VinceH's Miscellany – Page 3 – Random gibberings

Tales from the pandumbic – part 10

October 2, 2020December 12, 2021 VinceH

Delivering danger to your (neighbour’s) door! Back in July, I purchased some items online from Asda, and at the final step, when faced with the delivery options, I chose a ‘named day’ for delivery. This costs a small amount more than standard delivery, but it ensures that the delivery will take place on the specified day. It meant I could select a day on which I would be home all day, rather than have the goods arrive when I’m not in. Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work in theory…

Some adventure gaming nostalgia

September 27, 2020December 12, 2021 VinceH

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…

Tales from the pandumbic – part 9

July 17, 2020 VinceH

Don’t stand so close to me It’s already mandatory to wear masks or face coverings on public transport here in the UK, and from 24th July it will also be mandatory to wear them in shops – and after a trip to the shop a few days ago, that date can’t come around soon enough for me.

The grave of Scipio Africanus – an addendum

June 20, 2020December 12, 2021 VinceH

When I looked into and wrote about the grave of Scipio Africanus last week, I left a couple of loose ends. In fact, because so much about Scipio is unknown, there are any number – but there were a couple of points in particular that I was thinking of. The recent vandalisation of the grave has reminded me to look again at those points.

Desecration of a grave

June 19, 2020December 12, 2021 VinceH

A couple of weeks ago, the statue of Edward Colston in central Bristol was pulled down and it reminded me of a local grave – that of (possibly freed) slave Scipio Africanus, which I first learnt about at school. I couldn’t remember very much about it, so I paid it a visit to grab a photograph, and then set about a little armchair research to remind myself of the detail and/or improve on what I may have been taught at school. I then wrote about it on this blog.

The old Henbury School badge

June 14, 2020December 12, 2021 VinceH

I began my recent post about the grave of Scipio Africanus with an explanation of how I first came to know of its existence – which was that while attending Henbury School, we visited the local St Mary’s Church and were shown the grave and given a little information about it. This was probably in the context of learning something about the slave trade.

The grave of Scipio Africanus

June 13, 2020December 12, 2021 VinceH

In light of recent events – in particular the statue of Edward Colston here in Bristol being pulled down and plunged into the harbour last weekend – I thought it might be worth taking a look at something not entirely unrelated: The grave of Scipio Africanus, situated in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Henbury, Bristol.

Tales from the pandumbic – part 8

June 6, 2020June 6, 2020 VinceH

Fools and their social distance are soon parted I’ve just nipped to the shop to get some bread and a few other bits and pieces, and having gone around the store and picked up what I wanted, I headed for the checkout area. I reached the checkouts, and stopped at the appropriate line marking, just as someone else arrived ahead of me from another aisle. He went straight up to the belt and began unloading his shopping from the basket. That all sounds fine so far, doesn’t it?

Named that film

May 30, 2020 VinceH

A recent conversation in the comments section of a post on Rick Murray’s blog saw Rick trying to identify an old children’s TV show. It reminded me of the time I was trying to identify something from a memory of one basic scene.