worm-blossom

worm-blossom

The endeavours of Aljoscha Meyer and Sammy Gwilym.

Year 2025, Week 41

Spindly tunnels wind down deep underground, branching off to aborted ends, and at the very bottom, a cavern with two twits inside. One asks the other: Why are we down here, anyway?

Year 2025, Week 42

A comic with four panels. The first panel's text reads: "When it feels like you're getting nowhere, it can be tempting to try and progress through sheer force of will". Underneath in a drawing of a figure staring down at an empty plant pot, waves radiating from his head. The second panel's text reads: "But most of the time the best thing to do is just back off and let the solution come to you". Below is a drawing of the same scene, except the figure is sunning on the ground in the background, and there is a tiny sprout in the plant pot. The third panel reads: "Aljoscha often tells me he's going for a walk. When he gets back, he's figured out some novel data structure or mapped out the possibility space of some given premise." Above is drawn a kind of fish-eye lens drawing of Aljoscha walking through the park, the sun shining down on trees and flowers, abstract shapes radiating from his head. The fourth panel reads: "I have ideas also". Below Sammy is shown showering with a speech bubble above her head. Inside, it shows the phrase "cloud storage" with the word cloud crossed out and replaced with 'crowd'. Sammy smiles with satisfaction and is muttering "genius...".

Year 2025, Week 43

A comic. In the first panel, Anubis, Egyptian God of the Afterlife, addresses a man: "Imhotep! Do you bring anything with you into the afterlife?" In the second panel Imhotep holds his arms out wide and declares: "Only my retinue of 50 servants, my lord". Said servants are in the background looking unhappy. Anubis replies: "Very well". In the third panel, Anubis, Egyptian God of the Afterlife, addresses Aljoscha: "Aljoscha! Do you bring anything with you into the afterlife?" In the fourth panel Aljoscha holds his arms out wide and declares: "Only my 50 unreleased programming projects!". Behind him, unhappy spectres beg for release. In the fifth panel, Anubis grimaces as Aljoscha further explains: "I only need to write the docs".

Year 2025, Week 45

Year 2025, Week 46

A four-panel comic. In the first panel, we are zoomed in on a hand holding a phone. On the screen there is a social media post reading "i've recently seen 3 nlnet funded projects all write their own static site generator for their own documentation. nerds with no oversight are just gonna nerd". In the second panel, we see Aljoscha and Sammy, both looking at the phone held in Sammy's hand. In the third panel, they look up at each other. In the fourth panel, Aljoscha say: "Technically our system can generate any kind of string". "Stop", say Sammy.

Year 2025, Week 48

A five-panel comic. In the first panel, we see Sammy sitting at a desk. She says "So I'll just keep working on this URI stuff. How about you?". A voice crackles from her monitor: "well...". In the second panel, we see Aljocsha on the screen, his hair blown about. The background shows a blue sky with clouds. He says "these encodings are taking a bit longer than I'd hoped, but I think Mea-". In the third panel, Aljoscha continues speaking: "Hang on. Plane." He looks up at a plane soaring above him in the sky. In the fourth panel, we see Sammy sitting at her desk again. She asks: "Aljoscha, are you in the sky?". Her monitor replies: "Oh! Did I not tell you?". In the final panel, we see Aljoscha riding an enormous bird-like thing, laptop in front of him. Aljoscha says "This week I've implemented a bird. It has a principled design and requires only O(1) space."

Year 2025, Week 49

A comic with three panels. In the first panel, Sammy is looking at a laptop, and asks: "What is it about 'Spotify Wrapped' that gets people so excited? Aljoscha, watering a plant in the background replies: "It's a fun way to summarise the year?" In the second panel, Sammy asks: "But what about the people who don't use Spotify? How are we supposed to learn something meaningless about ourselves?". Aljoscha is in the foreground, his glasses glinting in the light. Before the next panel, the word "LATER". In the third panel, we see a print out in a monospace typeface, like a console. In ASCII art, it is titled "RUST UNWRAPPED". Below, it says: - 14480 compiler errors raised - 95483 warnings ignored - 45 panics in production - Ran cargo clean 98 times - Target directory grew to 107 gigabytes - You cried out of frustration only once this year - The borrow checker cried out of frustration only 37 times this year AND BEST OF ALL… - Time spent on garbage collection: 0 seconds

