Post-it Book Number Four

For a variety of boring technical reasons I’m not developmentally-inclined-enough to address, my monthly roundups of daily post-it notes stopped functioning on this blog. It was around about the time I filled up my last sketchbook, but that definitely didn’t mean these daily drawings stopped! In fact, it was quite the opposite- as I noted in the aforelinked post, I’m filling up books faster than ever.

So – book number four is full, and works as kind of a diary of my life from March 2017 to October 2018. I never even realised it was possible to generate so many puns and terrible ideas!

This all inevitably means it’s time to start a new book. Number five, here we come:

Another Post-it sketchbook is filled

Since I started making an effort to publish a new Post-it note every day, these books have been filling up a lot faster! I filled up my latest sketchbook in February, and it covers the time from Summer 2015 to now. It’s like watching my life flash before my eyes!

Ricky goes to Rio

Maybe I’m becoming a closeted sports fan?

doublefaultEvery summer for the past several years I’ve been wondering why all the people around me who support sports teams throughout the year go off to music festivals in the summer, while I prefer to stay at home listening to Wimbledon.

Yet I continue listen to Wimbledon while I work. Then the notion of summer sports ambience expands to the Tour De France, and as part of trying to figure out how on earth this sport works, I’m left wondering what the hell mining explosives suppliers and unopened hotels are doing sponsoring professional sports teams.

The next thing I know, it’s a Summer Olympics year and I’m watching that too.

The Olympics is a kind of madness though

Two weeks where hundreds of people from all over the planet gather to show off how they’re really really good at doing some really obscure (usually) physical thing, and the BBC is dedicating dozens of channels to presenting it all live for the nation’s bafflement!

Steele Johnson? Seriously?I find myself watching Synchronised Diving, wondering why they made an insanely complicated way of jumping into a body of water even more complicated by expecting two people do it in sync. I’m not even going to try to keep a straight face when ‘Steele Johnson’ is on the screen in his tiny Speedos.

Next my attention is diverted to Taekwondo, where two people are trying desperately to kick each other in the head, live on prime-time television. After that, I’m watching a field of grown adults on undersized bikes race around a concrete obstacle course and hoping they don’t break their necks.

There’s so much going on it demands the attention of my post-it pad!

Greg Van Lavamat
The intrigue begins with the cycling road race. A bit like a miniature Tour De France, humans race in the space in a couple of hours over a distance I couldn’t cycle in a week. The race is won by a Belgian chap whose name sounds an awful lot like Greg Van Lavamat. He probably would benefit from having a motor inside of him as well.

Professionals
Look at the swimmers, propelling themselves 100 metres in the time it takes me to paddle 25! They must live in the water, a bit like the ducks on the canal.

Fencing
I can’t say I’ve ever watched fencing before this Olympics, but I have to wonder if it’s the fencers that have taken a lot of influence from Daft Punk in recent years, or if Daft Punk were influenced by fencing?

Rafa's Routine
Never mind that, it’s stopped raining so the tennis is back on. Oh look, it’s Rafael Nadal, sweating profusely, going through his pre-serving routine. Have another banana, Rafa!

T-Rex Table Tennis
There are people who aren’t on television who take table tennis very seriously. To call it ping-pong would be offensive. I can see why- this sport is madness. Their postures remind me of dinosaurs, but they move like fireworks. I can’t even!

Etch-a-sketch
Oh yeah, basketball, that’s a sport that is totally competitive outside of the United States. Why is the coach drawing his tactical plans on an etch-a-sketch?! Is chalk too old-fashioned? Is an iPad too modern?

Vault
What would the Olympics be without a little bit of the track-and-field? I find myself wondering – am I the only person who thinks this is completely insane? I mean, pole vaulting, how do you even get into that? Is that your only job as a human? Or do you run online marketing pyramid schemes between vaults or something?

Strange as all that is, it only barely scratches the surface. I don’t even know what to write about the dancing horses event or the synchronised swimming duets, except that a fortnight later I still can’t work out which is more bizarre. I’m exhausted from just having watched!

Oblique Fascinations

Hello Internet! I bookended this month with travelling. As we start this roundup, I was in Hamburg, being astounded by the amount of riot police in town, and struggling to practice my German. Toward the end of the month I found myself in Ibiza, trying to stay as far from the party towns as possible. Instead I hired a Vespa and drove up a mountain, which was a lot like being at home in Britain, except with nice weather!

