Specchums and the coronavirus.

[1024MAK]

Ohh, good luck with that one... A photograph would be good

After action pictures

Update:
After approx 9.3mm worth of rain over the last 24 hours, water butt storage is back to 95% full
Just one tank is not completely full.

Mark

[1bvl109]

That looks absolutely delicious Alessandro, ...

As does every food picture he posts. To dangerous for me though. My stomach might become artsy and spoiled and refuse to function properly when going back to chips right out of a bag.

... but there's not enough insulin in the world for me to have a slice.

Sorry to hear this.
Apart from the raisins and the added sugar must calories here seem to stem from fat however. For me leaving the sugar out and using a few drops of artificial sweetener works great. Also I use Xylitol as a substitute. However I had first to get used to it and increase the dose slowly in order to avoid gastrointestinal problems, but that's a one time thing one has to do if you then use it on a regular base.

[PeteProdge]

PeteProdges last post was March 30th. Anyone heard from him? I miss the polls, wondered where he got to.

Aw, cheers! I have missed this place, and did want to continue posting, but as lockdown came, I had a silly idea that turned really huge and ended up raising thousands for the NHS Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity.

I have other interests outside of retrogaming, like running; the cult 70s/80s show Tiswas; stand-up comedy, etc. I had an idea to broadcast a compilation of rare Tiswas clips online each Saturday morning throughout lockdown. And then, maybe even appear on screen to have a social chat to the viewers, as a kind of uplifting 'lockdown' community conversation. And that's how I got streaming on Twitch. We managed to get a couple of people from the show to appear with us, through a Zoom feed, we plugged our JustGiving page and raised over £100 the first time, and from there we attracted even bigger celebrities - like Chris Tarrant; Sylvester McCoy; Toyah Willcox; Sally James, etc, and it ended up being around £2,500 in the end. We only stopped just after the UK pubs reopened as we were extremely knackered (it took 5 evenings out of my week - I've still been working full-time and doing occasional freelance stuff) and the viewership was slightly declining.

Also, when lockdown hit the UK, I was so worried at being denied exercise, I took the opportunity to run at least 5K (3.1 miles) each day. Exercise was never restricted (aside from only one bout of it allowed outside each day during the hardest phase) but I've kept it up. In fact, I was running so much, I felt fit enough to do a marathon, so in early May I did just that, streaming it to Facebook here and there, and getting people to contribute to my chosen charity. That's over £200 going to Alzheimer's Research UK.

Oh, and also during the hardest phase of lockdown, when all pubs and clubs were shut, I did a stand-up gig to my work colleagues through Zoom. Quite surreal to tell jokes to an audience you know is there, but you have no sound of laughter (no, not because I was crap!)... They had to be muted because otherwise, Zoom will focus on the biggest noise! That raised nearly £400 for charity, although I think it was the Amazon voucher auction that was the big draw.

Also, I've been giving away Raspberry Pi 3s to friends, getting them into retrogaming by loading them with a RetroPie image and tens of thousands of games. Last weekend where we camped in a friend's very large back garden, I brought along a telly and Raspberry Pi, getting everyone to take part in Pac Man (yeah, get them with hooked something familiar) at least once and making a physical high score table out of it. My friend's 12-year-old daughter almost got the highest score. She later heavily kicked my arse at the N64 version of Mario Kart, beating everyone else. (She's very familiar with the Nintendo Switch Mario Kart, but never heard of an N64 of course).

I'm still doing the running, I've revived the Tiswas website a little bit, and I always did mean to return here once things got near normal! The promised Double Dragon video for Reheated Pixels will be assembled shortly, everything's been filmed, it's just finding the time to edit it all together.

As you might have seen elsewhere on this forum, the idea of streaming ZX Spectrum games on Twitch very much appeals to me, having done some non-gaming work on that platform. I've got stuff on order from Amazon, like a decent desk microphone, and so I think I'll kick it off later this month.

[hitm4n]

You've been very busy then, good stuff, glad you are still about and i've noticed polls started appearing again Lovely.

[PeterJ]

Wow, how lucky are we! I've let them know our bank details, so the funds should be arriving soon.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Email him back that ok, you'll agree but as long as he registers in the forum to join the hi score challenge.

[hitm4n]

Thats great, everyone here could get a few grand each and there'd still be a ton to run the servers When can i expect my transfer? My Sort code is 18-20-14, account number is 4277301066. If you need a chicken sacrificing just ask. Cheers.

[ZxSpence]

If you can smell the membrane of a 35 year old 48k spectrum you don't have the CoViD.

[PeterJ]

Well I thought this thread had done it's job, but with lockdown coming to many European countries including England (depending on a vote on Wednesday), just a reminder that this thread is lfor you if you need a ittle support. Normal retro only rules don't apply with this thread.

[Ralf]

Ok, time for a personal confession. I had Covid-19 myself.

That's bad news. The good news are I was declared "cured" about two weeks ago.

My advice is - please don't neglect it.
Somewhere in the heaven there is a random number generator If you get a low number, you
won't even know that you had Covid. If you get a high number you'll get to hospital or worse.
And you never know what you will get.

For me it was something in the middle. It started with cough and temperature getting up and up.
At 39 Celsius degrees I started to wonder if I already should call the ambulance or not. If not now then when?
At 40 degrees, 41 degrees?

Fortunately for me it was the peak and then it started getting lower and generally better. I was totally 20 days off work.
Now I go to work but I'm getting tired much more quickly and who knows what other long
lasting effects will be.

