roysworld: the world according to roy

31 October 2010

Annie has drawn this nice picture of her elephant Pinky. I hope you like it.

30 October 2010

Does this 1926 Chaplin movie really show a time traveller from the future using a mobile phone?

17 October 2010

Whilst stumbling around hackedgadgets.com today, I think I have found my next project: an Atari 2600 joystick remote.

16 October 2010

I remember playing this rather unsatisfying game in the 80's. Would like to play it again now though!

02 October 2010

Had a knock on the door from the local apple expert this morning.He had heard we had a Hereford Russet tree in our garden, and wanted a sample for an apple exhibition next week. I didn't know we had a Hereford Russet, so I I'm not sure how he did.Village life can be very strange sometimes.

31 July 2010

[bfg flickr_id="89017923@N00"]

17 July 2008

I was just listening to Chris Evans on the radio and he started playing a band called RoyWorld. I'd never heard of them before, but if you are looking for the rock band RoyWorld, this isn't their website. Just one letter difference, and I'd be able to sell this domain for a fortune...

27 March 2008

Here's a treat for you: an old cine reel of my family and I dating from about 1973. I recently obtained about 1300 ft (over 2 hours) of cine film from under my Mum and Dads bed. This is my first attempt and digitizing one of them.

It shows me (as a toddler) with my brother Mark, Mum, Dad and my Granny.

25 March 2008

When I was about ten a television crew came to my Primary school to film us making paper for an episode of Stop, Look and Listen for ATV. The programme was aimed at schools and had Chris Tarrant doing the voice over. Our episode was about paper, showing how it was made and how books were put together. The scenes with my class showed us making paper from recycled newspaper (we we so ahead of our time!) and hanging up linked paper chains.

I remember us sitting in the school hall watching the episode on the large TV, and I also remember seeing a repeat of it when I was off school ill one time. This was before we had video recorders and so that was the last I saw of it....up until last night!

I've googled before for this episode and failed miserably, but last night up popped a link to youtube and sure enough there was the episode [Note: since posting this, the original disappeared from YouTube, and so I have uploaded a copy].

The whole episode runs for just ten minutes, and the bit with my school starts at 8:08. Here are the screenshots with me on it and highlights.

8:41 A sign of the times "Union Call For All Out At Leyland"

9:18 Holding the tub of paper

9:32 Trying to pass a paper chain to Mr Camps and being ignored

9:48 Ducking under a daisy chain

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the complete episode (start at 8:08 for the school bit).

I am forever indebted to the youtube user ATVcolourproduction for originally uploading this video and bringing back some wonderful memories - so thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.

14 March 2008

A touching story of a family destroyed by war.

21 February 2008

I'm pleased to announce the arrival of our beautiful baby boy, born 04:29 21/2/2008 weighing 8lbs 1oz.

20 February 2008

Todays post on xkcd was a bit too close to home:

15 February 2008

I am unhealthily excited about this

11 February 2008

Like Pac-Man?Remember Text Adventures?You'll love Pac-Txt

04 February 2008

The Royal Thai Police have released this rather unhelpful sketch of a man suspected of stealing 200,000 baht from the Ladprao branch of the Government Savings Bank (GSB) in Bangkok several weeks ago.

The sketch is based on the recollections of eyewitnesses, who say the suspect wore a motorcycle helmet at the time of the robbery.

Do let them know if you've seen him. [Courtesy of Pink Tentacle]

18 January 2008

My mate James has just got a story of his published in online magazine Spacesuits and Sixguns. It's a funny tale of corporate fascism told in a sequence of emails and letters beginning with an incorrect supermarket order. Have a read, but beware if you don't use Windows - you won't be able to read the punchline.

01 December 2007

It's a sad day today, as I hear my childhood hero Evel Knievel has died.

Growing up he was my hero, I would pretend to be him on my hand-me-down Raleigh racer that was far too big for me. OK, so he crashed a lot, but so did I and we both got back on and tried again. I always wanted a stunt-cycle, but we could never afford one. Maybe I'll buy one now as a tribute.

Goodbye Evel and thanks for being a memory of my childhood.

28 November 2007

A fantastic joystick mod from Hacked Gadgets to allow you to use an Atari 2600 Joystick remote to control your TV.

18 October 2007

Courtesty of pranks

04 October 2007