What’s Going On In Mark Trail? Why aren’t you reviewing Flash Gordon? October 2023 – January 2024

Eh, no big reason. Just decided I felt like doing Jules Rivera’s strip first. I figure to incorporate Flash Gordon into my What’s Going On In series, I just haven’t decided where and when. Whenever that does appear, it’ll be among my story strips essays, gathered here, as well as under its own tag.

Meanwhile, Jules Rivera’s Mark Trail already has a tag, and a bunch of essays, going back to before she even took over the comic. This essay should bring you up to mid-January 2024 in his adventures. If you’re reading this essay after about April 2024, there’s probably a more up-to-date recap there. Meanwhile, though, here’s what I do know:

Mark Trail.

21 October 2023 – 14 January 2024.

Mark Trail’s story, back in October, was about the strange artefacts found in the woods that Rusty Trail thought might be from aliens. Mark Trail thought they were more likely a lost and very misinformed camper. Cherry Trail’s story was about someone leaving angry notes about people having kudzu on their properties. Let me take that one first.

Jules Rivera’s Mark Trail for the 15th of November, 2023. I like the visual pun of Violet shrinking over the course of the strip.

Cherry Trail teams up with Sunny Soleil Society head Violet Cheshire, and local baker Squirrelly Sandy Sandy’s the last person to have gotten a note, written in purple ink. They set out looking for who might write cursive notes in purple ink and — oh, Sandy’s squirrels attack Violet Cheshire. Under barely any pressure at all Violet confesses the whole deal: she was bored, she wanted to be out in nature and found an excuse to have Cherry Trail do it with her. And that, the 18th of November, closes the Kudzu Crusader Caper. All in all, this wasn’t too tough a case for Inspector Bazalo.

Cherry — and Violet’s — next adventure started the 27th of November, with the two planning to clear out an hold hall and put on a show. In the hall is every bat in the world. Violet, of course, hires Honest Ernest to clear the bats out, and he gets scratched or maybe bitten by one. Now, it’s not likely that any one bat has rabies, and it’s not likely that any one bite will infect you. On the other hand, if you are infected, then anytime up to a year later you can wake up one morning feeling a little off, and then close the day out dead. So, at Cherry and Violet’s insistence, they go to the emergency room, to get Ernest his shots, and there happen to meet Mark Trail over in his plot, which I’ll get to now.

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Rusty Trail, head full of ideas of aliens, doesn’t believe his father’s hypothesis that all the weird stuff they found was from a lost camper. So he sneaks out in the middle of the night to find the truth out there. Mark Trail, happening to overhear, follows. They find the lost camper, though, someone named Connor who’d followed former prank-show star Tad Crass’s AI-written camping guide to his regret. Mark Trail feels relieved they saved this guy, but what about everybody else?

Mark Trial decides to run nature retreats and teach people how to camp in reasonable safety. His friends at the De-Bait Team are glad to give support. Connor, signed up for this retreat for some reason, is less glad. Ranger Shaw is there, looking for something to fill the void in his life since his wife’s out of town. Mark Trail realizes there’s stuff going on with the men of Lost Forest he’s not nearly up to dealing with.

Jules Rivera’s Mark Trail for the 4th of January, 2024. My first What’s Going On In … strip for 2024! No wonder the raccoon in the first panel looks so excited!

De-Bait Team member Cliff suggests a nature hike, something giving all the guys a chance to talk things out. Mark Trail’s not clear on why you would go hiking and talk when that offers very little chance to catch fish and not talk. Anyway, Connor, trying to bait a hook, tears his thumb apart instead. Thus the emergency room visit which brought together the peanut butter and chocolate of Mark Trail’s and Cherry Trail’s plots.

Mark Trail finally accepts Cliff’s proposal, and takes the gang on a hike. It turns out to be a great way to get guys talking about their feelings. Mark Trail has heard of feelings, yes, but he’s not sure he’s up for experiencing them himself. The hike turns into a group hug so fast Mark Trail barely knows what happened or why, and he’s a bit relieved when Eli, one of the campers, gets scratched by a stray bat. Back to the emergency room.

Cliff meets the situation with optimism not unlike mine in the situation: the suggestion of danger will draw more people in next time. And Mark Trail is coming to realize these retreats might be more useful to their participants if they’re about sharing feelings, much as he likes going fishing to not talk about feelings or anything else. Mark Trail thinks a little about why that is, but the important thing is: the campers are up for fishing. Good news for everyone but the fish and the bait.

And this brings us up to mid-January, in plotting.

Sunday Animals Watch!

