boatorious

@Castermhief117: Looks like everyone thought the same thing, totally didn't realize I did that :)

Well, not specifically about violent video games, but the equivalents of the times : bows and Penny Dreadfuls. I thought of them when reading this Atlantic piece the other day, about a mom who's reconsidering buying her son Halo 4 for Christmas after the tragedy of Newtown.

There's this G.K. Chesterton essay from 1923 (sorry for the bait and switch, it's only 89 years old) on boys' obsessions with bows and what little could be done to control it:

It is always dangerous to have a little boy. But no other society, claiming to be sane, would have dreamed of supposing that you could abolish all bows unless you could abolish all boys.

And this essay from 1901 (Chesterton also, I'm a fan) defending Penny Dreadfuls:

But it is we who are the morbid exceptions; it is we who are the criminal class. This should be our great comfort. The vast mass of humanity, with their vast mass of idle books and idle words, have never doubted and never will doubt that courage is splendid, that fidelity is noble, that distressed ladies should be rescued, and vanquished enemies spared.

They are both good reads, but if they're a little long for you I'd sum up their relevance to today as this:

Boys have not always played violent video games, but they've always played at violent games. And there's much for a mom to admire in her son's Halo game that is simply not present in most 'sophisticated' culture.

I don't have any advice for what to do, just a lot of advice for what not to do.

Don't buy a house you want to move out of in five years in the midst of a bubble. I've been paying the mortgage for seven years, but if I sold my house today I'd lose 60k. But I couldn't sell it today -- I'd have to have it on the market for months just for the privilege of taking that 60k loss and probably end up covering the buyer's closing costs.

If you plan to have (or already have) babies, stairs are the enemy. I had to go up/down two flights of steps for nine months or so in the middle of the night. Eventually I was so exhausted I started falling and slipping down steps.

Roof and Heating/Cooling can be extremely expensive to replace. Be wary of buying a house if either of those are on their last legs.

If your can't keep your cat from tearing up carpet on your steps, don't get new carpet on the steps. You'll just end up buying new carpet again and again. Consider wood floors or get rid of your cats.

This is not enough information.

You mentioned the power of the smell, but what about the volume? Back in high school I witnessed an entire school bus befouled by a single blast. If your date is blasting buses -- and most dating sites don't factor gastroenterology when identifying your "perfect" match -- you need to just walk away. Not permanently, you know, but for a while until you can bear the smell.

Some of this depends on you, too. For example, are you agoraphobic? If so you two aren't a good match. Are you lactose intolerant? Think of the children you'd have ... happening upon a container of cottage cheese in the fridge. You'd be dead before you hit the floor.

But if you're OK on all that maybe the two of you could be very happy together. At least for as long as you could stay away from open flames.

Almost as mind-blowing as when Jeff said "Handful of Action" on the bombcast.

Congratulations, Giant Bomb! You guys deserve all the success you get -- love you guys, love the site.

Here's hoping it's a Kinect-Powered Bird Puncher.

GB Username: Boatorious

Gamertag: Boatorious

Mic: yes

Favorite Mode: Horde/Beast

Timezone: EST

GT: Boatorious

Looking for Campaign/Horde/Beast, but I'll do about anything.

I often feel like the only diehard ratchet and clank fan in the world, but I can't wait to play this.  It's why I'm buying a PS3.

My WoW achievements are no longer updating here : http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/boatorious/achievements/?upid=729405&sid=15099

My armory page was not coming up properly over the weekend.  It's now fine, but the giant bomb wow achievement page is not updating any more.

Thanks for the awesome achievement system! :)