Posts Tagged ‘Life’

27 items.

From the Archives: Toilet Alley

by Seraphine Khorana on June 26th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
From the Archives: Toilet Alley

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.

└ Tags: , , , ,
3 Comments

“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!”

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
33 Comments

Death Cap (Amanita phalloides)

by Seraphine Khorana on March 5th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Death Cap (Amanita phalloides)

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

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
26 Comments

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?

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
30 Comments

“Pardon my French”

by Seraphine Khorana on September 4th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
“Pardon my French”

I paid my car off in April. Do you know how nice it is not to have car payments? So the Universe blessed my good fortune by hurling a truck at me this week and destroying my little, completely-paid-for, all-mine car. My insurance company gave me a check and said I’m supposed to replace my Honda with a comparable one. The “catch” is nobody takes care of their cars as well as I do. There isn’t a Honda that is “just like mine” for sale anywhere. I bought a newer one that cost me an additional ten thousand dollars. Alas, I’m making car payments again. Thank you Universe– I’m at least blessed that nobody was injured in the wreck.

I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it.
Quotation from Jack Handey

Bart, with $10,000, we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like… love!
Quotation from Homer Simpson

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
42 Comments

Day Old Cake

by Seraphine Khorana on July 8th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Day Old Cake

Out of curiosity, I googled how many days old I am. Then I tried to remember as many of those days as I could. I found eureka moments, childhood memories, people, places, my wedding day, adventures, some Christmases. I remembered important days as well as insignificant days that were somehow important enough to be retained. I regretably confess I cannot remember all 14,368 days.
No, today isn’t my birthday, but I will nonetheless try to make it memorable.

Here is a “How Many Days Young Am I?” calculator. (Derbyshire Guide)

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.
Quotation from Richard Bach

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
33 Comments

Making My Mark

by Seraphine Khorana on June 14th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Making My Mark

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

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
31 Comments

At Other Times, I Feel Blessed

by Seraphine Khorana on June 1st, 2010
Posted In: Comics
At Other Times, I Feel Blessed

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

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
29 Comments

The Precise Behavior of Exceptions

by Seraphine Khorana on April 12th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
The Precise Behavior of Exceptions

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

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
47 Comments

Top of the Food Chain

by Seraphine Khorana on March 24th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Top of the Food Chain

If you think fats and oils are at the top of the food chain, you deserve at least partial credit for a correct answer. But bacteria breaks down oil in this rock-paper-scissors game we call Life.

For the first half of geological time, our ancestors were bacteria. Most creatures still are bacteria, and each one of our trillions of cells is a colony of bacteria.
Quotation from Richard Dawkins

Salad bars are like a restaurant’s lungs. They soak up the impurities and bacteria in the environment, leaving you with much cleaner air to enjoy.
Quotation from Doug Coupland

If you don’t change, then what’s the point of anything happening to you?
Another quotation from Doug Coupland

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
31 Comments

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

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
36 Comments

Technically Correct

by Seraphine Khorana on January 25th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Technically Correct

The house and the tree in the header photo remind me of an old married couple. When one finally goes, the other will die shortly after.

They were watching Animal Planet, one of their favorite shows, when a nurse’s aide checked on them.
“I’m going to die today,” Lolie told the aide, who asked her if she needed to go back to the hospital.
No, she just felt “different,” Lolie told her.
When the aide came back a short time later, Lolie wasn’t breathing. Moments later, they discovered James had also passed away.
Quotation from Wendy Victora, NWF Daily News “Couple together for 59 years; Die moments apart”

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
38 Comments

Everything Comes

by Seraphine Khorana on January 18th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Everything Comes

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

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
43 Comments

Sugarcoating

by Seraphine Khorana on January 9th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Sugarcoating

A reader left a comment here yesterday: “Yeah, yeah. Let’s shower each other with compliments. You scratch my back, I will scratch yours. All are happy. I’m fed up with the over-sugarness in the photo-blogosphere. “Brilliant!”, “Incredible!”, “Great!” … blah.”
Having grown up in a negative household, I prefer having my back scratched. Too much sugar is preferable to sourness and the occasional bitter taste that life insists on feeding us. But, dear reader, I appreciate the honest comment. Thanks!

They loved my friend Adam
But he always got caught.
Man, that kid made fucking up look cool.
Aren’t we all so cool now? No.
Lyrics from Something Corporate, Cavanaugh Park

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
51 Comments

Nothing Lasts Forever, Q.E.D.

by Seraphine Khorana on December 15th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Nothing Lasts Forever, Q.E.D.

