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I will be stuck next to a Fundamentalist for 5 hours. I don't want to debate. How can I keep him quiet? | I will be seated next to a co-worker for a 5-hour flight. I don't know the details of his religion, but others have told me that he is very forward and tries to force his hardcore beliefs on others. I do not wish to share my views with anyone at my work, and though most of them are likely Christian, they are not pressed to know about my beliefs. They probably think I am an ordinary Christian like themselves and I would prefer to keep it that way. So what would be some good ways to shut this person's preaching down without revealing my beliefs (or lack thereof)? | 31 | [
{
"body": "Tell him that you feel the topic of religion is a personal one and that you are uncomfortable discussing it with others, therefore ask if he would like to talk about anything else.",
"score": 39
},
{
"body": "Tell him that you have seen God in a vision, and that you now have a hard time believing in the whole \"Mary was a virgin\"-thing, whenever he tries to debate you just plainly state \"That is not how God expressed his views to me.\"",
"score": 34
},
{
"body": "\"My mother taught me that it's rude to talk about politics, religion and a women's age.\"\r\n\r\nSeriously, if a person wants to confront you about religion, there's not much you can do to stop them. All you can choose is how to respond. You can simply repeat \"thank you, but I don't want to talk about it.\" You can lie about not feeling well: \"sorry, but the infant I had for breakfast isn't sitting well in my stomach.\" You can be direct about it: \"I'm sorry, but I refuse to debate with religious fanatics.\" Be creative and see what you come up with.",
"score": 24
},
{
"body": "Religion is personal, Professionalism is to be shared. Discussing religion, if it makes another (even one of the same religion) uncomfortable, in a situation that is so blatantly work related, is unprofessional and you would appreciate it if he stuck to work related subjects. Try that.\n\nOn a similar note you could say something to the effect of \" It would be great to discuss this but lets talk about the (client, assignment, approach, etc.).\" Return focus to why you are on the trip. ",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "I am very happy that you have found something that keeps your soul at peace. So have I. So how bout them Knicks?",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "I honestly feel bad for American atheists at times. The fact that you actually face discrimination in the workplace for being atheists is just unimaginable to me. I wouldn't even hesitate to shut someone like this up. I have told colleagues before to bugger off with their proselytising.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "My mother used to use this line on door-to-door missionaries: \"I take my personal salvation very seriously, and as such I do not discuss it with just anybody. Good day.\" <shuts door>",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "Sedation. Or start off by telling him you're a Stalinist and feels all religious people should be executed.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Troll him and learn about him. He will provide good material for you to attack and use on other people. Pretend you're interested and be nice to him, when really you're digging through his idiotic beliefs chalking up flaws.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Try [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiYhMyRJicc):\n\n> Stephen: ... a passage in Genesis that has been intriguing me rather.\n\n> Hugh:\tIt is fascinating isn't it? But anyway, tell me about\n\t\tthe size of your girlfriend's breasts.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I remember an interesting encounter with some door knockers when I was pregnant with my first child. When I answered the door, one of them asked, \"Are you ready to meet your god? The end of the world, in fire and flood is near.\" Thanks to the hormones, I burst into tears. (I did the same with the ads for Laverne and Shirley, the telephone company, and Coke's 'Teach the world to sing' promotion, but they didn't know that. They ran. \n\nI recommend that you politely share that your pregnancy makes you particularly emotional and that you'd rather not discuss it. This will be especially effective if you're male.\n\n(Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM older than dirt, as you can tell by the specific ads. You youngsters will have to look up the references, I suppose.)",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "If the excellent \"I don't discuss religion\" suggestion does not work, i.e., he persists, you have only one option left. The nuclear option. \r\n\r\n\"Alright, I didn't want to have to do this but...\" You fiercely inform him that he is an abominable sinner for wearing mixed cloth or whatever. You outcrazy him. Be very, very earnest and serious. Insist that he join in the crusade to keep menstruating women out of church and that they must be silent. Bewail the mass eating of cheezburgers. Recruit him to your \"stop cheezburgers\" campaign. And such as. \r\n\r\nIt's worked for me. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Headphones and before you put them on, say \"oh just so you know I already won there is no god and you cant prove there is\" then put your headphones on and listen to some jams",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Bring the nastiest porno magazine you can find with you. The moment he says \"Did you know Jesus (...)?\", open it up and read in awe.\nBetter to be a pervert than an atheist right?",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "If he continued bothering you, video tape it. Document his disrespect for your beliefs and post them online.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Tell him politely, the first time he mentions anything religious, that you would rather not discuss religion with him. Keep it light.\n\nAfter that, you have three choices.\n\n1. Nod and go \"uhuh\" but don't really engage with him or offer any kind of opinion, like you would with someone talking about any topic you have no interest in. If you are a forthright person this may be difficult for you.\n\n2. Firmly explain that you have no interest in his religion, that you will not be converting any time soon, that religion is a completely personal matter and that if he continuous you will have no option but to make a complaint to human resources.\n\n3. Say that although you are interested in his religious convictions, you already have a church, and then ask him to pray with you for a while.\n\nThe third option is basically what I do, especially with the Jehovas guys, because they almost always decline, and then leave you alone.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "\"Does it count as an abortion if you're one of the millions of pregnant women drowned by Yahweh?\"\n\n\"Do you fantasize about getting raped by your daughters like Lot too?\"\n\n\"Do you prefer the talking donkey or talking snake?\"\n\n\"Do you also get hard thinking about Adam, Eva and their kids 'keeping it in the family'?\"\n\n\"Do you oppose gay marriage despite Jebus having two daddies?\"\n\n\"Wanna go stone some non-virgins trying to marry some time?\"\n\n\"Since Yahweh is Jebus, does that mean he fucked his mom to conceive himself?\"\n____\n\nSeriously though, when he won't shut up after kindly asking it, shout \"he's got a bomb!\" and tackle him. That should S him TFU.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "\"I'd really rather not talk about it.\" If he persists, read something or put headphones on. He'll stop if you don't appear to be listening.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Tell them religion is a personal thing and that he should keep it that way as preaching can lead to people disliking that person and even the religion itself",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Bring earplugs (put them in while you're waiting to board) and something to read/play/do. If he talks to you, just say \"what?\" repeatedly, and eventually he will start feeling like a dumbass. If he asks why you're wearing them, tell them the engine noise gives you a headache.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Hey Poetry subreddit, would you consider this Blank verse? (unrhymed iambic pentameter) | I realize I reversed some iambs and rhymed a bit, but that's what poetic license is for, neh?
Lake Worth Meat Puppet
The whores on Military Trail, so brazen,
Peddle their wares. They barter wind-chapped
Flesh and syphilitic sweetness for the
Promise of Hamilton faces. They grin
Crank-rot grins and endure defilement
And sin to win that next hit of the pimp-
Pusher's whim. And looking on, the traffic
Light panhandlers proudly think, "At least I'm
Better than *them*."
| 3 | [
{
"body": "Well, you haven't really just \"reversed\" some of the iambs, there's hardly any in here. And certainly to say you've reversed them, you'd have had to first establish them first. Many of your lines begin with 3 stresses. But iambics are boring, awkward, and archaic, so it's not a bad thing.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Dear Reddit, I am bored - what is my life missing? | I've tried drugs, have a girlfriend, soccer is on pause, already drink heavily, seen movies, read books, tried friends, masturbated, looked out the window. So what am I missing?
Edit: charliek has a point, but how about a solution - how does one go about finding som curiosity these days? (Soylent Green?) | 4 | [
{
"body": "Only boring people get bored.\r\n\r\nNot trying to be harsh. My mom said this to me any time I complained of being bored. What she meant (I think, unless she was just being a bitch) is find your passions in life, interests that fascinate you. If you are always curious and open to learning, you'll never be bored.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "You could always go to Darfur or Somalia and become a mercenary, freeing oppressed peoples from the wrath of raging psychopathic warlords.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "You're missing a creative outlet and a passion for something. It may take a while to find something your passionate about, and to get over the inertia to do something creative, but it's far more fulfilling than not.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Hey Trees, just booked my trip to Amsterdam with my smoking buddy. I was wondering if you guys could recommend me some must-try strains? | I asked around /r/marijuana for some tips a month or two ago, but atm trees seems like a better place to ask about what weed to try.
So far the most recommended one has been OG Pure Equatorial Sativa, any others?
All Amsterdam advice is of course welcome :) I'm heading out in a week and a half and I'm proper excited for it! | 15 | [
{
"body": "The Greenhouse has the Lemon Haze. Personally I found all the space cakes to be weak. Go to Route 66, it's near Baba and they have an NYC Diesel along with an AWEOMSE atmosphere to chill in.\n\nGo to the Dampkring (ok the one from the movie to see it) but go to the other one nearer to the marina area they have a grape diesel that is great.\n\nPurple Haze at the Bulldog is a must, (Amsterdam's first coffeeshop). Go the the Grasshopper for the first time just before dusk, get baked inside do your thing etc...it looks so cool at night!!!\n\nDon't fall in love to hard with her, and take a good long look around America before you go because once you sit in a shop, light up and watch prostitutes work legally, then see NO crime and cool cops. You will never look at this giant scam of a nation the same again. \n\nThey are WAY smarter than us.....Wait until you hear them speak perfect English, Dutch and Spanish and then think about how our kids can't grasp our ouw native English that well.\n\nYou will see a clean city with a GREAT public transport system that is built on much more history than the US.\n\nOh, Lays Thai Chili chips....if there was a god and he ate chips, these would be it!!! ",
"score": 17
},
{
"body": "Try the Super Lemon Haze, it won the 2009 Cannabis Cup.\n\nedit: link http://www.cannabiscupwinners.com/hightimes-cup-winners.shtml",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "White Widow, Strawberry Cough (the two together make a salad i like to call \"the strawberry milkshake\" which tastes amazing and gets you suuuuuper high), Sour Deisel, and Purple Kush.\n\n[8]",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "do *not* go to the anne frank house after you've smoked. i was blazed as shit walking through there on the verge of tears the whole time (i am a dude).\n\nmy trip was back in approximately 2004, so i can't remember any specific strains we smoked. everything out there is ridiculous.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "i guarantee that whatever you smoke, you'll get blazed.\n\ndont miss the rijksmuseum (be sure to blaze beforehand - nothing like a massive world class museum when you're half out of your head). if you dont get out of the red light dist. you'll really be missing out.\n\ni suspect shrooms are still legal there - not sure. but you kindof have to look for them. not on the street, over the counter in certain shops.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Try the Cheese. It has a very unique smell and taste, and is still hard to find in many parts of the US.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "He hasn't updated in a while but at http://www.smokersguide.com/ you can find current in-depth reviews of various weed and hash types available in Amsterdam. Weed is crazy expensive there (for Dutch standards) though. Any decent strain will set you back at least 12 euro a gram. Smaller cities are usually much cheaper.\n\nThings to check out in Amsterdam? The [Abraxas](http://www.abraxas.tv/home/home.php) coffeeshop behind Dam square and the [Jolly Joker](http://www.thejollyjoker.com/) are both very nice places to chill out and watch the tourists. Also, the [Tuschinski movie theatre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuschinski) has some amazingly cool interior decorating. Highly recommended while high.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Reddit, I will be in San Francisco for 4 hours on Monday. Where should I go, where should I eat? More follows... | I live on the east coast of the USA, and have never been to California. I am traveling for a meeting in Mountainview, and will only have a few hours to spend in San Francisco on Monday. I will take a cab from the airport to the city, and will then walk around for a few hours.
Can you recommend a good path for a walk with views or sites of interest?
Also, I would like to eat a really good dinner at a local place that uses fresh/local ingredients. Can you make any recommendations? Price is not really an issue.
Finally, I generally seek to avoid touristy attractions. What views/restaurants do local appreciate?
I will post photos and feedback after my trip based on your recommendations. Thanks! | 9 | [
{
"body": "Lived there for a while, and anyone that tells you to go to Fisherman's Wharf is nuts. It's by far the most touristy part of the city. And the Stinking Rose is easily the most touristy restaurant in the city.\n\nIf you're coming up from SFO on the Bart, get out at 16th and Mission. Get a bread pudding and a cup of coffee at Tartine and then go to Dolores Park. You can see all the tiers of the city, which are the most beautiful part. Walk around up in that neighborhood (Noe Valley). Truly breathtaking.\n\nIf you have a little more time, go to the Lower Haight, to the Toronado. Over 200 beers on tap.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Ike's Place on 16th Street makes the best damn sandwich I've ever had. It can take a while so it might not work with your time frame but definitely worth it. Make sure to get lots of Dirty Sauce!",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Do any of you have a "friend of convenience"? | This meaning that this friend will talk to you when it is the two of you together, but when in a group setting they simply ignore you?
Hate that crap. | 72 | [
{
"body": "From the heading, I thought you meant a fuck-buddy. That is the only reason I'm viewing this thread.",
"score": 272
},
{
"body": "I'm probably talking about something totally different from the original poster, but I find one-on-one and group situations have different dynamics. \n\nI may like a person fine one-on-one, but in a group lots of things are going on that make me pay attention to other people. I'm ignoring that one person, but in a benign, unintentional kind of way. \n\n* Maybe that person is quiet so it's easy to get caught up in another conversation.\n\n* Maybe I just got distracted by another group of friends.\n\n* Maybe there's another buddy around who I only see when everyone gets together so I gravitate towards them.\n\n* Or maybe in a group everyone is doing something together, and the one 'ignored' friend usually sort of hovers on the sidelines and doesn't join in. \n\n* If a get together is big enough, sometimes it's just not possible to go around and give an equal amount of attention to everyone. I just kind of assume, \"I know so and so knows I still like them and am friends with them, even if I didn't get a chance to talk to them much at this party.\"\n\nOn the idea of people being too quiet in a group, I've noticed that if someone is only a little reserved, people will make an effort to include them, because the quiet person will then 'do their part' of contributing to the conversation. \n\nBut if someone is consistently super quiet in a group, after a while people sort of give up on them. They may like the person, and have no problem talking to them on their own, but in a group setting they sort of decide, \"Even if I try to reach out to this person and include them, they still won't meet me halfway, so it's easier to just let them sit there.\"",
"score": 56
},
{
"body": "They've plagued me most of my life. I've called a couple on it, basically asked \"You're my friend when you want to be, but not when I need it\".\n\nEssentially, they're using you. Discard them.",
"score": 41
},
{
"body": "The real friends are the ones who do not constantly need your attention to be reassured that you are still friends.\n\n\nThere's different levels of friendship, I don't see why it has to be \"be my bff and be ready to die for me or GTFO\". I don't have the capacity to maintain much more close friendships than I allready have but I always welcome more casual friends.",
"score": 16
},
{
"body": "No, but I have been (need a long German word invented for this ) \"social media collected\" by people who I never, *ever* see in real life, despite my best attempts to meet up with them. You know who I mean - people you know from work or online, and you've met in meatspace, and when you try and reconnect with them for drinks or lunch or a visit where they live, they blow you off - but then, for some fucking reason, they pop up later on LinkedIn or Facebook and try to \"friend\" you - and I'm thinking, why? You won't talk to me, I'll never see you again, so why do you want to add me to your giant collection of fake Internet friends?",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "I did that to a really cool girl when I was a kid. I forget why she spent time with me and my mom away from school (babysitting I think?) but we had a great time going around town and hanging out. Later, back at school the next day or week or whatever it was, I fell back into my boys clique where we would make fun of the girls. It really hurt her feelings and it was ridiculous. I'm sorry Ashley, wherever you are these days.",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "What's worse is a friend who talks to you when you are in a group setting, but doesn't when you are alone.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I found that about 99% of people are this way.\n\nJust stop doing anything at all with them. They are the same people you can jump through hoops to help and ask for a simple two second favor just to get shot down.\n\n",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I had a friend like that once. I hate that bastard. He would be always calling me in the middle of the day while I was in grad school and I like an idiot would be down for his schemes. Whenever I called him with any ideas he would either be busy, or just too lazy. Mind you this guy was a moron, and would place too much worth on the opinion of his bitch of a sister, and incredibly New England patrician family. I thought I was the one hanging out with someone out of sympathy.\n\nI should have never hung out with him again, after he got me beat up when I was on crutches. He was the one who was complaining that the guy was pissing on my parents lawn. Yet when the guy came forward looking for a fight he came at me. I am proud that I did hit the guy in the face with my crutch. However eventually I ended up on the ground with the guy bashing my face into the ground, and my friend did nothing. Even if he was too much of a wimp too fight, he could have called the police.\n\nLong story short, my friend eventually stopped hanging out with me after I introduced him to this girl who was subletting a room in a place I was moving into. She got really drunk and started talking about how the devil was real and out to get her. They then shared their first kiss right after she puked. He then parted company with all of his friends, to become completely devoted to this girl. He even tried to go vegetarian for her, despite the fact that this guy is the only person I know who would eat two sausages and call it a meal. \n\nOh well he is currently sailing around the world on a chartered cruise his parents paid for, and I have moved away. Guess I should stop ranting about this, but it really pissed me off.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "No, but my last serious ex was one to a girl. She was a huge bitch who would make plans with her, but blow her off the second something 'better' came along. It always broke my heart when I saw it, but I could never convince her that she was just being used as a 'backup friend'.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Left Handed Guitarists | The question came up recently about which way to play...lefty or righty. Gibson's website has a short list of famous lefty guitarists.
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/10-great-left-handed-guitarist/ | 11 | [
{
"body": "That's a cool article, thanks for posting. Over the past few years I've become quite enamoured of Otis Rush's style and it has quite unintentionally shown through strongly in my own style\n\nInteresting that you posted this article though, I recently found out that Gary Moore, Duane Allman, Mark Knopfler and Mike Bloomfield are all left handed. Not only did they manage to learn right-handed guitar they are each considered masters of their trade and have schools of followers in each of their respective playing styles.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Ask gamedev: Do you know of any good books on writing games with ActionScript, without Flash? | Hi,
I'm just wondering are there any good books out there on writing games in ActionScript that don't use the Flash IDE? I want to use FlashDevelop or the command line compiler. The book wouldn't specifically have to deal with games I suppose, just deal with drawing graphics and sound etc.
Thanks. | 4 | [
{
"body": "Two books by Kieth Peters:\n\n* [Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move! ](http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Actionscript-3-0-Animation-Making/dp/1590597915)\n\n* [AdvancED ActionScript 3.0 Animation](http://www.amazon.com/AdvancED-ActionScript-Animation-Keith-Peters/dp/1430216085)\n\nThose are both actually great even if you *don't* plan to use AS3 - much of what he covers is useful even with SDL in C or PyGame or whatever.\n\nAn upcoming book that may be good is \"[The Essential Guide to Flash Games: Building Interactive Entertainment with ActionScript](http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Flash-Games-Entertainment/dp/1430226145)\" by the Fulton brothers, the guys who run [8bitrocket.com](http://www.8bitrocket.com). I asked, and they said that most of the book will focus on straight AS3.\n",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "You might want to check out [ActionScript for Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds ](http://www.amazon.com/ActionScript-Multiplayer-Virtual-Worlds-One-Off/dp/0321643364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246403843&sr=8-1)\n\nThe book is geared for developing in pure AS3 and I believe uses Flash Develop for most of the examples. (Full disclosure: I'm a very minor co-author of the book)\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Getting FlashDevelop to compile shouldn't be difficult so that part you can probably figure out by following online tutorials. As far as game development goes, it's a bit different dealing with Flash because you aren't really drawing to the screen. You are instead adding objects to the stage at specific locations. Other than that and its event driven nature, it's not too different from your regular game programming.\n\nI personally just learned how to make Flash games by reading random tutorials online and trial/error. If you have a question about something that troubles you, I'd be glad to answer but I don't have any book recommendations.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Not books, but two libraries you might look at for ideas\n\n* [Flixel](http://flixel.org/) \n \n* [Flashpunk](http://flashpunk.net/)",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "[Essential Actionscript 3.0](http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=actionscript+3.0+book&ved=0CBYQzAMwAA&cid=6673187008002510688&sa=title#p) is one of the better programming books i've read. It has a chapter on just about everything you could want to know. It's not geared directly towards games, but it is a fantastic resource for learning what the language can do.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Reddit! The company I work for is donating relief to Haiti via the Red Cross. Where can I find some solid proof that they keep a majority of the donations? | Any links from reputable sources should be helpful. They will be included in a reply to the sender of the original message. I plan to suggest Direct Relief as an alternative avenue.
Any other tips are always welcome. | 4 | [
{
"body": "http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277\n\nThey do not keep a majority of the donations.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I think you'll find, upon researching this a little bit more (and in spite of what the tin-foil hat crowd might be claiming) that most reputable charitable foundations will have overhead costs between 5-20%. Larger, logistics-capable organizations tend to be on the higher side of that, but often smaller charities would not be able to provide any assistance without the presence of the infrastructure provided by those larger groups. ",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Whatever happened to the airless wheel? (vid) | It's been years since I first saw this video and still I've seen no trace of this brilliant invention in real life. Does anyone know what happened to it?
Video:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/51120/airless_wheel_video/ | 35 | [
{
"body": "Apparently it will only be applied for use in slow-moving vehicles;\n\n> The biggest problem is noise, once the speed hits about 50 mph. The noise gets worse the faster you go. Also, long-distance driving at high speeds generates more heat than Michelin engineers would like, which might lead to premature failure.\n> The Tweel can also withstand a police 'stinger' spike strip, making it hard for law enforcement to catch a suspect in a vehicle equiped with Tweels.\n\nhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/27/eveningnews/main669888.shtml",
"score": 21
},
{
"body": "While we're at it, where's [Bose's active suspension system](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw)?",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "My unit used these in Iraq for a bit, they sucked. They degraded pretty quickly, and were heavy as fuck. Pretty difficult to change.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "Tire failure is a magnet for lawyers. The video hinted that low speed models were ready for market, but high speed models were still in the pipeline.\n\nThe military are going to be wary of the wheel clogging with mud, and are not going to like the lack of air pressure adjustment for driving in difficult terrain.\n\nMy hunch is that attempts to bring lawsuit proof twheels to market have resulted in heavy, overbuilt models. If these wheels are significantly heavier than standard tire/wheels then you will end up paying a lot more money for wheels that make your car handle worse. \n\n\n\n",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I can't speak for the automotive world, but I can say that airless tire products surface every couple of years in the bike industry, mostly foam-based designs, and they invariably fail. They're heavy, and they don't perform very well in terms of rolling resistance, traction and shock absorption. \n\nPeople complain about flat tires, but flats are very rare and in all other ways the pneumatic tire is a brilliant design. It uses the volume of the entire tire to absorb energy for imperfections in the road surface, and that combined with the flexibility of the tire carcass allows for excellent traction that's pretty much unbeatable without going to tank treads. If you're really worried about flats, you can get kevlar-belted tires or use tire sealant for a fraction of the weight penalty involved with airless tires.",
"score": 4
}
]
|
Do you know any scientific pursuits that is suitable for 11-year olds and below? | For example, robotics and stuff. (Well, I really think kids with mecha suits are good characters in a flossdaily science thriller.)
**EDIT**: I've heard Newton made water wheels and telescopes when he was about this big: |-----------------| (not to scale). Are those scientific enough, /r/science? Or do we need another mecha suit? | 14 | [
{
"body": "Teach him to make a motion detector from a gatorade bottle. Tell him to bring it to school for the science fair. Have him show it to the vice principal. \nedit: spelling",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "Basic electronics - build kits , build radios , crystal sets . Play around with PIC development boards . Likewise with basic mechanics and basic chemistry . Depends on how they are minded - for me it was electronics .",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "something like an arduino http://www.arduino.cc/ might be good, or something like a basic stamp. There are all sorts of things you can do with them. The main thing you would use this sort of thing for is reading data from sensors (temperature or whatnot), and/or controlling things (like robots). It really is very easy to do.\r\n\r\nYou could design many experiments/projects to do with them, and they are completely reusable.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "When I was a kid we could pretty much pick anything out of the Edmund Scientific catalog (unless it was extremely expensive). http://scientificsonline.com/ is their site. They have GREAT robotics projects and models if I remember right. I'm sure we did other projects from there too. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "My suggestion to you good sir, (or perhaps madam) is that you let the child try on their own. I have a 7 yr old, and he continually amazes me by what he is interested in. Does this need to be a surprise? If not you could take them to a science museum, or even one of those Discovery stores they have in most shopping malls. If it must be a surprise, I recommend the biggest, grossest most dangerous thing you can get your hands on. Because they'll be interested in it, and you'll spark their imagination. Plus they might give you a cool point or two.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "collect leaves or bugs or butterflies. Go to the zoo, natural history museums, or botanical gardens. Hunt for unique rocks and minerals and then figure out what they are. Get some old 80's era electronics and take them apart. Get a microscope, magnifying glass, or telescope.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I did some basic electroplating around that age - just use a flashlight battery, some coins, alligator clips, and find a cleaning solution that contains copper sulfate. Clip one end of the battery to the coin and submerge the other lead into the solution, and you can copper plate stuff!\n\nYou can also transfer from one coin to another, for example use a penny to copper plate a nickel, but I forgot how to do that - I think maybe use a solution of vinegar and salt or something?\n\n\nYou can also do electromagnetic levitation using the same lantern battery, an electromagnet, and a donut magnet on a stick. Glue the stick so it's pointing up and then below it mount the electromagnet with one of the poles facing the stick. Then slide the donut magnet onto the stick and hook the electromagnet to the battery, with a potentiometer or dimmer switch in between. Turning the dial will increase and decrease the strength of the electromagnet, and the donut magnet with float higher or lower. \n\nI also had a hell of a fun time with my rock and mineral collection, and would always be excited to go to the beach to find stones of all types, and then research what kinds they were. My favorite ones were \"moonstones.\"",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "My little ones (5 and 7) enjoy Snap Circuits (http://www.elenco.com/snapcircuits.html) for learning how to create working electronic devices (sound activated alarm, am radio, etc...). \n\nI remember making my first crystal radio kit at 7. Fun fact: Back then the best antenna in the house was to alligator clip the antenna wire to the finger stop on the rotary phone in our kitchen. Crap I'm old.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Take the kid, a net, a white tray and a magnifying glass. Go to a stream, pond, lake or seashore and collect invertebrates. Lots of good id guides online...",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "[This](http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php) place has a ton of inexpensive parts for making all kinds of sensors and gadgets.\n\nI got one of [these](http://www.flickr.com/photos/blazerman/2371910888/) when I was in the second grade and was probably my favorite toy ever. You can still find them on ebay.\n\nIt was probably the most educational science kit that I've ever owned. I also played around a lot with model planes and rockets, but those are much more expensive and significantly more difficult if you really want to understand what is going on.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Model rockets and looking at pond water under a microscope were my favorite things to do back in the age.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
What is your opinion on FWB? | I am in a friends with benefits relationship(we also live together) and wonder what women think about it.
Have you ever been in one? What is your opinion on it and why do you hold that opinion? What do you think when you discover two people you know are in such a relationship? | 4 | [
{
"body": "The boy that I'm seeing now started off as a FWB. \n\nWe had been friends for a few months before we started having sex. Things did get complicated because I started to have feelings for him, and he was reluctant to get back into a relationship. I felt really stupid, but continued the FWB relationship (The sex was amazing. Seriously, best I've ever had.). \n\nWell, I can only take feeling like a fool for a couple of weeks. When I tried to end things, that's when things changed. He realized that he was emotionally attached as well.\n\nNow, we're a couple, and we both are incredibly happy. I know that's not how most FWB end up, so I'm grateful for the situation. What I would warn anyone about is that you have to think about how it's going to end. It may be really bad, and is your friend worth that?\n\nOh, and as for my friends... they hated the FWB thing. They only saw it as an inevitable path of me getting hurt. But they support our relationship, though that could also be a path of hurt. My thought is that because the relationship was unconventional, my friends didn't like it. At the end of the day, however, my friends' opinions don't matter when it comes to someone that I care about and my private relationship with them. ",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I think they're great. Who doesn't like sex? I'd like to be in one, but I'd probably get emotionally attached to the guy I have my mind on and he's a major asshole, so I'm trying to resist. But hey if other gals do it, good for them. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "i'm sorry, i'm not clear on your description. you're in a fwb relationship with someone you live with? are you two the sole occupants of this living quarter, or do you share the space with other people?\n\nare other people you both know aware of this arrangement?\n\ni don't even know why i'm asking these questions; personally, i think everyone gets too hung up on these sorts of issues (myself included, since i seem to be getting hung up on the details of this arrangement).\n\n...\n\nwait, you deleted the account you posted this from? how are you going to respond to us?\n\nwell, if we're not going to go more into depth about it, i think FWB is fine, as long as everyone involved can be honest about it. it sounds to me, however, that what you have is a relationship that you just haven't labeled as such, yet.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "FWB is one of those things that sounds great, but it almost never seems to end well.\n\nAlso, if it's generally well known it can do some damage to your dating, unless you tend to date far out of your friendship group (which is of course a fairly sensible thing to do anyway).",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Has anyone else noticed that the Haiti earthquake is bringing out the best in most people while a select few evil Conservative bastards are using it for their own gain? | It seems that everyone is pitching in to help out of genuine concern and kindness for a country that a lot of people hadn't even heard of. For example, George Clooney, Wycleff Jean, Sandra Bullock etc, have raised millions of dollars for relief. Cuba has temporarily suspended it's no-fly zone to allow relief planes through. France is going to cancel most of Haiti's debt and has lifted its ban on deporting illegal Haitian immigrants. Obama and his administration really seem to be trying to do everything they can to help out. And of course, reddit has raised over $100k for the relief effort.
