Shock and Awe
Ah, static electricity, that awesome power of nature. If this has never happened to you, count yourself among a lucky minority. I’ve lost several good friends on account of some socks that were just a little too good at generating static. They will be missed.
There are times that I wish reality worked the way it does in comics and novels. Magic, exaggerated physical effects, dudes going super saiyan, there’s something appealing about most of that. Fantasy works because life is typically pretty dull by comparison. Everyone wants to take a break from work and the oft depressing world of reality at some point. That’s sort of why this is a comic as well as a blog. The comic is meant to give you a laugh, a smile, a break from the normal and the blog is meant to help inform, entertain, and put things into perspective for you and for me. There’s a nice balance there that I think is helpful for people. It is, at least, helpful for me.
Sometimes, when I feel like life is just too much, I end up being distracted from my own internal issues by something that seems totally mundane. Snow, trees, animals going about their business, the particular movement patterns of people, these things are all amazing if we stop to think about it. They’re more amazing than any fantasy writer could come up with. The natural world is full of incredible things that surround us every day and that we tune out on a daily basis. They’ve become part of the rhythm of the music of life that plays every day. Even the simplest things, like static electricity, are mind-blowingly cool if you stop to think about them. Electrical forces being generated through friction? How is that not awesome?
I get the sense that most other human beings don’t really feel this way, that somehow I’m kind of weird. I know that it’s difficult to step back from the lives we lead and open our eyes up to the wondrous things that surround us, but it has been a huge factor in maintaining my happiness. To stare at the sky and see the stars and realize that my birth was an almost impossible event, statistically speaking, is simultaneously humbling and uplifting. There are some who find a kind of solace in a creator that had a hand in their birth and that watches over them, but I find that solace in the incredible balance that the universe has produced. We walk a fine line between chaos and order every day and it’s this balance that allows us to be here right now, experiencing what we do. It’s nearly impossible to hold this concept in my mind at all times, but it’s something I strive for. As someone that pays a great deal of attention to human affairs, it’s helpful to have something like this to put everything into perspective. When humanity makes me feel down, I can look at the stars an the grass and the trees and know that somehow everything will be okay.
If there were one piece of advice I could give everyone, it would be to find something that helps give you a sense of perspective. Find it and cultivate a mindset that allows you to consider it whenever you have a free mental minute. That way, when traffic looks bad and you’re starting to get angry, you can just step back, realize that it’s not really a big deal in the grand scheme of the universe, and save yourself some anger and suffering and, maybe, save someone else some suffering from your anger as well.
If I could offer a second piece of advice it would be to always be very careful with static electricity. You never know what could happen and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Your friends are precious. Please don’t electrocute them.
Discussion (37) ¬
Danger danger high voltage
When we touch, when we kiss!
The power of static electricity is too great for you to wield!
This looks like it was probably fun to draw.
Panel 2 was my favourite part haha
It’s all because of that giant metal zipper. If lil’ K didn’t have that he’d still be alive. *shakes head sadly*
His zipper just keeps getting bigger! And more powerful O_O soon it will reanimate K and possess him in order to enact its revenge.
Wait… Wasn’t Allev dead already?
K is now also dead but will presumeably show up in the next strip… so don’t forget, god is his roommate…
Sure…
I realize you’re being humorous here, but static electricity is a VERY REAL threat.
I’ve got my desk about… 6 feet from my bed. Waking up, and walking to my computer across the carpet, I take… perhaps 3 steps.
That alone generates enough static charge for me to completely shut down my computer–merely by touching my mouse. Or the edge of my keyboard. Or the shelf it’s on.
On the upside, I DO get to see lightning shoot out of my fingertips.
Static electricity by itself is awesome, but have you seen it in the dark?! *Drools* It´s like small lightining inside your sheets xD
” It´s like small lightining inside your sheets ”
I’m not touching that one. O_O
^*snort* That was a pun… :B
u hu hu hu
I see what you did there!
My mind = straight to the gutter. Sorry about that.