Nobody knows if we have the vaccine soon or not. Maybe it will be like HIV virus where they didn't find vaccine for 40 years.
And everybody will eventually gets Covid sooner or later.

But even then the goal is too slow it down. So everybody won't get infected at the same time and hospitals lack beds and respirators.

Good luck fellows to you in these hard days

[+3code]

We have here a curfew : (

[Turrican]

I'm with covid-19 now.
Only headache and cough.
It's been 10 days since.

[+3code]

I'm with covid-19 now.
Only headache and cough.
It's been 10 days since.

Then luck and good recovery

[+3code]

Headache=too much beeper volume

[TMD2003]

Much as I am not spreading all my various "quirks and features" any further than they need to be, and while I'll keep most of the details of my existence as a deliberate enigma, I may as well say this: if I do catch the Wuhan Flu, I will not be asking for medical assistance, and I may not even attempt to fight it off. The same goes for anything else that might happen to me until this existential horror is confined to the dustbin of history. After all, for all I might be whiling away my time throwing a few contributions the way of this forum and ZXDB, out there in the real world I offer nothing, can never offer anything, and it is of no significance beyond my immediate family if I cease to be - and there's not all that many of them to care, anyway.

If I live, so be it. If I die, so be it.

[AndyC]

Much as I am not spreading all my various "quirks and features" any further than they need to be, and while I'll keep most of the details of my existence as a deliberate enigma, I may as well say this: if I do catch the Wuhan Flu, I will not be asking for medical assistance, and I may not even attempt to fight it off. The same goes for anything else that might happen to me until this existential horror is confined to the dustbin of history. After all, for all I might be whiling away my time throwing a few contributions the way of this forum and ZXDB, out there in the real world I offer nothing, can never offer anything, and it is of no significance beyond my immediate family if I cease to be - and there's not all that many of them to care, anyway.

If I live, so be it. If I die, so be it.

Dude, that is definitely not true. I'll say this as someone who has been through some very dark times, it's never as bad as it seems right now. You can get through this. You do matter and as unimaginable as it probably seems right now, you will make a difference to more people than you think.

Talk to a doctor. Get some help. There is no shame in it.

[DouglasReynholm]

Much as I am not spreading all my various "quirks and features" any further than they need to be, and while I'll keep most of the details of my existence as a deliberate enigma, I may as well say this: if I do catch the Wuhan Flu, I will not be asking for medical assistance, and I may not even attempt to fight it off. The same goes for anything else that might happen to me until this existential horror is confined to the dustbin of history. After all, for all I might be whiling away my time throwing a few contributions the way of this forum and ZXDB, out there in the real world I offer nothing, can never offer anything, and it is of no significance beyond my immediate family if I cease to be - and there's not all that many of them to care, anyway.

If I live, so be it. If I die, so be it.

Don't you dare leave us. <3

As someone who wanted to shuffle off this mortal coil for so long (30 odd years), and yet found a way forward despite the current situation, reach out to any one us please. You are not alone.

Message me, or any one of the helpful souls on here.

We are all here to help.

[hikoki]

[mention]TMD2003[/mention] https://endless.video/c26

[Ralf]

@TMD2003 That sounded really depressive. Without going too much into your presonal life I guess not everything is going well.
So I wish you that things take a different turn and you'll see and enjoy brighter sides of life. With Zx Spectrum being one of them, of course

[+3code]

From a FB group:



Um, I will try, perhaps works...

[R-Tape]

Um, I will try, perhaps works...

Amen. Let's say the 2020 tape was simply a Cassette50 that was accidentally dropped in some Tizer.

[TMD2003]

I just had a phone call. It was my brother. I'd been expecting it, seeing as I'd emailed him about "will we get Christmas or won't we, what is the government going to do to us?" but it looked like everything was OK...

...one of the kids at his son's nursery has tested positive for the Wu-flu. They're all in isolation for two weeks, and that means... Christmas is cancelled!

So, for me, it'll just be the 25th of December, no different from any other day. And that probably means spending it refreshing the forum front page, wondering why nobody's posting anything before I realise what day it is. At least I had the foresight to buy a turkey drumstick in October and shove it in the freezer. It'll come in very handy now.

I should also point out that I found out all this about three hours after making a certain submission to WOOT! which may or may not make the final cut because it's "bleak and horrible" (by intention). If Dave says no, I'll release it anyway on the BASIC Dumping Ground so it doesn't get wasted.

[PeterJ]

Sorry to hear that Jim.

I'm sure there will be lots of activity here over the festive break.

Out of interest, what are other countries governments doing about Christmas. We have a relaxation of the rules over a small number of days.

[KenD]

We have a relaxation of the rules over a small number of days.

You had to jinx it, didn't you?

[Alessandro]

Out of interest, what are other countries governments doing about Christmas. We have a relaxation of the rules over a small number of days.

Quite the opposite here. The whole country will be a "red zone" from 24 to 27 and 31 December, and from 1 to 3 and 5 to 6 January (6th of January is a holiday here). This means you cannot get out of your place of residence except for shopping, health issues and emergencies. Everything will be closed except for supermarkets, groceries, newsagents, pharmacies, laundries and barber shops. Visits are forbidden except for no more than 2 adults, who can bring children under 14 together with them.

From 28 to 30 December and 4 January we will be an "orange zone". This means you are allowed to go around from 5 am to 10 pm but you cannot leave your comune of residence, except for comuni with a population of 5,000 and below; people living there can go to another comune within a distance of 30 Km, unless it is a capoluogo (a provincial capital).