2009 March | The Adventures of Scribbleboy

Archive for March, 2009

Mar

The Return of Mr Piggles

By Scribbleboy 0 Comments

Categories: Lent and Life List

Sometimes I try and imagine what the audience of this blog want, sometimes we have imaginary conversations. The other day we had one in which you complained about me replacing Mr Piggles with black people and I called you racist, sorry.

In reality Piggles has been in no fit state to grace the pages of this blog. Since the first week, in which he scored £10, the amount I’ve been spending on swearing has plummeted. No longer able to fund his illicit truffle habit my pork based friend has turned to value gin. It is a tragic shame.

Coincidentally he likes gin and lemonade too

Week Five Total: £1 (I described someone’s modelling photos as “kick a**.” I’m not mentioning her name again, she’ll only grow vain).
Grand Total: £23

Average Cost of Lent per Day: 70p

Mar

Good at Bleeding

By Scribbleboy 0 Comments

Categories: Blood, Life List and Steak

blood

Already you’re confused. Maybe you knew one of my challenges was to give blood. Maybe you figured out I gave blood today based on the red and white sticker. Maybe you even recognised me in the top left picture but you’re all still sat there thinking “What on earth is that middle picture meant to be? Some kinda anemic pipe cleaner? An albino Twilget? Seriously what is that thing?” That people, is my arm.

***
Iarrived at Penkhull Church and filled out a form to say that I don’t have the aids/ put out for money. Then Gingell, Baines and I sat and waited for our turn. Gingell went first and once again it turned out she didn’t have couldn’t give blood. Baines went next, then it was my turn.

After the nurse had pricked my finger my blood droplet raced to the bottom of the test tube in a bid to prove that my iron count was high enough to donate (I should hope so, I had a Frankie and Benny’s steak for breakfast). She checked to make sure that I wouldn’t be flying any planes or mining any mines anytime soon and then it was time to donate.

I lay down on the bed, had my blood pressure taken and then they jabbed a needle in my arm. Gingell came and kept me company and provided moral support (thanks). Moral support along the lines of “Ooh look, it’s spurting everywhere” and “It’d be funny if you passed out.” After I had been drained of a pint of unnecessary blood I got to sit up and everyone asked me if I was okay (I’m fine, I normally look this pale). This was followed by a drink (lemon squash, very good), a biscuit (varied selection, TUC biscuits were particularly tasty), a sticker (see above) and one of those novelty bug things people used to have in their offices back in the nineties (there’s something odd about a furry blood drop).

While this has turned out well for me (I even get a free malaria test), completing a challenge has thrown the very structure of this blog into chaos, I’ve been forced to create a subpage called Completed Challenges. I’ve put a link to it on the main Challenges page, hopefully I can start to fill it up sometime soon.

Be sure to have a read of Baines’ blog, she has written about the same experience (I never said I was original).

Mar

Love Minus Three and a Half Grand

By Scribbleboy 0 Comments

Categories: Life List and Money

In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.

Love Minus Zero, Bob Dylan

Based on informal feedback I get the feeling that some people may be sick of Finance Friday. We’ll make a deal, once I’ve paid off my last overdraft and am left with only two bank accounts (I estimate this will be in about three weeks) I promise not to blog my personal finances on a weekly basis.

Week commencing 16th March (blogged five times this week)

Incoming: £0

Outgoing:

£38 food
£25 drink
£6 transport
£6 stationery (cards)
£22 presents
£4 paid to Mr Piggles

Total: £101

End of Week Total: -£3,567

The Poverty Line, for the week commencing 16th March*

* Last week I replaced the regular debt graph with a photograph of a bumper sticker, thinking that no one would notice my substitution. Unfortunately, they did. Fortunately, they liked it. Here is another universal truth as documented by my phone.

If you have any universal truths, ideas for this blog or challenges feel free to post them below. I am currently researching my Jade Goody tribute (five fitness DVDs? I didn’t realise she had made such a great contribution to our culture) and would love to hear your memories of this incomparable character.

