#49; Apple Know How to Make a Man ‘Appy

It’s been nearly 2 months now since I purchased my iPod Touch, a purchase that to this day I still find myself dazzled with bliss and happiness because it has provided many hours of, well, awesome! If you remember back to when I first got it, I blogged about it here on ToaTA as an after effect of the happiness at finally getting an iPod Touch. Of course, one of the biggest factors of buying this device was the Apps that Apple had released for this and the iPhone, so here’s my favourite apps and games I’ve bought and loved since my purchase… (although you soon may realise these will be balancing more towards my favourite games rather than apps, but still!)

Beneath A Steel Sky
Price: Currently on offer at 59p
Genre: Point and Click adventure game

If you love Broken Sword, Monkey Island or any of the old LucasArts adventure point and click games then this is an absolute must for you. I’ve loved the game way before it was on the iPod Touch and have played it many times on SCUMMVM but it’s a perfect companion for the Touch/iPhone. You get a distinct feel of 1984 and the whole dystopian vibe of a new world from the game, and the voice acting and addictiveness of it is second to none for me on the format. I think this was the first app I actually purchased and I certainly recommend it to all who enjoy these type of games. It works well, it looks fantastic with the Dave Gibbons cartoon cutscenes and the voice acting is absolutely spot on. If you want a game that makes you think in order to solve a problem, then you should give it a whirl too – just be patient and think smart. Such a great port of a great game.

Fling
Price: 59p
Genre: Puzzle game

Here’s one for the more casual gamer out there who wants a quick puzzle game to drive them mental but still be brilliantly addictive. Fling seems you, wait for it, flinging little furballs off the screen so you work it out that you only have 1 furball left. It sounds easy but it’s far more difficult that you imagine at times and will get you thinking! It’s a great little app, have several modes to keep you amused, all whilst being ridiculously adorable and fun at the same time. The impressive thing about it is that it stores thousands upon thousands of puzzles so that you’ll probably never get the same puzzle twice! It has stumped me plenty of times and it’s just a great little app. If it does drive you to the edge of desperation at times it does provides hints but handily pops up with the message ‘are you sure you want to cheat?’ – fantastic way to send me on a guilt trip and making sure I end up not cheating!

Canabalt
Price: £1.79
Genre: It’s a game… but… I dunno what genre?

Yeah, explaining the genre for this is a good start. Ignoring that though, Canabalt is brilliant. It is evil, and so frustrating, and it gets on your nerves, but it is fantastic. It’s basically an app port of a free browser based PC game and even though it’s not free it’s still well worth of the price. Your goal is to get the little guy who is running across falling buildings as far as possible, by tapping the screen to make him jump. The further he gets, the faster he runs, so from time to time you will need to slow him down by running into obstacles. It will drive you nuts as you start getting really far then mess it up by misjudging the timing of a jump but I love it nevertheless! also, recommended you play with headphones on as it has a wonderfully made soundtrack that gets you really into the game. Not sure what’s with the robots in the background though…

TheTrainLine
Price: Free
Genre: Train App

Look! an actual app! And it’s free!! Moving away from games on this format, the Trainline app is immensely useful if you find yourself on the move via trains at all. It’s able to check train times for you, save journeys, search journeys, search stations, tell you the nearest station based on your location, etc… basically, for a free app, it’s been an immensely useful tool to have in my pocket just to reassure me in strange, unknown stations. It’s probable more beneficial to iPhone users with a 3G connection rather than iPod Touch owners depending on wifi such as myself but I’ve still depended on it when I’ve had such wireless capabilities at certain stations. When you consider the official National Rail app comes at a hefty £4.99 I can’t see why you’d at least consider this if you need one for your journeys.

