When a chicken brings you arugula, it is considered an act of love.
I certify no animals were harmed during the making of this comic.
The scarecrow is a trained professional.
My class project is due and finals are on Wednesday.
My salad days, when I was green in judgment…
Quotation from Wm. Shakespeare, Anthony And Cleopatra
Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.
Quotation from Lyndon B. Johnson, former American President
Tonight, I’m at the top of the proverbial mountain. I’ve arrived at the pinnacle.
This is it. Ta-da.
Tomorrow is my birthday, the one that changes everything. It’s the big four-oh.
No, I’m not Sisyphus. There is no huge boulder to roll back downhill, allowing me to start over. My punishment reward is to keep going.
Here’s what I’m blessed with: I’m comfortable in my own skin; I have a strong sense of self; Being 40 is 10 times easier than being 20.
I’ll get through this, even if it kills me.
Only good girls keep diaries. Bad girls don’t have time.
Quotation from Tallulah Bankhead
“I was blackballed by seven Pizza joints.” (Sarah Colonna on Youtube)
A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
Quotation from Maya Angelou
Great news. My office isn’t going to be closed! I’ve suspected this for several months, especially after we got new computers in January. I’m going to continue taking classes though, because I don’t ever want to feel occupationally vulnerable again.
You with the sad eyes don’t be discouraged
I realize it’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people, you can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you can make you feel so small
But I see your true colors shining through
I see your true colors and that’s why I love you
Lyric from Cyndi Lauper, True Colors
I am the happiest piglet in the world. I’m done with finals. The instructor told me I had enough credits for an A (afterwards!) and that I didn’t really have to take the final exam.
I know that if I’d had to go and take an exam for acting, I wouldn’t have got anywhere. You don’t take exams for acting, you take your courage.
Quotation from Dame Edith Evans
They only ask you one question, they say ‘Who are you?’ and I got seventy-five per cent on that.
Quotation from Peter Cook
My final exam is this week. I also have to do a final project incorporating everything I’ve learned (or should have learned) in Microsoft Office Professional 2010. I’m almost finished. Yay! I haven’t decided whether to take classes this fall or not, but I need to decide tout de suite because fall semester starts in two weeks.
You can’t just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again.
Quotation from Mia Hamm
The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche
Few of us will make any individual mark for mankind to remember. What we can do today is make our lives meaningful in the moment. Future generations will remember none or few of us as individuals; our legacy is the world we leave for our children and their children.
I’m never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don’t do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don’t even do that any more.
Quotation from Dorothy Parker
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Quotation from Henry David Thoreau
I’ve decided to go back to school this summer. I’m taking classes Tuesday and Thursday nights, after work. There goes my hope for a carefree, timeless summer. *SIGH*
But to go to school on a summer morn,
O! it drives all joy away;
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.
Poem by William Blake, The Schoolboy
In Chinese numerology, the number 8 represents the totality of the universe. For that reason, the Beijing Summer Olympics began on 8/08/08 at 8.08.08 pm. The number 8– laid sideways– also represents infinity. In Tarot cards, the number 8 stands for strength and justice. For the Pythagoreans, the number 8 is the symbol of the love. Any zeros after a number are considered multipliers.
New this year is an ugly truck contest.
Quotation from the 2003 Garfield Summer Celebration (Garfield Days) in Garfield, Minnesota (pop. 304)
I’m not a mother but I still like to nurture and make pancakes.
I remember when I was a kid I used to come home from Sunday School and my mother would get drunk and try and make us pancakes.
George Carlin
You do not want your resume to say more than you are willing to admit. Such as: My work experience includes being a Night Stalker at WalMart. I am currently on maturity leave.
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
Quotation from Carl Sagan
Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
Quotation from George Carlin
April 28th marked the third anniversary of EncoreSeraphine.com. 793 comics. Much love. Thank you. ~Sera
You treated me like a goddess
When we were around everyone else
Now how come you couldn’t notice me
When I was standing by myself
Lyric from Meiko, Sleep
If every angel’s terrible
Then why do you welcome them
You said you’d provide the birdbath
If I’d provide the skin
Lyric from CocoRosie, Terrible Angels “It’s perfectly flawed imho”
Did life turn out the way you thought it would be when you were a kid? What you expected is probably what you got (unless you were unlucky); and if you didn’t expect much, that is also probably what you got. But no matter how well you planned (or didn’t plan), be honest– your life didn’t turn out exactly like you thought it would happen. For better or worse, one thing is certain: There were surprises and exceptions along the way.
Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.
Quotation from Dennis Wholey
We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.
Quotation from Henry David Thoreau
Here’s my plan: I want to be practical. I want to work in the writing/photography/graphics field, but my background is in banking/economics/finance. I need to be completely honest with myself, but I’m torn. Do I make the risky choice or the safe choice? Tell me– What should I do?
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
Quotation from Janis Joplin
I have been struggling for many years in pursuit of a career in opera and am finding that it’s the people who have money behind them who are getting places, whether or not they have the best voices… So, yes, I’d marry for money at this point. After all, having the career would make me happy.
Quotation from “pvlstar” on iVillage.com
While $1 million or $2 million may sound like a lot to people making $30,000, it’s hardly enough to transform someone’s life or make them “rich” by contemporary billionaire standards.