At the same time, a few religious/conservative people have nothing to contribute except cynicism and accusations of corruption. Pat Robertson said that the earthquake was sent by God to punish Haiti's history of Voodoo. While Glenn Beck actually accused the Obama administration of laundering money from donations. It seems to me that they're making these wild accusations simply for the publicity it'll get them.
Overall, it's really made me see how good humanity can be in a crisis with all the good that's been done. At the same time, I can't believe some people can be so callous and selfish during a disaster like this.
Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson should just shut up and actually do something to help. They both claim to be religious, so they should act like the "good moral Christians" they claim to be. | 17 | [
{
"body": "> It seems to me that they're making these wild accusations simply for the publicity it'll get them.\n\nWelcome to America. I hope you enjoy your stay.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Sources for Japanese news? | Anyone care to share some sources for Japanese news? I only read The Japan Times and to be honest, many things in it are not even remotely newsworthy and the quality is far far far below most other newspapers I read. I am not all too proficient in Japanese (Asahi Shimbun for children is readable but takes a lot of time).
So, one:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
Can anyone name a second? | 5 | [
{
"body": "Do you have a lot of problem with the Kanji, or the words? If it's the words, then I would suggest [Rikaichan](http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/) for Firefox and using the [Asahi](http://www.asahi.com/) website. If instead, you are good with words and bad with Kanji, then try the [Hiragana megane](http://www.hiragana.jp/en/). \n\nIf you are planning on living in Japan, I would highly recommend that you read newspapers in Japanese (Or at least try), so you have something to talk about/ learn new vocabulary. \n\nHowever, if you are not...then just go for the Asahi in [English](http://www.asahi.com/english/). \n\nHope that helps~",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "You could try Google's [Japanese news feed](http://news.google.com/news?edchanged=1&ned=jp) if you can read kanji, or the same feed [auto-translated into English](http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2Fnews%3Fedchanged%3D1%26ned%3Djp&sl=ja&tl=en).",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Do push-ups contribute to visible muscle or just muscle strength? Both? | I just started a push-up routine: three days a week for 6 weeks, 5 sets a session, in order to build up my upper body strength.
I read somewhere that push-ups only contribute to the strength of the muscles (which is my main goal), but not to visible muscle (which would by a nice byproduct).
What's your take on this? | 6 | [
{
"body": "Any exercise where you can't do more than 20 consecutive reps *will* build muscle. \n\nIf you can do 50 pushups, it's a conditioning exercise. If you can do only 5, it's a bodybuilding exercise. \n\nIntensity is key, *not* particular choice of exercises.",
"score": 12
},
{
"body": "Just a quick comment about pushups. I see a lot of people doing pushups with poor form, but are too concerned with hitting a certain number that they don't care.\n\nTo get the strength, and looks that you're going for you need to isolate the right muscles, and work the full range with proper form. This is the ONLY way you'll see gains. check your ego at the door, don't cheat yourself and do proper form. ",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "You should get a boost to your pecs, triceps, and even shoulders from pushups. Add in sit ups and pull ups, and your hitting a good portion of your upper body, and will see strength and visible muscle gains.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "After practicing no sport for years I started doing pushups exclusively last year (thanks http://hundredpushups.com/ ). I did no other activity except a bit of sit ups. No cardio, no sport,...\r\n\r\nIn the end my biceps and deltoids visibly got bigger. Not that big but considering the small amount of time invested and what I had (or rather lacked) before I've been pretty happy with the results.",
"score": 5
}
]
|
The girl of my dreams is a self ID's submissive. i need to find my man raptor and get dom or else. how? | The title pretty much sums it up, but here is the detail:
I'm recently divorced after a long, emasculating marriage. I meet the girl of my dreams, literally. Smart, beautiful, naughty in just amazing ways. We get along splendidly. But, things have fallen off in the bedroom and her interest is down. I am definitely on the border of going into "just friends" after 6 months. 3 months of wonder and amazement and 3 months of slow decline.
She is a submissive, admittedly. I don't know how this all works -- I am of a "sex is a sacrament" background and I tend to want to focus all my efforts on giving pleasure.
Questions:
* How do I initiate in the dom role? Really, I'm not sure... examples would be great.
* How do I take care of her needs *and* try to find the magic land between her likes and mine (the spiritual, the pleasure-giving focus) so that we can live happily ever after.
* Despite her sub nature in bed, she is an intellectual dom to the nth power... she can really go long in the motherly, telling me how to live my life kind of way. Do I need to establish a dom-role out of bed to to make this work?
* I am, as I said, right on the edge of non-sex with this woman. She is NOT feeling attraction right now. How do I kick start things? What should my first action be? I have a day with her on Monday.
Thanks for all your help, folks -- I can't be the only man in this position. I can't think of a time when I needed more advice than right now in my entire life. | 6 | [
{
"body": "**LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT**",
"score": 25
},
{
"body": "You will find many of the answers [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/BDSMcommunity/), and the Mods are very knowledgeable. You can try a PM.\n\nIt's a bit like riding a bike. Seems scary until the \"balance\" thing is figured out. \n \n\nSome small pieces off the top of my head. Soft leather, (not suede) glove(s) for spanking, *soft* rope for bondage, teasing is a form of dominance, making her wait (tell her she has to ask permission to cum) for her orgasm as long as possible will make it more powerful.\n\n>How do I take care of her needs and try to find the magic land between her likes and mine (the spiritual, the pleasure-giving focus) so that we can live happily ever after.\n\nTalk to her, either before or during play.\n\n>Do I need to establish a dom-role out of bed to to make this work?\n\nProbably not. If she is an intellectual, as you state, the two arenas are entirely separate, and almost *never* coincide, but she will let you know if she wants any \"outside the bedroom\" action.\n\n>She is NOT feeling attraction right now. \n\nFigure out why this is. Is she bored? Distracted by outside issues?\nIf you think she is just in need of a hands-tied-behind-the-back-spanking and then a powerful fuck, you can try this: Buy some soft leather cuffs, (if they are not pliable like thick cloth, get some Mink Oil and cover them in a thick layer, like you would put salve on a large burn. Wait 24-36 hours. Wipe off excess with soft cloths. they should be nice and \"workable\" now.) Get a double-ended connector (just like the clip on the end of a leash, but with two clips) to secure the cuffs behind her back. A lock at this point would be too much, too soon, maybe.\n\nThen tell her to put on some clothes to paint in. Pants or jeans that are almost rags, same with shirt, and either request her oldest brassiere, or none at all, whichever will sound less weird to her at this stage. If she asks what you are going to paint, just tell her to wait and see.\n\nEnter your place with the cuffs, connector, rope (cut into ten-foot lengths, about a half-dozen lengths should do the trick) which you may or may not need.\n\nTell her to close her eyes and turn around. NOW she will be terrible intrigued by whatever you have going on, and may be twigging to the drift. Put the cuffs on her, leave her standing. You can think about whether or not to lean her, upright against the wall, and tie her ankles, if she is getting into the vibe.\n\nIf all is going well, go get a pair of *sharp* scissors, and **carefully** cut her old clothes off her, s-l-o-w-l-y bit by bit, and as each new piece of lovely flesh is exposed, lightly touch and kiss. \n\nPeriodically speak very softly but *firmly* into her ear, telling her that you haven't decided what to do \"to\" her yet, but you're thinking of {fucking her ass, ditto her mouth, spanking (which you should *definitely* plan on before this episode is concluded, preferably starters, once you get her naked), or maybe you'll just fap and come all over her face/tits, whatever, and anything else she might like or just be turned on by the prospect.\n\nYOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ALL THESE THINGS.\n\n Just as long as you put all these thoughts into her mind, so that she is totally focused on sex, sensual touching, and a *tiny little touch* of fear, because YOU have taken command.\n\nIf all is still going well, (if you can), carry her, bound, to the BR. If you can't, untie her ankles and grab her hair like a bridle lead and push her there.\n\nLie her down on her stomach with a pillow or two under her hips. You can now tie her ankles apart to the bed legs or posts.\n\nPut on gloves (good soft leather gloves are available in good hardware stores. No insulation, Just leather, and you may need to do the mink-oil thing a little here, too) and spank her ass, moving back and forth to each cheek, slowly, about one/second. Go on for a while, starting soft, and working up. After two or three minutes of this, ask if she likes it. It the reply is \"yes\", then ask \"Yes, what!?. \n\nYou want her to say \"Yes, Sir\", and at THAT point, you have established in *both* of your minds that *you* are the dom, and she is the sub. \n\nFeel free to PM me. :)",
"score": 19
},
{
"body": "Hello! Submissive female here. My first bit of advice, that a lot of people are saying, is **talk to her**.\n\n> How do I initiate in the dom role? Really, I'm not sure... examples would be great.\n\nA lot of it depends upon what she is looking for. Does she prefer a guy that desires her so much he can't hold himself back, and thus pins her down, despite her struggles, and takes her when he wants? Or does she want a guy that will, with a firm voice that suggests disobedience isn't even an option, tell her to get on her knees and suck? A lot of women are looking for both. Feel free to start small. Pin her arms above her head when you make out with her. Tell her to move to different positions when you have sex. Give her a spank when she doesn't move fast enough. That sort of thing.\n\n> How do I take care of her needs and try to find the magic land between her likes and mine (the spiritual, the pleasure-giving focus) so that we can live happily ever after.\n\nYou can be both a dom and focus on pleasure giving, by doing things like teasing.\n\nExample of one of my favorite (non-intercourse) positions: The guy sits on the bed, with his back to the wall/headboard. His legs are spread. I sit in between his legs; his wrap around mine to hold them open. My back is to his stomach, and my ass is to his crotch. I fold my arms across my back (so, between my back, and his stomach) and he than has full access to my body. He can twist his head to kiss my neck, access the entire front of my body, hold my shoulders when I inevitably squirm. Try it! It's fun!\n\nRight. Back to finding a balance. I don't really know?\n\n> Do I need to establish a dom-role out of bed to to make this work?\n\nProbably not. However, she may be the sort of person that gets pleasure in making your life easier, if that makes any sense. She may enjoy it when you tell her to refill the napkins on the table, and things like that. Or she may think you are being annoying. It's really hard to judge on this one.\n\n> She is NOT feeling attraction right now. How do I kick start things? What should my first action be? I have a day with her on Monday.\n\nEstablish a safe word. Then force her down on the bed, tease her, and fuck her :)\n\nOh, and feel free to stop by [/r/BDSMcommunity](http://www.reddit.com/r/BDSMcommunity) for any future questions of this nature!",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Most of all, talk to her about it. I was recently divorced after a long (but not necessarily emasculating) marriage. I met the girl who was a self IDd submissive and have since dated a couple other women who were likewise. What each one wants and finds acceptable will make a difference. With one, it was merely the thought of a submissive role. She could be on top or bottom or whatever but the way she envisioned it was that I was in control. I chose what to do. We hadn't done any bondage and wasn't really a factor for us. As HotTop suggested, having to ask for permission to cum is usually good (and if you're apart for any length of time, this can be a way to drive interest until the next time you're together). \n\nAsk her if she likes dominance outside the bedroom, too. Again, every woman is different and I've been with some that like it and some that don't. \n\nCommunication in the bedroom is just as important as out of the bedroom. Talk to her about her likes and dislikes and with any luck, hopefully it'll rekindle things.\n\nBest of luck!",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "So. First off THANK YOU SO MUCH. This all helped me immensely and this forum is what put me on the right track in many more ways than one. Since the advice was so so so good and spicy, I will relate the outcome.\n\nAfter reading all this and much, much more I decided that the best thing to do would be to develop my own semi-light intro-level dom fantasy and see how things played out for me. So I did that. I wrote out a few versions of what I had in mind and visualized it and found myself really, really enjoying it, which was a breakthrough for me. I found myself not only fixated on the role I'd take but the calm that I would feel for being dominant and the freedom from concern and how that would feel. I also realized that either way this went for her that I would like to have an encounter with this mental state and feeling of power be the deciding factor rather than some weak low self esteem self-doubting thing.\n\nSo. Yesterday I go over to her place with coffee. I feel amazing already for the fantasy that I carry and the role I'm feeling. The one thing that I've not been able to plan is how to initiate and I feel like I might have to wait, but I'm patient. I'd put a tiny hint to her via email about what I had in mind where I jokingly asked her if she needed a safety word. She responded with her safety word in email. So I'm over there, feeling amazing and we talk and drink coffee and I can feel the confidence flowing and I realize right there that this is a game-changer, that my man raptor is peeking out through my eyes and that things are good. Better than they have been in a long time. And then, in no small part because of this feeling in myself, I'm sure, she walks over to where I'm sitting and rubs against me a little for a couple of minutes, just leg to leg. I say \"I like that,\" and sit still staring at her eyes. She looks at me smiles and turns around to walk away.\n\nI quickly grab her hands behind her back and push her down to the bed. She whimpers a bit. I'm right in her ear then and I whisper \"I said I liked that, not to stop that.\" She wriggled and twisted. \"Are you trying to get away?\" \"I can get away, you're not that strong,\" she said. \"I'm way more than strong enough to keep you here however long I want,\" I said. And so she tried to get away for a few minutes.... really tried.. scratching and clawing a little. Then I said, \"You may not get away.\" And she kept trying, still face down. So I held both her hands with one of mine above her head, her pushing against me as hard as she could, and I kissed and bit her neck. This made her whimper and shudder and groan. When I stopped she went back to wriggling and so I pulled her pants down, still holding her hands and I gave her a good loud spank. And then another. \"Time to stop that,\" I said. Then I kissed her waist back and forth above her ass, punctuated with a nice strong bite in an irregular pattern so she couldn't anticipate. She was going crazy by this time. Then I bit *hard* on her ass and she started to say her safety word, but didn't finish, it turned into a groan. And I bit again and she started to say it again, but stopped.\n\nThen I told her that I wanted her to look in the mirror while I fucked her hard from behind and she moved to the mirror, but tried to keep me from pulling her pants down any farther. I pinned her hand behind her back and tore them off. She was sopping wet and I went to push in. \"You can't,\" she said, \"there's... uh, something in there.\" \"Pull it out,\" I said, \"I mean NOW!\" with some emphasis on her arm behind her back. And so she did and I fucked her *hard* and ended up pretty bloody.\n\nAfter she was shaking and moaning on the bed, still face down. \"I will misbehave again,\" she said. I didn't answer and cleaned her up gently and thoroughly, which she liked. I pulled her to her feet and dressed her. When I was done she had tears in her eyes. I licked them off as they came.\n\n\"Why tears?\" I asked.\n\n\"Because it makes me cry to think that I might get to have everything that I want,\" she said.\n\n\"You can have what you want today. I'll make sure of it. Tomorrow... we'll see.\" And then we went gallery hopping and picnicking and had a deepening experience that I will never forget. She obviously wanted me to sleep over but I told her no and dropped her off at 6 with a warm and light kiss to leave her wanting and I walked the city for hours alone, marveling at what changes I felt.\n\nAnd in the day since then I have found a center and a calm that I have literally never experienced in my life. I wonder how long it will last -- I am already addicted.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
by request: I ran an "ebay drop off site" for 3 years with my wife (yes, like the one in 40 Year Old Virgin) AMA | We ran the business for my father in-law. The drop off site is still up and running but we are currently working on different business ventures for him.
We have seen thousands of different items roll through our doors. We have made lots of people happy and broke some people's hearts. AMA
| 60 | [
{
"body": "Can you briefly explain what an ebay drop off site is for those of us who have never seen the movie? And yes, I know how to use google, but it would be convenient for people to be able to just see it here. Thanks!",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "What is the most awkward, off the wall, stupid crazy weird thing someone gave to you to get you to sell (even if Ebay wouldn't allow it)?",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "What criteria would you take down for the customer? For example, they wouldn't sell it for less than X.\r\n\r\n",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I have a ton of stuff to sell on Ebay from my grandpa's estate. Where do you suggest I start. Ebay for dummies? Is there proprietary software that helps price things out?",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Maybe not related, but in reference to your name. What is a \"kiesel\", why does it need a garden, and can I buy one from your store?",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I live in a big city and there are lots of places like yours around. If I want to patronize one of them (drop off stuff to be sold), what should I look for to determine if a certain place is a good one to use? I'm sure there must be some that are better at researching, listing items, etc. than others.\n\nAlso, do you have any basic guidelines for people who might be interested in unloading their stuff to keep in mind? Like, what makes a given object a good candidate for resale vs. something that should be donated or trashed? I know it's hard to be general, but I'm curious if over time you've developed a sense for that sort of thing.\n\nThanks!",
"score": 3
}
]
|
I need to install Windows XP on a netbook with no DVD drive. Is this guide any good? Is there another guide or place to turn for advice? | I would like to test run any suggestions here on my Dell Mini. In actuality, I need to reinstall Windows XP on a Asus EEE, but the EEE is not mine...so if I break it, bad news. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: Sorry forgot to include the link
http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm | 15 | [
{
"body": "[Here](http://www.msfn.org/board/install-usb-winsetupfromusb-gui-t120444.html) Download it. Install it. Run it and follow the brilliantly simple GUI. Download the recent beta. It's much more intuitive than previous versions.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Okay, what is 'this guide?' You provide no links. \n\nAnyway...\n\nYou have essentially two options:\n\n* Buy an external DVD/CD drive. This is the most straightforward solution. \n* Make a USB drive bootable. This is the most practical. [I believe this guide will work](http://www.intowindows.com/bootable-usb/).\n\n",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I used [this guide](http://www.msfn.org/board/install-xp-usb-t111406.html&s=09fb5c01ae29eb5a1aca84db022fc498) to install XP just a few days ago. It went just fine.\n\nIt was also the fastest damn XP install I've ever seen.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
At what point should I open my game for others to test? | A friend and I have been working on an online Flash game for 2 years now. It's been a very part time activity but we do take it very seriously and try to meet as often as possible and get as much done as we can. The game is a large scale city building game similar to the likes of Travian, Ikariam, and Evony but done with a lot more flexibility on where you can build your structures since the entire world is fully seamless.
At this point, the game is lacking some polish but it has almost all of the graphics we need (we hired an artist) and about 90% of the functionality we would like to see in a 1.0 release. One of the main problems we have is that we don't have a lot of friends who play this type of game and we have been very hesitant to just let anyone play it since we haven't quite finished putting all of the structures and units into the game.
One of the big reasons why I want more strangers to play is because it's very difficult to balance the game on paper and after working on a game for so long, you become very biased. Also, we haven't been able to even really "feel" the game completely since having a lot of players in the game is part of the fun.
Do you guys think we should really do as much as we can by ourselves before we do some closed testing or have people try it out as soon as possible even if it might be lacking some important parts?
tl;dr; Been working on a game for 2 years, need to know if I should do closed testing while the game may be missing important parts or hold off until it's all polished and complete. | 8 | [
{
"body": "A lot of people told me to open my game up as early as possible. You need to be wary of this advice. While I agree you need playtesting as soon (and as often) as possible, there's a big difference between playtesting and \"opening the game up.\"\n\nIn [this](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5924529428654403816#) interview, it is revealed that Valve does playtesting even only one week into development. That's pretty incredible. Playtesting is important, but playtesting is a controlled situation with limited audience (i.e., one or two people that you hand-select).\n\nBut no professional companies \"open up\" their game until release or just before release. Why? It's simple: People will get bored of your game. It's a fact - even if it's a super awesome game, the vast majority of players of your game will get bored of it before 6 months. If you're more than 6 months away from finishing, then these players will never even get a chance to see your completed game. That's a problem for you, since they now leave with an inadequate picture of your game. You want to minimize the number of people in this category.",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "**Test early. Test often.** Definitely don't wait until everything looks polished. In fact, if the artwork still looks temporary, testers are more likely to focus their comments on the gameplay, which is what really makes for an outstanding game. As one developer told me, for your first testers, \"artwork should be pink with the word 'temporary' scrawled across it.\" If you wait too long, testers will focus their attention too heavily on the polish and if they do suggest changes to the gameplay or UI, you may be reluctant to make them because it may involve making substantial change to the art. \n\nIt's also important to remember that as the developer, your perceptions of the game will be skewed. Unless you bring in new players, it will be hard for you to estimate what's easy and intuitive. Since it's a Flash game, it should be easy for you to password-protect a closed beta over the Web. But if possible, bring a player in so you can watch them play the game in front of you. Sit quietly (I'm serious about this. It will be hard, but you should not give any hints) and see how long it takes them to figure things out. And be prepared for some surprises.\n\nFor a little more on this, check out sections two and three from the [Cogs postmortem](http://www.lazy8studios.com/2009/cogs_postmortem).",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Disclaimer: I have no real world knowledge in producing games.\n\nI would think that you want to get a working (even if not close to finished) version out as soon as possible. \n\n1) You get word out about your game\n\n2) You find bugs early on\n\n3) You find if the core mechanic is fun (important!)\n\n4) You can get suggestions about improvements or features which you may not have though of.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
DAE spend all day at work thinking of things they want to do when they are at home yet never do them? | I always think "If I wasn't at work I'd have so many things I could be doing" and then when I am off work all I want to do is relax and do nothing! | 252 | [
{
"body": "No, I actually do them, and have been doing this since I realized I was having no fun 'relaxing'. Now my life is 10x better. Try it!\n",
"score": 35
},
{
"body": "Yes, I've been doing this since I was a kid in elementary school. The explanation I've come up with is that thinking of such things at work/school is a way to both distract yourself and reinforce the feeling that not only do I not want to be at work/school, but being there is in fact keeping me from doing other things that are more personally worthwhile. Once home, the motivation for this sort of daydreaming is gone because now you are doing whatever you feel like (often nothing) and you don't want to dwell on how 'relaxing' is keeping you from doing more worthwhile activities. Even though I've been aware of this phenomenon for some time, I am still guilty of it more often than I care to think about.",
"score": 19
},
{
"body": "Main reason I hate that I got into coding professionally. I just can't bring myself to spend 8 hours doing it and then find going home to do it some more entertaining. Which sucks, because there's a lot of projects I'd really like to work on. Also why I'm planning on switching careers though. ",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I'm at home, thinking of all the things I'm gonna need to do at work (and then when I get to work, I just want to relax and do nothing). ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I've been guilty o that for years. What helped was going to the gym for an hour after work. I leave bursting with energy and ready to have a productive evening. Plus it keeps you sexy!",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "When I am at work, I generally make a list of chores and things I need to do when I get home such as clean my room up, wash dishes, put clothes away. When I get home, however, I usually just come on reddit! :)",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Looks like Rahm Emanuel political strategy of ignoring the liberal base is working to perfection - Dems might actually lose the senate seat in Massachusetts for shit sakes | Obama and the Dems listened to the Rahm Emanuel political playbook of always appeasing the right wing, and look how great its working.
The liberal base is completely and utterly dispirited and Dems might even lose in the bluest of the blue states.
This is my big "fuck you" and "I told you so" to all the powerful Dems who told us liberals to sit down and shut up when we tried to warn you that you were dispiriting the progressive base from going out to vote for you.
Obama, you screwed up big time. You could've governed as a president who would represent the people who put you into power, instead you wanted to be the president that both parties love. Well, SORRY, but the right wing will never love you. Your appeal to be loved by everyone has been an utter failure and now the left is starting to hate you too.
Now reps are going to gain some seats in government, and if you think nothing got accomplished over the past year, just imagine how little will get accomplished once the dem majority goes back down... | 17 | [
{
"body": "Let's help this happen...\n\n... and put a stop to the health care fiasco and vote Scott Brown.\n\nIf you do not live in MA, you can volunteer to help out or make a donation.\n\nhttp://www.brownforussenate.com/",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "When the GOP has the White House and Congress, they do what they want and the devil (which means the regular folk in this country, I guess) take the hindmost.\n\nWhen the Dems have the White House and Congress, they suck up to the GOP, seek \"bi-partisanship.\" and accomplish nothing and promptly get voted out.\n\nWhy? No cojones.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "This has nothing to do with Rahm Emanuel and everything to do with Martha Coakley. She has run an absolutely horrible campaign (she was on vacation half the time). I mean, she called Curt Schilling a Yankees fan. In Massachusetts, that's the equivelant of saying that Jesus was a homosexual in the Bible Belt. It's not her political beliefs that are fucking over her chances. It's her personality and poor campaigning skills. I live in southern NH so I watch Boston-area TV (outside WMUR I have no choice), and from the Democratic primary until this last week, she hasn't run one dang ad. She just assumed that the general election would be an easy win for her, and Scott Brown took advantage of her aloofness.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
I've just realized how to use the secondary button menu more effectively | I'm used to do a secondary click to get a menu and then use the primary click to select an item because that's what most applications let you do however I've just found by accident that Firefox lets you hold the secondary button and release it over the selected item in a "drag an drop" fashion. | 3 | [
{
"body": "Mine doesn't.... if I hold the secondary button down, the menu doesn't even appear *until* I release it. I would have to click a second time, because no buttons are held down at that point. Am I doing something wrong? Or does mine work differently than yours, for some reason? Can you clarify?",
"score": 21
},
{
"body": "I'm intrigued, but not sure I understand what you're saying here. Right-click =secondary and left-click=primary??\n\n",
"score": 4
}
]
|
Remember earlier this week when a guy said he was taking acid for the first time this weekend? I'm that guy, and I took it about 45 minutes ago. | So this is it! I took one tab of LSD about 45 minutes ago. I can definitely feel it coming on right now, and it keeps getting stronger :)
I'll come back at some point later today to update (if I can lol) on how I feel and what i've been doing.
Stay cool, r/drugs :D
EDIT: here's the link to my original post. http://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/aoqb8/this_weekend_im_doing_acid_for_the_first_time_in/ | 28 | [
{
"body": "Red is not the right colour. Red is never the right colour.\n\nMy ears pierce eternity, splendid.\n\nLife is the muffin.\n\nThe right choice is always hate, unless hate is the choice.\n\nFour makes two...UNLESS YOU'RE DEAD.\n\nFour makes two...UNLESS YOU'RE DEAD!\n\nFOUR MAKES TWO UNLESS YOU'RE DEAD!!!!!",
"score": 29
},
{
"body": "Dear God! Get the hell away from your computer! Go play outside, or walk across town, or anything really.",
"score": 26
},
{
"body": "OP here. I'm on the tail-end of the trip right now, and I assure you it was real LSD. \n\nI went on a journey into the depths of my mind and watched in amazement as my vision distorted and at one point i was taking a drink and i could *see* the taste of the drink with my eyes. \n\nThe trip definitely took in me to a lot of places. I learned a lot about myself and my place in the world. It was like I saw the world from a new perspective.. and it was honestly the greatest experience of my life.",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "[\"Four makes two...UNLESS YOU'RE DEAD!\"](http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/aqbk5/so_tonight_i_broke_some_poor_teenagers_brains/)",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I took acid with the OP today. Haha it was soooo much fun we had a blast. I've done acid numerous times and I can assure you it was legit. Totally badass haha",
"score": 4
}
]
|
Looking for a basic/fundamental recipe for whole wheat bread. | Nothing that requires a bread machine. I've found lots of recipes for "no-knead" breads. Fuck that. I want to get my hands in there. Would also learn how to use a dough sponge.
So, let's have 'em, Reddit! | 15 | [
{
"body": "[Easy Bread](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E68iNfRHBpI) This method allows you to use the materials you have on hand--you can make it the same each time or totally different each time.\n\nmy \"recipe\" for homemade bread:\n\nFlour-needs to be at least half wheat flour to enable it to rise. The other half may be oatmeal, 10 grain cereal, water chestnut flour, or even bread crumbs from a previous batch of bread.\n\nLiquid- Usually water but occasionally milk, sour milk, yogurt, rice milk, almond milk or whatever needs to be used up.\n\nSugar- cane sugar is the easiest grab but I also use honey, molasses, fruit juice, 7-Up, or the last 2 tablespoons of frosting.\n\nOil- usually olive oil, but also beef fat left over from a roast, bacon fat, or sour cream if it needs to be used up.\n\nYeast--if I am running out, I use the last of it to kick start a sour dough batter that will last until I buy yeast again.\n\nSalt--table salt, seasoning salt, garlic salt, combination of salts.\n\nPlace 2 cups of grain flour in a large bowl(grind or cook if needed). In a separate bowl or measuring cup: 2 tablespoons worth of sweetening, 2 table spoons of fat, 1 tablespoon of yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt and enough warm liquid to make 2 cups. Dump into flour and mix well. Allow to grow until frothy. Add enough wheat flour to make a stiff dough(about 2-3 more cups). Allow to rise until double. Punch down, form into 2 loaves and allow to rise until double. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.\n\nThis style of Homestead Bread is always good, always different and always cheap. Can't always do that if you follow a recipe.\n\n[Bread is the \"Staff of Life\" around the world and this basic recipe can be used to mimic some pretty fancy cultural breads.](http://www.fabulousfoods.com/breads/list/51) Just by adding a small ingredient and changing the shape, you can create many of the breads of the world.\n\n**PITA BREAD**\n\nStart by adding 4 tablespoons of fat(instead of 2). \n\nAt the end of rising, Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead to remove the air bubbles. Roll into a log and divide dough evenly into 12 pieces. Pat each piece of dough into a ball, them use a rolling pin to flatten into discs about 1/4 inch thick and 6 inches in diameter. Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet and let rise, uncovered, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.\n\nPreheat oven to 500° F. and place oven rack in lowest position.\n\nBake the bread, one pan at a time, until puffed and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool breads on a wire rack.\n\n**YEAST SOPAPILLAS (AKA Mexican Doughnuts)**\n\nUse the basic recipe.\n\nAt the end: Roll dough thinly and cut it into small squares, about 3 inches. Heat oil until hot (375°F.). Fry bread until puffed and golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels and dust with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Serve with honey or honey butter.\n\n**BAGELS**\n\nUse basic recipe.\n\nAt the end: [Punch the dough down, divide into 12 pieces and let it rise again for 20 minutes.](http://www.fabulousfoods.com/breads/article/51/17744)\n\nWith floured hands, roll each piece of dough into a rope 12-14 in length. Wrap the rope into a circle and pinch to close. Repeat with remaining pieces.\n\nPreheat oven to 375° F. Bring a large pot of water, mixed with 2 tablespoons of molasses, to a boil.\n\nDrop a couple of bagels into the water at a time, poaching them for about 20 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to transfer bagels to an ungreased baking sheet, (or one that's covered in parchment paper). Sprinkle with toppings, if desired, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until crusty and browned.\n\n",
"score": 9
}
]
|
Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. You're the one American with a holiday all to himself. And we do remember that you said this: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of
social uplift is approaching spiritual death." | On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. Declaring, "my conscience leaves me no other choice," King described the war’s deleterious effects on both America’s poor and Vietnamese peasants, and insisted that it was morally imperative for the U.S. to take radical steps to halt the war through nonviolent means.
