One of my favorite cartoons which aired while I was in my twenties was Pinky & The Brain. For those of you who have never seen the show, I highly recommend checking it out.
In essence, the show was about a brilliant lab mouse and his slow witted sidekick, and the adventures they encountered in their perpetual nocturnal attempts to take over the world. The Brain would always have some diabolical plan in which to seize control various institutions around which the world revolved. Country music was included in those institutions as well.
None the less, Brain’s plan always fell flat because of something that Pinky did or said. It’s a wonder Brain never dispensed with Pinky in a less than humane manner, but after all, it was just a cartoon.
The show would always, start with Pinky asking Brain the all important question. “Gee Brain. What are we going to do tonight?”
“The same thing we do every night, Pinky,” Brain would respond, “try to take over the world!”
Something occurred to me the other morning while wandering into Cubeville in preparation for the consumption of a lemon poppy seed muffin and the performance of assorted Business Analyst stuff. One of my unindicted co-conspirators hit me with a question before I could plop my pasty white tuckus in front of the sterilization device disguised as a PC tower and a couple of 20″ monitors. “Gee Randy. What are we going to do today?”
“The same thing we do everyday Pinky,” I responded, “try to…” That’s about when that something occurred to me.
“Do or do not. There is no try.” I heard that on an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Penny called it off to Leonard, which inspired Leonard to tell Penny that he loved her. The next thing you know, Wil Wheaton was there bowling against them.
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
That’s one of those pithy little phrases that appears on marquee screen savers, self esteem seminars, and the quote section of a Franklin Covey day planner. I’m surprised it never appeared in a movie or something like that.
In pondering the phrase, it occurred to me that there was a specific reason why Brain never successfully took over the world. His failure wasn’t completely rooted in the bumbling ineptitude of his companion Pinky. Instead, his failure was derived from his inability to put a completely bitchin’ motivational phrase to work for his better good.
With the thump on the head that particular epiphany provided for me, I quickly broke out my iPhone in order to commit my inspiration to something more than just a fleeting thought within the confines of the mushy goo between my Q-Tip treated ears. I could capitalize on that statement and how it applied to Pinky & The Brain. I quickly activated Siri so that I could voice my idea into the notepad application. This thought was too important to trust it to fat thumbing it on a virtual keyboard.
So I spoke slowly and clearly with just a hint of elocution. “Blog idea. Pinky, Yoda, & The Brain.”
The icon spun for a second and then produced the following on the screen: “Blog idea PT Yoda in the brain”
Yeah that pretty much sums it up. You just can’t take over the world with poor dictation software.
Narf!