brianjacobsendotnet

Like a lot of people I was reading and waiting for spore for some time. The concept sounded awesome. If someone asked me what the game was the short answer is The Sims for Monsters. You start out as a small single cell type creature in the water and from there you have to collect parts to begin your evolution in to a land creature. Once you hit land you start becoming civilized and work towards the end goal of reaching space so you can explore other planets.

*note - I am playing this on the Mac, I don’t know how different if it all it is on the pc.

The graphics are good. I am only on the second level but like what I have seen so far. The first cell stage is beautiful. Parts of it remind me of Yoshi’s Island. You will start seeing bigger creatures underneath yours and they have this really cool hand drawn look to them. I think they look that way because they are in the water and have that water motion over them.

The gameplay is a lot of fun. Especially when you get on land. If you like simulation games you will enjoy the gameplay. Its simple to figure out and you can pick up and play for 5 mins or a few hours.

The DRM - To me this is a non issue. Apparently you only have three installs of the game before you have to call EA and get your key code reset so you can install it again. I don’t ever see this being an issue for me ever. You also have to activate the product over the internet immediately in order to play. Again a non issue for me. It took all of 10 seconds to do that and in this day and age its nothing really. You can choose to connect to the internet while you play and get new creatures from other players randomly or never connect to the internet. The only time you must connect is to register the game initially. Whats great about that is you dont have to keep the dvd in your machine to play. The internet registration allows that.

The only reason I bring up the DRM issue is because geeks everywhere have their panties in a twist because of this. Just search spore reviews on google or better yet go to amazon and watch the drama unfold there. You will see 1000’s of 1 star reviews from people who havent play the game. The are only there bitching about the DRM. I am sure most of them downloaded the hacked version that was out days before the official version. (I bought mine and I bought the creature creator.)

I rated the game a 4 of 5 at amazon. Its a great game that has a lot of new innovative features to it. Knowing how The Sims has a million expansion packs for it I am sure there will be spore expansions right around the corner. My only issue with the game is that because its supposed to be an evolution type game I think that if you add 6 legs to your character something should improve (faster, stronger) but that isnt the case. Adding an extra set of legs to your creature changes nothing. Its just for looks.

Speaking of evolution, I cant wait for the conservatives to get upset about it and not let their kids play because of what the game might be teaching.

This summer is dawned on me that I really needed a new computer. My pc was over 8 years old and my iBook was 7 years old. I was out of HD space on the pc and it was just getting really laggy. I take very good care of my computers. I keep them “clean” constantly. It was a fact that if I was getting a new PC i would have to get Vista. I was not happy with my previous encounter with Vista and still hadnt heard anything good about it. I started looking at the new iMacs and compared them price wise with a pc. They were nearly the same price for similar systems. I decided I was going to “make the switch” (again) to a mac and just scrap the pc.

While browsing the apple website I came across the refurb section. There were unbelievable deals on refurbed iMacs. I could get a refurbed system with better specs cheaper than a new mac with lower specs using my college discount. How good could it be though? I searched everywhere on the internet to get reviews. I found some video reviews on youtube and general message board and blog reviews elsewhere. All of them said the same thing - go refurb, you wont regret it.

So i ordered a 2.4 ghz 20″ imac w/1 gig of ram including an upgraded video card and 320gb hd shipped for 1049.00. Original price was 1499.00. I also ordered applecare w/my student discount for 119.00 and received a free canon pixma all in 1 printer. The printer was free after rebate and I received my rebate check within 6 days.

The iMac arrived 2 days later (free shipping) I opened it immediately and inspected everything. Not a scratch on it. Plugged it in turned it on and it ran like a champ. Went through all the normal setup stuff like it had never seen daylight. The only difference was it didnt come in the white retail box. It came in a plain brown box. Whatever - I dont need a white retail box.

Would I recommend it or do it again? Hell yes! I saved a lot of money and got an awesome machine.

After reading that you voted to uphold Bushs veto on a bill holding funding for the 2009 special olympics, which take place in Idaho, I would really like to know, what are you thinking? Do you have any clue how big this event is? Its a 10 day event that will have athletes from over 40 countries plus their families coming to Idaho. Because this is such a big event there will also be press from around the globe plus many volunteers on hand to keep things organized. Considering how big this event is security will also be a big to do. Do you realize that cutting funding for this event could lead to things like decreased security and that could lead to a terrorist attack?! Bill Sali do you support terrorism or are you just an idiot? I am hoping for the later.

The special olympics is huge and will be bringing a lot of money and attention to Idaho. I dont think you can spare any expense on this event.

