
Oh, Chuck. You might never get the respect you think you deserve…
I see this situation every now and then in my job as well, mainly when a mechanic gets promoted to crew chief. It’s a tough spot to be in initially when you go from messing around with your buddies, being “one of the guys”, and having a good time for the most part to suddenly being in charge and held accountable. Some do better than others.
I have also found myself being more careful with practical jokes over the years as well because I have run into guys who don’t see the (admittedly sometimes rather thin) line between when it’s time to have fun and play, vs when it’s time to “get the job done” and concentrate. And that can get really dangerous in aviation.
So now that I think about it, did we actually create a warning about the dangers of distracting your coworkers in aviation? Or a statement about today’s society and current state of affairs? Or perhaps just a comic about a chicken playing around with a nerf gun?

While this post hopefully updates automatically on Tuesday, I should be in the middle of the Austrian alps, enjoying some snow myself! And by enjoying snow, I mean skiing of course, not eating snow. Although, occasionally, I happen to eat snow when skiing. It’s usually not an enjoyable experience though.
I sure hope there’ll be enough snow there. Here at home we haven’t really had any so far. Which I don’t mind. I only need it for skiing anyways, and shoveling my driveway or digging out and scraping ice off the cars aren’t on top of my list for fun winter activities either.
Holeredulijo, everyone!

Apologies for the slightly delayed upload! I was totally immersed in a project this afternoon and apparently forgot that it was Tuesday today. Anyway, here you go.
While I was drawing todays strip, I had a flashback to my childhood. I don’t know how old I was exactly, maybe around 10 or 11. Must have been right in the middle of the 80s. My parents, my brother and I were traveling through Greece by car for our summer vacation (one of the best vacations ever), and there, on a ferry from probably Kefalonia to Patras, I saw my first real computer game. It was a Pacman console, just like the one in todays strip. I was mesmerized. But our parents wouldn’t give me any money to play it. Not that I would have known what to do anyway. But it sure made a big impression, because I can clearly picture the scene in my mind. So I guess I can relate to Chuck’s enthusiasm here …

Lack of empathy is one of my biggest pet peeves. And assuming the other party knows what’s going on in your head when you talk to them is one of the most common manifestations. I have clients who call me and start rambling about details about a project I am not yet even aware was going on. I can’t even begin to imagine how often that happens if you work in retail or any other customer facing job. And I’m sure we all know somebody else’s (cough cough) significant other who expects one to do something, maybe even in a particular way, but without communicating said expectations, because isn’t it obvious?!
And then there are those people who manage to be extremely compassionate, but entirely un-empathetic at the same time. For example, they hear somebody’s ill and feel extremely sorry for them, but they lack the empathy or self control to not gossip about it to half the planet. Or, another favorite of mine: Someone tells them in confidence that they’re pregnant, but that they’d like to tell the rest of the family themselves at a time of their choosing. And poof, the whole family knows in less than a day. That one I’ve witnessed multiple times.
Well, in this case, I assume Julio has told Chuck his expectations more than once.

Mankind can be separated into two broad groups: Those who clean a little bit all the time and those who let the mess pile up and then clean in one fell swoop. I fall into the second category, my wife into the first. Fortunately we communicate quite well (or so I like to believe), so that we have talked out most of the instances where this can lead to tension.
Fortunately, my office is a separate room, or I guess we’d end up in marriage counseling. And also, there’s always the basement, where I can put stuff out of view to deal with it later. I think I’ve been doing that ever since we moved into our house.
Time to clean up and re-organize the basement. Maybe I’ll get around to it this year.
Which type are you?

Safety Posters at your local airport, hangar, maintenance shop, and/or FBO! What are your thoughts? Do they work? Do we need more? Do we have too many?
We have attempted making them funny before and received some good responses on the ones we came up with. But not enough interest to justify printing a bunch of them. Also, the entities we approached thought they were a good idea, but must have not liked them that much because nothing ever came from it. Personally I believe that Chuck is the perfect ambassador when it comes to aviation safety. Mostly as an example of what NOT to do, but still. Many people use Chuck in their slide shows at presentations. Would it be feasible to revisit the Safety Poster idea?

A lot of my work at Roost-Air actually revolves around bubble wrap. Shipping packages, receiving packages, mailing packages, unpacking packages … the first world problems of running an online store. So one can say this strip was one of those “meant to be” or rather “written by real life” comics as it was just a matter of time for Chuck to get into bubble wrap. And don’t we all know at least one annoying guy (never us, of course) who gets way too much pleasure out of popping the bubbles?
My personal pleasure popping them has changed somewhat ever since I started having to buy them in mass quantities. Every bubble is precious! HAHA
Also:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND EVERYBODY! I hope you had a great day yesterday and didn’t splurge too much on turkey, or even worse, chicken! As you know us here at Roost-Air promote eating pigs and cows over birds.
Once you emerge from your tryptophan coma grab the opportunity to do some discount shopping this week and use our DISCOUNT CODE “THANKS” to get 15% off your entire order until December 1st. It’s the perfect opportunity to get your shopping done in time, make your loved ones laugh at Chuck, and save a little coin all at the same time.

The internet never ceases to come up with new crazes, fads or fashions to entertain and engage us. (Notice how I just wrote about the internet as if it was an entity or creature? But that’s a whole other subject for another time). Planking, Gangnam style dance videos, the Harlem shake, the ice bucket challenge … the list goes on and on. The latest fad is the so called “mannequin challenge”, in which people try to enact a real life freeze frame, and somebody with a camera moves around and films the whole thing. There are a few really, really impressive ones out there. I remember one with a whole gymnast crew and one in a power lifter gym, where people hold perfectly still in positions that few other mortal men even can dream of getting into.
Anyway, I thought about how this mannequin challenge would play out in different scenarios or workplaces. If you work in a clothes store or at Madame Tussauds, you could probably participate in it without even being noticed. But I’m sure there are professions out there, such as lumberjack, zookeeper, firefighter or soldier, where freezing up could have some dire consequences.
That’s more or less how today’s comic strip was born, although the consequences for Chuck, Julio and Sally are seemingly not as dire.

In a certain way, being a parent is a bit like being in an army bootcamp. I don’t mean just the fact that you don’t get enough sleep, but also that it is such an all-consuming task that it’s nearly impossible to be able to talk about anything else. I try my best to avoid the topic with strangers, because I know how much other people’s kids interested me before I became a dad. But anyway, looking at the first panel of today’s strip, I can’t help but make a connection to the subject of “stuff on the floor.”
There always, always is stuff on the floor. Crumbs, for instance. Or spit. The days where I was appalled or confused when I stepped in something wet are long gone. And toys, of course. We don’t even buy that many toys, but somehow they seem to accumulate to ridiculous amounts almost by themselves. I estimate that half of the world’s oil production ends up as plastic toys in the living and kids rooms across the globe. And no matter how much you try to organize and clean up, the natural habitat for a toy is the floor. So I really sympathize with Julio here!

In principle, some things are just as much fun when you’re six years old as when you’re 60. And I think popping bubble wrap is definitely on that list. The only difference is, that, as a kid, you don’t have as easy access to bubble wrap as when you’re an adult, but on the other hand more time if you do. Nowadays, I am usually busy packing or unpacking something and rarely find the time for a few pops. Unless it’s bubble wrap with particularly large or tiny bubbles. You need to appreciate those. Anyway, I can totally understand Chuck in the last panel!