OT: Looking for a new thing...

[Puke]

i dunno about that, Yoshinkan Aikido involves alot of tar-beating. its a fairly violent form of an otherwise not-so-volent Do, and is mandatory training for Tokyo riot police.

most other forms of Aikido probably wouldnt be for you. as was suggested earlier, there are lots of places that train in special forces (Soviet, Israeli, US branch of choice) forms. Judo might also be good for you, and several places teach street or 'practical' jujutsu that are mixed with various other forms like you may see on UFC.

You can also find 'practical' schools of Kungfu and other chinese arts, but you have to look pretty hard to do it. popular schools tend to be showy, and lots of 'street fighting self-defense' courses are just BS to make you feel good.

a good rule of thumb is that if something looks cool when its being done, its probably fake. effective arts should leave you wondering what the heck you just saw, because you didnt notice anything significant happening between the start of the technique and the guy hitting the ground.

I would suggest that you pick a couple things and cross train. or of you pick one thing, to study different schools of that one thing so as to see it from different angles. the benefits of cross training are huge.

[AgentZero]

Instar, I've got almost the opposite problem to you. I'm about the same height (ok, an inch taller), but you've got about 60-80 pounds on me, and I wouldn't exactly say a sizeable portion of my mass is muscle either. However, a not-so-pleasant childhood has left me extremely proficient at, as you put it, beating the tar out of punks.
I've gone along to a few martial art classes, but found that their main purpose was to give people the confidence to be in a real fight, rather than actually teach them anything that they could really use. If you don't feel you have that confidence, any martial art will give it to you. If you feel you have it already (and I don't see why someone your size wouldn't), I can tell you about 6 simple tricks that'll bring you out on top in just about any fight.
Which I'll post later cause it's lunch time and I'm starving. ;-)

[Instar]

AgentZero said:
Instar, I've got almost the opposite problem to you. I'm about the same height (ok, an inch taller), but you've got about 60-80 pounds on me, and I wouldn't exactly say a sizeable portion of my mass is muscle either. However, a not-so-pleasant childhood has left me extremely proficient at, as you put it, beating the tar out of punks.
I've gone along to a few martial art classes, but found that their main purpose was to give people the confidence to be in a real fight, rather than actually teach them anything that they could really use. If you don't feel you have that confidence, any martial art will give it to you. If you feel you have it already (and I don't see why someone your size wouldn't), I can tell you about 6 simple tricks that'll bring you out on top in just about any fight.
Which I'll post later cause it's lunch time and I'm starving. ;-)

Sure, I'm interesting in hearing this. Good comments on the confidence bit.
As to a handgun, I'm considering getting a concealed carry and suppressor license. All my bases will be covered, but then again, Im a crazy nut. It's really not that big of a deal.
Right now though, I'm going to work on training for the NAS Strongman competitions. Should be interesting...