1<!DOCTYPE html> 2<html> 3<head> 4 <meta charset="utf-8"> 5 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> 6 <link rel="stylesheet" href="blog.css" type="text/css" /> 7 <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Subscribe" href="feed.rss" /> 8 <title>Wordloosed</title> 9</head> 10<body> 11 12<header class='header'> 13 <h1 class="title"><a href="index">Wordloosed</a></h1> 14 <nav> 15 <a href="about">about</a> 16 </nav> 17</header> 18 19<div class="posts"> 20 21<h2><a href='tadm'><abbr title="TikTok Attention Deficit Menu">TADM</abbr></a></h2> 22<time datetime="2026-07-22">2026-07-22</time> 23 24<p>Choosing an ice-cream is not what it was. 25</p> 26<img src="images/ice_cream_menu.png" alt="Traditional Ice-Cream Van Menu" title="Traditional Ice-Cream Van Menu" /> 27 28<p>The limited options somehow led to more considered decisions and greater satisfaction. 29</p> 30 31<p>In the last few years it seems the ice-cream choices have exploded. 32</p> 33 34<img src="images/tadm.png" alt="Modern TADM Ice-Cream Van Menu" title="Modern TADM Ice-Cream Van Menu" /> 35 36<p>I call this a <b>TADM</b>: a TikTok Attention Deficit Menu. TADMs announce a smorgasboard but are ugly, unrefined and lead to disappointment. 37</p> 38 39<p>We should consider how this happened.</p> 40 41 42<dl> 43 <dt>Tags</dt> 44 <dd><a href="tags/food" rel="tag">Food</a></dd> 45</dl> 46 47 48<h2><a href='poem'>Poem</a></h2> 49<time datetime="2026-02-13">2026-02-13</time> 50 51<figure><figcaption style="font-family: 'Garamond', serif; font-size: 1em; color: black"> 52<i> 53<p>Day and night</p> 54<p>Night and day</p> 55<p>No one asks why we turn this way</p> 56</i> 57</figcaption></figure> 58 59<dl> 60 <dt>Tags</dt> 61 <dd><a href="tags/lexical" rel="tag">Lexical</a></dd> 62</dl> 63 64<h2><a href='hitler_get_the_mobile_bill'>Hitler gets the mobile bill</a></h2> 65<time datetime="2025-04-4">2025-04-04</time> 66 67<article> 68 <video poster="images/downfallsub_thumb.png" width="100%" controls> 69 <source src="images/downfall5sub.mp4" type="video/mp4"> 70 Your browser does not support the video tag. 71 </video> 72</article> 73 74<dl> 75 <dt>Tags</dt> 76 <dd><a href="tags/films" rel="tag">Films</a></dd> 77</dl> 78 79<h2><a href='fsm'>FSM</a></h2> 80<time datetime="2024-06-18">2024-06-18</time> 81 82<img src="images/fsm.png" alt="Finite State Monster" title="Finite State Monster" /> 83 84<dl> 85 <dt>Tags</dt> 86 <dd><a href="tags/lexical" rel="tag">Lexical</a></dd> 87</dl> 88 89<h2><a href='twelvety'>Twelvety</a></h2> 90<p><time datetime="2024-05-19">2024-05-19</time></p> 91 92<p>In an effort to develop software while travelling, without having to lug a laptop or use a fiddly on-screen keyboard, I've put together a small keyboard.</p> 93 94<img src="images/twelvety_pico8.png" alt="Twelvety ANAVI keyboard with Pico-8 on Gamerforce CHI" title="" /> 95 96<a href='twelvety#readmore'>Read more</a> 97 98<h2><a href='first-for-animal-welfare'>First for animal welfare?</a></h2> 99<time datetime="2023-11-21">2023-11-21</time> 100 101<img src="images/first_for_animal_welfare.jpg" alt="Pie box" title="" /> 102 103<p>Maybe not first? You put the cow in a pie, in a box. Do you see?</p> 104 105<dl> 106 <dt>Tags</dt> 107 <dd><a href="tags/tips" rel="tag">Tips</a></dd> 108</dl> 109 110<h2><a href='ryanair'>Ryanair</a></h2> 111<time datetime="2023-10-31">2023-10-31</time> 112 113<p>Ryanair is the same backwards, in an Irish accent.</p> 114 115<img src="images/ryanair-aircraft.png" alt="Ryanair" title="" /> 116 117<dl> 118 <dt>Tags</dt> 119 <dd><a href="tags/lexical" rel="tag">Lexical</a></dd> 120</dl> 121 122<h2><a href='game-over'>Game Over</a></h2> 123<p><time datetime="2021-01-12">2021-01-12</time></p> 124 125<p>I finally finished a game. I don't mean I played a game and completed it, I rarely do that, I get so carried away looking at the scenery and lighting. No - I finished <em>writing</em> a game.</p> 126 127<iframe class="img" src="https://itch.io/embed/873380?bg_color=193d3f&fg_color=ffe762&link_color=fa5c5c&border_color=416567" width="100%" height="167" frameborder="0"> 128 <a href="https://ggaughan.itch.io/wake-of-the-ninja">Wake of the Ninja by ggaughan</a> 129</iframe> 130 131<a href='game-over#readmore'>Read more</a> 132 133<h2><a href='mr-cola-killed-my-pop'>Mr. Cola killed my pop</a></h2> 134<time datetime="2020-10-17">2020-10-17</time> 135 136<p>I like pop. I used to drink it every lunchtime. The worst place to buy pop is from a place with a "Coke fridge". My heart sinks when I see one. Everything in there will be from a small, prescribed selection of boring, globalised, bland drinks. The best place to buy pop is from a place with a "free-house" fridge. They're usually a bit shabbier, and are becoming rarer, but promise variety and taste. There could be anything in there: drinks you may
