Elliot & Claire

Claire will murder me for putting this online, but today is the day I pop the question.Hello friends, family and random Play This magazine readers! Today after two years of being with my loving girlfriend Claire, I will be proposing to her and I would like to take you all along with us for the journey.

Now she has a relatively good idea that this is happening, probably because she basically picked out the ring and told me numerous times I’d get slapped if I didn’t make this romantic enough, but at 3:15 p.m. on top of the Newseum Balcony (which has honestly one of the most amazing views of the city and capitol) I shall be proposing.

Just so this doesn’t sound entirely lame, for those of us who know our past history, Claire and I both met at the George-Anne Daily. She was my faithful news assistant (where she generally made me do her job and she wrote awesome columns) and I as her editor would often spend long hours in the news room together, putting out one of the best college papers of its time. Although that was some of the best times for us and our favorite job, we had to grow up and get big kid jobs, but newspapers are what brought us together and being at the beacon of international newspapers with a rather scenic view makes it the perfect spot to ask.

Sadly since we custom designed her ring it will be another couple of weeks before it’s completed, but the first gift I ever bought Claire was a Claddagh ring, which represents love, friendship, engagement and marriage depending on how its worn. I’ve also purchased a new one with her birthstone in it to use as a temporary sign of our engagement, but either way knowing Claire she will love it until the really shiny and expensive one gets here.

For all of our friends and family who know us all to well, this seems like the best way we could announce it to you. That being said, this article won’t post until noon tomorrow and will also show on Facebook and Twitter. So for the love of all humanity do not call or text her until 4 p.m. EST or I’m doomed!

As a result of our venture to live in Washington DC, I’ve also decided it would be a great time to flex those technological muscles and try to stream this to you all as well. So at 3:15ish if you go to our qik.com page you should be able to see it all go down.

The plan

On Friday we were planning on going to Woo at the Zoo, which was a dorky event with a bar at the National Zoo and some fun lectures about animal mating patterns or what not. We like dorky things, so meh. The blizzard on the other hand canceled that, so if anyone would like two free tickets to that, they are up for grabs. Instead we’ll just be going out to dinner and seeing Dear John (dinner means copious amounts of mind numbing drinks for the movie for me).

Tomorrow I shall wake Claire up with breakfast in bed (unless she gets up at 6 a.m. like always) and then I have a massage scheduled for her at 10.

At noon we will head into the city for a quick bite to eat and either go ice skating or to the wax museum (perhaps spy museum). By this point she should be thrown off a bit, especially because we will then be going to the Newseum. At about 3:15 p.m. we will hopefully be able to get out onto the balcony with the amazing view of the city, where my most awesome co-worker Heather and her boyfriend Ryan should be to take photos and the streaming video. It will be short and sweet, mainly due to the freezing cold and the balcony still being covered in snow (luckily I’ve been speaking with the amazing Pam Galloway-Tabb to help me make this special event still take place there – Thank you so much again!).

Then my little cheese loving girlfriend and I will make our way to the Frontpage and have some pre-dinner drinks and then head to the melting pot for a 3 hourish long dinner. She loves cheese, what can I say.

Sunday we will be doing another breakfast in bed and I’ll be taking her to Dave and Busters for some lunch and gaming fun. She isn’t much into games but this was totally her idea and I won’t turn it down!

That’s the story and I’m sticking to it.

Let’s hope the blizzard doesn’t cause any more issues as a train has already derailed today as a result. Lame sauce.

You all are more than welcome to call or spam her Facebook wall after 4 p.m. Thank you all so much for being the great caring friends and family that you are.

Play This will be hosting a Battlefield Bad Company playoff tomorrow, Monday, June 22. Let’s start the Monday off right with a five round set of Battlefield: Bad Company at 2 p.m. EST.

You can always find us Xbox Live by tracking our tag as well.

The EFM web site has finally been updated. While there may not be to much on it, the main goal of the site is to provide EFM with a service listing and portfolio of our professionally published work. EvO is diligently looking for a Washington DC Communications job so that he may properly fund Play This once again.

