Recently Resolved Ask MetaFilter Questions

Hi, I'm from AT&T & I'm here to help you. Right.

pjern — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:44:13 -0800

I'm considering upgrading my internet service. I currently have basic DSL from AT&T bundled with a landline. Today a couple of guys with "AT&T uverse solutions provider" ID's came to the door and want to sell me this Uverse service. I'm suspicious. The sales droids (pretty slick guys, you know the type, have an answer for everything no matter how outrageous the objection is) are canvassing the neighborhood with handwritten lists of house numbers. I really don't think they work for AT&T, badges notwithstanding. They have simple sales presentation materials, but their general personas were kind of that of the old "door-to-door magazine salesman" milieu. They told me they are coming around to check up on people who haven't responded to any of the mailed offers for the Uverse service. Well, that part could be true enough- sales material that hits my mailbox detours to the trash can before I get back to the house from the mailbox. I blew them off by telling them my wife pays the phone bill.

I suspect they'll be back. Anyone have any experience dealing with these types of people? Could they be legit?

How do I stop excessive dreams?

kristymcj — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:48:25 -0800

I have excessive dream recall (I dream too much.) I frequently confuse the details of my realistic dreams for reality meaning I reference things in conversation that never happened. If I'm anxious the dreams are nightmares but not night terrors. Anyone mastered this problem? If so, how? I take 10mg Lexapro for generalized anxiety disorder.
I had a prescription for Adivan which I took at night and knocked me out cold. I didn't dream and I woke refreshed. My doctor won't prescribe it because she thinks it will stop working.

Different Modes of Creativity

divabat — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 01:34:35 -0800

What are some creative ways of responding to a journal article or lecture, besides the usual "writing an article about the topic"? For my Cultures and Creativity class, we are required to create a Creative Journal with responses to 6 of the lectures in the semester. They can be anything, but the catch is that they can't all be the same thing - so they can't be all writing, or all paintings, or whatever. (I'm not sure if occasional repeats are OK, but for the moment assume they're not).

What are some good ways of creative expression that aren't too complex (I have a month and a half) and can be easily submitted? Apparently one guy sent in a bar fridge last semester - interesting, but not so feasible. The journal itself can be in any format, and both can be physical or electronic or a combination.

Some ideas I've considered:

Documentary/interviews
Music video
Singing
Poetry
Short story
Non-fiction/essay
Recipe/cooking
T-Shirt Surgery
Photograph (single)
Photo essay
Collage
Drawing
Calligraphy*
Powerpoint presentation
Dance
Acting
Speech
Websites

I'm best at writing, particularly essays and short stories, but again I can't have them all be written pieces. I can cook fine and I'm OK with photographs. My drawing and craft/sewing skills need major work, though fortunately they're not really after skill here.

What other modes of creativity can I try? The more out-of-the-box the better, though I'm not sure stuff like sculpture would fly really.

I'm not sure what their policy is on collaboration. From what I gather, using someone else's work as part of your work (e.g. a collage) is OK as long as credit is given and it's not infringing on licenses, but I don't think I can just pull a random photo off Flickr and claim it to be my response. I'm also not sure if I can get someone else to do the production work based on my concepts (otherwise I could add a few things that I'm not skilled in, such as software coding).

* haha, this is more of a jokey idea. For some reason our uni seems to think Asian arts consist only of Japan and China with the occasional India, and during the Asian Arts lecture they kept banging on about the Japanese concept of ma and how fantastically exotic the Japanese/Chinese are, or some other crap. Being a non-Japanese/Chinese Asian, I found it all too silly, so I thought I'd respond by writing the Bangla syllable for "ma" in Arabic calligraphic style. Except I don't actually know written Bangla and I don't have calligraphy skills or tools. Ah well.

Where can I find a book that breaks down Shakespeare plays by the characters in each scene?