And finally, of course…

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition
Price: £2.39 until Dec 1st
Genre: Point and Click adventure game

Oh you thought I was going to get through this without talking about what is probably my all-time favourite game on the iPod? No chance! What can I say about this genius few hours of gaming? It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s so well written and it deserves it’s status as being a legendary game to those that have played it. Sure, it has a bit of a hefty price (buy now whilst it’s on sale!!) but my word is it worth it. You control Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™ in his battle to become the Caribbean's most famous pirate! I don’t think I can actually say anything bad about this game. It’s ridiculous, I know, but it even works well on the iPod/iPhone. Its only right I end this section by saying ‘You're no match for my brains, you poor fool.!’.

So this is my roundup of what I’ve really, really enjoyed or found useful on my iPod Touch so far. I’ve got quite a few more games and apps than this obviously, but these are definitely the stand out in what I’ve used the most over the past few weeks since purchasing the Touch. I’m surprised from a gaming point of view how well it works as I was definitely a critic of such a format being a gaming handheld but, look at how many games have gotten into this blog entry. I think that says enough to me.

And yes, that was the best I could think of for a blog title. I’m sorry. As my regards, please be nosy and look at what actually takes up the contents of my iPod Touch…

#48; Fail.

Whilst I’m struggling to fight through this C++ assignment I’m working on, I find myself easily distracted today by the Fail Blog. Now we all probably know what the site is about and the whole internet meme of ‘Fail’, but it still makes me laugh ridiculously at times in terms of what you can find on there.  just wanted to share some of my favourites.


Using Photoshop so much makes me appreciate the amount of fail in that even more so.

 

You heard the sign, men worldwide. Don’t get pregnant.

 

I’m sure the city of Denver is proud of its’ Brians.

I don’t even know where to begin with that.

22 years of life experience necessary too.

So that’s what they’re used for!!

Rubens would be proud.
And finally, an epic video that just screams fail but yet win at the same time…

A truly wild Space Odyssey. I like how by the time it gets to the end it’s just an array of high pitched noises.

You can find much more FAIL over at the Fail Blog if you’re as easily amused as I am, of course!

#47; Water Always Wins

Photograph – BBC

WARNING – POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE EPISODE AND CHRISTMAS PREVIEW

The beginning of the end. That’s what it was hailed as, the start of the trio of episodes that sees the exit of the great David Tennant from his role as ‘The Doctor’, and without an episode of Dr Who since Easter us Who-fans were just dying of anticipation for Waters of Mars. It had been massively hyped up by the BBC, Tennant has been flying about from show to show getting the word out and about 40 minutes before I write this up, it finished. 60 minutes of Dr Who. Was it worth the wait? To quote The Doctor himself… ‘ohh-ohhhhh yes!!’!

To put it simply, the episode was even better than I was expecting. It was written by Russell T. Davies, and his episodes for me tend to be over written in content and story at times so I had that on my mind. I will admit – towards the end I did wonder to myself how long it was going to be before RTD involved some over the top, unnecessary addition to the action unfolding in front of us. It kind of happened, but it stayed far less ridiculous than previous ‘RTD moments’ and it ruined nothing for me. Add that to the fact that there was no Dr Who for the majority of the year; this episode had a lot to live up to! As ever though it prevailed with flying colours and a sense of utter wanting from myself for the next episode to be screened at Christmas. I can’t wait just over another month!!!

So what made it such a great return to form after this unnecessary absence? The story, and characters involved, worked wonderfully well and they had their reason to be there. We were given their stories oh-so briefly through the Doctor and for the most part they all seemed vital to keeping the story and show watchable. Adelaide Brooke was a fine leader for her team, and almost companion, in the epsiode and the way her history was affected by what choices were made by the end of the episode – her own choices included as we saw. I found it quite smart how the whole history aspect of the story changed a few times depending on the Doctor and what he did, and of course, for the first time we saw a new side to Tennant’s Doctor. Plus, the return of the Ood that, previously a while ago, mentioned a song relating to the end of The Doctor… lots of little callbacks to references previously mentioned made it even better!

