I'm happily married at 33 in my first marriage and I don't think we're going to split any time soon.  I don't see divorce in the future and I'm glad about that.

I don't know how it happened with you.  Did you not decide dating was important?  My sister is 35 and she's single, never been married.  She never really went out or tried to physically attract guys because she wanted them to like her for her intelligence and personality.  All the good guys are now gone where she lives and there's not much left, unless she's into divorcees, which she isn't.

I think the trick is to find someone who enjoys the approximate same amount of alcohol and sex you like.  That works for my marriage and we're happy.

There's a difference between freedom of speech and communicating hate crimes.  You can't yell, "FIRE" in a crowded movie theater, for example, and it is not a limit to freedom of speech to have that rule.

Speech and thoughts and ideas should not be limited.  That's why things like the internet are limited in some countries like China and North Korea.  Ideas are the most dangerous things out there, especially when provided to a large mass of people.  Literacy is equally dangerous and history has shown us that ruling classes go out of their way to keep the lower castes and classes out of their way.

People do have to accept consequences of their actions and their voice.  Freedom isn't free and if you are going to tell others your beliefs, be prepared to face their opinions.  Murder is never the right answer but as shown by Hebdo, it can happen.

thing1 : No I don't just yet.  I'm going ambitious and I expect I'll find something pretty quick.  We can survive without me having a job for a few months and I just don't have the time to job hunt as aggressively as I want to when I'm working so many hours.  The decision to quit so I can find something different takes in consideration the savings from not spending gas money driving, not spending money on day care, and not spending the time on the road commuting too and from work.

I will find something, and quickly.  I just need to dedicate the time to really knock on some doors.  I'm not worried I'll be out of a job for a long time.  Someone, maybe Abe Lincoln, once said the enemy of great is good enough.  Things are good enough but I don't see major upward movement.  It's better to sacrifice now and have a nice set up down the road when we need more.

I have put in several years at the YMCA and I'm happy with what I've done.  I have decided to move on to different pastures and I'm asking the community of VIzzed: What should I do to prepare to leave?

How did your last quitting go?  What did you do before hand or after?

It's a good question and I'm not surprised anyone has answered it.  If you want this sort of discussion, CNN is a good place to go or some of the other websites.

I think people can control their own fate and make decisions about their lives as long as they don't put others as risk.  Suicide by cop or suicide by train inconveniences and affects other people.  That's not cool.  If you want to load yourself up with sodium pentothal or whatever they use, feel free because it has no effect on me and what I do in my day to day.

If someone wants to die because the pain of incurable disease is terrible let them die.  It's that easy.  Who are we to say no?

If someone wants do die because someone made fun of them on Facebook..... that's a different story.

FaithFighter : There are some threads I make that go nicely and get debate and response and some that flop.  You can't really control it.  I looked at what you wrote about or posted threads and you have very specific questions that don't necessarily give interest for the major demographic of this website.  Remember: Most folks here are younger than you.  They're not 'kids' but they are here for Pokemon and video games.  A majority of posts are about your favorite Pokemon.

When you write questions and create threads, make them relateable to other people.  You may be really interested in the subject but you're not reaching all the other folks.  Make things simple.  My biggest hit was "What do you see out your window?"  Simple, easy, everyone can answer.  It's not the most exciting stuff, like, "How many shoes do you own?" but it gets responses and people talk.  The high level, intellectual conversation simply happens between four or five of us, or doesn't happen.

Keep figuring out what people like.  You'll be fine.

I'm not a huge tv guy and there are very few shows outside of sports that I will make an effort to sit down and watch.  My wife likes watching tv on Netflix and she'll watch a show start to finish.  I'll jump in with her and follow as long as things are interesting.

If we were to count sports, the past three things I watched were Michigan and Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State, and the Superbowl.  But sports don't count in this, I think.  It's not the spirit of the conversation.

1.  Dexter - My wife has been watching this with regularity and she really enjoys the show.  I like the character development and the story lines and even though it's starting to get a little chinzy for me.  I'll sit for 50 minutes on the couch and drink a beer while she gets absorbed into the story.

2.  PBS's "The Civil War" - This was a Christmas gift for me and I'm watching it.  They just finished up the first Manassas, or Bull Run, and it turns out the Confederates aren't going anywhere and aren't going to be whipped in 90 days.  I love history and the American Civil War really is a great touchstone on American culture.  You can't understand where the United States is today and why we are the way we are without a basic understand of our civil war.

3.  Archer - This is the greatest cartoon ever produced, with the exception of Ren & Stimpy (maybe).

Sword legion : It may be different than European expansion and imperialism because of the aliens' culture.  Anyone who can bridge massive gaps of space travel are probably some of the smartest guys in the room.  They should have developed the ability to be diplomatic without violence.  Hopefully, they understand that peace and knowledge is the way to stopping people from killing each other and causing pain and violence in the world.

