Phrase Police

No, I am not reacting to any person in particular. I just notice how often words or phrases or names slip into our conversations and Facebook that we do not even realize what we are saying. So, I decided to humorously call attention to the way we communicate and have someone say, "I don't need to hear that type of language." Is it worse than profanity? I don't know, but I don't appreciate either one.

TASER Team

I got in this morning with no fresh ideas for today's comic. SO, I pulled an entry from my idea log file. I was not sure of anything except the business meaning of the letters. I decided to have both characters make indirect references to the TASER gun instead of the redirected business acronym.

Scrum Stand-up

After our training on Agile and Scrum a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to continue the theme for at least one more comic. So, as I considered the word scrum, I took it back to its original context of rugby. What if the team did their scrum meetings, but was actually being good at rugby itself? I decided that the final panel needed to be about the manager not interrupting them because they were winning.

Back to the Drawing Board

I saw a version of this online and liked it, especially since my brother is an architect. No, he was not robbed (at least not recently), but I needed something to set up the punchline.

Concealer

Over the weekend, I saw a commercial about these women that had horrible bags under their eyes. They explained them away, saying they were hereditary, or they were tired. The ad was for a concealer, but all the 'after' photos said they were simulated. If this stuff really works, show me the real thing, right? Still, hearing the word 'concealer' gave me this idea. Then, today, I still had to decide what panel four should say.

Jobs Fall

I am sure you can guess where this idea came from. Sure, I heard on the radio that jobless claims went up again. So, the radio team started talking about tracking jobs month to month. I wondered why they would track Steve Jobs and that led to today's comic. Then, as I was writing it, I decided I needed a bit more twist ion the final panel and came up with another word/name that could be misconstrued. Hmm. In a beauty pageant, what would the award for Miss Construed be given for? I'll have to think about that.

Still Fragile

I decided to see if the F.R.Agile theme could continue at least one more day. I did further define a couple of Agile concepts, but I then took the comic in a direction that would make sense to even non-techie types.

F.R.Agile

As a next step to Agile, doesn't it make sense that someone would want to speed up the sprints? Of course, a sprint is the length of the development cycle after which the team should have some degree of project completion. The results of one or more sprints can then be released to the customer. Now, if you were creating a really fast version of Agile, what would you call it? Me, too. And once you choose that name, doesn't it make sense to use some quotes from Christmas Story? It did to me, too.

LeBron and the F-Word

Oh, come on. Get your mind out of the gutter. I heard LeBron's interview where he said that he failed in 2007 and he failed again this year. Of course that is what I was referring to.

Agile Training

We are going through Agile ScrumMaster training this week. One of my classmates challenged me to write a Clarity of Vision about Agile and contrast it with someone trying yoga to become physically agile.

What are we being trained on? Agile is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. We are training in Scrum, which focuses on the management of software development projects, and it can be used to run software maintenance teams or as a general project/program management approach.

Facebook for Global Warming

There were two primary challenges for today's comic. First, all my idea log said was Hazebook, which came about as I was playing with homophones for Facebook. Who would Hazebook refer to? Once I decided that, I had to build it into four panels and see if I would use the name of the site as the punch line or add another. Finally, what would I call today's CoV that would not give away the punchline before you even read it? I chose a title that ensures everyone knows who Marc Zuckerberg is and what he did, plus gives you the category but not the Facebook-alternative site.

Geek Humor

On Monday, during my commute, for some reason, one of the broadcasters mentioned the word 'joule' and I immediately followed that thought straight to today's idea. Once I had the jewel-joule connection, I also knew I wanted the geek to laugh and the other person to comment on geek humor. The rest is comic strip history.

Someone Hacked My Account

Sometimes, ideas come into my head that may not be appropriate for this comic strip. Today's may be one of them, but who could pass up this whole Rep. Wiener mess? Not me.

Potter Party

We did have a Harry Potter themed party on Saturday. My wife did win the spirit award for embodying the spirit of the house whose colors she wore (Hufflepuff). No one made any Lord of the Rings wisecracks, though. However, I needed a way to move between comments. The choices were either have both characters make Potter references or have one of them make other references that Mr. Blue would then reject. I chose the latter option.

A Rose By Any Other Name

I was outside with the dog the other day when I noticed him smelling some flowers near the back of the yard. Suddenly, he hiked his leg and let loose...right on the flower. I hurried inside and jotted some notes for today's CoV. Inspiring? Sure, but kind of gross, too.

A friend of mine wrote recently that their high school seniors were leaving soon on the annual Senior Trip. Being over 40, my mind first thought of seniors as those over 65 instead of kids in high school. So, I wondered what types of antics the older crowd might remember as compared to a bunch of 17 or 18-year-olds? To them, a hangover might be what their belly does to their belt instead of getting a first elicit taste of alcohol.

Junehem

I do know where this idea came from because I heard a commercial on the radio during my commute. Geico has a series of ads where a character named Mayhem has bad things happen and it would be less bad if we had this insurance. Since today is June 1, I wondered if they would rename the character to Junehem. Once I had a concept, I just needed to decide how to present it in my familiar four panel format. Since I recently had a comic about the reorgs, I continued that theme. I also slipped in a couple of other words that start with MAY, one of which I did not explain.