Going To An Agile Shop

I considered an end-of-year comic, but a) I could not think of a clever premise, and b) the one idea I thought of will work better as a New Year joke. So, then I considered using the new gamer CIO again, but decided to give him a rest. Then, I noticed an agile poster on my cubicle wall and went with the misunderstanding of what Agile really means in the computer world.

What Game Did He Say?

As a twist, I decided to have the new CIO say things that sound like the name of a game, but not actually refer to them. Then, someone else could be hearing a game even though it was not mentioned.

Your Move, Mr CIO

As you might have suspected, more game references by the new CIO. No, my company does not have a new CIO, but I needed a speaker that would hold meetings at this level to allow some of the references.

The Game of Being a CIO

This concept could be played with any number of game titles. For this comic, I stuck with some standards that everyone can recognize. There are some other game titles that I may use in future CoVs.

Spirit of the Season

I wanted to write a comic involving the different beliefs celebrated around the end of the year, but that did not really lead to a humorous ending. So, I made it so that the purpose of the discussion was about getting the gifts. I did keep a couple of different religions in there just so that Mr. Blue would have silly comments showing he did not know anything about those religions.

Tough Sheriff

A local sheriff seems to constantly invite national scrutiny, whether it is having prisoners wear pink boxers, use pink handcuffs, or elevate our tough immigration policy. So, he is under some sort of federal investigation for spending and he can no longer perform immigration sweeps. So, I think his idea of a white Christmas may not be the traditional interpretation.

Put on Your Yarmulke

It is the first day of Hanukkah. And like today's comic strip said, everything I know about Hanukkah came from the Adam Sandler song. Well, maybe not everything, but I don't really know much about it. I know that the menorah is said to have burned eight days on a single day's worth of oil. I just heard them mention it on the news this morning and thought of the song and decided to base my strip on someone who knows nothing more about Hanukkah than the song.

Karaoke Practice

Well, I'm sure you can guess that yesterday was our office party, and we did have Karaoke. No one sang quite this bad (well, maybe me), but I think none of us will be trying our for American Idol or The X-Factor. Once I had the concept for this comic, I just needed to decide what twist I would add in panel 4. I then thought of glass shattering, which meant I needed to have one of the characters wearing glasses. Then, the E.R. ending seemed obvious.

Business Metaphors

I was reviewing my To Do list before starting the comic this morning and saw the words Global Roadmap. That was enough to send me spiraling out of control into the different meanings of the word. And that was enough to create today's CoV. By the way, the map is of Central Texas. The dashboard is from a Toyota.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Like so many songs, if you actually listen to the words, there can be a different message.

Alarming Light

I came in today with no fresh ideas, so I pulled this one from my Someday File. There is an alarm clock that gradually lights your room to wake you, so I wondered about what would happen if it were to get too bright.

Come Out Swinging

I obviously heard someone say they needed to come out swinging, but I don't know where or who.

A Steppenwolf in Time

I know that you know that I would have at least one more comic with the TCP/IP machine in it. You may have known, although I did not until I wrote it, that it is possible that it works, as evidenced by the comment in panel 4. And nobody knows if there will be another CoV about it because I haven't even thought about next week yet.

A TCPIP Problem

I heard the phrase "I need it yesterday" in a workplace conversation yesterday. That led me to consider how we could deliver an assignment yesterday before we know it is needed. Why, you'd need a time machine. Then, I decided to have one that malfunctions and duplicates a person instead of simply transporting them through time. As I was writing this, I thought of using the phrase time portal instead of time machine...which led to seeking a way to name it TCP/IP.

Take a Few Minuets

Yes, I did say minuets instead of minutes. When you think of a word, don't you ever alter the way it sounds either out loud or in your mind. Of course you do, like pronouncing Target as Tar-jay. So, I read minute as minuet and took off. Then, I wanted the other voice in the office to suggest another way they could tweak their employees in the final panel.

Project Training

I decided to go with a Project Manager-themed concept today. Who knows? Maybe I am training you to salivate when you know a new CoV is coming? No, I don't know why I chose this direction.

I Need a Power Strip

I was at a church concert last night and saw an unused power strip in the corner. That was enough to trigger this comic strip.

