Posts Tagged ‘Ambition’

22 items.

From the Archives: The Pretty Girl

by Seraphine Khorana on June 29th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
From the Archives: The Pretty Girl

For the next couple of weeks, I am re-releasing some old comics from a few years ago at the rate of one-a-day until July 1st.

1. Kansas. In 2008, I went to Kansas to visit my husband’s family.
2. The Sunflower State. I didn’t know what to expect. It was everything I had expected and more– including a tornado! Stay tuned.
3. What’s in Kansas? Kansas was a complete unknown to me.
4. Tornado Alley. I knew Kansas was famous for tornados, I just didn’t really expect to be in one.
5. Cawker City: Home to the World’s Largest Ball of Sisal Twine. The day started out, um, normally…
6. Rain Tornado. A rain tornado is one you can’t see, because of rain and darkness, until it hits you.
7. Tornado Shelter. The more doors you can put between yourself and the tornado, the better.
8. Tornado in Manhattan Kansas. It destroyed the True Value Hardware store. The K-State campus nuclear reactor wasn’t damaged.
9. Tornado in Chapman, Kansas. Everything you know can change in a matter of minutes.
10. Kansas Flip-flops. I found people from Kansas to be generous, practical and unpretentious.
11. Prairie Cathedrals. Parts of Kansas are so featureless that one often uses non-geographic landmarks for navigation.
12. Toilet Alley. Everyday life can sometimes seem rather dull.
13. Deja Vu. Everyday life can sometimes seem rather dull, without surprises.
14. Driving and Sex. This is my friend Dani’s favorite Encore Seraphine comic.
15. The Pretty Girl. Losing one’s confidence is a horrible feeling.

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Trip to Arugula

by Seraphine Khorana on May 22nd, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Trip to Arugula

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

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“You are going to insert a flexible tube… where?”

by Seraphine Khorana on April 22nd, 2011
Posted In: Comics
“You are going to insert a flexible tube… where?”

I have to wonder, though: What sort of person becomes a butt doctor? I’ve met thousands of people in my lifetime and never once has anyone told me their life’s dream is to be a Rear Admiral. I can understand the desire to be a brain surgeon or somebody that can restore eye sight; I can’t imagine wanting to be up in somebody’s business.
The thing that scares me is– if they go far enough into the colon, through the stomach and past the esophagus– they might eventually find my head. Oh oh.

YouTube video of Katie Couric’s colonoscopy.

Dr. Kylie Johnson’s MADtv colonoscopy. “Alright, Robin, to the batcave!”
“Roll up the windows, kids, we’re going to pass a farm!”

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Push, Don’t Pull

by Seraphine Khorana on January 23rd, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Push, Don’t Pull

I’m obsessive.
For the past month, I’ve devoted myself to organizing my music collection. It used to be easy– pop a cd in the player and you’re good. But over the years, the music stored on my computer got scattered into different folders and formats- wma, mp3, mp4, Amazon, Apple, “My Music” etc. Some of my music wouldn’t play on my iPod, other songs wouldn’t play in Media Player, and sometimes I couldn’t even find the song that I wanted. I hate that the music industry still hasn’t adopted universal standards that everyone can live with.
Whatever people think about the mp3 format, it’s the only convenient format that works for everything. So I spent weeks ripping my cd’s onto my hard drive while recording, copying and/or converting all the differing song formats I own into mp3s. I added tags (album, track number, date etc.) where it was missing. I learned to join clips together, remove noise and how to use an equalizer. I organized my mp3 collection alphabetically by artist and genre.
Like I said, obsessive.
And because of that, I neglected updating Encore Seraphine. I stopped visiting people. I locked myself in my room and I listened to music.
I needed the break.
My cousin lost her husband on Christmas, 44 days after he was diagnosed with cancer.

School started last week. This semester, I’m learning advanced CSS (Cascading Style Sheets– the stuff that tells a web page what to look like). This is good, because I have external structure in my life again. I know where my music is. I won’t have to hide in my room and feel guilty for it.

“So, Sera, what songs are you currently listening to?” you might ask.
Answer: Emily Wells. Take it Easy, San Francisco and Symphony 10 – Could This Really Be the End? (YouTube)

And if it really is the end,
I guess I’ll throw a big party,
and all the boys and all the girls can come out
and play with me.
A friendly game of hide-and-seek
that could, easily last for weeks, and just,
when you think its peaked, you’ll forget to pour yourself
another drink.
Youll be happy. You’ll be happy.
Youll be happy, at my party.
Lyric from Emily Wells, Symphony 10 – Could This Really Be the End?

