Consultations

Artist's Notes:

I thought of the idea for this cartoon while talking to one of my cousins who also travels often for work. He complained that while he always wanted to use the On-Demand features of his hotel televisions, he never would. This was because no matter what movie you select it would always come up as a generic movie line item on your hotel bill. This line item could then be interpreted as being a selection of porn by whoever was administering your expenses regardless if you paid for the movie yourself. And you know, he is right. Which really stinks because they have some good movies playing on those things. And no I am not talking about those of the triple X variety.

At some hotels they have motivational speakers On-Demand. I would often watch those after a long day at work with nothing to do in a strange city. That was before the conversation with my cousins.

Yeah, that's it, motivational speakers... Just kidding Mom.

So, in case you didn't understand the piece. Joe is on the phone with his significant other while watching some sappy movie, obviously of her choosing. This sweet and tender moment is then completely tainted by the perception that Joe is viewing pornography in his hotel room by the administrators of his expense report.

posted by M@  # 7:45 PM 0 comments

Artist's Notes:

In case you haven't figured this out yet, I travel a lot. Last year I only spent seven days in a row in my home city four times. It gets exhausting and can pose some real challenges when it comes to sleep. For years I have noticed hotels advertising how comfortable their beds are and always thought that bed comfort seemed like such a small part of the overall hotel experience and wondered why they would pick that to display. But now I know. Also, because you are traveling all the time you feel as though you are working all the time. A nine to five day while you are on the road doesn't exist. However, the one place where I can completely be at peace is in an airplane. God bless the FAA and its rules on cell phone use. That combined with my burned out laptop battery that only lasts a half hour I have no excuse to do work. That's right, flight time is my time. It is great. My inability to work combined with some poor air quality and lack of oxygen puts me out cold every time. To my sister Jen: "Thanks again for the flight pillow."

posted by M@  # 6:02 PM 0 comments

Artist's Notes:

I drew this during the transit strike in New York this December. Being a consultant I typically either take a car to the airport and am out of town or work from my home so while witnessing the strike first hand I really wasn't impacted to severely as others were. But, living in New York people would constantly ask me how I was affected by the transit strike and I would jokingly respond that a transit strike for me was not being able to find my slippers in the morning. Unfortunately my lack of artistic ability in the case of this comic didn't make that part of the joke apparent so after much criticism of this post I will explain the comic in a few words: Laying in Bed, Alarm Clock, Cold, Only One Slipper, Back to Sleep, and Transit Strike!

posted by M@  # 11:12 AM 0 comments

Artist's Notes:

I apologize to all of you Joe fans for not drawing out the characters for this comic. It just came out too perfect in it's original form. When I first decided to start drawing these out I debated using the sprites instead of actual characters and practiced creating expressions on just a line. This really just involves showing an expression with little more than the use of eyebrows. It's fun, so don't be surprised if you see more of this in the future in this comic.

As for the scenario portrayed I recently ran into this at a client of mine and could not believe it. I was standing in a common area between cubes talking to a bunch of my customers when suddenly at the top of the hour they all ran in a panic to get to meetings they each had. I could then hear them in loud penetrating voices all get on the same conference call together for their meeting. In the cube worlds which I feel like I live these days, it is common for certain people to speak loud enough so that everyone around them can hear what they are saying when they are on the phone. I think they do it so that they can prove to the people around them that they are working. It seems like a subconscious obsessive behavior they have especially when you can hear the same people drop out of earshot when receiving a personal call at work. These people are nuts. But, they pay the bills so who am I to complain :-)

posted by M@  # 9:37 AM 0 comments

Artist's Notes:

This comic is pretty sad. For those of you who travel on a regular basis to get to your projects you will understand what this means. For those of you that don't I hope you can empathize with the how crazy traveling every week can get. You literally forget where you are some days. Each city in this crazy country of ours starts to look the same after a while. I call them the cookie cutter cities. It is as if someone has taken a giant cookie cutter and punched out multiple versions of the same city all over our land. There are a few exceptions to this rule that I hope the chain stores and restaurants are never able to fully conquer and take away their identity. But for the most part I can go to a Maggianos or a Cheesecake factory within fifteen minutes of my client site no matter where it is and never once get the same server who will say, "The usual Mr. M." I sure do miss the good old mom and pops.

posted by M@  # 3:20 PM 0 comments