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EvO will be leaving the small hilljack town this Friday for the big city again … so for one last taste of that amusing hilljack speak… here you go!

i hope he is ok but this was not because he is the chif of the fire deparment i know all the people the work at the old fire deparment and the never have any problems like this maybe need to ask the chif if he have his life free of lies of he go to his live lien to everyone the he talks i dont agree with what happen is no rigth to do this if someone needs to said somenthing to the chif he or her need to talk faces to faces to him the dont need to do all this mess and take the good name of the CATOOSA COUNTY FIRE DEPARMEN thru the mood is no fear for all the good people the work all this time for the old fire deparment GOD BLESS ALL THE PEOPLE THE WORK SO HARD THRU THE YEARS FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF CATOOSA COUNTY I HOPE NOW IS BETTER THEN BEFORE THIS PEOPLE WORK NO FOR MONEY THE WORK BECAUSE THE LOVE THE FIRE DEPARMENT THE ALLWAYS PUT THER LIFE IN THE LINE FOR NOTING LOOK THRU OLD NEWS PAPER AND SEE FOR THER SELFS THIS PEOPLE NEVER HAVE ANY PROBLEMS AND ALWAYS THE TRUE YOU WILL FIND LOVE TO THE CATOOSA COUNTY FIRE DEPARMENT

Reading stuff like this makes me want to gouge my eye out. Now just ponder this notion, an entire town of people speaking just like this. Mind boggling.

BONUS! We recieved another one today:

My son was released from the Catoosa County Jail after serving a couple of months for being behind on his child support payments. On the day of his release, he was taken to the jail lobby with nothing but the clothes on his back. He asked to use the phone to call someone to come and get him, and was told that theirs was a business phone and he would have to use the payphone on the wall. He did not have ANY money at all, though he had money in his account at the jail. He had to make a collect call which I accepted. The bottom line is that today I got a bill from Legacy Billing Services for $17.49 for a one minute call. Can you believe it? $17.49 for a one minute collect call. I think it is ridiculous that Catoosa County Jail/Sheriff cannot allow released inmates a single call in cases like this.

evolutionfreelancemedia@gmail.com

A new short story about a person oddly enough named EvO will be published on here in a few weeks. Strangely at the same time that this EvO will be quiting his job.

A tale of why you should be careful when accepting your first job and to new and aspiring journalists everywhere to quickly change your planned road for something better.

Be prepared as I may very well be lynched for it, but it’s all for the humor to our readers right?

p.s.

Play This is moving to Atlanta area! More beer and wine tastings and reviews to come in April.

-EvO

www.playthismag.com                                                                editor@playthismag.com

February is national Spay/Neuter month and with that in mind I would like to just give you some simple reason why you should adopt a pet rather than purchase one from a pet store.

Myths and Facts about this process

There are many myths about canine reproductive needs. Chiefly among these are the suspicion that neutering turns a male into a sissy and spaying causes a female to get fat and to lament her lost capacity.

The truth is that male dogs, especially those with a submissive personality, are usually better pets if they are neutered. They may have less desire to roam, to mark territory (including furniture), and, if neutered before sexual maturity, they may be less likely to exert dominance over family members. They may also be healthier pets: no testicles means no testicular cancer.

A word of caution, however. Neutering a dog reduces production of testosterone but does not eliminate this hormone. Thus a neutered dog, especially if he has a dominant character, may also retain his desire to roam and an assertive or even aggressive personality. Owners who depend on neutering to resolve behavior problems run a high risk of being disappointed unless they also train the pet to have good manners at home and in public.

Females also tend to be better pets if they do not experience oestrus every six-to-nine months. Heat cycles bring hormonal changes that can lead to personality changes, and oestrus females must be confined to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Repeated heat cycles may subject the reproductive system to uterine and mammary cancers as they age. Some females experience false pregnancies that can be a bother to deal with and uterine infections that can be fatal.

While the hormone changes caused by sterilization can contribute to overweight, dogs and bitches do not generally get fat simply as a result of spay or neuter surgery. Like other mammals, they gain weight if they eat too much and exercise too little or are genetically programmed to be hefty. Weight gain that follows sterilization surgery may be linked to those hormone changes but will be aggravated by continuing to feed a high energy diet to a dog that is reducing the need for energy as he reaches his adult size. Excess energy in the food becomes excess fat on the body.

As far as we know, dogs do not lament their lost capability to reproduce. This is a different species than ours; they reproduce to ensure survival of their kind, not to nurture a pup for 18 years, watch it go off to college, marry, establish a career, and produce grandchildren. Females nurse their pups for a few weeks, teach them to behave like dogs, and go on. Males know nothing of fatherhood; they do not recognize pups as their own.

-Dog owners Guide

How Play This helps

Each week Play This’ editor (EvO) goes to local animal shelters to play with the dogs and socialize them. We also take pictures of the dogs for a weekly spot light in the newspaper he’s associated with so that people can adopt these animals or become aware of the. We are also strong advocates of animal rights (not in a crazy PETA way) and help local groups find more information about passing laws for both animals and peoples benefits.