Maybe they have a message of religious intent to spread, like when Jesus walked around and told people how nice it would be if everyone were kind to each other.  We've had groups of people try to do that here.  The imperialists just happen to win during European expansion because naked aggression wins.

Imagine aliens putting down militants with no effort.  ISIS wouldn't last long if a group of aliens came down and wiped them all out.

The gaming industry follows the money.  People will shell out money over and over to play the same thing like Call of Duty.  Why would I, as a programmer or video game producer, risk time, money, and effort to try something new when I know something else will work.

Look at movies.  There are the same movies over and over and over and over.  We get a few comic book movies and Marvel movies and they just keep doing that because it's money.  

Look at Pokemon.  It's the same thing over and again the past fifteen years.  Kid trains at low gyms, meets kind of a girl, and saves the world from the same bad guys.  There's not much change in how it goes.

If gamers stopped buying the continuation of games and demanded something new by not buying the next year of Madden, Call of Duty, Pokemon, etc, then the industries will find something new.

Yes, it's the gamers who buy the same crap over and over that stifle the industry.

I'm curious to hear what people think would happen if people made contact with aliens.
What happens to world politics and religion?  How is your daily life different?

I'm replaying the old NES Dragon Warrior games and I have a question that has been the bane of all gamers since the beginning of time.

Do you buy the less expensive defensive armor in RPGs first or do you save up, buy more expensive weapons, and get armor later?
What's the way you manage your equipment?

Dragon Warrior was the original Role Playing Game with a built in battery for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The game follows the story of a descendant of a famous warrior who is now tasked to defeat the new darkness in the continent.  The Dragonlord is your named enemy and you fight monsters, level up, improve your stats, and buy new weapons and gain information through various towns and cities, all in the name of the defeat of this terrible scourge.

The game is good for the time.  It doesn't age well and it's very one dimensional after you get the idea.  The story telling is basic but good enough to pass muster and the RPG side of things don't make you go fetch this that and the other.  Later RPGs, notably Dragon Warrior III, fall into a trap of "Get this for this particular person."  Dragon Warrior I stays true to home where every item you seek drives your own development, not that of random characters you don't see again.

GRAPHICS: The designs of monsters are good for the time.  They flipped the orientation and color to make three types of monster per image and it plays well because different monsters have different skills.  I remember being floored by the overworld map and how huge it was.  It also lets different cities have different themes and feelings.  There's a town surrounded by walls, there's a town destroyed long ago, and so on.  Each continent has different enemies and fun towns to investigate.  The graphics of the towns are respectable and the terrain makes sense. 

SOUND: Magic and battle sounds start to blend together and the music is repetitive.  There's nothing special here except it was the first of its kind.

ADDICTIVENESS: Personally, I hate the word addictiveness the same way I hate the word 'obsessed."  This game is not addictive only because it is fairly straight forward without much change.  You can explore, see new things, but the general game play is 1. Fight bad guys for a while, 2.  Level up and get more P, 3.  Buy new weapons,  4.  Go to next area to fight new bad guys.  Most of the game is spent grinding out levels so you can go fight the ultimate bad guy and go win.  I find I can beat the game at Level 21, so I don't need to do all sorts of leveling and spend that much time grinding down the road.  The linear set up is a great story and it's fun to play but once you beat this guy, you'll be good for ten years until you go back and play for nostalgia's sake.

STORY: The story is good.  It's creative and there's a princess to save from a dragon and some extremely minor side stories based on the various towns and cities you go to.  Characters have things happen to them and the villagers are mildly realistic in their mini comments.  I like the way the story plays out because it is simple enough to follow but the pieces you need to find to create the rainbow bridge make it interesting enough you don't get lost in game play.  

DEPTH: See "ADDICTIVENESS."  The depth is decent because there are different weapons, different bad guys with different attack strategies and the final dungeon is a mess of false doors, repeating stairwells, and nasty enemies that can mess you up.  There isn't much in the way of side quests so you can focus on the task at hand.  You also aren't distracted much but a lot of little missions to complete the main mission.  It's straight forward enough to keep you on the ball.

DIFFICULTY: When I played this as a kid, I got so frustrated because I didn't understand grinding.  The late 80s were a time when RPGs didn't exist and we had no idea why we couldn't beat the next step.  It came eventually but this was the first of its kind and it killed me.  I took my time this last play through and it was easy, if not time consuming.

Dragon Warrior won't capture anyone's attention if you didn't grow up with it.  It's a simple story that requires too much time to really engage anyone under 30.  It's worth a play for nostalgia but I recommend anyone trying NES RPGs to find something else to cut their teeth.  It's a good game, but only as a repeat.

