Archive for November, 2009

15 items.

Hungry for Love

by Seraphine Khorana on November 29th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Hungry for Love

I think we all hunger for love even when we have it, for without it, we are a shell of what we could be.

I compare myself with my former self, not with others. Not only that, I tend to compare my current self with the best I have been… When I am my present “normal” self, I am far removed from when I have been my liveliest, most productive, most intense, most outgoing and effervescent. In short, for myself, I am a hard act to follow.
Quotation from Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

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18 Comments

It Smells Delicious…

by Seraphine Khorana on November 27th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
It Smells Delicious…

“I’m doing you a favor,” she said.

She is too kind and fond
Ever to grieve me,
She has too pure a heart
E’er to deceive me.
Poem by Padraic Colum, Maire My Girl

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29 Comments

Gerascophobia: Fear of the Mad-Fall

by Seraphine Khorana on November 25th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Gerascophobia: Fear of the Mad-Fall

I’m not afraid of growing old; I’m afraid of *being* old. But I’m not aged yet– and tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day– so I’m thankful for having the opportunity to grow a bit older.
I’m also thankful for having love in my life, and I’m thankful for YOU, dear readers.

Worried you will die alone,
You expect the crucifix
Around your neck to save your soul.
A hint of growing old, and losing beauty.
Fear of impaired mobility.
Your face deteriorates
as your insides decompose.
Lyrics from Burning the Masses, Gerascophobia (Gerascophobia is the fear of growing old)

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26 Comments

The Best Attributes Express a Value

by Seraphine Khorana on November 23rd, 2009
Posted In: Comics
The Best Attributes Express a Value

An attribute expresses a value and is associated with a person. Attributes provide a default value, but in most cases, individuals can revise an attribute’s default value. Custom attributes become personal extensions, often visible even if one doesn’t have intimate access to the user’s default.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,
Loveliness extreme.
Extra gaiters,
Loveliness extreme.
Sweetest ice-cream.
Pages ages page ages page ages.
Poem by Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily

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31 Comments

This girl is not a safe alternative to cigarettes

by Seraphine Khorana on November 21st, 2009
Posted In: Comics
This girl is not a safe alternative to cigarettes

People should come with warning labels. “Use at your own risk.”

But I’m a creep, I’m a wierdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here.
She’s running out again.
She’s running.
She runs runs runs runs
Runs.
Lyric from Radiohead, Creep

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32 Comments

Jack London’s Palace Hotel for Pigs

by Seraphine Khorana on November 19th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Jack London’s Palace Hotel for Pigs

PHOTO: Jack London’s Palace Hotel for Pigs.

In the Valley of the Moon, there has been laughter among ranchers over the latest achievment of Jack London. He built what the valley dwellers call a “Palace Hotel for Pigs.” The structure is all of concrete, circular in form, with a feedhouse in the center of the ring. “In twelve years, I’ll save the price of the thing in saving of labor, by feeding in the center of the pens,” said London in defense of his scheme.
Quotation from San Francisco Examiner, 1915

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14 Comments

My Story (and I’m sticking to it)

by Seraphine Khorana on November 17th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
My Story (and I’m sticking to it)

I sometimes can’t remember what I did yesterday, much less a week ago. Somebody in a crosswalk walked in front of me as I was driving- what was he wearing? What did I eat for lunch? Where did I lay my glasses? I don’t consider myself stupid, but why can’t I remember?

People are overly optimistic about the accuracy of their retrieved memories, probably because most errors have little practical consequence and go unnoticed. Given the confidence in their own memory accuracy, people have too much faith in the accuracy of eyewitnesses. Memory has a multitude of quirks and inaccuracies that creep into its everyday operation.
Quotation from Marc Green, Phd, Eyewitness Memory is Unreliable

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30 Comments

Do Beautiful People know what Beauty really is?

by Seraphine Khorana on November 15th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Do Beautiful People know what Beauty really is?

A dating website called Beautiful People only accepts new members by a popular vote of its existing members. In the past month, its members rejected almost two million hopefuls who had posted online photos of themselves. Their verdict? Swedish men and Norwegian women are the most beautiful in the world (with 76% of them accepted). Brazilians also scored high. Meanwhile, Britons are considered among the ugliest in the world, along with Russian and Polish men. The Germans also didn’t poll very well (only 14% were accepted).

Beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive.
Poem from John Milton, Paradise Regained

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Poem from John Keats, Endymion

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33 Comments

Friday the 13th: End of the World Prediction

by Seraphine Khorana on November 13th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Friday the 13th: End of the World Prediction

The end of the world is getting nearer and nearer, hurling towards us at over 25,000 miles an hour. The current assumption is there is a 10% chance per century of a dangerous, life destroying space object striking the earth.

Apophis is small by asteroid standards, perhaps 300 meters across, but it could hit with about 60,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb– enough to destroy an area the size of France.
Quotation from The Atlantic, The Sky is Falling by Gregg Easterbrook

If Apophis is a RETROGRADE rotator on the small, less-massive end of what is possible, the measurement uncertainty region will get pushed back such that the center of the distribution encounters the Earth’s orbit. This would result in an impact probability much higher than computed with the Standard Dynamical Model.
Quotation from U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Near Earth Object Program, Predicting Apophis’ Earth Encounters in 2029 and 2036.

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31 Comments

Remembrance

by Seraphine Khorana on November 11th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Remembrance

Today is Remembrance Day, also called Veterans Day or Poppy Day. It’s a day to honor all of those who sacrifice during times of war.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Poem by Lt.-Col. John McCrae, In Flanders Fields

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33 Comments

The Change

by Seraphine Khorana on November 9th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
The Change

Certain people make a habit of anger. They seethe with resentment, which is very hard for them to overcome. Some psychiatrists consider this chronic bitterness to be a mental disorder called Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder. The scary fact is this happens also to “normal” people who suffer an unexpected setback such as job loss, divorce, or financial shock. I wish there was a simple, green, heart-shaped pill available to cure everyone’s anger!

They feel the world has treated them unfairly. It’s one step more complex than anger. They’re angry plus helpless.
Quotation from Dr. Michael Linden, who estimates 1% to 2% of the population meets the criterion for Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder

Embitterment is a violation of basic beliefs. It causes a very severe emotional reaction… We are always coping with negative life events. It’s the reaction that varies.
Another quotation from Dr. Michael Linden

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24 Comments

My Fascination with Xombies

by Seraphine Khorana on November 7th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
My Fascination with Xombies

Since Xombies are “born” mindless, one must assume their hunger for brains translates into a thirst for Knowledge; and that’s why Xombies will one day take over the world. They are unlike most Humans, who seem unwilling to learn– once they have already formed an opinion.

With the rest I dispense— I sever from what I thought would suffice me, for it does not— it is now empty and tasteless to me.
I heed knowledge, and the grandeur of The States, and the example of heroes, no more.
I am indifferent to my own songs—I will go with him I love.
It is to be enough for us that we are together— We never separate again.
Poem from Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

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24 Comments

She’s the Devil

by Seraphine Khorana on November 5th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
She’s the Devil

Unwanted romantic attention is sexual spam. Sure, you can sexually spam a thousand people and– maybe– get laid once, but what’s the point?

Researchers Become Spammers To See How Successful Spam Is (TechDirt.com) Computer scientists at the University of California took over a zombie network to send out bogus spam and watch the fake orders roll in. Except they didn’t get many orders. They sent out 350 million spam messages, and received a grand total of 28 orders. But, even accepting the researchers’ numbers, they found that the full zombie network they used could probably bring in about $7k per day, or about $2 million per year.

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27 Comments

Waiting for Forever to Happen

by Seraphine Khorana on November 3rd, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Waiting for Forever to Happen

Regarding The Love of Your Life: Do you wait forever for perfection or settle for ‘good enough?’

Why thus longing, thus forever sighing
For the far-off, unattained, and dim,
While the beautiful all round thee lying
Offers up its low, perpetual hymn?
Poem from Harriet Winslow Sewall

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.
Poem from John Keats

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36 Comments

The Fudder Pucket Apology

by Seraphine Khorana on November 1st, 2009
Posted In: Comics
The Fudder Pucket Apology

One of the things I hated most as a child was being bullied to apologize. It wasn’t the apology itself that hurt, but the humiliation of being forced to apologize. Usually, the thing being apologized for was manufactured by my siblings; the alleged wrongdoing was done by me in self-defense. Almost always, when a “real” apology was needed, I would have apologized on my own.

It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
Quotation from P.G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs

The best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.
Quotation from John Milton

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37 Comments