A larger quote:
> This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and
bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues
year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
[Full speech.](http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_beyond_vietnam/) | 509 | [
{
"body": "This has always been my favorite from Mr. King:\n\nOn some positions, Cowardice asks the question, \"Is it safe?\" Expediency asks the question, \"Is it politic?\" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, \"Is it popular?\" But Conscience asks the question \"Is it right?\" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.",
"score": 20
},
{
"body": "“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.\n\n\"There comes a time when silence is betrayal.\" - MLK Jr.\n\nDr. Martin Luther King -- The Truth Must Be Told\n",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "My employer doesn't even have the decency to close its doors on MLKJ day. This is one of few men who deserve a holiday as respect.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "You know it's kind of funny, because when a lot of white-collar employees get off on Monday, most of the service industry is still working.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "coincidentally, robert e lee's birthday tends to fall on the same day or a few days around it, so the state of alabama, my employer, recognizes his birthday along with martin luther king jr day. the calender reads martin luther king jr day/robert e. lee birthday. just like that. it is 2010, yes. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I just acquired my first classroom poster as a teacher:http://www.mommypoppins.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/poster_4007bake.gif\n\nEdit: \"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber\"",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Has anyone got pet rats? My friend just got some hooded rats. What should he know about taking care of them? | So my friend just got two of [these guys](http://imgur.com/R0lm0). They're called Cheech and Chong. Any advice or tips about keeping rats? Is there anything in particular about them that's different than keeping other rodents? | 3 | [
{
"body": "Rats are very intelligent and very social. They're not like hamsters or mice. They need a lot of space, stimulation, and companionship in order to stay healthy. \n\nFirst off, a suitable habitat. They CANNOT live in an aquarium or small cage. The bigger the better. Get something with levels, hammocks (like those made for ferrets) and toys (try ferret and bird toys). Never use wood bedding as the fumes are toxic to small animals. Look for Carefresh or kitty litter like Yesterday's News. \n\nHealth: They are super prone to respiratory problems. If you notice any red discharge around their eyes or nose they need to see a vet immediately and get some antibiotics. Spaying females will reduce the risk of mammary tumors (VERY prevalent) and neutering males makes them a little less crazy. It's a good idea to find a vet that has experience with rats before an emergency comes up. For food, order lab blocks like Harlan Teklad or Oxbow Regal made specifically for rats. They should never be fed that generic store 'rodent mix' crap. Rats are also easily litter trained for poop so get them a litter box with different bedding than what you use elsewhere (I personally use junk towels to line my cage and Yesterday's News in the litter pan).\n\nPlaytime! Rats love treats and it makes great motivation for them learning tricks. Mine can walk on their hind legs, spin in circles, play fetch, etc. They should get lots of out of cage time in a safe environment. Try letting them play in a bathroom, a partitioned-off kitchen, or lay towels on a couch in case they pee once or twice. Putting a kiddy wading pool up on a table is a good idea. They can jump 2-3 feet so keep that in mind!\n\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "The rats I had impressed me as being very devoted. I have had a ton of guinea pigs, and they're very sweet, but rats seem to be on a higher intelligence level. They choose to stay with you, will happily share your cereal or sandwich. I did learn however that my housing arrangements were too small for 2 males cause one New Years Eve one male slashed the other wide open and we took him to the emergency vet and he glued the wound together...but anyways..yes-keep them in a LARGE habitat.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Let them run around outside of their cage every day. It helps them develop their intelligence and lets you see their personalities. I had one that was a real explorer and climber and one that always tries to find soft things and steal them.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "rats are very prone to cancer... special care must be taken in that regard.. stress is a contributing factor to cancer of course - so is exposure to chemicals..\r\nhere is a good link on pet rats\r\nhttp://therealowner.com/small-furry/unusual-pets-rats/",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Hey Reddit, I'm going to a father in nine months! Can you recommend any good books about pregnancy and raising kids? | I'm looking for something with good advice, readable, entertaining, hopefully directed at men with a geeky mindset. Any help would be great! | 7 | [
{
"body": "Speaking from experience:\n\n1. Enjoy the long periods of quiet now. It's gone forever when the baby arrives.\n\n2. Catch up on your sleep.\n\n3. Taste your partner's breast milk.\n\n4. Go to the gym and strengthen your back muscles for bending over. The one thing I was completely unprepared for was the amount of bending over you do as a parent. And not in a metaphorical sense, in a literal sense.\n\n5. Take a vacation now, too. Those are very, very different once you have kids.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "If your pregnant companion is planning to breastfeed, I suggest that she get in touch with your local La Leche League group and attend a few meetings before the baby is born. The first few days after birth are the hardest when it comes to nursing so it's good to have information and a good support system in place ahead of time. They have lots of literature and experienced leaders who are educated about breastfeeding .\n\nDoctors and nurses at the hospital often don't have the knowledge or time to help get nursing off to a good start, and lactation consultants cost money. La Leche League is free to attend meetings, but an annual membership is only $25 (which is how much it cost 20 years ago when I had my kids - amazing that they haven't raised their prices!)\n\nOccasionally you'll run into an LLL leader or member who isn't supportive of anything except exclusive breastfeeding (no formula), but this is a bad apple and isn't typical of their philosophy, so if you run into one of those zealots, just ask to talk to someone else.\n\nGood luck! I was an LLL leader for a few years back in the late 80s/early 90s.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Honestly the Pregnancy for Dummies book is a good summary of what to expect etc. No matter what you think there is a 99% chance when your child is born you will cry. I didn't think I would and up until the second they pulled her out I hadn't but when I first heard her cry it was over.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
What song do you have stuck in your head? | I've got "Hurts So Good" by John Mellencamp stuck in my head and can't get it out.
What's in your head on repeat? | 3 | [
{
"body": "Simpson, Homer Simpson, he's the greatest guy in history! From the town of Springfield, he's about to hit a chestnut tree!",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I want a girl with a short skirt and a [looooooooooooooooooong jacket!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5KmB8Laemg) - Cake",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa\nPa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ooma-mow-mow\nPapa-ooma-mow-mow",
"score": 3
}
]
|
In 6 months or so we'll have an election. How are you planning on voting? How do you think it's going to go? | I've always voted Lib Dem, and I'd love to see them grab a slice of power this election. I don't think they can ever win a general election but the possibility is there of them winning some kind of coalition with the Tories. Does anyone else think this would be good? Or would it be worse?
I have a few friends who are Labour members and they reckon the party's doing okay. Most of them acknowledge they're unlikely to win this year, but they all think that after 4 years of Cameron, people will be queuing up to vote Brown and co back in.
What does reddit think? | 15 | [
{
"body": "I'll be voting Lib Dem as I've just moved to Bristol West, one of the few areas where we have a Lib Dem MP. Power sharing sounds like the best outcome to me but would probably be a disappointment, in the unlikely event it actually happened.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I will be voting Green.\n\nI expect the Conservatives to win with the Lib Dems making marginal gains. A generally disappointing result for most of the country.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Lib Dems.\n\nI'd rather \"waste\" my vote than vote for Tories or Labour.\n\nTories will win though. It's not going to be a good 4 years.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Corrupt, incompetent bastards will win the election. The country will continue go to the dogs at an ever accelerating rate. Best leave whilst you still can.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Choosing an ad provider? | I have several ideas for commercial (or at the very least, profit making) websites, but I have never run anything but private information websites.
How do I go about choosing the best ad provider for a site? What should I look for, what are my major options?
Thanks
Edit: I guess I should explain more, both of my main ideas are non-text content. One is an educational site, another is basically a flash applet based site. | 10 | [
{
"body": "I would try to sell sponsorships yourself. It's a lot of hustle, but it pays a lot more than AdSense. That's what we do for in-video ad spots on http://doctype.tv/\n\nIf you have the traffic, I would also recommend http://buysellads.com/",
"score": 3
}
]
|
I slept with a girl and of course she is late now. What to do? | Well on new years eve I slept with a friend of mine and of course we were both drunk and stupid so we didn't use a condom. And of course i went to pull out, but I was talking with her last night and she told me she is now five days late. (apparently she has never missed a period) What makes it worse is I am now dating her best friend and that's ok with her. But now she brings this up and says she had fun with me that night and the few nights before hand. I told her I'm not interested in her like that, shes great and fun to be with but i don't want to date her. I just seeing if any body has ideas what i should say, why she bringing this up? anything to comfort me?:P I'm a little scared shit less if she is pregnant. But i mean there always abortion?
EDIT:
Thanks for the advice i was just a little nervous i guess thanks Reddit | 4 | [
{
"body": "Offer to pay for a legal, safe abortion - NOW. It'll be the best couple hundred dollars you've ever spent.\r\n\r\nDo it NOW. Today. Call her and make the offer TODAY.",
"score": 25
},
{
"body": "This is exactly why I tell my son, who is only an early teen, to never sleep with a girl he is not prepared to be attached to for the next 18 years. \r\n\r\n",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "It's still possible this late thing is just to guilt you into restarting the relationship and isn't actually true.\n\nYou need to get her to take a pregnancy test, buy a couple of pee stick type ones (they ain't cheap) and give them to her yourself, stick around while she pees on them. This isn't a funny situation to be in and according to what she's saying, this is your business.\n",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "Wear condoms? \n\nA woman at Planned Parenthood once said to a friend of mine: \"Pulling out makes the most beautiful babies\".",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "First, make sure shes pregnant. Use a pregnancy test, see a doctor, what ever; just verify she's actually knocked up. If she's not, fuck her again to get the job done.\n\nThen abort the mission. And by mission I mean fetus.\n\nYou don't want to date her, as per your post. Furthermore, I feel like your post implies you don't want to be a father. So do yourself a favor, falcon punch this problem away and let your new years fuck buddy keep her figure. No sense bringing a life into existence if you aren't sure you and this woman should even be together.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "If she is 5 days late today, and you had sex on New Years Eve, that would mean that you had sex on approximately day 16 of a typically 28 day menstrual cycle. That means you had sex with her during ovulation, which is the most fertile time of the menstrual cycle. \nMost pregnancy tests will not be accurate until at least 2 weeks of pregnancy, even up to 3 weeks, so I would recommend going into the doctor and getting a blood test. \nJust remember that the fertilized egg doesn't actually implant into the uterus until about a week after \"successful\" intercourse, which is responsible for the level of hCG (the hormone responsible for giving a positive or negative result in a pregnancy test). The hCG just builds up as the pregnancy goes on. \nSorry man, hope all goes well, keep us posted. ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Why does everyone think she is doing this to snag him? Isn't possible she was simply letting him know he may have a spawn running around in the near future. Not all women are evil manipulative bitches out to snag a man by getting knocked up. \r\n\r\nShe is probably just as scared as you, and is turning to you because you are in this as deep as she is whether you like it or not. If she decides to not have an abortion, be clear on your intentions, whatever they may be. If she was your friend before you fucked her, the least you could do is continue to be there for her now. ",
"score": 4
}
]
|
Are there any podcasts that you can suggest for a beginner to listen to? | I will be going to Japan this summer with my girlfriend (who is fluent in Japanese). I'll be visiting her family and want to have a basic grasp of conversational Japanese. Does anybody here have any suggestions for me to try out that i can listen to throughout the day. | 8 | [
{
"body": "JapanesePod101.com has a podcast series that's really good. They have episodes that cater to all different levels. The latest episodes are free, archives require a paid accout. I've had a free account for over a year and I've really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.",
"score": 7
}
]
|
Is there a rigorous way to check if two spline curves are coincident? | I am talking B-Splines here, but any spline will do. Let's say I have two of them, and I want to check if they are coincident, by which I mean that the distance between any point on one curve and the corresponding closest point on the other curve is within a certain tolerance. Is there a procedure that will do that?
I have asked others, and everyone keeps suggesting that I simply check some random sample points on the curves. But this, to me, seems dirty and wrong.
Edit: So far I believe the solution probably should involve breaking the spline curve into its segments. So we can reduce the problem to checking if two polynomial curves in space are coincident. Also it should be possible to use the properties of the polynomials instead of just stupidly checking sample points.
I am guessing there should be a certain number of minimum and maximum distances between the polynomials (is this equal to the degree of the polynomials like it is for roots?). If that's true, then one would simply have to find these maxima and minima and from that know the overall situation.
So I guess the problem can be reduced to: given two polynomials in space f(x) and g(y), find the {x,y} pairs where ||f(x) - g(y)||' = 0. | 26 | [
{
"body": "I developed this technique a long time ago for a related problem. it was significantly faster than other approaches, and trivial to code.\n\nfind intersections of your curves/surfaces with a grid. if the intersection points each have a close enough match, and your grid is fine enough, then you're done. you can match up points by converting grid locations to integers. round non-integral values both up and down (all combinations) and store with a reference back to the intersection point. use sort to pair up the matches, find all matching pairs, mark their intersections points, and check every intersection got marked. you can make intersect-with-grid really fast (it's analytic).",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "If I correctly understand your question, you have two spline functions, say f and g, and you want to check whether |f(x)-g(x)| < c for all x and some c. Since f and g are polynomials on some intervals, their difference is also polynomial. So you may iterate over all intervals, calculate f-g and find extrema in this interval, for example by looking at the derivative. If the difference stays below c at extrema and interval ends, the difference at any point is lower than c.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "[Ellipticaltable brought this randomized method up earlier.](http://www.reddit.com/r/compsci/comments/a2zow/ask_compsci_what_is_the_smallest_or_easiest_or/c0flvz2)\n\nI don't really understand the hate towards a randomized algorithm here. You can bound the error to rate to be less than the chance of incident cosmic rays flipping your bits (which is much less than the possibility that you simply get an edge case wrong).\n\nRandomized algorithms have a long history of theoretical soundness, and like numerical methods, they are less \"pure\" but can often take exponential-time algorithms and reduce them to polynomial.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "So by \"coincident\" you don't mean \"the same\"? You would accept x^2+x+1 and x^2+x+1+\\epsilon as \"coincident\"?",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I had a comment here before that was solving the wrong problem. Here's another try.\n\nLet `epsilon` be a positive tolerance value, and `d` be a positive number which is small relative to `epsilon`.\n\n*Algorithm*: find points `p_1` through `p_n` on the first curve (and points `q_1` through `q_n` on the second curve) such that *every* point on the first curve has some `p_i` within `d` of it (and each point on the second curve has a `q_j` within distance `d`). Make a spatial partitioning structure of some sort [1] and insert the points `q_j` in it.\n\nNow, for each `p_i`, search the structure for two point sets:\n\n* `A_i`, the set of all points `q_j` in the disk of radius `epsilon+d` centered at `p_i`, and\n* `B_i`, the set of all points `q_j` in the disk of radius `epsilon-d` centered at `p_i`.\n\nIf `A_i` is empty (for any `i`), then the two curves are not coincident [2]. If every `B_i` contains at least one point, and the union of all the `B_i` is `{q_1, ..., q_n}`, then the curves are coincident [3]. \n\nUnfortunately, it can happen that all the `A_i` are nonempty, but some `B_i` turns out to be empty. In this case, decrease `d` and run the procedure again.\n\nEDIT: instead of running the entire procedure again, you could just look at the subcurves for which the coincidence hasn't been resolved (parts close to the `p_i` where `B_i` was empty but `A_i` wasn't, and parts close to the `q_j` which were not a member of any `B_i`).\n\n-----\n\n[1]: I'd say a uniform grid is best, since the points `q_j` are more or less uniformly spaced. A quadtree or k-d tree would work fine, though.\n\n[2]: *Proof (by contrapositive)*: assume there is a point `q` within `epsilon` of `p_i`. We know there must be a `q_j` within `d` of this point `q`. But then, by the triangle inequality\n\n d(p_i, q_j) <= d(p_i, q) + d(q, q_j)\n < epsilon + d.\n\nTherefore `q_j` must be in the ball of radius `epsilon+d` around `p_i`, and so `A_i` is nonempty.\n\n[3]: *Proof*: given a point `p` on the first curve, we can find a `p_i` within `d` of it. But since `B_i` is nonempty, there is a point `q_j` within `epsilon-d` of `p_i`. So by the triangle inequality, \n\n d(p, q_j) <= d(p, p_i) + d(p_i, q_j)\n < d + epsilon - d\n < epsilon.\n\nGiven a point `q` on the second curve, we can find a `q_j` within `d` of it, which must be contained in some `B_i`. Again by the triangle inequality,\n\n d(q, p_i) <= d(q, q_j) + d(q_j, p_i)\n < d + epsilon - d\n < epsilon.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "A few guesses at clarifications:\n\n- You're only interested in closed splines, defined over an interval. Otherwise, any two splines meeting your definition probably differ by a constant and re-parameterization.\n\n- The definition of coincident that you really want is that there exists an increasing function s(t) such that |f(t) - g(s(t))| < epsilon. Under your definition, the pairing between points wouldn't need to be continuous or even 1-1. For example, a vertical segment and a very narrow parabola that starts near the segment bottom, rises to near the segment top, and then falls back to the segment bottom.\n\nAssuming I've guessed right, you might be able to walk from end to end, making sure that the other curve stays within epsilon bounds as you walk. If you're willing to have two thresholds, epsilon1<epsilon2, such that any two curves farther apart than epsilon2 are reported as non-coincident, and any two curves within epsilon1 are reported as coincident, then this approach should work. You could then shrink the gap between epsilon1 and epsilon2, increasing potential search time, until you're satisfied with your answer.\n\n\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "If you can do the following things:\n\n* Find position of a spline at X\n\n* Find angle of a spline at X\n\n* Find the function of position offset from a spline\n\n* Solve for intersections of the above function and a spline\n\n* Do intersections of splines and circles\n\nI think that you're okay, though this is probably not the fastest/cleverest method that someone could make.\n\nGenerate a function drawing a line to the left and right of spline #1 (you find angle of spine #1 at different points and offset by a perpendicular line segment that is epsilon long).\n\nThen find all intersections between spline #2 and spline #1's left and right functions. If spline #2 ever has a position (parameter down spline #2) down it where passes outwards through spline #1's left or right functions without having passed through the left or right functions further down on the left or right function (parameter down left-and-right function #1), then you've found yourself a point that violates the condition you want.\n\nThe reason you can't just check for passing out of the left- or right-functions is that if spline #1 is a straight line going by spline #2, a spiral, it might be that one part of spline #2 is a long ways away but some later part has already gotten close to spline #1.\n\nYou need to do a half-circle intersection with spline #2 to see if spline #1 gets far enough away from spline #2's endcaps.\n\nThat's kinda rough and I don't remember the formulas for B-splines, but if you can do the above, I believe that you're good.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I find this is easier to think about with a picture:\n\nhttp://i.imgur.com/f3wvh.png\n\nIf you have splines A and B, you need to first compute the following:\n\n1. Area A = spline A +/- distance c\n2. Area B = spline B +/- distance c\n\nThen you need to check:\n\n1. Every point of spline A is completely within Area B\n2. Every point of spline B is completely within Area A\n\nIf both of those checks are true, you have coincident splines within the tolerance you have selected.\n\nI haven't derived the actual calculations yet. This appears to be a set logic problem and probably on the order of O(n*m) to achieve your \"rigorous\" requirement (where n = number points in spline A and m = number of points in spline B).\n\n",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Amazon just did me a solid favor, and I never even asked. | I signed up for the free trial of Amazon Prime so I could get some free shipping for a couple of months, and like an idiot, I forgot to cancel my account before the trial period ended.
Quick background - I just moved from Boise, Idaho to Philadelphia to start grad school. I have been here since Jan 4th and won't see my first paycheck until the 29th. So things have been kind of tight. I was sleeping on the floor, but a friend loaned me an air mattress, it is the only furniture in my appartment heh.
So I go on to my bank account today to see if I can afford groceries to cover me for two weeks, and I see
[this](http://imgur.com/FJI6Y)
I'm pretty sure I canceled my prime account after my trial ended, and just thought I'd take the hit (you know, a stupid tax, I hate them when I have to pay them, but it was my own damn fault). At least I'd be able to get free 2 day shipping for a year on stuff I couldn't afford to buy.
But, amazon, with no questions asked, without even contacting me, refunded the money and I no longer have a prime account. Which is really, really awesome right now. I'm going to go buy some food. | 14 | [
{
"body": "Contact them with thanks. We need to respond positively when these big outfits treat us like valued customers instead of \"just another loser\".",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "I have also had good customer service experience with Amazon. The returns, of which I've made two in many years with many purchases, have all been relatively painless.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Amazon are fuckign great, 4 books got lost in the post, then i received another 4. The orignal 4 turned up 3 months later!",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Amazon refunded the money from all of a transaction with a market place seller who tried to rip me off for some of my payment.\nthey are my prefered internet retailer.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I would double check. It doesn't make any sense that they would charge you and then cancel the service and refund you before you'd even contacted them. I mean, if you called and complained, sure, I could see it, but out of the blue? As far as they're concerned, you want the service and are totally happy with it. You should call and check.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Ask Druggit: Buying from Craigslist | Hi Druggit, just wondering if any of you have any tips regarding craigslist?
I just moved to a new city, and am only here for a couple of months. Everyone I know here is through work and pretty straight-edged, so I don't really have any connections to hook me up. I just want an oz of weed to get me through, and there are tons of people advertising on CL. It seems pretty sketchy but pretty convenient.
Does anyone have any experiences with it, or tips for staying safe?
Thanks for the help! | 11 | [
{
"body": "I used to set craigslist prostitutes up with people from the platonic dating section. While this isn't connected to drugs, though you would need some heavy drugs to have sex with some of them and some heavier drugs to cure your new-found STIs afterward, it is an illegal thing on Craigslist and may help you a bit.\n\n Prostitutes never advertise themselves as prostitutes, and they never advertise their prices as money. If there was a dollar sign in the post, they were police officers. The addresses they gave for in-calls were always in public places like restaurants and shopping malls, and they were all very business-oriented in the email exchanges.\n\nDon't go for a post that looks like it was made by a stoner. Don't go for one that mentions marijuana in any way. Don't use an email account that can be traced back to either your real name or your internet handles. Don't give them your address, and google maps the address they give you. If it's a home, don't you *dare* go there. Always meet in a crowded public place. If possible, only use public computers and public internet. \n\nWhy anyone would legitimately offer drugs up on a site like Craigslist is beyond me, but maybe you're in an area where that wouldn't result in the DEA going rawrrawrrawr on you. \n\n",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "I bought a nice vaporizer off of craigslist a month ago, I went to pick it up at the guys house, and it turns out he was a really cool dude. We smoked some of his dro as he showed me how it worked and all the attachments and stuff, and now I actually hang out with him every once in a while. I guess you just have to get lucky and go for the unsuspicious posts, sorry I don't have much real info other than it can work if you look hard.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I bought some from a guy on craigslist. He ended up being a clean-cut asian university student, and he came to my place. He even gave me a little bit for free and we smoked up together. We didn't become best friends or anything but he was a nice guy. All my friends thought I was crazy for doing it, but I think as long as you screen people and just talk to them a bit to make sure they sound sane, and if you also meet in a way that minimizes the risk of something going wrong (maybe having other people you know around) then I think it's a pretty low-risk activity.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Buy a small enough amount the first time in case its a cop. If the online thing doesn't work out, go to any mid-level restaurant (swiss chalet etc) and hang around out back and have a dart with any cook that comes out, he will probably know a guy, or be the guy himself.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "If you're in Toronto, head here.\n\nDon't ask anyone who works there but every time I'm up in Canada, I've never had a problem making a friend there.\n\nhttp://hotboxcafe.ca/HotBoxHome.htm",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Never order from craigslist. Are you serious? If you want to order things with ease go find a good source forum online, learn about PGP encryption, and obtain a PO box or use a safe drop location for receiving packages.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
You want short? I give you short, Reddit: I am a 5"2', 28 years old guy. Ask me anything. | In addition to that, I also suffered from obesity and had a speech impediment. Both pretty much corrected by now, but guess how fun my life was in high school?
Yeah.
For a while I sincerely considered getting my legs broken and gain about 4 inches. Eventually I settled for "fuck it, I am not undergoing a tremendously painful and costly surgery just to adhere to some freaking unwritten standards".
I can't believe that >5"2' guys consider themselves "short".
Ask me anything. | 29 | [
{
"body": "Here's my wedding picture. \n\nhttp://i.imgur.com/kExZ4.jpg\n\nNo, my wife wasn't in heels (though most women's shoes do add more height than most men's). I'm about 5'2\" or 5'3\" (been a long time since I bothered to check). We've been married since 1983. Yes, people giggle at our height difference.\n\nFact 1: Short guys don't get as many women.\n\nFact 2: You don't need many women. You need one.",
"score": 59
},
{
"body": "I was tall and fat in highschool with a speech impediment.\r\n\r\nI'm pretty sure we had mostly the same experience.\r\n\r\n",
"score": 12
},
{
"body": "I'm 4\"11', female..I'm 22 and can get in basically anywhere as a child, even though I have 2 kids of my own.I don't believe I look young at all though.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "What is the most degrading thing that you have ever been told about your height? Was it an intentional insult?",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I'm 5'5\", and contrary to your disbelief, I consider myself short. I also dated a girl for a year who was 5'10\". Should probably do an AMA about that.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Do people actually still care about height? I honestly don't even notice/care how tall or short people are anymore. I don't know why.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Anyone in the NYC area want to hang out for a bit? | Ok. This might sound like kind of a weird request, but if any Redditor is free today with nothing to do in the New York City area, would you like to grab a pizza or something with me? I know this might seem a little unorthodox for some of you, but lately I've been in kind of a funk and feel horrible about myself. I haven't hung out with friends in quite a while, and I'm slowly but surely becoming one of the most socially awkward people in this city.
I know I have a problem and I'm trying to fix it. I've spent more time on Reddit today than I have spend outside the entire week, (I've just woken up and couldn't have spent more than a few hours on here) and I'm slowly becoming a hermit. I don't want this... I want to socialize, be active, and live a long and happy life. If you're in New York, and you don't mind hanging out with someone like me, let me know. It would make me happy.
I love Reddit, and I know the amazing things you guys do on here. Everyday, you guys do something amazing for one of the members on here and you guys make miracles happen by working with each other as a community. Do you guys think you can pull off another miracle and make this socially awkward penguin a little more social? | 23 | [
{
"body": "I'm in NYC. I'm also homeless, so if you buy me a slice of pizza I'll tell you nice things all day. I don't even look homeless. ",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "Check out the engagdet show today at the times center. Its free and gives you a chance to hang out with geeky people. Ill be there",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "Oh and this reminds me, I'm the organizer of an Idiotarod team if you, or anyone else on reddit, is interested. It's a youthful, somewhat illegal race in NYC. It's like the Iditarod dogsled race, but instead of dogs, it's people and instead of a sled it's a shopping cart. I already have my cart, but a bunch of people on my team from last year bailed, I guess. Anyways, if you can be somewhat outgoing (talking to random people, and generally not lame), aren't pathetically out of shape (like you can run for a minute or two a couple times), and drink, those are the necessary requirements. It's mostly young people, and I guess if you're into hipster hating it'd be something to avoid, but it's pretty fun and you can meet a lot of like-minded people (ridiculously attractive girls included). It's January 30th, I think.\n\nEdit: [here's a pic of my team from last year](http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music/idiotarod/2009/99.jpg). we were robots. [and some pictures of the event in general](http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/02/pictures_from_n.html).",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "My wife and I would hang out with you, but we are away until August. Are you from there? We could show you around. Take a road trip into the Catskills, go for a walk. That kind of shit always makes me feel better.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Not in the NYC area, but totally agree with you. As someone who is often on the verge of losing faith in humanity, coming to reddit is a constant reminder that the world is full of a lot of amazing, positive, charitable people determined to make the world a better place.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
How often do we even consider kids in the fight? | Kids are important. They are adults without the experience the rest of us have. My kids are very intelligent and capable. I have no problem talking to them about pressing matters and giving them their say on most family matters. Some of these matters include:
* Where we live,
* Visit,
* Or even move to and when.
* Why we spend the way we do
* What we can do to forward the family as a whole
* How we can help others and our community
I think our shared lives are dependent on everyone, including the children. Yet how many people actually work at educating the children on things that matter, and then help them to take direct action where they want to?
So those who agree with me, let's start posting materials to help the kids learn. Here's a free [zine for kids](http://indykids.net/main/) I just ran across today. Start adding to the list people :). | 15 | [
{
"body": "I'm sorry—but no—kids are not adults without the experience. \n\nI do share however the notion that kids need to be educated on things that matter.",
"score": 6
}
]
|
TIL that after only 7500 miles a Bugatti Veyron owner has to replace all four wheels, costing £29,900 ($USD 48,000)! | [source](http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/t/286396.aspx)
Other points of note, first service is just shy of £14,000 ($USD 23,000) and each tyre, which can only be fitted by Bugatti, costs £6325 ($USD 10,000).
