David Sneddon won the BBC's Fame Academy - this is history. What isn't, is that his single "Stop Living the Lie" is currently at the top of the UK singles charts, where it's been for two weeks. Clever old BBC. Dean pointed out that had it been released Christmas week, it would never have reached the coveted number one position. In January however, No 1 is easier to achieve. Hopefully, it will give his new career a boost, but whatever his next release is, it's got to be good. The public got to know "Stop Living the Lie" through the Fame Academy programmes. The next one will be new to them (us) and it's on his next release and his first album that he'll be judged and that will make or break his future career! Me? I go by what Claire and Tania say - they're his real future audience and right now they think he's "Fit"! David, good luck - don't rush it and mess it up! (You can buy "Stop Living the Lie" from amazon.co.uk. Click the pic above for the details.)

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have announced that PlayStation 2 broadband network gaming will be launched in the Spring, beginning here in the UK. The announcement follows the launch of PlayStation 2 online gaming earlier this year in North America and Japan. In North America, SOCOM: US Navy Seals, the first online console game with voice communication between players, and Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 2003, have become instant online hits with thousands of regular players.

Key components of PS2 network gaming are a Broadband Gaming Pack which includes a PS2 Ethernet Network Adaptor, an online game and a start-up disk. This pack will be sold at the same price as a regular PS2 game through selected retailers, and will enable PS2 owners to access online multiplayer games through a participating Broadband network.

Don't you just love "Show Business"? It's a part of my background, but nowadays, the closest I get to Show Biz is to do the staging for company conferences. It can be stressful at times, but it's something I really enjoy. There's a group of real professionals I've worked with for years who handle all the sets, staging, lighting, sound and projection and it's always a pleasure to work with them. By now, they know exactly what I need and just how I work. Every time we do a conference they bring some new "gadget". Sometimes this will be a new vision or sound mixer. We put on such an event last Friday evening, and this year they brought four new LED theatrical lighting units and whole new programmable lighting desk. If you haven't seen LED stage lighting and think (as I did) that LEDs were about as bright as the "on" light on your PC, think again. These were stunning.

The two pictures were taken with the same lighting rig. No coloured gels, no multiple lights to change colour just this bank of four LED units at floor level and infinite and instant colour changes can be done straight from the lighting desk. You can also program sweeping rainbows, flashes of colour and so on. For the business sessions, we had the background almost imperceptibly slowly cycling from cyan through deep blue to purple and back. It looked superb. For the evening, we added a couple of moving lights and a haze generator as well. Great fun - not only for me of course but for the audience as well. If you want to know the company, it's CTF and I can't recommend them highly enough.

You might find this interesting! Raph Koster is proposing a "Bill of Rights" for Avatars in a virtual world that corresponds somewhat to the rights of people in the real-world, an attempt to take the European Court of Human Rights into cyberspace.

You don't see simple, engaging puzzle games on the cover of games magazines. Their creators are not keynote speakers and are not recognised as being among the top 10 game developers in the world, even though their games are probably played more than any 'conventional' game title.

Tetris was the game that originally sold the GameBoy. It was the single hit game that convinced people to buy. These days, you can't sell puzzle games like Tetris on a commercial basis because the competition is $70m-budget titles like Final Fantasy. When Tetris launched though, it was a big deal and its creator, Alex Pajitnov became a game celebrity. All of which brings us neatly to Snood!

June thinks Christmas should be optional. She reasons that once your children are adults, there should be an opt-out clause. I must say I agree with her. Christmas can bring stress, financial hardship, and it's well known that more relationships break up over Christmas and the New Year than any other time. The suicide rates peak as well.

Since the New Year, I just happen to have spoken with people from three different families, all of whom had a pretty stressful time. June suggests we should create a Website where those who wish to opt out can announce it to the world and print themselves a certificate to hang on the wall - or even the front door - proclaiming their home a Christmas free zone for 12 months. I think it's a great idea, I reckon it would receive thousands of hits from those anxious to give Christmas a miss for a year. Send me your views, Here and I'll publish the interesting ones - anonymously of course.

There's a lot of interest right now in the mythology of Middle Earth, as brought to us by J.R.R. Tolkien in the three books of the Lord of the Rings. Readers of the books will know that Bilbo Baggins, a central character in the story, begins the adventure on his eleventy-first birthday (111 years). The author, J.R.R. Tolkien, would be one hundred and eleven years old today - January 3rd 2003 having been born on January 3, 1892 at 9:00 pm LMT in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Happy eleventy-first birthday, JRR!

Here's my first "find" of 2003 - you have to see this! (Watch out for those pesky Electric eels!) Click Here.

OK Folks, let's see what you good people have been searching for over Christmas. Here is a selection from the search phrases used to reach this Website over the holidays . . .

Aibo video, ainsley fame academy, madplayer, malachi fame academy, David A Norman BusinessLand, (now that's an interesting one!) Jacquie Lawson christmas cards, kate lawler, rebel alliance logo (How did that one get in there!?) Also, sandy nelson, sdr-4x sony video and fame academy audience tickets, bbc groundforce (not sure about that one either!) and "who does the music to the t-mobile commercial break"? I hope most of these people might have found something of interest here. Nice to see you passing by!

Christmas was "busy" to say the least with no time to spend on the Website. Now the New Year is with us however, things should return to a semblance of normality. Thanks to a Christmas gift from Colin, I also have a new gadget - one of those incredibly small digital cameras. My intention is to keep it with me all the time, so you may see a few more pictures on the site this year. In days gone by, I always used to carry a 16mm Minolta camera with me, (I wonder what happened to that?) I still have quite a few of the pictures I took with it years ago. I have also always wanted - and still want a Minox! Anyone out there with about a grand to spare, please note! :-)