I know I say this every time the website has an overhaul, but I have to say this is  the best-looking my site has ever been. Phil has done an amazing job, and deserves a very public “thank you” and a link to his two wonderful websites, Sodaware and Phil Newton.net. Sodaware is dedicated to his shareware business, and contains some excellent hand-drawn art too. Phil Newton.net is dedicated to “Improving Every Day” with insightful articles on getting things done, motivation and productivity tips. If you want to fine-tune how you approach your life, it’s a great website to visit.

If you’re a new visitor then welcome and thanks for coming! A great place to start is to browse the archives or check out the Best Bits in the sidebar on your left, and please bookmark me with Ctrl + D, subscribe to my RSS feed, leave a comment and spread the word!

Over the coming weeks we’ll be seeing more development on the elusive novel, another Player P.O.V. article as I take another look at my beloved Beyond Good and Evil and many, many more memorable posts. I aim to update at least twice a week, so please do check back and I hope you enjoy your stay!

   I am currently listening to God Only Knows by The Beach Boys

Yes, as if reading my thoughts wasn’t enough, now you can watch and listen to them too with my very own television show, suspiciously cleverly-titled “The James Newton show”. I don’t host it at the site because, at ten minutes long, it’d probably eat all my bandwidth; for that reason, it’s over at Google Videos.

It’s an extension of the site really, with me presenting entertaining clips and segments of all sorts. It’s a one-man variety show, with games, music, films and other stuff all sloshed together. It was great fun to do and I think it’s good fun to watch too. It’s also got the greatest theme tune ever.

You can watch the video by clicking right here

There’s also a great video up at YouTube; a trailer “Horses on a Boat”, a Lego film that Hannah, Phil and I made. It’s great and I think you should watch it!

There’s a second episode of The James Newton show to go up which is a lot more like this site, with me talking about the best games ever and why they’re so great. For now, just enjoy these two videos and keep coming back here for more entertainment from me, including the next in my Player P.O.V. series.

Steve over at StevePavlina.com posted a very useful article about how to defeat the most powerful button in the universe – “snooze”. Well, here’s my simple version.

Annoying

If, on hearing that, you still want to stay in bed I’m afraid you are an inhuman monster. Stick it on a CD or your phone and you won’t want to spend another second asleep, I guarantee it.

Disclaimer: The Collected Writings of James Newton is not responsible for any after-effects that may follow this course of action, including but not limited to insanity, loss of hair, breakdown of relationships with significant others and incontinence.

I guess it’s time I put some of that English teacher training to use! Walking around town and browsing the Internet, I see some really simple mistakes in people’s grammar, spelling and punctuation. The good news is that they’re easily fixed, so here are the top five most common mistakes I see and how to solve them, and remember to get them right every time. Take heed, writers of the Internet!

1. Apostrophe (ab)use.

That photo above was a large printed advert in a nationally-known mobile phone retailer! Apostrophes are quite hard to get right. How do you know if you need an apostrophe, and if you do, where does it go?

There are only two reasons to use an apostrophe: possession or contraction. If you want to show there is more than one of something, don’t use an apostrophe, just use “s” or “es” if the word ends with an s – more than one bus is two buses, not two bus’s.

The farmer’s wife – the wife belongs to the farmer (this is to illustrate an example – I’m not sexist!), so stick an apostrophe there.

James’s dog – if the person/thing that has something ends in s, like my name, you still add ‘s on the end: WordPress’s features.

The farmers’ wives – use the apostrophe after the s if the word is plural. Here we have more than one farmer, so the apostrophe goes after the final s.

Single – ‘s

Plural – ‘

That’s about as simple as I can make it for possession. The other rule is for contraction, which goes a bit like this:

An apostrophe replaces a missed-out letter – do not becomes don’t because we miss out the second “o”. As a rule of thumb, in any form of construction like that, the apostrophe goes between the n and t – shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t and so on. That’s easier than possession, I think.

2. Of or have?

As a teacher I saw this quite a lot, but lots of people still use the wrong word. “I should of” instead of “I should have”. When you think about it, “I should of” makes no sense, but it sounds right – if only it were that simple! If in doubt, take out what we call the modal verb – could, should, might – and see if it makes sense. For example, “I should have been a teacher” would read “I of been a teacher”. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? Whereas “I have been a teacher” reads perfectly. This doesn’t work in all cases, but it can be a useful test if in doubt.

