I disrupted an entire company call today. Because someone was cuddling their Persian cat while their video was on. Forcing me to announce that Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk was on the call. And when I was met with absolute silence, I quietly turned off my camera, told the Senior Director running the call she could proceed, and muted myself for the rest of the day.

No one on that call understood the reference. That made me sad for them.

If you don’t understand the reference, that also makes me sad for you.

At our recent family dinner, my sons were laughing about reels they were sending each other on their phones. As their mother and a certified Leo, I quietly demanded to be included in the jokes.

“You’re not a gamer, mom. You wouldn’t understand.”

Sir. I’ll have you know I’m on book six of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I use words like side quest and NPC now.

My son just stared at me. He doesn’t understand the Dungeon. That makes me sad for him. He also did not let me in on the reels jokes. That makes me sad for me.

Recently I received a new notification:

And immediately went looking for my loot box for unlocking this achievement.

I obviously just defeated a Country Boss. That definitely qualifies for a Celestial prize box.

Again, if none of this is making any sense to you, I am sad. For you.

Because the dungeon is our happy place.

At the end of every day, I get to escape into the dungeon. The post-apocalyptic alien-controlled dungeon. Because that is a happier place than the world around me.

The world around me stopped being a happy place when my dad left it. And when, well …*gestures everywhere*

So when I say to you, “There sure were a lot of babies in there, Carl.” And you respond correctly, that will make me happy. For both of us.

And if you would like to know the correct response, so we can be happy together, give the Dungeon a try:

Dungeon Crawler Carl a book by Matt Dinniman – Bookshop.org US

The main character is a talking cat. Which is all you should really need to know.

Also, what in the AI is prompting visits to my blog from 50+ different countries?