Quotation from Robert Frank, Marrying for Love of Money
I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants. It has been a month since I’ve been told my department will be shutting down in six to twelve months, so time is precious. I’ve decided to take the Series 66 Registered Investment Advisor examination. I don’t know if that’s really what I want to do, but it gives me another option to pursue careerwise. And that means my updates to Encore Seraphine (and my time online) will be less frequent for a few weeks to a month.
Yes, I’m doing this on purpose. I love you all, and thank you for understanding.
Happy were she could finish forth her fate
In some unhaunted desert, where, obscure
From all society, from love and hate
Of worldly folk; then might she sleep secure.
Poem from Robert Devereux, A Passion of my Lord of Essex
Everyone thinks they know themselves. After all, we live in the back alleys of our minds smelling the same soup every day. But how self-aware are we really? Are we like my Uncle Clem who seems mindless that his house smells like dog urine? Do we get so used to ourselves that we can’t smell what is obvious to everyone else?
While Washington poured billions into propping up the banks and financial institutions that brought our economy to its knees, the Chinese spent their stimulus billions on an epic 19,000 miles of new railroad track. Nearly half of that total will go towards completing a web of more than 42 inter-province hyperspeed rail lines that will link almost every major city in the country. The fastest of the new trains travel at 229 miles per hour. So China comes out of the economic crisis with a rail system that will be the envy of the world.
Quotation from Graydon Carter, Wild on the Street, Vanity Fair
I want to be free. No responsibilities. Sitting in a cafe drinking kir royale while reading a book, observing life and people between the pages until they become real.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Quotation from Steve Jobs, Commencement address delivered to Stanford University
It’s like being in high school and knowing I’ll graduate in six months. The real world is out there and I’m wondering what I’m going to do. People tell me: “Some day you’ll look back at this and think how wonderful it was.” Ha!
Richard Vernon: What did you want to be when you were young?
Carl: When I was a kid, I wanted to be John Lennon.
Richard Vernon: Carl, don’t be a goof. I’m making a serious point here.
Quotation from the movie The Breakfast Club
Andrew Clark: You don’t have any goals.
John Bender: Oh but I do.
Andrew Clark: Yeah?
John Bender: I wanna be just like you. I figure all I need is a lobotomy and some tights.
Another quotation from the movie The Breakfast Club
Everything comes to she who waits.
But that begs the obvious question: Do I really want to have Everything?
Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.
Quotation from A.A. Milne, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book
Cleopatra slept with the most powerful men (and women?) of her time, her lovers reputedly numbering in the thousands. Actor Warren Beatty reportedly had sex with 12,775 women. Basketball player Wilt Chamberlain boasted of sleeping with 20,000 women.
Herewith, I am modestly putting comic #750 to bed.
[Warren Beatty was] dating Maya Plisetskaya, the Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina who, inconveniently, was already married and didn’t speak a word of English. Beatty told his pal Dick Sylbert that it was the most wonderful relationship: “She never understood a thing I said, I never understood a thing she said.”
Quotation from Patrick Goldstein, Peter Biskind on Warren Beatty: Was his theme song ‘You’re So Vain’ or ‘Just a Gigolo’? (LA Times)
Of the 18 married women who came to America on the Mayflower, only 5 survived the first winter. This created a ratio of 10 men to each women. Adultery was so prevalent among the Puritans at Plymouth that it is impossible to say who the Fathers of our Country really were.
Quotation from Sabrina Aset, The Theology of Sex
I do it too. I stand in my own way. I defeat myself. It’s like being chained.
When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.
Quotation from Winston Churchill
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.
Quotation from Willie Nelson
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
I hate Monday mornings. The alarm clock is unmerciful in its exactness. Oh, what would I do if every morning were Monday, and patience a sin.
There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.
Quotation from Tennessee Williams
If wireless is the future, will I feel even more disconnected?
I do not believe in the doctrine of the greatest good of the greatest number. It means in its nakedness that in order to achieve the supposed good of 51 per cent the interests of 49 per cent may be, or rather, should be sacrificed. It is a heartless doctrine and has done harm to humanity. The only real dignified human doctrine is the greatest good of all.
Quotation from Mahatma Gandhi
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Lyrics from Bob Dylan, Gotta Serve Somebody
What makes a little girl ugly? It’s a trick question.
As Gandi said, Be the change you want to see.
All children are beautiful. All children are beautiful.
Chinese girl not ‘pretty enough’ for Olympic ceremony (Belfast Telegraph)
(Barbie) I’m an ugly girl, my face makes you hurl.
Sad I have it, I should bag it.
Acne everywhere, unwanted facial hair,
I’m a relation to Frankenstein’s creation.
(Ken) You’re so ugly. You disgust me.
Lyrics from Weird Al Yankovic, Ugly Girl (Barbie Girl Parody)
I’m not a pretty girl
that’s not what I do.
I’m no damsel in distess
and I don’t need to be rescued,
so put me down punk,
maybe you’d prefer a maiden fair,
isn’t there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?
Lyrics from Ani Difranco, Not A Pretty Girl
I did a guest comic today for WIREHEADS! It’s one of my favorite comics. Go look! Go look!