Remastering a blog

This week I am struggling a bit with very painful, swollen fingers so I have not been as able to be about online as much as I might like needing to take much rest between tasks.

Something I have been working on in dribs and drabs is dealing with a legacy issue on Scouting & Me, a blog of mine as a few might recall that started its life way back in December 2018 on Tumblr and the blogger version was just a more extended version.

Posts,typical pictures that came from others followed the Tumblr convention of reblogs with extra content but in time a good number of accounts that I reblogged from went and Tumblr started either removing or putting up banners covering pictures.

This had caused a few problems before needing me to research and replace those images, the last time being around Christmas time but while checking through the blog at the beginning of the week I noticed a further group had gone.

This meant that firstly those need replacing straight away with the picture research that goes with such a task and secondly that it was increasingly obvious I needed to set up a program of capturing and reloading all that posted that way to ensure they were not lost.

Generally if I originated the whole post or needed to correct an image because of issues with exposure or colour fades then I posted that as saved file to Blogger rather than linking to the original with a back link.

Thus I'm slowly getting through them, which probably aggrovated my hand and wrist condition and while at it correcting a few altering text layouts and adding the odd bit of additional information.

You might say I'm polishing or 'remastering' the blog seeing the tumblr form went in 2020 completely so there's less of a need to keep to that format as much as those early posts do matter to me not least when some observations are painfully personal.

The resumption of the Adventure of Life that started with that blog in its original form, through the many challenges we have all faced  going forward did me more good than anything.

More Action Man

Today we are going backwards and yet into the present by returning to my favourite toy ever and the world he and I lived in.

Here is Action Man in one of the many uniforms I dressed him in, neatly to the point of getting his cap on right pictured next to the legendary Field Radio which used small multi grooved discs that when the push to talk button was pressed he'd issue a command.

The Red, Blue and Yellow discs were the initial set although others were available which I aquired at the time.

Had the Palitoy Action been around in the Two Thousands's this would of been a iTunes file but as it was 1976 we had a double sided cassette which featured an adventure  story which we'd play on our recorders to play with our figures with.

Helpfully down the side of the cassette case it told us what equipment from the range we needed to get out to reenact this adventure in our play.

I had several of these tapes and recently rebought this one.

The Action Man Intelligence Manual came out from 1973 through to 1979 and was a useful small pamphlet full of information that related to the Uniforms and Roles of the character our Action man was playing.

This was the space for your to personalize it in rather the same way you did with your Warlord Secret Agent kit you had and yes I had both.

The first sections covered each uniform for the character you were playing and had bought the kit for - you normally bought one Action Man fully dressed with accessories and got the others which stores had in stock.

The next group of pages would feature equipment available that went with them such as the Landrover, Support Rafts, search lights and so on

We then had features on the weaponry typically used by British, French Foreign Legion, German and US Military during WW2, replicas of which were available for realistic play.

The Search light at the rear had a built in Morse Key for sending messages but we neeeded to learn Morse Code so helpfully the booklet has a code page we can use 

That was the end paper.

I bought a replacent to one one which with all of my original childhood Action Man set was taken from me when they decided  I no longer played with it although I did and the issue was more one that tey felt I shouldn't in my mid teens.

It is obviously well handled with folds when it was used during play by the boy who original had it but frankly I'd soon have one used and loved by a boy in that condition than some pristine artifact kept in a draw by some collector type who doesn't get the fact toys matter because we play with them and they are made to played  with.

To share a toy used by another boy in your return to your own childhood is above all act of love, the love of being that boy, carefree playing, having fun.

Embrace it.

The Beano and Dandy Summer Specials 2022

Summer is very much before us as I heard a familar thud through the letter box as the pre-ordered Summer Specials arrived.

See the thing is we're off into Summer not that on Friday you'd of know it with the heavy rain we had in this part of the midlands and for some of us it means only one thing.

This week is an important week in that it is the one which D C Thomson publish what was for many of us a highlight of the year.

As regulars know we no longer have the Dandy as a regular 52 week comic since the end of the print run in 2012 and the demise of the digital edition in 2013 so we have an annual in time for Christmas and interestingly enough, a Summer Special each year.

What that amounts to is unlike its stablemate, the Beano, it inhabits the same world we remember, more or less as any comic does with those characters we grew up with and a few newer ones and to a larger extent, it keeps the feel and theme.

This years cover pays homage to a classic 1957 beano book cover by James Crighton as they were called back then and not annuals like today by design drawn by Steve Bright and runs with a football focused theme throughout that makes for a refreshing change from the "at the beach" covers we usually see.

Like last years edition this carefully treads a path of reprints from summer specials of the past, in this years instance mainly football based ones, and new carefully drawn and conceived new stories featuring our favourites with Lew Stringer doing some new Keyhole Kate, that gives an idea of how a regular Dandy might of been by the top comic artists of our time.

Equally we have a new Dreadlock Holmes story by Wayne Thompson while amongst the reprints is the very first Brassneck story, very much an iconic series in the Dandy from 1964.

This is this years Beano Summer Special looking very much like a regular edition but themed as a " Summer Activity Special" so it will have quizzes, find the missing words and things to colour alongside the totally themed storyline that features all the current inhabitants of Beanotown in one great summer time travel adventure that runs seamlessly through separate comic strips per page.

Unlike The Dandy this is very much in the present recognizable to today's ten year old readers very much in the style of the regular weekly comic

It has within it the ever popular stickers and jokes too which usually have me in stitches whenever I read them as a regular reader of the normal weekly edition.

This should be available from the middle of this week in the usual outlets although you can order via D C Thomson's own online shop 

The things that remain for good or bad

This week I'm looking a few things that stay in my mind for either good or bad reasons.

"Chip the Crip" and his female counter part were a thing I saw a lot of growing up because they were collection boxes for the Spastics Society, now called Scope which many of us where disabled such as myself who was classed as "Spastic" back then loathed.

The main problem was it portrayed us as helpless boys and girls who needed your handouts as non disabled people while reducing our personalities down to being just a medical case.

It isn't that things need to be done to ensure we have equality of opportunity - doors that can be easily opened and making paces easier to get around  is something that really irritates me even today - but the approach then was of exclusion having your own schools, own spaces to socialize in and so on.

As I said before I was very fortunate to have a Headmaster who help me toughen up to hold my own against abled bodied boys earning their respect rather than being a charity case that inspired me to fight from time to time attempts to place me in institutions that would of hindered my growth as person.

There's a couple of things going on within that short-lived magazines cover illustration one was how that boy is staying back to finish his work.

Unfortunately I missed out by a few years from having a "Classroom Assistant" help me get things down from the chalkboard, see to it any notes could be duplicated before the lesson as being dyslexic I not only struggle with reading but toss in holding a pen and spelling it makes taking notes old school a real pain.

The other thing is although the language used tends to be frowned upon in disability activist circles, the magazine did show disabled people learning to find their place in society and achieve things when the only place for many of  us after leaving school would be a Day Care Centre rather than study or employment.

Teddy Bear Picnics were more my idea of fun for a very long time with lots of space for ones imagination something that lasted with me until my time in the sixth which was very out of sync with my peers by that stage.

It was just an indication of how permanently in that time parts of me were and for that matter remain