Mar

Watch That Man

By Scribbleboy 0 Comments

Categories: Life

Last week I teased you with a reference to Reeka’s Glam Rock birthday party. Now people are asking for pictures. Above is a photo montage of the shots Gingell took when I was practicing with the facepaints. Below are a selection of my favourite party photos as taken by Reeka and Andy.

I painted my face, drank some beer, played some of the most ferocious cards I’ve seen in a long time, ate some pizza and kept getting distracted everytime A Clockwork Orange or The Rocky Horror Picture Show synced up with the Ipod playlist.

Mar

Some Quick Questions From the Floor

By Scribbleboy 0 Comments

Categories: Life and Review

Recently Gingell’s blog has been getting visits from people curious about running, which makes sense considering it’s a website about training for a race. The keywords people type into Google to end up here are a lot less easy to explain away. They confuse, amuse, inspire and disturb me in almost equal measure.

I’ve mentioned them briefly before and I tried to look at them again recently but Abbey Clancy got in the way. Here’s a selection.

scribbleboy

Scribbleboy is a book written by Philip Ridley and illustrated by Chris Riddell. It also seems to be a popular feature on a number of schools’ book lists. Unfortunately there are no “novel essays on scribbleboy” here, nor are there “pichers of scribbleboy”, there never has been a “scribbleboy 2″ and I am unaware of any plans for “scribbleboy the filme”. It looks like you may be forced to read the book yourself and do your own homework.

I adopted Scribbleboy as my email username because I liked the sound of it and had enjoyed reading the book (I also discuss my nickname in the comment section of this post). Since I met Reg, who in the beginning was too lazy to learn my real name and instead called me by my email address, it seems to have stuck. Over the years it’s been shortened to Scribble and Scribs. Variations have included Squirrel and Scribblé (thanks to Gwyn for giving it that French feel). Stokies pronounce it as Squiggle, Squizzle and Squibs (they seem to struggle sounding hard letters).

Gingell is currently testing out a new generation of variations that includes Scribblehead and Scribbilicious.

nude ukrainians

If that’s what you’re looking for I’d start by looking in the Ukraine.

adidas

Two weeks ago I wrote a rather controversial piece about Adidas’ Celebrate Originality ad campaign. People are now asking Google “the purpose of adidas house party advert”. The short answer would be to sell sportswear and with questions like “what adidas originals trainers does katy perry wear?” and “where can i buy the trainers that katy perry wears in the addidas originals advert?” it seems like it’s working. I did a quick search to try and find out for you but unfortunately I come up as the top result and still don’t know. Answers on a postcard (there are a couple of people out there trying to scam you, if the trainers don’t look like the ones Katy is wearing at 0:47 in this Adidas interview then I wouldn’t be buying).

Jon Harrington

Now that’s just creepy, I don’t even want to know why you’re Googling me. If you’ve got my number, call me, if you haven’t, there’s a reason.

wu-tang clan

I thought the note here would have cleared this up but apparently not.

The song is not called “big cash controlles everything around me” or “money controls everything around me” it is called C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) and is track eight on their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).

If you want it on a t-shirt you can pick it up stateside here (can’t see any UK stockists selling this particular design). Personally I’d rather wear the shirt on this page but I imagine that fans of both the clan and the man in black are in short supply.

As for people asking what samples are used, the answer is “‘As Long as I Got You’ performed by the Charmels used courtesy of Warner Special Products. Written by Isaac Hayes/ David Porter”. Read your liner notes people.

dildo vagina x-ray

No, no, no.

lent – give blood

Maybe it’s a new trend or maybe I just move in better circles these days but a lot of people I know seem to be taking up something positive for Lent rather than giving up something negative. Charity’s exercising and reading the Bible more often, Antonio’s painting and gardening, Baines is looking at random acts of kindness. Giving blood seems like an excellent idea and you can find out all you need to know on The National Blood Service’s website. I will be giving blood this Friday, hopefully it all goes more successfully then last time.

Well, I quite enjoyed that. Hopefully I’ve helped some people and provided some kind of amusement. We’ll have to do it again sometime.