Mr. Bad Example — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:14:17 -0800

ShakespeareFilter: I'm trying to find a book--or something similar to it--that a classmate loaned to me briefly a few months back. Briefly, it had all of Shakespeare's plays with charts showing which scenes each character appeared in and the total number of lines each had. My classmate can't remember the author or title, so I'm stuck throwing this vague question out to the general public. Does anyone know where I can find something along these lines?

Help me phase shift

universal_qlc — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:08:06 -0800

So I've suddenly got to get up four hours earlier than usual... I'm a habitual late riser, and usually get into the office at 10 AM (it's a rather casual office that way). I asked for and received a new assignment at work and this afternoon found out that I need to show up on Monday at 6 AM. I'm totally psyched for my new role, but worried about fading during the day. I want to make sure that I'm alert as possible, especially since I expect to have to take in a lot of information.

Given my late-riser ways and the three mornings I have before now and Monday, what's the best way to make this happen?

Butterfly wedding favors

desjardins — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:00:11 -0800

I ordered 18 boxes of these butterflies for centerpieces/favors for my wedding. What can I do with them? I was thinking of clipping them to some sort of tree-like thing but the local craft store didn't have anything appropriate. If it matters, the reception is indoors, in the fall, at a hotel. There will be ~100 people. Any other ideas for creatively displaying these at a wedding are welcomed. I am not very crafty.

Help me find my wedding shoes NOW

desjardins — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:15:36 -0800

I need an online shoe store that will ship to me on Saturday and that carries bridal shoes. I've looked at DSW, Zappos, and Endless.com and all of them ship "overnight" i.e. one business day, which would be Monday. I need these shoes for Sunday! Bonus points if you can find a seller that carries narrow shoes (size 7). I am looking for something similar to this (Caparros "Alicia," which is apparently discontinued). I'd consider dyeable shoes (I don't actually have to wear these on Sunday, I just need them for the dress fitting) but I don't understand how it works: do you buy shoe dye and do it yourself or do you have to send them somewhere or what?

"Sooney knew what she thought about things." Sound familiar?

EmpressCallipygos — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:28:47 -0800

Bookfilter: In search of older grade school kids' book I read once years ago while visiting my cousin, and kind of dug. All I can remember is that it was a vaguely medieval setting, where the main character was a young woman named either Soony or Sooney, who lived alone in a cottage in the woods; much of the book was taken up with her helping out three different princesses or noblewomen in succession. Towards the very end, Sooney finally meets a young man herself, but rather than a nobleman, he was another salt-of-the-earth person like herself, and HE'S the one she marries. I also remember that once in a while the narration would comment on something wise or common-sensical Sooney did by saying: "That was Sooney. She knew what she thought about things." Does this sound familiar to anyone? The book would probably have been published sometime before the mid-80's, as that's about the time I read it.

Tennis Elbow? Burn yourself.

jrishel — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:27:42 -0800

Help me find an article I remember reading about someone who cured their tennis elbow by (accidentally?) burning their elbow with a soldering iron. Their theory was that the tennis elbow was a nagging injury that was below some threshold where their body wouldn't send enough resources to fully heal, but the burn would caused a rush of healing resources to the area and the tennis elbow got healed at the same time.

I vaguely remember reading an article about this in some waiting room approximately 10 years ago, perhaps Reader's Digest? my google-fu has failed me.

But... my dog has a job. She loves me!

miss lynnster — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:12:25 -0800

Man who was raised in a culture where animals are meant to be working on a farm and not kept for fun... dating a dog-lovin' woman who owns a face-licking puppy. Clearly not a long-term match perhaps, but how to ease the discomfort of either party, respect everyone's feelings, and bypass disagreements? My 12 pound dog is well trained, cute (to everyone but him), and very sweet. She's polite and under voice control. We're very attached, she goes almost everywhere with me. She sleeps at the foot of my bed, and I like her there. I love this dog and she LOVES people, including this man. She wants to say hello and play, and he just stares at her. Sometimes he'll pet her... but later he'll act like he deserved a medal for it. He says he doesn't like pets because they're a responsibility. I tell him, "my dog is MY responsibility though, it doesn't affect you. And you have two children so those are responsibilities too. Many good things in life are responsibilities."

