You’re Doing It Wrong

I remember one time, back in 2008, I was at my friend Milo Goodspeed’s house and my friend Elliott Egan was there as well. I was lying (fully dressed and everything) on a bed, while the pair of them discussed plans for the day. Once they were done, Milo reached into a cupboard and pulled out a magazine. He flicked through to find a specific page.
    “Here ya go, Randall,” he said as he handed it to me. “I want you to look at this.”
    It seemed that my friend’s magazine was one which contained naked ladies. The specific page he’d given me showed a woman who was either naked, topless, or in her underwear, I don’t really remember. What I do remember, is that she was wearing a pair of particularly sparkly shoes; they were all bright, slivery and glittery. Very pretty!
    “That’s quite an interesting pair of shoes that woman has on. I can imagine that they must have cost her an awfully large amount of money… Then again, she is a professional model; I expect she can afford it! Quite a good job, probably, although, it must be annoying to have to constantly diet and what not,” I said.
    “Ah, Randall, you’re doing it wrong!” Milo complained. “You can’t do anything right.”
    “What am I supposed to do?” I asked.
    “Just enjoy it?”
    “Oh, I see, I see!” I stared at the picture for a while, trying to follow his suggestion. After a few seconds, I realised he was looking at me, so I quickly added, “er, that’s very nice!”
    But he wasn’t very happy with my performance, and so he took the magazine away again. I can’t say I was unhappy with that.

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Tragedy

I’ve decided to keep the comic strip up to date with real life misfortunes. Depending on how things go, this could possibly be Colin’s final appearance. Hopefully not, but possibly. For now, we’ll just have to hope.

All finger puppets can be bought here.

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Television

This strip was made shortly before Colin broke, so I decided to post it now, rather than at its scheduled time. Colin in watching the five part Doctor Who story The Dominators. I had no reason for choosing that particular story, but I did want a Second Doctor one because he is my favourite. For some reason The Dominators is considered bad, but I certainly liked it. Also, better post a disclaimer and say that I do not own the copyright of the images on the screen.

All finger puppets can be bought here.
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The Significance of Colin the Cow

PictureYesterday I had the very big misfortune of having my beloved Colin broken (as you can see in the picture). I visited my Nan’s house for dinner, realised he was missing just as I was leaving, then found him in this critical state outside my house. I’m very sad that he’s broken, and that’s because Colin has a lot of significance to him.

While it may seem that he is a mere child’s toy, it goes quite beyond that. It’s not a case of me getting over excited and thinking “Oh my goodness! A cow. How lovely, I think I’ll carry him around with me!” though that is a small aspect. I bought Colin during summer last year, and since then he has developed a lot of meaning.

Initially, Colin was just an in-joke between me and two very good friends of mine, which is reason enough for me to be very attached to him, but there’s more than that. Colin embodies my friendships with those people, and should a sad time come along when I am no longer in contact with either of them, Colin will be a physical relic of that time which I will be able to look fondly on.

Other than that however, Colin is already a physical relic of a loved one who I can no longer see. When I visited my Grandad in the hospital last summer he said to me “I like your cow” and then he sadly died less than a week later.  Those were his last words to me, and he, already, could barely speak at the time. This was only a short while after I’d bought Colin, without him maybe he wouldn’t have said anything that day.

Then, of course, there’s the very first Finger Puppet Show. A good friend of mine was feeling pretty sad due to various reasons at the time, so I decided to make a small comic strip with Colin to try and cheer them up a little. From that sprang all of the Finger Puppet Shows, so it’s quite an odd string of coincidences that I make them at all.

So, you see, Colin has a lot of significance. To some it may seem that I have undue affection for random objects (such as my, sadly broken, yo-yo or my Trusty Water Bottle), but that’s not the case at all. This is why I feel so sad if one of them breaks, I’m not just losing the physical objects, but also all of the memories and emotions attached to it.


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Newcomer

That’s Jeb, and he’ll be appearing from time to time from now on. A very good friend of mine suggested a game in which we go onto Microsoft Paint and then take turns adding to a single picture. Jeb was the result. It was quite a fun game, and I was also quite happy with Jeb, so I decided to put him into a Finger Puppet Show, my friend must take half the credit for him though.

All finger puppets can be bought here.