Just goes to show, even if you've got a million Euros you can't afford a million Euro car. | 22 | [
{
"body": "> Decided to cancel my order once I found this out. \n> \n> Veyron running / ownership costs. \n\nI realize he was probably being facetious about his order, but if the cost is a factor for you in any way, you're really not in the market for a Veyron...",
"score": 16
},
{
"body": "Good thing most Veyrons will never see more than the a few miles of repositioning for photo shoots in their lifetimes.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "RTFA. The wheels are checked for stress fractures every 7,500 miles, not replaced every 7,500 miles. Jesus fucking Christ.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "This is true for a lot of sports cars. The tires don't last very long and they cost significantly more than the tires for your sedan. It kind of takes the fun out of buying a sports car.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Top Gear told me that it costs Volkswagen £5M to make one too. Yet they sell it like 5 times cheaper.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "This is very standard on anything made to go fast, especially sport motorcycles. The tires sacrifice long term use for the ability to hold the car to the road at obscenely high speeds--they grip the road much better.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
What are some of your cheap recipe ideas and favourite meat substitutes? | Hi Vegan Reddit,
I've been making a lot of cabbage koftas and using them as meat substitutes. I often put them on tortillas with tabouli and hummus. It is indeed a strange mix of cuisines, but tastes great, and is incredibly cheap to make.
What other food suggestions do you have? What meat substitutes do you like to use? What's your latest favourite thing to make? How about dessert ideas??
Something that's easy prepare, can be stored for several days, and is cheap would be preferable. | 6 | [
{
"body": "Super Cheap taco stuffing\n\n1 Cup TVP\n\n1 Can crushed tomatoes\n\n1 packet taco seasoning\n\nmix the tvp and the crushed tomatoes together without draining and put in the refridgerator, wait at least 1 hour or as long as a week (I always have at least one of these sitting in my fridge), mix in the taco seasoning and heat in a frying pan.\n\nSame thing without the taco seasoning frying it up with onion, oregano, garlic and basil makes a good addition to a jar of marinara.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Vege burgers. I always loved burgers, and with all the condiments I put on, it's hard to remember the difference. We use whole wheat buns.\n\nThe hot dogs - well, vege hot dogs have a loooong way to go before they work for me... Dry, cool too quickly, and texture is off-putting (for me).\n\nWe also tried the vege meat balls, the breakfast sausage links are great (don't like the bacon), and lunch 'meat' (gives me heartburn). The chourozo (sp?) is pretty good sometimes.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
As I sit here with a malfunctioning power cord, utilizing my last 25 minutes of battery life, I ask why? Why can't laptop manufacturers provide a sturdy power cord with their machines? | In a world where we are subject to Moore's Law and technology gets better and better with every passing year, why is it that I can't buy a laptop with a power cord that doesn't stop working within a year and a half? This is the second consecutive HP laptop I've owned, and I will now be purchasing my SIXTH power cord.
For shame. | 21 | [
{
"body": "I think Apple has made a pretty damn good power cord. I recently purchased a Macbook Pro (6 months ago), the damn power cord is magnetic, very little stress goes into the plugging and unplugging of the cord. I certainly haven't owned it very long, but I will be surprised if the cord itself doesn't last more than 5 or so years....Oh and fuck HP laptops, I had one and replaced the cord 3 times in the 4 years in owned it. ",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "If you're on your 6th power cord.. I'd bet money its something in your environment.. or something you are doing. (inadvertently or not). There's no way HP's product quality is THAT bad. (unless we're talking 6 power cords over 10 years.. then maybe I'd believe it) \n\nI worked at HP for 5 years (doing internal helpdesk support) and was certified to do full tear-down/rebuilds of some of their laptop models... I don't remember any time when there was any widely-known fault with AC adapters. ",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "I replaced my wifes powercord on her toshiba 4 times. My MacBook has had the same cord since 06 no issues. More companies need to use magnasafe cords\n",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "For that matter why haven't they decided on a universal standard? The connectors should be compatible between brands.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
A FWD email from my father... | 'Let me explain the problem science has with religion.'
The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and
then asks one of his new students to stand.
'You're a Christian, aren't you, son?'
'Yes sir,' the student says.
'So you believe in God?'
'Absolutely.'
'Is God good?'
'Sure! God's good.'
'Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?'
'Yes.'
'Are you good or evil?'
'The Bible says I'm evil.'
The professor grins knowingly. 'Aha! The Bible! He considers for a moment. 'Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?'
'Yes sir, I would.'
'So you're good...!'
'I wouldn't say that.'
'But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could.
Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't.'
The student does not answer, so the professor continues. 'He
doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of
cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is
this Jesus good? Can you answer that one?'
The student remains silent. 'No, you can't, can you?' the professor says.
He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.
'Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?'
'Er..yes,' the student says.
'Is Satan good?'
The student doesn't hesitate on this one. 'No.'
'Then where does Satan come from?'
The student falters. 'From God'
'That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?'
'Yes, sir..'
'Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?'
'Yes'
'So who created evil?' The professor continued, 'If God
created everything, then God created evil, since evil
exists, and according to the principle that our works define
who we are, then God is evil.'
Again, the student has no answer. 'Is there sickness?
Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do
they exist in this world?'
The student squirms on his feet. 'Yes.'
'So who created them?'
The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his
question. 'Who created them?' There is still no answer.
Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom.
The class is mesmerized.
'Tell me,' he continues onto another student. 'Do you
believe in Jesus Christ, son?'
The student's voice betrays him and cracks. 'Yes, professor, I do.'
The old man stops pacing. 'Science says you have five senses
you use to identify and observe the world around you.
Have you ever seen Jesus?'
'No sir. I've never seen Him.'
'Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?'
'No, sir, I have not...'
'Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your
Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus
Christ, or God for that matter?'
'No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't.'
'Yet you still believe in him?'
'Yes'
'According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol,
science says your God doesn't exist... What do you say
to that, son?'
'Nothing,' the student replies.. 'I only have my faith.'
'Yes, faith,' the professor repeats. 'And that is the
problem science has with God... There is no evidence, only faith.'
The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a
question of his own. 'Professor, is there such thing as heat? '
'Yes.'
'And is there such a thing as cold?'
'Yes, son, there's cold too.'
'No sir, there isn't.'
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested.
The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to
explain. 'You can have lots of heat, even more heat,
super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little
heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called
'cold'. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero,
which is no heat, but we can't go any further after
that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be
able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body
or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits
energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or
transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence
of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to
describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat
we can measure in thermal
units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of
heat, sir, just the absence of it.'
Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom,
sounding like a hammer.
'What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as
darkness?'
'Yes,' the professor replies without hesitation.. 'What is
night if it isn't darkness?'
'You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the
absence of something. You can have low light, normal light,
bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light
constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness,
isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the
word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would
be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?'
The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him.
This will be a good semester. 'So what point are you
making, young man?'
'Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed
to start with, and so your conclusion must also be
flawed.'
The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time.
'Flawed? Can you explain how?'
'You are working on the premise of duality,' the student
explains.. 'You argue that there is life and then
there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing
the concept of God as something finite, something we can
measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought.'
'It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen,
much less fully understood either one. To view death as the
opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death
cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the
opposite of life, just the absence of it.' 'Now tell
me, professor... Do you teach your students that they
evolved from a monkey?'
'If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young
man, yes, of course I do.'
'Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?'
The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he
realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester,
indeed.
'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work
and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going
endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you
now not a scientist, but a preacher?'
The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the
commotion has subsided. 'To continue the point you were
making earlier to the other student, let me give you an
example of what I mean.' The student looks around the
room. 'Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen
the professor's brain?' The class breaks out into
laughter. 'Is there anyone here who has ever heard the
professor's brain, felt the professor's brain,
touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears
to have done so. So, according to the established rules of
empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that
you have no brain, with all due respect, sir.' 'So
if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your
lectures, sir?'
Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the
student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an
eternity, the old man answers. 'I guess you'll have
to take them on faith.'
'Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists
with life,' the student continues. 'Now, sir, is
there such a thing as evil?' Now uncertain, the
professor responds, 'Of course, there is.. We see it
Everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity
to man. It is in The multitude of crime and violence
everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing
else but evil.'
To this the student replied, 'Evil does not exist sir, or
at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the
absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word
that man has created to describe the absence of God.. God
did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when
man does not have God's love present in his heart.
It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or
the darkness that comes when there is no light.'
The professor sat down.
PS: the student was Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein wrote a book titled God vs. Science in
1921... | 6 | [
{
"body": "Old, old bullshit.\n\nAlso, Einstein? Really?!\n\n>Einstein clarified his religious views in a letter he wrote in response to those who claimed that he worshipped a conventional god: \"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.\"[4] In his book The World as I See It, he wrote: \"A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.\"\n\n[Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Albert_Einstein)",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "[Fake](http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp)\n\nEdit: And these terms are relative. We use the terms colder and darker as a direction in the absence of heat and light, respectively. One never measures cold or darkness directly. ",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I sincerely hope that this doesn't get downvoted into the abyss since, having no immediate answer for this, I'd like to see someone else's argument.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "My take: evil is not \"absence of God\" (or good). In fact in deep space (which *is* heat-less and light-less) there are no murderers, rapists or politicians. And atheists (God-less) are not more evil than religious people. QED.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Question: gaming and surround sound? | Which soundcard and speaker set I should buy? How about 7.1? Is the surround worth the effort and cost? Are headphones a viable alternative? Do they work with consoles? Any desktop sound projectors around?
I don't play shooters or such. I never even tried WoW. Last game I _really_ enjoyed was BG2 (and still do). I'm trying to catch up with this gaming meme.. (I almost bought DA:O today but I can't spare any time for it currently. ST Online is calling for my poor soul though.)
| 6 | [
{
"body": "Good headphones (Sennheisers, for example) = Perfect surround sound illusion. \n\nModern sound cards are so good, and kinda reached a peak years ago, that even onboard sound can give you all the fidelity and channels you need. Audiophiles might disagree, but not with the headphones part. I'm not even talking about those \"surround headphones\" that cost $400. Just good, high quality stereo ones. Back/Front hearing is just a pitch effect (the shape of your ear makes you hear things differently from different directions) and can be perfectly emulated with good stereo sound.",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "Do it properly - get a nice set of Z-5500s (I personally think 5.1 is enough, but I haven't tried 7.1) and let the bullets fly! I've never been so scared in Doom 3, not felt the rumble of spaceships in quite the same way ever before!\n\nSome people do find headphones to be enough, but I like to *feel* the game too. Admittedly while at uni I just have stereo as lugging 5.1 surround sound around is pretty tricky.\n\nAs for compatability? SPDIF/TosLINK (optical) seems to be standard and that's what I use, although you can use coaxial or component.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Hi. I am, as I am sure a good handful of people at reddit are, an audio professional. I mix, edit and record sound for movies and television, doing an occasional music album or demo here and there.\n\nI am also a gamer and have been for a long, long time. I use speakers instead of headphones for one main reason when I game: speakers are always, bar no circumstance, less fatigueing than headphones. When I played EQ, or now Wow, for hours on end, I want to feel comfortable doing so. Wearing headphones would give me a such a mind numbing headache and general feeling of annoyance that I wouldn't be able to stand being in my own skin after about two or three hours. I can sit in front of speakers for far longer with the only side effects being the self loathing I get from being so immoble for so long without being somewhat productive. Speakers also are far, *far* superior to headphones in audio reproduction. If someone tries to tell you they mixed an album solely on headphones and it turned out to be mixed well, it would be a miracle and not the norm. You use headphones for panning and discerning minute detail, not for richness and overall feel and balance. There is no real bass response in headphones. They all suffer this malaise. There are no expections when compared to real speakers. Bass response in speakers is something that is visceral. You can feel it in your bones. All you can get from headphones is a pounding on your eardrums. Keep in mind you are not really looking for complete hi-fi from anything computer-speaker related. If you want that, load up your computer room with a complete home theater setup, with a large home theater-style amplifier and full range speakers for the front with decent speakers in the rear. Most people are not going to go to this extreme for a computer setup, so they will inevitably have to sacrifice something and most of the time this is comeplete fidelity. For example, just because a set of computer speakers says it is THX certified doesn't mean that you could put in a DVD or blu-ray in your computer and have a cinema quality experience (this is, in fact, what that THX certification is supposed to mean). But that doesn't mean your computer speakers can't sound good. A nice 5.1 setup isn't too terribly expensive now-a-days and generally sounds fairly decent. Granted, a sattelite-sub speaker setup has inherent audio deficiencies in regards to the range of the components, but it still outperforms a set of headphones. Hearing sound come from all five directions in relation to the screen is all I personally am interested in. This allows you to hear threats from not only left and right, but also from front and back. I can't tell you how many times I have saved my own ass from being slain by just realizing that the threat was coming from a certain direction. One other reason I prefer speakers is that the speakers always relate to the view on the screen because they are set in place. If you turn your head to the left or right, you still hear the sound in respect to the the character in the game.\n\n\nAll of that said, if you are looking for headphones, the first suggestion I would make is to look for an \"over-the-ear\" design. This will always provide a more comforable feeling pair of headphones which results in a more enjoyable playing experience. I edit sometimes for hours at a time and, while I do get fatigued, I wear headphones for the critical, high-definition nitpicking I have to do to dialog and other elements with small transients and different ticks and such. Any sort of headphones at the $200+ mark will be of sufficient audio quality for gaming (or almost anything for that matter). \n\n\nThere is at least one technology that can make surround in headphones a truly surrounding experience, not just a left-right affair. Dolby Headphones is a tech that takes a 5.1 (or more, I think) soundtrack and encodes it into a *headphone only* surround playback (meaning it wouldn't sound right coming out of regular stereo speakers). It uses EQ, phase and delay timings to achieve a hyper-real sonic model of a room that your brain can decode as separate 5.1 (mostly 5.0, since the bass suffers) speakers. On a side note, the development of this product was by a company called Lake (a Dolby subsidiary) that strapped a guy in a chair, strapped his head to a board so he wouldn't move around, put tiny in-ear microphones in his ears and then ran sweeps in each of the 5.1 speakers, recording the resulting output with the microphones. These signals were then analysed for phase coherence, reflections, timing differences and EQ differences between the ear location/recordings (among other things) to come up with an algorithm that would reproduce a very believeable sonic model. This is far more sophisticated than what another poster has said is just \"pitch manipulations\" to achieve surrond sound in headphones. In fact the only thing I personally could imagine in a surround environment that would be beneficial as far as pitch manipulations would be a passing Doppler Effect, and that would only be for realism and not direction. If you would like to hear a demonstration of Dolby Headphone, go rent a copy of Pearl Harbor (yes the Michael Bay-Ben Affleck-Josh Hartnett movie), go to the setup menu, select Dolby Headphone mix as the audio track and play it on a DVD player with a headphone out or pass the audio through a home theater receiver with a headphone out. The Pearl Harbor attack scene is a particularly good scene to watch for the different planes flyinig over your shoulders (from surround to the front). You can also turn the headphones around to get a good demonstration of how much surround material there is because things will seem to come from the wrong direction.\n\n\nThe only real problem is finding an audio card that will do Dolby Headphone directly for games. You can get many sound cards that will give you the ability to send digital output to a reciever for decoding, but usually that output is solely for passing an already encoded AC-3 soundtrack from a DVD or blue-ray. You want to get a sound card that supports Dolby Digital Live for streaming live game related audio. There are a few out there and they will work with some of the speaker sets that have an optical/coax input.\n\n\ntl;dr Speakers are better than headphones for gaming.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I have Onkyo 7.1 HTiB, Beyerdynamic MMX300 headset and an Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 soundcard.\n\nFor FPS gaming like Left4Dead1/2 and Unreal Tournament 3, I prefer headphones. For movies, general computing and music listening I alternate from the surround sound speakers and headset. The headset sounds better, but sometimes I tire of having something on my head.\n\nHeadphones generally give you better sound for less money than external speakers. Sans a subwoofer, anyway.\n\nDA:O's soundtrack was lacking.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
I was sexually abused in a juvenile center at 15. AM(A)A. | AMA that won't disclose my identity or personal details.
This is a long story. I am posting it in reaction to [this](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/aqd90/a_shocking_new_study_by_the_justice_department/) post and because this is a complex subject. Sexual abuse in a correctional facility is in my opinion a tough subject to understand and I want to answer questions people might have.
I was sexually abused from age 15 to almost 16 in a juvenile correctional facility following a drug conviction. It wasn't my first conviction - I, in fact, managed to get drug charges dropped many, many times. I suppose I should have gotten the hint the first time(s).
The question of why I was doing drugs and drinking is a complex subject which I won't get into. At 13 I was already drinking every night and doing drugs; it was a way to escape my reality, most of it. Anyway. After a few minor convictions, after a few charges dropped, I finally got convicted by a judge to eleven months in a juvenile center (mostly because I broke my probation).
Juvenile centers are hell. They are dangerous and several times I thought I would die. People are completely crazy and can try to stab you to steal your tooth brush. It happens. The worst of it was going to sleep because you never knew what would happen when you would wake up (or if you would wake up).
Ironically, there were even more drugs in the juvenile center and I have done more drugs in my seven months there than at any time before. It was more expensive, of course, but I had a decent reputation in the center which I think saved me. I won't go in the full details of the sexual abuse by the staff, first because I don't think many people want to hear the details and second because it is painful for me - it involved mainly oral, although some time anal. There were three guards in particular. There were a few professional wardens although most of them "closed their eyes" on it. The worst was for the women, I've heard. I was in a section for boys but rumors reported than 100% of females in that juvenile center would get raped. Yes, 100%. It was mostly a typical thing for them.
The guard would drag me by strength and act like I was violent and resisting me. Most of the times, the other guards, if there were any, would nod and do nothing. A few times, a warden intervened and basically prevented the rape from happening - these few times, another child would get abused instead of me. They would beat me, threaten me, bully me and abuse me. That's it. I was nothing.
I finally got out after seven month, earlier, and have never looked back. Ironically, in juvenile center, I continued high school (I had dropped out) and eventually graduated. I am now in college. I comfort myself thinking I will soon make more than any of the guards there. Yet I never forgave them. The facts that they might still be doing it, right now, terrifies me. The fact that the society doesn't do anything about it - and that I will soon pay taxes to this society - disgusts me beyond words.
I have never forgiven the system for a few reasons. First, the judge who sent me to the center. For the many times before, my sentence would typically be community service, a fine, and some probation. The fact that he sent me to seven months in what I would call jail (it's nowhere what you might think) is, in my mind, horrible. But I had broken the law, so I can understand. Second, the fact that if I had hired a better lawyer, I could have avoided the detention center. I think it's horrible that by paying more, you can get lighter sentences (and not get abused). Lastly, that type of behavior, in all jails but especially with children, is disgusting. How can the society arrest people for having a few pictures of child pornography and let their own guards, the ones supposed to protect us, do this? In broad daylight?
I could get into many more details - a retarded kid in our center who got the worst out of it, people committing suicide, a guard losing an eye (they had it rough too, there were kids who could knock a guard in one punch - it took about 8 guards to retrain them - but that doesn't justify rape), but I think I've told most of my story. AMAA. Sorry if I take too much time or if I don't deserve this thread (after all this I've gotten a very low self-esteem. I have a girlfriend however and she is fantastic. Without her I'd be nothing)
**EDIT: Just wanted to thank all of you! I had my doubts and fear before posting this. As I've told, I already told my story in two forums and it was horrible. Your support, your comments are incredibly kind and helpful. I am truly impressed and happy of the support here. Reddit is awesome, simply said!** | 179 | [
{
"body": "I've really lost a lot of respect for reddit after reading some questions posed in this thread.\n\n\"Have you seen Avatar?\"\n\n\"Stories?\"\n\n\"6 people (85%) like the fact that he was raped? lolz\"\n\nReally? Somebody builds up the courage to discuss an emotionally scarring time in his life and *this* is how you react?",
"score": 108
},
{
"body": "I'm guessing it may not go anywhere, but have you considered trying to press charges against the juvenile center/guards?",
"score": 58
},
{
"body": "There is no one to report this abuse to? You mentioned a warden sort of stopped the rape once, could you not talk to one of the \"professional\" wardens?",
"score": 20
},
{
"body": "First, I want to say I am so sorry you had to go through that. No one deserves to go through what you went through, it's horrible and I am deeply saddened by reading it.\n\nSecond, I want to respond to this:\n>The fact that the society doesn't do anything about it - and that I will >soon pay taxes to this society - disgusts me beyond words.\n\nWhile what I'm about to tell you in no way diminishes what you're going through, I hope it might at least make you feel better about the direction society is headed.\n\nIn several states (New York, Illinois, Texas, Alaska, California, and Florida off the top of my head...) there are now Problem Solving Court systems, such as Juvenile Treatment Court (for kids brought in on drug charges) and Juvenile Court (problem solving edition!). These court systems were created to keep kids out of jail, and to provide kids with the resources they need to overcome whatever problems brought them to the point of delinquency. In Juvenile Treatment Court, kids need to appear in Court once a week at the start and then less and less depending on how well they do. There are rules, of course, like they need to keep clean and go to school, and they often are also given homework by the judge (things like collages or posters, nothing too intense), and they are also provided with therapy (individual and group). I don't know what state you grew up in, but I want you to know that if you live in any of the aforementioned states, your tax dollars could be going towards actually helping kids who end up in the system, instead of hurting them.\nI also want to mention that there are courts in some of these states called Mental Health Courts, and that the boy that you mentioned in a comment would have probably gone to one of those if it was available to him at the time.\n\nIf you don't live in one of these states, I suggest that you, and whoever else is reading this, contact your congressmen/DA's office/Administrative Judge and urge them to consider setting these courts up.\n\nAnd before anyone tells me that this is all a lie or not as great as I'm making it out to be... I just want to say that as a fact Juvenile Treatment Courts cut recidivism down by over 70%. Also, I know several case workers in these programs who are incredibly devoted to the respondents, and get teary eyed when the kids \"graduate\" (finish their sentence and get the charges expunged from their record). I also happen to know a judge who presided over a Juvenile Treatment Court, and I can think of at least 5 times off the top of my head where I was out to lunch or dinner with him and random teenagers came running up to him to say hello and tell him all about how they're doing in school/their dog/their job/whatever. They were former respondents.\n\nSo my point is, I'm sorry that you were the victim of such a horrible and flawed system, but the system is changing for the better in some places. I just thought it might make you feel better about taxes. heh.",
"score": 17
},
{
"body": "Thanks for posting. \n\nThe aptly-named penal system in this country is certainly one of the sickest elements of a very sick society. As someone who has paid to support, and failed to protest it, I offer my sincerest apologies to you. \n\nThe fact that citizens are sent to what amount to rape-camps boggles the mind. \n\nOk enough pontificating... \n\n**\nSounds like everyone there knows that the kids are getting raped. How does this information not seep out of the institution?\n**\n\nok back to pontificating:\nGood luck in school. Sounds like you're doing well now! Don't forget the healing power of time and honest loving relationships. See how helpful we are? ",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "Why the hell did you not bring any action against the system? Rape like that can be proved. You speak of an anger against the system and than did nothing to do anything about it?",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I'm sorry to ask but could you tell some more stories about your time at the juvenile center? I'm really curious about it especially since you put that last paragraph in.\n\nIf you don't want to share it's fine, I understand. Best of luck to you in the future.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "How did you react once you got out of Juve? I was molested on and off from about 7-10, and it wrecked me for years afterward once I found out what really happened to me (I was told at the time \"This is normal,\" \"This is natural,\" \"Everyone does this,\" etc.).",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I just want to thank you for sharing your stories. I had no idea that these sort of things actually happened, I thought they were just stories told to scare kids into staying out of trouble. I usually skip over the IAmA threads, but your thread caught my eye. It has been a great insight into juvenile centers.\n\nAlso, ignore the assholes in this thread. They see this simply as an \"ends justify the means\" situation, but I don't think they realize that rape is never justified. \n\n\nAlso, you're an eloquent writer. Your stories were super detailed.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": ">The fact that he sent me to seven months in what I would call jail (it's nowhere what you might think) is, in my mind, horrible.\n\nI've been to jail. It varies a lot depending on the region, but what I experienced wasn't bad at all, just boring. What you're describing is more like what I expect from state penitentiaries. Though I haven't been to one of those, and maybe they aren't as bad as I imagine.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Without going into too much detail, I wonder if your experiences took place in Pennsylvania? I remember stories hitting the national media about corrupt judges who got chummy with the owners of privately-run juvenile prisons and directed the kids there whenever possible. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "God damn, reading this makes me angry. There must be some way to bust those guys if it's still going on. \n\n>Ironically, there were even more drugs in the juvenile center \n\nIf these kids can sneak in drugs then they ought to sneak in some sort of recording device (cell phone, MP3 player) and then slip evidence of the abuse to the ACLU or something. \n\nEasy for me to say I know, but this sounds so awful that I just can not accept that the situation is unfixable.\n\nIf you have it in you to write about this without anonymity, I'd recommend that you write a letter to your governor explaining how bad things have gotten in the juvenile centers. \n\nAnyway, my deepest regrets that you went through what you went through.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Can you play wow casually? Should I get back into it? | I played heavily from the minute it came out till about a year later when I quit cold turkey. But I find I have a little bit of time and I miss it. Can people have fun in Wow without being ultra serious? Am I forgetting how much grinding to 60 (now I guess 80) sucks?
I miss playing with a guild and I miss the immersiveness.
Thoughts? | 18 | [
{
"body": "yah, you can certainly play it casually now, especially with the new LFG system. You can jump on, get in a group, run a dungeon and be off within about 30 minutes to an hour. It's particularly fast if you are a tank or a healer class.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "It's ridiculously easy to level up now. From August 2009 to November 2009, I went from level 1 to 80, playing casually. I have lots of fun, playing only a couple times a week. It's also a lot easier to make money these days. The first time I played WoW, from October 2007 to March 2008, it was a grind and only leveled my character to 57, at which point I quit. It was just too much of a grind back then.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Dude, it's a completely different game from Vanilla. Start it up again, pick a new race, and see how much it's changed. You'll be floored.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Me? No, I can't play WoW casually. That's unfortunate because it is a great game, and I really enjoyed it. However, I'm unable to just play it casually, so I don't let myself play it any more. As for you, I couldn't say.",
"score": 4
}
]
|
/r/japanlife - For expats trying to lead a life in Japan | First of all, I do not know how much it is frowned upon to advertise another sub-reddit on a sub-reddit. If it is really taboo I ask the admins to remove this submission, my intention is not to hurt /r/japan or its subscribers.
I have been on reddit for over a year and on /r/japan for roughly the same time. Last year I moved to Japan for what I thought was temporary but it seems that it will become rather permanent. Keeping myself up-to-date with world news is easy, Japanese news, not so much so.
I also would really enjoy to be able to sort out all the tourist questions, the "oh-my-god sexy Japanese girl!!!11" that sometimes comes along with discussing Japan. I am just trying to lead a life here, worries about visas, language barriers, discrimination and work rather than what cool new colours of Pocky that has recently shown up at the konbini.
Join in if you share that dream, although it is rather empty at this time. [/r/japanlife](http://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/), that is all. | 16 | [
{
"body": "Upvote because every time I try to get info on life in Japan, or even visiting Japan, I come across a wall of creepy Japanophiles who gush about maid cafes and getting laid. \n\n(I think Japanese girls are beautiful, but I find it shocking that people use a cultural and lingual barrier to act like vile cocks.)",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "Sounds good - I've been living in Japan for seven or eight years now (stopped counting a while ago) and I have no plans to go back, so I guess I fit the targeted demographic. Hopefully we can get a nice little community going - yoroshiku! ;)",
"score": 5
}
]
|
Has anyone ever dated someone suffering from bipolar disorder? | Over the last few months I've been seeing this girl that suffers from bipolar disorder. She's a great girl, and as far as I'm concerned, worth the effort. I know mental illness can be a handful to deal with, both for the person suffering from it and those close to them, but I also recognize that everyone deserves to be recognized as an individual. I also understand that the illness doesn't define that person – if anything, it shadows them.
