Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for August 07, 2022

The answer is 42, not 9

I don’t get Arlo’s first dream… It’s greeking to me!

The psychological truth I see here is that the conscious mind is basically sequential and abstract while the subconscious mind is random and concrete.

Not one of the languages that I know very well, but was that Latin, and how is mentally reading a Latin document supposed to add in sleeping? Or did I just miss the idea entirely today?

It’s kind of a handshake between systems. That’s how I’ve used it. It really has no meaning.

Where did you come across this Jimmy. It’s really gotten kinda obscure.

Arlo is dreaming in “Lorem ipsum”.

There are snippets of French,Latin, and Spanish but I can’t see well enough to make any of it out. Are we to believe Arlo is a polyglot and used Foreign languages to fall asleep? More likely it’s a left brain right brain thing: our reasoning side keeps us awake until our symbolic side takes over

Additionally we all know that space between waking and sleeping when we are thinking but our thoughts make no sense

Lorem ipsum! ThIs graphic designer’s heart sang seeing that used here! And this comic captures the moment it describes so well. Thanks, JJ.

The text in the first panel is called Lorem Ipsum. It’s placeholder copy used by graphic designers.

Especially if it’s a large project, we start creating well ahead of when the writers have approved copy to give us.

Depending on who will see the earliest stages of the document, we adapt or play with the placeholder copy, using text generators for pretend speech from pirates, hipsters, lawyers, famous authors, etc.

Very educational but all of this doesn’t explain panels 3 and 4???

I thought it was an Annie Lennox earworm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

I don’t know what is more confusing…the dream or the many explanations within the comments.

I count backwards from a large number, such as 5,999. When I start to lose my place, I know I’m headed for dreamland!

Learn something new every day, and today it was “Lorem ipsum”. Thank you all for your insight.

WTH??

I agree with Jimmy. Many of us really do have it made, but it sometimes takes a while to remember it.

What keeps me awake and worried? Precious little. Peace lies in accepting those things that no earthly power can change.

Huh?

I’ve had nights like that, often.

I used to have trouble falling asleep, then I started meditating, also referred to as self-hypnosis. And just within the last few years, I have found that I can get the same “effect”, but more enjoyable, by running through the games, in my head, of a chess tournament I won. When I wake up, I usually find that I’ve only managed 2 or 3 rounds before I’m gone…

Me too!

Sweet dreams my friend….

Yep, hit the “fuzzy thoughts” and you know actual sleep is near.

This is way too cryptic for my simple brain. I subscribe to the age old wisdom of K.I.S.S. [keep it simple, stupid].

Arlo used to be funny to read?

By the time I have reached Panel 3…..Panel 4 is the alarm going off. (Oh and I guess the Lovely Lady I was with rode off with the Sheep.) Should not have eaten all that Cajun Gumbo!

I usually start by naming all the bones in the human body.

Something like this happened to me last night. I was at the beginning of a dream state while still not settled in. In my thoughts, I was writing mathematical formulas at a furious pace. Then my slumber was disturbed because I realized that the problems I was trying to solve had no mathematical solutions. I can also relate to the mind attempting to hold on to waking-logic and the slipping into a full dream state. What isn’t shown is the kind of experiences I’ve had when the dream images start appearing, but my mind isn’t ready and I’m startled awake. Examples: I’m at bat and the ball is pitched at my face; I’m walking in the woods and an owl flies into my face; and many, many times when I’m wherever and fall off of something.

I didn’t know Arlo could read Latin.

I don’t get it, either.

You know you’re in trouble when you concentrate on experiencing the moment you fall asleep. That makes you too alert. Now I work at night and sleep in the day, and I go to sleep to the radio shows I used to wake up to. This morning I fell asleep to The Puzzle in Morning Edition. I heard the solution to the qualifying puzzle, but fell sleep during the premise for the puzzle played on the show. One moment you’re awake, and the next moment nothing makes sense. So I turned off the radio and then I’m wide awake, with my snores waking me back up again.

So, if I am understanding the strip and the comments correctly, the use of lorem ipsum here is a way of generalizing the infinite number of things any one of us may think about as we try to fall asleep. But the blissful moment (have it made) is when we can set all that aside and actually fall asleep.

I recite lists in my head to keep my mind from wandering while trying to go to sleep – monarchs of England/Great Britain, US Presidents & their wives (which is NOT the same as First Ladies as some wives were not FLs and some FLs were not wives), states and capitals, etc. Then same backwards if still not asleep.

I didn’t even try to read the words because I fall asleep much like that, too. If we were supposed to read them, the font would be larger. I assumed it was all a jumbled mess.

Hey Jimmy, credit to the colorist. That subtle change in the color scheme from panel to panel is great work!

With the change in hair color, I my thinking is that this is going through the years. When my kids were young and I earned a lot less money, my thoughts were turbulent even in quiet moments. Now that it’s just the two of us and more money (“have it made”) the thoughts are less turbulent. Love the use of Lorem Ipsum; I haven’t seen that in ages.