*****
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Teenage Years
*****
Monday, 28 May 2012
Video Gaming
- Metal Gear Solid
- Zelda....
- Gears of War
- Final Fantasy
- Uncharted
Gethin Down
Dafydd Evans
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Invent a new flavour of crisp
*****
Adam Gilder
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Rules. RULES!
I haven't heard, read or told any one of these. Until now!
The boy who broke all the rules
Sammy was eight and lived in his treehouse. He built it himself from wood that he stole from the pallet factory not far from his parent's house. He stole his dad's hammer and pulled nails out of the useless furniture he found dumped in skips and dumps. He wasn't supposed to go wandering the way he did and he filled his parent's with worry but he always came back in high spirits.
His treehouse was built without plans but to his credit, it was quite strong even with it's jagged edges and creaky walls. He lived there as long as he could, until he grew out of it's limited space. Against his want he lived back with his parents to take advantage of its size and heat and significantly smaller distance to a shower. Much like the treehouse the boy grew into a quite strong being with jagged edges and creaky walls, in that he didn't react well to a simple telling off and he didn't let people get to know him. He often dismissed orders, not for a lack of respect , although many people saw it as that, but for desire to do his own thing. He lived in his own body and wanted it to move to his own will. Although, he wouldn't dismiss an opportunity to indulge himself in a good idea, regardless of the lips that expressed it. He wasn't daft.
This man had created a blanket of independence and wrapped himself snugly in it. So snug in fact that his independence had manifested a deadly efficiency. The man was a builder, a craftsman, a man of vision and excellent hands. He honed his skills during his years of constant exercise and experience. His curiosity had fueled him into a master. He had developed an ability to maneuver his hands to create any shape, any tool, any object that his world needed or his mind wanted. This had earned him a comfortable living as his skill was in demand. The boy who broke the rules was now a man who made his own.
The boy who obeyed all the rules
The boy who obeyed all the rules was truly adorable. He did what he was told, like you'd expect from a boy with such a title. He was well kept and life was easy. He always knew what he had to do and did it to the best of his ability. School was easy and quiet. He had a couple of close friends, all of which were loyal to each other. They knew this was important in an environment as volatile as school. Their defense was to remain unnoticed to the kids who enjoyed mischief and drama, while quietly nabbing the attention of the authority figures who set the rules they obeyed so well. The close friends hit their late adolescence hard and had developed a need to impress their peers, mainly the ones with pretty eyes and full breasts. But the boy had his rules. One that was ingrained was to not have a girlfriend, for they distract him from his work. The rules, set in place by his family were there to protect him from his life's path (also set by his family) to be a doctor. A credit to society. So the boy did what he was told, achieved the necessary, perfect grades and went to university, where despite living away from his family he followed his rules and kept to himself and achieving his necessary, perfect grades and went on to be a doctor.
It was here that his life was turned upside down. True, there are many rules to follow when you're a doctor. Certain diseases and illness' require certain, specific treatments in order to achieve the desired results. However, patients, a.k.a. people have such different rules of engagement. To deal with this he used one very important rule: Ask Questions.
He asked beyond the necessary questions; "How/why are you not well" or "what happened". He asked about them. Their lives, their stories, their interests and so on. He learned that most of these people were there because they broke a certain rule. He also learned that these same people usually had a reason to break the rules. Through this he learned that rules are useless without your own reason to follow them, which he realised that up until now, he hadn't.
This was a conclusion that changed his life and lead to a new beginning.
The rules that broke the boy
There was this boy who broke the rules deliberately to be "cool". This eventually got him into jail. He changed the way he did things. He followed some rules that lots of people followed. But then he realised that man of the rules that the mass of people were following often contradicted themselves. This put a lot of stress on his mind and he couldn't figure out what to do so he jumped off a cliff. The rules broke the boy.
*****
"I never was one for rules," quoth leRevven, tossing back his caramel locks with a vicious whip of his neck. His hair flowed straight back to its original position, running in the well worn rivulets of his ludicrously flamboyant 8-inch collar which jutted directly to the heavens. Blinking languorously at me and indulging in a sneer which revealed one of his canines, leRevven flumped impolitely into my favourite armchair. Swinging his legs over an arm, and arching himself so as to be looking at me upside down, he continued.