How weird was it to see Tennant turn his lovable cheeky-rascal character into a malicious, arrogant, power-mad creature? For me seeing the Doctor go from a down-trodden, defeated friend into an unlikeable fool was quite something. It was a side we’d never seen before – whereas the Doctor knew he had his power as a Timelord, the limits were always there and boundaries more than existed in his mind. By the end of the episode, these boundaries were more than gone, the power had gone to his head and it was bizarre to see his unlikeable quality of him that, for me at least, I did not expect to see. Despite that, it was pretty wonderful to see how easy it was for Tennant to flick the switch and decide to take everything into his own hands, and give a fresh angle for the Doctor before his time is up.

So that leaves us waiting with much exasperation for Christmas. The preview showed so much – the return of Donna Noble, the legend that Donna’s grandfather Wilf (cheers James!), scenes of mayhem and chaos, the Doctor continuing his new line of power and, of course, the return of The Master.  Yes, we knew it was happening, but my god was it good to see. The mention of the four knocks, the sinister laugh, and John Simm in tow to take this Doctor’s era out with a bang…

Christmas can’t come quick enough…

#46; Why The Office is better away from the UK

Ricky Gervais is a bit of a marmite type of guy for me. See, I love his stand-up shows and he is undoubtedly a very funny bloke whether you like him or not, whether his arrogant humour is your thing or not I mean. He of course grew into the world of super stardom via writing his huge, huge hit TV ‘mockumentary’ The Office. In case you’ve never seen it, it followed the every day lives of a series of paper company workers in Slough, England and just basically followed around the workers and most prominently boss David Brent, played by Gervais. It’s a good show, don’t get me wrong, but the cringe worthy nature of Brent (despite that being the entire point of him) makes it a tad unwatchable at times because he does drive me up the wall. A few years ago, a good time after The Office was super popular in the UK, it was announced that The Office was making it’s way over to the American side of the pond. Initially, I met this with utter discontent because the humour in the show is very, very British. However, it seems that 6 seasons into the show, it for me is the utter highlight of the two by a stupid distance.

                      
David Brent                                                     Michael Scott

For starters, I am a huge, huge fan of Steve Carell. Whether it be his legendary performance as Brick in Anchorman, Evan in Bruce/Evan Almighty or the depressed Frank in Little Miss Sunshine, he has starred in many films where he has made the film for me. Once again, he did the job with the transition from British humour to American humour with The Office. Much like Gervais, Carell finds himself in the role of boss Michael Scott, who simply put just wants to be a nice guy! The first season of the US Office sees it basically copying everything that had been done in the original, and it was good don’t get me wrong. Michael had his loyal (to a point) kiss-ass sidekick Dwight, his ever-admiring Jim being the witty output of his office and a whole host of characters that were included. The thing is, if you saw both the original and the US Office, you could tell it wasn’t working as well in an American context. That’s why, from Season 2, the show absolutely went into overdrive into how well written, well acted and well received it became. To put it bluntly, it became bloody brilliant.

The thing is with the US Office is that it has been on our screens a lot longer now than the original was. Gervais’ creation only lasted 2 series, and roughly 12 episodes as well as few Christmas specials along the way, whereas the US Office sees it currently running through it’s sixth season in the US and well passed the 100 barrier. The characters have grown and grown, they have left and they have come and the series has expanded way beyond what was seen in that first season of the US Office. Because it has been on longer, you do know the characters a lot, lot better. You gain a greater amount of understanding between the relationship of Pam and Jim, that Dwight has his innocent moments in a sea of utter Dwight moments (it’ll make sense if you see it), that the various smaller characters like the lovable Kevin and his habits, Angela and her stern attitude to absolutely everything (except cats). and so much more. Each character has their own personality, their own story to tell in the office, their own part of the show, and it works so beautifully well because as you keep on watching you really get to know everyone as part of the office. For me the original UK version had a few characters that were worth watching, whilst the majority of the office didn’t really add much to the show.