• Coywolves, 22 October 2023.
• Armadillos, 29 October 2023.
• Fireflies, 5 November 2023.
• Autumn Leaves, 12 November 2023.
• Turkeys, 19 November 2023.
• Rabies, 26 November 2023.
• Foxes, 3 December 2023.
• Birds’ magnetic senses, 10 December 2023.
• Reptiles and Skin, 17 December 2023.
• Reindeer, 24 December 2023.
• AI computing, 31 December 2023.
• Horses, 7 January 2024.
• Largemouth Bass, 14 January 2024.

Next Week!

You know who’s not risking an attack by rabid bats? Karen Moy and June Brigman’s Mary Worth, to be reviewed next week. But be warned: there is someone who just happened to notice you had a guitar here and knows a couple of songs he could play if nobody minds?

Time For A Serious Talk With LinkedIn’s Algorithm

(Reading.)

Also I do not know what Patten University is. I assume that it is an educational facility specializing in the needs of the patten industry. Pattens, you’ll remember from reading the Wikipedia article about them right this minute, are those things Middle Ages people would strap to their shoes so they could walk around in town without covering their actual shoes with all the mud and raw sewage they dumped into the street back then. I trust there is still a patten industry and that like any specialized trade there are things that have to be learned to be expert in said trade that you can get at Patten University of Oakland, California.

(A long, serious sigh. And I send a note to ask for a little chat, “when you have the time”. But before the close of business.)

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(The meeting.)

(I turn a chair around and sit with my chest pressing into its back. I put on a baseball cap, and then turn it around.) So! Linkedin Algorithm. Alg. Alg, I like that. You know, I used to know someone named Algus. No, that wasn’t his name, but he felt very positive about that instead. Well, I’m drifting from my point. Look, thanks for coming in for a little honest “rap session” like the kids say today in Imaginary 1967. I want to let you know, I appreciate how hard you’re working, looking out for me like this. I appreciate the idea that I should have a job that is not the one I have now. Really, great, thoughtful stuff. There’s nothing like having a friend who at random times bursts out with the declaration that I should be a part-time copy editor at a weekly newspaper in Rossville, Georgia. It gives me this strong sense of needing to be somewhere. Yes, even somewhere near Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park.

But — yes, this is the compliment sandwich technique, well-spotted — I want to ask you what are the points of commonality in these four jobs that totally exist and are not spammers trying to hack the LinkedIn Algorithm. You, Alg. What about me makes you think I’m equally ready to be a part-time temporary online instructor for some 7th grade class somewhere or maybe, what the heck, Facebook’s Director of Global Law Enforcement Outreach?

Now, now, no. I do not mean to put you on the spot. You don’t have to answer now, or really, at all. What’s important to me is that you sit though and think out what you see in common here. Find some tighter definition about what you see as similarities. This will help you algorithmate better in the future.

Yes, very good. You’ve seized on one right away. Of all these jobs, none of them need me to be in Michigan, which is the one place where I am. As a commonality that’s as useful as noticing that none of these jobs will routinely require that I smear myself head-to-toe with honey mustard. Not needing to be in Michigan is something common to 84 percent of all jobs, worldwide. It’s not productive to sort things on that basis. The mustard thing, that’s 94 percent of all jobs, yes.

Two of these jobs are described as adjunct faculty positions. I think this reflects a misunderstanding on your part about what adjunct faculty positions are. Adjunct faculty positions are for people who haven’t yet been cured of the daft idea of working in academia. Most adjunct positions require long hours in stressful roles. There’s little respect. The pay is low. There’s some community colleges where the English adjuncts are compensated entirely by being kicked behind the library loading bay until their kidneys bleed. And that’s after the adjuncts formed a union. Before the strike they were just shoved off the third-storey balcony until their skulls fractured. No, no, of course I wouldn’t just turn down an adjunct position. I’d just have it not be in a business school. Those people make you talk about business all the time, even if you’ve said you’d rather take the “jabbed with sharp sticks” benefit instead.

Also I don’t know what exactly Global Law Enforcement Outreach is. It sounds like my job would be travelling to exotic countries and hugging the cops. I admit I’m a huggy person. By preemptively hugging I can cut down the amount of handshaking I’m expected to do. But, jeez. Do I look like I want a life where I’m constantly jetting to exciting places like Johor Bahru, opening my arms wide at someone writing traffic citations, smiling as if I apparently weren’t pained by showing enthusiasm, and saying, “Come on over here, buddy!”? Do they look like they want that?

So. I appreciate your energy, I appreciate your enthusiasm. I like your willingness to think outside my career box. And let me give you this little tip. None of these are the job I would have if I could pick anything at all. Nor is my current job. What I’d really like, if you could find an opening, is to be the astronaut who draws Popeye. But don’t worry if you can’t swing that. I’m just glad you’re out there looking.

(I stand up, confident I’ve got this all worked out and there’ll be no unwanted side-effects to my honesty with Alg.)