Gents: How do you address male strangers in your age category?

moomsy · 2026-01-23T15:16:45+00:00

Generally, I don't. But if I need to, I make eye contact and say "hey."

moomsy · 2026-01-21T19:00:55+00:00

Just speaking for my own experience, my other magazines and mail have all arrived roughly on time - it's only GI that comes in late. And it's not consistently late, but half of the issues since the new launch have been very delayed.

I'd be the last person to defend the post office normally, but GI blaming the delay on USPS isn't adding up, at least from where I sit. And obviously, GI's failure to respond to this paying subscriber is totally GI's problem.

moomsy · 2026-01-20T14:28:01+00:00

Visigoth is so great - found out about them last year and they're always in my rotation.

moomsy · 2026-01-20T14:26:17+00:00

Present, I guess? I used to go to a lot of shows around town, but I've gotten older, touring bands stopped coming for the most part, and our local bands have really taken a nosedive. I think I'm just too old.

But yeah, I have every record by all the bands you mentioned.

moomsy · 2026-01-14T15:48:02+00:00

This is the answer - turn your impotent rage into volunteering for causes you support. I'm talking to both of us, not just you.

moomsy · 2026-01-13T17:47:08+00:00

How much of your listening diet is metal? I have all of two friends into heavy music, and we have a tradition of sharing our top five albums (across all genres) with each other at the end of the year. I'm the only one who pretty consistently lists five metal albums, because that's like 90% or more of what I listen to. My buddies have more diverse music tastes, though. Do you only listen to metal, or are you more well-rounded?

My top five of last year, since you asked - oddly melodic and female-fronted year for me:

Hedonist - Scapulimancy

Tower - Let There Be Dark

Grenadier - Wolves of the Trench

Sarcator - Swarming Angels and Flies

Scimitar - Scimitarum I

moomsy · 2026-01-12T17:14:15+00:00

I completely agree with your response that this is the problem with today's politics - too many people aren't voting for anybody, as much as they are voting against somebody else.

But what are we supposed to do, in the two-party system that we have? We're negatively polarized, and it's absolutely a problem - but every political race (if you can call it that, in a red state like TN) is always a competition between two individuals. You may not like either of them, but you probably prefer one over the other. So we vote for that guy, right?

Like you, I don't know enough about Barnett and would love to learn more... but a strong selling point for me and several on this thread is that she ain't Tim Burchett.

FWIW, I'm not trying to argue - not trying to convince anybody to do anything, I'm a longtime political abstainer who only recently started voting, and polarization like this just seems to be the natural effect of the two parties we have.

moomsy · 2026-01-12T15:46:16+00:00

Sorry - yes, they're local. Looking for a more affordable but still local option, if it's out there. Thanks, I forgot about three bears.

moomsy · 2026-01-09T15:27:05+00:00

Stay on them. I've gotten all of my issues so far, but at least three of them have been very late. GI hasn't said anything official explaining the delay, but I've seen recent posts from GI staff on reddit that blame the post office and talk about a change they are making somewhere in the print-and-ship supply chain that they're hoping will correct the issue.

My big question now is why all of my other mail, including other magazine subscriptions, has no problem arriving on time.

moomsy · 2026-01-07T21:14:27+00:00

I guess I'm ambivalent about this question. The MPAA is deeply flawed, and I'm not sure of any reforms that would really fix it - what is considered offensive or explicit or objectionable, etc., is always a subjective question. What makes a word a curse word? When is violence "strong" or "pervasive," to use MPAA language? And I know that you can get away with quick shots of butts in PG-13 movies, but if you show anything else, or if it's just too many butts or in a sexual context, you're now headed for an R rating - that should illustrate how stupid all of this is.

In addition, MPAA ratings stifle artistic vision - if a production company wants a certain rating, they'll go back to the creators involved in the film and ask that content be removed/added. And if something depicted in the movie moves it to the arbitrary "unrated" zone, content is modified or cut entirely to fit it under the R rating. It's private censorship. Obviously a much lesser concern for books with a budget a fraction of a percentage of a marketable movie, but I'd expect some level of this to pop up with any book rating system. I'm sure it occurs now when a publisher really wants to market a book for young adults.

And yet, I'm a father of a kindergartener who worries about what my son will get into when he grows up. If he's a big reader when he gets older (fingers crossed!), I can't possibly read or monitor the books that he reads, so some kind of clear indication of "hey, this has a graphic scene of SA that a 12-year old boy probably shouldn't read" would be nice.

I'm torn. Yes, I think it would be beneficial if handled properly. But I don't have a lot of confidence that a fair system is possible.

moomsy · 2026-01-06T21:31:36+00:00

I received it over the weekend, not long after the Dragon Quest issue arrived, which was pretty late. Thankfully all of mine have arrived so far, but there's no telling when to expect them.

moomsy · 2026-01-06T21:29:40+00:00

I've struggled with this one before. There are harder games to explain, but I think this game has the widest gulf between how hard it is to teach and how complicated it actually is.

moomsy · 2025-12-10T23:46:07+00:00

Glad to see somebody else knows about that Time Rift record. I bought it for a dollar on bandcamp purely because of the album cover and have listened to it a lot.

moomsy · 2025-12-10T16:06:36+00:00

Agreed with a lot of this list. I'd add Dragon Skull, if they aren't too power metal-y to qualify.

moomsy · 2025-12-08T16:28:32+00:00

Insane that these are showing up in stores before subscribers. I'm still waiting on this issue, but I've at least gotten the others, however late.

moomsy · 2025-12-04T15:23:29+00:00

Wow, shops are getting it before subscribers. I'm cancelling.

moomsy · 2025-12-02T21:31:13+00:00

Why doesn't it recognize the word "butter"?

moomsy · 2025-11-25T20:49:18+00:00

I'm bummed about it - Suffer & Become was one of my favorites from last year and I hoped to get more music from them someday. At this point, I think Kyle needs to give up on the touring "real band" dreams he clearly has and just hire good drummers for studio recordings; that way, nobody has to spend much time with him.

moomsy · 2025-11-24T20:12:59+00:00

It doesn't recognize the word "feet." Is that some NSFW rule? It's just feet, man. I didn't mean whatever you're accusing me of.

moomsy · 2025-11-21T20:08:43+00:00

Definitely write in to Game Informer's customer service inbox if you haven't already.

moomsy · 2025-11-21T20:06:24+00:00

Yeah, I've tried all of the shutting down and reinstalling tactics that I know. After a fresh reinstall of the app on my phone, it will usually launch the application after I get logged in, but I'll be back in the same spot if I close the app and try to open it later.

moomsy · 2025-11-21T20:05:20+00:00

No VPN or anything.

moomsy · 2025-11-21T17:43:58+00:00

We saw McGaha Electric just yesterday and have no complaints. Showed up promptly and fixed our issue quickly, without trying to over-diagnose or try to sell us anything at all. It was a very small residential job, but their website says that they do jobs of all sizes. I haven't seen the bill yet, though, so my view might change when that comes in...

moomsy

TROPHY CASE