Back From Vacation

I couldn't think of a CoV idea this morning and wondered if it was because I was back from vacation and not yet in a work mode. So, I decided to make that my CoV idea. Even if I like my job (and I do), it is tough to return to the work-a-day world after several days off.

Him's Such a Smart Boy

Sure. Everybody says dogs are dumb, but what if they aren't? Maybe we just misunderstand what they are trying to say? Then again, look what happens when they smell poop.

When Ideas Attack

I never know when an idea for a CoV will occur. I could be watching TV, driving, sitting in church, browsing the interweb. Whenever it is, though, I need to capture it somehow before the thought disappears. Usually, I will send myself an email or a text. Occasionally, I will leave myself a voice mail at work. A few times, I have written it on the church bulletin and stuck it in my pocket. One such idea was writing a CoV about having one such idea. I put this in my idea file months ago and I decided I knew what I wanted to write about it today. Weird how some things need to percolate for a while.

Did You Say Missing Poison?

When I first thought of this comic, I was trying to decide how to have the characters talk about it. Then, I realized it could just as easily work as a script. Then, I had to decide to I make it be a Poison Control script or a Missing Person script. Either way, the script should ask for clarification if they have a New Jersey (Noo Joisey) accent. Instead, I had them key off of the address being in NJ.

We Built This City

I wanted to do a political comic since the first debate is tonight. So, I decided to play off the now-famous "You didn't build that" quote.

I've Got the Fever

I have not doubt that any number of wannabe cartoonists like myself have already done this topic, so why not throw my own hat into the ring?

Topless Kate

It is a shame how paparazzi won't let any famous person have a personal life. And it does seem that they are resorting to such sneaky tactics to feed the public's demand for dirt on anyone. That's right. I feel that these guys are simply reacting to our desire for this kind of junk. What a shame. You will not see that in CoV, although I will use headlines and put my own spin on them.

I Did Not See That Coming

Another of the ideas that popped into my head on Wednesday as we watched this week's installment of Survivor.

You Watch My Back, I'll Watch Yours

How could you have guessed that I watched Survivor last night. And yes, I did hear someone say they had a target on their back. So, I decided that, if someone actually had a target drawn on their back, they might not win.

Replacement Bosses

Yesterday's CoV about the Replacement Refs made me think about what would happen in business if management went on strike. So, why not use some of those unemployed teachers to fill the void?

Replacement Refs

I actually thought of a different comic for today (yes, PM Ninja will return), but how could I pass up the replacement ref call from last night's Packers-Seahawks game? It was a call even I could have seen. Let's see what the NFL does about this strike next.

I Can't Talk About It

I did have someone at work tell me they couldn't even talk about having signed a non-disclosure agreement. How could I pass up a comment like that? Obviously, I couldn't.

I Recognize That Speech

As often happens, I was trying to find an idea for this morning's comic and the radio gave me the idea. I heard an ad for Dragon Speech Recognition Software. From there is was easy to imagine someone saying something that would affect what you were saying or doing into the software and messing you up. So maybe, in the middle of your speaking, someone yells at the dog to "Stop barking" and that would show up in your document. Once I wrote it, I decided to have someone do something on purpose, and then decided to have them be teaching the team a lesson on saving often.

Is Doori Really Tan?

Sorry, but yesterday's NDA-themed comic got my NDA alternatives flowing. An NDA, of course, is a non-disclosure agreement, meaning that the parties signing it cannot talk about what they learn regarding the other company or party. Still, "non" does sound somewhat like "nun" and a lot like "naan," the Indian bread.

Praying For Sales

I cannot remember when I thought of this, but it was either last week or maybe over the weekend. Actually, I knew I wanted to say Nun disclosure, and use the word habit in the Comic. The rest happened this morning as I wrote it. I actually moved a couple of the phrases from Mr. Green to Mr. Blue since he would more likely say them (especially the bad pun using celibate).

Ultimate Comfort Chair

I actually had scheduled (in my own mind, of course. There is no actual schedule for which cartoon I will publish next) a CoV about non-disclosure agreements. However, maybe because we kept the grandkids this weekend, I thought of our grandson's car seat and how, even at home, we sometimes let him sit in it. So, why don't we have something like that for us adults?

Walking Dead Weekend

It is true that we kept the granddaughters over the weekend, but I actually designed this strip last week. The key on this type of verbal misdirection is to not clarify the misunderstanding until the end. So, Mr. Green had to say Walking Dead in panel one and Walking Dad in panel three or the joke would have been revealed too early. This is one where it would have sounded better than it read.

Did You Say Packsawhack?

