Mailbag: Giant Bomb Mailbag: Chalk On a Chalkboard Edition

@badsmalltalker: yes?

Salmiak aka Ammonium Chloride is the best.

The prank to get Giantbomb to freak out on Dutch candy did not succeed. Someone outside of the Netherlands actually likes salty black liqourice.

Nice to see Dan cutting back on the candy. He has discipline and determination as evidenced by his running, meditation and yoga. He can clean up his diet as well. It might take a little while to get over his addiction to processed food, but I have confidence in him.

Go Dan. Take good care of your health.

@dreiszen: I mean, you could try to live by the Don't be a dick rule when it comes to something like this. Sure you could post about personal shit, but does it really accomplish anything other than making the comment section a place the staff won't look at, and just making it an extremely negative space for the users? At the end of the day aggressive advice from strangers on the internet about personal shit, even when it's something they have discussed in content, doesn't really contribute anything positive to anything.

My rule of thumb is that if I wouldn't say something to a stranger on the street (content of the message or the tone) I won't say it to someone I don't know on the internet either, even if I'm paying $50 a year to watch videos on a website.

oh shit pal ps2. they should play michigan report from hell

Who is Rick Reynolds?!?!

@skullcrushermountain: Apparently by having multiple pictures of Brock Lesnar open on his computer at all times?

@rick

Hah, I noticed that.

I really worry about Dan seeing this video. I know a lot of people including a parent who are dealing with diabetes and it's nothing to sniff at. At worst you are staring down the barrel of losing extremities like feet and hands. At best you will be dealing with incredibly difficult diet management and a decades shortened lifespan.

If you are on the edge of diabetes you can still get around it by moderating your diet but you have to be willing to cut out nearly all processed foods. They are your worst enemy for sugar content... It's very very hard but something you should look at as a short term goal to prevent a much harder future life.

I accidentally submitted a video problem report because I was getting no audio. Turns out it was my computer having the trouble. Sorry, engineers!

Any time you ask Jeff "When's the last time you held X?" the answer is always "Within the last week."

Jeff likes holding things.

@ripelivejam: The difference is Alexis is already a Diabetic. In this case we don't want Dan to become one. I'm not sure but I believe Alexis was type-1. Something not curable.

Pumaman!

Phones have changed.

Maaaan, I saw one of those Waluigi hats at the last PAX South. I wanted to get it so badly, but it didn't have a price on it, and it looked fancy enough for me too feel like asking for the price would make me look like a cheap mook.

I don't know if this is the first time you're using this camera, but these videos are definitely more watchable for me. Thanks!

Las Vegas International Pizza Expo 2015 Highlights

https://youtu.be/6qY6Ls8FGQM

The way Dan's head is turned in the thumbnail reminds of some kind of papercraft stop animation thingy. Anyone else get that?

Here's my dumb contribution.

Who is that random guy in the background??

Yay, the Gear VR I sent in got put in a mailbag video. I saw it sitting on Jeff's desk last time they did a mailbag so I wasn't sure if it'd get on. Huzzah!

@spoon1234:I was so happy to hear Jeff say that, I don't really know why.

@amyggen: Being interested in "keeping the peace" and "avoiding negativity" to the extent that you ask people to stay quiet about their misgivings is a nefarious, toxic mindset. If your prerogative is to be a sycophant then so be it, but do me a solid and miss me with that shit, now and forever.

My rule of thumb is that I'm critical of media I like because I like to think that the people who make it can do better. I'm not gonna dig into my personal business or write a thinkpiece on it or anything, but it's no skin off my ass or yours if I comment that making a joke out of this illness is kinda messed up. And, real talk, if GB decides to double down and lean into jokes about cutting off your feet and losing eyes and shit because diabetes is what's hot in the streets right now, you won't have to tolerate my negativity about it for long.

The old dude on the inside cover of the pizza magazine has the eyes of a stump-tailed macaque.

@ildon: he's slipping. it used to be not 24 hours ago.

@dreiszen: "Making a joke out of the illness", man are you a dramatic person. He`s been diagnosed days ago, at least give it some time before you become this dramatic about it. I have no problem with being critical of media, it`s the personal shit about those who produce it I think is unneeded. But if you`re gonna see yourself as the martyr of the comment section, the person who`s willing to speak the truth while the people who would rather keep the personal shit out of is as, absurdly, having a "nefarious, toxic mindset", I guess I just think your perspective is extremely twisted. And I have absolutely no idea what your hypothetical "real talk" is about here, talk about inventing the most extreme possibility to prove no point at all.