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Blueberries

by Seraphine Khorana on October 11th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Blueberries

Blueberries are still in season and I’m finished with finals.

It is better to travel well than to arrive.
Quotation from Buddha

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
Quotation from Mother Teresa

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Making Sense of History

by Seraphine Khorana on August 14th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Making Sense of History

We spent a few days in Reno, Nevada. It seems a shabbier version of Las Vegas– a few casinos surrounded by pawn shops, tattoo parlors, wedding chapels and budget motels. Despite the recession, there are some signs of urban renewal. They have a new downtown ballpark and a Triple-A level baseball team. The Riverwalk District, not far from the casinos, offers theaters, restaurants and events like Art and Wine Walks. Reno, which proudly proclaims itself as “The Biggest Little City in the World,” has potential.
I decided to take more classes this fall. I’ll learn to create webpages using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets. Wish me luck.

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Long Hot Shower

by Seraphine Khorana on August 1st, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Long Hot Shower

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

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In Excel, Space is a Character

by Seraphine Khorana on July 2nd, 2010
Posted In: Comics
In Excel, Space is a Character

They say the universe is endless. They say the universe is expanding. These are the same people that tell you “If you want to know how something works, follow the money.” I’m certain some genius has designed a spreadsheet to explain how this is possible.

Expressed in the usual variables of general relativity, it may appear that our usual space and time are disappearing. However, viewed with the proper variables, our usual space dimensions actually remain infinite and time runs continuously. The transition from big crunch to big bang is due, instead, to the collapse, bounce and re-expansion of one of the extra dimensions.
Quotation from Paul J. Steinhardt, The Endless Universe: Introduction to the Cyclic Universe

School is going well. Casual observation, however, suggests the universe is neither endless nor expanding. The universe is a box and I am trapped inside. In Excel, the spreadsheet software from Microsoft, this is called absolute cell referencing. It is the reason why Encore Seraphine updates have become as rare as refracted rings around a summer moon.

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The Class Hottie

by Seraphine Khorana on June 28th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
The Class Hottie

The class hottie is blonde. She wears heels to class. She doesn’t talk to anyone except, before class begins, she talks on her cellphone. She doesn’t look up when the instructor is talking; she doodles on a note pad. She leaves before class is finished. Yes, this is all true.
I’m taking an accelerated class: sixteen weeks of evening study delivered in eight weeks.
My camera broke. I am having photography withdrawals. I am having to go “cold turkey” until my new Canon Powershot arrives in the mail.

In the state of withdrawal, the addict’s blood is directed to the internal organs leaving the skin white and with goose bumps.
Quotation from www.phrases.org.uk, on the meaning of “cold turkey”

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Shaving the Brain

by Seraphine Khorana on June 5th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Shaving the Brain

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

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Perfect Resume

by Seraphine Khorana on May 4th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Perfect Resume

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

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Ugly Hair Day

by Seraphine Khorana on April 19th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Ugly Hair Day

When you have an ugly hair day, conventional wisdom says to put your hair into a ponytail or wear a hair accessory. The other option is to wear an invisibility cloak.

Scientists at UC Berkeley have taken a major step toward making Harry Potter’s disguise of choice a reality. They’ve engineered two new materials — one using a fishnet of metal layers, the other using tiny silver wires — that neither absorb nor reflect light, causing it instead to bend backward.
Quotation from Time Magazine

I’m fine but you’re obviously having a bad hair day.
Quotation from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992 movie)

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Subprime Cookies

by Seraphine Khorana on April 16th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Subprime Cookies

“What’s in the cookie batter?” she wanted to know. “Lots of sugar,” he said. “Just remember I’m not responsible if you don’t like them.”

