New Drummer

This strip came as a result of my other blog. It is post number 666, so I wanted to bring inthe theme of 666 and maybe mark of the beast. However, I did not want to be heavy-handed nor make it a religious diatribe. So, the first idea was to use mark of the beast, but what if it was makr of the beats. Then, I decided to make them a rock group or something. So, I named them along the lines of 666 and filled in the rest.

Georgie Peorgie

It is true that this one is not very geeky, but it does fit the theme of reworking nursery rhymes. It is also true that this one seems to slam George W., but that is only because that is where the name of the nursery rhyme led me. I try to make fun of both political parties equally. This cartoon started to take shape with panel 1 when I looked for a way to make my version have the same cadence as the original. So, I started thinking about what I would change 'puddin and pie' to and ex-prez of mine came to mind. From there, it flowed in panel order. Then, I decided to add commentary that would soften the tone overall, so I included snide comments from two political commentators.

I Gotta Learn to Draw

These cartoons are created using standard Visio images, so I always have to tweak my ideas to present them using one or more guys talking with a minimal of supporting images. So, I used their computer image, drew an oval for a mouse, and displayed the text image on the screen in the final panel. Yes, it still gets my message across, but I might have presented it a bit differently if I drew everything. Oh well. For now, that is a pipe dream.

This is obviously a take-off on Little Miss Muffet (LMM). I wanted to keep the meter the same and also use the same rhyming scheme of AABBA. That meant not using the same ending sounds as the original. Where did this one start? I thought about the spider that scared LMM and wondered what would scare a programmer-type? What if their mouse stopped working? So, panel two was first, and then I just lined up my rhymes.

HumpITy DumpITy

This strip developed quickly. Moving from Humpty to HumpITy was my first direction. Then, instead of fell off the wall, I thought of firewall. The rest of the comic developed to complete the already established theme. And the fine drawings. As always, straight from the standard Visio library.

Little Miss NERDer

Continuing the NERDsery rhymes theme, I take on Little Miss Muffet. With so few lines and limited rhyming options, I had to change names and the running away aspect of the original. At first, I ended with her having to rebuild the servers. That led to maybe replacing them with Macs (so of the antithesis of server geeks). That led to just an iPhone could maybe do it. So, then I rewrote a few lines and ended with the iPhone idea.

Old McDaniel

This idea came from a team brainstorming activity and someone suggested the PMPMO phrase. The rest of the planning came from thinking of rhymes and a way to advance the same story through the panels. I toyed with CECEO instead of CICIO, but I really liked the similarity to EIEIO, so stayed with CICIO, even though that felt dangerously close to the actual reporting structure at work. This is the first of several skewered nursery rhymes.

March Surgery

This one was based on a suggestion from a teammate. She reminded me that some surgeon was discounting vasectomies during March Madness so men would have a valid excuse to lay around and watch the games. It is certainly thinking out of the box, right? I chose to say elective surgeries rather than vasectomies so that the character could say he had LASIK. Then, at the end, he is excited about Jerry Springer. Uh, yeah! Jerry! Jerry!

March Madness

Today's cartoon is related, but different from the first pass. Dad suggested the idea on Saturday as he was helping me finish some plumbing work on a toilet. His idea was to actually build it around March Madness. So, the first panel would have been the same. The second would talk about did you finish the brackets and the other person replies they are not working on shelving. In the third, he asks where they put Indiana and the other person replies it never moved or something similar. And then? Well, that was why I changed it. I couldn't find a clever twist for the end. So, I chose to make it two separate conversations with questions that could be interpreted both ways. That led to a closing panel with the reveal of both directions.

CoV Anniversary

This is cartoon #246, with the first one published Mar 19, 2009. Why aren't there 365? Well, I do not publish on weekends or when I am out for vacation or illness.

The gang at work challenged me to not let the anniversary go by without a commemorative strip. Of course, I did not want to make it congratulatory or smarmy at all. And some people have not not liked certain of the cartoons. Oh well. Anyway, I wrote this one from the top down. Toyota was something I wanted to add in from when I first started creating today's CoV. However, the final comment was what took some creative energy. What would the reader not expect if someone were congratulating another for one year of some anniversary? So, I wrote that it has been more than a year, but the bad stuff started one year ago.