"In all honesty Max, I've come to see rules as things which apply exclusively to women, foreigners and the poor."
Dominic Grothandler leRevven, Viscount Yellowpool, is a man who puts the dick into lack of decorum. Swinging his kinkyboot clad feet playfully over the side of my armchair, I concentrated very hard on the possibility that he in fact was an apparition of my overtired mind, but as much as I willed him away, there he remained. For all his declared disinterest in rules, his face obeyed the edict of gravity, and I was treated to the oddness of having the flab of his face sinking to his forehead. I redoubled my efforts to will him away.
"Nevertheless, dear heart, our good Queen sees things differently, and so here am I, to collect her dues, as per the rue-ells."
In many of the lands of this world who deign to appoint monarchs make the claim that those who reign therein are God's chosen. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, for us, our Queen is actually God's chosen ruler. We know this for certain because of the intriguing and rather colourful goings on which are the meat and potatoes of her Court. Early on in her reign, the voices of dissent were many and varied, as the aristocratic class had become used to the jellyspined rule of her predecessor, King Andreas "Jellyspine" Fondura IV. We perhaps should have foresaw a different approach by taking note of the way in which our current Queen came into power. It will go down in history as the least complex, most direct coup de tat ever witnessed. There was young Jellyspine, giving in to us as usual, in the middle of a hearing, sat in his throne, kinging well and good, when Vicky-Tory Towncharger simply storms in, lofts a mace above and her head and mushes him entirely. Poor bastard.
She was an ageing marauder who'd tired of the constant travel and the limited amenities that brought with it, and she'd seen fit to alter that situation, because she could. Vicky-Tory was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but she'd bloody well got one there now. Her moniker, Towncharger, had been earned as she was avoiding justice in some far flung shanty town, and in the course of her making good her escape, she found she was being blockaded by an entire town, which had slunk from nearby to assist. Not lacking resolve, she'd reared back on her trusty steed Hog and simply charged. Rumours have it that even the taverns dived out of the way.
She was definitely a frightening sort of woman. At least Jellyspine would have been utterly anaesthetised as the mace made pudding of his skull; as she towered over him he would have been eye-level with her thighs, which were the sort of thighs which could grind a horse to dust between them. Legend says that to see her thighs is to leave your mind with no room to think of anything else.
Since taking the throne, Queen Vicky-Tory Thronetaker I had decreed very little, she simply asked that anytime a noble left the country, they are duty-bound to present the Queen with a gift on their return. I had recently visited the Duchy of Bastard, a small stakeholding in which I have an interest, and due to Circumstances whilst there, I found it necessary to beat a hasty retreat. Gifts the last thing on my mind, I returned home, and that explains why I was being graced with the presence of my dear, dear friend Viscount Yellowpool.
"Where's the gift, Max?"
I became slightly irked by his insistent tone. Sat in the corner with his head bowed and hands between his thighs, Tetrahedron, the Duke of Frisbee, was clearly entirely engaged in an attempt to will himself elsewhere. He had accompanied me on my excursion, but since he was a man of a more Bastardly outlook, he had not flown when the situation orgied. As such he had remembered a gift for our dear Queen. He had already handed leRevven the gift, a curious girdle with an ornate statuette of a long mushroom jutting out of it. Quite what the good Duke was thinking I don't know, but not knowing the use of such an accessory, I cannot begin to speculate. As good a friend as Tetrahedron is, he hadn't remembered to pick up a second gift from me, and for that he was in the shithouse, what?
Mercifully, it was at this point that Lady Willoughby cannoned into the room, and like trick photography leRevven vanished from his rude position in my very favourite armchair, and reappeared, stood rigidly to attention, several feet further into the room. His face was glistening with a sheen of what we refer to as the "leRevven Lady Willoughby Sweats". Isabella does have quite the effect on Dominic, childhood friends as they are. She simply smiles and hurries to a task at hand when I bring it up, but through the grapevine I've discovered that his tremulosity around her stems from a youthful hijink where she held him captive for several days at the bottom of a well on her, quite expansive, family estate. Dominic cannot hear the name of Crosshill Quartz without twitching very noticeably.