Quod erat demonstrandum might as well mean “Quickly ends discussion.” It’s a somewhat pretentious notation placed at the end of a mathematical proof to indicate its completion.

Freud may have been too conservative in his characterization of the unconscious. The architecture of the mind is such that a great deal of mental processing occurs outside of conscious awareness.
Quotation from Timothy D. Wilson, Know Thyself

I am who I choose to be. I always have been what I chose, though not always what I pleased.
Quotation from Lois McMaster Bujold

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
28 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)

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
26 Comments

Sometimes there isn’t a choice

by Seraphine Khorana on October 30th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Sometimes there isn’t a choice

Yesterday wasn’t a good day. I misjudged a step, fell down and broke my thumb. When I got home from the emergency room, my sister called to tell me Aunt Lucille died. Sometimes, there isn’t any choice but to accept whatever happens.

Well why do the hands of time
So easily unwind?
Some lessons we learn the hard way.
Some lessons don’t come easy and
That’s the price we have to pay.
Song by Melody Gardot, Some Lessons

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
31 Comments

Another One of Life’s Shining Moments

by Seraphine Khorana on October 15th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Another One of Life’s Shining Moments

I’m on my way out, she said,
like she was picking up keys
after finishing the grocery list
and buttoning her coat
before quietly closing
the door after her.
Poem for Aunt Lucille, recently diagnosed with incurable liver cancer.

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
25 Comments

Is that a Vampire Bite?

by Seraphine Khorana on September 21st, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Is that a Vampire Bite?

Consider donating blood to your local blood bank. It’s life giving. Afterwards, they give you cookies.

She loves blood-red poppies for a garden to walk in.
In a loose white gown she walks
and a new child tugs at cords in her body.
Her head to the west at evening when the dew is creeping,
A shudder of gladness runs in her bones and torsal fiber:
She loves blood-red poppies for a garden to walk in.
Poem by Carl Sandburg, Poppies

└ Tags: , , , , , , ,
15 Comments

Taller in Comparison to Time

by Seraphine Khorana on September 15th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Taller in Comparison to Time

As the days get shorter, I resolve to be taller.

Time drops in decay,
Like a candle burnt out,
And the mountains and woods
Have their day, have their day.
Poem by W.B. Yeats, The Moods

└ Tags: , , , , , , ,
11 Comments

A Peep Out of Me

by Seraphine Khorana on August 22nd, 2009
Posted In: Comics
A Peep Out of Me

1. Make some noise. It’s life affirming.
2. “What seemed corporal melted as breath into the wind.”
3. Years from now, nobody will remember anyway.

Come, come, come, come, give me your hand.
What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
Spoken by Lady Macbeth, The Tragedy of Macbeth by Wm. Shakespeare

└ Tags: , , , , , , ,
13 Comments

Sorry I’m Not Perking

by Seraphine Khorana on July 14th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Sorry I’m Not Perking

Rule #355: Neither be a Genki Girl nor a Mopey One.

With the lights out, it’s less dangerous.
Here we are now, entertain us.
I feel stupid and contagious.
Here we are now, entertain us:
A mulatto, an albino,
A mosquito,
My libido, a denial.
Lyrics by Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit

└ Tags: , , , ,
15 Comments

Rated #1 Among The Moon People

by Seraphine Khorana on June 10th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Rated #1 Among The Moon People

I believe life exists wherever life is possible.

Garfield Minus Garfield A site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle.
Alien Presence on the Moon? (UFO Casebook) According to the NASA Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the aliens have a base on the Moon and they told us in no uncertain terms to get off and stay off!

└ Tags: , , , , ,
9 Comments

Alter-Google Earth

by Seraphine Khorana on May 19th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Alter-Google Earth

So why exactly did God (or Allah, Yahweh, El Roi, Gore, Sophia, Zhu, Budda, Elohim, Abba) invent the Internet? Surely, the Answer to Life is contained therein, or the Internet wouldn’t exist. One final question regarding our human identity, because I have forgotten the answer: Are we Blips, or are we The Others?

If you type “the answer to life, the universe and everything” into Google (without quotes or capitalising the small words), the Google Calculator will give you 42.
Quotation from Wikipedia (Wikipedia.org)

The Campaign to Save Paste: If you donate anything, even a dollar, to save Paste magazine, you’ll get download access to their vault of over 100 songs, which currently includes artists such as Cowboy Junkies, Indigo Girls and Neko Case. Seriously good music! Bettye LaVette’s Change is Gonna Come alone is worth the price of admission.

└ Tags: , , , , ,
9 Comments
  • Page 1 of 2
  • 1
  • 2
  • »