Crustacean Singles

2025-07-29

Cactuspilled graftmaxxer

Pictured, a cactus graft in which a seedling of Weberbauerocereus winterianus has been vertically bisected and attached to two correspondingly cut stems of Pereskiopsis 'spathulata'. The scion half in this photo is healthy five days after the operation (as is the other). The photo includes a ruler in the background showing that the scion is about 7 mm tall and not more than 3 mm wide.

I've just written something about a really esoteric pursuit of mine, except I wrote it for the dozens of fellow cactus grafting nerds on the internet, meaning it has no glossing or explanations for normals. I posted it free for all to read on my ko-fi.

After I wrote it, I thought to myself, "I wonder what it would be like to read this as the person I was before I became a cactuspilled graftmaxxer." Probably gibberish! Maybe I will adapt it into a more accessible essay, but life has a way of saying "eh, maybe not".

2025-07-26

A sign of life

Illustration: Grambo sits in the bare branches of a gnarled and leafless tree that grows on the edge of a cliff. Caption: Sometimes, when you don't hear from me, it's not because things are going bad. / I mean, things are still not great. But that's not why.

https://ko-fi.com/Post/A-sign-of-life-Y8Y81IOOWR

2025-04-01

Fooling

`ALT TEXT: Top panel shows three increasingly close shots of a stick figure in a manic pose with a rictus grin who says, "Look, everybody! I feel fine! I'm not sick and nothing hurts and I have positive feelings about myself and the future! / did I get you? Did I have you going there?" The bottom panel shows two stick figures reacting: "You are so bad at April Fools." "I pity you more and like you less now."`

I don't like this one very much. People said they wanted to see the ones I didn't like, so here it is. All told, with constant interruptions and the weaknesses of the fleshy vehicle, it took me at least an hour, which hardly feels worth it.

2025-01-14

Shake well

This is the first time in weeks I've felt like some semblance of myself. And, thanks to this unexpected respite, I have emerged from the underworld bearing juice. The juice is for you, my friends. Thank you for being here.

2025-01-09

Bottom of the cycle

On the ground, a large puddle or small pond. In the sky, fluffy, faceless clouds passing. The puddle/pond thinks, "I miss it, but I can't seem to get back to it."

2024-12-31

Time

Grambo stands almost on a line extending forward from the left and ending in an arrow at the right edge of the frame. Pensively and not without some concern, Grambo thinks, "Time is doing that thing again."

I haven't forgotten about you, dear readers, and I haven't given up on making comics. As you surely know if you've read more than a handful of my posts, I am permanently Going Through Some Stuff. It's several things, each one both variable and unpredictable, but for most of this year they have been severe and unremitting enough that my decades of acquired coping skills have been strained almost to breaking. Mere survival is often all I can do. And the prize for surviving is more struggle, holding on and and waiting for more favorable conditions in which I could grow again. It could happen. I'm not ruling it out.
Anyway. I am still here and I hope that you will stick around too.
And good riddance to 2024.