Sunday, April 22, 2012

Compliment

Today's comic almost not brought to you by hangover. Hangover: it's a hammer to your head. 

Urgh...

Friday, April 20, 2012

Book Review: The Demon-Haunted World (1995)

Astrophysicist Carl Sagan wrote this book before he died of pneumonia in '96, after a long struggle against myelodysplasia. Sagan is credited with popularizing science -- remember Contact, the 1997 film starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey? That was based on a 1985 novel written by Sagan. He's a cool nerd.

The Demon-Haunted World reminds readers of the hysterics our species is capable of when we're not using our critical thinking skillz. Sagan writes about UFO mania (X-Files wooo!), faith healing, witch hunts, and about this one guy who claimed to channel a thousand-year-old spirit and was a sensation in Australia -- and then he admitted he had made it all up -- and then people wrote to him saying, "We believe in you." LOL

This book comes before our internet age, so I find it a little quaint, especially since he advocates making information readily available and I just used Wikipedia about ten times to write the first paragraph of this post. But of course, the point is not just to regurgitate facts -- Sagan earnestly believed that human societies have to promote science learning to improve the human condition, and science learning means questioning everything. Be skeptical!, he urges readers. Think it through! But if even if you have all the evidence and you know you're right, don't be a jerk about it!

Sagan says: learn science (the earlier the better), or at least cultivate a scientific (read: evidence hoor) mind.

I have zero talent in anything above the science basics, which is a shame because otherwise I'd be a veterinarian right now and my real life-based cat comics would be supplemented with dog, hamster, fish, ferret, bird, and who-knows-what-else comics. I might even have drawn humorous strips of me learning the veterinary ropes on cows and horses and pigs and chickens. Or alligators? But, alas.

Where was I? Oh yes, The Demon-Haunted World. It's a good read because of its instructive examples, although he does go on for too long about alien abductions. Also, ironically--for all his arguments against the notion that science is too hard, Sagan completely lost me when he explained Maxwell's equations demonstrating the electromagnetic field. Heck, I would've skipped them even if the symbols had shown up correctly on my Kindle. SCIENCE IS HARD OKAY

But yes, science is a candle in the dark. The wax is solidified ethics, social responsibility, and moral decency;  the wick is intellectual curiosity and talent; and the flame is knowledge. 

Everything is better with sparkles. Just ask vampires.

(And Carl Sagan turns over in his grave...)

Happy Friday!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Buy my book!


Stunning fake book cover brought to you by Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Paint!

Fake testimonials:

"This book changed my life completely. Completely. I had no idea that literally spelling it out for my boyfriend would allow him a glimpse into my perspective. Thank you, Fragrant Elephant!" -Helvetica A. Impact

"This how-to book should win a bunch of awards. As a relationship tool, Diagrams of Lurve™ is a triumph of visual reasoning and emotional intelligence." -Algernon Flowers

"Este libro huele a miel." -Shakira

"Meow." -Oscar

Happy Friday!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

My Little Blog is Regular!

Comics will be uploaded on Wednesdays and Sundays. Also, due to popular demand, I will start drawing hair on my round-headed avatar. You may reimburse me for my hard work by admiring my comics for an extra 1.2 seconds.

Upcoming comics:
04/15/2012 -- "A Blast from the Past" -- A BOOBS employee writes to Faceless Employee after many months.
04/18/2012 -- "Sleepless" -- Cats are nocturnal, did you know?
04/22/2012 -- "Compliment" -- What not to do when comparing a woman to a flower.
04/25/2012 -- "Facehugger" -- You'll understand when you see the comic.

Obsessive organization brought to you by genes!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Sunday, April 8, 2012

A Game of What?


Boyfriend took me to PAX East for an entire weekend of gaming fun. Now, I used to think I was old school because I still played SNES games, but Boyfriend is a tabletop gamer. (= Dungeons & Dragons. ...No, no, don't run away!)

Moving on. We sat down to demo A Game of Thrones, and the rules confused me but I soldiered on because I knew that if I was good, Boyfriend would get me swag (stuff we all get, aka merchandise). We stopped the demo after a few turns because there was a girl at the table who was getting angrier by the second at her boyfriend, who kept ignoring her. She had no eyebrows, but made up for the fact by having pure hatred shoot out of her eyes. I am not even kidding.

If you haven't checked out A Game of Thrones the board game, don't. Just watch the HBO show, because at least then all the deception, betrayal, and incest are done by attractive people. Remember: beauty means never having to say you're sorry.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming of cat comics. I might sneak in a slice-of-life puff piece here and there.

Happy Easter!