I hate the medical and insurance industry with a passion. I have been fucked by them on numerous occasions. The setup in this country is wrong grrr anyways hey, download the movie here

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/1816/1/

I am looking at my sprint bill and it now tells me when my contract/subscriber agreement is up. I added a phone to my account and share minutes with it. I noticed that the contract on my phone is up in september of this year and the contract on the other phone is up in may of next year. I am sick of sprint and want to get rid of their service ASAP. Why do I have two different dates? When I added that second phone they told me I had to extend the contract on my main phone. These people are idiots. They messed up my bill for 6 months straight and when I called them on it they wouldnt fix it claiming it was my fault for not reviewing my bill. I am sorry that your e-statements that I get are not clear and i have to dig through them to see whats up. URGH! FUCK SPRINT!

You can find it here here but I will just copy & paste it for you.

Call me a bitch, call me a whore, call me whatever you want. I dont know you, so obviously someone hates me I dont know. That must mean Im pretty damn good. Right? It seems like you took ALOT of time and effort to get my picture, write a whole novel about me, when really, you dont know one thing about me, or about that night.
So honestly, haha I can laugh at this because obviously you dont have a life. You have enough time to search, write, and post something about someone you dont know. Its amazing.
I hope you have grown up in these last 2 months. Even though you already are 25, you act younger then I am. Thats sad, and pathetic. Grow up.

-The Bitch/Slut/Whore/Easy Girl/Sperm Dumpster with a Haggered Ass Friend

What I find great about this is you try to act like you are on top in all this (and I don’t mean on top of another dude) and really you aren’t. I must have gotten under your skin for you to reply and try and defend yourself. I have no life? What a wonderful comeback. Its called myspace - your pictures and your info was there. Were the links in the rant just not apparent? Anyone anywhere can write anything about anyone or any event in the blog-o-sphere. Its an opinion based on the facts that i have. I don’t have to know you in any manner to write about you or what happened that night.

The previous post took less than 5 minutes to type and I enjoyed every minute of it. Picking apart every bit of what you posted in your myspace blog was great fun. I am honestly not sure how you graduated high school unless it was one of the alternative schools that teaches you how to run a cash register. Please learn the proper usage of a comma. I don’t expect you to be right all of the time about spelling, punctuation and proper use of the English language but can we at least go for 1/2 the time?

Grow up? Another great comeback. Where do you get all of these from? You say I am childish for writing about you yet you have done the same. You try to write about me yet you don’t know much. Honestly I’m a little surprised you didn’t resort to, “UR GAY!”

I await your reply

Ok, so before you say you talked a lot of shit on the team I will say yeah I did. I do want to say that was a really good game, probably one of the best/most exciting i have seen,and that is coming from someone who could care less.  I’m still not a bronco fan by any means but congrats to the team.

I honestly think I am the only one in this entire damn city that could care less about the broncos. Yeah, great, they made it to a BIG bowl game, finally. I understand the excitement behind it all. I am just tired of hearing about it. I have a lot of friends and family and whatever that care and thats fine. I dont think less of them or any other stupid shit like that. I am just tired of hearing about the Broncos and seeing blue and orange everywhere. I am a longtime Boise resident and I remember when no one gave a shit about this team. Hell, they couldnt give away tickets. They lost and that was that. Blah. The only game that every mattered was the U of I game. I think the team will get shitty again and people wont care. I could be wrong about that but this whole surge of “bronco pride” is just annoying. I think a lot of the fans here are fairweather fans anyways.

Maybe I am just fed up with the school. I hated the time i spent there. gaaah

as against the war as I am, i think this is great. Fred Phelps and his followers are idiots.

http://www.fox12news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5681848

There are tons of stories about this from local news organizations so check that link for more background info.

I find this a bit ridiculous. 80% of the residents there already own a gun let alone multiple guns. Do they really need to get an ordinance so more people own guns? On local NPR news this morning they said the most violent crime that has happened there recently was 2 years ago and it was a fist fight. Well does this mean the fist fight will now be a gun fight being that everyone is (almost) required to own a handgun? Fucking rednecks! Maybe these people are just looking for more excuses to own guns. “but dear, its the law! and I am a god fearin law abidin man and the law says that we have more guns in the house. We dont know when the King of England could come bustin through our door to take back our freedom. ALL KAY DUH could come through Greenleaf, ID anytime. I heard we are on their radar”

I am sure this is what the government wants, fear is what has driven bush in the past however way too long he has been president. Every speech and statement he makes is based on fear.