Why you should rescue/adopt an animal

First of all, adopting an animal is not the same as rescuing one, but both are great ways to have a family friends enter your life. Rescuing an animal is taking something out of a poor environment, is in line to be euthanized or is in poor health and needs a family who can support it’s treatment.

Editors note: Both of the dogs I currently own have been rescued/adopted. Lily is a boxer/hound/who knows what who was rescued from an animal shelter in south Georgia. She was to be euthanized that day after being attacked from another dog and having eye damage. She is now a grown dog who acts as my daughter. Our newest addition was rescued from a family who was treating him poorly. Our Play This mascot, Oscar, was terribly undernourished but is now a shitzu with a pot belly.

Adopting a dog is simply going to the animal shelter and picking out one of the many stray or unwanted animals there. This is often the cheapest way to have a pet, as they often are fully vetted and fixed for a cheap price. There are also several groups around the country that help pay for the animals to be fixed. For those in the North Georgia/Tennessee area looking for dogs contact us, the shelter here only charges $60 and will spay/neuter your pet.

Don’t buy pets from a pet store*

Sure they look cute when looking through the mall, but these cute puppies and kittens are often the result of puppy mills. Most pet stores that sell full blooded animals come these mills, where animals are terrible abused and often are used to just create puppies over and over again until they can no longer reproduce. These animals often cost ridiculous amounts of money as well.

*Some animals like fish, small reptiles and rodents are more than likely ok to purchase from these stores as they are not from animal mills.

Facebook's bumper sticker application

editor@playthismag.com                                                              www.playthismag.com

There are the current most popular bumper stickers being downloaded on Facebook. Is this really any impression on the types of things and ideas that our growing youth is so proud to plaster their personal profiles with?

Last we checked getting accidentally knocked up is not something to scream for joy, especially when you are young (you can tell by the terrible grammar and pretty colors that the author was young).

Our youth is ever so awkward.

-A thought from EvO

editor@playthismag.com

At only 15 cents a share currently (Dec. 5) the newly merged satellite radio company Sirius XM has put a new face on radio. In the early days of Sirius it was more so the cooler older brother, where as XM was the younger stale virgin who acted to old for his age.

So what happened when these two companies merged? A poor business decision to spew XM concepts all over Sirius listeners. Although most of the stock market is falling, the day the merger was fully signed and dated, stocks fell a huge amount.

A majority of the channels were combined with XM stations, which means new DJ’s (have been on XM) most of whom suck. When first deciding between the two providers it was pretty obvious for us, as XM had a smaller selection and even their channel names were uncreative. Sirius had names like Faction, Boombox 51 and Octane (all of which still exist) where as XM only had stations called, rock, rap and so on… nothing spiffy there. While a majority of Sirius is beginning to change Faction remains to be one of the only great stations left, even Octane has a new whiny voiced DJ promoting crappy rock. It seems like the days of uncensored greatness of Sirius is being taken over by whiny bitches from XM.

We want our dirtied up older brother back. Not some replacement trash that pursues more channels of Christian rock and preaching. At least they are diverse as they have a gay channel but remove E! so it’s pretty much the same thing. Prices fro the service are currently lower than the usual price, however XM owners have to pay extra for Howard Stern and a few others.

What may be good for their business does not make the listeners happy.

Play This quickies is Play This magazines WordPress Web site for quick and easy updates. Our Main Web site can be found at www.playthismag.com

Journalists and gamers unit through this magazine to bring you news, reviews and anything else you may want to know. If you want more coverage on a subject Play This is there for you! We cater to all sorts of views and readers and are happy to put ourselves on the line to get you the story. Want more in-depth interviews with stars? Or perhaps the latest scoop on video games that you shouldn’t know about.

Check out www.playthismag.com for anything and everything you want most.

You can also www.myspace.com/playthismag on Myspace to hear our featured artists like Hamilton Marshall.

-Play This staff

Try GameFly for FREE or start for only $6.95!

If you are receiving information about the Web site gabblemodule.com or hundreds of various other Web sites that redirect you, (“along the lines of I found a picture of you on gabblemodule.com check it out”, usually in the form of a message on social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace), do not provide it any information as it steals your passwords from Facebook, Myspace or wherever you were redirected from and could possibly con you into being charged for a cell subscription.

As a result of Play This magazine and your help, thousands of people have received this information and been prevented from a phishing attack. Thank you all for your help and keep sending us new links as they are sent to you!

This is due to the worm called the Koobface worm, which is downloaded from an innocent looking picture usually. The only way you can get a worm is by downloading a file, but they usually have backdoor files with it. Download the free AVG virus software/cleaner in addition to Lavasofts Ad-aware. This should clean your computer out and remove any sleeper viruses.

