PETS |

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY JIM STEEL - LAYOUT BY SCRIBBLES

EDITORIAL | A Full-Bodied, Well-Aged 'Whine'

You would think that after all the years of doing Scribbles while also living with various levels of chronic pain, that I would be used to having periods of time when I can't create a lot of new stuff. But even after well over 3 decades, I still get down when pain limits my creativity (and pretty much everything else as well.)

I think it is because I see the cool stuff everyone is up and I visual all the great ways to share those stories with everyone else and I get excited about it.

Those colourful Scribbles posts tend to make people happy and that in turn makes me happy. And let's face it, with the world being where it's at right now, we definitely could use more "happy" these days.

Then there's that thing called 'time'. The clock continues to tick and you continue to have adventures and I want to include them all on Scribbles. The list of what I wish to add gets longer and that makes me anxious.

Never EVER has anyone told me they're pissed off because there hasn't been a lot of activity on Scribbles and even if they did, my rebuttal would be something along the lines of "and you paid me how much again to put Scribbles together?"

Typically I always have some degree of pain in my neck, shoulders and upper back. You know that pain you feel when you wake up with a stiff neck? It's kinda like that, only ever single day. It's the reason I take many pain medications and do various stretching and yoga routines.

My current pain is new to me, it started the day before my birthday and if it was intended as a gift, I'd like to return it. I have experienced pain in my lower lumbar, right hip and throughout my right leg and into my foot. I have read up about this and it sounds like sciatica or an extension of my existing nerve pain. I believe the culprit responsible for this new pain were the four car rides in one week to and from the Ottawa Valley.

It's not all bleak however. There have been periods of time when the pain in my leg seems to be gone. Those blissful moments have increased over the past few weeks but I'm not out of the woods yet. In the brief time it has taken to write this message, my pain has increased from where it was when I typed the first words.

The point of this message is two-fold. Firstly I wanted to give a few more details to those of you who were wondering what I was referring to with my cryptic Facebook post "Sorry Scribbles fans too sore to create new stuff".

But the person I am truly trying to appease with this rant, is myself. I'm trying to convince myself it's all going to be okay. That I am slowly getting better and will get to those Scribbles posts (and other creative projects) in a little while. It sounds convincing enough when I write it and then read it back to myself.

Now if I can just believe in those words, I'd really be on the road to recovery.

PERFECT PIX | Fall Fave

 

ENTERTAINMENT | Royal Reaction

Former U.S. President Barack Obama and Prince Harry watch wheelchair basketball at the Invictus Games in Toronto on Friday, Sept. 29, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Chris Donovan

IN MEMORIAM | Tom Petty

In the mid to late 70's, I was a teenager who hung out with a group that somewhat resembled the characters from 'That 70's Show'. We partied (a lot), got into plenty of mischief and listened to rock music. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were among our favourites.

It was shocking and sad to hear that Tom Petty passed away on Oct. 2nd at the age of 66.

I will forever remember the date of his death because it's also my birthday, which this year was filled with much personal pain, worldwide shock after the horrific mass shooting in Vegas and sorrow over Petty's passing.

I remember playing Tom Petty's hit 'Refugee' constantly when I was younger, I must have worn out many record player needles listening to that song. It was his first big hit, the one that got our attention and catapulted Petty to rock superstar status.

When music videos were becoming popular in the 80's, Petty was one of the first to offer us a video that had a storyline and special visual effects. It was 'Don't Come Around Here No More', released in 1985.  The video was inspired by Alice in Wonderland and was filled with imagery unlike anything we had seen before in a music video. [That video appears below.]

In 1994, Petty again made headlines with his song 'You Don't Know How It Feels'. The chorus included the line "let's roll another joint", which was taboo to sing about at the time (music lyrics could allude to getting high, but coming right out and saying it was a no-no.) Some markets refused to play the song, while others played an edited version in which the rolling a joint reference was scrambled into incoherent nonsense. As the years passed and views changed, the original lyrics were allowed to air on most radio stations.

In addition to singing with his group The Heartbreakers, in 1988 Tom Petty collaborated with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison to form The Traveling Wilbury's, whose most notable hit was 'End of the Line'

Rest in peace Tom Petty. You were a unique artist who refused to compromise your values and words. Words we will forever enjoy when listening to the many amazing songs you left us with.

Read 'Rolling Stone's' tribute to Tom Petty here.

VIDEO

KIDS | Introducing Joe

YOU | It's Time!

YOU & ME | Renfrew Road Trips

CELEBS | Stealing the Prince's Popcorn... and Heart

ME | Reflection

SCRIBBLES VIDEO | Real Pussycats of St. Patrick St. | EPISODE 5

The latest adventures of the pussycats on St. Patrick Street and beyond!


And if you missed the debut video and story of the Real Pussycats of St. Patrick Street - CLICK HERE

CORRECTION:
In the video above, we send a R.I.P. to Todd, a unique cat that lives down the street. Rumours of Todd's demise have been greatly exaggerated, I saw him today when Timmi & I were on a walk. Todd was sitting on a porch step beside Halloween decorations. It was either Todd, very much alive or a very convincing ghost cat decoration.  I'm guessing it was the first option....MEOW!