I work in health care, so I have a professional understanding of the illness, but not a personal one. I know how to care for a person with bipolar in a professional, caregiving way, but that's not the relationship between her and I, in this case. I'm not her therapist - I'm her partner. Has anyone dated someone bipolar (successfully, or unsuccessfully)? Do you have any advice? Even lessons learned from mistakes are still lessons learned, and I'd appreciate any words. I try to be as patient and understanding as I can with her, but I'm feeling a little bit of a loss. Any help would be much obliged. | 4 | [
{
"body": "I haven't dated anyone bipolar, but my mom is and I live with her. It's important to talk about how they feel after they get mad, because most of the time they aren't getting mad at you if they get into a fight - it makes them very sad that they can't always control themselves when they just get mad in general. Having self control is not always possible, so it's important for me and my mother to have a very intellectual relationship and talk about how they feel.\n\nI notice I have tendencies myself, but not like mom. I also have another friend who is bipolar and he's a really good friend. I always try and discuss what I did when he gets mad and let me explain himself to me, because most of the time he doesn't mean any harm, but it's just the simple things that you do that can trigger them. . . Something simple as them asking you something and you not hearing it. . so instead of them further explaining they'll either get mad and storm off or just restate it in a very ugly tone. . . that's not in their control.\n\nSo every time something like that happens I try and take myself down to a humble level and try and explain how I didn't mean to do something to offend them and I'll try and be more attentive. One thing I've noticed with bipolar people is that they take strongly to your kindness and they will open up intellectually about what was going on in their head. . .as long as you can always have an open and trusting relationship, there is no reason it can't be a beautiful one.\n\nI see the hardest part is to not get your feelings hurt, but it's impossible for that to always happen. Your feelings will get hurt and it won't always be easy. As long as you can man up to the pain and see it for what it is, you will be the kind of person they need in their life. \n\nCommunication is so important and its honestly helped me deal with 'normal' people a lot better. The problem is that normal people will have episodes themselves, but since it is so few and far between it closes them off to communication. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "When I was 14, I dated a then undiagnosed 17 year old guy with bipolar type 2. It was...interesting to say the least. They thought he had other things like possibly antisocial tendencies, but when he was up or down it was a totally different world.\n\nWhen he was depressed he would be really needy and want to hang out all the time and cuddle and wanted to be around me all the time. We were both so codependent that I saw this as \"good\" times. When he was manic, oh god. He would be a complete asshole to me because of a lack of patience, want to have sex all the time, even when I didn't (and get mad when I didn't want to do it in public, places we probably would've been caught, honestly). He would yell at me a lot and then we would hang out with friends and he would just laugh a lot and be really hyper and seemingly happy around them. \n\nIt caused other problems in his life, but those are the ones that most directly affected me. While I don't think I was too young, I think it was a problem because he was such a dick to me. We both blamed me for his mood swings and I already had self-confidence issues and this really made it so much worse. \n\nThe biggest piece of advice I can give you is, don't look at their mood swings as dependent on you. I took responsibility for them, but really, everyones emotions are their own responsibilities. It helps to take a step back and think about whether or not this mood is because of the disorder. \n\nHe was unmedicated and undiagnosed, however. YMMV with someone getting treatment. You may also want to go to therapy with her at points in the future.\n\nI wish you luck though. I know some people with bipolar disorder and not all of them are like my ex. Some are wonderful people most certainly worth getting to know.\n\nGood luck. Remember to take care of yourself, as much as you care about her.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "My partner of five years has bipolar disorder (we are both in our early twenties); I am male and she is female.\n\nFor me, the key lesson was to trust her to understand her condition best and take the steps necessary to deal with it. My partner made a number of lifestyle choices over the time we've been together that have made her much happier. When she says, \"I must do X\" or \"I must not do Y\", even if it comes at a cost, I understand that she's speaking from an understanding of her position far more profound than mine.\n\nAs a concrete example: Sometimes she needs space to settle her emotions herself. So I leave her alone for a few hours, either leaving the apartment or just making sure I'm not in the same room as her. In the beginning I felt hurt that I was 'thrown out', but now I get that the solitude helps.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I have, and it was one of the most horrible experiences of my life (and that's saying something as i came from a horridly abusive family). My girl, however, consistently decided she was \"better\" and stopped taking her meds. Cue storms of epic proportions completely ruining entire months of both of our lives ended only by me literally begging her to continue taking her medication.\n\nI can't offer advice from a positive relationship side, but i will tell you if she starts going into the \"don't need meds\" cycle (more than once) get the everloving hell away.\n\ne: added reference point.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
I leave School in 4 months and I'm Terrified! Help? Any words of advice or just experiences? | In 4 months I will be leaving Sixth Form, and I am terrified. I've been with most of the people around me for 7 years now, and in school for 14 years. And Honestly? I'm terrified and depressed about it all.
These people and that place have been such a large part of my life I'm not sure how to cope or feel. This place has been, in a way, my home. It's been my social life and the world around me for so long. I just don't want to see it end.
Sorry for acting all emotional and being over the top but I'm just wondering how you coped or any stories you have? Or any advice I would be very thankfull for.
And I know this is a repost but i was hoping for some more answers, If it's not too much to ask. | 7 | [
{
"body": "You're actually about to begin the best years of your life. I would give anything to be in your place again. Do whatever appeals to you: travel, keep studying if you can, try working a lot of different places so you discover what you like (rather than trying to choose it before hand like many people do). I only have one regret from the age 18-25, that I worried about the future, don't worry because it will be all right, enjoy it.",
"score": 6
}
]
|
I did something my fiance despises. He does not accept my reasoning, and I cannot figure out how to talk to him about this. Help. | Long story short, I smoked pot last night. Second time in my life that I've ever done it, and when I came home from the party at 1:30am, I showered, crawled into bed, and said, "Can I tell you something and you try not to get mad?"
My fiance is pretty anti-drug. He said he thought I would have stronger will to resist doing something like this. I couldn't explain that it wasn't a matter of will - it was something I wanted to try, since my first smoking experience was fucked up and with people I didn't trust.
How can I talk to him about this? I didn't sleep at all last night and have been nauseous most of today. I want to be able to explain to him why I did it, and have him understand. More than anything, I want him to not have the perception that I have become "less" than him. At the very least, I want him to not be disappointed anymore.
He is 22, I am 21, and we have been together for going on 4 years.
Anyone?
EDIT: Man this is getting a lot of attention. Before I go through and start answering everybody, I wanted to throw this up here: when I came home from work, there was a very long, well thought out letter sitting on my desktop. It honestly hurt me pretty badly, but when I went in our bedroom, he was waiting for me. I cried, he cried, and now we are ok. He and I were both fairly angry and confused this morning, but being apart helped. I really appreciate what everyone has said - you guys are amazing! | 46 | [
{
"body": "If I were him, I'd be struggling with the fact that you have really different priorities regarding marijuana, and that you didn't respect me enough to talk about it with me until after.\n\nIf I were you, I'd be struggling with the fact that he is disappointed in you for holding different opinions. You're different people. You aren't going to agree about everything -- it'd be rather boring if you did.\n\nSo, what happens when you disagree? Do you hide your actual opinions until you get the chance to act, and then go for it? Or do you talk about your differences in an effort to understand each other better? Does he reject you with disappointment? Or do you talk about your differences in an effort to understand each other better?\n\nFrom way over here, it looks like you're both being unfair. Don't make him responsible for how you feel about your choices. Don't deny him the chance to understand your thinking. Do talk to him. Do own your mistake. Do be honest about your actual thoughts about drugs and anything else you disagree about.",
"score": 46
},
{
"body": "I understand. It sounds like you were drawn to try it again to move past some previous bad experiences. It wasn't like you have been secretly smoking everyday or something. You are worried that you have lost his trust and appreciation. \n\nI don't think this is about him at all. Its all about you. You chose to do this knowing that it would probably upset him, but your reasons for going ahead were stronger. Now, really its none of his business, you're not coming home stoned, nor from the sound of it are you interested in including marijuana in your day to day life. (If so, then for obvious reasons your relationship will probably fail.) \n\nMy suggestion is, instead of trying to get him to understand your position or try and change him in any way. Take a moment and look at it from his perspective. First of all, he is probably afraid at some level that you will go \"off the deep end\", but also may feel left out from your life on some level. It is hard when your partner chooses to do things which you can not or will not do. \n\nHis first reaction sounds like anger and disappointment, but you can bet there are other emotions under those. \n\nSo, my advice is for the time being don't attempt to defend yourself, you made a choice, stand by it, no apologies. Instead find out what he is really feeling, take a moment and empathize with him, let him express his anger or disappointment without trying to change him. Guys are super sensitive when it comes to things like that, they don't want to be changed or convinced that they feel anything other than what they do. \n\nIf you stay strong and stand by your choice, but make sure he knows that you understand how disappointed he is about it, then you stay on equal ground. \n",
"score": 38
},
{
"body": "While most will think he is being unreasonable, I am assuming this is something you have talked about before and he made himself pretty clear how he felt? You knew he was going to be upset about this and yet you still went ahead and did it? Whether or not his views on drugs and marijuana are right or wrong, this is an issue he feels strongly about and by being committed to this relationship you should respect that. Now, if you can't deal with that then you should think long and hard about being in this relationship because this is likely something he will never come around on. If you want this to work then just be honest, tell him how awful you feel about disappointing him and how you never want to feel like this again. Good luck!",
"score": 15
},
{
"body": "Don't try to give him justification. Apologize for hurting him (not the action) and move on. If he can't get over it there are bigger issues.\n\n",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "Look, it's your body, your brain, it's your choice. Is he telling you can't do it? If so, that's controlling, and he has no right. \n\nIf it's just that he's disappointed in you, well, that is his prerogative!! Just as you get to make your own choices which he cannot control, he gets to have his own feelings, which you cannot control. \n\nIf he's trying to guilt and manipulate you into making different choices, then just stand tall, be firm, explain it had nothing to do with willpower. You wanted to smoke it a second time, so you did. You didn't \"cave\" or anything like that. \n\nMeanwhile, respect his right to be disappointed, to disapprove, and to not be very happy about your choice. \n",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "OK, so let me get this straight - he had expectations, you knew these expectations and you consciously did something that caused you not to meet those expectations. Now, you want him to somehow not be disappointed in you - and think this is somehow reasonable?\n\nAre you high right now?!",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "OP - Just spell it out. \"I was curious about pot and wanted to try it\". The feeling of disappointment will stop eventually. However I'd suspect that if you want to be with him forever that you won't be able to smoke pot anymore and certainly not do any harder drugs. \n\nYou'll need to tackle it today if possible, or ASAP. He was probably more annoyed that you came home late, woke him up and then told him something bad rather than the act. Plus he's going to be scared that you're going to start smoking pot regularly. If you want to do that then you'll probably be finishing your relationship, it sounds like a deal breaker.\n\nDo you feel remorse for doing it or do you feel bad because you've disappointed him? There's a difference there. \n\nReddit - Get over yourself. Not everybody thinks weed should be legalised and not everybody thinks it's safe. A couple of posts on here are totally ignoring the OP's plight and are attacking her bf for having his views. This is not the marijuana subreddit, she wants advice.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Tell him to take a chill pill. Smoking pot is like drinking booze. It wears off quicker, however, and doesn't destroy your liver. Better you're smoking than drinking IMHO",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Its pot tell him to man up and get a grip but realise the commitment you've made to each other by getting engaged means that you should be taking his feelings into account before doing something. If your pissed about the consequences then tough, you knew how he felt before you smoked it yet you disregarded how it would make him feel. Deal with the situation you knowingly entered, his disappointment is valid and deserved because you put smoking pot before how it makes him feel.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "you've been with him 4 years and plan on being with him forever, right? i hope you realize how absurd this situation is. not your question, but the whole greater issue of how can you be so blindly judgmental of someone you love and want to spend your life with? wow. does he drink? do you? why is he so \"anti-drug\" (as if pot even counts, jeez) that you feel you can't honestly explain that you wanted to try something harmless out of sheer curiosity? if you think of it like an illness, the pot issue is just a symptom, but the real disease is that 1)his anti-drug stance (dying to know more specifics on this, btw) is apparently stronger than his love, acceptance, and tolerance for you and 2) you don't feel secure/comfortable/close enough to be open and honest (whether this is a general feeling towards him or specifically related to this one incident is my question). \nps- so, being high, didja like it? before you came home and felt guilty, that is. or did you feel so guilty while you were doing it that you couldn't enjoy it? i'd imagine this would be the case.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "All issues about pot aside, I think this really boils down to how you want to handle disagreements about morals. Since no two people are exactly alike on all their moral stances, you have to find a way to negotiate them, and many compromises (of various degrees) will be made. It's not fair or reasonable for him to expect you to fall in line with all his morals. \n\nThis seems like a really good opportunity to have a conversation about the things you both take a hard line on, and the things you're willing and unwilling to compromise. Commit yourselves to being honest and open and free of judgement in this conversation. And definitely do it before you tie the knot.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Microsoft kills Standard Edition with Visual Studio
2010 - entry price now $799 | I just noticed that Microsoft has cut Standard Edition out of the lineup for Visual Studio 2010. Unless you can live with the limitations of the Express Editions (such as no support for ATL/MFC or compiling 64-bit code), Microsoft is effectively raising Visual Studio's entry price from $299 to $799.
* http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx
* http://www.undermyhat.org/blog/2009/10/visual-studio-2010-roadmap-final-release-dates-known/
Given the increasing popularity of the Mac as a desktop application platform, I would have assumed Microsoft would make efforts to win the solo developer / individual hacker back to Windows. Instead, doesn't this amount to slamming the door in their face? For less than $799 I can buy a new Macintosh with the complete version of Xcode... | 184 | [
{
"body": "No 64-bit code on the express editions? Ouch. What ever happened to \"developers developers developers\"",
"score": 44
},
{
"body": "> Given the increasing popularity of the Mac as a desktop application platform,\n\nHahaha that was funny",
"score": 39
},
{
"body": "yea, this really bothers me. I bought 2003, 2005 and 2008 standard editions, however, I will not be purchasing 2010 at such a high price. I will be pirating it.",
"score": 32
},
{
"body": "I don't get this. At all. Producing a solid IDE at a low cost is the easiest way to get consistently usable applications produced for your platform. No IDE, no Apps. . . . ",
"score": 30
},
{
"body": "If anything, it'll pressure more open source C++ projects to compile using the GCC C++ ABI and compiler instead of the MSVC C++ ABI and compiler.\n\nThen again, trying to develop on a Windows machine is like eating spaghetti with a spoon.",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "Who really uses ATL/MFC nowadays?\n(other than large companies w/ existing code base that have no problems paying more for VS).\n\n64bit Windows runs 32bit apps just fine, so compiling 64bit code is not a requirement.\n\nI think raising the price is a mistake, but it is not \"effectively raising the entry price\" as the two features you listed aren't required for most developers.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "As somebody who has worked extensively with the 2010 beta I can say the following:\n\n1. This is not news. The fact that MS is trimming down versions in all its products is a given. The fact that MS is making this particular cut has been known nearly since 2010 was announced.\n\n2. 2010 is fantastic. It is a way from finished yet (hence the month delay to April) but it is a fantastic IDE. The XSLT tools in 2008 were on another planet to everything else and the new IDE does even better.\n\nI haven't fully explored 2010 yet but in my mind it is going to be a big hit. As I said elsewhere you can upgrade 2008 standard to 2010 professional AFAIK.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "\"Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!\"\n-- Steve Ballmer\n\nnever mind all that, I guess",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "There are a lot of ways to get heavily discounted software from Microsoft. (ie, DreamSpark, MSDNAA, BizSpark and the host of other discounting options they have).\n\nAlso, make friends with a MS employee and you can do things like get Ultimate for $70.\n",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "MS thinks If you're a hobbyist then you'd go for the Express Edition, and anyone else who is serious about writing things on Windows can pony up the $800 for VS2010, or $1000 for MSDN. I would agree with them because not many professional/corporate developers would even bawk at the price increase that small. The more serious users don't care about the prices anyway, since the tools prices are negligible compared with salary costs, and their employers buy the licenses anyway for things like Visual Studio Team System Team Suite w/MSDN Premium, which goes for $11,000 a pop. ",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "I only hope this won't happen with Express editions. I don't care about the compiler, but the IDE is a nice alternative to Eclipse if your computer can handle Eclipse's weight easilly and you want to create something quickly.\n\nOn the other hand, thank god OpenWatcom is still under development and it includes the full deal (compiler, ide, documentation, tools, libraries, etc) in a single package and not scattered all over the place in an incomplete fashion (i'm looking at you MinGW). Now if only the IDE had a little less 1993 interface...\n",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Anything that Visual Studio lets you do that you can't do with say Mono or mingw? I've written entire projects in mingw and not once lamented the lack of a full-featured IDE...",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I could be wrong but I don't think this would affect very many people given that most freelance developers I know opt for the $1200 VS Premium + MSDN license. With the MSDN license you get valid keys for every MS Operating System and most of their Office and SharePoint Suite.\n\nComp Sci Students can get all of this free using their college or universities' MSDNAA licenses.\n\nAll of the .NET compilers are free and come with the runtimes so you can develop 64bit .NET applications with Notepad if you know how to call the compiler. It seems that only people developing unmanaged code will be hurt, .NET developers will at most be inconvenienced.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": ">Given the increasing popularity of the Mac as a desktop application platform, I would have assumed Microsoft would make efforts to win the solo developer / individual hacker back to Windows. Instead, doesn't this amount to slamming the door in their face?\n\nAre you kidding, Express Editions will still be available.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "$799 for a VS2010 license is nothing. Businesses will pay - no problem. Ive seen companies spend more on fax machines. You guys have to remember who their target audience is. Its not some kid in a corner, its for business application development (Microsoft Dynamix / CRM / SQL Server anyone?) ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": ">I would have assumed Microsoft would make efforts to win the solo developer / individual hacker back to Windows. Instead, doesn't this amount to slamming the door in their face?\n\nHow many fat-client ISV-created apps even exist anymore?\n\n99% of legitimate Visual Studio users are corporate developers creating internal apps.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Go to a release event and get a free copy of professional. The contractor in the office next to me has done that for years.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "entry price now free.\n\nHow is VS Express not the entry point? Especially if it's true that you can pay the \"upgrade price\" to move from express to full.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "You can always use the [Windows Driver Development Kit](http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/WDK/default.mspx) along with the [Debugging Tools for Windows](http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/Devtools/Debugging/default.mspx). Both are free, and contain user-mode compilers and debuggers as well as kernel-mode. Word has it that lot's of developers at Microsoft use them instead of Visual Studio (that's what they use for the kernel, anyway).\n\nThey are very powerful tools, but they are hard to set up and the learning curve is pretty steep. I don't use them much myself because Visual Studio is easier and does most of what I need.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Confused, may need a big change in my life | I didn't know where I shoud post this, but I figured it could be either here or on the depression subreddit. Anyway, I've been depressed for the last few month. It all started when I stopped working and I ended up unemployed instead of going to school as I wanted to. Now that things have settle down a bit, I can clearly see I still have lots of options available. I can choose to go back to school using a different approach but there's another option which is becoming more attractive. I thought I could travel somewhere far away from home.
Somewhere I could start something new, somewhere I could work for a living while discovering new culture. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, I'm 26 so I'm not too old. The only thing stopping me from doing it are the debts I accumulated over the year (which I'm slowly paying off) and also, there's the fact that many of my friends who have the same age than me are now buying a house and they are starting a family. I just realized that no matter what happen it's not a good solution to sit down while feeling desperate because nothing is changing, you need action in order for things to change. Anyway, I dunno everything seem to be a 100 time harder because social anxiety is always there (something I thought I had got rid of but it's kicking back since I lost my job). I just lost another job because of lack of confidence, I was told I didn't fit with a "dynamic team". I guess they don't need an introvert who's not good at interactions with people. Let's just say I'm not at my best in the business world, maybe that's why I had another set back, office job is draining me.That was another kick back and when it happened, I just fell I was losing control of everything and for a brief period, I thought I would not be able to ever be happy again. I thought I would always have to live my life according to what someone else decided for me and I can't do it anymore. I've been obeying to others people too often. During those months of unemployment, I've seen all kinds of suggestion, few people told me I should get in nursing school because there's a big lack of nurse but then I realized it wouldn't be a good idea to pursue something just because I may get a higher wage. I always wanted to help people even if I'm an introvert but I wanted to do it differently. | 12 | [
{
"body": "Sounds pretty effing cool to me. I can definitely relate to that. Hope you figure it out. You sound pretty healthy as far as these thoughts go. All the best. Take care and keep us informed for motivation and reality.",
"score": 6
}
]
|
Lets pretend the web has depth | I am a young designer looking for conversation about, examples of, or thoughts on, web page layout/navigation/interface which use other-than print based models. For instance, designs which appear more spacial than linear in usage. Looking for concepts which are html/css based rather than flash or java. | 10 | [
{
"body": "9 times out of 10, when a designer tries to be \"creative\" with their navigation, they leave a trail of usability mistakes and frustrated users behind them.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "hope you're okay with html/css/js. you're going to need some javascript for almost any non-basic interaction.\n\nvisually, this is the craziest effect i've seen:\n\nhttp://www.dhteumeuleu.com/runscript.php?scr=menu-3D.html\n\nlook at this guy's gallery for some really inspiring ideas...\n\nhttp://www.dhteumeuleu.com/run/dootmenu/\n\nhttp://www.dhteumeuleu.com/run/TxtScroll/\n\nhttp://www.dhteumeuleu.com/run/TxtFall/\n\nhttp://www.dhteumeuleu.com/run/lensText/\n\n...\n\nmaybe fisheyes and lightboxen will help for \"up front\" navigation that doesn't get in your way when you don't need it:\n\nhttp://www.downloadjavascripts.com/3D_Menu.aspx\n\nhttp://www.noupe.com/jquery/50-amazing-jquery-examples-part1.html\n\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "not sure if this is what you mean, but you could do something with z-index on hover. have a bunch of divs overlapping and have the z-index of the relevant div change to like 2000000000 on hover or something.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
IamA soon to be Korean public school English teacher. AMA. | I am leaving exactly one month from today to go teach English in Korea. I am in the process of getting a certification that will prepare me for training and will boost my monthly salary.
The whole process has taken about 6 months to get in order, including telephone interviews (2), essays (2 or 3), and paperwork. | 10 | [
{
"body": "This is exactly what I'm looking to do in about a year once I graduate from college. Can you go a little more in depth about the entire process from when you make initial contact to now? Thanks!",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I got my TEFL to teach Chinese but never went through with it. I've been learning korean with Rosetta stone for the last 3 months or so (very leisurely, since I really have no reason to learn it).\n\nI wanted to ask you, how hard it is to truly grasp both Korean and English. I FLEW through the easy stuff (The boy is running, the girl is swimming, the man is eating, etc) but once we got to modifiers on nouns (The man riding the white bicycle, The boy is playing with a red ball, the woman should not be allowed out of the white kitchen, etc) I started to feel myself get really lost. \n\nCan you comment on how you learned and the difficulties you faced in learning Korean? Thanks.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
BenjaminFulford - The desperate, evil, Bush Nazis attack Haiti with a Tesla Earthquake machine |
The recent earthquake in Haiti was caused by an earthquake machine using technology developed by Nicola Tesla, according to MI6. The earthquake machine is not HAARP as I have previously suggested but rather some sort of nuclear device, according to this source and a CIA source. The CIA source says an expedition sent to the epicenter of the Indonesian earthquake that triggered the tsunami found it to be totally lifeless one year later, something that could only be explained by radiation. “The oil companies won a war and got rights to the oil in that region and nobody even heard about it,” the CIA source said.
In confirmation of these comments, recently declassified documents show the US government planned to attack Japan with a tsunami towards the end of World War 2 by setting of a large explosion along an underwater fault zone.
The attack on Haiti was a Bush/Nazi faction response to the ongoing cut off of their financial assets, according to the sources. The attack cut undersea cables and prevented the transfer of large sums of money to South American central banks. In addition, the attack was a warning by the Nazi faction saying: “If you squeeze us too hard we will start killing lots of people.” These criminals need to be punished for these evil acts.
Multiple sources are also saying a new 911 type incident is becoming increasingly probable as financial deadlines for the Federal Reserve Board approach. One important deadline is expected at the end of this month.
The sources also say the Federal Reserve Board crime syndicate sold China the anti-missile defense technology recently announced by China. These traitors to the US are almost certainly selling other types of secret technology to China in a desperate bid to keep themselves from going bankrupt.
Meanwhile, two sources who claim connections to the Pentagon Space Command say there will be major disclosure coming soon. Since there is plenty of evidence the Nazis planned a fake alien invasion, these “announcements” (if they really come) need to be examined very carefully and skeptically.
In Japan meanwhile, a decision has been made by the secret government to put power broker Ichiro Ozawa in jail in order to prevent him from forming a dictatorship.
Events are escalating and much turmoil is predicted as the ancient secret government goes through its death throes.
BenjaminFulford | 11 | [
{
"body": "Well, what are they waiting for then? I'm in the mood for shooting some faux martian invaders again.",
"score": 5
}
]
|
Is there a way to be atheist, completely rational, and still be spiritual? | I use the term "spiritual" loosely. I don't mean ghosts, or anything supernatural. I guess what I mean is that some people like Carl Sagan have almost spiritual ideas about totally real, tangible things- in his case, the cosmos.
| 3 | [
{
"body": "I think the problem is that being 'spiritual' is so badly defined as to be meaningless. \n\nIf you want to take it to mean 'having a sense of awe of something much greater than yourself', then yes. I'm an astronomer, and I think the feeling I get when I contemplate the Universe would be described as 'spiritual' by some. I certainly think it's a similar mindset to how religious people feel when contemplating the god of their choice. \n\nBut I wouldn't call it spirituality myself, if only because the word has so many overtones which I would probably disagree with. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Yes. It's overwhelmingly, necessarily rational to observe that there are many things that individual humans can't or don't perceive and understand. These things -- the way a magnetic field generates an electrical current inches away from it, the way light bends in time around a distant star -- currently transcend our full understanding.\n\nThat transcendence is the heart of what we call 'spiritualism' -- the state of innocence in which we lack the ability to measure, use precise terminology, argue from reasonable premises, or distinguish between true and false. These experiences surround us, and it's hubris (irrational pride) to pretend they don't.\n\nIronically, strict belief in an all-powerful, all-organizing and knowable God fights the sense of humility and wonder in exactly the same way that overenthusiastic belief in reason does. The best theologists are the ones that *doubt* their faith -- they know that it isn't all-explaining and all-illuminating, and they have meaningful spiritual encounters at the border of what they think they know.",
"score": 4
}
]
|
Does anyone else have issues with posting on Craigslist? | (or any other site)
I find it extremely annoying how the m4m (at least in the Ottawa area) is filled with people looking for one-night stands, despite there being a section reserved specifically for that.
Sure, you can post your own ad, but then you end up being bombarded with people who apparently lack reading comprehension skills. Either I get guys in their 50s e-mailing me, or I get people asking me what I want to do to them, along with some cock-shots, or some combination thereof.
| 6 | [
{
"body": "Most gay sites, Craigslist _especially_, are essentially hookup sites... Craigslist being the sketchiest. If that's not for you, then try OKCupid or something.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Aye, I'd recomment OKCupid, it seems to have a lot of cool people, is relatively LGBT friendly and a lot of folks appear to be looking for something more meaningful than a one night stand. Craigslist is quite sketchy all around, though if you think the gay hookup lists are scary, wait til you see the trans ones... Transphobia up the wazoo.\n\nCL has a lot of people trying to live out porno fantasies or offering to marry whoever responds to the post, stuff like that. Let's not go to Craigslist, 'tis a silly place.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
So I just bought Mass Effect... Anything I should know? | So after seeing lots of hype about Mass Effect 2, I finally decided I should try Mass Effect. It is downloading now... anything I should know before playing? I always seem to end up making bad character class/skills/ect. when I play RP games... anything I need to know? | 3 | [
{
"body": "Pick about 5 skills and max them out (and use them often), and then about one and a half more that you mostly wont be able to use until near the end. \r\n\r\nIf you are obsessed with unlocking chests, make sure either you or someone in your party has maxed out electronics and decryption asap. Try to get full points in Charm or Intimidate (if you are good or bad respectively), so you can pursue the best conversation options.\r\n\r\nI would recommend that you play as a bad guy - good guy Shepard is a boring, bland vanilla character, but bad guy Shepard has layers of depth and is a whole lot more fun, but it is your choice.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Don't underestimate pistols. There's lots of guns in the game but pistols just might be the best and every class can use them.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Lady Shepard has better voice acting so you might consider using her. Also, don't fight anything but Thresher Maws in your rover. Things killed in the rover only give you something like a third of the XP you'd get killing them on foot. When fighting the Geth walking tanks on foot, the lift biotic is your friend.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
So I've heard of high-frequency gadgets that scare away spiders... | Hi Reddit.
I have a spider problem with my house. I've counted at least 25 big spiders (not including all the smaller ones) and I am getting really sick of them, especially since I am quite spider-phobic. For once I'd like to enjoy my garden more instead of screaming like a paranoid little girl every time I find them crawling on me.
Anyway, I've heard of these types of gadgets that emit a high-frequency noise that would scare away all spiders, since only they could hear it. I've tried searching for these gadgets, but with little luck. Could a kind soul here please help me? :)
Thank you. | 19 | [
{
"body": "Sorry to go off topic, but where abouts in the world do you live?\n\nI'm just wondering so I know to stay the hell away from there.",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "Dunno about spiders, but I got a few of the ultrasonic mosquito repellers and took them outside to see how they worked...held one up to a mosquito and it landed on it. DOES NOT WORK.",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "Tried, don't work. Not ultrasonic - can hear it whine. I suggest you get a bird feeder, and the birds will start 'insect' hunting in your yard. ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "1. Learn and understand that spiders are among the most helpful creatures for a human domicile.\n\n2. Love them, they're helping to make your garden much more successful.\n\n3. Research which ones you should really avoid. Just being afraid of them doesn't do any good, and 'phobias' aren't unbreakable laws of nature. You need to try to change your attitude, because they won't go away.\n\nAnd seriously, where exactly did you get the idea that spiders shouldn't be in your garden? In the house is slightly more understandable, only because so many people are irrationally afraid of crawlies, but the garden?\n\nPlease explain.",
"score": 4
}
]
|
The female orgasm - is it an expected part of a sexual encounter? (NSFW text) | This topic came up over in [this post](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/aq8tt/dear_reddit_how_do_you_feel_about_performing/), but I thought it deserved a post of its own.
When men have a sexual encounter (specifically one that involves fellatio or penetration), ejaculation/orgasm is almost universally the only acceptable outcome; fetishes or dysfunction (or strip clubs) aside, you don't hear much about guys who get a good erection, enter their partner, and pull out a few minutes later without ejaculating to say, "Thanks very much, that felt great," and be done.