Updated as of Nov. 18, 2008.

This is just like the previous Web sites that redirect you to a phishing site, according to that Web sites statistics it’s been around nearly a year and yet to be shut down. It will always send you to http://friends-to-friends-only.com/.

myspace.com/playthismag Don’t forget to add us on Myspace!

You can find more tech news and reviews at www.playthismag.com

List of Web sites that redirect you (Still growing, if you know of a different one e-mail us at editor@playthismag.com or comment on this article and thank you to those who have contributed) We also know that for the last week many people have been phished more so than the usual.

atomipad.com, azurebuzz.com, azurezoom.com, bubbleserve.com, coralpad.com, crimsonopia.com, deesphere.com, dynatoken.com, flapset.com, gabbleset .com, getemtoken.com, getemset.com, gingersphere.com, hazelpad.com, heycode.com, iconnik.com, phototradingspot.info, scrality.com, snapnik.com, tradepicsnow.com, ubzunit.com, wackset.com, wackstate.com,  cutepicturesonline.com, wareate.com, gabbleload.com, gabblemodule.com, gabbleserv.com, gabbletoken.com, mdannic.com, atomipath.com, crimsonnic.com ( Thank you Sarah), mdanblab.com, heystate.com (Thanks Jay) shobase.com (Thanks Nami), babbleprofile.com (Thanks Nick), spaceate.com (thanks Cole), cogihost.com (thanks Angie), and cogibug.com (thanks Dan), www.kawork.com (Thanks a ton Riona), Lookatem.com, quaspace.com (Thanks Caitlin), wowbookers.com, yayafacer.com (Thanks Chris), nuttyfacebookin.com (Thanks Jamie), hmmmbook.com (Thanks Aaron), stuffrattle dot com, smashshiver dot com, wavehum dot com, mixclang dot com, waveshiver dot com.

A new redirect Web site is out, if you receive a message, “has anyone told u ur facebook pic was just featured on gabblemodule.com” (This is just one of a hundred examples) from your friends on Facebook delete it and tell that friend their account has been hacked and needs to change their password. The users password that has been compromised is most likely due to a Facebook application (we are still investigating but it’s now looking more like this is a sleeper phishing program. It steals your information and later on perhaps even months later takes hold of your account to reproduce itself). If there are any new apps that you have just recently added, be sure to remove them! Also if you have received this message from a friend as a safety concern please change your password as well.

The individuals who have sent you the link and info have already been hacked and need to change any password associated with Facebook and Myspace.

When you first arrive at the Web site it will have a pop up box saying, “Our system indicates that a photo from your ip address has been uploaded to this site within the past 48 hours.” [Pictured below]

After the pop up you will notice a disclaimer at the top saying, “Privacy Note: We never send SPAM to your email address. We never sell your personal info.

This is NOT a MySpace or Facebook login page. MySpace/Facebook users are not authorized to participate on this website.”

It then has a box to let you input info to “find this photo of yourself.” [Pictured below]

After putting in your information it asks, “Must create new password

to view your pics.” “For your security, please do not use your previous password created on this site or the same password that you use to log into other sites. Doing so may re-trigger our auto-post tell-a-friend feature that you may have previously opted in to from this site.”

After you input a password it asks you how you found the Web site with another annoying pop up then provides you with a list of Web sites.

Most professional Web sites do not have such terrible font as presented above.

The next page shows another pop up box saying, “FINAL STEP BEFORE RETRIEVING RESULTS!

Our system indicates that your friend Kiss my ass recently bookmarked and reserved this page just for you!”

Chances are there is no real person named kiss my ass… and if it accepted the name it’s probably a bit fishy.

Also when the pop up box shows up it says the Web site is www.this-isnt-personal.com he even warns users to say you are probably about to get screwed.

After the pop up…. a box asking you to fill out one of those annoying surveys, an IQ test or various other advertisements. If you fill out the IQ test and put in your cell number it will begin to charge you $9.99 a month for some sort of subscription.

In conclusion, if you see this Web site, avoid it. Do not provide it with any information what-so-ever. We have provided it our e-mail address and it quickly began to fill our spam box with junk mail *It was 24 hours after we did this walk through that our Spam box was filled – Thanks Jay. It steals your password, cons fools out of money by providing information and is a phishing Web site. If you have any additional questions feel free to comment or send an e-mail to our editor at editor@playthismag.com.

-Play This Magazine Staff.

For more tech news and reviews check www.playthismag.com

Additional information has just been found. The thing causing this is called the Koobface Worm.