YOU | Sign Language

Morghyn, Molli, Jodi & Matt Quinlan make a big announcement

YOU & ME | Fresh as Fresh Can Be

SLIDESHOW - CLICK HERE

PETS | Think Big

A FEW CHANGES FOR FALL....

Let's see how observant you are. There are 5 design and content changes on Scribbles today. Can you find them all?

OK, give up? Here's what's changed....

The background areas surrounding our posts and the entire website are now white. This hopefully gives the site a less crowded look.

The collage of friends at the top of our website has increased from 5 rows to 7 rows and features more friends than ever before -including 4 larger "highlight" photos.

We moved the Scribbles logo to the left of the friends collage section. And in case you were wondering - the friends whose faces are covered up by the ".co" logo, also appear elsewhere in our collage.

It took some doing but we have a whole new page where you can find a huge archive of past posts from the past 6 years (see upcoming post for more details.)

The tabs in the right sidebar that indicate each section now have a yellow bar with a red square beneath each title, designed to make it easier to find what section you are looking for.

And lastly, the area at the bottom of our site (known as the footer) now features a larger version of our friends collage and logo.

We hope you enjoy the changes.

NEW PAGE MAKES FINDING OLD POSTS EASY!

When there's new posts added to Scribbles, past posts get shifted down the page. Eventually, they move to a different page and if you click on "OLDER POSTS" at the bottom of each page, you can go back to older posts and back and back some more.

If you'd like to see a specific post again you can now find these older posts using our new ARCHIVES PAGE.

Scribbles ARCHIVES PAGE lists past posts in categories and listed by the month they appeared, starting with the most recent months and going back as far as 2011.

There will be links to Scribbles ARCHIVES PAGE in our right sidebar. 

You can also quickly access this handy page by clicking on the far right direct link featured in the page tabs beneath our logo section.

More posts will be added to the page as time progresses. Current months new stuff is also featured in the right sidebar in our Recent Posts section.

VISIT OUR NEW ARCHIVES PAGE BY CLICKING HERE

YOU | Love on the Rocks

PHOTOS COURTESY DIANE MURRAY

Here's an interesting video that shows how and why the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world...

YOU | "Smile."... "No, YOU Smile!"

EDITORIAL | Scribbles "Officially" Turns 38

It doesn't seem possible that it was 38 years ago, on Labour Day weekend,  I sat down with a doodle pad, crayons, a pen and an idea. Make a digest sized magazine for my sister Jane to help her with school stuff like math and spelling and mix it in with stories and activities featuring Jim Henson's Muppets.

I was pretty good at drawing them and created stories (in tabloid style) featuring made-up adventures featuring Miss Piggy & Kermit (who got married and had three kids, Peter, Patricia & Pam who ran away to New York a lot ) plus Rowlf, Fozzie Bear and others.

Soon the math and other school related content was replaced with comics and stories about Jane, my family and friends. The Muppets stopped being a part of Scribbles as Jane was growing up and more people were reading each edition (a single copy magazine that you would read and give back to me. I would then bring it to someone else and so on.)

We started printed multiple copies of Scribbles in 1990 and at its peak we had a circulation of 60. That was 60 family members and friends who received a copy of Scribbles Magazines, which I had created, printed, collated and delivered. If I decided to colour a photo, graphic or headline text, it was done on every single copy. 60 times colouring a photo or highlighting text. I didn't want anyone to go to another Scribbles pal's home and discover that the friend's copy of Scribbles was coloured but the one they had received wasn't. There'd be none of that in Scribblesland.  It was all or nothing.

Our last multi-copy edition of Scribbles Magazine was printed in 1996. After a brief hiatus, Scribbles resurfaced. This time online in the format of a newsletter which was emailed to family and friends. I am not certain exactly when we became a website because this is Scribbles second site. It has been created using Blogger since 2011. Prior to that time, we used Piczo to create Scribbles.

Labour Day weekend was our official 38th anniversary, which means we can now say Scribbles is in its 39th year. Absurd! Who'd a thunk it??  Certainly not me, when I stayed up late watching the Jerry Lewis MD Telethon while creating the first Scribbles (then called Sunny Digest)

Here's to another year of Scribbles....created for you and all about you since September 1979.

ENTERTAINMENT | Go Retro!

CHCH TV is the place to be to watch classic TV programs each weekday morning from 10:00 am - 11:30 am and afternoons from 4:00 - 6:00 pm. 

The retro shows airing on CHCH include: The Bob Newhart Show (10:00 am) I Dream of Jeannie (10:30 am) Newhart (11 am) Batman (4:00 pm) Bewitched (4:30 pm) The Partridge Family (5:00 pm) The Mary Tyler Moore Show (5:30 pm),

We're big fans of most of these shows and can't wait to see them again. How about you?

CLICK HERE TO VISIT CHCH'S WEBSITE 

SCRIBBLES MINI VIDEO | Sister Jane's 47th Birthday

Wow! Blow my mind. My "little sister" celebrated her 47th birthday in July. How is this even possible? And why does her birthday always remind me that my birthday is just around the corner?  I'm 10 years older than Jane, so you do the math.

Below is a brief video of how my family celebrated my sister's birthday. Jane also had fun with friends, at a birthday party for her, held at a local bar...but we don't have footage of that. Perhaps it's like Vegas. What happens there, STAYS there.  LOL!

KIDS | A Sweet Treat

KIDS | Clay Creations

YOU | Yahoo, She's 22!