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.

A whistleblower is one who exposes wrongdoing in their workplace. Things don’t usually go well for whistleblowers. They get branded as “troublemakers” by their employers, or worse. Canadian Duncan Edwards reported a strip club breach of security by his Defence Minister employer and was fired for his diligence. Iranian doctor Ramin Pourandarjani died of “salad poisoning” shortly after reporting the use of torture against political prisoners by his government. Christoph Meili, the bank guard who reported the destruction of Holocaust victim’s savings records by UBS bank, had to be given political asylum in the United States after Swiss authorities attempted to arrest him. Being a whistleblower is not an easy decision to make.

Even if I thought that our printers killed baby seals, I would not be a whistleblower. The Bernards, for generations, have silenced whistleblowers. It’s how we made all our money.
Quotation from television character Andy Bernard on The Office

It was a crisis of conscience. I had to be cognizant of what could happen to my family as well as to me. I was confident I wouldn’t be able to get a job in a corporation again, certainly not in the insurance industry.
Quotation from Wendell Potter, former executive at Cigna

P.S. My heart goes out to the people of Japan in the wake of this week’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear melt-down. Don’t give up!

If you push any button long and hard enough, eventually it’s going to go out of order. Whatever you are pushing will stop (which isn’t completely true, because everything moves according to its volume, pressure, rotation and vibration; there are always internal degrees of freedom). A watch that can stop time is theoretically possible (inasmuch as anything is possible “in theory”) –and I want one. I want a watch that can create time by stopping the universe at my whim and leisure. At first, I’d be content with just one more hour of sleep, but eventually I’d tack on another hour for wakey-time. Pretty soon, I’d be up to 48-hour days and 48-month years and 48-year decades. I’d have time to work and finish my studies. I’d have time to be with friends. I’d talk to my family. I would use the same tea bag over and over until the string finally breaks. I’d make daily comics. I’d do something with my hair. I would become more generous. In the natural order of things, I’d be the one pushing the damn buttons (instead of the other way around).

And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.
Quotation from William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II

I’m trying a new image format for today’s comic– a format that employs lossless data compression called png (portable network graphics) instead of my usual jpeg graphic. I think almost everyone can view the png format, unless you are using an obscure or very old browser. Let me know how you like it. Do you have any trouble seeing my comic? Does it take too long to load? Can you tell the difference?

PNG is considered a better choice than JPEG for storing images that contain text, line art, or other images with sharp transitions. Where an image contains both sharp transitions and photographic parts, a choice must be made between the large but sharp PNG and a small JPEG with artifacts around sharp transitions.
Quotation from Wikipedia.

The United States Constitution established freedom of religion in America in 1791. The right is guaranteed in the First Amendment, along with freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Specifically, it says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Even though 60% of Americans currently oppose an Islamic Cultural Center near the World Trade Center site, freedom of religion is what makes America different from many other countries. If we deny some people the right to worship the way they please, then the nature of our society will change and none of us will truly be free again.

But let me be clear. As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.
Quotation from President Barack Obama

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.

Sex is better when you can think of more things to like about someone than things you don’t like. It helps if the things you like aren’t all superficial.

The less you talk, the more sex you will get.
Ryan, 30, as quoted in Glamour Magazine, 101 Ways to Have the Best Sex of Your Life

My grandmother told me, ‘He should love you more than you love him.’ Two years and a bad breakup later, I realized that dating someone I loved less was an exercise in mind-numbing boredom.
Ruthie, 31, ibid.

The tragic oil “spill” in the Gulf of Mexico continues. BP CEO Tony Hayward’s congressional hearing this week was a disappointment. I wanted him to tell Congress that BP takes every precaution to prevent accidents like this. I wanted to hear that safety and protecting the environment is as important to him as profits. After all, Mr. Hayward was appointed in 2007 to “clean up” BP after the Texas City refinery fire of 2005 and the Prudhoe Bay pipeline spills that occured the following year. But instead of changing the penny-pinching corporate culture of BP, he cut expenses and eliminated 7,500 jobs.

Does America’s rightous indignation make you feel uncomfortable? It does me. Two months ago, we were angry at Goldman Sachs. BP is just the villain du jour. The underlying problem is we– as a society– tolerate expediency over having to make difficult choices. Too many of us think it’s ok to use torture as a tool in the war against terrorism. Why do Republicans and Democrats point fingers at each other rather than fix the health care system or Social Security? Where is the indignation over having 300,000 homeless children in California?
Doing the right thing proactively is always less costly and painful than damage control after something bad happens.

Far From Gulf, a Spill Scourge 5 Decades Old (The New York Times) “The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years.”

Be inspired by: The Excitement is Building (on Habitat for Humanity) “Everyone is pretty ordinary. No divas or superstars. But together we make a very big difference.”

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

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Those are the five stages of, well, everything seriously bad that happens to us– grief, lost relationships, addiction, job dislocation and death– to name a few (as if one can bargain with grief and death).
Nothing in life seems quite so orderly, however. Some people never get past their own feelings of anger and bitterness. Others seem to live in a perpetual state of grace and total acceptance (though in the interest of disclosure, I haven’t yet met anyone that fits that description). Life is an ongoing process, and I feel blessed– even in spite of it all.

Romeo: Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear…
Juliet: O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Quotation from William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche