Desperate TimesStranded in a hotel in an African war zone with no internet access for two weeks, I was forced to resort to desperate measures. Possessing only my passport and the clothes I stood up in; and the warning "You can catch it shaking hands with a vicar out there" ringing in my ears, I had to draw my own porn in order to preserve my sanity.
Alas, it all came out looking like Coronation Street's Audrey Roberts, but, as they say, any port in a storm.
What have you done in times of great desperation?
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Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 15 Nov 2007, 10:10)
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There's a difference at McDonalds you'll enjoy.All my stories appear to be within the five years I lived in Manchester. Hmmn.
It was the final term of my first year at university. Being completely witless when it came to money I'd spent spent and spent again all year and suddenly found myself quite short of cash. I paid my rent for the entire term up front which left me with £200 for the entire ten weeks ahead.
Needless to say, I promptly went out the first weekend and blew £100 of it. Thus I was faced with three equally chilling prospects: 1) Get a job. As a social sciences undergraduate, I was a workshy layabout and I recoiled at that thought. 2) Go cap in hand to my parents. I had too much pride for that, which left option 3) Live on £10 a week for two and a half months.
With a combination of buying only the cheapest pasta and rice from bin shops in the indoor market and the 4p tins of tomatoes from Kwik Save, I could have done it. However, as luck would have it, McDonalds were running their 'Trivial Pursuit' scratchcard game at the time - read the question, scratch off the answer. If you got it right, you won some 'food' as a prize. I would go into the various branches around Manchester City Centre, get as many cards as they'd give me, and go to the university library to look up the answers. Every correct card you cashed got you another card. I lived on fries and shakes for weeks.
When Morgan Spurlock did this, he became a millionaire. When I did it, I got acne and BO.
But at least I didn't have to get a job, which was the main thing.
(, Mon 19 Nov 2007, 13:39, 3 replies)
!Its amazing to think that before the internet we had to look up things in books. Its a wonder anyone could ever be arsed to learn anything.
I'm surprised we're not still cavemen. I wish.
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browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Mon 19 Nov 2007, 14:24,
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StrangelyThat the easier information gets to obtain, the more thick people seem to be.
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Slippery Mick ‏, Mon 19 Nov 2007, 21:29,
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InformationMy experience of having to find information in an actual library has stood me in good stead later in life, where I spend a lot of work-time data-mining on the internet. Learning young to follow odd cross-references and isolate key information has proven to be a very valuable transferable skill. Who'd have seen that coming?
(, Tue 20 Nov 2007, 10:45, closed)
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