Hi, I’m Robert. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Whether you stumbled across it via a search engine, or a social media link, or that card I left in a phone box, you are welcome.
The boring stuff: I was born and grew up in Liverpool, and still live there today. I have a degree in Computing and IT from the Open University, and work in an IT Helpdesk role.
I started blogging in March 2003 and I am still at it all these years later, albeit with the odd break in service here and there. There is no real purpose, no mission statement, no regular update schedule. It’s just a personal blog where I talk about anything that interests me, whenever I feel like it.
Having said that, there are certain recurring themes woven into the blog.
LGBT+
I’m gay, and that fact has shaped my life in a big way. That means there is “gay stuff” here: LGBT politics, culture and the occasional bouts of thirsting after men. Don’t worry, I am tolerant of the heterosexual lifestyle.
I have a pretty low tolerance for anyone who tries to hide their bigotry behind a religion, or “freedom of speech”. And, for the avoidance of doubt: LGB with the T, always. If any of that is a problem for you, you should stop reading now.
Geek stuff
I became obsessed with computers early on, when I was gifted a hand-me-down Commodore VIC-20 that was destined for the bin. I graduated to more powerful machines, the Commodore 64, then an Acorn Archimedes, RiscPC and finally the world of Windows. My main computer these days is a Mac, but I also enjoy tinkering with my Raspberry Pi.
I still keep in touch with the world of RISC OS, the niche operating system that powered the Acorn computers in pretty much every 1990s UK classroom, and now exists as an open-source system for a variety of hardware. REPEAT:PRINT”BBC BASIC is the best”:UNTIL FALSE
More recently, I became interested in teletext, the system of blocky text and graphics transmitted alongside TV signals. Although teletext is defunct (in the UK at least) there is a community-run service, Teefax, keeping the medium alive online. Check out my pages on there.
Trains
I’m a rail enthusiast in two senses of the word. Firstly, I believe that railways can have a bright future and should be invested in and developed as an alternative to the car. Secondly, I take a keen interest in the minutiae of railway operations. If you know your class 156 Super Sprinter from your class 395 Javelin, we can be friends.
I am a member of the Friends of the 502 Group, which owns an electric train that once ran on the Merseyrail network, and is restoring it to its former glory.
My model railway collection is currently gathering dust in a cupboard, but one day I hope to get a layout of my own set up again.
Travel
I like visiting and exploring foreign countries. Over the past fifteen years or so I have visited places as diverse as Berlin, Tallinn, Berlin, Amsterdam, Berlin, Gran Canaria, Berlin, Oslo, Berlin, Copenhagen and Berlin. The excitement of stepping off the train into a new city just cannot be beaten. If I can get there by train, so much the better!
Social Media
My nickname at school was – imaginatively – Hampo. I hated it, but tried to “reclaim” it as my social media handle. It didn’t work – I still hate it, but now feel rather stuck with it.
I am active under that handle on the following social media sites:-
RSS Feed
If you’re old school and use an RSS reader such as Feedly, the feed for this blog can be found at roberthampton.me.uk/feed.
Behind the scenes
The site is powered by WordPress, with a custom theme designed by yours truly. BBEdit is used to edit code (the free version, because I’m stingy like that). Images are mostly created and edited using Pixelmator Classic.