A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Shelf Awareness

By Jimmy Johnson

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
Coincidentally, I also am a big collector of do-it-yourself books, especially the ones with lots of pictures. I’m a visual type. Although I am very comfortable writing and reading text, a demonstration of some sort, whether live or photographs and diagrams in a book, almost always is necessary. Maybe I am too comfortable with text. When I encounter written instructions only, the copy editor inside me often kicks in, and ambiguities and omissions begin to crop up everywhere. Questions arise faster than they can be answered. Illustrations almost always help. Come to think of it, maybe this isn’t strange at all. I do make my living putting together words and pictures.

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84 responses to “Shelf Awareness”

  1. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Thanks, Mark. That would work for a tablet. And so would this.

    http://www.cnet.com/news/cutting-board-ipad-holder-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/

    That could be my fallback if I can’t find something that would work for an ultrabook.

  2. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    This, however, is going too far.

    http://www.ctadigital.com/item.asp?item=3047

    Sitting outside on a beautiful day, communing with nature, enjoying the fresh air and perhaps a gorgeous sunset…and playing with your freakin’ iPad. Really? I don’t think so.

  3. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    This may also fall into the category of “going too far”.

    http://cdn.instructables.com/FDV/73YR/HD4VFLTD/FDV73YRHD4VFLTD.MEDIUM.jpg

  4. Mindy from Indy Avatar
    Mindy from Indy

    Hi Debbe! I am good. Just been lurking the past few days; had nothing useful to add to the conversation, so I just read along and enjoyed it.

    Ghost, Cinco de Mayo falls on the same day every year – my birthday. My wild and crazy day involved working nine hours, a happy-hour, half-price, mocha shake from Steak ‘n’ Shake, and catching up on Cosmos (maybe some housework, but that’s pretty doubtful).

    The main thing I use instruction sheets for is to verify all the parts are there and a rough idea of what is yet to come (if it more complicated than some sort of shelving/storage unit). I have a friend who is severely mechanically DISinclinced. Her mom had attempted to assemble a laptop desk to spare my friend the agony of defeat to an inanimate object. Her mom dutifully followed the instructions … right up to the point they told her to put in a bolt to connect two pieces; the holes for said bolt were covered and buried several steps earlier. Took me longer to take everything back off to put in the darn bolt than it took me to finish the silly thing.

  5. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Hi, Lady Mindy. Yes, some of my assembly expertise has come from backtracking. πŸ™‚

    “Happy birthday to you;
    “Happy birthday to you;
    “Happy birthday, dear Lady Mindy;
    “Happy birthday to you.”

    And many happy returns. And trust me…they get to be less and less of a big deal, the more of them you have. πŸ™‚

  6. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Mindy from Indy, did you ever see the Luann strip where she was trying to bake a cake from a boxed mix? Read the directions, throw away the box. Forgot the measurements, pull the box back out. Then throw it away again. Forgot the oven temperature, pull the box out. Throw the box away, forgot the baking time, pull the box back out of the trash. Last panel, her Mom’s asking, Luann, why is the empty box sitting on the counter?

  7. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Come back, little comments!

    I guess no one else minds that they have disappeared.

  8. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    I just ran into this video on the only other blog I follow on a regular basis. It’s apparently of an 800-year-old Icelandic hymn being sung in a German train station, and I thought it was kind of cool. And moving.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4dT8FJ2GE0

  9. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    I hear, and I forget.

    I see, and I remember … some of it.

    I do, and I understand.

  10. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Wait, that comment vanished before I got it posted!

    I said: Ghost, I share your loss for the vanished comments, because this is most interesting group I know. (And I am moderator and owner of three on net myself!)

    There was a boating group I once belonged to that was so funny and interesting and we NEVER stayed on topic much. All of it vanished, never to be seen again. We still mourn it occasionally on line.

    Love, Jackie onies

  11. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Back on January 14, 2008, which was Day 0 for this blog, Jimmy said (among other things) about it, “I believe there is at least one area in which the Internet has delivered upon its early hype. I believe it really is capable of bringing together a geographically disparate group of people and giving them a sense of ‘community.’ I like to think that’s what we have here, and the new capabilities will enhance that dramatically.”

    No wonder he draws smart cartoons…he is smart.

    And if his intention was to enhance and encourage the growth of what he already seemed to view as a community, I’d say he has succeeded, in spades. I just hope that a large part of its history has not been irretrievably lost.

  12. Mindy from Indy Avatar
    Mindy from Indy

    Ghost – Thank you. And to finish a thought, I keep any and all “surplus” parts that get packed with the item: either the next one will be missing a piece or something will need reconfigured because something wasn’t machined correctly.

    Mark, I have not, but I’ve read enough Luann to be able to imagine the panels. Is it just me, or could the DeGroots(sp?)[Luann], Duncans[Zits], and Foxs [Foxtrot] all seem like they could be neighbors? There’s something around the edges that strikes me that way.

