Spring Skiing

One thing I did not include that was in my initial planning was comparing a lift ticket from the slopes to being lifted out of the water. So, I went with the minimal comments to compare water skiing and snow skiing.

Provide It Fasterer

I toyed with the idea of having the enhanced coffee also actually make people move their entire life quicker, but it did not really flow. I was planning to have the final panel talk about the team already retiring even though they were young, but, meh. It didn't work for me. Instead, I had the head honcho end up really liking the coffee even with its complications.

Check Your Guns At The Door

Well, it is true that I am getting back into the gym after many years. It is also true that some of the sleeves on my Polo shirts are tight. However, I am sure it is nothing more than normal shrinkage after drying them a number of times. I do not think my "guns" are growing. I just want them to get more fit, not shirt-stretching huge.

Your Wish Has Been Granted

I did know where I wanted to take yesterday's genie comic when I started the idea. I created the middle two panels yesterday. This morning, I wrote panel one and started panel four, but I was not sure how to end it. Then, I came up with the genie wanting a real lamp and could end it in my usual way...with a little twist to what the reader expects.

Genie in the LAMP

There was an episode of Twilight Zone on last night where a man is granted a single wish. That led to the geeky remembrance of Linux LAMP for web development. LAMP is the first letters of Linux, Apache Server, MySQL and PHP (yeah, like that wasn't already obvious to everyone). The episode also included the man who found the lamp considering the options of love, money, and power. The Big Mac was not in the Twilight Zone episode, just my way to end the comic with a twist.

Evacuation Team

Why, yes. I did end up on the Emergency Evacuation Team for our building. How did you know? We had an initial meeting yesterday to review roles and have a practice drill today. If I were to use the position names I covered in the comic, my role would be "FIRE," although the actual name is Assembly Monitor.

Manual Screen Shots

I came up with the original concept for this yesterday. My note says "screen saver. guy takes photo." So, I was thinking to have him take a photo when the owner clicked and say "OK, I'll save this." When I started creating it, though, I decided that was more of a screen shot, and then I decided it was manual, which led to Manuel. See, even I don't know where a comic will lead.

Elementary, My Dear

I came up with the idea of using the final insult in panel three as part of a comic. I then had to build the rest of the CoV around that phrase. Finally, I added the 'S' word comment to wrap it up.

Walk of Fame PMs

I just was not feeling a second day of PM Hungry Games (at least right now), so I went with using celebrity initials as PM names. Then, I added a weather reference in the final panel because I thought it was funny. I hope you did, too.

Hungry PM Games

I am sure everyone would immediately link the title of today's comic with the book and movie of a similar name, but I spelled it out, just in case. Then, I decided to hint at a fight-to-the-death in panel four since that would be an unexpected outcome of a job search.

All In a Name

I backed into this one by thinking that maybe Tupac might have been just Onepac when he was younger. Then, I thought of others who changed (or had it changed) their names. I thought Tupac was fat, but he was not, so I changed from saying he only had a tupac out of a possible sixpac to the way it was said in the comic.

Amazing Project, How Sweet The Sound

Some people love the sound of bagpipes. Others really dislike it. Me? Well, I like it on fun, fast songs. I do think Amazing Grace sounds cool on a bagpipe. I can only take it so long, though. And no, I don't think I would want it at every project end ceremony.

New Metrics

So far, no one has asked such questions about our projects. Still, you never know what information statisticians might consider important or relevant in any discipline. I tried to propose a couple of reasons as to why they asked the off-the-wall questions.

Way Up High

Yes, we did attend a professional sports game this weekend. However, we were not on the top row of the nosebleed section. We were on the next-to-the-top row. Yes, the rows were very narrow and one might call them precipitous. I could have used some ropes and carabiners.

Phone Cleanup

Sometimes, you download an app or ring tone that just doesn't work with your interests or hardware. It seems that is what happened with Surly. She had to go. What can I say? The comic business is ruthless sometimes.

End of Ralph?

Could this be the end of Ralph as we know him? Why does this sound like the voice over at the end of the old Batman TV program? Stay tuned tomorrow. Same CoV time. Same CoV blog.

Welcome To The Team

The smart phone wars continue, and Ralph has joined the fray. I knew when I wrote yesterday's CoV that I had at least a couple more ideas to capture. The concept of one phone telling another to shut down was one of the two.

Assistants Talk

Carrying on the theme of smart phone assistants from yesterday, I wondered what would happen if they communicated with each other. Today is their first meeting, so they need to get to know each other. I am certain I will revisit this idea.

Phone Assistant

Interestingly, I woke up this morning thinking I was tired of coming up with comic ideas everyday. I considered skipping today just because I didn't feel like being creative, at least not at 5am.

Then, on my drive in, I thought of having a phone assistance talk back. That led to a smart-aleck phone, which led to the name Surly, taking off from Apple's Siri. At first, I was going to use Sorry, but changed my mind when I saw the tone the comic strip was taking.

Speak For Themselves

I saw this photo of Hillary Clinton and had to find a way to share it with everyone. At first, I thought about having her say a lemon was really sour, have Ted say it made him pucker, and have Newt say it was reaaaally big, and Putin say they used his personal juicer and he was upset. Then, I decided to go with Hillary saying it was her sexy look. So, I went with unique statements from all of them.

I've Got a Virus

This comic was originally envisioned to have one of the people wearing a mask to make the virus and reimage joke more obvious, but I couldn't get that to work. So, I went with the makeover line to tie it to a computer reimaging. Then, I needed the final sarcastic comment and used the sound-alike of GUI and gooey.