From this Web site http://www.kaspersky.com/news?id=207575670 information is posted below.

New worms target both MySpace and Facebook users

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management systems, has detected two variants of a new worm, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a. and Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, which attack MySpace and Facebook respectively. As part of their malicious payload, the worms transform victim machines into zombie computers to form botnets.

Even though the worms are currently only infecting MySpace and Facebook users, Kaspersky Lab analysts are warning users that the worms are designed to upload additional malicious modules with other functionality via the Internet. It is highly probable that victim machines will not only be used for spreading links via these social networking sites, but the botnets will also be used for other malicious purposes.

Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a spreads when a user accesses his/her MySpace account. The worm creates a range of commentaries to friends’ accounts. Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, which targets Facebook users, creates spam messages and sends them to the infected users’ friends via the Facebook site. The messages and comments include texts such as Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; Hello; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments and many others.

Messages and comments on MySpace and Facebook include links to http://youtube.[skip].pl. If the user clicks on this link, s/he is redirected to http://youtube.[skip].ru, a site which purportedly contains a video clip. If the user tries to watch it, a message appears saying that s/he needs the latest version of Flash Player in order to watch the clip. However, instead of the latest version of Flash Player, a file called codecsetup.exe is downloaded to the victim machine; this file is also a network worm. The result is that users who have come to the site via Facebook will have the MySpace worm downloaded to their machines, and vice versa.

“Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by ‘friends’ on social networking sites. So the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high”, says Alexander Gostev, Senior Virus Analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “At the beginning of 2008 we predicted that we’d see an increase in cybercriminals exploiting MySpace, Facebook and similar sites, and we’re now seeing evidence of this. I’m sure that this is simply the first step, and that virus writers will continue to target these resources with increased intensity”.

Kaspersky Internet Security detected these threats proactively and signatures were added to the database on July 31, 2008.

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab delivers the world’s most immediate protection against IT security threats, including viruses, spyware, crimeware, hackers, phishing, and spam. Kaspersky Lab products provide superior detection rates and the industry’s fastest outbreak response time for home users, SMBs, large enterprises and the mobile computing environment. Kaspersky technology is also used worldwide inside the products and services of the industry’s leading IT security solution providers. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com. For the latest on antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and other IT security issues and trends, visit www.viruslist.com.

If any of you have previously read EvO’s article from his newspaper job…. this is another letter to the editor about it… from an 8th grade student at the school in question. The kid is more articulate than any parent that has previously sent us hate mail over the article and it could not make us laugh more. **Editors note at bottom.

Move Early Head Start back to Ringgold High School Campus Dear editor, I am writing this letter in response to the editorials written in response to the article on the Early Head Start Program on the Ringgold Middle School campus. I do not understand why people got so mad over this article. Some have misunderstood this important message. From the responses I read, it sounded like the editorial authors thought that the concerned parents wanted the Early Head Start program completely eliminated. This is not the case at all; they were simply requesting that the program be moved from the middle school back to the high school. The concerned parents were voicing their beliefs that the program can be operated more safely away from the buses and cars, and that the relocation of the preschool would eliminate distractions on the middle school campus. I agree that the relocation of the preschool would provide a safer environment not only for the children but for the mothers as well. The present location sometimes makes the mothers take their children through the busy area while buses drop off and pick up students. Moving the Early Head Start back to the high school would also prevent future disruptions at the middle school. Please realize these parents do not want the community to turn its back on pregnant teens or teenage mothers, but to simply relocate the program back to its original location at Ringgold High School. Joshua B******* – 8th grade Ringgold Middle School

**EvO works for a small North Georgia Mountain town newspaper. Sadly this means lots of ignorant rednecks and hence those who read his stories tend to be on the unintelligent side. He has no opinion on the day care story at hand, just that they should stop telling kids condoms don’t work.

Here is another letter to the editor….

Dear Editor, I am responding to this article with great disappointment that anyone could see a program that is developed to give teenagers a second chance could be labeled an “outrage.” This is a completely close minded article that should never have made any kind of headlines. People often forget what it was like to be a teenager! It’s gonna happen whether we want it to or not, it has been happening for years. If you would have taken the time to pole the other High Schools around I would bet there pregnancy rate would be about the same, the only difference would be the drop out rate! Thats what the Head Start is there for to reassure these teens that life is not over because of one mistake, to tell this teens it is okay we will help you graduate from High School and get started in college. I am a mother as well and can understand some of the views to a certain extent but I was also a teen mother and truely sympathize with all of the teen parents. There was not a program like this when I had my son. I feel this is a blessing for your community and the story should be rewritten so the people who actually benefit from this program can be heard!