"Ehurghahahaha, Isabella, bella!" released leRevven, a gatling staccato of nerves escaping his vocal aperture. Lady Willoughby swept across the room, her skirts trailing out behind her dramatically, giving the impression of a swimming octopus entangled in drapes.
"Domma! Why didn't you tell me you'd come!? Here you are hiding away with Maxi and Ian, when you could have the pleasure of my company! Surely you've become unstable to have chosen them over me?"
Making a noise like a plug being pulled out of a bath of golden syrup, leRevven swallowed and, gesturing slightly too energetically, whined
"It is on business I'm afraid, Bella, in and out."
"You're being run ragged by that Vicky!" declared Lady Willoughby stridently, a cartoonish pout swelling on her.
"Yes, indeed," I quickly interjected, so as not to appear sidelined by my better half.
"Ehurghno, no," he assured us, "it's an honour to serve her Majesty. Collecting gifts for her is a joy!"
The dawn of false realisation broke over Lady Willoughby's face with the subtlety of nuclear holocaust. Fortunately, in his state of jitters, her thespianic efforts slipped past leRevven unnoticed. Delving wholehandedly into her expansive pockets, Lady Willoughby extracted a vial which contained a vivid electric blue substance of jam-like consistency.
"Here's Maxi's gift from Bastard, he offered it to my protection when he returned. You know how absentminded he can be!" she whinnied, releasing a full bellywobbler of a guffaw afterwards.
"Ha." I rejoined, to show game.
"It's a salve, Dommy. It's possibly the most exciting thing that Maxi could have brought back. It is said to heighten all the senses. I know that Vicky's days of adventuring are behind her, but should she ever take it upon herself to embark on some grand effort, she is sure to enjoy herself far more should she utilise this lotion."
Understanding well her meaning, Dominic leRevven had the vial in his gloved hands and quickly exeunt, ever eager to escape Isabella. As Lady Willoughby shook her head at Tetrahedron, I thought of how I owed so much to my darling life companion. I had so very nearly come acropper of our Queen who, while not a vicious tyrant, enjoyed gifts to a frankly excessive degree. Her eyes then fell on me, and as I offered a silent thankyou by way of a nod, I wondered which would have been the worse for me, bearing the scorn and whispers which would have accompanied my lack of gift, or missing out on whatever use my dear wife had originally intended when she'd purchased that vial.
Curtly goodbyeing Tetrahedron, we retired to the bedroom.
*****
The act of completing this piece causes me to both flout and conform to rules. I flout it by completing it passed the agreed upon deadline, it conforms to them by having me actually complete it.
I have always had a strange relationship with rules, being someone who both respects and gates them. I loathe being told what to do, and am often the sort of person who is a reverse psychologists' nocturnal emission. But the, I respect the boundaries which are imposed by them.
I think this has a great deal to do with my being a person who is easily irked. I can also have a certain rigidity about me which I actively try to work against.
But rules are important, like it or not.
I like to imagine a game of chess. The amount of patterns and combinations that can be created is phenomenal, as is the fact that you could spend a lifetime studying the game in order to attempt to master it. But this is only made possible by rules, because without rules, the pawn would swamp the board, the queens would terrorise the board and the knights would trample everyone.
Equally, if we had chaos and no rules, then society would be like this game.
But rules are a touchy subject in society, because depending on what rules you like and what rules you don't can dictate how acceptable you are and by whom you are accepted. Political rules, social rules, sexual rules, behavioural rules. They're all complex issues that are decided upon by the majority and is often decided upon unofficially, unspoken. And when were we given the choice?
We are almost certainly living the life decided upon by our ancestors. We are reaping the rewards and the chastisements of our forebears.
To sign off from this unfunny and, to be honest, hastily written piece, I leave you with this thought;
Rules are only as valuable as the people who abide by them.
*****
Dafydd Evans
Adam Gilder
Gethin Down
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Koala Bears and Other Small Creatures Indigenous to Oz
“A Kangaroo!”
