Sketchbook: Appy Thanksgiving

Sometimes I get good ideas in the middle of the night, sometimes the ideas are less good. My mind got distracted trying to figure out what the app would do. I do like the idea of turkey software engineers. That has some potential. 
 

Sketchbook: Rounding it up

This is another one that's drawn from real life experiences. I've mentioned before that I work with engineers. Accuracy is paramount with them. It gets a little uncomfortable when I tell them that it's OK to round numbers up or down so they make more sense to the public.

...and we're in!

I know on Sunday I usually run a church-related gag, but I think we're all anxious to see the end of Jenny Ear and her case. Our regular programming will return tomorrow. Thanks for your indulgence!

We won't get fooled again!

I liked the line, "But Jenny Ear is no Magnum PI."

Hang on, we're at the pre-award process." We're getting near the end!

Watch your steps

The application process for consultants could go one of two ways, cleverly called the "one step process" or the "two step process."

Stay tuned!

The search begins

We took the steps of how to get into the consultant pool and turned them into the clues that Jenny Ear, PI, uses to crack the case.

Stay tuned! Our story continues on Friday!

In the beginning...

A few years ago (quite a few actually), our Consultant Services Section at the Utah Department of Transportation wanted to explain their program. But they wanted to do something out of the ordinary, something that was a little different than the run-of-the-mill PowerPoint. We came up with this concept of a private investigator — N. Jenny Ear (a play on "engineer") — who was trying to crack the case of the "break in:" how to get in to the pool of consultants at UDOT. 

Here's how it unfolded.

Learning curve

They have to go someplace to learn how to set up detours, don't they?

Keeping you in suspension

Structural engineers have this thing called the bridge formula that they use to determine how much weight a bridge can bear*. Whenever I heard our engineers talk about the bridge formula, for some reason I always thought of a recipe -- you know, something along the lines of Julia Child doing a show dedicated to single span arches. The humor in this one is aimed at a certain demographic, so don't worry. If you're a bridge engineer with an affinity for French cooking, you'll be totally ROFL. Trust me.

*Calvin's dad totally lied on this one. They don't keep driving bigger and bigger trucks over a bridge until it collapses and then weigh the truck. That'd be silly!

Say AAAAH!

Just a side note here: in case you were wondering, yes, I did find a file full of my old cartoons - many with a distinct Far Side feel.

Somewhere in there...

This was a lot of fun to draw, a "Where's Waldo?" take on road construction. The idea was to find the engineer (who is sporting a buzz cut, popular amongst the engineers I knew at that time and place). There's all sorts of fun stuff going on elsewhere in the picture...an alien, a football player, an unfortunate bungee jumper, a guy working in wet cement. Click on the image for a larger picture and see what fun things you can find!

Heroes in a half shell

This was incredibly popular amongst a certain group of employees at the department of transportation.

Revenge of the nerds?

The idea of uncivil engineers just totally plays against the stereotype. I like it.

I mean precisely what I say

Non-engineers really liked this cartoon; the engineers were a little divided in their opinions. They either thought the cartoon was mocking them, or they agreed with it. Yes, said the engineers, some of the language they use might not be classified as conversational...but it is precise.

When I applied to work at ODOT, I used the fact that I could translate engineer-speak into English as a selling point. I think it was that and the fact that I already had my own orange shirt that sealed the deal.