My thanks yous for 2005

All the people at TGN, especially Kidderz for keeping it going and Android18a, Sean Mill, Raine and AirRaven for being good sports when I used them to make characters from. Oh and the Magazine people for making a brilliant magazine cut short in it's prime.

All the people at Exterminatus Now, especially Lothar, Silv, Eastwood and of course Virus for creating a very entertaining and brilliant comic. Oh and SilverenX for drawing Joz.

All the people at Sonic Hot Dimensions, especially Becky for her awesome SA shading tutorial.

All the people at Cubed-3 and REE, Shame the latter doesn't seem to be working.

All my Watchers, favourites, friends and clubs on DeviantART for the never ending supply of quality Sonic and NiGHTS styled ART. Oh and the guys who made the site, without you there wouldn't be DA.

All the people who have read and commented on my fics at Fanfiction.net, as well as all those who are trying to keep the Sonic community there going which has just started. And just people generally at ff.net, especially Arorn, Lonewolf and Kranapple who's help and collaboration has been much appreciated.

CTRL+ALT+DEL, Penny-Arcade, VG cats, Neurotically Yours, Megatokyo and RPG world for creating brilliant webcomics

Google for offering a fantastic mail service and cool new homepage.

Guys at Overclocked Remix and VG remix for creating superb remixes all year round.

Blogger for a brilliant blog service

Play.com and Amazon.co.uk for their great prices on new games and stuff.

Sky one for showing some quality shows like New Simpsons, Brainiac, The 4400 and Hex

ITV for showing a bit of Al Murray

Al Murray for being such a great comic god

Stereophonics and Foo fighters for creating fantastic albums this year

Sega (esp Sonic Team), Nintendo, Ubisoft, Konami and Capcom for producing quality games this year.

Alex Ferguson and the team for creating some fantastic football.

Fox for bringing back family guy, Even if I do have to download the torrents to see the new episodes. Now if you could bring back Futurama...

The guys at Home Appliances for putting up with me all summer

The guys that did Gateway to Work with me for making two weeks of boneshattering boredom and little better

And finally all my real life friends, most of whom will have seen me completely smashed on Christmas Eve. You know who you are.

Oh and of course my folks and brother who have supported me through a difficult year of living of dole, when can only just make it.

Most of these people probably won't see this but it has to be said, thanks for making 2005 great.

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My christmas/New year project will be up as soon as DeviantART let's me submit. Just stopped halfway through and now I can't get on it again. It'll feature a copy and paste of the above.

Best of 2005 MUSIC/TV/MOVIES

So it's the end of the year and like everyone I feel it's time to highlight the best parts of this year. For now I'm sticking with Music, TV, and Movies.

Oddly I don't remember going to see anything this year. That could have more to do with having no-one to go with but I can't comment on anything movie wise. Sad but true.

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Music has changed in a way of how we get our music. Before you could only buy CD's/Tapes/LP's etc or see a local band live. Now MP3's are as common as muck and bands don't feel the need to release as much. You really do have to go looking to find quality and to be honest I don't look. The highlights music wise have been new albums from two of my favourite bands, Stereophonics and Foo fighters.

Stereophonics - "Language, Sex, Violence, Other?" is a great album with a very rock feel. I don't know why people ignore this in there lists, even top 100 lists. Definately a highlight for mainstream releases this year.

Foo Fighters - "In your honour" is fantastic. I love the 2 CD format. Listen to the CD you're in the mood to listen to, while overall not neglecting either side of the rock spectrum. Can think of a highlight cause they're all great.

Generally music, especially pop music, has done the impossible. It has actually gotten worse. This year we got Crazy frog, enough said. We also got even more 10 second artists that will become forgotten as soon as the next X-factor/Pop idol winner comes along.

Radio stations should be ashamed of themselves. During the year there were fads where you were guaranteed to hear these songs at least 10 times every day: "Is this the way to Amarillo", "Your Beautiful", "Wake me up when september ends" and "Crazy chick". There were other songs you know.

Live 8 was an unexpected event that just amazed. It was so great with some amazing music. A great idea let's just hope it works. I support it.

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TV has gotten worse too. We've had to suffer from the disgrace to british comedy that is Little Britain so much, BBC never bothered with anything else. Thank god it's finished and maybe we could actually have some TV programs instead.