3. Definitely separate?

Is it i or a, a or e? Here go a few easy ways to remember.

Definite – “defy nightly” to remind you it’s an i sound, not an a. Defy nately doesn’t make sense, unless you know someone called Nately, or are pregnant and think it says natally. Just remember the root is finite – this also works for infinite too, by the way. Just please put an i instead of an a, and don’t write it “defiantly” or “definatly” – defy nightly!

Separately – I was told to remember this as “sep a rat in the middle” to keep that “par” middle section in my mind. I guess it worked for me!

4. It’s, its, their, they’re or there?

Its – no apostrophe – is used for possession: “its song rang out.” We use his and hers in exactly the same way – no apostrophe.

It’s – with an apostrophe – is just a shorter form of “it is”; use it whenever “it is” would make sense in the same place: “it’s cold outside.”

They’re – they are. “They’re going out”, “they’re all good reasons.”

Their – belong to them. “Their car”, “their hospital appointments.”

There – in that place. Here, where and there, all to do with place, have an h in them, which is quite handy to remember. “Over there!”

5. Sloppy spelling.

Vauge. Neccesary. Dissapoint (please: one s, two ps!).

Everyone has a few words they just can’t spell; someone I knew couldn’t get “definitely” right no matter how many times he tried. I know the idea of learning spellings off by heart went out in Year 8, but sometimes it’s just necessary. If you’re writing to a friend then obviously you can take certain liberties with spelling sometimes, but if you’re representing a website via an article, email or other written text, you really do need to spell check carefully, or get a friend/teacher to do it. Putting poorly spell-checked work on a popular website does you no favours, and can put the reader off.

I know this all comes off as a dressing-down from your English teacher, but these are honestly really simple mistakes that take about thirty seconds to fix. There are few things more dissapointing (sic) than a well-written piece on your favourite website that lets itself down with some really simple mistakes. Make that improvement now!

After a too-long break, I’m back on the keys and can’t wait to start posting again. I have a few good articles waiting to come up, from the next Player P.O.V. to basic tips on improving your English, and even my own downloadable television show!

Please do bookmark the page – hit Control + D! – subscribe to my RSS feed at www.prosody.co.uk/feed and come back on Saturday when normal service will hopefully be resumed!

Regarding the recent lack of updates, I’m in between houses at the moment so I have very intermittent access to the Internet and even more intermittent access to my brain and ideas!

In the coming weeks I’ll hopefully be getting back into the swing of updating here on a regular basis, including more articles on games – including another Player P.O.V. on Ubisoft’s classic Beyond Good and Evil – more Harvest Moon diaries (which I updated before I moved away) and more about NiGHTS into Dreams.

Thanks for reading and coming back. You can subscribe to my feed with http://www.prosody.co.uk/feed so you’ll be the first to know when I update with some more great content!

I’m guessing James sort of lost his interest in photography this season – or perhaps the previous pictures were taken by another resident in Forget-Me-Not Valley? Either way, there don’t seem too many photographs to complement this season, although what’s here is still fascinating. How is Boris’s career path shaping up? How will James revolutionise farming forever?

1^st Winter

Raining! Time to go plant my new crops. This is the most exciting part of any season!

S Milk from Bella – excellent!

Harvested two Turnips, which went straight into the Seed Maker. I should have time to plant them again. Also planted and fertilised 5 x Potato and my S Radita, which grows until the end of Summer. Awesome.

I think I’ll take Boris to see Vesta et al. I’m seriously worried about the artist thing. Be a rancher, Boris!

I fed three of the animals by hand. I wonder if they’re eating properly..?

2^nd Winter

Hatman says it’ll stop raining today, but he said that yesterday and it only stopped about 10pm! Useless.

Radita is sprouting already. Picked two more S Turnips. Bonzer! Next Autumn I’ll have six Carrot As and loads of S Turnips. Well, at least four, probably six or eight. Building for the future!

I can’t break Boris out of thinking “drawing fun”, or telling me “moon is wound.” I’m showing him dairy stuff all the time, and yesterday I took him to Vesta’s, but I don’t know if it made any difference. I’m becoming increasingly resigned to having a son who’ll break the family career line. Now who’ll run Kent when I’m gone?