I have a friend at work who went through some cancer treatment a few years ago. She ended up taking some medicine for years that has a side effect of short term memory loss. So, I wanted to do something about the memory loss, but not mention cancer. My point is the drug name (which are always hard to understand or pronounce) and losing memory of a conversation during the conversation itself.

No More Amber Waves of Grain?

I actually have been reading about the improved health of those who eliminate wheat from their diet. So, I decided on this CoV as I ate my Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast and packed up pizza for lunch. I am clearly not ready to embrace such austerity myself.

iPhone 5 Fever

I had no ideas for today's CoV until I was hearing the hype about iPhone 5 on the news. Something about a new iPhone model really gets the attention of the market. OK, so what if it got the attention of a workspace enough that everybody went to an Apple Store? I added the first two panels to show how empty the office was, and to pay a little homage to Airplane!

Are You Ready?

The challenge today was finding reasonable choices to make the acronyms sound plausible. Then, I just needed to find a clever way to end it, so I chose to use the football term 'pads' as we actually use it in project management to mean padding estimates so the project won't slip its deadlines.

The Monster of Dot Coms

I was reading the paper last night and saw a notice about a local comedy group who will be creating their own dialog for an old 1950 Edmond O'Brien film (similar to what Mystery Science Theater 3000 used to do, except they will replace 100% of the dialog). That got me to thinking about old films that might be fun to do voice-overs with, and Frankenstein came to mind. From there, it was a short stretch to think of Frankie as a PM, but my mind made a detour to where we would find such a candidate. Ryan and Lindsey were an addition to include modern-day monsters.

Stalker Songs

I did not know until I started writing this comic that there is a whole community built around songs with creepy lyrics. So, while I thought of most of these myself, a search for "Stalker Songs" did net Private Eyes and Blondie's "One Way or Another."

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

This comic probably suffers more than most from my lack of artistic skills. All I can use to create each day's CoV is the tools inside of Microsoft Visio. Oh well, they drawings are only a means to deliver the silly concepts. This one started from a Just For Men commercial about dying hair to cover the gray. So, I wondered when my first gray hair was. I also need a haircut and I was glad I still had hair. From there, I just found a couple of more ideas to complete all four panels. As I started writing it, I decided to have the second person use the word "lucky" each time.

Dr. What?

I recently saw a memo about the internal disaster recovery planning we are working on. Seeing the letter DR together made me think of Dr. Pepper and paper is just a letter or two away from pepper, so this is what came from it.

Tight Economic Times

This is not to imply that I think all C-level executives are greedy and would institutes money saving efforts on the company while excluding themselves. Sure, it is possible. Yes, I know that it happens. I am just creating a humorous situation to set up the final panel where the team wonders if executives want to help their company or help themselves.

Signs Point to Yes

I thought of this last night after deciding I wanted to do a strip about gathering requirements. As I wrote it, I tried to find a clever way to incorporate more of the Magic 8-Ball answers, but they did not lend themselves to sounding like they fit in the conversation. Then, as I wrote the final panel, I knew that I would just have Mr. Blue consult his own 8-Ball for an answer.

We All Scream For It

Somewhere recently, I heard the word custard and thought of the name of this establishment. From there, I decided to serve the ice cream in a Little Big Horn, and only this morning thought of having one of the characters get messy to look like Custer. Of course, Mr. Blue would do that before Mr. Green.

RIP Neil

I had a special request from the mother of a coworker to do one about Neil Armstrong. So, obviously, I needed a way to use his famous phrase from the first step on the moon. I mean no disrespect by implying that someone kidnapped him instead of him dying nor by changing one letter in the word 'leap.'

A Minor Inconvenience

True, today's title does include the key word from the comic. True, I did use the correct spelling of the word that Mr. Green meant in the first panel, even though I made Mr. Blue misunderstand for the sake of the joke. However, I trust my readers to recognize the homophonic nature of this CoV and how such a misunderstanding is easily possible (especially with Blue).

Metrics Must Be in the 50s

I was working on some metrics the other day and thought about on-time projects as Projects - On Time Completion. Well, that, of course, sounds like Potsie if you verbalize the acronym. From there, it was just finding ways to make official-sounding acronyms of the other key names in the TV program. I also did not want to mention the name until panel four, although I did give a hint by mentioning Richie in an earlier panel. Did you figure it out? The title might have helped you, also.

At This Rate, You'll Either Succeed or Be Fired

I started thinking about how to measure a project manager's success at work and came up with some ideas, and some metrics need to go up while others need to go down. So, I wondered how people would interpret numbers if they did not know what the acronyms stood for and only saw the current value. Is above 1.0 good or bad?

Three Occularly Occluded Small Mammals

This has been in my backlog of ideas for a while, but I kept finding more timely references that I needed to cover first. Nothing caught my ear on my morning commute, so I went to the well and pulled this out.