  13. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Mark, I can somewhat sympathize with those assembly fails, but it must be remembered that a certain number of people are doofuses (doffi?) when it comes to anything mechanical or anything requiring a visualization of spatial relations.

    Good plan, Lady Mindy. I have a collection of leftover fasteners and parts in my “weird drawer”.

  14. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Debbe πŸ˜‰ Doing OK, hon?

    The man with the gun over there might have been me.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY

  15. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Ghost, that sense of community is what draws me here I recognize. When I began my own boating group, it was that same sense of community and “values”, intelligence, welcome, fun, irreverence, a mixture of mature, young, experienced, newbee’s, famous, beginners, all brought together by the internet. And yes, it is the internet that makes all this possible. How else would I get friends from 37 states and 8 foreign countries to come to a lake in Oklahoma? And camp in my yard, if they like, for a week? That is what Arlo and Janis are the comic equivalent of.

    And yes, I’d like to have them as friends to come sail with us. Arlo would love it, Janis would be a wow with her hot body, Gene, Marylou, Gus and the granddaughter would fit in perfectly down at the beach. Ludwig would be petted by all. Oh wait, they aren’t real are they? Are they?

    Love, Jackie Monies

  16.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Lilyblack, when my husband has to have a blood test, he usually says, “Well, time to go see the vampires now.” Jackie, your comment about aren’t or are real applies to every single good comic or book I’ve ever read. When I’m reading them, they are totally real, and I’m living there with them.

  17. TruckerRon Avatar

    Chelsea Quinn Yarbro wrote some vampire tales that my wife loved.

  18. TruckerRon Avatar

    In a previous career I wrote technical manuals and online help verbiage. It paid OK and I never had to worry about anyone calling technical support to complain about the instructions I’d written. Our products were mostly sold to men…

  19. Meryl A Avatar
    Meryl A

    You must be really good with directions from Ikea – no writing, just photos.

  20. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good morning Villagers….

    Well, it’s come down to us busting a$$ before June 2nd, major inspections by the United Egg Producers and some animal rights advocate group….the animal rights I’m not too concerned with, but we do have some overhauling to do and correct….gonna be a rough three weeks…and I sure don’t want to have to go look for another job…

    GR πŸ˜‰ it was a better Monday than last week’s….and “this old ‘mom’ was born to rock, I’m still try’n to beat the clock”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STZu6PtSZQI

    CD player quit in my Izuzu……gonna have to dig out some old cassettes, yup, cassettes. Heh, at least it’s not 8 track….

    Good to see ya posting Indy Mindy…and a very happy belated birthday to you πŸ™‚

    Instructions? They have instructions that come with “do it yourself” projects? So that’s what that sheet of paper is…..

    later………………………

  21. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Whenever I hear that someone is about to take a drug test, I always ask if they study all night.

  22. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    Happy Birthday Indy Mindy!!

    Debbe, the cd player in my truck died, I don’t have a cassette player, and all the oldies radio stations have gone to sports or talk formats. sigh.

    I’ve never been to an IKEA store, though I have friends who won’t shop anywhere else. My favorite comment on the company was by consumer expert Clark Howard, who said IKEA was Swedish for “Made Poorly And Cheaply”.

    At one point in my life I was going to go back to college and take classes in technical writing but then I lost the job I had that would have paid for the classes and right then I couldn’t afford to do it on my own. Ah well. And yes, I do keep all leftover hardware. You never know when it might come in handy.

    I find life here in the Village to suit me quite nicely. However different we may be in real life, here we are all similarly crazy. πŸ˜‰

  23. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    I know there are some who visit here who think that some who post here do not always stay “on topic”. (I know you’re looking at me.) And they seem to very narrowly define “on topic” as being all about cartoons and cartoonists.

    However, I would submit two points for your consideration. First, Jimmy (bless him) has demonstrated great tolerance in allowing us the latitude to be both serious and silly and everything in between as guests on his blog. Second, think about the depth and breadth of the subjects that Arlo has commented upon during the lifetime of A&J the cartoon. I can just imagine what he would have to say if someone told him he was getting “off topic” in some arbitrary manner.

    I believe Arlo would like and enjoy knowing most of us as much as we like and enjoy knowing him.

  24. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    On topic? On topic? What is that?

    From boating groups I belong to, I have learned all about haggis, brewing beer, drinking beer, one particular member’s sex life or lack of, lots of history, geography, civilizations and migration of mankind, on and on.

    Is that on topic? No, but it sure beats reading another epoxy vs. glue post! And I learn something.

    Personally, I think Arlo and JJ are my “men for all seasons.” I’d like to think they are my friends, real or not.

    Love, Jackie Monies