As regular reader Daniel Pellissier pointed out, I forgot to upload today’s strip! I reckon I went to sleep last night a tad too early!

Happy Trail’s redemption from self-loathing, selfishness, and possible racism was the main subject of Jules Rivera’s first Mark Trail story. Since then, his character seems to have evolved into a gullible fool, an easy mark for every huckster that crosses his path. And now we can add the charge of lecher or sugar-daddy. Well, we don’t really know the age of this “Dreama” character, either. She could be as old as Happy. Makes no difference, because Happy seems to believe she really is 28, a point in favor of Rivera’s presentation of Happy as an old, gullible fool.

Next, I don’t follow Mark’s logic here. Yesterday, he and Niecy stated the web site has no profile on Dreama. Today, Mark wants to search the site for more information on Dreama. It can’t be both! Am I crazy? I feel like that android on an old Star Trek episode (“I, Mudd”) which self-destructs after failing to resolve Kirk’s logic puzzle.

And that photo Niecy references looks more like Little Orphan Annie with gray hair, which is probably Niecy’s point, right? She is apparently an older woman who had AI photos made of herself. This kind of lying is nothing new in dating (or getting jobs, college entrances, etc.). But AI makes the cheating and lying so much easier and more convincing.

There is no long-term value in such deceptions, so I try to avoid them. For example, I make no pretense about myself. I’m an old, retired, overeducated wastrel who finds writing blogs about Mark Trail a fruitful use of my time.

I do have to be careful in some regards; because of my extremely buff physique, I have to restrict my typing to two fingers. If I try to do standard “touch typing”, the combined muscles in my fingers literally crush keyboards, even mechanical models.

I also don’t like to waste time and effort on those awful, cheap “membrane” keyboards that have all of the tactile quality of overcooked broccoli. And that includes laptop keyboards, as well.