Posts Tagged ‘Encore Seraphine’

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From the Archives: Driving and Sex

by Seraphine Khorana on June 28th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
From the Archives: Driving and Sex

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.

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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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Mistaken

by Seraphine Khorana on September 14th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Mistaken

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.

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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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#800

by Seraphine Khorana on May 22nd, 2010
Posted In: Comics
#800

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)

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On Being Blonde

by Seraphine Khorana on May 2nd, 2010
Posted In: Comics
On Being Blonde

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”

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Sticky Pants

by Seraphine Khorana on March 27th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Sticky Pants

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

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This is Stupid

by Seraphine Khorana on January 13th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
This is Stupid

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

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Loaded for Bear

by Seraphine Khorana on November 28th, 2008
Posted In: Comics
Loaded for Bear

Encore Seraphine has been down for a few days. In a nutshell, somebody exploited a software vulnerability. My webhost rightly suspended the website until the problem was fixed.
My heart goes out to the victims of the terrible violence in Mumbai, India.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Quotation from Mother Teresa
In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.
Another quotation from Mother Teresa
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Quotation from Mohandas Gandhi

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