1996 was a year that certainly had its televisual moments for me; you
could sum them up as eight one-hour slots on Thursday nights in the autumn
but that's maligning some other good shows. Excluding repeats, my '96 Top 5:
1: WANTED. The best hour of adrenaline television we've had for years.
2: SHOOTING STARS. Made me crack up 20 times per half hour on a BAD show.
3: BRUCE'S PRICE IS RIGHT. Really! Much crisper and cleaner than series one.
4: RELATIVELY SPEAKING. Spring BBC1 evening game neatly run by Gordon Burns.
5: CYBER.CAFE. Internet show, rather "Mike Flowers Pops" in style, but good.
Quite probably I'm the only person in the UK who'd rank his Top 5 thus, but
I'm the only person whose subzine you're reading at the moment. Unless you're
rather more bizarrely talented than I had bargained for.
        Sainsbury's, too, deserve more credit than they get from most; spare
this flat a little self-indulgence in relating a tale of excellent customer
relations. Yesterday we made a full 25-pounds-plus worth of purchases there,
including our customary six-pack of litre boxes of orange juice, which we
packed in a neat cloth bag. About fifty yards or so down the half-mile road
home, sticky drips started to emanate from said carrier. Flatmate Mark, not
a little concerned here, returned the bag and boxes to the supermarket, where
they were not only replaced but refunded; in effect we got 3.49's worth of OJ
for nothing, and they even contributed 50p towards cleaning the bag. Huzzah!
We have also reached a praeternaturally potty number of Retard Points upon
our card. To wit, cue sharp intake of breath, 2,525.
        Another chunk of fortune came in that la famille Dickson hasn't
slipped through the net of the Great Big Halifax Vote and our mortgage there
is set to snag Dad a load of free shares later this year. I have an account
with the Northern Rock dating back years as well, originally a trustee
account set up by Mum in my infancy, which never held more than double digits
of pounds. Not enough for gratis shares, but having pumped up the balance
somewhat we can expect to obtain a little free cash should the NR bankify.
Forgive my relentless cheeriness, but I've been on rather a high this term
since I discovered an expected internal exam (which would only have given
a dismal result and spread consequent gloom) was cancelled.
        Recommended reading this month: issue 180, Computer and Video Games.
Anyone not turning the next several pages at once in shock at this statement
(perhaps I fooled you into believing there existed a zine with nigh on 20
years' history that had somehow escaped all your attentions!) might well
consider buying the multi-format glossy's Christmas issue; thankfully it
has matured from what seemed to be a thoroughly childish, amateur rag to me
at the age of 15 or so; quite possibly having taken lessons from the
businesslike, superior EDGE, it covers the media of the title seriously and
skillfully. I praise issue 180 for the free booklet attached thereto called
"The History of Computer and Video Games"; a concise precis of what happened 
year-by-year to non-IBM-PC-compatible computers (gosh, remember them?) from
1980 to the current day, and also a good primer for keeping up with video
game console systems, something I haven't done since I owned my last one,
an old Atari VCS I got in about 1981. Which still does work, and has some
games that are still even today reasonably diverting. (I consider this the
first sad admission I have made about myself in all issues of GIT so far.)
        I don't mind getting details about Con travel packages from Shaun
Derrick, but they all seem so terribly expensive! Perhaps this is the plight
of the Poor Student rearing its head, but I'm not used to paying that sort
of money for extended weekend breaks. Not that they're a bad thing to have
in the hobby, but if the prices don't come down next year I can see a rather
poor take-up and it may soon not be worth Shaun's time.

        Later this term I will be doing my first piece of charity work in
years; I will be going through the Babylon-a-thon for Oxford RAG. Now RAG
is not the collection for the Students' Union Beer Fund that I thought it
was but instead collects for a number of real charities last term spanning
from homelessness to research into children's disabilities. In the event I'll
be doing, participants will be sponsored to watch Babylon 5 for 24 hours
non-stop. I have a problem with giving to this sort of event on the grounds
that I'm sponsoring someone to do something that they would happily do for
nothing... but it's not a cake-walk in my case. I've never watched a frame
of Babylon Five before, and from the descriptions of my flatmate who has
talked me into it, I may end up finding it a long, dull 24 hours. Anyone feel
like sponsoring me? Ask me about it at OxCon. Plug plug plug plug plug.