As an aside, "real talk" is yet another phrase the internet has overused to an extent that it has pretty much lost all meaning.

Yay, I have the PS2 slim as well. PAL. So much better than NTSC honest!

@amyggen: I don't get how one could misconstrue what I said so wildly. I am in no way concerned with Dan's personal life, and anyone so vehement about keeping it out would rather him not make his slow crawl towards death a matter of public record for use in site content. It may be hard for you to grasp that, as an irreversible and incurable disease, diabetes is a serious thing that affects a lot of people, and treating it like a punchline is almost as tasteless as Jeff's occasional jokes about genocide.

All that said, though, if you're just one of those "comedy has to be edgy" types and consider it "dramatic" to find it tasteless when the punchline of a running gag is a person contracting an incurable metabolic disease, then there's an impasse that makes this discussion not worth continuing. I already had to deal with the kinds of people who thought AIDS jokes were funny once before, dude.

@dreiszen: Yes, I`m certainly one of those who think that comedy has to be edgy, which is why I come to Giant Bomb, the most edgy of comedy.

At the end of the day we`re all slowly crawling towards death.

Not that there's anything wrong with your golden rule, but I don't think it really applies in this case. Personally I (as I'm sure you do to) feel much closer to the GB crew than to consider them merely "strangers on the street." I consider them close personal friends, and if I had a personal friend who was told by a doctor that he's pre-diabetic, and saw him continue to eat fast food and candy and drink sodas all the time, I would most definitely step in and say something. Now I don't think Dan is neglecting his doctor's advice completely, but his on-camera personality giving off the vibe of not taking it seriously is very off-putting and I think he needs to quit it with these bits. I'm sure he thinks that he's just being silly, but crew members' neglect for their health is still a sore subject for most of us.

@nasher27: My point is that they`re still complete strangers, even if it`s a personality driven site that can make people forget that point because we`ve followed these guys for years and years. But anyways, this has probably derailed this comment section for long enough so I`m signing off!

FWIW: I got the vibe that Dan is upset and confused and maybe a little embarrassed about his health. But he will get on it.

Maybe people should start sending healthy and delicious snacks to help out?

The mailbag videos are always fun to watch.

Were there any notable PAL exclusive PS2 games other than stuff like Singstar? The console was of course fully backwards compatible with the PS1, which had the PAL exclusive definite version of Wipeout 3 and Vibribbon. Can't think of any games that would've been PAL exclusive or better in their PAL versions for PS2 though.

Dan really needs to not accept candy anymore. Like it's ironic that there was all this "iron stomach" talk from Dan and now he has dieting issues but seriously man.

also i kinda doubt dan cares what anyone thinks hth

Parmesan cheese! Yes! Fresh is the only way to go. I don't know how they can get away with calling the powder 'parmesan cheese'.

You can try to put a slice of it on a cracker but the slice would have to be really thin. Parmesan is quite hard and usually somewhat dry. Does not melt easily. The reason you use it by grating it first is that it has a lot of flavour even in small amounts.

Dan stop eating candy seriously. Diabetes sucks so hard you'll regret it for the rest of your life.

http://vapr.org

Eat Sleep Fuse Repeat

I always get a kick out of Dan and his obliviousness to common sense things like the fact that Parmesan cheese doesn't just come grated. I'm not saying that to be a dick, I mean his lack of knowledge is often really endearing.

On the subject of his diabetes, I'm sure he's more on top of it than he lets on. I do wonder if people should maybe stop sending so much candy in mailbags, though. Not just for Dan's sake, but really for the sake of all the guys on staff. They must eat more candy each week than I eat in a year.

Also, "Kids come from ladies" was maybe my favorite Dan line ever.

Jeff is playing Hitman and Dan is the Elusive Target. Jeff is using lollies and chocolate as his weapons of choice.

How is Dan not 300 pounds? It's just not fair.

You know him eating a lemon drop and whatever the fuck isn't going to kill him right?

Jesus, you'd have thought he'd shoved his face into a pile of sugar like he was Tony Montana.

@beachgaara: my dads diabetic. Eating candy can literally kill him

The angle appears to be exactly what one might expect from a big head mode in, say, NBA Jam. The part where he's looking over his own shoulder in that awkward way that somebody only ever does if they're looking at a camera doesn't hurt.

Ingesting sugar doesn't hurt people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Ingesting too much sugar for their bodies to safely handle hurts said people with/causes diabetes.

May be better to let Dan plan out his own daily/weekly food intake and not jump to conclusions every time he eats a bit of junk food.

@dreiszen: Aren't we all killing ourselves slowly?