Reality TV has also completely taken over. I didn't know how it could get any worse but they are even coming up with MORE shit reality stuff. It's so annoying. Every three months you see them rotate through Big Brother, I'm not really a celebrity get me a career, Strictly come dancing, X-factor, and some other random shit. All of which only seem to last two weeks.

We just got Space cadets which was the biggest con ever. It was supposed to be people being conned into thinking they were going into space. Yet one of the guys was in the Give Blood ad as he had something to do with Gordon Ramsey. Pathetic.

There have been some diamond in the rough, but besides the footy there hasn't been much. Here's my highlights:

Brainiac - Simply brilliant. Full of cool experiments and things that just make everything cool. You learn little things about you and the world around you with no boring subject. Some of it's just stupid with the tina turner/Diana Ross thing, and the Brainiac Golf/Snooker thing. But overall I find each episode brilliant.

Hex - A story with some great twists and some overall well thought out elements. Some things just surprise you. It's creepy, sexy and a little funny. My only criticism is that it felt dragged out towards the end and very soap opera-ry with all this sleeping around. It could've ended so easily but they kept it going.

The 4400 - Another class show. This is so well thought out it's amazing. There are moments when you realise all the smaller things lead to the big things, and each character has their part to play. The twists, the excitment, the ideas it's all been done with an incredible amount of polish. I love seeing it develop and I can't wait for the third season.

Fact hunt - Al Murray is god. Fact hunt maybe wasn't his best work but it still rocks so much. The way he interacts with people is just brilliant and never fails to make me laugh. Incidently get his new DVD "giving it both barrels", it is so funny I felt my sides split.

The Simpsons - May not be going as strongly as before, but it's still good entertainment and still a highlight of Sunday night.

Top Gear - I'm not into cars but even I can appreciate this show. It's good, funny and well structured. The features have been very entertaining.

Doctor Who - To be honest I only saw the christmas special but it was ace. Well done.

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Well that's a little summary. I may think of other things to praise in these areas but for now I'm off for another night.

Oh and one last thing, My Shadow fic has been updated.

An apology to all my followers

Before I begin I know I'm not god, I know I don't have all that many fans, but if there are people out there wanting to know what's going on Art and fic wise, well here we go.

Art: Ok I'm abandoning the whole decorations for all those I want to thank. Just not finding the time to do it. Hell I haven't even gotten around to finishing the last part I need to. Soon I'll just give out one big message everywhere.

Got absolutely tanking on Xmas Eve, Xmas day was recovering and enjoying prezzies, Boxing day was all footy and finishing off my DVD's.

Fic: I leave updating until 12am-1am (as I type this it's 1:36am). Usually I finish my regulars and I can get to writing a chapter. But ff.net has given forums for the sonic section and I'm using these so much time just seems to fly by. Normally in the advice forums.

So yeah not started the next chapter of Shadow because of that. The forums are great but they just eat time.

Snake or lose, is this the only way?

Ok picture this

You’re playing Rainbow Road on Mario Kart DS. The race has been intense, shells have been flying, places interchanging loads of times, it’s the final lap and you’re facing the final bend in first. You heart starts pounding, you begin to panic. One red shell from 2nd place and you could see yourself 4th. One Blue Shell, One Lightning, One Star, One Bullet Bill, One set of Triple Mushrooms for your opponent and it could all be different.

The points are tied; whoever wins this race gets the overall victory. You briefly scan the bottom screen praying that their items won’t effect the current positions. Sweat it starting to form, you start to itch but ignore it. Final Bend and it could go either way as 2nd place has their red shell. They fire, you scream at the screen, “Come on! Faster!”

What’s the result? Who the hell cares? The tension, the passion, the fear. This is what makes Mario Kart great.

So it’s a shame to see a new mentality generally. The must win mentality. The mentality of a Snaker. Now I’m not going to say it doesn’t take a vast amount of skill to master Snaking but you have to admit it takes the fun out of the game. The above scenario rarely happens as the Snaker’s Mentality becomes, “Slide, left, right, left, right, Slide, right, left, right, left, I will win”. The power ups that make Mario Kart unique seem worthless now. There is no tension, no fear, only win or disconnect (another problem Mario Kart DS online suffers from).