New Storage Technology

Come on now. What would you have titled this cartoon? It is about nothing more than rapid filing of a petabyte of data.

Often, I play a mental game of breaking down a word and evaluating other words that sound like the word or the syllables that make up the word. Somehow, I linked peta with pedo and today's CoV idea was born. Why did I think of the first word. As usual, during the morning commute, they were talking about another teacher who molested one or more of his students. It is truly sad and disgusting and those people deserve whatever judgment they get. Sorry. End of soapbox.

Just a Pinch

What can you say about this CoV? I needed to write about today's celebration, and so the two key things traditionally happening today are green beer (for many adults) and pinching someone not wearing green (for many children and child-like adults). Since I could think of a spin on pinching and not beer, I chose that. The final challenge was to find the final response from the second character. Sometimes, that line is where a strip is built from, and sometimes, the strip seems to flow and I have to create the last panel. That was the case on this one. I also wanted to make sure that the guy getting pinched and pinching was not the one colored green.

Driving While Tired

Do you ever doubt that statistics can be twisted in whatever way they need to be to prove a point. That is all today's strip is about. I heard the radio announcer say that it is statistically safer to drive under the influence than when you are really tired. So that begs the question as to whether or not you could offset one condition with the other. It also makes me want to search for other statistics that I could skewer in the comic strip.

AmazinGRace

It was Sunday night. I had no ideas for today's Clarity of Vision. My wife suggested I do one on Amazing Race. Now, I have certainly noticed before that the two words confused in today's strip sound alike, especially if spoken together. So, then I had to weave in a means for each character to speak their ideas without tipping off the other that they were talking about different interpretations. I had more misunderstandings in mind, but you can only add so much into a four-panel strip. I wanted to mention the host, but decided Bruckheimer would be easier to describe as creating so many different things. I toyed with the idea of mentioning winning something, but again, space limitations forced me to focus on fewer key elements.

GWB Library

I actually came up with the final panel quote first and then looked for who might do that in a public speech.

Moot Point

I have a list of future potential topics. This one has been queued for months and I did not find a more timely topic for today. There are other misused words in my list, so you will see this idea again in the future. I tied it into project methodology because we are in the midst of rethinking ours. And this is the third time since I have been there.

Hands Free Cell

AZ does not have a ban on talking on a cell phone while driving, but many states do. So I was wondering if there was some way to accomplish the same purpose without buying a new cell or a bluetooth flashing Borg-type device.

Yak Hair

Do you ever watch any of those drug or product commercials that have twice as many warnings as benefits? I heard one on the radio while driving in today and it made me wonder who still wants those products. Obviously, someone does.

Scottish Games

I go to the Scottish Games her in the Valley every year. No wait, I cannot say that anymore because I missed it this year. It was last weekend, but I did not remember because we don't get a paper anymore so I did not see any reminders. Anyway, that made me think about how others see the athletes (or others maybe) who wear the kilts and carry a dubh in their socks. I decided on the content of the third panel first and then filled in around it.

No Projector

What explanation is necessary here? I held a meeting in a room that does have a projector, but there were no cables for it, not even power. I am sorry, but that does not really count as the room having a projector. So, we all crowded around my laptop to review the Powerpoint presentation.

Water Softener

One day, I heard commercials for two different water softener brands in the space of ten minutes during my morning commute. So I thought about what would happen if you bought both of them because you could not decide which was better. With two, would the water get so soft that you couldn't even feel it? If that happened, though,how could you tell if it was working very well or broken? That started today's Clarity of Vision.

Reorged Again

Of course, you can guess where this one originated. I now have my fourth boss in 18 months. So maybe they should consider having a template that would let them just throw in a new name as often as they choose?

Figure Skater

I had this one ready last week during the Olympics, but an office birthday delayed publication. I just wondered if adding in falls on purpose would let them count as good instead of bad. No, I didn't really wonder that. I write a cartoon strip.

Birthday Fuss

Well, we just finished the Olympics, but they may show up again the strip. However, one of our teammates has a birthday today, so this is for her. However, she would not want me to fuss over her. We have no cake, no card. So this strip is my gift.