The humour too is much more suited to my tastes. The biggest difference to the two is the fact that the UK original includes a lot of swearing as is the case with normal British banter in modern conversation, whereas any acts of swearing come at very minor opportunities or are bleeped out from the US equivalent. Furthermore, the humour as I’ve previously stated is completely different in my opinion for reasons already stated – the writing in the UK original very much seems to be based on the antics of David Brent and his judging of his office, his employees and his decisions with a back story of Tim and Dawn and the general British banter humour mixed in with Brent constantly trying to prove his comedy value, whereas the US Office is much more orientated towards the stories of the office in general with all it’s characters running around the main characters of Jim, Pam, Dwight, and of course Michael in charge, not to mention how Steve Carell makes Michael Scott a much more likeable, lovable boss despite his many flaws including his greed at times and ignorance, yet comes across as more innocent, naive and just wanting to enjoy what he does with who he considers his friends. That, for me, makes the offices of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton (US) just so much more enjoyable and warmer to feel involved in than the colder environment that is the Slough offices of Wernham Hogg (UK).

So that’s why I prefer the American version to the original. They say a lot of times that remakes of a classic TV show/film should never be done, as they inevitably end up being an embarrassment to the original; even more so most of the time when it jumps over the Atlantic I find! This however proves that, every once in a while, it’s worth going for if the outcome is as good as it became here. The show is probably my favourite comedy TV sitcom considering – it’s without a doubt up there with Scrubs and Arrested Development in terms of how fantastically done it all is.

How do you feel if you have watched both the original UK and new US series’? Are you sticking to your guns with Gervais’ creation, or more than happy to embrace our American cousins into The Office?

#45; The 2009 Formula 1 TOATA Awards

Hello and welcome to the first ever Formula 1 Thoughts of a Trying Atheist Awards, a catchy named ceremony where the awards themselves are named just as self indulgently as whoever Oscar is and his awards he named, and more importantly, some alternative awards inspired by Jake Humphrey’s latest blog entry within the past year of Formula 1 and certain areas that deserve to be credited, shamed, and laughed at within the sport. It’s been quite a year for Formula 1, with moments such as Mr Fisichella unsure where to pit, Ferrari getting in a strop and being upset at just about everything, and allsorts of almost-wacky-racers inspired efforts from the sport. Nevertheless, let’s jump straight into the awards!

Biggest F1 Fail Moment of the Year 2009
Winner: Michael Schumacher realising that he ain’t the man he used to be
Runner up: Luca Badoer being even worse than that

Whilst we all felt for Felipe Massa’s horrifying incident at Hungary earlier this year, the news that soon occurred not long after with Schumi divided much opinion. Whilst many over at Sidepodcast were angry at upset that ‘he’ was returning, others felt joy at this 7 time world champion making his return to the sport. However, I will admit that after the euphoria from the media and sudden loving for the man seemed to appear when it was announced he was returning, I produced many a laugh when Ferrari admitted that… well, he ain’t returning. FAIL. Although I approve of him not returning. But still. FAIL for Ferrari. Whoopsy!

This leads me into my runner up for this award, which goes to Luca Badoer who seriously, seriously defined the term fail during his time as an f1 driver for Ferrari. I mean… wow. Almost impressive!

‘My Ears are Burning’ Award 2009
Winner: James Allen’s… thing after Malaysian GP
Runner up: Anything spoken by Jonathon Legard, throughout 2009

After putting up with the noise that is Legard over 2009 on BBC F1, I began thinking… maybe I do kind of miss that scallywag James Allen? However, I soon  remembered this utter masterpiece from Allen created after the Malaysian GP retelling the weekend’s events in a narrative only Alan Partridge would be proud of. It’s a bit of a shame because I kind of like James Allen, mostly because of Legard’s monotone… monotoneness. Nevertheless, enjoy the winner of the ‘My Ears are Burning’ Award 2009:

CLICK ME TO WATCH THE VIDEO IF YOU DARE.

