I'm not convinced. You can't offset the cost of a digibox against the TV licence, you have to add them together! (I know that's a point against, but still...) And a Digibox will receive digital radio signals through the TV. Plus, I think you have to factor in the fact that I was going to blag half the money from my flatmate :o)
I also watch DVDs on my laptop, and listen to a lot of R4 but I do appreciate a bit of telly from time to time, especially some of the documentaries, history and natural history programmes, stuff like Grand Designs and some comedy. Last night, though, my TV wasn't switched on at all.
I think my main gripe is the fact that although they're advertising digital TV (in the BBC's case, 'pushing' - isn't that still advertising?) as much as they can, not everyone can get it and there's no schedule to let people know when they will be able to get it. When I asked, I was told to lobby my MP about it. I think that's the woolliest consumer advice I've ever received.

Pen] Yer-right!
Cost of TV (average) = £70
Cost of Set-top box = £50 (£49 in Argos)
Life expectancy of both = 7 years
7 years of TV licence at £121 = £847
Total cost of TV+set-top for 7 years viewing = £967
£967 divided by two (you and flat-mate) = £483.50.
OK so I'm a pedantic bugger, but I'm also justifying my own decision not to have a TV to myself. I do not miss the natural history stuff as the best of it is available in my local library (I watch them on my pc with my 8 year-old daughter). I also miss some documentaries but I've been at the sharp-end of BBC misrepresentation so I am only too aware of how documentaries and news items are often sexed-up to present an 'angle' that will pull in the punters rather than tell the truth.

Does the culture of mis-representation not extend as far as the hallowed halls of Radio 4? Did anyone tell John Humphries yet? As an aside (I warn you, I think I'm pre-menstrual today - I've already had a go at Mastercard on the phone this morning) The Today programme really pisses me off - the last quarter of an hour today was five mintes of JH taking the piss out of a Pensioners' Cross-Party political party which was launched today, and the other ten minutes in 'serious' debate about Cricket. I ask you...

B. the D.] News and current affairs can't be that good on DAB because you appear not to have heard that "Killroy" has been pulled. Highly amusing article on page 5 of the new "Private Eye" on the subject of Mr K.-S. by the way.

pen] Right again, the mis-representation I was subject to started on R4 - a report by Trixie Rawlinson in fact. All (sensationalist) news reporting should be taken with a pinch of salt - and somehow I find it easier to be objective to news broadcast on the Radio where there are no emotive images.
Bigsmith] I shall be more attentive for vital news like this in future ;o)

I really cannot stand The Today Programme. In my eyes it comprises largely onanistic playground squabbles masquerading as informed debate. The questions posed often fail to hit any substantive target and the guests frequently have the communication skills of a mop and bucket. Plus I simply cannot cope with that much talking first thing in the morning. R3's as much as I can cope with (prob. less than 10% chat, not to mention those long pauses they're famed for).

I have just gone over to watch a little video thing on a computer of a girl at work. It consisted of a "rifle man's view" (ie B/W with crosshairs) of some iraqis running for cover then being blown to pieces with US voice commentary on top. Now I am not commenting on the rightness or wrongness of the US soldiers doing the killing, but rather this MORON girl laughing withher nasal estuarine horse laughter at it. She seems to think it is funny ? I don't get it.

Oh god st d, I sympathise.

[st dogma] Was she laughing "huh-uh-huh,huh-uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh-huh,huh-huh" ?

[Dr Q] Bravo. Go on - don't be shy. Put the link in here aswell :-)
I'm sure rab will give it the signpost it deserves.

Yes - I promised DrQ to put a link to it on the site somewhere... what I really want to do is create a 'help' page. I've got the nuts and bolts of it written, just need to construct the text. Maybe this'll get done at the weekend.

Well, here it is, then. The MC Basic HTML Primer.

We can expect some

• Useful
• Interesting
• Informative
• Exciting and
• Bizarre

posts from now on then.

There are people here who are even more grumpy than me, which is nice. Bob the Dog has got the right idea. TV is nearly all crap. I look at the Radio Times and think "thank God for the radio - esp. R4". Jazz FM and R3 have their moments, too. But, except for the football, which is good, R5 is utterly dire. It's like a perpetual down-market You and Yours. Hasn't Susan Bookbinder got a horrible harsh voice, compared with the velvet tones of Charlotte Green and the luscious Corrie Corfield?

Funnily enough, I used to have a job which consisted of trying to think of new TV programmes (in the "light factual" category, and I think we all know what that means). It wasn't quite as soul-destroying as you might think, but let's just say it wasn't really me. I've never in my life listened to the radio apart from a few very rare occasions so I have no idea what the Today programme or any others are like...

Rosie] I'm not grumpy! Its Bob the dog by the way, never Bob the Dog.

[Bob] Who's the face on the crab?

Chalky] Ah, the crab of ineffable wisdom! I think it is David Icke. I got him from here. The following is his nemesis..

As I can't see Bob's marquees on my browser, the foregoing makes very little sense indeed.

[Rosie] Why listen to R5 if you detest it so much? I formed the same impression of it when it started, and I haven't listened to it since.

I do listen to it - but mainly quite late at night, when it's better. I listen to it in the mornings too, but wish they didn't have Nicky Campbell on then - he really is terrible at interviews!

[rab] Use a different browser then! Btd's animations are great!

Quality and TV? Ha!

It's a ridiculous cliché to say that British telly is the best in the world, but there's also some truth in it. Try watching US telly sometime - yes, there are good programmes on (after all, many of them are shown on British telly too) but the amount of utter irredeemable tripe is enormous and far outweighs the good stuff (at least on terrestrial). One very good reason that there is no licence fee in the States is that nothing being put out on the terrestrial networks is worth it.

We have a TV in order to watch Star Trek. That's about it.

To recap:

1. I created this for no reason
2. ...other than to see how it looks
3. ...and I'm impressed!

(Raak) Your logic is impeccable, but possibly does not address the practicalities. The footy on R5 is good because they never pretend a poor match is good. I have even heard Michael Green say "this is dreadful". So you get the truth, more or less. So the radio gets left on R5 sometimes and I turn it on and get all this crap I mentioned. The same can happen in the car. (Bob the lower case dog) Dreadful sorry - will be more careful in the future. Like your crabs, but could Thrax and I please have some of those F****** LOBSTERS.

I feel I must make a stand for Blode.

Much more Blode and other stuff here. Some of it is quite rude. My favorites are Big Pants Treking and The Beatles.

Oh yeah, and We Like the Moon and Mark Larma, Gerbil Farmer. My all-time favorite flash animation is this one.

My all-time favorite flash animation is this one.

[Bob] hauling you back ... I don't think that IS David Icke smiling on the crab. I thought he'd been swallowed by the 'globe of destruction' that is the bizarre workings of his mind, but it seems not. He's on the telly as I type.

I'm working at home today. Well, I say that. I'm really trying to figure out a sign-writing [by hand not machine] job for my local pub, whilst keeping a close eye on the short-term weather forecast [snow on Monday]. OK - in reality I'm faffing around on here with the ITV1 in the background. It's ever so cosy :-) OMG - D Icke is completely barking ...

David Icke used to be a harmless nutter, but now seems to be spouting dangerous anti-semitic messages. He believes that we are governed by reptiles from space under the title of the 'Babylonian Brotherhood'. He believes that the death of Pricess Diana was a sacrifice to the gods (by the Windsors, Spencers and Al-Fayeds) and that presedent Bush (amongst others) attendeds ritual baby eating sacrifices. We'll he is possibly right there. (To any American air-port officials who may wish to arrest me, that was a J O K E ok?). He hates the Freemasons who have this to say about him.

rab] following Nina posting over on Orange, would you be willing to host the film review forum and putting Anni-Verse-Ary Game to bed?

[Inkspot] I have etched my response into an Orange.

Mind you, the Verse game has not really caught on... so its replacement with, erm, something would probably be A Good Thing.

[rab] We haven't had Mornington Dictionary for a while (that is, definitions for made up words rather than new definitions for existing words). Mind you, that's usually hosted at MCiOS...

Of course, in offering that suggestion I was neglecting to notice that the 2002 Mornington Dictionary game is, er, still going on MCiOS.

Forget I mentioned that.

I, er, don't get it.

rab] strange that about the verse game not catching on perhaps people prefer to 'add-a-line' to make it more of a participation game, rather than the whole verse as set out. There we go live and learn.
I know story games have only a limited base of followers, but again see if it floats, Short Reverse Stories, each about 5-15 moves of approx 100ish words, if it sinks ... it gets killed off and gets replaced.

Meanwhile over at Daq Towers, the hamsters have been busy, I had been expecting x_sugarbabe_x, at the top, but keeping it in the family its Chalky as No1 over at Celebtity Mornington Crescent, and will DrQu+xum be ready to take over next week?

Just registering my annoyance - the Verse Game has been ditched after only a week! All this to make way for a load of film chat, eh? Which just happens to occur in MCiOS, eh? [and is a very fine game - believe me, I'm not knocking it] So - if commenting on some other person's 'work' takes precedence over our own poetic/literary endeavours then so be it. I'd obviously read it wrong.

