first few weeks.

Just wish I'd been diagnosed in college instead of in my mid-30s. I might have graduated.

People like to throw around the word 'lazy' but it's more like I can't turn it on OR off unless I'm medicated. Once I'm in the zone I will work until I grow a beard, then wither away, then my crumbling skeleton grows a beard. It would be a powerful thing if I could aim it.

I learned that the lump I'd had biopsied on my neck was a pair of thyroid tumors that were suspicious for cancer, and that the whole organ would need to be removed. After pathology, it turned out not to be malignant, which is lucky, but that was a pretty unpleasant few months and now I have to take thyroid replacement hormones for the rest of my life. The doc still hasn't got my dose quite right, so I just kind of low-key feel like shit all the time. It takes a couple months before we know if a new dosage is working better or worse. Hopefully they'll have it figured out by my next birthday...

I like "we'll burn that bridge when we come to it"

Player: "I do something to Eric's character against his will."

A good DM: "No, you don't."

End of discussion.

Come on, this isn't real. Sound out that name 'Mike Oxmall'. Even Moe Sizlak might not fall for this one.

I'm putting this in my next D&D campaign

Has nobody ever talked dirty to you? Words can be very powerful, even recorded ones.

Speech bubble in panel one appears to be pointing at the wrong character.

I don't think anybody really sees themselves as a simple 'A' or 'B' in this way. Maybe I'm wrong. It just seems impossible to simplify an entire life and experience of the world as either 'blessed' or 'cursed'.

Which isn't to say I think models of human capability can't be fun.

I like to imagine it more like ability scores in D&D. Someone might have low Wisdom, but training and proficiency can still make them extremely perceptive. And in some cases, you can find ways to leverage an unusual ability when you're trying to do something, like making an intimidation check using Strength instead of Charisma. What is a weakness in one scenario can be a strength in the next.

This model is still simple enough to visualize easily, but has enough moving parts to allow for lots of different ways of being without any one way being 'good' or 'bad'. Neurodivergence might be part of the stats you roll up, but your circumstances and your choices combine to build a life experience around them that can be completely different from another person who rolled the same numbers. Likewise, different rolled stats can affect how well you handle certain situations and adventures, but this is neither a curse nor a superpower, and is true for everyone.

Models only get you so far, but humans are a social species. We need each other by our very nature. Teamwork is in our DNA. And, like DNA, teams are more adaptable when they are diverse. Everyone has something to bring to the table, neurodivergent or otherwise.

If you liked this game, you might be interested to learn that Pistol Shrimp games, an independent game dev company started by Paul Rieche III and Fred Ford (the original creators of Star Control and Star Control 2), are making a sequel, with story written by Paul Rieche III.

The re-release on steam is partly to get the word out about it. Join our discord to learn more!

I think I may be an outlier here. I really don't want to die in a sudden 'didn't-see-it-coming' kind of way, like getting hit by a semi or a freak accident with heavy machinery kind of way. The idea of going from living, thinking, feeling, person to chunk(s) of meat in an instant terrifies the shit out of me. Especially if it's caught on video and people watch it for laughs or whatever possesses them to watch that kind of thing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to die in some slow, painful way either, but something I had some agency in would be worlds better. Like taking a bullet to save a loved one, or punching my own ticket after getting a terminal diagnosis, or even just taking a deliberate, calculated risk.

Absolutely not. Discomfort isn't a thing to be avoided, and contentment too easily becomes complacency. Everything I've ever done that materially improved my life was motivated by not being content with the status quo. Each positive change was (physically or emotionally) difficult, unpleasant, or even painful to make, but it always made life better afterward. Pain is a fantastic teacher. I would rather struggle than sleep, and I don't want rich assholes doing my thinking for me.