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Relationships and Stories

I like to look at every meaningful relationship I’ve had with anybody as like a story. They’re all made up of a beginning, middle and end. While it is quite sad to think about the fact that a time will come when your relationships will all reach their end, I think looking at things like this helps to show how different your interacting with different people are, and even give a more positive outlook. Every friend, every family member, just, anybody they you care deeply about, has their own unique story. You’re not likely to meet two people in the same way, nor are you likely to depart from two people in the same. But most important, are the middles; once you finally get to know somebody and start having fun with them. All the fun and crazy adventures you have with people, the things you aren’t likely to forget. We all have to savour these middles, because they will end, maybe years in the future, maybe in a few days’ time. But all the different little signs of affection and the fun, unusual things done, they all add up to make our relationships with everybody unique stories. 
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The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien 

PictureThis is J. R. R. Tolkien’s first published novel to be set in the vast fantastical world of Middle Earth. The story follows the adventures of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who one day finds himself involved in a quest to defeat an evil dragon named Smaug, all thanks to a wizard named Gandalf.

While the story maybe a rather simple one of ‘hero has evil to vanquish, comes across obstacles on the way’ that doesn’t stop this from being a highly enjoyable book. The majority of things that Bilbo comes across are really interesting to read about and most certainly create some very strong images. When reading this you’ll find such cool things as: a forest so thick it’s almost as dark as night (and is also crawling with enormous spiders!), a race of giant eagles who live at the peaks of mountains and can talk, an enormous network of caves filled with goblins… I could go on.

Plus, while the world very impressive; there are some really wonderful characters in this novel too. First, you have Gandalf the wizard, a playful and mysterious person who aids the hobbit and his companions on their journey. It seems almost as if Gandalf is pulling all the strings from behind the scenes, making people do things without them evening knowing… or perhaps he is merely helping destiny along its way. Regardless, Gandalf is a character who improves every scene he’s in. The same applies to Gollum, a character who Bilbo stumbles upon in the caves. The character seems to be totally amoral, having lived almost the entirety of his life isolated from others, yet you still feel some kind of sympathy for him, almost as if you pity him. Almost as if you wish you could help.

The whole thing is a wonderful ‘escape from reality’ (if one is really needed) and gives you a big adventure that takes place in an amazing world. The only problem with it seems to me, that it feels like an excellent story sandwiched between a slightly long opening and an overly long ending. It takes a little while to get started, then, once you think the story’s finished, it goes on for another thirty pages or so!

But, still, it’s fun and exciting fantasy novel, and definitely worth reading: 8.7/10

Buy it here.

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Crush Part 2

This strip follows on from this one. This is one of the few Finger Puppet Shows which had a test audience before I posted it, and I want to clarify something: they are hugging each other at the end, not kissing each other. Gabby does not feel the same way about Buster as he does about her. But luckily it seems that the wonderful Colin has stepped in and saved the day!

All finger puppets can be bought here.

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Driftveil Drawbridge and Super Castlevania IV

For Christmas, my brother bought me the game Pokémon White. This is an excellent game, and I’ve been spending a lot of time playing it lately, as soon as I’m finished I’ll most probably post a review on here. Just the other day, I got to an area in the game called Driftveil Drawbridge, and I realised that the music there sounds a lot like the music from the Waterfall area in Super Castlevania IV (a game I’ll review if I ever manage to beat the really hard levels at the end of the game!). They’re so similar, that I wonder if it might be intentional. But, I’ll let you decided for yourself.

Here is Super Castlevania IV’s Waterfall music:

Here is the music from Driftveil Drawbridge:
So what does everybody think? Do they sound the same to you? Could it be intentional? Coincidence? I’ll leave you to decide.
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Challenges

Following my post on a random country, my friend has challenged me to write more entries on random countries than them before the end of the year. There are two other challenges too, to write more entries on individual philosophers than them, and to write more entries on random planets (using some imagination) than them. As such, the blog schedule will change, now there will be new entries posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays too, just not regularly, they will be ‘maybe days’. Their blog is called The Kite Still Flies, and it’s very good, so I suggest you visit it. But, having said that, that kite will NOT be flying after it has been smashed to pieces by the mighty water bottle of power, nobody opposes it and lives! Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh…

Okay, sorry, I was joking, don’t hurt me.

EDIT: The planet challenge is no longer happening, though the country and philosopher ones are!

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