James Chamberlin

Over the last week or two, we would get just a little bit of snow. It was as though there was a single cloud with snow and it would dump what it had. It was never enough to accumulate and it still isn’t much. Most of it melts once it hits the warmer ground. Today, we got some more and I snapped a photo because it’s the best-looking snowfall so far. Before, you barely saw the flakes – there were so few of them.

It won’t be long before we’re inundated with the white stuff.

Well, I just got back from voting. I’ve been waiting quite a while for this day to come and the last few days sort of flew by for me. In the previous two elections, our local polling place has been at a car dealership. So when you vote, you can drool over the nice cars. They moved to a new location this past year, however, so the new polling location was in the lobby of a new Best Western hotel.

I have to admit that they didn’t do a good job in selecting the location because the small room is VERY small. No more than 15 people can fit in it to be honest. South Beloit is admittedly a small town, but come 5 or 6pm, there’s going to be a huge line of people, likely extending outside. I don’t think the election officials made a wise choice with their selection of the hotel, or at least the particular room.

I’m so tired…

I was very close to buying Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 today after seeing a very nice introduction/tutorial video. But due to the inclusion of SecuROM, I’ve decided not to buy it.

As I mentioned recently, Spore had that digital rights management in it and is one of the reasons I declined buying it. Spore doesn’t look nearly as good as RA3 to me. I’ve not bought a new PC game in a very, very long time and as long as DRM is included, it’ll be a pretty long time before I buy another game. That’s kind of sad that good games aren’t being ruined by DRM.

For me, I want to be able to install a game as many times as I want. I want to be able to come back in 10 years and still be able to play the game, not be locked out because I’ve already installed it X number of times and therefore I must be a thief. I’m tired of all this right now. I would have snatched up Red Alert 3 in a heartbeat if I learned SecuROM wasn’t going to be included.

I’ve spent all of my free time for the last two weeks working on another strategy guide for IGN and had more problems with my Xbox 360. I don’t play many video games anymore, just the ones I do for IGN. However, I’ve noticed the frequency of the dirty disc errors is increasing. It makes for a very frustrating gaming experience. It looks like I’m going to have to buy a new system sooner or later. My model seems to be one of those with a defective laser to read the DVD. At least the price of the new systems has dropped since I bought mine. I’m going to put off the new purchase as long as I can though.

In the last five years, I think I’ve only gotten sick twice, both times coming since the time I joined the local gym.  I’m certain it has to do with the fact that no one seems to wipe their nasty germs off the equipment.

Well, last week, I came down with something which wasn’t too bad.  I’d say it was the typical cold, so I slept in a lot and took a lot of vitamin C to combat the cold.  I’m almost over it.  I don’t have breathing issues anymore, but I’ve noticed a little phlegm is still in my body.  I hate caughing that up, but I guess I’d rather get rid of it than keep it in me.

I sent Ogre a little care package today.  It might help him get over his seasonal blues.

After seeing a story about Spore’s DRM on Digg, I dropped by Amazon to see how bad the reviews were and I was shocked. Very few people actually write reviews there for video games, but there have already been 667 reviews (as of this posting), and almost every reviewer has given the game a 1-star rating.

The DRM Electronic Arts deployed on the title is controversial because you need to activate it over the internet and there is a limit to the number of times it can be activated. If you format your HDD or something, you’ll need to re-install and re-activate it. If you activate it more than 3 times, you need to call EA and ask them for additional activation options and they apparently request proof of purchase (receipt) and reasons for why you used up your three activations.

No DRM system is perfect, but this sort of DRM is silly; it’s like putting down $50 to rent a game. It’s a good thing this is a problem with current games and not old ones; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve installed Age of Empires or RollerCoaster Tycoon over the years.

I wish companies would just go back to requiring CD-keys and be done with it. It worked just fine for me as a user and didn’t restrict me to the number of times I install the game.

Companies usually complain that piracy is the main reason PC game sales are low every year. It’s true that games are commonly pirated, but other reasons include DRM and frankly a lack of innovation in gameplay. It’s all about who can make the best graphics… what happened to addictive gameplay?!

I was initially interested in getting Spore, but at this point, I have no reason to check out the game. $50 is too much to simply rent a game. Poor options in gameplay and DRM are the two reasons I’ve almost abandoned gaming altogether.

Update: After some additional searching, it seems some sites are censoring reviews for this game. Gamespot and ebgames are censoring (deleting) anti-DRM reviews. Ha! EA’s reach is far.

Politics aren’t discussed around here often, but I thought this was a pretty nice cartoon:

Wow, I haven’t blogged here since the end of June. I certainly didn’t intend to go that long without updating. I guess there isn’t a whole lot to say… other than the garden is doing pretty well. The tomatoes are coming off the vines by the gallon bucket now, which is always fun.

Garden-fresh tomatoes are one of my favorite things to eat. The garbage sold in the stores is overpriced, have no taste, and usually have some sort of light wax on them.

There’s no comparing the two on taste, in particular. Tomatoes sold in the stores are picked prematurely and are artificially turned red by exposing them to a gas. Although the ‘maters turn red, the tomatoes aren’t really ready to be eaten because there hasn’t been enough time for proper cellular maturation. Garden-fresh is the only way to go in my book.

There are really only two movies out this summer that have garnered any attention by me and they are Wall-E and The Dark Knight. Wall-E looks kind of cute, but I haven’t payed a whole lot of attention to the plot info. It’s something I shy away from when it comes to animated movies for some reason. It’s as though I think since it’s a big-budget animation flick, then it must be good. It’s strange, I admit. Wall-E is getting glowing reviews by just about everyone. It’s currently #6 on IMDB, which is incredible. I know it’ll drop some spots soon, but still, it’s an impressive film judging by the reviews.

The Dark Knight, on the other hand, isn’t even out yet, and it’s getting the attention of every film critic in the world. And it’s all because of Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker. When I first saw a picture of him as the joker, it didn’t make much of an impression, to be honest, but now that I’ve seen official trailers and other sneak previews, I’m really interested in seeing this film. There’s just something about it that makes me smile. I haven’t seen great acting in a long, long time.