- Exclamation of drunken Scotsman who’s fallen bodily and become impossibly entangled therein.
Koala Bears
- Enormous aquatic mammals often seen performing at SeaWorld. Beware splash zone.
Dingo
- Reclusive invitee.
Box Spider
- Thin and stringy pubic hair growth.
Stingray!
- Stingray! Duh-duh le-luh le-luh!
Steve Irwin
- Manchester United left back of the 1990s. Not a fancy player, not a scorer of goals, but a firm hand on the tiller, Irwin earned the respect of the fans for his solid performances and his long tenure at the club. That’s Denis, isn’t it?
Ned Kelly
- Prototype robot, badly designed. Not even as good as C-3PO, who is Shit.
Big Crocodiles
- Seriously big ones. DON’T FUCK WITH THEM. If you put an elastic band over their jaws they won’t be able to open them, but there’ll probably be others nearby who will croc you to death. Not to be confused with a cockodile.
Billabong
- Fairly popular clothing brand. Clothes often strangely damp. It is believed that this is due to the ghosts of angry aborigines haunting the garments with their ghostpiss.
Australian Football
- Ludicrous joke taken to extravagant extremes.
Fosters Lager
- Export only: DO NOT DRINK! message found on Fosters cans (translated form the Australian).
Julia Gillard
- She seems good, and she is an atheist. Well done Oz.
Desert Frogs
- Eddie Guerrero’s distant relatives, who are better adapted to living in the sand than their Hispanic sibling. They show little intention of following in their kinsman’s pro-wrestling frogsteps.
The Laughing Kookaburra
- Very silly creature. Has little regard for propriety or for the feelings of those nearby. Most often seen around old folks what have done a falling over.
Duck-billed Platypus
- Feline that is frequently charged for the purchase and consumption of mallard meat served on a particular kind of tray.
Oystercatcher
- Bird. Catches oysters.
Cassowary
- Dinosaur-looking turkey-thing.
Moths
- Foul creatures.
Seadragons
- Like seahorses, but several thousand percent more awesome. Seadragons of Oz have been known to have battles on a grand scale with the Skydragons of Zeal. The SeaDs launch themselves from the water, steam coruscating as it hisses around them. They tense their long bodies to points, so as they hit the SkyDs they are utterly skewered, sending hot jets of bahlood all over the ocean. It is a cool thing to watch.
Fairy Penguin
- Benders. Ben-duuuuhs!
Great White Shark
- Evolved form of the Rubbish Beige Shark. Pants.
Sugar Glider
- Little flying squirrel/mouse-looking thing which glides through the air super cool. They are marsupials, which means they like soup from Mars. It is very expensive to ship it in, so they have signed up for Amazon Prime. This is not related to Optimus Prime, who is a Transformer, and not a megalithic online shopping source. Optimus wouldn’t involve himself in such an industry.
Bandicoot
- Popularised by Crash, who was a cartoon one of these. I liked the mask that went “ooga booga!” when you collected it. Ahhhh, those halcyon days; no worries, no concerns. Where did those days go? Now they are lost, forever and irretrievably lost. I am locked in the joyless world of adult life and I cannot escape from my responsibilities. They weigh me down like an albatross around my neck, pain me like a radio in my anus. Why must we live in a world which requires such seriousness? Can we not mess around a little more? Why not dick around? You can’t stop me from dicking around! Who do you think you are, you joyless Jerry Joyce. Heaven above and Tutankamun Almighty! I need to lie down and stop for awhile.
Koala bears and other small animals indigenous to Oz.
I couldn't be any less prepared to write about this somewhat criminal subject. Here's what i know: Koala bears eat eucalyptus leaves because they enjoy smelling bad.
That's not even true. Not to all of them anyway.
Yes my knowledge of the original tree hugging hippie that is the flat nosed bastard of an Australian bear is very limited. And as you read that sentence again you can probably tell that i am not in a mood to write about it.
Australia is a strange place for it's animals because next to the passive bark dweller; the koala, Australia is also home to the most deadly spider, Vicious snakes and the late Steve Irwin. Quite the variety isn't it?
