Yet another set of high quality scrapbooking textures! You may use these for scrapbooking (or other personal things, like a website). The 10 textures are all 256×256, high quality JPG files. If you want smaller textures, you can contact me.
I released the textures under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
I have been uploading photos (almost) every day to my dA (DeviantArt). I was inactive for about two years. We all know why. But I’m enjoying the activity again. I have made thousands of photos while in California. So you can imagine how many nice pictures I have that I want to share and publish on my portfolio/blog. I will continue to upload photos to my dA. Some of my latest can be seen here:
I’ve also started using Apophysis today. I am fairly tired, so I haven’t really taken the time to read and learn through tutorials and such. I just started playing around with the program and this was one of the things I created:
So I recently visited London/Chertsey to play Spore. I had already played with the creature editor on E3 in 2006 and on the Games Convention (Leipzig) in 2006. However, this time, I got to play the game itself.
If you are curious, please do click the image below to read the whole preview. But I’m warning you, there are no screenshots or photos. I was not allowed to take them. Therefore it is not my fault!
The main reason I’m posting something about the article on my personal blog, is because people are “reviewing” my preview here and there. And some of those people just can’t seem to appreciate the article for several reasons.
1. My article was in some ways short (although it is one of the bigger fansite written articles).
2. I didn’t add a whole lot of new information.
3. There were no screenshots or photos.
My answers (or should I just call this defending myself?) are very simple:
1. I was invited as a fansite. Press sites get to bring more than one person to an event like this. I was alone, because I was not allowed to bring someone along. Therefore, I had to take notes myself, play PC, DS and mobile version myself, ask questions, basically everything I had to do myself. Which is fine. But we didn’t get the whole day to play. Last but certainly not least, the game kept crashing. It was an older built we played with and that had its consequences. That are things I could not have changed. So it’s unfair to say I didn’t do my best because the article is too short.
2. The above applies to this as well. Too little time, too much to do in the game. Besides, the most important information and facts from the game have already been reviewed by press sites. Also, most people who go and read a preview of Spore, have read every existing article on the net or on paper. This is normal for fans. You want to stay informed of your favorite game. But you can’t blame a fansite for lacking new information in a preview they write for your pleasure.
3. The fact that my preview didn’t contain any photos or screenshots, was also not my fault. We were not allowed to take any pictures of the game. Afterwards, we were promised to get some exclusive footage. But even before we were allowed to post our articles, these ‘exclusive’ items were already posted by press websites. So much for the exclusiveness of these screens.
I had a great time during the event. I am very grateful to have been there. I mentioned in my preview I would have liked the idea of having additional screenshots. But we were not allowed to have any. That’s how it is and I can’t change that. Now it seems people are dragging my preview down on the net, just because of the reasons mentioned above. None of that was my fault. And reading those negative reactions, makes me doubt whether -in the future- I should write a preview at all. The thing that bothers me most is that I tried my very best. But it seems I did my best for nothing, because most readers don’t appreciate it. That just sucks.
Last week (Tuesday) I went to London, because I was invited at EA to get a sneak peek of Spore. I will be writing 3 articles about this event. And you will be able to read those on SporeNetwork (English), SporeNetwerk (Dutch) and Junior’s (Dutch).
I didn’t get much of a chance to go downtown. But we did travel there and I got a few pics. I will upload these pics soon on this site.
I’ve already informed you in previous blogposts (here and here), that we finally launched the SNWeblogs. And I also told you about the people who started blogging on these new blogs. Well, it’s time for a third post. Because four more people have started blogging!
The first was Rakki. Rakki has been a team member since 2004. And he started blogging about SNWeblogs and his new car! This blog is in Dutch. 
Click here to visit Rakki’s blog!
