How to Succeed on Your Own Terms
My understanding is that the Myers-Briggs personality test has been thoroughly discredited. Even though the test may not work as originally intended, I think administering it still has merit as a way to measure either gullibility, or the subject’s willingness to go along with something they think is pointless in hopes of not rocking the boat. Either way, that’s valuable information to highly paid business consultants, the very people who often still use the test.
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How to Handle Being "Thrown Under the Bus"
People still say “I didn’t come here to make friends” on reality shows. Heck, on Ink Master someone says it almost every week. They have a right to be a jerk, but at least they could be original about it.
That’s my main problem with reality TV. One of the chief reasons the genre took off was that writers, actors, and set designers cost money. Even a modest hour-long TV show costs something like a million dollars per episode too produce. Ideally, reality TV doesn’t need writers, actors, or set designers. Pointing a camera at people doing something interesting is cheap.
But in time reality got boring, so they started trying to “improve” on reality, which required the “real people” to think up interesting situations then “sell” those situations on camera; activities that are usually called “writing,” and “acting.” And a lot of the shows feature people renovating and decorating houses, AKA “designing the set.”
So now, when you watch a reality show, you usually get formulaic, unimaginative fiction, performed by amateurs.
If you think I’m being overly harsh, go watch HGTV. Odds are, you’ll see two people overacting to a “problem” they solve five seconds after the commercial break, then proudly unveiling their innovative kitchen design, featuring subway tiles and white shaker cabinets.
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How to Turn to Your Friends for Advice
I’ve always suspected that if a woman went back to a guy’s place and found a round bed with mirrors on the ceiling, she would consider it an instant deal breaker.
Conversely, I think if a man when back to a woman’s place and found a round bed and ceiling mirrors, he’d be cool with it. To be fair, most guys could find a bare concrete floor and a stolen park bench as the only furniture and they’d be cool with it.
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How to Talk Through a Troubling Experience
Sadly, I find that all too often in life Plan B is just “Plan A, but harder.”
The story I tell in the comic about the Englishman spanking his 14 year old in public is true. I saw it in the grocery department at Target.
Think about that for a second, I saw a family of British tourists in the grocery department at Target, and that wasn’t the weird part. I never saw that in Seattle, and I haven’t seen it yet in Phoenix. But in Orlando, you get used to seeing international tourists in places you wouldn’t expect. If you’ve never seen a huge group of Brazilian teenagers wearing identical t-shirts swarming through the outlet mall, it’s an experience you don’t ever forget.
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How to Survive the Dreaded Post-Holiday Phone Call
My father and I express how much we care for each other by sparing each other the discomfort of ever talking about our feelings.
What do we talk about instead? Anything. Literally, anything we can think of that isn’t our feelings.
The last time we spoke, we spent ten minutes talking about the innovative experimental sail Jacques Cousteau attached to one of his ship in the ’80s.
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How to Stage a Hostile Takeover Takeover of Another Strip
A couple weeks back, when the image of Tim Rickard showed up in one of the comics, I contacted him for permission to identify him by name. Being the great guy he is, he also gave me permission to rerun his guest strip from 2011.
It’s funny, no other cartoonists ever asked me to do a guest strip for them. it’s probably due to a combination of my “limited” art style and my patented “Wall of Text” writing technique.
Note from Missy: If memory serves, this is the only time in the history of BI where Rocket Hat speaks!
Reply from Scott: Yes, I believe you’re right.
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How to Let Someone in on a Secret
Some of you may be wondering: if mustachioed pugilism is the white man’s martial art, why didn’t they ever make mustachioed pugilism movies? My answer would be to ask you to watch any Burt Reynolds movie from the late ’70s or early ’80s and wait for the inevitable barroom brawl.
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How to Discuss Something You Just Like, and the Other Person Loves
I was one of those people who walked out of the midnight showing of The Phantom Menace saying “I liked it.” I saw it at least two more times in the theater, and each time I walked out saying “I liked it” a little quieter, and with more of a question in my tone.
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