Your blog some how puts me in mind of the machine in one of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy novels that makes you see the whole universe in comparison to yourself, Douglas Adams described it as a terrifying thing that drove the person who experienced it mad but like you I’ve always found the statistical improbability both fascinating and beautiful rather then scary…
Also, try using generating static on a trampoline, they’re brilliant 😀
I absolutely adore everything Douglas Adams ever did. The Hitchhiker’s Guide was a huge inspiration and one of the things that helped me decide to get into writing comic strips, believe it or not. If you’ve never read his Dirk Gently novels, you really must give them a shot 🙂
And yes, this is sort of how I felt when I read that bit in THG. That whole thing with Zaphod and the created universe was just priceless as well hahaha
Rest assured K, I think like that as well. I am a strong believer in what I like to call the “Church of the Coincidence”. The very fact that we’re at this point is just a huge series of coincidences that could have gone any number of other directions, and I like that 😀
You have a beautiful mind. I know exactly how you feel and how wonderful it is to be able to step back and see how unbelievable it is that not only were we born, but we actually made it to this point. Statistically speaking, I should not be who I am. It’s just so unlikely. But I am. So that sense of perspective, as you call it, keeps me grounded. I would like to think that makes me unique among most teenagers, but I know that’s just adolescent ego-centric. I struggle every day to not take my life for granted, and I hope one day I can do it as easily as you.
/faux-intellectual introspective babbling over
Though I don’t always think about it, I agree completely about how incredible this world is, and how uplifting it can be for us. I’d like to mention that while I believe God created this universe, I’m glad that we feel the same about his creation, regardless of our beliefs. Also my jacket causes me to get shocked by my door every time I get up…Ouch
This sort of thing makes me happy. It’s wonderful to be able to disagree on something without eating each other alive. It’s much more beneficial to enjoy life and existence even if the root beliefs are a little different. 🙂
Zippers are immune to lightning, clearly.
K’s zipper is obviously enchanted with some powerful magicks! Duh!
hahah
It has + Res to elec, unfortunately that didn’t carry over to K
I remember in a class designed to help develop self esteem, one of the tasks was to examine your little finger. The aim was to realise all that goes on within it (the muscles, the bones, the blood, the atoms), the interaction behind the brain and the muscles and all the evolution that went into making it and the processes behind it.
And once you had realised how amazing your little finger was, you could extend it to the rest of yourself and how amazing and improbable you were.
I guess it stuck with me.
Lol it almost seems as if each comic lil K’s zipper gets successively bigger and bigger o.O
I love this comic/blog/awesome place
Part of your post reminds me of a quote from Damon Knight:
“The stars are high, life is short, and the house always takes a percentage. But Man himself is so unlikely that if he did not exist, his possibility would not be worth discussing. “
The comic is, as always, great, but the blog post = concentrated awesomeness.
I’ve had to write an essay on whether belief in God is beneficial for a fulfilling life. What you wrote is pretty much what I meant to say about that.
….though I must admit, the knowledge of the statistical probability of my existence makes me more proud than humbled. (as in: “Hell yeah! I exist!” :D)
anyways, K, if I don’t comment on your comics very often, that’s just because all I could contribute has already been said…. but I read, and enjoy, all of them.
I think Monty Python’s Galaxy Song needs to be plugged here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk
Also, as someone who gets shocked as much as 20 times a day, no, it is not amazing and wonderful. It’s freaking annoying, I almost have a twitch I ground myself with metal so often.
o.o
As someone who gets shocked maybe twice a year, you have my sympathies.
I’ve been shocked in the neck 🙁
“Snow, trees, animals going about their business, the particular movement patterns of people, these things are all amazing if we stop to think about it. They’re more amazing than any fantasy writer could come up with. […] To stare at the sky and see the stars and realize that my birth was an almost impossible event, statistically speaking, is simultaneously humbling and uplifting.”
This. So much this. The world is freaking amazing, and it baffles me how few people seem to realise it.
Whenever I’m down or bored or I just have braincycles to spare, I spend my time trying to reason out and fit together, or just marvel at, these incredibly complex (yet, when you get down to it, mindbogglingly simple) systems, some completely invisible to us and others hiding in plain sight – human relationships, quantum physics, cellular biology, evolution, traffic flow, weather, genes and descent, geography… there’s just so much detail in the universe. Not to mention the sheer scale of things. I love it.
Looks like you’re not much of a Blanka fan…
I have amusing memories of getting statically charged in gym class and then zapping a friend while we were running laps
yes! now that the owner is gone I can finally claim the zipper as my own and gain the powers of it’s previous host! MUAHAHAHA! (and fix my jacket)