Alyx Woodward (obsolete) @Alyx@computerfairi.es

Kel the Purple didn't just come back but claims to have created all the rest of us. pfffft I am exempting myself from that little game, whatever you are, Kel

all right, page twenty-one

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-21

Lomax hesitates and doesn't toss the little box down. a meow from their kitty Ramsay (Ramsay Lewis? no, wait, that's "Ramsey" Lewis. nm) calms the kid and instead of throwing the thing Lomax looks at it again.

there's a phone number on a scrap of paper that reads, "Call me if anything happens." that's...a bit weird coming from a teacher who's known Lomax for like a day, but I guess this is an unusual situation

Chara has the strangest brain farts sometimes

https://twitter.com/ambassadorchara/status/1157168013121974274?s=20

anyone know what's up with the witchcraft.cafe outage

Kel came back :=0

welp. life just got more interesting

and page 20 before I do something else

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-20

Lomax starts to shamble out of bed to the bathroom to wash their face when they trip over something and land flat on their face. "my backpack?" nope, it was that ornate wooden box Prof. Rodgers gave 'em. oh SNAP!

Lomax is furious, crying. they snatch up the box, ready to dash it to the floor I guess

oops forgot to edit the CW properly on the last one. oh well

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-19

Lomax bolts awake. so, a "night terror". after an ordinary nightmare you don't move around, you just wake up. Kara used to have night terrors but it's been ages since their last one

"same dream" says Lomax. hm

turns out Lomax has a kitty! striped orange kitten named "Ramsay". (Gordon Ramsay? William Ramsay, discoverer of the noble gases)

"I feel terrible"

eighteen.

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-18

the bottle is filling slowly with water but conversation continues. the parents (mom is much more clearly seen than dad) says something about "well you know what our jobs are like" and Lomax accepts it

only then in the bottom half of the page does Lomax notice the water. it's submerged them

and now Lomax is drowned

all right, let's move on

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-17

welp, this won't take long. Lomax in his dream / vision sees a pair of figures in shadow whom he takes for his parents. Lomax dreams they're in a glass bottle.

"will you let me out?"

"sorry you'll have to stay in there a little longer Max" says dad (maybe)

okay, interesting that they shorten "Lo + Max" to just "Max"

(cont'd) here, an oxidative hydrolysis is carried out with sodium chlorite (a popular mild aqueous oxidant for a number of organic reactions) buffered with monobasic sodium phosphate in t-butyl alcohol. that gives the alpha-hydromethylated isovaleric acid, rather than the aldehyde.

neat! working with formaldehyde is kind of a bummer and I wonder if there's any way to jigger the synthesis to use sym-trioxane instead.

the reaction is carried out with formalin (the standard 37% solution of formaldehyde in methanol that is the usual reagent form of formaldehyde) in the presence of toluene, a pH 7 buffer, and a chiral phosphine catalyst, (S)-1,1-diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl ether, a catalyst undoubtedly synthesized from naturally occurring amino acid proline

presumably, plain mild hydrolysis of the resulting acetal of the hydroxymethylated aldehyde would yield the aldehyde itself, but (cont'd)

ok, time for _Organic Syntheses_ roulette. with the new rule, choosing a pseudorandom four-digit number and then searching orgsyn.org for it!

and the number is 2564 - heh well at least we know it's divisible by 4

ooh, what a curious one this time

http://orgsyn.org/demo.aspx?prep=v92p0320

direct *asymmetric* alpha-hydroxymethylation of aliphatic aldehydes. here, isovaleraldehyde (or, if you like, 2-methyl-n-butyraldehyde) is converted to the formaldehyde acetal of the (R)-hydroxymethylated aldehyde

well Chara saw three heavy movies in a row last night ("Scrooged", "The Truman Show", and finally "Rosemary's Baby") and somehow I'm still here. can't knock the daughter of Loki down so easily!

(hey, I didn't want this, might as well get some fun out of it)

haha Dad resorts to the weirdest ways to remind Chara to do things