My favourite post-it from the month was, as usual, one of the least understood. Never Lonely Tomorrow was a picture about the ever-increasing amount of gadgets in the world that you can talk to. The Amazon Echo and its success in the States particularly fascinates me, as it leans into Amazon’s core business of selling you… toilet paper? I’m sure there will be only more and more of these devices to talk to as the future presses on.

The other oblique fascination of the month was They Say Love Is Blind, a more easily digested post-it note about how my rockets and my squid drawings look so similar.

After the fold are all the old direct links, for posterity’s sake. Continue reading “Oblique Fascinations”

April Showers

What a scattered month!

This April I have been trying not to glue my own lips together, having strange dreams about sandal-shaped buses and sunbathing goths, spending far too much money on MP3s (Streaming services? What are they?), and a little bit of travelling here and there too.

My favourite square came quite early this April, in the form of the advice slip. I’ve never understood why ATM receipts are labelled as advice slips. It’d make much more sense if they really dispensed advice, as I pondered in my drawing.

I was sad the world lost Prince too – another hero of imagination has gone. As I noted on Twitter, I’m still in denial about Bowie, so having His Purple Majesty go too is an extra sad time. Shame I couldn’t come up with a better post-it note to commemorate him.

Post-it notes, April 2016

After the fold are all the old direct links, for posterity’s sake. Continue reading “April Showers”

Robot Achievers

Whoosh! There goes the month of March in the year of 2016 into the archives of space-time. I spent a lot of time (moreso than usual) by myself this month, but that didn’t stop me coming up with some really silly pun post-it notes.

This month’s greatest success was iPad Thai, which for an idea I’ve had clinging onto a list for ages, was timed very well to meet the launch of a new iPad from Apple. My favourite drawing this month was probably the Fax Machine, because it’s just my kind of nonsense, but I think it was too much nonsense for the general public.

After the fold are all the old direct links, for posterity’s sake. Continue reading “Robot Achievers”

Primary School

This month, beside getting terrified by the unfoldings of America’s presidential primaries, I’ve done a handful of good drawings on post-it notes!

My faviourites came through earlier in the month – the Classic is so classic I find myself wondering why I had never thought of it before, there was untitled but very satisfactory drawing of Lilly and I cycling up a local hill, and Al the amazing waterproof dog was one of my finer moments too, because it actually looks like a dog.

It’s not really right that I find myself surprised when my drawings actually look like they’re supposed to!

After the fold are all the old direct links, for posterity’s sake. Continue reading “Primary School”

Canary Nonsense

Oh dear, what happened this January?

Well, David Bowie died, which I am quite sad about, and still in a little bit of denial over. I’m sure he’ll be back in one form or another at some unknown future. We had a bit of snow, though not as much as New York did, and I also pondered my digger-operating fantasies.

I drew a lot of utter nonsense this month. I like drawing nonsense at the best of times, but I particularly enjoyed this month how you guys who follow me seemed to like it too, even occasionally reading more meanings into these things than I had ever cooked up myself!

Here’s the latest twenty-eight for your fascinations:

After the fold are all the old direct links, for posterity’s sake. Continue reading “Canary Nonsense”

The Little Yellow Journal of Another Trip To America

Another winter has been spent being bewildered in the States! This year I encountered (beside all the usual bigotry, gun worship and emotionally manipulative advertising) the fattest chihuahua I had ever seen, mailboxes that looked like they were alive, and a different take on the self-service vending machine. I ate an obscene amount of tacos too, for all meals of the day. You can’t do that in Britain!

And then I flew home, and wondered what just happened. Here’s how it looked through my eyes:

After the fold are all the old direct links, for posterity’s sake. Continue reading “The Little Yellow Journal of Another Trip To America”

The Yellow Zoo

Well hey Internet, check out what I’ve been thinking about for the past month! I think I think about animals a lot by the looks of all these drawings.

The two biggest hits came late this month – the PowerPoint Slide and the In-stag-ram were exciting! My personal favourite though was the Launderette, it told a nice little story in one little square.

After the fold are all the old direct links, for posterity’s sake. Continue reading “The Yellow Zoo”

 
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