Trying Tomato and Melon – FINALLY WORKED! Now I know why I don’t hybridise more often.

Made Tomaca – cool! Also made Camelo, Dhilon and Melotoma! A good day for hybridising (eventually).

I came to get Boris at 6:44pm, and he jumped me and asked me to bathe him! I said “let’s jump in!” and, after some strange mooing, crashing and clucking sounds, he came out “feeling so clean”! I’m such a good Dad.

3^rd Winter
Hatman says it’ll stop snowing today – no watering for me!

Bella only gave me one bottle this morning; only A grade, too. I think she’ll be giving birth soon, then I can sell the baby (when grown) and get Isabel pregnant by Vince. Job done.

Boris is asking about animals and running around the farm again. Maybe the artist thing was just a phase.

Put another egg in the incubator. Chicks and chickens/ducks are worth loads more than just eggs. Took Boris to the other farm to try and encourage ranching. I think it’s the right place – it certainly isn’t very artistic.

Van’s in town today, but I have next-to-nothing to sell. Just an egg and a couple of Turnips, oh and some – 50+ – flowers. I’m going to have so many Turnips come Summer. Oh yeah!

I went to the Villa and into Lumina’s “lobby” thing – she didn’t want me in her dressing room or bedroom, but I gave her a flower – her favourite, Gemsoil – which helped. I’ll give her more tomorrow. I went to give Romana one but said no by accident. OOPS!

Hi everyone,

I updated the Harvest Moon Diaries to include another two years of Farmer James’s life. Please read it and enjoy it!

I’ll be keeping the Sonic-themed design for a while yet, as it took me a long time and I think it looks great. I celebrated the special day by wearing a Sonic badge to Uni, playing some Sega Superstars and baking Sonic a special blue cake with blue icing. Here’s a word of warning on that front – although food colouring is non-toxic, that doesn’t mean lots of it will have no effect.

Just to prove it was blue all the way through.

Sonic City has some great birthday wallpapers, screensavers, an iron-on t-shirt transfer and a competition to win some very nice Sonic-themed prizes. You need to be a member of Sega City to get in, but that’s free and takes no time. You could even try www.bugmenot.com

Sega of America, being useless, made little mention of the happiest day of the year apart from a small picture and a revamped site for the next-generation Sonic the Hedgehog title which, in my opinion, could well be total rubbish. Apparently this one features a telekinetic hedgehog from the future and Eggman kidnapping the “Princess of Soleanna”, and is Sonic’s first time in the human world (then what were humans doing in Sonic Adventure?). We’ll wait and see on this one.

In other non-Sonic-related news, I recently updated the music section to include another song from my album “Long Distance”. I’ll be regularly uploading songs both old and new (when I get some new ones!), so please check back regularly and feel free to leave comments on pages to let me know what you think.

Don’t forget you can subscribe to my RSS feed using http://www.prosody.co.uk/feed/, and if you see something you like feel free to comment or trackback it, or pass it on to a friend. Thanks for reading!

This next diary is a bit more complicated to pin together. I’ve grouped it all into one chapter, “Chapter Three: Happy Harvesting”, but judging by the dates given it seems to cover more than one year. Anyway, from what I can tell this is the 1st of Fall in the 1st year of this “chapter”, which makes it the third year for which I have a diary.

Here’s a quick update: James, Muffy and Boris are living happily in Forget-Me-Not Valley. Another two years or so have passed since the last chapter, and Boris certainly seems to have matured. James is still working hard on the farming side of things, but is Muffy satisfied with her life? Is James’s approach to Boris’s career guiding or stifling? Read on and make your own decisions!

1^st Fall

Saw Hugh crying by the pond – offered him a flower and some fodder, but he wasn’t interested. Wally doesn’t seem to know what’s wrong with him, he just keeps talking about running.

This morning there was a wild hurricane. It was immense – sheets of rain and great rumblings, it was very scary. I thought of sticking with the animals but they seemed fine, so I walked around picking flowers until it finished after about six hours. It’s been raining ever since.

I planted 4 x Carrot A, 5 x Sweet Potato B and other stuff. Possibly Turnips. And Strawberries. I want to hybridise them at some point.

My new house.

