I'm counting the days, and if they even get CLOSE to forty. . .

Well there was a gap of 3 hours in about 36 of rain here in Hà Nội. Now it's not the kind of hard rain you'd expect from a monsoon. No, it's the persistent, terrifying biblical drizzle that I have seen raise rivers by metres in days, and, well, Ha Noi is not close to the ocean, but it's only about 25 metres above sea level, so really it is close to the ocean. Also Hà Nội means "inside the river" Oh, while I was uploading this comic the rain started again. . .

Classic Oxford Activities: Rowing Part the Second

We return now to the action on the river banks...with John Hammersmith and Sir Richard Boddington the III calling the play-by-play at the Oxford rowing regatta. This most traditional competition dates back until....well...as long as anybody can remember...and always attracts a wide range of participants. All of whom seek the fame, glory, and prestige that comes with success on the water.

Enjoy!

lost in translation

This actually happened. There are so many moments where I want to sit down with the person and ask them what they were thinking, but I don't have the vietnamese for it. Like when I'm wearing sunglasses and a guy with 200 more pairs persistently tries to sell me some, or when I'm comfortably eating at a streetside restaurant (sitting) and a pushy motorbike driver tries to convince me to get on his bike. Really? Where are we going, will they let me eat my noodle soup there? At least wait till I'm finished dinner to harass me. The examples are endless. Also I am aware that my drawing of my foot looks like I have clubfoot, but you know it's not as inaccurate as you'd think if you've seen my feet.

not everyone is a good travel partner

Sometimes you end up with a travel partner that turns out to be a turbo bitch, and that's too bad for everyone. This is Medusa, don't travel with Medusa.

Classic Oxford Activities: Rowing Part the First

In this new series of comics we explore the quaint traditions of the University of Oxford. Rowing is quite the thing there don't you know? This most gentlemanly sport shall be the subject of our first expose into life in the austere academic city of dreaming spires and sweater vests. In this installment we meet our commentators John Hammersmith and Sir Richard Boddington the III as they describe the sights and sounds of Oxford's favourite sporting activity. See you on the river bank!

The Power of One

It's often underestimated, the power of one spring roll. It can be the straw that broke the camel's back. I was out at a squat stool streetside joint having dinner with an American buddy, Wade, and we were having spring rolls. I didn't worry about the fracture in my squat stool affecting its structural integrity until it was too late. I was putting a springroll in my mouth when the legs of the stool spread out like bambi on an icy lake. I just saw the earth move up really fast and all the Viets around me went into a tizzy, and my ass was on the floor. Even the lady making the springrolls was laughing. Wade laughed the hardest.

How it all started.....

In some respects the origins of Toasted Mechanism can be traced back to this comic. Laughing out loud in our kitchen in Guelph Marcus and I combined stories of our various canoe trip hijinks to produce the legend that is "Adventures in Wilderness". Following countless hours of pencil scratches on scrap paper, the concept of using photoshop to bolster our lack of illustration talent was developed. Fame and notoriety quickly followed it's first publication in the Ontarion student newspaper at the university (at least no angry letters were reported) and the second posting to Facebook has since generated over 130 comments. Talk about sucesss. Despite the goldmine of feedback from social networking sites, we still aren't sure if it's just us that finds this funny....but we're pretty sure there's a dirth of comics in the whole outdoor adventure genre. Maybe this is the start? Ok kids, you're going to want to paddle pretty hard on this one...

The story of Durian

Durian is a disgusting fruit the size of a rugby ball. It smells like vanilla and rotten onions, and you can even get ice cream in Durian flavour called Durian Surprise. Kate was travelling with me for awhile, and we could never contain our disdain for the fact that someone would eat this. Especially on a small public bus (van) that seats 15.

It appears that something has toasted the mechanism. . .

These are the words that came out of Derek Pieper's mouth when we tried to figure out why our toaster oven wouldn't close all the way and was letting in enough oxygen to set all the toaster leavin's (crumbs and straight up continents of burnt bread crusts) on straight up fire. That was setting off our smoke alarm, and that's a problem because people like to toast things in the morning.

We contemplated how many times in history that phrase had been used, and though we couldn't come up with a conclusive number, we decided the phrase was funny regardless, and so here we are, years later, making a blog out of it. One time Derek and I drew some comics, and one of them was of a canoe going off of a waterfall, and somehow this made it into the school newspaper, and somehow this convinced us that we were funny, at least to each other. So to entertain each other, and maybe you by collateral damage, we decided to draw snippets of our lives in comic form and upload them to a common blog. I'm in Viet Nam at the moment avoiding the rest of the world and Derek is at Oxford doing his Master's. Two very different lives that warrant crappy pen and pencil observations of life. When something isn't quite right, check for crumbs, it's likely something has toasted the mechanism.