Sorry about the lack of embedding. It just would not let me, and just didn’t work. I can only assume the video is so rubbish that even HTML hates it. Concerning the video though, I can’t begin to imagine which hand gestures speak volumes with that. Oh and the runner up? Well the title speaks for itself really.

Ridiculous Bernie Ecclestone Moment of the Year 2009
Winner: ‘Hitler would have got things done’
Runner up: His ongoing affair with secret lover Simon Gillett

We all know how outspoken Bernie Ecclestone is. His shortcoming in height are easily made up with his rather ridiculous solutions to sorting things out – I take you back to the F1 Olympics idea with the medals instead of points debacle. However, Mr Ecclestone really pulled it out of the bag this year with the simply outrageous comments he made to The Times:

“In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done.

“In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it . . . so either way he wasn’t a dictator.”

Yeah. Kudos to you Bernie, for making the most remarkably stupid, non related Formula 1 conversation when talking to The Times about Formula 1. I for one can’t wait to see you compare the British Grand Prix to the Falklands, or perhaps talk about Apartheid in south Africa being nothing when you lose money in Formula 1. He really did go the whole pitch to get a ridiculous outspoken comment out there and what a ridiculous comment it was.

The runner up for this award once again goes to Bernie, of course, for this stunning revelation of deadlines over the course of 2009. Donington and Simon Gillett were supposed to pay up for the British GP, yet all they created was a big hole in the middle of the track, the loss of an iconic landmark over the track and an embarrassing year for the future of the British GP. And yet, deadlines were being thrown out left right and centre regarding the payments! It was obvious that Gillett wasn’t going to get it done, and Bernie continued to play with his strings until it finally ended in November 2009. Sadly, not long after Donington lost the British GP, the man who rebuilt Tom Wheatcroft and owned it for so many years passed away just as the future of the track he loved went with his memory. Sad times.

F1 Building of the Year 2009
Winner: Abu Dhabi Hotel which apparently had a race track under it
Runner up: The Green Building of Valencia

Fair play to the organisers at Abu Dhabi. They promised a huge event to welcome F1 into Yas Marina and they certainly delivered with a day-night event with a huge, modern world of buildings set in an area which will be built up over time, with an accompanying Ferrari World and of course, this Abu Dhabi Hotel which was a massive highlight without a doubt. It was magnificent, it was multicoloured, it was exciting and it brought Formula 1 buildings to a whole new level. Also, it had a f1 race under it but that was forgettable. nevertheless, let’s take a moment to look at the well deserved winner of the F1 Building of the Year 2009:

            Moody Blue…                                                                Crazy Red….

 

 

 

 

The runner up for this unbelievably prestigious award is of course the Green Building of Valencia, which is quite simply the only really distinguishable feature of he track asides from the greay walls, grey bridges, grey grey, and docks. It stands out in a world of dull and even though I’m sure Valencia is a lovely place to visit, the Green Building of Valencia is a true highlight of the Formula 1 calendar as I’m sure everyone will agree. The following photo is courtesy of Lou:

A truly remarkable building. As I’m sure every single fan will agree, this award was a big one for Formula 1. So well done to the new giant colour hotel for doing such a great job, and I hope it does such a great job next year as well at being a hotel!

‘How can a comment make me laugh so much?’ of The Year 2009
Winner: Steven Roy on Sidepodcast explaining Star Wars

Now I know what you are thinking - ‘This has nothing to do with Formula 1’ – true enough, even though it was made over at Sidepodcast but there is no way I could make awards and not give credit to this genius comment. It was made on the fateful day of 10th April 2009, when Lou (who is probably going to hate me for this!) mentioned that she wasn’t sure who Yoda was and that she had never seen Star Wars but had seen Cool Runnings. This led to Steven Roy making this incredible comment:

It was just the same except Star Wars was in space and instead of going down a hill they had to go and take on Darth Vader and the bad guys in a massive space war.