BOGO

I am sure this is one everybody has thought of, but if you only read the words of the advertisement, they don't always say what the half-off refers to.

Project Venn Diagram

No specific reason that I used this idea today. I do not know where I got the concept, but I did struggle a bit deciding how to end it. At first, I only had the first comment in the final panel, but that didn't seem to work as a closing statement, so I added the other two comments.

How to Increase Donations

There are people at every entrance to every business right now seeking Salvation Army donations. That made me wonder if there was some way we could better encourage people to donate. Did I donate? No cash. What? They take cards now? Maybe next time.

Favre and his Team Doctors

Interestingly enough, the inspiration for this comic had nothing to do with Favre. I heard a radio ad on the drive in with Danny White (a former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and more recently, a coach for the Arizona Rattlers) talking about living with back pain. He went to a pain center and now feels pain free. His quote is, "I live with constant back pain since I retired from the NFL." However, my mind thought he should have said, "So, I decided to un-retire."

From that, I decided I wanted a player more people remember. Once I settled on Favre, I decided to use my un-retire idea in panel 3 and go with a concussion-based Favre forgetting even who he would play for in his final two seasons.

Six Sigma Interview

Someone at work challenged me to write a comic strip about the Six Sigma belts. That was probably 3-6 months ago, but she recently asked why I had not done a comic yet. So, once I started thinking about it, I felt like I wanted some interview comments that could be answered in Six Sigma ways. Of course, though, the final panel needed some twist.

Butterball to the Rescue

Surely you expected a Thanksgiving-themed Comic today? I knew I wanted to use the concept of having to use packaged, sliced turkey. I did not know, until I started writing it, that canned food would make an appearance in the last panel. Happy Thanksgiving.

Pause That Refreshes

I listened to some of the President's speech on the failure of the Supercommittee working on tax reform. He was brilliant in the way he used his pauses to dig into the Republicans that he blames for the failure. I had to do this today while the speech is still in the news.

Sponsored by Metamucil

Surprisingly, I did not have panel four in mind when I started this cartoon. I first decided to have it be about finding sponsors for regular business functions, then decided to go with senior leaders and imply they are all seniors, which led to Metamucil. When I reached the final panel, I found that clever quip and finished today's CoV.

Class or Meeting

I think that, if you were only able to see the words spoken in a room, it might sometimes sound like a different activity was occurring. So, I decided to choose some words that you really might hear in a classroom or a meeting and compare them. Then, I had to find the twist in the final panel that would make the comparison seem the opposite of what you would expect.

Business PM

Most days, I do not have every panel designed in my head when I create the CoV. Today, though, I did. I decided to do a project management comic, thought of having it be someone acting as a project manager that is outside of the team and how they might view the tasks. Once I pondered panel four, I knew I wanted the business person to end with a naa-naa-naa voice (you can hear the tones for naa naa in your head, right? If you are a musician, the notes would be 3,3,1,4,3,1).

The Supremes and Obamacare

After learning that the Supreme Court will hear arguments on Obamacare next year, this felt like a topic that needed my spin on it.

Half-off

I do remember that I wrote this down on Saturday night. I don't know what made me think of it. I woke up this morning with a different cartoon in mind, but did not write it down. I should have.

Perry

After a gaffe like the one Rick Perry made in a recent debate, I felt like jumping on the bandwagon, too.

Office Without Boundaries

Maybe companies don't need cubicles at all since they have wireless that can work anywhere. Oh wait. What about trash and desks and things? No problem, if you strap everything to your body. Then, I decided to add a replacement for the Muzak that always plays in the background.

New QA Team

Why did I wake up this morning with Scooby Do's quote "Ruh Roh" in my mind. I couldn't say, but it wouldn't leave and I decided to just use it in today's Comic. I haven't decided if there is anywhere I want this to go, so it could be a one hit wonder.

Where's He From?

A coworker heard me say fixin' to fix one day and challenged me to use that as the basis for a comic strip. Since most people may not automatically attribute that to Texans, I felt like I wanted some contrast, so I added a little Boston accent. Then, when I reached the final panel, I added the fact that Texans may say Coke when they mean any generic soda.