HPM

You might guess that I watched Hell's Kitchen last night. It is amazing that he chooses chefs with equally colorful language to his own. That does not diminish from the fact that he may be an accomplished chef. Don't you wonder what he thinks of his kids if they talk that way? Anyway, I decided that might not work the same way in the project management world.

My Bible is ORB

I must have heard something about Health and Human Services being concerned about childhood obesity. I am not sure what got me on this topic, but once I did, I new I would use 'vegetables of the spirit' as one of the changes in the ORB.

Eyeful Tower

Since this is a play on words, it needed to come from a child who might mistake one word for another. None of my relatives have ever said this (that i know of).

Apoca-What Now

I heard on the radio yesterday that it was the anniversary of both Woodstock and the release of Apocalypse Now. So, I decided to commemorate them in a silly exchange between the two main characters. Then, I needed to decide which one would be the better joke for multiple panels. The movie won out.

Olympics are Over

I jotted the Triple-X vs Roman Numeral XXX during the Olympics, but just now decided to use it. I originally envisioned that this would drive all four panels but it felt more like an ending comment today when I wrote the CoV. I have heard stories about how the characters in a novel actually affect how the author creates the story. I guess something like that happened here.

But Where's Your Flowbee?

I was shaving this morning and thought about those who actually shave as they drive to work. I guess it save 2-3 minutes at home, but seems like an easy way to get distracted. From there, I wondered what else a person could do that would save time at home because they could do it in the car. I ran out of room before I could write about a Flowbee, so I made it part of the title.

One is Enough

I was talking to my boss this weekend and came up with this joke when he said he was going to see the new Bourne. All I had to do today was find a clever ending retort and choose a title that would not give away the joke before someone read the comic.

Less is More

No, there was no one named Hope that left our office, but Ruth did leave last week. So, thinking of that brings back the old joke about ruthless meaning we have one less Ruth in the office. From there, it was just thinking of more words that end in -less and bending the conversation around that.

Why Ninja PM Is So Good

I wanted to bring Ninja PM back, but I was not sure about a clever situation. Instead, I decided to review his outfit/tools to see what makes him effective. I had to research a little to find the proper names for some of the weapons/tools. And because the legs I found for him had one knee bent, I chose to place something beneath his right foot, a lunchbox.

PM of the Month

The challenge here was I needed a lot of words to explain why Blue got the award and his cavalier attitude towards the parking pass. I originally had him saying that his building doesn't even have covered parking, but that boxed me in on clever comments when he trades it. I also toyed with having the PM of the Month be a pre-printed award that the boss bought at Costco, but I couldn't find a clever way to end it.

It's Only One Letter

Sometimes, I have to be creative when I am naming a comic. For today's title, I did not want to have the whole joke in the name, so I decided to make it more like a description of the problem. I found a large number of duck drawings online, but decided this was enough to carry the joke. Why did I think of this? I honestly cannot say. Just another weird thing that popped into my head as I sat down to create a CoV.

My Wife is Hot

I had been thinking about a comic to make fun of the heat in Phoenix during the summer. Then, my Preacher Bro and his family came to town last week and I decided to include that in the comic. However, since it is my anniversary, I added that in and excluded mention of the family visit and changed it to an anniversary trip. As far as the title of today's CoV, you are welcome to interpret that however you choose. I know what I think it means, and she is hot.

Running Rings Around Madison Avenue

I have been drawn to the Olympics every night. Much of it has been to see if Phelps and Franklin keep winning. So, I see a lot of the Olympics logo. I am glad they have not replaced the rings with other round things in order to gain sponsorship.

Does PM Stand for Phoropter Machine?

I saw an TV ad for a local vision correction company this morning including that big machine they use to test your eyes. You have probably already guessed that is called a Phoropter. For some reason, I wondered if we could use that in the project world. So, I made it so the questions asked by the person running the machine were project-related. This comic is probably only funny to those who have ever been to an Optometrist.

The Bad in Badminton

What? A scandal in the Olympics? It seems that some teams in badminton decided to throw their match in hopes of being in an easier match later in the round robin tournament. So, I could imagine that, if they were going to throw a match, why not do it in comfort?

Future Olympians

The inspiration for this should be obvious. I was watching the bicycle races over the weekend and as they rode by the tables with water, someone would hold out a bottle and the rider would grab one as the went by. When they had a drink or two, they would then throw the bottle off to the side on the ground. That was enough to remind me of the way kids seem to think they can handle trash. So, if that is the skill set for becoming an Olympian, there are a lot of youngsters that might make it.

What Would Tom Landry Do?

I heard someone tell a joke the other day involving cowboys and decided it might also apply to the Dallas Cowboys. It also awakened other ideas for political correctness that will probably show up in future CoVs.