Very cool. Also, that reminds me that I should try Shadow of the Colossus because I bought it a while back (bundled with Ico of course) and do not live near a farm, and therefore it's probably my best way to learn about horses.

I absolutely despise playing in front of other people. I am not that great at games (or in any case, I am a "functional, effective mess" like Teti says above), and I tend to get very self-conscious around anyone who knows anything about games, because they would surely do all of this better than me. As for my usual…

I'll see your "Archie's One Way" and raise you a "Berenstain Bears: Living Lights"…

Thank god for parental controls— if our iPad didn't have the option of turning off the App Store and in-app purchases, I'm absolutely positive that my kids would have run up all kinds of crazy bills by now. (Or rather, they would just never be allowed to use the iPad at all.)

You spelled "Dishonored" wrong. (dives behind desk)

Yeah, I have tried Ironman exactly once so far and stopped when it was clear that things were getting on the wrong track. Now I realize that I need to build deeper reserves early on (by sending out multiple, non-overlapping squads to get more experience for everybody), in order to more effectively absorb the more or…

Congratulations! Maybe you should check out Octodad— I hear it's a pretty good simulator of what it's like to be a completely normal dad.

Wow, they sound pretty open-minded to be trying tabletop RPGs for the first time as full-grown parentals. I used to be into D&D myself as a teen, and I know loads of other adults who have kept up with it from earlier years, but it seems really unusual to start in as adults. Very cool, be sure to report back on the…

Engineer. Just maxed out Tech Mastery and chose the "Demolisher" specialization.

The kids have next week off from school, so Mrs J. and I will be dropping them off with the grandparents in the US on Saturday, and then back home to party by Saturday evening! I've got lots of gaming plans (real-life plans too!) for this weekend and the week to come, but I'd say the top priorities are to finish off…

My kids are mostly into iPad games, most recently Ridiculous Fishing and some less interesting thing called Subway Surfers, but my almost-5-year-old boy always likes to go back to his favorites— Tiny Thief (even though he has already got 3 stars on every level by himself, thanks to the built-in hint book), and of…

Yeah, hmm, I see the logical difference but still. You and The Devil and John Berryman seem to have read the same Wikipedia article, so let's just say I'm thinking of the "loose rhetorical sense" i.e. the way that most humans probably have used the expression for my entire lifetime. (See also: "Hopefully" at the…

You're just making that up so you can maplebrag about handling a large wad of new hundreds.

How so? It's true that "the exception that proves the rule" is a sort of a weird expression, but I always thought it meant something like: If you claim to notice a "rule" or pattern like "women get less screen time than men", and people who disagree with your claim can only come up with one or a small number of…

Loonies AND toonies. I feel like I really upgraded on the money front when I moved up here.

Dude, you should see the money we've got up here NOW (actually you probably have, but anyway). It's literally bill-sized glossy plastic sheets with a clear stripe down the middle. And some say they smell like maple syrup… (I hadn't noticed)

Whoa, Loompanics reference. I ordered a few books from them back in my high school days, but mostly I just enjoyed the experience of looking through all the fucked-up books they had for sale. I seem to remember you could also order a build-it-yourself kit for a one-man tank (that's the military vehicle, folks) for…

Let's get a shot of Teti walking away from an explosion. That's usually a pretty good benchmark for Hollywood-marketable cool.

I confirm the chain-yanking interpretation.

[EDIT: Cool, my comment got posted twice. You've won this time, Disqus…]