2^nd Fall

Going to be dry today, apparently.
Eliza’s going away – too many ducks, not enough chickens. Bye bye, Eliza.
6:30 – RAINING!
Lolly needs a wash.
It’s boring in the rain. I tried making crop circles in the grass, but it didn’t work.
TOMATOES ARE READY! 2 x Tomato A and 8 x Tomato B. Going to hybridise Tomato and Melon! Got a Tomato Seed, so restarted (omm).
Saving the melons to hybridise with Turnips, Carrots and Strawberries. Bought 15 Turnips, just to fill up my field.
Ella is only giving milk twice a day now, and it’s only A. I might sell her, even if we do go way back. I could use the room for a Star Cow ♀. I’d have to sell another animal too, maybe Lolly when she grows up.
Boris is much better behaved these days, especially at bedtimes. I’ll show him more animals tomorrow. I went for a run, bath then bed at 11.

3^rd Fall

Woke up at 5am to birds chirping and no sign of rain. Hatman says sun for today!
No sign of my carrots sprouting yet. They’re A-grade and they better not fail. They have to be magnificent. I’m hoping to be farming all A or S-grade crops next year, so I’ll save Upseeds, buy fertiliser and get some fine crops.
Ou est Van? He set up about 1:10pm. Lots to sell today!
Got 2 x Turnip S and 2 x Turnip A! S went in the Seed Maker, A is going into my crop experiments, as well as B.

Hybrids! Watermelon + Turnip = Turnip 🙁

Turnip A + Tomato B = Trady B √

Hybridising seems to be rather luck-based. I’ve put my Turnips A & B in the Seed Maker so I can use one bag to plant and one to hybridise. I’m a genius, me.
About 3pm I saw something mysterious and blue running through my field! It might have been an alien… but it was Boris.

Lolly grew up! Now I’m going to sell her. So heartless.

4^th and 5^th Fall

I sold Lolly – she was just taking up space. I think I’ll sell Bella’s baby and buy a Star Cow ♀. Yummy.
Spent a long time helping out Farmer Jim over at Parker Farm. He’s just starting out so I showed him the ropes, and he soon had his cow Wendy giving A-grade milk. He’ll go far.
Saw a lizard by the river! Carter told me he thinks Flora is strange as she spends all her time at the dig site (not true – I see her in town all the time.) He also asked me to smuggle in some food as he’s sick of her cooking. I don’t think he’s put 2 + 2 together yet…
No hybrids yet, but maybe tomorrow.
Attended the Harvest Festival in town, too. Not very exciting.

6^th Fall

Time to hybridise! I’ve got four of each grade Turnip, four Tomato As, 4 Watermelon Ses and 6 Potato Bs.

Watermelon S + Turnip S = Raury B √

Tomato A + Turnip A = Trady B √

Potato B + Turnip B = Radita (Winter-Summer) √

That’s enough for one day. I can grow my Radita next season, fertilise them and re-seed them. I should get a good four or eight seeds. Not too much else going on today.

7^th Fall.

Time flies! Again, a fairly unexciting day. I Harvested my Sweet Potatoes and another Turnip S – the S.P.s are going to Van, the Turnips on the Seed Maker. Next year I’ll have lots of S-grade crops, including Trady and Radita, as I bought a load of fertiliser. Next season is Upseed season too. Cool!
Ella’s stopped giving milk. I can’t get her pregnant yet because Bella is pregnant, but I’m thinking of selling her to get a Star Cow. I know she was my first cow, and she’s done my proud, but I think it’s time to move on. Maybe not for a while, as I wouldn’t be able to get the new one pregnant either. I could sell Ella and keep her space free until I can get a new cow, or buy now, sell later. I don’t know what to do. She needed a wash and I found her by the trough already. Clever girl!
She’s going. Selling normal cows is worthless, and no milk (it was only A) means she’s out. Better get Good Fodder now. I might sell Bruce and get a Star Cow ♂. Movin’ on up. I’ll have to take a picture before she goes.
Boris: Dwawing fun! I hope he doesn’t become an artist! I want a rancher son! It’s all he keeps saying! And then he wouldn’t go to bed!
Stupid artists. I’ll straighten him out tomorrow.

8^th Fall.