Goldman Sachs charged with fraud by SEC “These charges are far more severe than anyone had imagined,” and suggest Goldman teamed with “the leading short-seller in the industry to design a portfolio of securities that would crash,” said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia Law School in New York. (Reuters)

Abacus Allowed Goldman to Shuffle Mortgage Risk Like Beads “The SEC said that Goldman Sachs created and sold Abacus 2007-AC1 without disclosing that hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped pick the underlying securities and also bet the CDO would default. Paulson was proved correct, and his hedge fund eventually turned a $1 billion profit and CDO investors lost a similar amount, according to the SEC.” (Bloomberg)

The product was new and complex but the deception and conflicts are old and simple. Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.
Quotation from SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami

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Sun Tzu

by Seraphine Khorana on March 14th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Sun Tzu

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

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On Being Boiled Alive

by Seraphine Khorana on March 2nd, 2010
Posted In: Comics
On Being Boiled Alive

I’m trying to be sensible, but going to work after being told I am going to be laid off is weird. They want me to be committed, but how can you commit when you can’t trust your employer any longer? For another thing, I feel rejected, vulnerable and powerless. I’m being dumped. I want to get angry, but I can’t because I’m suddenly walking on thin ice. I want to grieve, but I can’t do that either. I have to go to work tomorrow; I’ll go to work until they tell me not to come in again.

Are you being given impossible jobs with no chance of success? This one is underhanded, which is why it’s so popular. The company may need a big reason to give you the boot, especially if you’ve done everything right and are the life and soul of your department. Enter the impossible task. “Ahh Wilkins, we need you to expand our new line of warm, alcohol-free beers to construction workers.”
Quotation from Paul Michael, You’re Fired! 20 Signs That a Pink Slip is Coming

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Workplace Rumors

by Seraphine Khorana on February 24th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Workplace Rumors

Eleanor Roosevelt said “Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.” But wow, if things end badly, does that mean I’m a failure?

It turns out that rumors — or, more precisely, those rumors that continue to be passed along office grapevines — tend to be substantially true.
Quotation from Joel Lovell, Workplace Rumors Are True (The New York Times)

But for most Ugandans, word of doomsday cults brings bitter memories of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, which burnt hundreds of members alive in a church in Kanungu, near the Congolese border, in March 2000. Police believe leaders systematically killed hundreds more followers after their judgment day forecast failed to happen, and corpses were found in mass graves across the country.
Quotation from Daniel Wallis, Police raid doomsday cult born from floods (Reuters)

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Crap is Art

by Seraphine Khorana on December 22nd, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Crap is Art

“When you wet the bed, first it gets warm then it gets cold.” So says James Joyce. And this is true for everything: a man’s life, a mother’s love, worldly passion, weather, fashion, technology, war, a bird in the nest, a beating heart, milk on the floor, ball bearings, anger, the sun, a barking dog, ice cream, the sound of a hand moving through water, words, sulpher, the color blue.

You never know who will have the answers… but you must push to find the questions that need to be asked.
Quotation from Jason Manley

Hence art is indefinable. (Weitz, 1956)
Quotation from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa’s Naughty List

by Seraphine Khorana on December 13th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa’s Naughty List

I’m proud to think that I’m on Santa’s Nice List. But I take secret pleasure in knowing I’m somewhere on his Naughty List too.

I was often very, incredibly naughty, and if I didn’t come home at tea time, I used to be sent to bed without any dinner. But people used to bring me things; I was better fed in bed.
Quotation from Diane Cilento

Sorry there’s no photo in today’s comic. I’ve been virtuously wrapping gifts and decorating the house this weekend. I’m hoping to avoid the last minute holiday panic that gripped me last year.

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Self-Afflicted Brain Damage

by Seraphine Khorana on December 1st, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Self-Afflicted Brain Damage

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

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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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The Giant Step

by Seraphine Khorana on September 8th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
The Giant Step

Some people are ambitious. They take big steps. Others are content with whatever life offers them. They take smaller steps. Either way, being valuable and productive still means being able to move your feet. The first step, that giant one that gives you direction, is always the hardest one to make.

Ambition is an expensive impulse, one that requires an enormous investment of emotional capital. Like any investment, it can pay off in countless different kinds of coin. The trick, as any good speculator will tell you, is recognizing the riches when they come your way.
Quotation from Ambition: Why Some People Are Most Likely To Succeed (Time Magazine)

P.S. No matter what it is you do, if you do it well enough, you can make money at it.
Final note: The wine industry is very, very big in California.

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Vintage: Ambition

by Seraphine Khorana on January 6th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Vintage: Ambition

This is another early comic.
I’m in Costa Rica for holiday. I’ll be back soon. Each day while I’m gone, I’ll present a vintage Encore Seraphine comic “rerun” from 2007. I’ve done some light editing on them, but they retain the atmosphere and content of the original. I hope you enjoy them, and I’ll have lots of new adventures to share with you when I return.
Happy New Year!

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