Thriving on Vague Objectives
Author/Illustrator: Scott Adams

First of all, I have a real reason for not posting yesterday, as opposed to my usual bullshit. We had no power. Actually that’s incorrect from a technical standpoint, we lost one out of three phases of power.  To 99% of everyone that means nothing, for those who do know, that also means that starting up computers under 2/3rds voltage is dangerous.  It’s actually probably some square root number in there. “He’s making things up now.” you say. Ok, moving on.

After some thinking into comics, and how I got my start, it is actually pretty inaccurate to say I started when this little project started.  Really I first got my taste with single panel comics in the paper. Sure I read the paper as much as anyone else, but I also read and re-read all the anthologies, special editions, etc… of many of the classics.  Calvin and Hobbes, I must own 20 or so of their books, heck I even have Peanuts books that are over 20 years old.  Last time I checked those things were still technically comic books, so dang it I can cover them  here. And today I want to go with something that is most relate-able to everyday office life, Dilbert.I’m sure every professional, more specifically cubicle dwellers, and even more specifically IT folk can tell you, these panels become all too real over time.  I’m also like the thousandth person to have this mundane revelation, so I’ll be light. When you go into a meeting and see a chart about how further charts will be laid out, that one panel laugh makes you sad inside.

I would like to try and encourage those who are more accustomed to the traditional graphic novels to give an anthology of their favorite Sunday strip a try. You would think it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but it reads like a story to have them back to back, and the jokes build on each other. I am really enjoying the more complex story lines of some of the superhero based comic books, but every once in a while I need a break to laugh about life.

Also these sorts of books make for great desk reference manuals. I have my office bookshelf stocked with them just in case a situation calls for a comic interpretation. Until then, I can’t wait for winter when I can hop on a toboggan and forget all my troubles…