James

On the first forum I was ever a regular on, probably about fifteen years ago, there was a guy who started every word with a capital. When someone else did the same thing, he called them out for copying his "thing". That single post was so weird to me, because previously I'd assumed he just didn't even notice that it was wrong. Knowing that it was a deliberate choice was utterly bizarre to me. That said, I think for a brief period I was part of the no-capitals-on-the-Internet crowd. I was never on LiveJournal, mind.

That's too perfect to even comprehend. Never has self-parody been so absolute. Jesus Christ.

Haha, brilliant.

Well, that'll serve me right for making lazy assumptions about corporations. I had a nagging feeling it was dumb to post that without any research. I guess I'm dumb. Glad to hear that they're generally well-behaved; doubly disappointed that they caved to stupid pressure.

My dad was what I suppose you'd call a functional alcoholic, until eventually he stopped functioning. By which I mean he had something of a break-down. Coupled with some previously unidentified additional mental health issues (the upshot seemed to be bipolar disorder), what followed was many very turbulent years for him, the start of which I was mercifully shielded from, being off at university. He seems to have achieved some stability now, but it's taken quite a toll on his health, and I can't imagine that's improving. He's still drinking, but he's made two recent earnest attempts at quitting. Frankly I learnt long ago to protect myself by never expecting anything of him, but I do hope he doesn't lose heart, and is one day able to succeed. At the risk of being rather bleak, in all my years of knowing about his problem (which existed since before my parents met, but of which we weren't aware until some point in my early-mid childhood) we weren't able to find a way to help him a great deal. The situation with your roommate is different, of course (my dad was never quite so dramatic - he didn't get sick from drinking; we just took for granted that he wouldn't get home until late in the evening, and when he did he'd be kind of weird), so perhaps he's better able to see his own problem, and more prepared to deal with it, but I wouldn't necessarily expect too much. Offer support where you can, challenge him where you dare, but always keep your own well-being in mind. It can be a very stressful thing to deal with, or even just be around. You're probably right to be cautious about how you broach the subject - most people get defensive about perceived criticism, and in addicts the reaction is greatly magnified. Sorry, I don't really have any firm advice. Just my own experience. I generally hesitate before writing about Dad's alcoholism online, for fear of it coming across as a bit of a character assassination. I really hope it doesn't. I love him and in many ways admire him. He's smarter, more perceptive, more creative and way more gregarious than me, and despite his addiction managed to be much more successful than I currently am. That's makes it all the sadder, to me. He could have had a really great life, I think, if he didn't have a drinking problem. Part of what gives him stability now is medication, but that also seems to leave him without a lot of his former spark. That's difficult, but it's definitely better than the mayhem his life had descended into without it. At least now I don't dread visiting him. I also worry about his privacy, but ultimately this is something that's had a pretty profound impact on my life, and I need to be able to talk about it from time to time. Not very often, but every now and then. I don't know. Bloody life. Good luck with your roommate.

I was going to draw the Gerstmann comparison as somewhat ironic, but I decided that it was a different thing for advertisers to manipulate editorial for their own interests than it is for audience to lobby advertisers over editorial content aimed at them.* The Intel situation is still incredibly shitty and ridiculous, but it's not the neat mirror image I at first imagined. I'm so disappointed by Intel, though. Not that I ever had any particular respect for them, but I assumed that this at least would be beneath them. I'm sure there are way bigger ethical concerns for them. I'm sure they sell chips to all sorts of distasteful organisations, and probably their whole business depends on all sorts of shady manufacturing practices, but apparently some Internet complaints about a single misinterpreted opinion piece by a games journalist crosses some sort of a line for them. * I know Gamasutra is a niche publication and the majority of the lobbiers probably aren't in its intended audience, but it's publicly available and regardless doesn't have the same power dynamic as a company influencing the coverage of its own product.

Who is the Nadia of the Simpsons?

Beautiful! I'm so enchanted.

YOU TAKE THAT BACK.

Yeah, B-bracket is the bane of lettered lists on fora everywhere. If I remember correctly, on IP.Board even if disable emoticons, it forces it to upper case: a) c) Yep. I guess it does the conversion, which is case-insensitive, then undoes it without any knowledge of the original case, which seems pretty dumb.

Yeah, that's really picked up over the last few days. I've followed a couple back because I'm an idiot, but only things that seemed half-way interesting (music I like well enough AND SO ON). More than one of them has then re-followed me, which I found kind of amusing.

Unacceptable. People are paying! Often quite a lot!!

I'm not ready yet.

Apparently I was in the same building as one about a month ago. Damn.

Solution: find some rich maniac we can convince to set up a .guv TLD.

That's amazing! That Wittgenstein quote always makes me think of Thomas Nagel's essay, What Is it Like to Be a Bat?. Though technically I guess it's more concerned with refuting reductionism, I think it's a pretty succinct expression of the progressive inaccessibility of subjective experience; in other words, the more different a being's experience of the world, the less available it is to us.

Hahahaha, I didn't even spot that.

I spent much of that video trying to work out how to express that sentiment. It's weird to watch something so obviously expensive and presumably very popular among its intended audience, and feel utterly unimpressed by it. That was also the video that made me realize I'm quite irritated by the cliché.

Hahahahahaha But why does the first Anonymous guy have blue jeans on? Did the artist suddenly realize that any further detail would be way too much effort?

I'm pretty ashamed of the small amount of excitement I get from seeing American things being set in places I know, even though London has been in pretty much every blockbuster of the past couple of years, it seems. Which is weird. How do these strange Hollywood trends work? Has London been "in" recently?

You people are bumming me out with how down on the Bombcast you are. I still really enjoy it and find Dan funny and likeable. Sure, he's a ridiculous idiot, but he seems to know that he is. That's what separates him from Karl Pilkington or the stereotypical gamer or whatever in my book. It's not necessarily something I'd encourage, but his wilful blissful ignorance hardly seems malicious or damaging to anyone other than himself. His stories about how he got through school were a bit frustrating, but not enough to significantly change how I feel about the man, and certainly not enough to put me off listening to the podcast. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I think he brings a lot of fun to the site.

I want an Idle Thumbs branded fully functional astronaut space suit. I want it YESTERDAY.

Compare with the scrutiny Anita Sarkeesian's gamer cred is subjected to.

Not quite the same, but it amuses me: About five years ago there was a period of a few days when the roof at work was leaking. Someone tied a large mop bucket to one of the ceiling tile rails to catch the drops. That bucket's still there, and no-one notices it, not even new people. . When we point it out to them, they're always surprised and bemused.

I appreciate all the on-brand capitalization.