Hey Guys!

Sorry I haven't updated this journal in a while, work was a bit nuts over the Winter! Haven't really been up to much, Work at first started to take up alot of my time, then when I finally finished that off I had a pile of Xbox 360 games waiting to be played and a load of HD-DVD's to watch too! So over Christmas that has been taking up alot of my time hehe

Xbox 360.... Been an interesting few months for them imo! Firstly Gears Of War, I myself was really disappointed with this game Don't get me wrong the Graphics blows everything else out of the water! But the rest of the game, the controls imo were poor, storyline was weak and overall I just thought it was boring, which is gutting seen as how much I was looking forward to playing it! However Rainbow Six Vegas which was released around the same time, is fantastic! The Storyline in it is very good, controls are great, GFX are good too and the online multiplayer just rocks! Can't beat it

Also picked up a HD-DVD drive for my 360, which imo is a great little add on for the 360! I didn't know what to expect with HD-DVD, thought that it would just be an Upscaled DVD, until I actually got the drive, the quality of Mission Impossible 3 and Aeon Flux is phenomenal! The Colors imo are alot more vivid in HD-DVD, makes DVD's look Washed out, and the picture is just so crystal clear, love it!

F1 finally came to an end for another year... another boring season, Alonso won woop de doo. Schumachers finally left thank god! Glad to be rid of him! But now with Alonso going to McLaren who don't look on the pace, Riakkonen at Ferrari and Fisichella left at Renault, I really have absolutely no idea who will win this year! I have a feeling next year we will see a surprise victory from someone, Massa I think has a good chance, if Honda make a good car this will be Buttons biggest and only chance at victory, maybe even Kovalainen but that'll be a long shot. I don't think Hamilton will have a shot, if the McLaren is good Alonso will beat him well and truly, either way its going to be a difficult season for him, best he can do is just try to learn as much as possible off Alonso. Surprise teams of next year I think will be Super Aguri, STR (If both of them get away with this car design scam) and Red Bull. Maybe an interesting season!

I've well and truly given up on Hed Kandi now, the only CD I've bought since Beach House (Their last good one) has been Nu Cool, Ministry of sound have finally got their own way and Hed Kandi has turned commercial I knew they had died after they released Hed Kandi Classics... When labels release Classic CD's you know they are well and truly dead However Fierce Angels are still looking good! Ain't released much recently but I've just noticed they've got a Digital Album on iTunes, have to see whether its worth getting as I usually refuse to buy off iTunes

My Music taste has been changing quite a bit recently, been getting into the more laid back stuff like on the Served Chilled and Nu Cool Albums, one artist I've discovered from the Hed Kandi albums is Crazy Penis (now known as Crazy P, more radio friendly apparantly ) Their album 24 Hour Psychedelic Freakout is such a brilliant album! Starts off with the fantastic The Time Is Now, straight down to Mid-Lounge Crisis, The Right Place was a bit too heavy for my liking but that got into 13th Movement, Magical Progression and the brilliant laid back You've Lost That Feeling (My Favourite ) superb album overall! Before this album my favourite all time album for a long time has been Daft Punk's Discovery, but this album even though it only has 10 tracks, seems to have no album fillers unlike Discovery, which does seem to have quite a few off them... Whenever I play this album I always have people asking me about it! There were remixes of a Neon Heights and Amillionsons Tracks, which prompted me to get their albums too, Neon Heights A Hot Trip To Heaven and Amillionsons The First Ones Free, again two great albums! If you wanna listen to any of these, just goto [link] and check out the Jukebox in the top right, can listen to all the tracks on every album in full

Check back later though! With Vista arriving at the end of the month for me, I'm going to want a new wallpaper hehe! So I'll probably end up making one for myself!

Catch you all later!

Ian

Never really took any notice of the Journal here! But I'm bored now so here it goes!

Hey Hey! If you don't already know, I'm Ian! (well duh! Username kinda gives that away! ) I'm 21 and am from a little Village called Scholar Green in atm a boiling hot UK! Temperature must be at least 27 degrees here... may seem low to most people but in the UK thats melting temps

Over the past few weeks, nothing really much has been going on! Relatively boring tbh! Last weekend I took part in another 6 hour endurance race on the fantastic GTP mod for Nascar 2003! This time at the massive 14 mile Nurburgring! Finished 3rd in the end, so was very happy about that Next up will be in about 2 weeks time at Sebring (Even tho I hate the track with passion!) Meah!