It is just genius and everyone deserves to know about it. I can’t remember laughing so had at such a ridiculous comparison and yet somehow it kind of makes sense, so congratulations to Steven Roy for winning this non-F1 related award in an F1 awards ceremony!

Pit Stop of the Year Award 2009
Winner: Jaime Alguersauri’s ‘Pitstop’ in Abu Dhabi GP
Runner Up: Heikki and Kimi’s Fiery Duel, Brazilian GP

There is simply no way I was going to let Tim, also known as Jaime Alguersauri to those who have no idea what I mean by saying Tim, get away without having a bit of fun at that silly pitstop he made at the ‘race’ in Abu Dhabi. Basically, the man was having gearbox troubles in the race and needed to come in to pit. So, he came strolling down the pitlane as you do to stop… only to stop at Sebastien Vettel’s pitbox… who was in second place at the time and due to stop at any second. As Tim came to stop, he suddenly realised as did the crew who pulled out some marvellous reflexes such as the front jack man who launched himself out of the way motioning for Tim to get out of the way. Basically, he came in, strolled through Vettel’s Red Bull pit box ready to stop, and went straight back out again…

…only to have his gearbox die out on the track. All in all, a pretty successful few laps for Tim and a definite winner of this award. It’s been quite a year for him since the master class that was Sebastien Bourdais was (un)fortunately sacked only to be replaced with this young man who is obviously unsure, just as the rest of us, what the differences between the Toro Rosso and Red Bull liveries are!

The runner up here is a joint effort to two finnish drivers who deserve much credit for their hard work to cause utter mayhem during a first lap of the Brazilian GP that had more action than an Action Man Convention in the middle of shooting an action movie. The mayhemic start to the Brazilian GP saw both Kovaleinen and Raikonnen both come in for repairs and the like. The thing is, what with it being Massa’s first time back at a racetrack since his accident, Heikki thought it would be pretty damn sweet to impersonate his Benny Hill-esque get away from his pitstop by pulling off the fuel hose and dragging it down the pitlane with his car. Unfortunately, this time he had Raikonnen right behind him causing the fuel pouring out to ignite in a fireball of mayhem around Kimi’s car who simply drove through it and carried on, being the Iceman he is. Whilst of course completely serious, it was also completely insane and one hell of a start to arguably the the best grand prix of the season. So well done to Heikki I suppose for coming second, which is something that isn’t usually said unless the sentence involved Lewis Hamilton. Sorry Amy.

One quick final special mention to Giancarlo Fisichella who began his season in Australia  by driving straight past his mechanics for a pitstop and then driving into them when realising. Who’d have thunk that could have lead to a Ferrari drive!

And now, sadly onto our final award for 2009, the most prestigious award of the entire ceremony…

Best Formula 1 Scandal of The Year 2009
Winner: The Downfall of Lord Flavio and his Sidekick Pat
Runner Up: Breakaway Bonanza!!

So of course it would not be a Formula 1 year without a good ol’ scandal in the background to get on our nerves and make us hate the sport that we love. Luckily, in 2009, there must have been 6 or 7 of them so it’s been a treat for us to have all this politics thrown at us fans!! Yes we’ve had Lewis Hamilton having a bit of a laugh with the stewards, and of course we had that wonderful saga with the double diffusers being ‘the reason for Brawn GP’s success’. Brilliant!! However, it is  kind of my honour though to award this to Nelson Piquet Jr, Pat Symonds, and Flavio Briatore for their stupidity in thinking they could get away with this yet, at the same time, utter genius is ridding that horrible man Flavio from Formula 1.  Yes, they got away with it for a while but those crazy kooky Scooby Doo kids at the FIA sure did find out about it sooner or later once Nelson broke away from the grip of Flav. So many questions arose from this saga – why didn’t Nelson just say no and report them? How much did Fernando Alonso know about this? Who uploaded that picture of Flavio showering onto drop.io? It was truely a worrying time for Formula 1 and the safety aspect but we all fought together to get through it, Flav got banned for life, Pat got banned for 5 years and Nelson got shunned by the Formula 1 teams for being a bit of a cheat. So the award goes out to these three idiots creating this saga! Congratulations!