Year 2025, Week 50

A two panel comic. In the first panel, Aljoscha ask Sammy: "How was the conference? Get any insightful feedback on our work?". Sammy is eating a sandwich. In the second panel, we see a huge smile on Sammy's face as she recalls a happy memory, a tear in her eye. In a thought bubble above her, she has beautiful hair and coyly looks back as someone says to her "girl you are rocking those bangs".

Year 2025, Week 51

A three panel comic, introduced by the text "Deep inside Aljoscha's lair...". In the first panel, we see Aljoscha sitting at his desk, his face glowing in the light of a computer. In the background are wires, pipes, screens, papers strewn over the floor. The text in this panel reads: "Fuzz tests... passing. Readme... complete. Publishing...". In the second panel, we see a close up of Aljoscha's glasses, reflecting a warning sign captioned with the text "error". Aljoscha mutters to himself: "impossible". In the third panel, there is cursive text surrounded by Christmassy doodles. The text reads: "This holiday, give the gift of revoking your friends' keys so they can't spend their Christmas revoking a novel image format!"

Year 2025, Week 52

An illustration of Aljoscha and Sam in mining gear, deep underground, surrounded by lava yet looking up towards the viewer with confidence.

Year 2026, Week 1

An illustration of a underground scene. In the distant background, we see two silhoutted figures, one looking towards the foreground. Close to us, we see a kind of monitor embedded in the rock, strange green waves on its screen. The caption below the illustration says "Did you hear something?"

Year 2026, Week 2

Another illustration of a underground scene. In the distant background, we see a jagged speech bubble coming from the rear of a cavern, crying "PLEASE". In the foreground, Aljoscha turns to Sammy (who is shuddering). The caption reads "I thought these mines were supposed to be purely metaphorical".

Year 2026, Week 3

A four panel comic. In the first panel, Sammy look serious. The text above reads: "sammy thought about this. The mines were supposed to be metaphorical, and thus empty.". Aljoscha looks confused in the background and Sammy thinks to herself. In the second panel, we see a wider view of the mines. The text reads: "More importantly, it was meant to be free of the moral implications of its tacit extractivism. In the third panel, Sammy is set in pale green against a spiralling background. The text below her reads: "But don't the stories we tell say so much about the way we see the world? What we wish we could do without guilt? Sammy asked herself what this choice of setting said about her inner world!!!". In the final panel, Aljoscha reappears next to Sammy and says: "Hey. I took a look. I think there's a child trapped down here". Sammy winces.

Year 2026, Week 4

A three panel comic. In the first panel, Aljoscha and Sammy clamber towards a kind of monitor embedded in the rock. The monitor speaks: "Please" In the second panel, we close in on the screen of the monitor. It says: "You'll help me find mother..." The final panel is entirely taken up by the monitor's static and waves. In the centre of the noise, it says "won't you?".

Year 2026, Week 5

A three panel comic, drawn with much less skill than usual. In the first panel, a bird says "Well, this is maybe a bit weird..." In the second panel, another bird continues "but Sammy couldn't do a comic this week..." The final panel consists of a badly drawn, grumpy owl concluding "and Aljoscha refused to draw anything but birds".

Year 2026, Week 6

A four panel comic, titled "SAMMY'S CONFERENCE OUTFITS!!!". In the first panel, Sammy is wearing a mesh top with high waisted jeans. In the second panel, Sammy is wearing a long sleeved striped shirt, turtleneck and midi skirt. A hand is thrust into the air behind her. In the third panel, Sammy is wearing a checkered skirt, dress shirt and scoop top. Someone says "help" in the background. In the final panel, Sammy is wearing a bolero jacket, scoop top, and houndstooth trousers. In the background, Aljoscha says "Sammy", "i'm dying".