I don't force my dog on him. But I'm not going to hide her, and I can't always control that she wants to say hello to him... she's naturally affectionate (normally not a bad thing). I tell him "I love my dog, sorry but ya gotta deal with it." His favorite argument is that he doesn't understand why people adopt dogs instead of giving a home to a child. Many conversations about pets end up at this argument... which isn't won by saying, "Well, I wanted a dog *because* I didn't WANT a child." I also tried once to compare it to him loving soccer and me hating it but watching it with him anyhow. He says that's a bad comparison.

I know and respect that this is all cultural. I was raised by people who felt that a home isn't complete without a dog curled up at your feet. He was raised in a country where dogs are vermin and animals that are owned by humans live outdoors and are there for a purpose. They're kept solely to have jobs. He resents it that American society implies if you don't love "useless" pets you are lacking compassion. I see his point, because that was my first reaction. But I also think he holds that social pressure against the animals more than actually disliking them... kind of an "Everyone says I have to do this so screw that, I'm not going to. Everyone thinks I have to like pets? Well, no! I HATE DOGS! So there!" It's a bit of a soapbox for him, and it gets tiring because I'm not telling him how to feel, but *I'm* not going to change when I own a dog I adore with all of my heart. He says "Well, I'm fine with you liking your dog. You can keep liking your dog." And then I get annoyed because... why would I need his approval.

As you can tell, it's the conversations about it that get on my nerves more than anything. Every time the topic comes up (even when he hasn't seen my dog for months) my head starts to hurt. I would like it to be a non-issue.

Lately I've just stopped inviting him over and just go to his place. But in the future he'll be visiting me in another city so that won't be an option. When he used to come over to my house, I'd crate my dog sometimes. Other times I'd let her loose and he'd tolerate her. But I saw that her personality started to change as did mine... she seemed kind of depressed because I wasn't giving her as much attention. She would slink away when she wanted to show him love and he didn't respond favorably (she's used to people on the street happily rubbing her belly), and when I'd try to crate her she started to cower and whimper like I was being mean. It's hard for me because in my mind, she's my baby (he winces when I say that) and frankly, it's HER house more than it is his. But dogs are dogs and people are people and I want to respect his issue. I'm allergic to cats but have learned to like my friends cats and respect that it's their home and not mine. I'm flexible like that, though. Not sure he is ready to think that way. Not sure how to make this situation totally comfortable for all people and puppies involved, or if I even can.

Any suggestions on how to keep this from being a repeated topic of conversation and stress? To be honest, if I have to choose between the two... the dog wins. But I would rather not have to go there. I'd like to appreciate the good parts of my relationship with him and adore my beloved puppy too, without the two clashing.

Sorry this is so long.

I'm building a computer -- what do I need to know?

katrielalex — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:54:21 -0800

I'm building a computer. What do I need to know? I'm going to uni (college for you Americans) in October and I want to build myself a computer for then. It's going to be medium-high-end -- ~£800 -- as it's hopefully going to last the next three years of games, upgrades, OSs and so on. I know what components I want - I can sort those out by myself.

The thing is, I've never built a computer before. I have poked around in their insides to install RAM, hard drives and so on, but that's not really the same thing. So I don't know what else you need actually to assemble the bits and pieces into a computer. For example: I can buy the individual components -- will they each come with the cables etc I need? Do I need to buy power cables for each component or do they come with the PSU? How about USB ports built into the case -- do they need special, I don't know, connectorthingamajigs and will those come with the case? Will the CPU come with a heatsink, thermal paste and whatever you need to attach it to the motherboard?

At the moment the following is the entire contents of my shopping cart. Basically, what else do I need to turn these into a computer?