Paul was the second blogger. Paul already started a new (Sims) blog called River’s Hill. It’s a Dutch blog about the Sims in his neighborhood. But Paul was one of those people who really wanted a SNWeblog. And now he has one! Visit Paul here. His SNWeblog is in English, so our foreign visitors should be able to understand it
The third blogger of part 3 is Seth. Yup, my son. He started blogging too! :p Of course, we maintain his blog. He can’t even talk, let alone type. He will some day. He’s blogged in Dutch about his plush toy rattle called ‘Mr. Flower’. Clicky clicky for ‘Mr. Flower’, errr, Seth 
The fourth and last blogger in part 3 is Tamara. Tamara isn’t exactly a team member, but she is an active member. And she’s been on SNW since 2004, which is quite some time! Tamara has blogged an introduction about her work as a volunteer at a veterinarian. She also blogged about her going to the hospital. This blog is also in Dutch. Do pay her a visit though!
Junior is also one I’d like to mention in this blog post. Junior started blogging in the summer of 2006, so he’s not new at all. But he has added a large (new) blogging section about ‘The Sims 2 FreeTime’ on this blog, all because of an event in Amsterdam in January! It is in Dutch, but I still think it may be worth the look. You can always take a look at the photos (especially his wall of fame!) Junior will try to (mo)blog more often about certain events in the future.
So basically everyone (except a few) have started blogging! That’s some good news! Let’s hope everyone can keep this up
As some of you may know, I run SNW. And with SNW, comes Simpedia. Simpedia is a big online Sims encyclopedia with articles, press releases, screenshots, cheats et cetera. It’s also a project that never really ends. Because it consists of the oldest Sims games and the newest Sims games. Also, EA won’t stop making Sims games! That’s okay, we don’t want them to stop or anything :p But it also means that we’ll always have something to add to Simpedia when new products are announced and released.
The reason I’m posting this, is because I’m currently working on Simpedia. Not only because a new expansion pack (Free Time) is being added. But I’m also designing a new Simpedia. Right now it’s very messy, it *needs* some good cleaning. I’m reorganizing the whole thing. And of course I’m adding loads of media. This takes up a lot of time. I figured it would be a good idea to share this information for those of you who are interested in SNW and what happens around it.
You can expect the new Simpedia somewhere at the end of January. Perhaps a little earlier, this kinda depends on factors like the amount of news I have to keep up with and, you know, my personal life. :p
In my previous blog post, I told you about Alex, who already started blogging. But more people have started to blog as well! Mogway and Mipas both introduced themselves on their blogs. My mom also blogged, well at least she tried. But she’s really new to all of this. So we can’t blame her for making a little mess of it sometimes :p She’ll learn more along the way And last, but not least, we have Hexer. He has already blogged on his SNWeblog! 
Here are the addresses of their blogs:
Guinevere (Dutch), Hexer, Mipas (Dutch) and Mogway!
Now we just wait for the others to start blogging :p
I recently blogged about me being busy with the SNWeblogs. Well, they’re finally live! I will, when the team starts using the new blogs, update their old blog urls
For now, everyone has the same theme, personally customized here and there. In a while, I will make more themes for everyone using a SNWeblog. That will be somewhere around 10 themes. Until then, you can enjoy the SNWeblogs like they are now
Alex is the first to start his new blog. So I will hereby include his new blog url: http://alex.simsnetwerk.com Please do pay a visit to his blog! :p
I started working for SNW again! This week the SNWeblogs will go live! For those of you who don’t know what on earth I’m talking about: SNWeblogs are blogs for the (team)members of SNW. Not everyone has a blog, but most of us do. The idea wasn’t new. I had this idea a few years ago. I planned to create a network where our team members, and a few steady members could blog. But I was usually too busy with all sorts of things or I was ill. I worked on the blogs in 2006 and 2007. I really wanted a special SNW theme for the blogs. I lacked time and inspiration though. And that was the main reason for putting things aside. But not anymore. The blogs will go live, even if I have to use a premade theme from another designer for a while. I will design a SNW WP theme when I have more time
The idea for these blogs is, that our team members can blog, without all kinds of restrictions. We’d also like to give our members the opportunity to get to know us better. Who knows, they might want to learn more about us, in a different environment than just Sims. Of course we love all of our Sims products, but talking about something different than Sims can be refreshing sometimes
Stay tuned for more SNWeblogs news!
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