I've split this into sections for easy reading. It's basically a long story on why I left, what I'm doing now, my interest in Sonic and other stuff. It's quite long! Sorry about that!

Also please don't be too harsh with the comments. I've tried to tone down the content as much as I can,(Especially with the part about the community), but this is how I feel. So I'm expressing it.

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Hahahaa! Well if you remember about...hmm...*counting backwards from December*.....8 months ago, I left dA. Now why am I here now? No I'm not returning, lemme explain.

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WHY DID I LEAVE?

I was done with dA since...the time I decided to take down all my deviations and journals. And I still think I made the right decision.

No one was recognising me, I barely got comments on non-related Sonic artwork. I was under the impression that all my watchers and people who visit are only interested in Sonic artwork and no other types of art work. That wasn't cool. So I decided to leave.

The community I was involved in was frankly shit. Some people were absolutely nice and delightful. Some were just...Well here's some words: fake, spoilt, deceitful, liars, cheats...I could go on and on.

Since leaving in May, I left my MSN account and made a new one, added all my "real-life" friends on it, added two people from dA, and that's it. Recently I deleted the extra two people from my contact list. Now I'm left with all my friends who I know and meet.

Anyways, let's not dwell on the negative. The real question which I haven't answered yet is why am I here now?

Well I'm here to tell you guys about what I've been doing through out the time I left and I'm inviting you to check out what I've been up to. Also I wanted to express my opinions on Sonic.

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WHAT AM I DOING NOW?

Basically before I left I submitted a deviation with music.

[Not a lot of people commented on this, probably expecting Sonic or shit like that...]

So far I've continued and I'm hosting music on Reverbnation.com . Mainly rock music. Nothin' else at the moment.

It's a neat site. Similar to dA only without pictures and with music. At last check I'm ranked 1519 out of 37090 rock artists on the website. I think that's quite good!

The link is here to my profile: [link]

I also got a blog (which I've just started). The link is here: [link]

You can keep up to date with what I am actually doing!

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WHAT'S MY OPINION OF SONIC NOW?

Now here's a good rant about Sonic; and stuff. I know you'll probably hate me for this. But here goes...

I haven't got any new Sonic games since I left dA. I haven't got Unleashed, Riders 2, Mario/Sonic, Sonic Rivals 2, or anything like that.

Now I played Unleashed. I played the demo. I liked what I played. Although it seemed a bit too easy (it was the first day time level). All you do is collect a few rings, press the boost button, and Sonic does everything for you. It's fast, it's somewhat fun. I would have purchased it, if it wasn't for the many complaints of the Were-Hog levels and stuff like that.

Basically, I've given up on Sonic. Sonic sucks nowadays. I've grown out of that phase. Now I don't really have a phase (unless you count rock music a phase).

Sega tried since 2004 to make another Sonic Adventure which is different from the original two games. I don't think Sega will ever match up the expectations of generic gamers unless they give us a classic 2D game suitable for the next-gen consoles. There always seems to be someone at Sega making absolutely shit decisions like...a were-hog....a hedgehog with guns....a telekinetic hedgehog....uh.yeah..They always try to put some gimmick into the game to make it last longer. Sega should just make a proper Sonic game like Sonic Adventure 2, or the original genesis ones!!!

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MY ARTWORK

So what happened to all my art!? Well I didn't delete them. I put them into storage on dA.

Do I have any more art? No. I don't. Well I do actually. But none Sonic related. And I don't have a whole load. So there's no point to add them on dA.

I've mainly kept a look out on a few deviants' pages/galleries while I was away from dA. They keep improving and improving on and on. Good for you guys! Keep it up!

Now I'm checkin' a lot of dA pages while I'm on here now, I've noticed quite a few people who have left dA...=S But I guess they've moved on; much like how I did.

My art won't come back here. I'm done with art. I'm taking a GCSE course in Graphic Design. So all the skills in Photoshop are really helping me now. The bad thing is Adobe Illustrator. Man that program suckkkksss!!!! >.<

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Conclusion

So where does that leave me now. Well it leaves me to say goodbye again.

I was considering returning to dA. But I've decided it's best not to. It'll just be a repeat of what happened during my time here before. I don't want that.

Please check out my blog and Reverbnation accounts. I'll leave them at the end again. The blog is the best place to see what I'm doing since I update it almost everyday.

Thanks for reading (if you did read it that is!)

Manoj V. XXXXX

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BLOG: [link]
MUSIC: [link]