When someone is sorry for doing something, they want to take it back and not do it because they hurt themselves or others.

When someone is sorry for being caught, they are glad or happy they did what they did, regardless of hurting others, but they feel bad another person knows what they did.  They're sorry the person found out because they would have otherwise gotten away with it.

It mostly refers to cheating.  If I am dating a girl and I kiss another girl, I might feel bad that I did it because I know my girlfriend would be upset, angry, and hurt.  I would wish I never did it because I feel bad for evoking those emotions in my girlfriend and our relationship.

If I felt bad for being caught, that means I liked kissing the other girl, I'm glad I did it, I don't care if my girlfriend would be hurt enough because I got away with it and it wasn't an issue.  Then I get caught or someone tells and I suddenly feel bad because I was busted.  I'm still glad I kissed the other girl, I'm just unhappy my girlfriend knows now because she's angry at me.

Does that make sense?

zanderlex : Final Fantasy?  Those are easy games to beat when you grind out levels and become ultra strong.  And you get all the game FAQs online.  I'm surprised to see Final Fantasy on here.

I gave up on Battletoads and Ghosts 'n' Goblins as a kid.  They were impossible for me to achieve levels and I still am baffled when I see people beat them on youtube or wherever.  I also gave up on Bully for Playstation 2 because it simply didn't hold my attention as much as other games did.  I moved on quickly from that one.

I generally stick with games until they're beaten or I consider I've had enough 'fun' to call it a day.  And the sports games where you have dynasty modes don't really have an end of game.  I just move on the next year.

I wouldn't say it's weird but if you're doing to be specifically different and contrary or you somehow try to pull of some sort of "popular music and radio music is lame," then I'd think negatively towards you.

Music makes connections with memories and both negative and positive thoughts and emotions.  If all your experiences are video games and you live and die with characters, stories, and game progression, it makes total sense you would connect emotionally with songs from those stories.  You can hear a song and remember the first time the main character had to kill a collosus or whatever those guys were called.  You can hear music and remember playing Halo for the first time with your friends.  You can remember the emotion you felt when you saw the hook in Gears of War.

It's fine.  It's not weird. 

I read different posts and I'm always entertained by how much discussion is involved with rules.  People rush to say, "THIS... IS... THE... RULE!" and make judgements from there.  I estimate 10% of all posts are debates on content following rules and being correct.

There is no "Spirit of conversation."  It all seems to fall under "Close the thread."

imamonster : hit 2,000 posts and was shot down without any problem.  2,000 is a nice round number and a good milestone.  I might not like the guy but he gets crushed by the mods and the thread is closed.  Bam!  Why invoke rules when someone was just having fun and celebrating something they find important?

So, the question here is, would you rather be happy or right?

Me?  Rules... whatever.  I take happy.

In case no one was paying attention, humans are a violent bunch of animals.  We're bred to eat protein and hunt animals and kill them.  If you're one who believes science over religious texts, early humans took on Cro-Magnon man and outperformed him because humans figured out how to swing clubs more efficiently.

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor." - Robert Heinlein.

He's right.  War and violence get our attention, they are necessary in survival situations and the game you watched is a fair representation of that sort of event.

I watched the video.  I went on youtube and checked it out.  To me, it was realistic.  People are in high stress situations and research shows profanity helps deal with stress.  Of course they're cursing.  If all that was happening, I may let the f word fly myself.

This game was designed for 30 something year old males who want violence and who want to shoot zombies and other people.  If you want a gentle zombie game, it's called Plants vs. Zombies as you pointed out.

There's nothing pleasant or nice about zombies.  They eat humans.  Why would anyone want a game around that which is nice and pleasant is beyond me.  

Luckily you, Supernerd, can hit the "I'm done" button and be done with it.  I'll play the game.  And we'll all be happy with our decisions.

Wait until you get good at making grilled cheese sandwiches and you start playing with them.  I like to go with a nice sharp cheddar, two slices, and I find a way to sneak some bacon, some thin tomato slices, and even oregano or basic shakes of herb in between the cheese.

I also heat the pan up to a nice medium heat.  You can't burn the butter on the bread but the cheese takes time to melt if you do it right.  When you learn to cook with medium heat instead of high all the time, things can come together very nicely.

Bacon, tomatoes, sharp cheese flavors, a nice roll of bread, butter..... What else is there?

Light Knight : I don't know anyone who had a magical and wonderful first kiss.  The pressure of it, the expectation, the actual act, the feelings, the tastes.... it's all so foreign and unusual it can't be executed well.  There are people who've kissed other people and are still bad at it.

It wasn't all I hoped for but I didn't know what I was going into.  And I don't call little kisses, even lips, to be real 'first kisses.'  By my definition there has to be some sort of tongue, some awkwardness, and then you've done it and you can scratch it off your list.