Through my conversations with women (admittedly, only four have ever gotten this far along the topic) and reading, I've been led to believe that a sizable percentage of women don't orgasm at all, and perhaps even a majority only expect to orgasm when masturbating; orgasm through penetration or cunnilingus is a splendid and memorable bonus, but not an expectation.
Further, I've heard that the perspective on this has changed in the last few years as porn has become ubiquitous, likely because porn is more profitable when the woman appears to enjoy herself and a loud and obvious orgasm is an unsubtle way of clinching that appearance.
What say you, men and women of reddit? If you are a woman, do you expect an orgasm from sex or being eaten out? If you are a lover of women, is it frequent and expected for your partner to orgasm? Has your partner ever been angry about an orgasm expected but not achieved? Regardless of your answer, did you come of sexual age pre- or post- pornographic ubiquity?
(I thought about posting this in /r/sex instead, but figured the answers would be further skewed from average. | 287 | [
{
"body": "FUNNY STORY. My \"high school sweetheart\" sorely lacked stamina, as well as interest in getting me off once he was done. That is, until the time I got myself off first, then got up and went to watch a movie.\n\n\n\"Sucks, doesn't it?\"\n\n\"Yep.\"",
"score": 591
},
{
"body": "I expect an orgasm during a sexual encounter. That said, I'm fairly hypersexual for a woman. It doesn't have to be from penetration, though, and I also think I'm responsible for my own orgasm; letting whoever I'm with know what I want is my job. Or, if necessary, taking over and doing it myself. I reckon it's REALLY important to be able to make yourself come - if you don't know what gets you off, how can anyone else be expected to figure it out? I'm 25 and bisexual, so I fully expect to be able to get the woman I'm with off too, but I want guidance from her on how to do it.",
"score": 268
},
{
"body": "I'm male, and would be personally unsatisfied if, during a sex/whatever session I don't make my partner orgasm. It's just kind of ingrained in me that it's expected, so I don't consider us to be 'finished' until she has an orgasm.\n\nEDIT: OK, I feel I need to make an edit because people are freaking out here. It's not like I saddle up at the start of every sex session, saying \"you're going to be coming, like it or not\". I kind of assumed that \"if she wants one\" was implied. It's not like if I'm done I'm going to just insist on hammering away at her until she feels like she has to end it somehow. But, if I happen to come first and she obviously wants to carry on doing stuff (you know, like we communicate or something), I'm not just going to forget her because 'I got mine'. ",
"score": 190
},
{
"body": "I am a male and the last many times I have had sex I have not achieved orgasm and the girl has! I have decided it is due to masturbating with too kungfoo of a grip, too often. I think it also has to do with condoms. (I am trying to work on the masturbation part.) My lady is always a bit perturbed that she seems completely unable to get me to orgasm. As I am when it has happened the other way around with others in the past.",
"score": 89
},
{
"body": "Girl here. \n\nI read through all of these comments, and everybody seems to think that orgasm is the ultimate goal. If that would be true in my current relationship, I'd probably have a harder time getting off - mostly because it would put rules to sex. \n\nSometimes I'm horny as hell and want to get off, but most times? Honestly, I just want to be as close as possible to my loved one.",
"score": 79
},
{
"body": "If I can't get her off, it's not sex. I don't get into it for the release - I can just rub one out in the bathroom for that, and it's not any different. Watching her abs contract involuntarily as her entire body tenses and releases, along with the sweat dripping down her forehead and the smell of her cumming is so goddamn satisfying. It's a huge power trip.",
"score": 43
},
{
"body": "My fiancée read a book called [Boink!](http://www.amazon.com/Bonk-Curious-Coupling-Science-Sex/dp/0393334791/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263679613&sr=8-1), in a chapter of which the author shows that the length between the clitoris and vaginal opening is directly correlated with the ability of a woman to orgasm during penis-in-vagina intercourse.\n\nLonger than (number I can't remember) centimeters and PIV orgasms are not reported. Many women are near this length, with no small amount over it.\n\nThe trouble with having partners who haven't climaxed from PIV sex is that sex is very much a skill - if neither partner knows how to do it, it can take a while to get to where you're supposed to be.\n\nI think many guys can relate to having sex with a girl who doesn't move her hips right, or just lays there like a dead fish because she doesn't know what to do. My first partner had had sex many times, but pretty much just one night stands and then a long-term relationship with a guy who didn't give a shit (not me) - she was *awful* in the sack. I was horrible too, given that I was just learning.\n\nIncidentally, having sex with a vibrator is NOT easy. If you're wearing a condom, the low sensitivity combined with awkward angle can take a bit to learn to do properly (and I'm not there yet). It is worth it, though, as it takes a lot of girls from \"can't\" to \"can.\"\n\nBasically what I'm saying is that there is this mystique of \"natural\" sex and orgasms that guys and girls are suckered into. In reality, it takes years to learn to do things well. Further, variations between peoples' bodies, as well as variations in skill and learning time for both you and your partners results in your experience being unlikely to be that similar to people you talk to (or read on the internet).\n\nPer your survey:\n\n- Not an expected part, but an awesome part. Depends on the mood. To be honest, as I've been stressed more at work, she's \"had a good time\" more than she's had orgasms. She jumps my bones on a regular basis, so I'm guessing she really is having a good time.\n- As an addendum to the above, she requires about 5-10 minutes with a vibrator to orgasm, so we don't always do that during sex. People who say they do that every time must have a lot more time in their day.\n- I grew up just as pornography was becoming ubiquitous. IE when I was sneaking first glances, they were all images. When I went to college they became video - and the dawn of the \"girl enjoying herself\" sex scene. Which is much better than what came before.\n- None of my partners have ever expressed anger regarding dissatisfaction. One never had an orgasm. Another came at the drop of a hat. Another was more difficult but we were pretty mature about such things - if she wasn't done, we get out the vibrator and I held and touched her while she finished.",
"score": 21
},
{
"body": "Until I was 19, I never masturbated nor had sex. I had sex at 20. I grew up thinking that I would never orgasm, and that I should focus on the woman as much as possible.\n\nMy girlfriend orgasms over 90% of the time we have sex. I probably orgasm about 75% of the time, maybe less, because I focus on her pleasure.\n\nThe way I see it: if your female companion isn't orgasming, you aren't trying hard enough. You need to talk to her, get her in the mood, give her cunnilingus, stimulate her clit, put her in positions she likes, etc. ",
"score": 15
},
{
"body": "Honestly, sometimes I don't want to. It's not that easy for me, so it's kind of an uphill battle at times. I probably do orgasm three times out of four, but sometimes it's nice not to have the pressure and I can get more pleasure out of the rest of the encounter without the looming thought. If I'm in the mood though, he'll always put a big focus on it, but sometimes, eh.\n\nThen again, I've never orgasmed or even really come close to it from oral sex, so maybe I'm just weird.",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "I am a male that thought the whole \"it was hard to satisfy a woman\" thing was a complete myth for the longest time. I had girlfriends that would have multiple orgasms and reached an orgasm like 90 % of the times we had sex. These girls were hooked after like one time in bed together. How do I know they were not lying? Well, do your research but you can generally tell by increased sensitivity, flushed chest and face, one girls pussy would actually get really loose after she came but I am getting off the point. Anyway, my current girlfriend is hot as all hell and I am extremely happy when I can just make her wet, let alone cum. I have tried everything, spelling the ABC's on her clit with my tongue, different positions, even vibrators and I would say that she only gets the big O like 5% of the time. I have heard that if a woman can't have an orgasm under those situations then it is really something that is going on in her head that is preventing it. This girl has intimacy issues, she dissociates anytime the conversation gets serious. She does not feel comfortable enough to enjoy her body with somebody else yet. It is really frustrating because making women cum is such a wonderful thing. \n \nWith one past relationship the orgasms began to ruin sex. I mean I had her figured out so well, 5 minutes of this, 10 minutes of that, 15 of this and bang-o! she is screaming my name again. But it got so old, predictable and boring. I would not cum sometimes because I just wasn't in the mood to and then she would bug me about it, \"why didn't you cum? whats wrong? am I fat?\" so annoying. The sex eventually became all about the orgasms and that was really annoying.\n\nI am much happier with my current gf that is a bit sexually challenged because when we do have sex we enjoy each other and get into it. Much more sensual, but I would like her to have an orgasm but really that is all on her. I have opened the door for communication so until she is ready we both enjoy ourselves. I cum everytime since you asked.",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "I believe that orgasm is the ultimate goal of sex encounter but sadly, most women do not reach that point. It may be because they are experiencing psychological issues or maybee just because her physiological need is not being meet. \n\nAnother angle worth discussing is the male's sensitivity to the female's need or \"whereabout\" in term of sexual climax. Most of my friends talk about sleeping around but never did I hear anyone of them talk about how the women came or if they (women) even get satisfied.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "This is a very complicated and interesting topic. I'm not sure if it's possible to cover all of the issues in Reddit comments.\n\nIn one respect, getting women off tends to make the guy feel \"successful\", as in a good lover, and of course makes the woman feel good too. A man who was good at that might tend to attract more women because he pays more attention to their needs, and a man being attractive to other women is additionally attractive to women generally (in the sexual selection sense). From a relationship, attraction, and evolutionary sense that all seems to point towards it being something that men should be aiming for.\n\nHistorically that might have been less true. Male orgasm is really a requirement for reproduction. Female orgasm is not, though [research](http://www.springerlink.com/content/w6w34310m2211413/) appears to suggest that it [aids in getting pregnant](http://www.familyresource.com/pregnancy/concerns-and-expectations/twelve-12-common-pregnancy-myths). (There's a cool video from the early 90's showing this but I can't find it right now.) In that sense, instincts towards sex would focus on male ejaculation and less so on female. That isn't to say it *ought* to, but rather *is* for such reasons. (We're free to define *ought\".)\n\nSimilarly, part of the difference between biological drives social expectations is a bit of confusion over *equality* and *identity*. Men and women are both physically and psychologically different (again, *is* not *ought*), so the idea that if a man has an orgasm during sex then equality suggests a woman should too doesn't really hold up in biology. Men and women are not identical so you can't just reverse the roles and claim equality. That's identity, not equality. However, if that is something we'd *want* to happen in general, it's certainly something we can independently push for. Based on sexual selection pressures mentioned in the first paragraph, I suspect we're heading this way. It may become a sexually selected pressure for men to make sure women orgasm in the same way that peahens selected peacocks with better plumage, so biology and sociology can actually line up in the future.\n\n\"Cold\" evolution and social norms aside, to me it just feels better for a woman to orgasm. My wife does almost every time. I find I can't enjoy myself if I don't think she is, and she does. (Her's are unique and very difficult to fake.) But in the past I've dated women who rarely orgasmed, and told me they rarely did.\n\nI guess when it comes down to it, it ultimately depends on the girl. Some don't mind not having one. Others hate not having one. Some have a hard time having one, some have them easy. Biology doesn't require it but may still select for it.\n\nThat's about all I've got.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I expect it. I turn into mega bitch if I get horny and don't get off. Then mega bitch turns into emotional crying crazy and it just keeps going downhill from there. I've learned to always bring my vibrator :p",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I am a Male and i can honestly say that i really dont care whether or not i orgasm or not. \n\nOften times during sex i will reach a point in which i know that it will take me a long time to orgasm, which will most likely be uncomfortable to my girlfriend. At this point i will simply stop concentrating on myself and purely concentrate on her, which often goes to cunnilingus.\n\nI still enjoy every minute of it.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "One of my best sex partners never orgasmed with me. She loved sex but feared the loss of personal control that went with orgasm. Cunnilingus was out, everything else enthusiastically welcomed. It took me a long time to be OK with this, but I eventually conceded it as her personal choice.\n\nShe used a Hitachi Wand frequently, but would stop short of orgasm.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "One of my girlfriends can't orgasm. I realized it was from a missing nerve connection. So I had to go find some extra nerve wire, open her up, and then put it all into place. Actually finding the nerves was kinda hard. The stores don't really carry it so I had to go to the graveyard and scavenge a suitable amount. But a lot of the bodies there weren't up to date. Nevertheless I got what I needed, eventually. \nEventually I got all the hardware and it was time to get down to business. I wasn't exactly sure about where all the connections were supposed to go so I took a short cut and just hooked a big length of nerve from her vaginal opening directly to the spinal cord. I figured the brain was too complex and I didn't want to mess up anything. But it worked fine and now she cums really easily. It is a little glitchy though. Like she orgasms just from peeing. I can't fix her now because I'm too busy but maybe I'll do it in the summer when I get bored.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Expected? In a word - no. I think most men hope a women will get off without really knowing how it works for us.\n\n Should it be expected? That's up to you. Sometimes I have sex without intending to get off. But if I'm in the mood, its not over 'til we both get off. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I think that focusing on porn made in the past 50 years as the cause for the mystery of the female orgasm is a bit shortsighted. I think that women (and men) thinking that the expectation of a female orgasm has changed merely because of viewing pornography completely ignores the centuries of sexual repression that women in previous cultures have had to undergo. In Victorian times, it was a faux pas for a woman to even appear to enjoy a sexual encounter. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "As a man, I feel my obligation during sex is to bring my woman to climax. You need to find what works for the woman you are with. Example: my ex girlfriend usually could not climax with just sex. She had only had an orgasm twice during penetration in her entire life (proud to say I was one of those times, woo hoo!). Oral sex was a completely different story. She would have intense orgasms. Now, I always made sure I took care of her first before anything else. Sex is so much more satisfying as a man when you know the woman you are with is completely satisfied. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I've always thought both parties orgasming is a necessity.\n\nSlightly unrelated: I dated a girl who claimed she couldn't have orgasms and hadn't ever had one. When I went down on her, she would get super squirmy and then when it *seemed* like she was about to come she would stop me from continuing. I know what I'm doing and do not know what's up with this. Anyone care to shed light?\n\nEDIT: In answer to your question, all porn I can remember enjoying puts some emphasis on the women's orgasm. The first porn I ever saw was girl / girl which obviously centered around the (a, anyway) woman's pleasure.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I feel ashamed if my partner doesn't orgasm, and it's only happened to me a handful of times in the 8 or so years that I've been sexually active. In fact, I try to make my partner come as many times as possible before I do. I get a nice ego boost out of it.\n\nSince I'm only 22, I came of age well after the ubiquity of porn, because I was looking at internet pr0nz as early as 11 or 12.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I've had sex with a lot of girls. Of those, only 1 I couldnt make orgasm. She told me that the only way she ever orgasmed is with a vibrator. I dunno, I tried hard and believe myself to be really good at sex, so this felt like a major shortcoming of mine. My solution ended up being to start using a vibrator on her before or after we had sex. It worked out fine, and she told me she appreciated that I didn't get jealous of it like her last boyfriend. I'm not quite sure wtf anyone would get jealous of an inanimate object, but ultimately the whole thing ended up being a footnote in our relationship, rather than me being pissed that I couldn't get her off.\n\nI think orgasms are 100% essential to a good sex life if you've had them before. If it's a girl who's never had one, you can get away with just being selfish (btw as you get older, these girls become much more rare). So to answer your question, yes orgasms are expected.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "My thoughts on this matter come from the underrated and hilarious movie 'Outside Providence', \"Hey dildo, remember, sex is like Chinese dinner...it ain't over until you both get your cookies\". ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "My opinion is that if she isn't worried about it then neither should you. Of course some of this depends on her age and how much experience she has. But in any case the last thing you want to do is try to force it. She will just fake it to make you happy.\n\nAll I think a man can do is make it clear that what feels good to her is important to him and leave it at that. if you make it goal oriented like \"OK, let me talk you into this cool orgasm thing\" then she will fake it to make you happy and so that she feels \"normal\". It is completely true that some women rarely ever orgasm. As a man we tend to see that as an awful tragedy but that is the wrong perspective. Even without that full-on orgasm a woman can enjoy intimacy and certainly get a lot of pleasure from sex. And as long as she knows that she can talk to you about it (making it better, etc) then when she is ready, if needed, she will.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Any good man will ensure his partner enjoys the encounter just as much as he does. It's common freakin courtesy.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Using this junk account, I can honestly say that it's very frustrating not being able to make a woman come. Over time, I learned that separating my expectations from the act made the act a lot more pleasurable and enjoyable. I learned what she liked, and how not to be the *first* at the finish line while doing that. It worked. We just finished our third session of the day.\n\nI let her enjoy it for a while and after good half hour or so, we begin to get into what she likes best in order to reach the *O*. Once she's close, we make sure to get to a point where she gets it, which usually means, keeping the same pace, pressure, rhythm and then I get to go into my mode. We usually finish within 30 seconds of each other and mostly have it together. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "In bed my goal is to make the girl cum before I do. Part of me enjoying sex is her enjoying sex. I don't know exactly what this says about me psychologically, but getting off doesn't feel as good unless the girl I'm with gets off too.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Orgasm is such a subtle and multi-faceted thing, I think (I'm a woman), so I certainly don't *expect* one kind or another (or none) during any particular encounter. I just go with the flow and see how I feel. Depending on where I am in my cycle, it's easier or more difficult to orgasm through penetration or clitoral stimulation (or at all), and at \"low\" times it's really more for the ongoing pleasure and the pleasure of seeing my partner orgasm. And sometimes I'll have a very small orgasm, and that's enough. Sometimes I won't have any orgasm at all, and that's fine, and I feel satisfied just from the sex. Other times, at \"high\" points in my cycle, yes, I want to orgasm, dramatically and as many times as possible, and it's something I hope for, but still, it's not something I expect - again, I just go with the flow, and so does my partner. Sometimes, I'll orgasm and my partner won't because he'll be too tired or drained. Sometimes we'll both orgasm. Sometimes it'll be just him. Sometimes it'll be neither. All of these are fine in my book, and his too. It's not like we're keeping score. \n\nTL;DR - there are many kinds of orgasm for a woman. My partner and I just go with the flow, and have no expectations one way or another for either of us. It's the journey, not the destination!",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I used to never orgasm with my current boy friend. Try as I might. I actually was one of those girls that faked it. I thought he would be hurt if he knew that I couldn't cum, and it was just an expected outcome. Flash forward a few years, we broke up for other reasons besides sex. We got back together for one night of break up sex. Best sex of all time! I had nothing to lose so I told him exactly what I wanted, and I got an orgasm for the first time during intercourse. I wound up telling him about all the fake orgasms (there were quite a few), At first he was hurt, but then wanted to \"try again\". This time nothing was off the table. We started seeing more of each other and experimenting sexually even though we were no longer together. Eventually the kind of honestly and communication we had in the bedroom carried over into other aspects of the relationship and we decided to get back together.\nNow it is five years later. I orgasm EVERY time and our relationship is inedible due to the radical honesty and communication we have.\nIf any person is looking to better their sex life or their relationship my one piece of advice is honesty and communication (of course done with tact and respect), no matter how you feel they will take the news. If they can't handle the reality of the situation, the relationship is doomed anyway. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "It's true that many women have trouble climaxing with a partner. I'm not one of them and personally I need at least 2 orgasms before I feel satisfied. I'm not of the opinion that sex is over once the man has an orgasm. If I'm still going then I'll use my fingers and ask him to help by kissing on me and squeezing my ass or to do it himself with his hands or mouth to finish me off again. \n\nThen again this is one of those things that varies from person to person and from situation to situation. \n\nI would also say that most of the orgasms that I've seen in mainstream porn are fake. Don't base your knowledge of sexuality on what you see in porn. ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "When having sex with a girl I never had an orgasm until recently. Typically I can get them to go into orgasms spasms a few times before entering them and then several more times in the next hour or two of actual sex. I think it was really a matter of not wanting to hurt them that prevents me from getting off. I'm fairly strong and was always raised to never even come close to hurting women. The few times I've had an orgasm having sex with a girl is when let go and just jackhammered them for 15 minutes and left them bruised but they didn't seem to mind but I still felt bad about it.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I love the terminology being tossed around in this thread \"getting an orgasm out\" \"finding an orgasm\" \"working to find an orgasm\"\n\nLike you're Shackleton heading for the pole? \n\nIt's fucking, maybe your tradesman like mindset is part of the problem. Lord knows nothing gets me off faster than some boy grinding away at my hoo-ha like he's trying to level up on WoW. \n\nIt's true, some women don't get off from intercourse. I don't, I need my clit stimulated in some fashion. Most of the time I handle that myself during the action, just a bit of stimulation usually does the trick. Smart boys lend a hand, or even give a little big of hip/pelvis action, depends a LOT on the body of the boy. \n\nDumb boys get all huffy and say things like \"Aren't I enough?\" I'm at that point in my life where a man asking me that is going to be beating off in a sock about 10 seconds after saying that. The women I've been with know better.\n\nLong way round the bend (ha) yes getting me off is an \"expected\" part of the sexual encounter. Is it required? No. Am I going to be angry and hit you and reach for sharp things? No. If it becomes a trend (more than a couple times) that you don't seem interested in my sexual satisfaction as your partner...yes...it will be an issue. \n\nIn the two cases I had to deal with this one ended with him saying I was \"too hard to get off\". Which was funny since most of my partners complain that I get off too easily (with the right stimulation I can come and keep in the peaks and valleys from very early on) and the other confessed to be cheating. In short, they had other issues.\n\nLook, I don't speak for all women, but getting off is important for a number of reasons. Yes, you can get blue pussy (though I prefer blue cunt since it freaks the norms to say \"the c-word\"), it's not the same biologically (far as I know) but it's over-stimulation without relief. Not pleasant. \n\nSecond, it shows that you give a fuck (ha, again) about my fuck. It shows interest and connection. A nice thing, whether you're the boy of the moment of my years long partner.\n\nThere are some women who don't care about getting off. My sister is one. She only likes to come from masturbation, specifically in the bath. She's married, has kids, a very happy husband with whom she has a very good and healthy sex life. She just would rather get off in the bathtub. She told me it's because it's the place she first started getting off and it's the most comfortable. Her husband knows this, and I think they incorporate it into their sex life, but that's a bit too much even for us to share.\n\nIn short (too late) it's expected, and if it's not then you should talk about it and make sure she's happy with the situation. ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "As I understand it, many women (some sources claim up to 70%) have trouble to orgasm without clitoral stimulation. Guys tend to have very little trouble to orgasm. Mix that with some selfishness and/or ignorance and you have many guys who don't make an effort to help their partner orgasm.\n\nFrom personal experience (and, admittedly, I don't have a large varied amount of it - I've been with the same girl, my girlfriend and only lover, for more than 4 years now), I've found that my girlfriend can nearly always orgasm during intercourse, either with her being on top (better angle, more clitoral stimulation), or with me entering from behind and stimulating her clitoris with a finger at the same time. She has never managed to orgasm in any other position from just intercourse alone, so however we're doing it, we always switch to one of the aforementioned positions to finish.\n\nAs a guy, I'd be feeling pretty low if sex always ended in an orgasm for me and nothing for my girlfriend. So I make the extra effort, I try to last longer, or I'll perform other acts (I really enjoy making her orgasm by cunnilingus, any time I can convince her to let me do it) to make sure she feels the same level of pleasure that I do.\n\nLack of varied experience aside, my girlfriend pretty much always orgasms and we both have a great sex-life.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I'm female. Most guys don't seem to expect me to orgasm. That is the only explanation I can think of for them completely failing to try in any way.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I am female. I posted in that thread.\n\nI never expect it and I rarely get it (with partners). I really really really wish I could though. It can be extremely frustrating and discouraging. I enjoy sex on some level regardless of whether I come or not, but it is not satisfying physically or mentally, and it feels unfair.\n\nThe fact that I lack regular, steady partners is, I believe, part of this.\n\nAs much as I hate to admit it (and I hate it a *lot*), I guess I've internalized a lot of fucked-up messages about sex and I find myself far more concerned with how my partner feels than how I feel.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "It should be, but it's at least partially the woman's responsibility. She's gotta let the dude know what she likes, position herself appropriately, take initiative if things aren't working out for her, etc etc. If she's not enjoying herself, but just lying there and giving no feedback, it's her own damn fault she doesn't have an orgasm.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Has anyone realized that this question can't possibly be asked/polled in a public forum? Is anyone going to be the guy that admits he never gets his girl off and says his girl is cool with that? No. I see there are two female stances in here. Those that are strong and sexual women who desire orgasmic pleasure from their partner and those that it is just nice sometimes and feel love for their significant other. As a guy, sometimes this is an easy task. My first girlfriend for 4.5 years made me feel like I was god, because it was once, twice, three times a go. Then after that relationship, everyone else I have been with have almost been impossible, to the point of not even wanting to try at all anymore. I used to be the guy that I felt it was my responsibility to please her as much as being with her pleased me, but when you don't get any advice even after asking, and them saying they don't care, there is very little reason to try having sex at all anymore.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I'm a female and I get off the easiest when a guy gets off first. Everything about it from the feeling of his climax to the fluids and where they end up..... It's a huge turn on for me. Very seldom do I finish before he does.\n\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Here's the thing about orgasms. \nI find that if it becomes a thing where it HAS to happen for everyone involved it gets stressful. Both my partner and I feel the pressure of getting there and that makes it nearly impossible to get there for me. I don't need my sex life to be stressful, thanks. \n\nI think, however, that it sucks that guys are expected to have an orgasm or there is a weight of guilt, whereas women (especially younger women/teenagers) will often settle, fake it, or in other manners allow themselves to be constantly unsatisfied. Sometimes, it just doesn't seem worth the effort to follow through. Sometimes it's awkward to demand he return the favor. The best lovers in my opinion are the ones who want everyone to have a good time, but who don't make it all about the orgasm. Maybe this means foreplay, but really. If it seems like he wants me to feel good and that's why he's doing x, y and z, it's a whole different ball game than if he just wants to get me off so that he can feel like a sex god, or if he feels obligated to help me out. \n\nSo, yeah, I expect it. But it doesn't happen, I can still have a good time. Unless it becomes the rule instead of the exception...\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I used to expect it. It's not expected but defiantly is an important part.I know exactly what the guy does and doesn't like, what ruins it, and how to build up a big orgasm. After over a year of expressing I want the *same* in return, it hasn't worked. I've been vocal on the subject, and said what to do, what I like and what I would love to be done to me, even linked to websites ect, but I've come to the realization it wont happen. I can touch myself whenever I want, I love that intimacy from being eaten out with teasing and done slowly and touched and kissed. There's a way to give awesome blowjobs/handjobs- I researched it, I know my guy intimately, but I know he doesn't know me intimately. It's such a turn on to see someone so engrossed in *you* and not just doing whatever, but wanting to see you to rip the sheets ups and make your legs shake. I love him to bits, but it's a huge blow to your own sexuality to have the same in return. I've given up and am jealous of the awesome stories I am reading. ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I'm always disappointed if I can't make my partner orgasm. If I come before her, I usually get her off manually. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "An orgasm when my GF and I have sex is not expected from either of us. Sometimes one does, sometimes the other, sometimes neither. Our ultimate goal is to cum together, which is awesome, but generally we just go for feeling good. The thing is, when one orgasms, sex has to stop. We are both similar in that we are much too sensitive post-orgasm to continue.\n\nWe both grew up with easy access to porn, not sure that really affects either of us. Porn is not like real sex whatsoever...",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "My girfriend's pretty easy to bring to orgasm, as long as she's turned on and I give her clit some stimulation. Going down on her, fingering her, or fingering her at the same time as shagging her (needs some flexibility in the hand for this). Frankly I'm a bit jealous because she seems to get more pleasure out of it.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I've only ever had sex with my current partner, but we do have sex on a very regular (daily) basis. For a while I didn't orgasm from sex, nor did I really expect to. But as time went on and he figured out how I functioned more and more, orgasms have become a very regular and somewhat expected part of sex for me. I still only have them about 75% of the time. When I don't I usually just let it go, you can't win them all. Of course he says I get pissed off if I don't get off. I think this is an inaccurate description. I get more tense and frustrated after prolonged sexual stimulation without release. Female blue balls?",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Yeah, I have never expected to have an orgasm. Good thing too, cause I'd have spent the last 10 years of my life very disappointed If I did.\n\n\n\n",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "When i was in high school, i had a rule. The rule was that the girl got off three times for every time i got off. eating out, fingering, good o'l fashioned fucking, however ya did it she got off. after high school i increased to five times. its always seemed to work for me pretty well, my theory was if you get them off a lot, they'll probably fuck you again. so yes to answer your question, the woman should get off. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "It is strange. I was with a girl once who said she would orgasm when masturbating and thinking of us having sex, but never actually came during sex. \n\nI dunno, it was kind of nice. I never thought about making her come, so we had some pretty amazing sex because there was no pressure. Because the point of it wasn't cumming anymore, it was about having fun. In fact, the whole experience made me much better in the sack from then on. it made me think less about whether I, or the girl I'm with, gets off... If you can make the process more fun, it doesn't matter of you cum, whether your a guy or a girl. \n\nI've had chats with her since we broke up. She talks about still liking sex, but that the orgasm isn't the focus for her. She just likes the process. She said she still has never cum during sex, but it really doesn't seem to bother her. \n\nI've had a lot of sex, because of that relationship, where we have sex and I don't get off - I think the girl did... I don't really think about it. it's so much easier to tell if you've both had a good time, rather than trying to figure out which moan means she got off.\n\nIt reminds me of that joke; \n\nWhy do girls fake orgasms?\n\nCause they think men care.\n\nAnyway, I hope that any girls who aren't having orgasms are having a great time getting themselves off and not letting it get in the way of having some great sex.\n\n",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "i try to make sure that i get mine before he does, in general. if he can't/won't get me there during sex, i have no problem assisting. if he comes before i do, and i feel like i need one, i'll either take his hand and put it somewhere that will give him a hint, or he can watch me take care of myself. or i suppose he could fall asleep while i masturbated, but that hasn't happened (yet).",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Girl here as well.\n\nI almost always get off...I actually usually finish before my boyfriend. I also am a female ejaculator. I would hate to be one of those girls that can only get off from masturbating. Seems awful.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Regarding your point that men expect orgasm,\n\nI am a man who takes a very long time to cum (30 minutes of actual sex, not including foreplay as a minimum). Most of the time, women think this is fantastic at first, but I've found that they often overestimate their sexual endurance. \n\nFrequently, they'll get sore or tired after a while, and long before I can cum. It still feels good for me, and sometimes I'll get a BJ or whatever to finish me off, but many times she'll cum, and then I'll just stop because I can tell she's worn out, or she tells me she's sore. \n\nIt's still enjoyable for me however, and it's not really a giant problem. I'd prefer to cum every time, but unfortunately biology doesn't bend to our whims. Because of my perspective on the issue, I feel for women who don't get to cum every time, or at all during sex but I'm sure many of them just understand that sometimes it's just not in the cards.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I have always expected to orgasm in a sexual encounter -- if I don't, I'm not satisfied -- though sometimes I can tell my body is just not going to do it, so I give up and communicate that to my partner. And sure, I'll be frustrated and so will he, but such is biology.\n\nAfter being with me in the first few months of the relationship, my husband said he had learned never to date a woman who never masturbated. If she doesn't know what works for her, how can her partner?\n\nI never had access to porn when I was a teenager -- I had no idea where to get it, and it never occurred to me to try the internet (course, the fact that I was 16 when we got AOL as our first ISP probably had something to do with that). What I did was imagine being with a guy -- I would touch myself as I imagined him touching me. I didn't realize that *that* feeling was an orgasm until years later. But you don't have to know what anything's called in order to enjoy sex.\n\nI have a low sex drive, so in order for my husband and me to have sex on a regular basis, I have to do a lot of work to get myself in the mood. It would be a lot harder to get myself to do that work if it ever crossed my mind that he might not make sure that I get my cookie. So guys, if you want your woman to have sex with you, make sure she gets hers unless she tells you it's not happening.\n\nAnd girls. DON'T FAKE IT. Just tell him it's not happening. Signed, other women.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Whenever I am with a woman, I make it my mission to get her off at least once before I finish. Usually I aim for 2 or 3, my record is 8. This isn't because I'm some incredible lover, it's because I am usually so thankful for the opportunity since my self esteem is shit.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I absolutely expect an orgasm—or at least at honest attempt at one (my body doesn't always cooperate, especially if I've already orgasmed recently). That doesn't mean my partner has to know *exactly* what to do, mind you; I'm perfectly happy to guide him along and provide my own additional clitoral stimulation during the act.\n\nIf my needs are neglected or I'm not given opportunity to do what I need to do to get off during sex, I'll feel quite resentful—especially if I end up experiencing [blue walls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_balls#Homologous_condition_in_women).",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Female: I don't expect it. If I'm with someone who doesn't seem happy with me not cumming, I will either show them how it's done, or masturbate, or have them help me masturbate (like a rabbit vibe with two people and two toys instead), but I'm perfectly happy orgasm-less",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I just ended a relationship with a man that could only orgasm from masturbation, and had never came inside a woman before. This really threw me off, and it changed the whole sexual dynamic. I can say that it ruined having sex with him, because the male orgasm plays a really important part in sex, it creates feelings of accomplishment and allows everything to be wrapped up on a good note. When you're sleeping with a man that can't cum it's harder and less satisfying when you decide to end the session, and instead of ending with an orgasm, you end with sex no longer being enjoyable, so you want to stop. (I hope that made sense)\n\n* I was post pornographic ubiquity. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "The only reason I dislike giving blow jobs is because of the frustration I feel afterward. Once he gets off, I'm on my own. And if I try to climb on top of him before he finishes, he gets irritated. Women definitely experience \"blue balls\" and at times it can be incredibly painful. Hell yes, if HE'S expecting to get off, then why the hell can't I expect the very same thing from him?",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "These days I think guys are considered douches if they aren't willing to put quite a bit of effort into helping their lover have an orgasm. One thing I've had to do is get past having my ego wounded when a lover pulls out the vibrator and uses it. Now I have the opposite problem -- after about her fifth orgasm, I'm getting pretty damned jealous. No, I'm not exaggerating.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Once I hit college, for some reason or another, I have always had the woman orgasm when we had sex (it was a goal, I guess). I would try to do it at the same exact moment, but I find it easier if I make her have an orgasm first. If I have one first, I do my best to keep going to get her off. \nNow, married and all that good stuff, she can have an orgasm from either external or internal stimulation, but external is much easier. I have always used the \"tease touch\" until she can't stand it (I think it makes her more sensitive to the touch) and then the \"fast and rough rub\" for masturbating a woman, and after two cycles of that they seem to orgasm quite hard. \nAs for the internal orgasm, it seems to be not about just the \"old in and out\" movement, but also the angle of penetration.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
My uncle has gone missing, the police won't help, and I have very little information. Please help me. | EDIT 6 (Post catching update): It has been a couple days now. What ended up happening was that first they took him to jail. Booked him, processed him, sent him to a hospital. Hospital checked him out. He had taken bars (Xanax), but not enough to kill him. He was going to be fine, so the hospital sent him to a mental clinic. Apparently he told the mental clinic he didnt want any info getting out, so they refused to tell anyone if he was even there, even his wife. About 10 hours after he was arrested, he was released from a mental clinic. Isnt that sick? A man that was suicidal just 10 hours prior was being released. His family had cancelled his credit cards and his car was impounded, so he had no choice but to call my cousin to pick him up. He was extremely mad at us (all of his family). How ass backwards is that? So they take him home. They haven't talked to anyone else too much, but I know that he said he wanted to seek help and they have already been to a counselor. Hopefully everything will end up ok, but who knows? Anyway, thank you all again for the kind words and the support when I was going through such a rough patch.