Watched Formula 1 today, was thinking of going down to Silverstone to watch the race but decided not to in the end, was a good choice as it was another boring as hell race lol Webber got taken out too and Rosberg finished 9th, bit of a crappy day for Williams Expected better after the positive showing at Monaco! Oh well

Like any other bloke around, I love my football and usually I love the World Cup! but this year if I have to record another radio ad which somehow mentions "World Cup Deals" I will explode I know you should expect some adverts to have them in, but 25 different companies?! Come on! Be Original!! Anyhoo managed to miss most of the starting matches First one I watched was England v Paraguay, They are nothing without the god of Chilavert in goal! England tbh expected better, to win just on a Own Goal... hmmm, think this'll be another year of getting to QF/SF and getting knocked out again Especially if they start relying on Rooney, even tho Crouch did fantastic yesterday imo! However Sweden v Trinidad & Tobago was a fantastic match I've always had a soft spot for them! Some reason on Champ Manager I always used to try and be their international coach lol! Probably just cause they had Yorke and Hislop I'm a bit split who I want to win this Thursday now

Also was in HMV the other week picking up Hed Kandi's latest new one, Serve Chilled (Great little chillout album btw ) When I spotted on offer at £15 the First season of Arrested Development! Loads of people (Mainly on the Scrubs forums) have suggested this TV series but I never paid attention.. But hell at £15! may as well give it a try! I'm really glad I did its fantastic!! Gob just cracks me up whenever he's on, So does their lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn! This is a prime example how a fantastic show, has been completly ruined by the incompetence of Fox, even tho I'm in the UK, I never saw an advert for this show promoting it, no actors on TV shows plugging it, no DVD promotions on TV, nothing.... How the hell are we supposed to know about these great programmes if you don't PROMOTE! Hope they hurry up and get Season 3 out in the UK now

Back to HMV tho! I've picked up some great CD's in the past few weeks! Hed Kandi Served Chilled obviously, great little CD Disco Heaven.. hmmm, it is very good! Got some great tracks on there! Theres one major problem tho, BeatFreakz.. WTF! Since when is BeatFreakz Sexy House Music? It's poppy Hi-Tac crap! You can see how Ministry Of Sound taking over Hed Kandi is starting to influence their CD's now Other than that awful track tho, great CD! Dennis Christopher's Soul Shaking is my favorite! Closely followed by Gav McCall's Alright Also picked up Fierce Angel's new one (Mark Doyle's new label) Tokyo Disco, That CD is fantastic got so many great tracks on there! Favourite on there atm is Michael Gray's new one, Borderline Got all three genres of House music on there, 1st CD the more laid back Sexy House music, 2nd CD's a bit more Upbeat (My favourite CD atm!) and the 3rd goes into the more Deeper, Twisted side of House Music... A very good mixture of underground House music!

Also recently I was listening through my Winamp collection, as I do, and it came to Shapeshifters House Grooves 2, I bought this CD a while back, gave it a listen and decided I didn't like it, but still left it on my hard drive! I had been meaning to delete it for a while... usually I'd skip onto another Album when this came on, but this time I didn't (Mainly cause I was lying in bed and couldn't be arsed to get up ) So I left it on, I dunno if over the past year my music taste has radically changed, but its fantastic! back to back great tracks!! Ian Carey's Give up the funk, Echo Motel's Give It, a great remix of Sandy Rivera's I can't stop! The fantastic sax solo in Gaudino's Destination Unknown... I'm so glad I decided not to delete this! If I had then I would have never listened to it and the CD would have just fallen farther and farther back in my CD Collection! So another recommended CD to buy if your into House music here! I mean at £7 off Amazon, how can you go wrong?!

If your into Hed Kandi stuff like I am (Presume you are if your actually reading this! Seen as most people are stopping by for the Hed Kandi wallpapers ) A few cd's you should look out for over the next few weeks! Firstly theres Hed Kandi's Sister Lablels new one finally making a return, Stereo Sushi! Volume 8 is out tomorrow! which I'll be off to pick up Also on the 19th June Fierce Angels are releasing Beach Angels (Came across accidently whilst looking round Amazon!) I presume it'll just be exacly like the old Hed Kandi Beach House albums! Maybe worth a listen whilst we are all waiting for the next Beach House from Hed Kandi to be released

Hmmm! seems I was incredibly bored if I typed all that out!! I need to find something to occupy myself with I think BTW check back soon! as I'm half way through doing another Beach House wallpaper! (I do like my last one, but I've had it on for 2 months, time for a change! ) Also may decide to redo the Hed Kandi Sky Blue piece and may try and do a Fierce Angels peice! should be a busy few months ahead

Catch you all later!! Ian.