The runners up here are the entire FOTA organization having a bit of a hissy fit about the idea of a two tier championship, which admittedly was a shocking idea as ever from Max, and threatening to breakaway from Formula 1. Let’s be honest – it was NEVER going to happen was it? It was seriously overblown by the media and by FOTA and it was a bit amusing to see them get their knickers in a twist until the FIA gave up and sorted it out with them. Well it worked I suppose!

So that’s it folks! I hope you’ve enjoyed these awards and I hope to see you next year for the return of the Formula 1 Thoughts of a Trying Atheist Awards 2010! God help us if it was anything as mental as the past year was!

#44; Rubens’ final charge…?

Well, it finally happened. The dream team has been broken up! Today saw the long-time expected announcement of Rubens Barrichello’s move from Brawn GP to Frank Williams’ long running Williams F1 Racing team for 2010 Formula 1 Season. Now, I am a huge Rubens Barrichello fan as you times I refuse all probably know by now, and with these rumours over the past few months have seen many denials of truth behind them from myself but, with it finally confirmed  and out in the open, let me explain to you why for me I’m finally at rest with his move to Williams.

Being at Brawn was a perfect predicament for a fan like myself of Rubens. He had a hell of a team behind him that had suffered the hard times of Honda and grown stronger from their troubles, he had a wonderful friend as a teammate in Jenson Button, he had a boss in Ross Brawn who is a Formula 1 mastermind and, possibly most importantly for Rubens, he had a car that could win and perform like others on the grid couldn’t. Surely you can understand why moving away from Brawn to me would be a downgrade, and yes, I will admit I still do consider it a downgrade when I think of the Cosworth engine being used but I’m starting to look forward to new times at Williams.

This year has been a truly awesome year to be a fan of the man. He got his first win and pole in several years since his days at Ferrari, not to mention the fact he recovered a seat even I considered lost at times with Bruno Senna arrival into Formula 1 which eventually didn’t happen until the recent Campos announcement, and even though he’s had his critics at times with media comments or whatnot, Rubens can be immensely proud of everything he has achieved at both Honda and at Brawn over their 4 year career partnership. It is a shame that he’ll be moving away from Brackley next year.

From Brackley though he goes to Oxfordshire and to Sir Frank Williams’ world of Williams. I will admit that I have far less support for Williams in comparison to what I knew and loved about Brawn, but what I do know and respect is that Williams are a team with incredible history behind them and are run wonderfully well as an independent team. It makes me smile that Rubens will be moving from independent to independent team which is really nice, and Rubens will no doubt be considered the number one driver at the team with rookie Nico Hulkenburg getting the opportunity to look up to Rubens’ experience as an F1 driver. It’ll be strange supporting a Williams as I haven’t been behind them since the days of Damon Hill in that gorgeous Rothmans Williams to be honest… but as I’ve previously stated, now I am looking forward to it.

So bring on 2010 after this on season and another year of Formula 1. What is most important no matter what team is that Rubens will still be on the Formula 1 grid going into his 300th race next season, an achievement that no other driver has beaten, and that this could be his final swansong. It’s absolutely worth thanking everyone at Brawn GP and those who departed over the winter from the Honda fallout for all their efforts to be such an awesome team behind Rubens at Brackley during his time there, and especially for making 2009 such a special year for Rubens Barrichello. It’s been such a wild, wonderful and emotional year to be a fan and, despite missing out on the championship, I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anything less.

So… what will happen next in the long and winding road that is Rubens’ career? Only time will tell – let’s just hope the success continues!