And later devising one! Having mentioned my ancient and long lost collection of comics recently, and noting the annuals I now have amongst other things, I’ve started browsing this type of stuff on eBay. I have made a small number of purchases, which I may or may not talk about another time, but for the moment I’m focusing on something else. Looking specifically at annuals, a number of old titles jumped out at me and triggered an old memory, and that in turn another from a few years later.
Read MoreCategory: Miscellaneous
An Amazon delivery fail
The block of flats in which I live has two entrances. One is at the front, giving access to the front car park, and on which there is an intercom for visitors and delivery drivers to contact the relevant flat and, if necessary, be ‘buzzed in’. The second is at the rear, giving residents access to the rear and side parking areas, and which doesn’t have an intercom. The only way in through that door is with a key (or coded fob). Therefore, you can logically expect delivery drivers to…
Read MoreThree lost collections from my younger days
When I was a wee lad, I had a small but growing comic collection, but it never survived a house move. Around the same time, I had a collection of toy cars. That survived the move, but didn’t make it through another. Older still, I had a collection of Star Wars comics – but I’ve never known its fate, because it just vanished with no explanation.
Read MoreA quick (but sadly small) money saving tip. Possibly.
There’s a silly little thing I do, more out of a form of laziness than anything else, but which I realised recently may actually be saving me a small amount of electricity, and therefore money – and thinking about it, I realised could probably save even more (though still not a huge amount). I’ll start with the tip itself, and you can then read my rambling explanation after. There are three basic points:
Read MoreMissing in action? Nah, been a bit busy, mate
Busy, that is, not working – but looking for work. Last September, my main client (i.e. my main source of income) let me go after 22 years service. This was inevitable; I anticipated it after the company was taken over at the end of 2020, and was even planning to leave under my own steam, but at a slightly later point – so they beat me to the punch.
Read MoreTwitterings – January 2022
Although VinceH’s Miscellany was set up as a blog, using popular blogging software, I don’t tend to use it as much as I probably should. I do have a bunch of partly written text/html files that could be finished off and turned into posts (including more possible entries in the Tales from the Pandumbic series), and I should do that, as that’s why I started writing them in the first place – but the truth is, I tend to concentrate on other things.
Read MoreGo on then, give us a Twirl
On Christmas Day (such a long time ago now), Rick Murray posted a video on his blog in which he opened up and tried some Cadbury chocolates – specifically, Double Deckers, Picnics, and Twirls. The first two of those are, in my book, adequate bars of chocolate, and not something I buy or eat very often. Twirls, on the other hand, I buy regularly. Probably a bit too regularly to be honest – along with a few others. I like Twirls.
Read MoreThe changing face of VinceH(.com)
This post has been prompted by an email I’ve received – I’ve replied directly, but it’s worth commenting here as well in case anybody else is wondering the same thing. The question was what on Earth is going on with this site, because it keeps changing appearance? It’s been happening a lot over the last week or two – sometimes quite a few times in rapid succession in a short space of time, then staying as is for ages, then another round of changes, and so on. And the short…
Read MoreSome adventure gaming nostalgia
TL;DR: Two rubbish text adventures I wrote as a teenager are online My business, Soft Rock Software, has existed for just over thirty years, but my programming – and my very first games – date back further still; all the way to my school days. Two games from that period before Soft Rock Software, and which for reasons below I consider my first two games, are now available to play in your favourite BBC Micro emulator. I therefore thought it might be fun to look at the history of those…
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