My favorite animal from that region is a certain Tasmanian devil. No not the kind that spins wildly and eats fridges with ease. No, the Tasmanian devil im talking about is Hugh Tasmanian Devil, his father. He has an awesome voice and his love for "O J" (juice, not alleged killer) tickles me.
But that is not under the criteria of the title. Oz is not the name of the continent. Oz means Australia the country so Tasmania and New Zealand don't count so i cant even talk about the kiwi.
So im literally literarily stumped, which is a better term for writers block, though much harder to say.
But wait! Hang on there just a second. How can i be stumped when there's such an abundance of brilliantly named animals in that place! Dingo, Wallaby, DUCK BILLED PLATYPUS! Why couldn't popular culture have better names for it's animals? My theory is that we take things too seriously. Or rather; things that are considered and named using the english language are taken too seriously.
A dingo, wallaby and DUCK BILLED PLATYPUS would've been named: Dog, Deer-rabbit and DUCK-SEAL. If it wasn't for it's linguistically playful aboriginal origins. That's just my theory based on my knowledge/ignorance of Australia's cheerfully named critters.
Although im thrilled to hear and read the names of these animals I still know a mites worth of knowledge on the subject. Nor do I care enough to tell you what i think about them.
Other than their sooooo cutey-wutey they make me want to slay humankind... ... .
Then they can prosper and little wallabies can have little wallaby homes that the wombats can build because they are the kings of construction in the Ausimal society. Their construction company is called "Wombat in a hard hat" and they pay all their taxes. The dingo's own the casinos and they run the streets in their Mafia-esq family style, hunting in packs. Dingos are the main concern of the Kangaroo Government. The Emu police will enforce the law but a few bad eggs hatch and end up in the pocked of the dingos which slow down the performance of the force.
The platypus are often victim to discrimination and are rarely seen outside of the rivers. The bandicoot's are tycoons of the fashion industry, opening successful shops mainly selling torn denim jeans. The kookaburra's and the budgerigars are having not turf but tree wars because both are selling dangerously addictive narcotic seeds to all paying animals. They need trees to avoid the emu police. The Kangaroos who run parliament, setting strict rules through sophisticated debating and bare knuckle boxing rely on the saltwater crocodiles to run the courts as they are the only animal that no other would laugh at while they wore stupid wigs.
Everything is perfect in Ausimal society.
Like i said, i don't care that much.
*****
Adam Gilder
Sunday, 29 January 2012
A Portrait of Ezekiel 'Pebbledash' Grimfonte
Taken from the biographical sagas of Chief Cunt-Stubble Schlong-Bonk, Bellendium Cunt-Stabulary.
“…and then the rusty looking gentleman went running down the street.”
Schlong-Bonk looked the woman up and down, an incredulous look on his face. He had never seen this woman in his life and could not understand why she would burst into his office unannounced…and midsentence.
“Who in the name of Django the Fierce are you? And what’s all this about a rusty looking gentleman? Why don’t you sit down and start from the very beginning.” That’s where the Cunt-Stubble liked his stories to start. They seemed to make more sense that way.
The woman sat down on the chair across from him. She was dripping wet and rather distraught. It was evidently raining outside, or inside as was prone to happening during Bellendium’s freak storm season.
“I’m so sorry. I should have knocked first. My name is Eliza Tankwater Grimfonte. I came because I have witnessed a crime and I didn’t know where else to go.” She began to well up so Schlong-Bonk handed her a towel. A tissue would have been hopeless as she was still drenched. And his interest had been peaked. He’d heard that surname before.
“Grimfonte you say? The Grimfonte’s of Belltrim Manor? You people are world famous. Didn’t your Great Grandfather invent some kind of house coating? Like breadcrumbs but for buildings.”
“You seem to talk a lot for someone who asks so many questions. If I had said no to your first line of questioning you would have subsequently wasted a lot of time. Luckily for you I am who you think I am. And yes, my Great Grandfather was the inventor of PebbledashTM and that is how we made our fortune…overseas. Now, can we get back to the crime?”
Schlong-Bonk grinned. He liked this girl. She had spunk. He liked spunk. He also liked justice. Hard justice.