Woke up at half five to find Takakura taking Ella away. I’ll miss her, and I never even got a photo of her. Bye bye Ella.
It’s a beautiful day today, and my strawberries are ready! Next season I’m not going to have many crops at this rate. I’ll have more S Strawberries and some B Potatoes to fertilise, but that’s about it. What to do..?
I’m selling Bruce and buying a Star Bull. Definitely moving up. I’ll beat that Farmer Boris from Tallula farm yet!
The new cow is here! Her name is Isabel.

Hybridised Upseed and Radita to get Radita S – should save the old fertiliser!
The field is so bare. I can’t wait to fill it up with more crops!

Fall 9^th

The new cow should come today, and it’s bye bye Bruce.
Hatman forecasts rain today. Might plant some Carrots, but I might not. I’m fed up with Turnips.
The barn is so empty and quiet without Bruce and Ella.
Next season I’ll have 16 Strawberries, 5 Potatoes and a Radita. Busy! Might try the Turnips too, they don’t take a whole season.
The new bull is here! His name is Vince.

It’s snowing! It stopped raining for a few minute and now it’s snowing! Hugh seemed to like it, arms aloft.
Why did Rock buy Golden Wool? Is his hair a wig?

Planted 4 x Turnips, 4 x Strawberry S and 4 x Strawberry B, should get two yields from the last two, I hope. Shame it’s so dark!
Visited the Harvest Sprites. They’re weird and boring.

Fall 10^th

Had a raw fish for breakfast at 5am.
I love the way the sun creeps down the hills and along the fields in the morning.
Typical! I let my animals outside and two minutes later it rains!
Muffy felt like music, so went to the river for two hours. Obviously.

Boris is definitely leaning towards artistic, so I took his colouring book. I don’t want him turning out like Farmer Boris from Tallula Farm’s son, Harry.

What an exciting season that must have been for all on Kent Farm! What will the hard Winter season hold for the family? Winter’s diary is coming soon!

Here’s some pages from one of the other diaries I found. I think it’s from a few years after the first one, as James seems to refer to a wife and son, who don’t appear in the first diary. I’d love to know what happened in the years between these books, but unfortunately I don’t seem to have the missing books. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Chapter two: Happy birthday!

Forget-Me-Not Valley has changed quite a bit since my first year here. It’s still mostly the place I fell in love with, and even in as small and insular a place as this progress is inevitable. The saddest change this year was when we lost Nina. Poor Galen hasn’t been the same since, plodding around town and tending to Nina’s grave and memorial. I try to get through to him with polite conversation and crops and milk, but he doesn’t seem interested, just grumbling and fixing me with his glassy eyes. Sometimes he stands on the bridge and stares at the river flowing away to the sea. I worry about what he might be thinking… he must be so alone.

A slightly happier change is the arrival of Samantha, Kate and Grant, a new family whose house is the middle one in this photo.

They’re a funny family really. Kate seems a bit of a spoil little brat, Grant is always running to and fro to the city (or the Blue Bar!) and Samantha seems a very uptight and proper lady. They’re a bit of an odd bunch, and it’s rare to see them together, but all the same, Forget-Me-Not Valley is richer for their presence.

Elsewhere around me I can see the effects of change. Lumina’s piano playing is fantastic now; I love hearing her play, and I’ve just noticed that Hugh and Rock seem older these days. I think in my mind they’ve been these cute little boys for the past few years, but now I can see they’re becoming young men.

Thinking about the younger residents of the Valley makes me cast my mind onto my son, Boris. It’s the hardest thing in the world to judge whether Muffy and I are doing a good job as parents, but I think we are – Boris is well-behaved (if not a little energetic!) apart from bedtimes, which have seen quite a few struggles! I think the key is not to play with him too close to “night night”.

He seems interested in eggs and milk, and anything to do with animals, which I suppose is natural growing up on a farm! All the clichés about parenting being “the greatest adventure” seem very true now!

The farm continues to grow, with new buildings, animals and crops. We have a couple of ducks called Jilly and Billy, a few new cows and a sheep. Money is thankfully no problem, so I can commit to giving Boris the best upbringing I can.

That’s all I could salvage from this second diary, but I think there are some great insights in there, and it’s clear that James has really settled into his life in Forget-Me-Not Valley, both in terms of farming and family. The next diary was much more intact, so I’m posting it up a season at a time. Click here for Fall’s diary.