| It's been a while.
Last time I posted on this, the most picturesque and pristine of web sites, I was a naive youngster on his way to university for the first time. Sadly things (work, women, fast cars... okay, okay, work) caught up with me and a few months later, I have re-emerged for a rare glimpse of the sunshine that is (or was) Dayorama.
Sadly, I suspect that Dayorama will no longer function in the ways it used to in the glorious bygone era, where humorous posts and topical discussions formed haunting serenades beneath the balcony of infinite wisdom. Some of us (us being two people, some not being me) have this constant yearning to move on, up sticks, carry their little wagon train of puns and panache far off into their own little sunset, and therefore it seems unlikely that my cyan-daubed counterpart will ever grace us again with his dismissive, omnipresent '3' and his little world where American politics seems relevant.
I, however, am made of sterner stuff (read: I spent ages designing this site and it's staying, dammit!), and shall continue to post here from this moment forth in some form or other. Dayorama shall not decline (any further) and fall (any further) like the Roman Empire, even having lost its own Constantinople (someone from the east - Grimsby, conquered by a foreign power - his ex-girlfriend).
Now, onto far more important matters. Firstly the new-look BBC News/Sport websites. Well, after much mmm-ing and ahh-ing, I reckon I like them. At first, I was put off by the smaller headlines, lack of descriptions, smaller images etc, but it is steadily growing on me. I still don't particularly like where 'Other Top Stories' has gone to (I keep overlooking it out there on the right), and the 'Also In The News' appears to be nothing more than a small cesspit of tabloid filth for the lesser surfer, but overall I feel it is an improvement. In particular, the lighter colour scheme is attractive, especially on the BBC Sport site where it has replaced the old 'dirty cream' coloured background, and though I do mourn the loss of the red rollover link colour (now a lighter bluey-grey), it is a small price to pay. There are one or two other problems I might mention - it now seems impossible to get to all the back editions of the BBC's finest piece of online writing, Ivan Noble's Tumour Diary, and I'm not entirely comfortable with the navigation on the BBC Sport site, but I'm sure these are just a combination of teething problems and my own predisposition to what I was used to, so I'll let them pass. In conclusion, a good effort.
Oh, and one more thing - I'm in Clinton Cards today (well not now, I was in Clinton Cards today) and the girl behind the counter, each time she's finished serving one person, asks the next in line, 'Can I help you?' Well DUH! I'm sorry, I realise that this is not exactly a phenomenon restricted to the Oxford branch of Clinton Cards and that worse things have happened, but why does she think all those people are queuing up? To admire the cash register? In the hope that a conga might spontaneously develop? In the belief that those in front will provide useful human shields in case of Iraqi attack? Of COURSE you can help us, woman! Firstly, take our cash because we want to pay for our goods, and secondly, phone up whoever writes the Clinton Cards staff training manual and tell them to get... a... bleeding... life! Thank you. (For another example of similarly brainless behaviour, follow this link to Penny Arcade.) |