136not have heard of, as well as flavoursome ones like Irn Bru and Vimto.</p> 137 138<p>For a while I used to go to a Marks and Spencer's (M&S) for lunch and so bought their pop. They have a great selection: ginger beer, cranberry lemonade, orange, cloudy lemonade and cola. Each of these comes in a diet variety which doesn't taste like battery acid like other diet drinks. I'd rotate through the flavours but preferred the cola: it actually had a cola flavour - unlike Coca-Cola which paled in comparison.</p> 139 140<p>Then, around 2016, I'm not sure exactly when, their cola disappeared. Gone. Vanished. The other flavours were still there, but no cola. Weird.</p> 141 142<figure> 143 <img src="images/nice_pops.png" alt="" title="pops" /> 144 <figcaption>The nice ones - no more cola though</figcaption> 145</figure> 146 147<p>I did notice at the same time that Coke appeared in its place. Marks and Spencer never sold Coke before then. Why would they when they had a better version? If their orange had been replaced by Tango or their ginger beer by Idris for example, that wouldn't have been so bad. But their cola and Coke were polar opposites in flavour: it was the worst one to replace. Obviously I didn't buy the insipid usurper and so cola was gone, but not forgotten, from my lunch rotation.</p> 148 149<figure> 150 <img src="images/cuckoo_coke.png" alt="" title="usurped cola" /> 151 <figcaption>Cuckoo Coke is now stocked at eye-level and the nice pops, cola-less, are relegated to the bottom shelf</figcaption> 152</figure> 153 154<p>I thought it might be temporary, or just in my region, but no. The good cola had been replaced throughout the UK (or Europe for all I know). Wow. That was some shelf-prioritisation marketing pressure, I thought, but maybe I can still get the good cola from the back of the shop. I asked the staff but no one was aware of the swap. I looked online expecting some kind of campaign on behalf of people up-in-arms about losing their tasty cola, but nothing. And still in 2020 there is no mention of it online. I can barely find a picture of the old M&S cola, let alone an article about its loss.</p> 155 156<p>If I search the M&S website I get: </p> 157 158<blockquote> 159 <p>"We found 0 results for cola, but here's what we found for cool". </p> 160</blockquote> 161 162<p>So I keep digging over the years, because I really miss the cola flavour and wonder why no one else does, and still nothing. Until today - I find a clue; I make a possible link; an explanation, perhaps.</p> 163 164<a href='mr-cola-killed-my-pop#readmore'>Read more</a> 165 166<h2><a href='the-planets'>The Planets</a></h2> 167<time datetime="2020-09-15">2020-09-15</time> 168 169<p>While scanning a Solar System poster and comparing the planets' distances from the sun I noticed a pattern I'd not seen before. I've been fascinated by space since I was a young child and have been studying astronomy in one form or another all my life but I'd never heard anything like this pattern mentioned.</p> 170 171<p><img src="images/ou_poster.jpg" alt="OU Solar System poster" title="" /></p> 172 173<a href='the-planets#readmore'>Read more</a> 174 175<h2><a href='skyfall'>Skyfall</a></h2> 176<time datetime="2020-09-10">2020-09-10</time> 177 178<p>The last James Bond film I watched was Moonraker, but I recently caught the ending of Skyfall on TV and realised why I don't watch them anymore.</p> 179 180<p>According to wikipedia, the section I saw was when Bond took M to his Skyfall home and with Kincade's help they set up a series of booby traps throughout the house. Silva's men arrived.</p> 181 182<p>Now, these men looked pretty well-trained to me and I'm sure they were fully expecting a booby trapped house. One of the first traps you might expect would be some kind of pressure plate or trip-wire on the entrance to the house grounds.</p> 183 184<p>Yet I watched with disbelief as all Silva's men got out of their jeeps and, when presented with a derelict gateway <em>with waist-high walls either side of it</em>, funnelled through the gate shoulder to shoulder.</p> 185 186<a href='skyfall#readmore'>Read more</a> 187 188<h2><a href='the-sinclair-zx-spectrum-keyboard'>The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Keyboard</a></h2> 189<time datetime="2019-05-01">2019-05-01</time> 190 191<p>When I was 12 years old, I got sight of an actual computer. One day at my cousins' house, set on a table and wired up to their TV was a small, black rectangle. They were pressing keys on it to play games (Schizoids and Ant Attack I remember). I was curious - the games looked more interesting than the simple arcade games I played on my Atari console. I got closer and peered over and saw the keyboard and it changed my life. Here's what I saw:</p> 192 193<p><img src="images/ZXSpectrum48k.jpg" alt="By Bill Bertram - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=170050" title="" /></p> 194 195<a href='the-sinclair-zx-spectrum-keyboard#readmore'>Read more</a> 196 197</div> 198 199<footer class="footer"> 200 <div id="links"> 201 <a href="all_posts">View more posts</a> â 202 <a href="all_tags">All tags</a> â 203 <a href="feed.rss">Subscribe</a> 204 <br> 205 <small><a href="about">© Greg Gaughan</a></small> 206 </div> 207</footer> 208
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