“Tell me about the crime. How many people were murdered? Was there blood everywhere? Gosh, this sounds like a hard case already. Where’s my whiskey”
“No, it’s nothing like that. There was a burglary at the manor and the culprit took something very important. It was a large portrait of my grandfather, Ezekiel Pebbledash Grimfonte. You have to help me get it back.”
“You want me to get a picture back? That’s it? No murder, no blood, no entrails hanging from lampshades. All sound a bit boring really. But I suppose since it’s a Sunday and I have nothing better to do I’ll help. Now what did he look like?”
She looked at him puzzled. “Well, kind of like me really. Only older and a man. Oh, he was starting to fade slightly on the left side of his face…”
“I didn’t mean your grandfather. I meant the burglar. Did you see his face? How tall was he? I need descriptions you dumb broad.” He honestly couldn’t believe someone could be that thick.
“He was long and gangly. He was incredibly pale too. I thought at first that it was the light in the room but when he turned and looked at me I saw that it was his skin. He had the complexion of Scotts Porridge Oats. It was all lumpy and deformed. He also left a horrible orange stain on the carpet. That’s why I was referring to him as the rusty man at the start of this story.” She looks out as if to an audience and smiles. Then she continues, “And he smelled awful. Like a rancid flannel used for cleaning decrepit lady gardens. Do you think we’ll find him?”
“I’m sure of it. From what you’ve told me there is only one person it could be. Oddwich Sandjob. A mental bastard of a man who loves stealing shit that no one else cares about. He’s dangerous and ginger. And I know where to find him.”
“Where?” She felt worried. Why had a crazy ginger person stolen the only picture of her grandfather. What could he possibly want with it?
“Just leave it to me. I want you to take a carriage out of town and stay away for a few weeks. It won’t be safe to go back to the manor until this is all over. Understand?”
She looked at his the way someone would look upon a hero. “I will. Be careful.” She leaned over the table and kissed him on the cheek. Then she turned and walked out the door. From the window, Schlong-Bonk watched her get into a carriage and as the horses pulled around the corner he sat back down in his seat.
He looked at the calendar on his desk. “Three days until retirement,” he thought to himself. “Like fuck am I chasing after a painting of the worst exterior decorator in the world. I’m moving to Clitoria where the weather is warm and the drinks are always flowing.”
He grabbed his coat and hat, dowsed the lamp and opened his office door. He glimpsed his name on the door. ‘Chief Cunt-Stubble Schlong-Bonk’ it read. He had always meant to take that hyphen out. He smiles to himself and walked out into a now dark Bellendium.
*****
Ezekiel "Pebbledash" Grimfonte was a man of unfortunate proportions and unnatural speed. Born with his left leg twenty four inches shorter than his right, he came to be recognised by his distinctive unicycle, which he wore strapped to the runtling limb.
The son of a minister, he would forever be haunted by the shame of his mother, who had knowledge of his father's favourite horse. It is believed that this massive trauma is what caused the horrendous malformation of Ezekiel's hind leg. His forelegs were shaped in such a manner as to be taken at first glance as arms, although his hands were suspiciously hoof like, albeit hooves with the inner glow of religion.
At the age of fourteen, Ezekiel developed a taste for strong liquor and artificially coloured foods, which, coupled with his fragile stomach, resulted in the nickname "Pebbledash".
His teenage years were tragic ones, due largely to the discovery that he was not granted super powers by Earth's yellow sun. He would spent his days wheeling around the country, often heard to be muttering "dun duru dunturun, dun duru dunturun, dun duruduuun dun dun dun!" This was invariably followed by a failed attempt at one such super power or another. It is reputed that he once glared at a candle for three days before resorting to matches. After numerous failed treatments, his father twated him with a Bible, and brought him to his senses.
For years following the twat about the skull, he was only able to speak with a faux Japanese accent, which many mistook for racism. It wasn't. It was brain damage.
At the age of twenty five, he fused the unicycle to his freakishly short goat leg, becoming the world's first true cyborg, resulting in a dependency on WD40, from which he would never recover, hating, as he did, the squeak if an ungreased wheel.
As a result of this cyber enhancement, he was able to walk at super sonic speeds, but only if he was in the mood, and providing the weather was right.