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Kingston 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ecc CL5 Unbuffered 1.8V

Kingston 1gb DDR2 800mhz/PC2-6400 Non-ecc CL5

Inno3D 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 Wind Edition Cooler Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

Maxtor 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM

Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM

Antec Solo Quiet Mini Tower Case - Piano Black/Silver - No PSU

Seasonic S12 II 380W PSU - 12cm Fan 80Plus Efficiency

BenQ G2400W 24" TFT Monitor 1920 x 1200250 cd/m2 5 ms 16:9 HDMI/DVI-D/VGA Black

Logitech X-530 5.1 Speaker System - 70W RMS

Logitech Trackman 2-Button Optical Cordless Trackman Wheel Mouse - PS2/USB

Extra Value 1.3 Megapixel Snake Neck Webcam - USB

Startech Latching SATA Cable M/M - Straight 18"

P.S. I have thought about these component choices but I'm no expert so for instance if this particular PSU is known to be utterly crap and overprices, and the alternative Someoneware PSUII is half the price and never breaks, I'd like to know :)

A robot short haunts us.

Coatlicue — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:55:27 -0800

About 9 years ago, my brother and I saw a short animated film on the Independent Film Channel (he says). It was about floating robot-things residing in a place similar to that of the one Homer went to the time he slipped into the third dimension. Our heads are exploding, because we cannot figure out what this freaking short was named, or anything else about it. The plot kicked off with two robot-things travelling by floating in the air, side by side as if they were in a car. BUT THERE WAS NO CAR!

Suddenly, the "driver" stops. The "passenger" asks, "Why have you stopped?"

Driver: Something is in the way.
Passenger: What is in the way?
Driver: I do not know.

There is nothing in the way of these robots, but they're acting as if there is. The passenger then asks the driver some question I don't remember, and the driver lets an overlong pause go by before answering, "Yes".

Then we meet two other robots. If I remember correctly, they were the same type of robots as the previous two. But these two are making fun of the other robots on this plane, by mocking their conversation, right down to the extended pause before the driver-robot-thing says "Yes". My brother and I got the impression that these guys were bored sentry types with a capability to make jokes and be bored (and understand anything) that the other inhabitants of this plane didn't have.

What the hell was this short? Neither my brother nor I have had any luck digging it up since we suddenly became curious about this a few years ago.

Also, by "animated", I mean that it was either animated by means of COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY, or that such an effect was simulated.

something to do in seattle for a rag-tag bunch?

epersonae — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:16:26 -0800

SeattleFilter: picking up my mom & a friend at Terminal 30 on Sunday, then doing something with them and 3 other relatives, including a 10 year old kid. Any suggestions for parking or fun things to do? I live in Olympia, will be driving up with mr. epersonae, then driving mom + friend to Olympia to their B&B after the day's outing.

mr. epersonae will be driving; he hates driving in Seattle traffic (alas, he is the far superior driver); neither of us is huge on crowds. mom has been to Seattle several times and has seen all the usual touristy places. I have no idea what the 10-year-old is interested in, although I will be asking her mom tonight.

also: should I rent a van/SUV? we have a mid-size/smallish 4-door hatchback, and might be able to borrow a slightly larger car, but I'm a little nervous about trying to fit people and stuff for the ride home. OTOH, when I looked, it was way expensive because of the stupid holiday weekend. is it worth ponying up the extra $$$?

right name for a type of plumbing thing?

epersonae — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:39:42 -0800

what's-it-called-filter: I want to add a water spigot for gardening away from the house, rather than having it come directly out of the wall. What should I be searching/asking for?! What I want is something like this, but with modern plumbing. I've seen them in our neighborhood, but don't know what it's called. Would like to be able to search, or at least talk to a plumber without going all hand-wavey.

mr. epersonae uses "standpipe" just as a matter of course, but he wasn't sure if that was the right name, and I'm not turning up anything in searching. (Except for crazy stuff like this guy in a Hooverville!) Thanks.

Where should I shop?

epersonae — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:49:48 -0800

Going to Austin (from WA state) next month, have little or no warm weather clothing. Should I buy clothes here or there? I'm going to SXSWi (yay!) but since last spring I've lost 50 pounds and several clothing sizes. I really only own a couple of outfits at all, and they're pretty clearly for office wear in Washington in winter.

