3/20/07

Bricks

I thought about Isabella today. When I first created Isabella, she was young and carefree. She was in her twenties. She was not very sophisticated. She looked like this:

Ballpoint Pen on Moleskine Ruled Notebook


Throughout the years Isabella assumed a different look and outlook. She had many adventures. She went through several transformations. She became more introspective. I also drew her in different ages. I drew her as a second grader, a high school and college student. One day I would draw her as a mother or wife and the following day as a young woman who just graduated from college or a young girl playing with the neighbors.

Isabella is not always dark. In fact she has many light moments. She is like beer, even though she does not drink beer: Dark, Pale, Lite, Regular. I am not really sure about the last label but you get my drift. I don't drink beer either, so I really don't know all the classifications. This is an Isabella Lite post. Today a friend sent the following email. I usually glance at them and then delete them but this one was sent by a very smart friend who knew I don't like joke emails so I figured it must be worth reading. I came up with this drawing. It is what Isabella would do with 400 bricks. This is a far cry from yesterday's post.

Ballpoint Pen on Moleskine Ruled Notebook



How to Properly Place Employees



  1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.

  2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door.

  3. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours.

  4. Then analyze the situation.

A-If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting Department.
B-If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.C-If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.
D-If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.
E-If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.
F-If they are sleeping, put them in Security.
G-If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.H-If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.I-If they say they have tried different combinations, they are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.
J-If they have already left for the day, put them in Marketing.
K-If they are staring out the window, put them in Strategic Planning.L-If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Top Management.


Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with the bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.



Coming Up Next:

The Sadistic Teacher or How To Lose Your First Best Friend

16 comments:

pieterbie said...

I used to play the brick game.
Making the comparison between a woman and beer is bad for your popularity with other women :-)
I like this storyline, you surprise me, which is good.
I'll be back.

Anonymous said...

May I translate this story for my own weblog, together with your drawing of Isabella and the bricks? I think it hilarious!

Ces Adorio said...

Oh Pieterbie, I suppose if a man made a comparison between a woman and beer, he will get in trouble. There is a double standard. For example, I cannot make blonde jokes but my blonde friend could. At any rate I only wanted to use the different classifications in terms of the type of posts. I suppose I could have used Coke, Diet and Regular?

Wieneke, yes you may. I am glad you enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

Look Ces, what I have found. A good solution for you and KJ when you guys try to read my blog. You can translate from Dutch in English on http://babelfish.altavista.com/
It is not PERFECT, but I am sure it will help ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm laughing my head off...I just pasted my yesterdays post about our dog Bella and her sister Dunja (the two schnauzers who celebrated their 6th anniversary yesterdag)as a whole in the Bablefish translation. Verrrry funny!!! You have to try this, Ces.

Melissa said...

I love what Isabella has done with her bricks -- and what a creative response to that email forward! When I was in college, our art department would go to NYC each semester to check out the art scene. One spring, we wandered into a gallery that blew us away -- amazing work, incredibly life-like, all done in ballpoint! I love that you're drawing Isabella with a pen.

Ces Adorio said...

Oh Wieneke, you are a gem. I tried that Babelfish and yes, what a riot. It is literal translation which sometimes make English very complicated but then again that is how I speak foreign languages sometimes - I translate them literally losing conjugations, prepositions and articles. Nevertheless I thank you. I heard of it before but never checked it out. Now I can read your posts with much more fun! Thank you again. Sweet.

Ces Adorio said...

Melissa, I tell you I am having so much fun drawing Isabella with a $1.99 ballpoint pen. KJ thinks I should do Isabella with my Koh-i-noor but then that means I have to take it seriously and Isabella is not suppose to be a serious drawing session. She is a doodle.

KJ, yes red nail polish! And then Isabella, where did she get the paints and brushes? Oh I forgot, she carries them around with her.

Menchie said...

Loved what Isabella did with the bricks. Beat all the corporate guys.

dinahmow said...

Ces, I love the new-look blog.And Isabella could be a close friend/sibling to a creature who wanders through my journals.
Just back from NZ and still trying to catch up on blogs and emails, I'll have to come back and read all about Isabella.
Meantime...don't ditch her, please!

Sidney said...

"How to Properly Place Employees?"

I think you have a point here!

Ces Adorio said...

Aha Menchie, but it seems what she does is not on the list, so she may have to be self-employed :-)

Dinahmow, welcome back from your travel and I am glad you like Isabella.

Sidney, yes, they "place" employees here :-)

Anonymous said...

very interesting thought provoking pieces; i really like the direction all this journaling is taking

Ces Adorio said...

Thank you Ascender. I hope I don't disappoint everyone's expectations.

Maria said...

first thing first - I LOVE THE SKETCH! Isabella ROCKS big time! you rock with these sketches. You seriusly need to publish a book about Isabella, I'll buy.

Next - HEEEEEYYYY! We don't just sit idle in HR. Well, I guess we're better than operations... Maybe that's why we're HR, we are the "good examples." I'm over thinking this... I'm just kidding, Ces!

Ces Adorio said...

Maria, at least you sit we in Information Technology BREAK things! Haha!