Perhaps it is worthy to note that his eyes were a peculiar shade of green, enabling him to feed using photosynthesis, a skill which aided him greatly during his years spent imitating a shrub.
His death was a tragic one. He had, in his last few days, taken to growing blue fur all over his body, strapping carving knives to his hands and screaming "I AM an xman!".
Of course, he was not, and the lack of a mutant healing factor eventually killed him, after he fell off a cliff.
Grimfonte currently spends his time in the afterlife, where he drinks gin with Amitabah Buddha and bullies the living Christ.
About the author:
Lord Professor Vivian Smartie-John is a world class Expert. Don't argue.
*****
This is an excerpt of Jon Eseikiel Pebbledash Grimfonte's eulogy, delivered by is oldest friend Medi Hydref Jones.
I had many nicknames for Jon. My best and oldest friend. I remember the first day we met in the Super Nintendo games isle in Woolworths. We both went to pick up the same copy of Earthworm Jim 2 AT THE SAME TIME! Coincidence? Yes, and an important one to us it was too.
I suppose it's not very often that you saw a young girl pick up a copy of such a cool game but when he saw me, the first things he did was push me over. I cried and cried and kicked him in the shins and cried some more. I think Jon forgave the shin kicking but he always says that his mother came to stop him from reacting to that. He gave me the copy of the game and then sulked to his mam and walked off.
He was still sulking on the bus on the way home. I was surprised to see him on my route. He was quiet but i've never seen him on my bus. And then he got off at my stop! What was this? Was he new? I had to know! "Oi, boy." I said. I know, i was nuts wasn't i. I could tell he heard me, even though the bus was pulling off. Stupid bus. "Where do you live? I live just up the road by the old park that's now a nothing. It's like a slab of tarmac."
"I've just moved near there." He told me.
"Okay, then. So do you want to come over mine and play Earthworm Jim 2? We can go life each or something." I said. Our mother's smiled at each other. I don't know why, but they did.
"Oh. Ok then. Can i go after dinner, mum?" Yeah, he called her mum. That meant he wasn't from here. We say "Mam" down here in South Wales. This boy was interesting.
"My name's Medi Hydref Jones." I said.
"Im Jon" he said with a frankness that never left him.
The first nickname i gave his was Earthworm Jon and he liked that I think. He played along and went to hit me with a snot string which was gross but also the funniest thing i've ever seen, ever.
We were close ever since, and i've called him everything I could think of, often depending on his mood. Zeek when he was in a fun and helpful mood. Pebbles during his dimmer moments. I called him Grim often during his adolescence because he was capable of being a stropy-bottom.
I grew to depend on Jon. I remember the day i lost Stupidface my pet cockateel. Stupidface was a sprightly bird and evaded my grasp when i was cleaning his toes. I remember the tears spewing out of my eyes and nose when i told Jon who simply said "Stop crying. I'll get him. Do you want him alive or dead?". My face must have looked like a confused walnut when he said that, but it stopped me from crying. He knew me.
I didn't see him for 2 hours. To this day i don't know how he did it but he brought Stupidface back to me in one piece. It honestly was the same bird, I know because his toes were clean. That day his nickname was "Huntsman Care-hands".
I remember the day I fell in love with Jon. I suppose it was the the day i realised i was in love with him. We were always close. Gosh, we were attached. While we were at university, he studied what he loved; Women. And history. He'd come to my room every night he could to tell me about both. He got attached to his lecture Mrs Shallnotbenamed and they were doing things that i probably shouldn't be talking about at his funeral, so i wont. Needless to say, he needed me, and i needed to say that. This was the first time i was needed by him. He was always my knight and i, his damsel. But as the round table turned i found my self, not only caring about his feelings but i wanted to show him that i could fulfill them, like he had fulfilled mine.
The night i told him, bared my feelings, i was overjoyed to find that they were reciprocated. I dubbed him "Lancealittle" and he smiled before proceeding to show me that his new nickname was inaccurate. We made sweet, passionate sex and he died of unknown causes.
I've never felt such sorrow as im feeling today. I love you Zeek. You shall forever remain in the little loving heart of Medi Hydref Jones.