---This has all been resolved now. See EDIT 5 at bottom.---
My uncle went out to a bar in Houston, TX on thursday (01/14/2010) and he hasn't come home since. Houston can be a bit sketchy. We are really worried about him and we don't know what to do.
We filed a missing persons report to the police and they pinged his phone to get a location. They said he was in Willis (TX), but there is no reason he would have gone to Willis. Earlier today (saturday 16th) he sent two text messages to my cousin (his son) that read as:
"Dkunodwyou. Don't itself gps ob me" and "Asking. Dvondi"
I have been trying to figure out exactly what he was saying, and what I am reading it as is "Don't know what to do. Don't install GPS on me. I'm asking Dondi." I have an aunt (not his wife) named Dondi, but I also have an uncle named Donnie.
The police have closed the case saying that he is no longer a missing person because he made contact with us through that text message.
This is all very messed up and we don't know what to do. If anyone can help me try to figure out what he could have been saying in those messages, please I am begging for any assistance.
EDIT: Just received another text message from him.
"Head would t clear cantclear. Ow:-) I took 10 bars at on epnce. Injustice Ned 10. Monster & too Dinah this. Ottol"
I'm taking this one to read "Head wasn't clear. Can't clear it (Ow, maybe saying head hurts) I took 10 bars at once. Also with a Monster (energy drink?) too."
He doesn't have a history of taking drugs, but it may be possible he is just really drugged out and driving away like a nut. Thank you for the kind words and the upvotes, I will keep updating this. If anyone can decipher these texts as saying anything else, please let me know.
EDIT 2: My aunt Dondi was able to get him to answer his phone. He is almost completely incoherent, definitely drugged. He was driving north toward Dallas (where I live) and he is talking about how he is going to visit his dead sister and my dead grandpa. We have kept in contact with the police and they have told us that even if he is trying to kill himself they still will not track his phone for us. Is this correct? Can they really not do anything by law or do they just not care?
EDIT 3: Going to take my chances at driving around the highway looking for his car. Thank you all for your kind words and whatnot. I'll update this whenever I get back, cross your fingers for me.
EDIT 4: No such luck. We went to the people he was out with on thursday and they are refusing to help us. I don't know what they talked about or what they did. His friend that he was out with told us he was in a park in Huntsville, we told the police and the rangers checked there and he wasn't. We are getting lied to left and right and we have lost all contact with him for the past couple of hours now. At this point I fear the worst.
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EDIT 5: Thank you all very very much for your prayers, wishes, kind words, upvotes, and ideas. The police have caught him in Limestone county, just outside of Buffalo, TX. He is alive and apparently he has come down from his high enough that they are taking him to jail, not to a hospital. Again, thank you all very much, at the very least this helped me to stay a little more calm about it all, being able to talk it out. I will throw another update on here once I find out how it's going to all play out just for the hell of it in case anyone cares. | 86 | [
{
"body": "Tell the police that you have been recording your conversations with them and that since they know there is a possibly drugged, definitely incoherent person out in public, if that person hurts themselves or someone else, the police station is liable. \n\nThat'll at least get someone important on the phone.",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "Bars generally means xanax. 10 pills would be quite a bit. Especially with alcohol. It would definitely make you groggy and drunk-like. \n\nEdit: Maybe Ned 10 is Feb 10? Or \"dinah\" could be a mis-typing of \"Finish\"?",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I'm so sorry to hear that your uncle is missing...but have he got a reason to dissapear? Or do you believe that all this is just a accident? I really hope that everything is OK, and that you will find you uncle..:(",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I hope you find him safe and sound. Those texts are all very strange...I can't make any sense of them.\n\n\nYou may also want to cross-post this in [Missing Persons](http://www.reddit.com/r/MissingPersons/).\n\n",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Call the police, tell them you think he might have a gun, and that he's completely incoherent. That'll get them tracking his phone pretty damn fast.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Do you know what cell phone provider he has? I know most carriers provide some sort of \"Family Mapping\" feature that you could register through the online account (if someone has the password). Also, if anyone else is listed as an authorized user on the account then they could also call in and have this activated. I do believe the phone being tracked has to acknowledge this from their phone, but it's worth a shot. \r\n\r\nAlso, I'm not sure how it works, but I know AT&T has some sort of loopt feature that can be added to most phones now. I don't know if this is just for viewing from the phone or if this feature allows others to find the phone. \r\n\r\nHope one of those shots in the dark helps.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
How does one deal with being in a relationship with someone suffering with bipolar disorder? | I'm aware that this is more of a /r/relationship_advice post, but I thought /r/psychology stands to contribute important thigns to conversation.
Over the last few months I've been seeing this girl that suffers from bipolar disorder. She's a great girl, and as far as I'm concerned, worth the effort. I know mental illness can be a handful to deal with, both for the person suffering from it and those close to them, but I also recognize that everyone deserves to be recognized as an individual. I also understand that the illness doesn't define that person – if anything, it shadows them.
I work in health care, so I have a professional understanding of the illness, but not a personal one. I know how to care for a person with bipolar in a professional, caregiving way, but that's not the relationship between her and I, in this case. I'm not her therapist - I'm her partner. Has anyone dated someone bipolar (successfully, or unsuccessfully)? Do you have any advice? Even lessons learned from mistakes are still lessons learned, and I'd appreciate any words. I try to be as patient and understanding as I can with her, but I'm feeling a little bit of a loss. Any help would be much obliged.
**EDIT:** *Thank you to everyone who participated in this discussion. It's been of great help to me. I've since found online discussion threads and support groups for friends, family, and loved ones of bipolar disorder, and those might be a better long-term support mechanism. Again, thank you all.* | 23 | [
{
"body": "Twice been involved with BEAUTIFUL (inside and out) women with psychological afflictions, one of them being mild-moderate bi-polar. I'm still together with and very much in love with the one with bi-polar.\n\nIt's hard to put into words, so I'll just say it as bluntly as I can and hope you understand... if you want this to have a chance of working, you had better develop the ability to turn off YOUR emotions from time to time.\n\nWhen they're up, it's great, and when they're down, you love them and care for them as best you can... but, at least in my experience, it's the times of transition BETWEEN up and down that are the most difficult on their lovers... I know it is on me.\n\nYou'll go through a week or so of either average, above average or GREAT times with them, because they're up... you begin to think maybe you're settling into normalcy in the relationship, that the swings will be less frequent or maybe stop entirely, or even that perhaps you've adjusted to them so well that you hardly notice them or help prevent them.\n\n...then the slide begins. The closeness and happiness starts to slip, little by little, over the course of a day or two, and what's worse is that you KNOW it is happening, you see it and FEEL it happening... and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. That's what makes loving someone with bi-polar so very difficult... there really is nothing you can do to help, and, chances are, continually TRYING to help will only make matters worse. It's as if you're cursed to watch your relationship fall apart over and over and over again. They go from close, to distant... from loving, to cold... from open and communicative to intentionally isolating themselves and shutting you out of their life. Once in a long while (if you're lucky it won't be more frequent than that), they'll break up WITH YOU, not the other way around, over it all. You'll blame yourself, and wonder what you did wrong. You'll sit up at night worrying, because they've shut you out and you KNOW they're in an emotional hell you can't understand... but you can't do anything about it.\n\nAll you can do is just TURN IT ALL OFF... otherwise you'll end up in an emotional hell of your own.\n\nYou have to be able to love them... without loving them. You have to be able to let them withdraw without feeling abandoned... you have to purge yourself of worry, even when you SHOULD be worried. After a while, they'll begin to transition back to normal and happy.\n\n...then you get to do it all over again in a week or two.\n\nAnd if you fall in love with her, the only thing worse than going through it all will be the thought of her going through it without you.",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "I'd like to (respectfully) offer a metaphor:\n\nIf you love the ocean and the seashore, you realize that the tide will go in and out, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The water will rise close to you, then recede, again and again. You can only love the sea and the tide on that understanding. And if you want to build anything, build it ABOVE the high-tide line. You can appreciate anything that is built below that line, but nothing there will be permanent, and that is the way the sea and tide were meant to be.",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "Bipolar people have a divorce rate around 90%. I'm bipolar and have been separated several times and my marriage is still a battle sometimes. Good luck. Get her on a regular exercise regiment. It helps me with mine some. ",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "I've never been in a relationship other than a therapeutic one with someone with Bipolar disorder. However, there are some books on this topic that have crossed my path, so I thought I'd list a few in case they may be of help:\r\n\r\n* [Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder](http://www.amazon.com/Loving-Someone-Bipolar-Disorder-Julie/dp/1572243422/ref=pd_sim_b_30)\r\n* [When Someone You Love is Bipolar](http://www.amazon.com/When-Someone-You-Love-Bipolar/dp/1593856083/ref=pd_sim_b_3)\r\n* [The Bipolar Relationship](http://www.amazon.com/Bipolar-Relationship-understand-help-partner/dp/1598699679/ref=pd_sim_b_2)\r\n* [Nothing was the Same](http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Was-Same-Redfield-Jamison/dp/0307265374) - Kay Redfield Jamison's description of her marriage\r\n\r\nGood luck to you and your girlfriend.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I'm bipolar, and I've dated, mostly unsuccessfully. My advice is this is coming from a male perspective. Be patient, everyone has problems and ditching somebody you care about because of some personal problem they can't help is cruel, and it hurts. My advice is IF you break up with her DO NOT MENTION the bipolar, this just further hurts them and their self esteem.",
"score": 5
}
]
|
Can anybody suggest where to find Legal FREE ringtones? | I'm bored and feel like browsing stupid ringtones, or musical ones if they are free. MP3 format accepted. Thank you! | 5 | [
{
"body": "Depending on whether or not your phone has a micro SD card slot and accepts this sort of thing, you could always make your own. Audacity + LAME mp3 encoder = go to town.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I get mine from [phonezoo](http://www.phonezoo.com), but you have to be able to receive a sound clip via text and set it as a ringtone. ",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Why do we teach relatively unused arithmetic symbols in primary school? | The other day I saw something expressed using the inline division operator "÷", and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen that symbol in ages. In fact, the same goes for the multiply symbol "×". The only place I ever see it written is when describing dimensions (i.e., resolution 800×600) except in that case it doesn't even mean multiplication, and is often written with the letter 'x' instead.
In higher education, we pretty much always write divisions as fractions or inline using "/". Multiplication is effectively always written by just putting terms next to each other "(a+b)c", or using a middle-dot.
Why do we bother to still teach these outdated symbols to children when they simply aren't going to use them later, and can't even be easily typed into a computer?
Relatedly, do you think it was a mistake for computers to have established the star symbol "\*" for multiplication? Is this confusing? When teaching a class on signal processing, I had to explain that in this context "\*" means convolution. The dissonance between terminology on the computer and in "math" is pretty weird, don't you think?
I'm not sure computer standards will ever change, so I wonder if mathematical formalisms shouldn't change with the times instead. (i.e., teach multiplication like "(2)(3)=5", "6/2=3", instead of using × and ÷.) Why do we teach kids things they will then need to "unlearn"? I remember being pretty confused the first time I saw the middle-dot notation in algebra. Not life-scarring confused, but it seems unnecessary somehow. | 75 | [
{
"body": "I'm no education expert or anything, but I suspect it is because at a young age most people require straightforward and explicit symbols to represent what they're doing. When you write (2)(3) there is no symbol there to tell you directly that you should multiply; instead, it is more conceptual and implied. I think you first need to get the concept before making the leap to using brackets. Though it's easy for you to see, it is not necessarily easy for a 10 year old to see.\n\np.s. Are we really teaching kids (2)(3)=5? Last I checked it was 6, although the consensus may be different these days.",
"score": 124
},
{
"body": "Slightly off-topic: \n\nThe symbol \"÷\" is the same as writing a fraction, but with dots instead of numbers. This usage is the same as when you say \"d/dx(·)\" when talking about a derivative of something, implying that you can fill in the dot with a specific function later, and whatever you were stating will still hold.\n\nSince \"/\" also comes from fractional notation (i.e. ¾), there is really only one symbol being used.\n\nEdit: I also was taught, use, and regularly see \"×\" for scientific notation, as in \"3.42 × 10^4 m/s\".",
"score": 28
},
{
"body": "You've never seen x used for [cross products](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_product) or [Cartesian products](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_product)?",
"score": 20
},
{
"body": "These are simply the pre-computer, typeset symbols for these operations. They are originating in pre-computer math and like many aspects of mathematics symbology, they are used out of continuity as much as anything. These are not even the worst offenders.\n\nThey aren't implemented on standard (computer) keyboards literally ([QWERTY](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY), [AZERTY](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY), [Dvorak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard), etc.) so substitutes were created to implement the same symbolic representation in programming languages. They substitutes are / or * but these aren't even universal. \n\nThe one programming language that tried to slavishly fight this substitution and used traditional typeset symbols for these operations was [APL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_%28programming_language%29) which required a [custom APL keyboard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_syntax_and_symbols) used by no other vendor other than IBM who sold APL commercially. Even APL \"had to\" capitulate to reality and evolve into [A+](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%2B_%28programming_language%29) to survive with \"standard\" QWERTY, et al. computer keyboards.\n\nBack when everyone only wrote books or did calculations by hand (without computers), these symbols were fine and strictly the computer programming language replacements are ambiguous: ÷ has no other meaning while / has many meanings even in a single programming language ( /* */ commenting, *a pointer dereferencing in C/C++, for example).\n\nThese symbols (like most) originated in an embodied metaphor for the operation or idea. ÷ looks like a fraction or ratio which is what division is. × is \"crossing\" two dimensional axes and counting the resulting total (think of squares in a grid - # in x-axis × # in y-axis is the same a x × y). So actually 800x600 *is* about multiplication - the very same operation.\n\nHaving continuity to the historic record of mathematics and typesetting used in academic papers is a big win. These symbols are also less ambiguous. It's also not \"all about computers\" as the end-all and be-all of symbology. Mathematics exists beyond computing machines for the most part.\n\nOther symbol systems tend to be similarly pictographic where looking some origin point makes the metaphorical connection more clear.\n\nElectronic schematic symbols, for example, are still fairly close to the origin of their pictographic form: an [inductor symbol](http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/symbols/inductor.gif) looks like the [physical implementation](http://www.electronicplus.com/images/products/387268.jpg), a [capacitor symbol](http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/symbols/cap.gif) looks like the [physical implementation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar), etc. Even transistor symbols for [MOSFET](http://cnx.org/content/m1025/latest/4.28.png) and [Bipolar](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File_talk:BJT_symbol_PNP.svg) resemble their physical implementations ([MOS](http://img.cmpnet.com/eet/news/03/august/SS1284_SEMATECH_1.gif), [Bipolar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pctrans.png)).\n\nSimilarly, natural language symbols like Chinese characters can be traced to ancient forms which are far more literal in metaphoric form. The classic example are words for horse (馬) which looks like a horse in classical or ancient types, one (一), two (二), three (三), follow (从), morning (旦) where 日 is sun or as in \"sun rising above horizon\", which looks like the definition. \n\nNot everything is this way or so clear in origins but the same can be said for most symbol systems. Gets into the ambiguity of semiotics and information theory.\n\nEdit: typos",
"score": 16
},
{
"body": "On a related note, why do we teach mixed numbers to students? I'm a CS and math major and I don't think I've ever used mixed numbers anywhere outside of the classroom. Even in my foundations of mathematics class where we formally defined the real numbers, integers, decimals representations, etc. we never touched mixed numbers because everyone hates them.\n\nMixed numbers are like implicit addition, and when implicit multiplication is taught it makes even the simplest pair of numbers impossible to understand. For example, depending on what school/class/year you are in, -41/2 could mean -(4+1/2)=-4.5, -4+1/2=-3.5, (-41)/2=-20.5, or -4*(1/2)=-2.\n\nWe never teach implicit multiplication, division, or subtraction between constants because doing so would make it impossible to do math (i.e. you'd end up with equations that look like 37=3*7=21), so why teach implicit addition?",
"score": 15
},
{
"body": "(2)(3) = 6 :P\n\nI think multiplication is x instead of the middle dot to avoid confusion with the decimal dot, another important symbol. As for ÷, i don't know, maybe because of its relation to fractions?",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "I am a mathematician, and I've thought about this a fair amount. I think the major problem is that there is no golden standard for mathematical notation, like there is for punctuation and grammar. If two people ever have a disagreement about the proper use of either, they only need to consult the MLA standard.* The MLA standards are maintained and updated often enough to keep pace with modern usage, and much care is put into determining them. There is absolutely no equivalent for mathematical notation.** I hope this is fixed in the not-too-distant future, even if I have to be the one to do it.\n\nTo give you a flavor of just a few of the ambiguities out there:\n\n* The phi and theta of spherical coordinates play opposite rolls in physics and math.\n* sqrt(-1) is denoted \"i\" in math, and \"j\" in engineering\n* Some linear algebra books write 2-D vectors as <x,y>, others as (x,y). Both of these can also be used as the symbol for inner products.\n* Lower-level math uses \"ln\" for \"log base e,\" higher-level math writes it as \"log.\" On the other hand, \"log\" means \"log base 10\" in lower-level math.\n* Physicists often write the \"dx\" before the integrand. Mathematicians write it after the integrand. This can make correct calculations look totally wrong.\n* Mixed fractions. These are never used in mathematics, and pretty much only show up in cooking and check writing. Why do we spend so much time on them in grade school?\n* Do the natural numbers include 0 or not?\n* <cough> metric vs. British units <cough>\n* Many, many others, including the operation symbols mentioned in the original post.\n\nI am not trying to advocate one style or another. The point is that these differences are the source of much confusion, and many of them could be fixed overnight (or at least, on the next major textbook run), if we simply had one standard that we could all refer to, despite what our personal notation preferences are. I have very strong preferences myself, but I would be willing to change my notation if it meant agreeing upon a standard.\n\nWhat do you guys think?\n\n*I think MLA is the standard anyway, if you disagree, let's not discuss it here, because it would take us way off topic.\n\n**As far as I know. If one does exist and I don't know about it as a mathematician, how is an elementary teacher going to know about it?",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "It's worse than that. I remember when I got in trouble for using the dot for multiplication rather than an x. The teacher took off points because she said I shouldn't be using that symbol.",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "And don't you think it's confusing that in some places you'll see \"1.234,56\" instead of \"1,234.56\"? But I learned to live with it. I write \",\" on paper and type \".\" when on computer, and it just feels natural.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "I actually brought the ÷ symbol back when I took Calculus. It's great for sorting out a nasty nested fraction. I also had great success with it as a tutor for other Calculus students, because everybody knows that you can replace the ÷ symbol with multiplication by the inverse of the second fraction. \n\n2/11 ÷ 54/70 = 2/11 * 70/54\n\nWith massive nested fractions, on the other hand, people are generally not quite confident that they are doing it right.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "In France, the use of the operator '×' to denote multiplication is widely accepted and commonly used in both Physics and Mathematics at an Undergraduate and Graduate level of studies.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I think probably what happened is that we had been teaching kids those symbols since times of yore, and the math field moved ahead, and the elementary school teachers never really synched up.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Growing up in Sweden we always wrote division with fractions and multiplication with dots and when brackets were introduced, implicitly (I started school in 97). Therefore I'm curious, at the teaching of which concepts are the symbols replaced? \r\n\r\nFor example, when you first learn about equations with an unknown factor, do you write 5 × x = 10 instead of 5x = 10?",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "The full syntax of C-like expressions should be taught in primary school. Billy; what is (1 < 2) * (3 ^ 4)?",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "As far as I can remember (which is about when I was 5 yo) we were always taught to use the middle dot for multiplication and a colon (:) for division. Pretty soon, probably around age 8 or so division was replaced with fractions and the middle dot disappeared when we started learning algebra around the age of 14.\n\nI'm Icelandic btw.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "because school isn't about learning. It's about forcing you to follow directions and memorize and regurgitate crap.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
My sweetest Reddit, what is your favorite bad movie? | My friends and I got stationed out in San Angelo, Texas. There was not much to do but stare out into the desert and try to avoid the heat. We started up a pretty incredible bad movie collection, just for laughs. My favorite had to have been 'Rest Stop,' a fantastic and inspiring horror romp where Joey Laurence begs for some girl to put a bullet in his head.
But I digress, what are your favorite shitty movies? Any recommendations?
EDIT: First I would just like to say that Big Trouble in Little China changed my life.
Second, I am talking about movies that are so bad that they turn out to be amazing. Pretty much anything 'Mystery Science Theater' quality. Or anything featuring Fred "The Hammer" Williamson.
Some suggestions from my bag:
Rest Stop,
Bronx Warriors,
Mission Kill Fast | 12 | [
{
"body": "[They Live.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp_K8prLfso) Best bad movie of all time, with an awesome [fight scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsZpdUUdd3I) that's been parodied about a billion times. \n",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "Airplane. The humor is cheesy, but *so good*. It's actually so cheesy that it's back to good movie status, I think, so I'm not sure if it belongs in the bad movie category, but I enjoy it a lot.",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "Undoubtedly [Zardoz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zardoz).\n\nIf only because it stars Sean Connery, looking [like this](http://geekofalltrades.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/zardoz.jpg). And it only gets crazier.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Let My Puppets Cum\r\n\r\nKiller Klowns from Outer Space\r\n\r\nCars that Eat People\r\n\r\nBraindead/Dead Alive\r\n\r\nNuke'em High, Surf Nazis Must Die, Toxic Avenger, etc (pretty much anything Troma is behind)\r\n\r\nMaximum Overdrive\r\n\r\nThe Stupids\r\n\r\nEvil Dead 1 and 2/Army of Darkness/My Name is Bruce\r\n\r\nFrankenhooker\r\n\r\nI seriously could go on forever.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "*Crank* and *Crank 2*. They're both so ludicrously over the top. I like to think they are both satires of the modern action film. But then again, who am I kidding?",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Tremors, the entire series.\n\nI think the first movie was the only one that was attempting to be serious. I'm fairly certain that nobody involved in making those movies (or the eventual TV show) was taking them seriously by the time the 3rd movie came out.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Thanks, NBC for giving me a reason to stop watching | It was too hard to juggle The Daily Show, Colbert Report, and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien every night -- even with a DVR.
Good luck with Jay Leno. I'm sure my grandma will be much happier now. | 56 | [
{
"body": "I don't understand how getting more old people watching will impress advertisers at all. Young people are the ones who are reckless with their money and who will spend it on shit they advertise. But what the fuck do I know about television? I've never run a network into the ground.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "I'm just as confused, when jay leno leaves in less than 7 years and conan is at his peak I, as well as conana, will be laughing. They gave up the younger and more promising talent for the old and repetitive bullshit.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
All right, Mr. wacrover, I'm ready for my story. | You see, this is your life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just you, the cameras, and us wonderful people out here in the tubes!
[context](http://www.reddit.com/r/wacrover/comments/aij8f/sorry_for_the_morbidity/c0ihl83) | 3 | [
{
"body": "<movie-preview-guy-voice>\n\nI raced a Spaniard down the sand dunes in the Desert, I piloted a horse drawn carriage through a small Egyptian town at night and almost killed us because the drivers are insane here. I climbed 1/3rd of the way up the second-largest pyramid at Giza before almost being arrested, and I was offered one million camels in exchange for my wife (although, to be fair, I did push the person on the offer and discovered that they would only be ornamental, souvenir-sized camels).\n\nI've learned that the average Egyptian annual salary equates to around $500, but that for around $175 they can get satellite TV with lifetime services (must be pirated). There is no feeling quite like walking through a village of houses with a satellite dish on every residence, but none of them having a roof. The approximate asking price for a camel is $600. I rode a camel called SpiderMan, but declined to ride those named Mickey Mouse and something Disney that I can't remember right now.\n\nI've been to an all-you-can-eat meat and sushi buffet, and was with someone who had \"the trots\" while walking through the desert, and another who shit their pants on that same day.\n\nAll true, all amazing. This season, on the WACROVER channel.\n\nIndividualEpisodesAvailableOnDemand. CallNow.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
I'm depressed and I want to watch a movie. Recommendations? | I'm depressed about LIFE and how it feels like I'm at a complete social dead-end.