I refuse to Snake. Not because I find it difficult but because it ruins the game. Sort of like how camping in an online Deathmatch FPS ruins that. Although waiting at respawn points to take out an opponent requires zero skill as apposed to snaking, you’re still denying yourself the thrill of the hunt for a few cheap frags.

It wouldn’t seem so bad if only a select few did it but now it seems Snaking is becoming the standard. With no way of knowing whether or not you will play a Snaker you either become scum and disconnect to avoid losing, or you play 4 matches with no tension.

In one hour and a half session I met with a Snaker in 7 out of 8 games. One even had two. Those that refused to snake tended to disconnect when they were losing. Is this what Mario Kart online is becoming? If so I don’t want to be a part of it.

My current record is 110 wins 42 losses and I have snaked very rarely (if I have it's only to keep up with other snakers). I have disconnected once from a game, it had just started and I saw the friend logo. There was a snaker and I decided I'd rather play the friend.

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art update:

A scrap of an idea I wanted to use for my christmas pic on DA is up there.

Fic update super extreme turbo edition

Finished and uploaded chapters 2 and 3 of Shadow.

Oh and Merry Christmas everyone

Update lost count

Started a new Shadow the Hedghog fic based on the game. Chapter 1 is up and I'm 2/3rds of the way through Chapter 2.

There's also some sketches in my scraps on my DA.

Mario Kart rules

This week I have mostly been playing Mario Kart DS. This game is absolutely amazing, though it happens to be one of those games that is rather limited in one player. It really is a game that has to be played Online, and if I said it for Halo 2 I have to say it for Mario Kart.

Actually I don't cause with Time trial and mission mode as well as a lovely grand prix mode it does last a few days (for experts and those who have played a Mario Kart before).

Mario Kart DS is like the best of the other 4 Mario Karts squeezed into one. You have the techniques from Mario 64 such as Shell Shielding and Power slide boosting. You have some of the better Mario Kart Double Dash stages, Unlockables, Lan play and slipstream technique. You have the GBA versions Ranking system and retro track cups. And of course you have the heart of the original, at a nice speed (ok it's no F-zero GX but it's faster than Double Dash) and thrilling every step of the way.

Though it's Online where the game really shines, but it's not without it's faults. While the online aspect is meant to be much easier to set up and cheaper than Xbox Live!, the first is not so true in practice. So many people are having trouble with compatibility with Routers and Dongles.

There is a rule for Peripherals though many seem to be forgetting, ALWAYS GO FIRST PARTY. The Nintendo Dongle works like a dream and I hope that it can be compatible with the Xbox360 so I go use it for Live!. However Nintendo are rather pissed at retailers that have generally refused to stock it! Madness.

Also no lobby system and yes like I said before you can't choose you friends. My advice MSN it first. Some of the TGN members and myself have had 4 player friend matches, when it's rare to find one at any given moment, just by using MSN as a quick chat room.

Bandwidth can also be a problem. I find occasionally people jump around the screen, especially when you're active on the net or downloading something at the same time. Also it doesn't number those who disconnect which is bad because DCing means a worthy winner doesn't get his win, and the other players don't get their loss.

So many times I've been winning, or at least made it so the best my opponent can do is draw, and they disconnect. Sad, pathetic. A loss is a loss, accept it! It would be nice to have a DC number alongside Wins and Losses so you can tell who does this.

Gameplay wise it does suffer from some Double Dash problems. Many races can be settled on Luck and there's very little to guarantee you a win. Sometimes someone is last place will get 2 blue shells in a row, other times you'll get a banana! Whereas if you're in first you'll 90% of the time get a banana. This is alright in Multiplayer, that's the fun. But it can be frustrating in one player when you miss out on a cup cause you've been blue shelled 3 times in a row.

Visuals and sound are superb I have no quarrel with them.

Overall an amazing game with some faults you can overlook. You definately must take this game online and experience it for yourself. Get the Nintendo Dongle (or make sure your connection is working fine) and see the real beauty of this title for yourself.

I will only swap friend codes on message boards and over MSN, my Address is Joz@sinkorswim.co.uk (but don't use that for E-mail).