-Later Mrs Grimfonte slapped Medi in the face and a fight broke out between former best friends Mrs Grimfonte and Mrs Jones. It was a pretty awkward wake.-
*****
Ezekiel Grimfonte Jr, son of a fruiterer and a maniac, achieved more than could have been expected of him. Born in the early hours of a misty Wednesday morning sometime long ago he came writhing and screaming into the world, covered in his birthing gore and as unseemly as that would imply. His father, a fruiterer, remembered that it was on a Wednesday because when the babe was finally quieted, the bin men came to pick up the bins. Ezekiel Grimfonte Sr, also known as Le Grand Zeke for his astounding rise to be the head fruiterer in all the land, was a man who put great store in the bins, specifically their removal. Unfortunately for Zeke Jr, he put far less interest into his son.
Ickle Zeke, as he came to be known by some, could have been doomed from an early age, for while his father cared not a jot for him, he was drowned in the affection of his psycho-, socio-, telepathic mother, Imelda Staunton Grimfonte, nee Miles Davis. She was a maniac, and often threw her baby boy down things: stairs, mineshafts, matter transporter tubes, straws, throats, gutters, the gaping maws of long-dead stegosauruses and the like. He was quite fortunate not to be killed, or badly grazed. Fortune smiled on young Zeke, however, for on his fourth birthday his mother was caught in the beam of a Cosmic Ray, which had asplode from the sun and she evaporated INSTANTANEOUSLY into a poof of potpourri. Ezekiel Sr was unconcerned, having long ago wearied of his wife, and quickly and pragmatically arranged for a tutor and carer for his son.
His father selected Salvador Dali for the task, and the Spaniard, his queer moustache dancing merrily in the antici…pation set about his task with aplomb. Realisation that one single plomb would not be sufficient, El Salva ordered in an entire bunch of plombs to undertake the care of his new charge. Perhaps unsurprisingly Salvador Dali's tutoring revolved mainly around art and facial hair maintenance, although he also had an unexpectedly nifty talent for shooting a man's left nut with an air rifle from any angle. He could even accomplish this with one hand restrained behind his back and with a slender lady rubbing her thumb and forefinger together in front of his face and making repeated flicking noises with her tongue. Ickle Zeke never mastered the air rifle to that extent, but he was a dab hand at the old art. Ol' Sally was proper pleased when Zeke started to flail a paintbrush, and rewarded him with unwanted sexual attention.
Zeke Sr was not a man who like art, it transpired, and he had hired Salvador Dali purposefully in order to come to hate his son. At 17, Zeke Jr broke Salvador Dali's heart by emigrating to Papua New Guinea in order to escape his father's ire. At least, that's what he told them he was doing. In reality, he was going to the moon!
He didn't have the means to do so though, so he only got as far as the top of a nearby hill, and jumping ineffectually there he lost enthusiasm and went home.
He returned to his father's manse to find Salvador Dali's emulsified corpse dangling from a balustrade. He was an odd man, even in suicide. Zeke Jr quickly left the house again, weeping thick matte tears of deepest lavender, as Salvador would have wanted.
In order to fill the gap Zeke sought out Pablo Picasso, who had eloped from his native land with a dusky Romany beauty named Masskkerrinne le Guaravadiere. He had taken to referring to himself as Portmanteau Zippedeedoodahday le Guaravadiere, and he grabbed Ickle Zeke by the ear at the mention of Dali, and forced him to run barefoot across a stony beach. It was at this point that Picasso, drunk from chasing both the dragon and the green fairy, began referring to Ickle Zeke as 'Pebbledash'.
Ezekiel Grimfonte was fucking pissed off with that, and got his revenge years later when he invented the technique of pebbledashing, and for his first public demonstration of it, decided to pebbledash Picasso. Picasso was less than pleased, but he was a bit of a dick, so fuck it.
Later, Pebbledash invented the internet, apple crumble,and quicksand, as well as winning the Boer and Vietnam wars double-handedly and then he died, of fog.
The End.
*****
Luke Sampson
Gethin Down
Dafydd Evans
Adam Gilder