I thought, Chalky, that it was only meant as a temporary tribute to the first birthday of the site. Maybe I misinterpreted something along the way. No, I have nothing against a verse game of some sort so please do not take that comment the wrong way.

Is there some way we could meet in the middle on a new verse game? I like the participatory nature - it's fun to watch something twist away - but maybe something where it isn't limited to one line, and also maybe not limited to one particular verse form. Whoever starts declares a form - either specifically (e.g., Petrarchan Sonnet) or by establishing a rhyme and metre scheme, and puts out as much as they feel like. That way, anyone feeling truly inspired can provide a complete chunk for us, and the dullards among us can trip over 5 feet of iambic pentameter.

To visit my bands home page,sign the guest book and listen to the free tunes! http://www.papalazarus.com Have a funky day!

widey] Happy boppy stuff! Did the name come before or after the League of Gents?

Sorry I came over all stroppy-like last night with my little rant. Of course, it IS possible to carry on playing the Any Verse Game 'below the line'. Simple solutions like that don't really register after a skinful :-).

[Bob the Dog] Interesting stuff about Icke, although as I understand it, the charge of anti-semitism seems to be unfair - I believe that what happened is that people heard him ranting about alien lizards running the world and thought it was his offensive way of referring to Jews, when in fact he really did mean alien lizards and wasn't talking about Jews at all. All the same, it seems very odd to me that everyone's response to David Icke is that he is a weird nutter who is beneath contempt, rather than that he is clearly mentally ill and needs help. This is what happens when you play sport, you know.

I meant, of course, "Bob the dog", with a firmly lower-case noun there.

we nicked it from the LOG but it happens to be Duffers middle name!!!!

Breadmaster] I think one of the things that fascinates me about DI is that he has been like this for so long. That is not to say that people with mental illnesses only have it for a short period, rather that he is being taken so seriously and that no-one has managed to get him any real help.

[Btd] Perhaps he's actually the front man for the real conspiracy, who maintain him in public view to spout lunatic theories as a camouflage and to draw likely recruits. Their agents go covertly to his meetings, get into conversation with other people there, and when they suss a likely prospect, tell him that of course Icke's crazy, how the world really works is such and such, and do they want in?

I'm sure I've seen most of the stuff listed above before (Moon song, crab whotsit etc), the total randomness of the Internet is so fantastic, it's unbelievable. Things like sqa.com really underline the total iognorance of some people (8-/). The Google directory has some truly laughable links. *sigh*

For some time I have been pondering over the use of long names on MC sites and their attempt to dominate the screen, disrupt the eye and generally just be a bloody nuisance. Now I know. See here and scan down the list of the territory tyrants. ... :-)

Link faulty: Try this one. ... ;-)

Much as I admire, revere, and love the name which nature or some other kindly creature has bestowed on you, is there any chance you could change it to a shortened version or acronym? What with it stretching the browser and all....

Wow - this is the biggest naming controversy since The Two Jonathans! :)

[Dujon] That Googolplex the Amazing Balancing Goat from Luxembourg and I are one and the same: I have e-mailed the M.E. in the past and managed to get both myself, and a friend (Elmon the King Slug of Bangladesh) portions of the world. Ask her, if you don't believe me. Oh, and have you seen the quotes page? [ZK] Thank you, you are a lovely grovvely indidvidual: are you related to Chalky? ;-) I loathe it when people type my name as an acronym. If you must shorten it, make me "Googolplex" as above.

Welcome Googolplex, I like your full name. I have often wanted to shorten my own for the sake of easy typing, but is Btd funny?

[Bob the dog] I don't know whether you're being sarcy or complimentary! I'm the only other person I know who has that effect on people (although, not on the net). Now I'm so confused! Btd could be funny; it depends what you make of it.

Googolplex the Amazing Balancing Goat from Luxembourg] - [sorry I got it wrong first time] Ah ha!

A help page has been added, and it contains a link to DrQ's reference. If anyone has any improvements to the text, let me have them. The same goes for the various buttons on these pages too.

[Bob the dog] No, yours isn't.
[GtABGfL] Particularly on this site, where the font is bigger than MCiOS, it's a teensy bit annoying. And no, I'm not related to Chalky or ZK or Dujon...

[rab] Much obliged for the link . . . and you forgot BPMCF ;)

[Bob the dog] Stop with the mind games!!!!

I've been meaning to ask - why don't you have dog as Dog? Is it some grand mystery of the universe? Or is there a simpler explanation?