I'd like to have a few outfits to wear in 70+ degree weather. Should I do some shopping now, or take my first afternoon after I get there?

Now: more leisurely shopping, less jet lag, I know where I'd go.
Later: probably easier to find weather-appropriate wear, less to carry on the plane, could be fun.

Sales tax is about the same either way. I have no idea if I'll find things cheaper there or here (Olympia/Tacoma).

What else should I take into consideration? Also, general opinions welcome!

If I shop Austin, suggestions for places to go? (Mid-30s woman, tallish but not super-tall, dress size in the 10-12 range, somewhat fashion-impaired.)

I'm going to be renting a bike, so I'll be looking for relatively sporty clothes that also look good inside. (I'm thinking skorts/capris.) Also, that means that driving anywhere in Austin is out.

How to hookup 2 external monitors to a laptop with one VGA port?

greenknightwatch — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:31:38 -0800

What's the best way to setup 2 external monitors on a laptop with just one VGA port ? I have two Acer AL2216W 22" LCD monitors (1680x1050) that I want to use to provide a dual screen display running off a Inspiron 6400 laptop.

The Inspiron 6400 has one VGA port and no DVI port. I have seen several USB to DVI or USB to VGA adapters which allow you to add an extra video output. Some of these units have external video cards in the cable. Some cables do not have an external video card.

Has anyone else tried this kind of setup with similar laptops, monitors? What equipment did you use to provide a second monitor output on your laptop?

Will the government be taking more of my money?

TheArpenter — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:46:04 -0800

Will I be losing my stimulus check because of back student loans that I am now paying? Basically, I was a deadbeat and didn't pay my student loans for... oh about 4 years. Yes, it was dumb. Now, I have decided to be a grownup, and two months ago started paying them after their seized my tax return. I created a schedule of payment and have not been late.

Will I be losing my stimulus check? According to the collection agency Sallie Mae uses they will no longer be going after my wages to pay this debt since I have created a payment plan with them.

I am in the US, and thanks for all your help. (Please be nice, this is my first ever post on anything Metafilter!)

Old tapes worth keeping.

typewriter — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:19:18 -0800

How should I store these 20-year old cassette tapes with historic value? At some point, I plan to transfer the information on the tapes to a digital format and googling tells me it won't be insanely difficult. I've also read this question/answer but I think I am not comfortable sending out the tapes due to some sensitive content. In the meantime, I want to keep the tapes in the best condition possible so that when I have the time/resources to do the transfer they will be in good shape. The microphone used seems to be quite high-quality, as there is a lot of audio detail that obviously I would like to preserve. In a standard home environment, what is the best storage solution for these tapes?

Heeere fishy fishy fishy

chihiro — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:57:25 -0800

How long can our fish live in the plastic bag from the pet store? I promised my 3-year-old a fish once she was potty trained, and today was the day. We brought home the tank, 4 guppies, and a blue mystery snail, who are waiting in the plastic bag from the pet store until their tank is ready. The instructions said to cycle the tank with the dechlorinating solution and filter for 48 hours, but it occurs to me that the fish might die in their bag before that time. How long can they live in the bag, and do we really need to let a 2 gallon tank cycle for 48 hours? Thanks!

Spreadsheet Cleanout

moocheen — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:03:21 -0800

Help me remove unwanted spreadsheet info - I want to archive a massive buch of data from years of Excel spreadsheets but, I don't want to save all the extra gumph associated with macros and links in spreadsheets. The Spreadsheets are financial models built from templates which rely on Macros and Links to other sheets to grind the results out.

I just want the numbers in the sheets, no calculations, no macros - these numbers are locked in stone.

Right now the Spreadsheets are about 3 meg each and I don't want to load them in to a repository like this when they could be broken down to a couple of hundred kB.

Is there a magic tool available to do this en masse to several hundred sheets in a folder structure?