Not so fine and dandy

So, apparently the Dandy comic is going to cease production soon, after 75 years of publication. And after I was sort-of mostly nice about it in my blog last year, too. I expect the Beano will follow suit before too long - it's made up of about 95% reprints nowadays, so obviously they're penny-pinching. It's very sad, but I remain convinced that the reason children don't buy comics any more isn't the wider availability of cartoons and internets, it's that comics nowadays really aren't very good. I bet you could still make a profit with a really genuinely good Beano-style comic with the kind of things kids like in it. When I'm a millionaire, I'll launch my own (somebody else will write and draw it, by the way) and see if I'm right.

And speaking of children, what is it with the train from Belper to Derby? I usually cycle home from work, but if I'm working late like yesterday, or if it's raining like today, I take the train, and it is always for some reason filled with at least four or five different families full of screaming kids. Any time of the day or night, I've been on the 3:58, the 7:58 and everything in between, it makes no difference. Where are they all going, and why?

It's making me seasick

Wow, that camera on ITV's football coverage is tilted at a weird angle! And it zooms and swings about really stangely, too. Is this the advantages of modern camera technology we're seeing here, or just a drunk cameraman?

The Good Old Bears

Cycling home, I go past a sign with a big painted-over brown rectangle on it. Looking closer, it turns out it used to point the way to The American Adventure, a cool theme park that I went to once when I was little. It's very sad that it's not there any more, because it was a very cool place. I wonder what happened to those singing animatronic bears that used to greet you?

Writing

I keep composing books in my head and not ever putting metaphorical pen to paper, or actual fingers to keyboard. I really need to. I still vaguely want to be a proper writer one of these days, and I should do something about it. Starting tomorrow, because I can't be bothered tonight, I'm going to write a book. Or two.

RIP TV

My telly seems to be on its last metaphorical legs. It sits on the floor, so it hasn't even got legs on some kind of fancy table underneath it, but you know what I mean. Point is, the picture keeps receding into a dot every now and then, and it occasionally turns itself off altogether, then comes back to life in a second or two. This isn't good behaviour for a television set.

It's sad, because I bought this telly second-hand for £50 back when I lived in Boston, probably in the late nineties, so I'm quite attached to it. It's a really huge screen by the standards of second-hand TVs available in those days, and it'd probably cost a fair amount of money to get a replacement one that size. And since I've got no money at all, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. Someone needs to sponsor me. By which I mean just give me money.