UBS

This one was a tough choice. I didn't really want to include profanity, but that's the whole point of the joke. Sorry, preacher.

Helmet Indoors

A number of our team is moving to a building where the cubicles are about the same height as the desktops. So, you see everyone's screens, their desks, you are forced to listen to their talking with teammates or conference calls. I wondered about what would happen if I told a joke and they did a spit take. You know, where the liquid they were imbibing were spewed from their mouth when I told a typically hilarious joke.

TLP All the Way Home

I did not have the joke in the final panel in mind when I started this series. It came to me when I started panel three and knew I would cover the whole nursery rhyme today. Now that I wrote this comic, I see I could have skipped the last couple of days and only done this one and still get the joke across. Oh well.

TLP Home

So now, you can see that the inspiration for this series is the nursery rhyme Three Little Pigs (as if you couldn't already tell). I think it was my boss that either mentioned Three Little Pigs or said something very similar that made me think of it. Once I did, and thought of the first one going to market, I knew I had to do this story line.

TLP Market

A Modern Fable

Today's comic strip is setting up a project management process told as a fairy tale. So it includes references to Brothers Grimm, Mother Goose, and the set up for which fairy tale I will use starting tomorrow.I think the idea came from a meeting last week where someone mentioned (or maybe they did not use the exact words) this fairy tale.

Wreck on Commute

On the radio this morning, I heard about a new campaign for "Don't Text. Don't Wreck" or something like that. So, I wondered what might happen if the sent out text messages to advertise that campaign.

Whither Wasps

Somehow, I go to thinking about etymology and entomology and how much alike they sounded. (Yeah, I know it's weird, but sometimes, I do think of things like that). Anyway, I thought of asking for one of them and getting the other. For the final panel, I wanted a word that meant useless. After all, the point of this comic is about word usage and origins, not really the wasps. The title of the comic was meant to invoke thoughts of proper speaking.

PORC and BEANS

We don't actually have PORC or BEANS at our place, although we do have a PARC that reviews requests. Once I thought of pronouncing it as pork, naming something beans was a must. From there, it was necessary to find every bad joke I could think of that would still fit into the context.

Move Planning

A coworker told me about her scheduled office change recently. She said that another person was scheduled to move into her office, but no one has told her she needs to move out. It sounded like the way soldiers used to plan and track troop movements during war games and war time. So, then, I just needed to replace regiment names with team names and voila, today's comic strip.

Creative Freedom

I wanted to explore the "Choose your own work" theme a little more. What happens if one of the papers in the stack is blank? How would the person use that to his/her advantage? What would they tell others and their manager they were doing?

Flammulating the GUI

Today's comic is from two different sources. The comic strip itself is a follow-on to yesterday's about a team choosing what they want to work on based on personal interests or passions. The word flammulating came from the flammulated owl, a small owl which lives throughout the Western US, including Yosemite, where I was last week. I just thought it would sound funny and maybe pretentious in a request for project work.

Assign Yourselves

I heard of a team that can choose their own work assignments according to what interests them. Sounds nice, right? What if someone signs a coworker up without their knowledge? Not so nice then, right? I guess I tucked this idea away sometime, because I thought of the whole thing in just a couple of minutes. And had a related idea for tomorrow.

Rate Yourselves

Somehow, it never seems that management recognizes our unique value to the team. I am sure they do have some way of evaluating us, but then again....

Einstein as a Boy

No, I don't know where the idea came from. I was at the dentist this morning, and when I finished, I decided this could be a concept for a cartoon. The challenge today was finding good words to match against the letters M and C-squared (I toyed with both using C and the word square or going with two Cs).

Half Dome

After a week in California including Yosemite, of course I would look there for inspiration for a comic. Today's has to do with a mistake in photo composition.

Ultrasonic Cleaner 3

OK, this was the last of the ideas that came to me at the dentist earlier this week. I did struggle with what to have the patient say. I considered a clean my teeth or clean the floor type of comment, but decided that was a little too vulgar. I toyed with a dentist/vet office idea and saying they could really "clean up" then. Ultimately, I felt the hygienist's comments worked better if the patient spoke first.