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.

Ultrasonic Cleaner 2

OK, today, it seems the dentist's office is getting closer to figuring out how to use their new cleaners. Growing up, didn't you know someone whose father could put a couple of fingers in his mouth and blow one of those really loud whistles to call his children home for dinner? I did, and always wished I could do that. I used to try, but never figured it out. Maybe these holes blasted by the ultrasonic cleaner could give someone that ability?

Ultrasonic Cleaner

Why yes, I did go to the dentist this morning. Can you guess what they used to clean my teeth? It was an ultrasonic cleaner. Actually, though, I thought of this while waiting. My primary challenge was how to create teeth in Microsoft Visio. I did the best I could.

New Guy 21

We have a lot of people moving into and out of our building. So, it occurred to me that, for many of them, I recognize them but have no idea what their names are. This cartoon explores a team that seems extra-cautious in fostering a team esprit de corps.