Ah, that's roughly the opposite of how I feel about those sort of things. More like "You don't get to decide this random rock is magic and special and affect how I treat it."

I'm from the northeast. I first heard of voodoo in "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island."

You'll also be less likely to meet the right people in college, make strong connections, and sidle your way into a prestigious field. If that's not something you care about, fine. It doesn't matter for some industries (probably more technical ones). If you want to move into something prestigious, going to a more…

Agree. Cutting up your cards isn't a sign of responsibility. It's the opposite. Using your cards without building up debt - THAT is a sign of responsibility. Putting them out of sight until you solve your immediate problems, sure. That makes sense. But there's no reason to destroy them.

Why is it awful? It's a rock covering up someone who has been dead for more than a hundred years. It's vandalism, sure. But I see no reason why there's any ethical component to 'desecrating' an ancient grave. Somebody's mom who just died? That's one thing. But drawing X's on this? No better or worse than spraypainting…

Is voodoo a real thing? I thought it was a made up television thing to make african-americans seem strange.

They are hugely important, but it's such a different market segment. The handhelds compete with each other and the consoles compete with each other - I don't think you could make a convincing argument that any of the handhelds cannibalized console sales UNTIL the 3DS.

Interesting, I didn't realize you started with a puzzle. I actually used to streetpass with a lot of Nintendo employees and they certainly do not have fleshed out puzzles. Well, some of them do. But they also start from nothing. That was my theory for where pink pieces came from for a long time, but it's not the case.

Okay, here's a question. You can't get pink squares except from other people.

This is the one question I wish Stephen had asked, even though they probably wouldn't have been able to answer it. Seems like a tough sell and they didn't do much promotion, at least in the U.S. But it sounds like they're continuing development on StreetPass Mii Plaza, so it must have paid off in some way.

Great interview, Stephen!

Pffff. They've ruined the Final Fantasy series 2 or 3 times already. It's like James Bond at this point. The series is strong enough that a few bad eggs won't kill it. Lesser titles will sell in droves to the core fans, and as soon as something really good comes out, it'll do really crazy well. I don't think they…

Any particular reason you don't like Sony products as a whole?

The only trouble is, nobody buys Platinum's games, even though they're supposedly great, and everybody buys Squeenix's games, even though they're terrible.

Hey Al,

Pregnancy = no oysters? Why?

I actually didn't realize the gov't offers flood insurance. I guess that makes sense considering the risk factors. I actually do live in a flood-prone area, sort of, but it's not a owning-your-residence-prone area (NYC), so it's never really come up.

My mom used to do this by hiding video games in shoe boxes, so I wouldn't immediately guess what it was from the size.

Sitting in shit all day and watching Matlock re-runs is my idea of a GOOD retirement!

This doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't it make more sense to lump flood insurance in with regular homeowners (?) insurance? So that everybody, from bayou republicans and jersey shorers to folks in Denver and Montana pays for flood insurance? That way, you get just what you suggest: a situation where everybody pays for…