Cure me with a great movie. Can be sad, uplifting, emotional, whatever you think might suit the mood. | 31 | [
{
"body": "The Princess Bride, Lucky Number Slevin, V for Vendetta, A Knights Tale, Someone Like you. \n\nAny of these are good (someone like you is a real chick flick though, and i don't know your stance on that)",
"score": 16
},
{
"body": "'Up'. Watch Up, feel awesome. I was on a giggly little 'life is beautiful' high for *days* after seeing it.\n\nEDIT: Huh? Downvotes for recommending Up, but plenty of upvotes for the guy who recommended Pixar movies in general? Sometimes Reddit surprises me.",
"score": 15
},
{
"body": "Hmm, when i'm down watching movies about how life can be perfect/beautiful i often get annoyed, angry or more depressed about my own... I'd recommend comedy more along the lines of **The Big Lebowski** or **In The Loop**",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "Requiem for a Dream - an uplifting tale of a hero who saves his mom and gf from utter doom and emerges in the end triumphantly saving the world",
"score": 12
},
{
"body": "Kiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, or Spirited away. Most of Miayazaki's movies are pretty feel-good!",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Just watch the episode of Futurama where Fry finds his dog's remains fossilized in Dolomite. It's titled, \"Jurassic bark.\" When the credits roll your soul will be crushed. Fact.\n\nhere is the ending :(\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uU7-X0iHes&feature=related",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "True Romance - there's adventure, violence, love, sex, family & friends - not in that order and not all together :)\n\nToy Story - good fun, great dialogue, great characters, nice and colourful.\n\nThe Blues Brothers - great music, great characters, very cool.\n\nO Brother Where Art Thou - good laughs, good music, good story.\n\nBest of luck.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Braveheart. I feel like starting a revolution every time I watch this. Then I remember I'm fat and lazy, so I get depressed and start eating my feelings again.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Obviously these aren't movies, but I always find watching Star Trek: The Next Generation rather uplifting when I'm feeling down. It's such an optimistic, fun show.\n\nMy favourite episode is 'I, Borg'.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Forgetting Sarah Marshall is what I watch when I feel sad. It's sort of a chick flick but it's also fucking hilarious. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Stranger Than Fiction, Big Fish, The Sting (Redford and Newman; also, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Personally, I like [Moulin Rouge!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203009/) for those days. It's funny and sweet and leaves me feeling better for having watched it, but still lets you squeeze out any tears you need to get rid of.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I just watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Away We Go, and The Men Who Stare at Goats almost back-to-back and I feel GOOD.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Good TF2 servers suggestions. Vanilla, good custom & stock map choices. | I just left a TF2 community because I could no longer stand the people there. Does anyone have any good suggestions for servers? Besides the Reddit servers of course.
EDIT: When I say vanilla I mean 24 players, no mods except RTV. | 7 | [
{
"body": "[Cafe Of Broken Dreams](http://cafeofbrokendreams.com/) is one of my favorites. Its simple and vanilla, and has nice people playing on it. Only problem it has is that it gets a bit empty at times (perhaps something reddit can fix?). Also, their site seems to be down at the moment.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
[4] Portland Med Card
| My dearest Ents,
I will be moving to Portland, Or. relatively soon. I was just wondering if anybody from the area has their med card. If so, how hard was it to obtain, how long the process takes, how much it may cost, and if a doctor would prescribe it to a mental health (Bipolar 2 with mild ADD symptoms documented in New York) patient? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. | 6 | [
{
"body": "You need to become an Oregon resident before going forward with anything, if you are moving into a permanent residence this is infinitely easier than if you were say moving into a college dorm.. :)\n\nAfter having residency officially declared (You may also need your OR drivers license or ID card *This is at least required thorughout CA*), you need to see a Marijuana-only prescription doctor (It is not worth the time pleading your case to a normal doctor)\n\nIt will take likely under an hour after you have made an appointment and talked to your doc. It will cost anywhere from $100-250 (Guesstimate since Oregon is very new to mass MMJ cards). Your Bipolar documentation is not required but will help your case greatly and give you legal backup in case your doctor's office is ever apprehended by the DEA. ",
"score": 4
}
]
|
About to fire up Dragon Age Origins for the first time... | ...any high level tips? I have heard there are some game breaking spells in the game, but I don't know what they are. If I stumble onto them great, if not, thats ok too. Any advice for a first timer? I'm playing the ps3 version if that matters at all. | 9 | [
{
"body": "I can't say this enough times. BUY BACKPACKS! Your starting pack space is very limited, I believe it's like 70-80. Each backpack increases it by 10. In Ostagar if you talk to the merchant before and after you leave the forest you can get 2 backpacks out of him for VERY cheap. My first play through I didn't really think about backpacks at all and my pack filled up almost instantly upon entering a dungeon. I spent more time dealing with loot than actually exploring the dungeon.",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "I found the difference in difficulty between normal and easy to be pretty severe, with the easy difficulty posing almost no challenge or need to pause, and the normal having several parts that i just couldnt finish without ratcheting down the difficulty. \n\nMake sure you have a healer with you. I found myself controlling my healer more than anyone else so I rerolled as a mage after playing through as a warrior. I played 90% of the game with myself, Allistair, Wynne, and Leliana. \n\nCreate your group like youre running an instance in an mmo. Have a tank to absorb the hits and hold threat, a healer to keep up the tank, and a couple dps to bang on people. ",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "[Arcane Warrior](http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Arcane_Warrior) is my favorite class and by far the best tank in the game.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "1. Buy backpacks even if you have to sell stuff. \n\n2. Don't be a mage. It's not fun as the game is unbalanced. I tried an arcane mage which was awesome, but then focus on combat and not the unbalanced spells. \n\n3. I had a ton of fun as a rogue. You can do hella damage with a bow and its not unbalanced or as repetitive as casting the same crippling spell every time. And you will have better DPS than the best mage builds, except for AOE but for high levels AOE doesn't mean crap. \n\n4. I think your party should consist of all mages and maybe a tank depending on your build. Healers are integral. \n\n5. Don't sell gifts. My favorite part of the game was dealing with your party and seeing the backstories. Gifts make your partners like you more or less and they need to like you to talk to you about their past. Plus, they get better abilities. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Have 2 mages on our team, a rogue and a main tank. \n \nMy favorite move is ***\"Quake n' Bake\"***, one mage casts Inferno while another casts Earthquake. \n \nPretty damn effective...",
"score": 3
}
]
|
My girlfriend drew this *awesome* picture. Just for you, /trees | I nagged my very talented girlfriend into drawing a picture for us. All I asked for was the reddit alien and a pineapple. [This is what I got](http://imgur.com/TrElP)
I am *totally* going to frame this and hang it up in my apartment.
Enjoy!
Wow, my girlfriend is overwhelmed by how much you guys dig her drawing! Some of your comments made her blush hehe. I'm glad you all like it. I had to explain our fixation with pineapples to her but she gets it now. da_smut made a really nifty [wallpaper](http://imgur.com/NTSr5) based off of it. Instantly made it my desktop! Thanks man! | 312 | [
{
"body": "**[0]** First, I cannot express my love for this drawing in words, so I won't understate my feelings by trying. What I will describe is why I feel this way.\n\nThe image sticks to simplicity. It's not overcomplicated and has a clear intent in mind. The expression on the face of the alien is perfect. There's no other way to describe it. The pineapple, so realistically drawn, compliments the cute, if not what could be described as a cuddly reddit alien. To top it off, a joint is lit, bringing an overall sensation of happiness to the viewer.\n\nThis image will forever stay on my computer. Thank your girlfriend for me.\n\n*Have fun, get high.*",
"score": 61
},
{
"body": "Wowowow.\n\nAdded your gf's drawing to the [Trees Family Album](http://trees.imgur.com/trees_artwork) artwork.",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "That's a great picture, I love the draftsmanship. You should approach her about inking it and maybe putting it on a tshirt for trees. I bet people would buy some.\n\nAlso, from one artist to another, some constructive criticism. Tell her to use an eraser somewhat randomly on the shadow's edge, very subtly, in order to break up it's border and make it look more natural. This can take some practice but it's a technique that has served me well for years.",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "I sketch, and she's good. I like how she did his face; it looks as if all oval faces are meant to be stoned",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "The moment I saw it I right clicked and made it my background, tell your girlfriend thanks! She's a great artist.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Reminds me of my college days and my figure and still-life classes. Great job!!\n\nNow do it with soft pastels!!!!",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Reddit, if I buy organic produce, does that mean I am not contributing to Monsanto? | Just curious. Thanks.
Edit for my *slightly* biased perspective. Really actually interested though. | 4 | [
{
"body": "For one thing, don't buy or use any thing containing corn of soy from the US that was not organically produced.\n\nNearly every (non-organic) manufactured food in the US has some kind of corn or soy product in it...such as HFCS or hydrolyzed soy protein or even lecithin. ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Try growing your own food with [heirloom seeds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant). \n\n\nIt's good for biodiversity and OK for you...",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Everyone, get out on the water somehow. You will not regret it. | I was invited out to do some fishing yesterday by a mate with a boat and now i think everyone should get out on Moreton Bay for a few hours somehow.
Apart from the 3am wakeup and 4am shove off it was so damn peaceful. Not even close to a beach or wildlife reserve peaceful, just serene. i realised how relaxed i was when i looked at my hands and realised i hadn't chewed my nails at all since i woke up, like 6-7 hours without chewing, which NEVER HAPPENS TO ME since i've been chewing them since 1994.
There's something in the water, or on it, that just sucks all the hate and spite and worry out of you.
I'm really sorry for such a useless post, but i figured if I finally found something that actually relaxes me, it might work for some other stressed Brissie redditors out there. | 11 | [
{
"body": "The Zen of fishing. There's a lot more that you can catch apart from fish. Any that you do catch are just a bonus. ",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "My wife and I have become beach bums. Sure, we are surrounded by a lot of people, but still I find bobbing around in the water and catching a few good waves with the bodyboard very calming.\n\nThere is something calming with water; and not the mention the cooling effect it has one you in this heat. :)",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "The only reason I don't go fishing is because I'm scared I'll catch something. Honestly, I have no interest in gutting/filleting a fish. I'd love to join any other BrisRedditors on a fishing trip though - as long as they deal with what's caught (they can probably keep it, too - the rest of my household aren't big seafood).",
"score": 3
}
]
|
The Book of Eli; Your thoughts on the movie | **If you have not yet seen [the movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/) and don't want it to be spoilt for you then wait until you have seen it before you read any further. If you haven't heard of it yet are interested then continue if you don't mind the plot being told (though I recommend you see it first, good movie)**
---
---
30 years before the movie takes place there is a war which tears a hole in the sky (nuclear weapons most likely) and the sun pours through unfiltered. Much of earth is destroyed and most of humanity is gone. The bible was blamed by many and they set out to burn them all. Infact the whole look of the movie is reminiscent of the video game series "Fallout" in artistic style among other things though the film steers more to the religious messages.
Of course there is Eli, he claims to have heard a voice during all this which leads him to a bible under a pile of rubble. He is told to head west to take the bible to a safe place and he has been on this journey across post-apocalyptic America for 30 years.
Passing through a town the self described mayor Carnegie is on the hunt for a bible, sending raider gangs out into the wastes to retrieve one (with little luck due to all seemingly destroyed and the raiders never learning to read). After finding out that Eli has a bible he does mince his words and tells Eli to give him the bible or be shot. He reasons that the Bible has the power to control those "weak and desperate" which is why they destroyed them all. It is the bible which has the words to convince people in this postapocalyptical world to be able to rebuild it.
He doesn't sugar coat his words and Eli refuses to hand of the book and walks away, claiming that he has God watching over him. This seems to be literally true as even though he his shot at twice while walking away, none of them hit him in a literal Deus Ex Machina that seems to prevent any bullet from hitting him and letting him take out dozens of men while fighting on his own. Its not until near the end where he is forced to give up the book to save a girl that he gets shot in the stomach and feebly tries to fight before being pushed over.
However he survives this shot when the girl goes back to him and is found stumbling on the highway to continue his several decade long journey without the bible.
Eventually he reaches San Francisco and specifically Alakatraz Island where a group have dedicated themselves to preserving what they can of the past and are glad to hear that Eli has a Bible which after 30 years of reading daily, he reads out in its entirety for it to be printed out into many copies before he dies from his bullet wound (Carnegies copy of the bible ends up being worthless to him as it is written in braile and he lost so many men trying to get it he lost influence in the town)
---
---
Overall I thought this was a very good movie. I suspected the book was a bible before watching (that or it had some kind of plans to build something that could help humanity) but did not expect it to be the way it was.
It is interesting the message it is trying to put across such as religion being a force for good or evil depending on who is behind it, the faith that people put into things and more.
Anyone else notice anything else about this movie that stuck out with them? | 4 | [
{
"body": "I think you missed the rather vital plot point and the reveal that Eli was blind, which is why he was able to read the braille bible, and further rendering all his actions in the movie all the more amazing and guided by god. \n\nI enjoyed the movie although it was more overtly religious than I usually enjoy. ",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Advice needed on where to meet women | To describe my situation: I am an average looking guy who is currently studying CS in a foreign country. I keep up with the standard advices regarding hygiene, good clothes and frequently going-out. But I still end-up without actually engaging in conversations, which makes the statistics-principle really work against me. Here are some of the places I visit:
1) College. It is a technical college. Right now, there are just 2 girls in my 25-person group, of which only one is cute. And she has a boyfriend. In the entire college, there are about 10 cute girls according to my estimate.
2) Bars. I hang out at different bars at least 3 times a week, but I'm always out of luck. Cute girls are either with boyfriends, or sitting in a large company (which is quite hard to approach).
3) Clubs. I hate loud music badly, so that's not an option.
4) Just hooking up on the streets. Here comes the real trouble. Almost nobody knows English fluently enough for a good conversation (most can only help you out with directions or tell you the time). As for the local language, I quite suck speaking it. I can understand everything, but I can't speak fluently on non-technical topics. I watched a ton of pickup videos, but the techniques fail due to my language skills.
Second, there is a bit of racism (not on my side). Out of the 50 guys who came to the country with me, no one is currently dating a local girl.
What would you recommend? Is there something I'm missing? | 3 | [
{
"body": "Dude are you fucking kidding me?! Foreign girls are like shooting fish in a barrel. They don't speak English? That works to your advantage! You don't have to legitimately maintain their interest. Talk to them in their native language, use whatever you know. I once talked to a french girl at a bar for two hours using sentences like \"My name is ____.\" \"I like ham.\" \"Do you have the time?\" \"Hockey is a good sport.\" \"What is your name?\" Ask them questions in English. They will giggle their tits off.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Trouble making female friends | Hi, I am a 21 year old girl and the majority of my friends are male. According to what a lot of people here and elsewhere think that means I am only capable of becoming friends who people who want to sleep with me. I used to have many female friends but a lot of them have said really mean things behind my back, really catty things about my appearance to me or befriended me solely because a guy they liked was interested in me and they wanted to run interference, and it has left me scared to even try to open up to any girls. I know this may seem like a stupid thing to complain about, but how do I get over this? I am too nervous to even allow myself to open up to anyone that shares my sex and I feel like it is really hindering my social development. | 15 | [
{
"body": ">According to what a lot of people here and elsewhere think that means I am only capable of becoming friends who people who want to sleep with me.\n\nI just want to throw this out there that I'm in the minority and think that mindset is complete bullshit. I have no desire to sleep with any of my female friends. Not every guy wants to sleep with every girl he meets (despite what reddit may tell you).\n\nAnyway, as to your actual situation, I would recommend you stop over thinking things and stop worrying about what other people are saying about you. Just be yourself.",
"score": 12
},
{
"body": "You need to learn to pick better people as friends; if you're making catty female friends, then, chances are, you're making male friends who only want to sleep with you.\n\nHowever, in the short term, go join a club or two, start volunteering, and talk to that shy girl who has always looked nice in that one class/at work.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "First of all, it's a myth that a straight guy can't have a 100% platonic friendship with a girl. It's quite common. But remember that characteristics that make you appealing as a friend can also make you appealing as a romantic partner; relationships are still friendships at their hearts.\n\nSecond of all, if a guy friend wants to sleep with you, who cares? As long as he still treats you with respect, there is no harm in it. Crushes are a part of life. They come out of nowhere and can't be helped—and, honestly, if the guy doesn't pursue you, it's really none of your business what his private feelings are anyway.\n\nRemember that crushes absolutely do *not* cheapen a friendship in any way. Romantic affection does not erase platonic affection; they are additive.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Fellow female here. I don't get along with most women (although I do have a select few cool female friends). I prefer gay male friends over female friends. I can't stand the catty bullshit from the majority of women I've interacted with, but I still want someone to go shopping with. You don't \"need\" female friends. ",
"score": 5
}
]
|
What is the point of a spy disguised as his own team? | I know you can change the team of the character to be disguised as. Is a BLU spy being disguised as a BLU demoman ever useful? | 18 | [
{
"body": "Generally the goal as a spy (with standard cloak) is to never be seen by anyone, ever.\n\nLet's say you're in transit to the front lines, running with a bunch of other teammates. If an enemy sees you as a spy, they'll call it. I know I do. If they see you disguised as an enemy, they'll chase you to the ends of the earth.\n\nDisguise as a teammate and you will not attract attention. It's mostly for use when you're in friendly territory; not so much for the hostile parts.\n\nAs well, if you're all alone defending a point, nobody will get discouraged by a spy, they'll just come running at you. Try disguising as a friendly Heavy or Demoman. They'll approach with a bit more trepidation.\n\nLastly, with the Dead Ringer, when disguised as a friendly, it drops a corpse of what you were disguised as. That means if they shoot at you-as-a-pyro, it looks like a pyro died. Less suspicion.",
"score": 32
},
{
"body": "Plus, it's a great tactic if you are a Dead Ringer. You'll attract the bullets right away, and once you are revealed as a Dead Ringer spy, you'll spread panic throughout the other team. Of course you should switch disguises after that.\n\nBut mostly it's used for sneaking up to a gate and gauging what enemies you'll have to face. Like where the pyros are at, or where the medic is coming out of. If you see a huge number of one class on the other team you know you could safely disguise as one of them.",
"score": 18
},
{
"body": "If you disguise as your own team colour you do not leave a spy corpse as you would if you disguised as the opposite team, meaning you can run out with the dead ringer out and get behind them without them having a clue.\n\nAnd of course you blend into the situation, it's rather obvious if a red pyro is running out with the blu team.",
"score": 16
},
{
"body": "Let's say you're running at the other team as a spy. They will say \"Oh look, there is a spy!\" Now let's say you activate your cloak and vanish. They will say \"The spy just vanished, I should warn my teammates that there is a spy!\"\n\nHowever: if you run at the other team as a demoman they will say \"Oh look, that demoman is attacking us, this is perfectly ordinary.\" Then you hide and go invisible and nobody will be the wiser.",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "Aside from the ever useful \"they won't expect a spy\" aspect, get creative. Once on dustbowl we had lost the 1st point in the stage and all that was left was a medic and me(spy). Told him to heal me and hop on the point while i was disguised as a friendly heavy. We scared off a pyro and a scout long enough for our team to respawn and recover.",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "If I'm a red pyro and a blue heavy is walking at me, I will run away. If I'm a red pyro and a red heavy is running at me, I will flame him and carry on.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I disguise as my own team when I have to travel a long distance from spawn to where the action is happening, and don't want a wandering player on the other team to let his entire team know a spy is coming.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "It can be useful. You can cap if you're disguised as your own team. So it's much scarier to see a Heavy trying to cap than a Spy, which will hopefully buy you a little more time.\n\nI also used it once on 2fort when I was running through the sewers towards the enemy base. I was disguised as a Heavy, and some opponents were coming down the stairs as I was about to go up. They backed off. I later shot at them with the revolver, which was hilarious if it went as I imagined from their perspective.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Disguise as friendly engineer when your engineer runs off to find metal; it can deter a few suicidal sappin' spies from coming by.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Welcome to the "MOST AWESOME JOKE EVER" competition, come on in funny people and make us laugh. | We all love a good belly wobble, share your best joke and let us lavish you in up votes for making us laugh | 20 | [
{
"body": "Blind old cowboy wanders into a lesbian bar by mistake and orders a whiskey. After chatting with the bartender for a few minutes he says, \"A blond gal walks into a bar and...\"\n\n\"Hold on mister\", says the bartender. \"I'm blond and I'm a black belt in Karate. The girl on your right is a professional boxer and she's blond too. And the girl on your left is blond. She's a Marine. Suzie over there, she's a blonde professional wrestler, and blond Kate behind you is a Hell's Angel. You sure you wanna tell that joke?\"\n\n\"Well\", says the cowboy, \"not if I'm going to have to explain it five times.\"",
"score": 22
},
{
"body": "Wife: \"Would you get a girlfriend again if I died?\"\n\nHusband: \"Of course not.\"\n\nWife: \"Why not? Don't you like being married?\"\n\nHusband: \"Ok, I would marry again.\" (annoyed)\n\nWife: \"Oh...\" (sad)\n\nHusband: -silence-\n\nWife: \"Would you live in our house?\"\n\nHusband: \"Sure, it's a great house.\"\n\nWife: \"Would you two sleep in our bed?\"\n\nHusband: \"Where else would we sleep?\"\n\nWife: \"Would you let her drive my car?\"\n\nHusband: \"I guess I would, it's almost new.\"\n\nWife: \"Would she use my golf clubs, too?\"\n\nHusband: \"No, she's left handed.\"\n\nWife: -silence-\n",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "A three legged dog walks into a saloon and says: \"I'm lookin' fer the man who shot my pa.\"\n\nand one I picked up on reddit:\n\nHow many hipsters does it take to change a lightbulb? A: It's a really obscure number, you probably haven't heard of it...",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "A penguin takes his car to the shop to have it fixed. While he's waiting, he goes into a cool ice cream shop and eats ice cream. Having flippers instead hands, he gets the ice cream all over himself. He's goes back to the auto shop and asks the mechanic what was wrong with his car.\n\n\"Well,\" says the mechanic, \"it looks like you blew a seal.\"\n\nThe penguin replies, \"It's just ice cream, I swear!!\"\n",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "So, reddit. Let's talk about joke threads.\n\nA while ago—let's say a bit over a year—there was a joke thread. It was the first joke thread I'd read on here, and I spent a good portion of my afternoon giggling to myself. Lots of fun. A few jokes stood out to me—ones that made me laugh out loud. Not smirk, not grin, not chuckle, but actually laugh! They were great!\n\nI wrote some of them down so I could share them later, and promptly forgot about the whole thing.\n\nA few months later I found the little notecard on which I'd written a handful of jokes. They still made me laugh, which was great. But one of them left me confused.\n\nOn the notecard, between tasteless reprimands about forgetting 9/11 and truly dreadful puns was a simple question. Clearly, it had been a riddle. . . but I had not written down the punchline. I can only suppose that the punchline was so clever, *so obvious* that I had assumed I would never forget it. \n\nWell, I forgot. And not only did I forget, but I have since been unable to find the thread in question.\n\nThis joke now haunts me. It is a philosophical—even religious!—quandary. I cannot for the life of my figure out what the punchline could have been. \n\nI've related this story to friends, along with the half-joke in question, and none has been able to come up with the punchline. It's gotten to the point where the fact that we *don't know* the punchline is probably funnier than the joke itself ever was, or could be.\n\nBut on the chance that someone here knows it, I have to ask:\n\n*Why did God make smoking bad for you?*",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "A lawyer was being driven around town in his limo when he saw 2 men on the side of the road eating grass.\n\nMoved, the lawyer tells his driver to stop and gets out to talk to the men.\n\n\"What is going on? Why are you eating grass?\" he asks the men.\n\n\"We are very poor me, sir\", the first responds, \"this is all we have.\"\n\n\"Well, come with me\" insists the lawyer.\n\n\"But sir, I have a wife and three kids! My friend here, he was a wife and four kids!\"\n\n\"We will go get them as well\" declares the lawyer.\n\nAn hour later they are all driving in the limo to the lawyers estate.\n\n\"Sir, I don't know how to thank you enough!\"\n\n\"Oh, it is no problem. The grass at my house has to be at least a foot tall!\"",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Q:How many male chauvinists does it take to change a lighbulb?\n\nA: Fuck it. Let the bitch cook in the dark,",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Help me out fellow saplings, how do I make marijuana tea? | I've got about 3g's of mid-highs but can't smoke it or bake it. What's the most inconspicuous and effective method? I've heard butter, oil, milk, and honey, but which works the best? Also we don't have access to a stove, only a microwave and a hot water heater. Help me out guys! | 10 | [
{
"body": "Do you have some sort of a tea-ball or something? Basically you need something that can strain and which would also remain sealed. Possibly you could cut open a tea bag, empty it, refill it with the bud, and then staple it closed. My recommendation is to make something like a weed chai. Basically, heat up some milk to near boiling, you have to use something which is fatty so that the weed can absorb into it. Then take the weed, put it in whatever you're using to strain it. Steep that in the milk for a long time, like maybe 10-20 minutes so that as much thc as possible is absorbed. Then make normal tea in a separate container with just water and tea. Pour the weedmilk into the tea, mix it up. You could probably spice that with some cinnamon, cloves, it's really up to you. This ought to work, though since you have an eighth, you might do well to experiment a bit.\n\nEdit: Be really fucking careful with heating the milk. If it boils over you could end up with a microwave covered with a film of semi-solid milk. Once I boiled milk in a tea kettle and it poured out of the spigot of the kettle in a perfect stream and filled the stove with milk. It's still there.",
"score": 7
}
]
|
What was the most awkward situation you've ever gotten out of? | Jesus, that title was an awkward situation. Sorry.
Anyway, here's my story:
A few weeks ago I was sitting in the coffee shop browsing Reddit between classes. These two ladies walked in and started talking about regular self improvement, "Oprah said so" crap, and I didn't pay much attention until the conversation changed to Wicca (or Paganism, or something). You know, hexes and bad juju and shit like that. It was weird.
Eventually I had to go catch my bus. I got off at my mom's office to ask her for a ride, and she showed me a jury summons she'd gotten. One of my mom's employees (her name is Rachael) overheard the conversation and told us about how she hasn't been on jury duty since the early 90's because she tells them it's against her religion.
So I had a good laugh at that and went to hang out in the break room for thirty minutes while my mom finished her work. At closing time, I saw Rachael and thought I'd tell her about the crazy Wiccans from earlier. Unfortunately, she was in a hurry to pick up her kid from daycare and I didn't get a chance.
In the car with my mom, we were talking about her jury duty and I remembered Rachael's religion comment, which reminded of the Wiccans. I told my mom about them, expecting a laugh, but her face changed immediately.
"Uh..." she said, "It would probably be good for you to know that Rachael is a Wiccan".
**TL;DR** Unwittingly almost made fun of Wiccans to someone who actually *was* Wiccan. | 51 | [
{
"body": "That wasn't so bad. \n\nA few years ago I went to a friends wedding party. I stepped outside with a friend of mine to smoke a ciggy when another girl I knew from college came outside to say \"hi\" to us. I hadn't seen her in years. She had gained a good portion of weight, mostly around her belly. \n\nSo she asks my other friend for a cig, and without thinking twice, I blurted out, \"Angie, you shouldn't be smoking!\" (because I thought she was pregnant).\n\n\"Why not?\" She replied. Without missing a beat I said \"Because that shit is really, really bad for you! It's too late for us, but I don't want to see anyone else getting hooked, either.\"\n\nI was utterly amazed at how quickly I was able to salvage that otherwise horrible moment that would have made her feel like crap and me look like an absolute ass. ",
"score": 137
},
{
"body": "Almost getting killed by a girl's gangbanger brother. He came over to her apartment to \"check up on her\"; when she answered the door, I was half-naked, sitting on the couch. He was...not happy to meet me.\n\nI explained that I was her gay best friend, and that my evil boyfriend had kicked me out, so I was staying with her until I found a place. He bought it, and I didn't, you know, **die**.",
"score": 82
},
{
"body": "One summer day when I was about 10 years old, I was at a friends house hanging out. My friend's sister, who was a few years older was next door babysitting. We had done this pretty much the whole summer...She was allowed to eat whatever she wanted as long as she was babysitting. So we would go over and steal snacks out of the neighbors fridge and pantry. Not a lot, so that anyone would notice but, a few snack cakes here and there. Now what made this a bit unnerving to me, was that I didn't know their neighbors. They were a quiet couple that kept to themselves. The man of the house certainly did not know who I was at all, since I didn't live anywhere nearby. Of what I knew of him, he was ex-military, about 3 times my size and once got in a fist fight with another neighbor over a tree in the yard.\n\nSo, we go over to the house to get some twinkies. While we are upstairs, the owner pulls up all of a sudden appearing to be in a rush. My friend, tells me we need to get out of here and rushes out the front door. He was quick enough to not be seen by the owner but I, freaked out a bit and lagged behind. My friend's sister, looking more and more panicked, tells me to get the fuck out of here now! I rush down the stairs to the front door and look outside. He's coming up the walkway. The only exit now, is the basement stairs which is adjacent to the front door. I race down the stairs. There is a door to the back yard and one to the garage directly on the right. I choose the back door off to the left. It's fucking locked. I look behind me and see this guy's man cave/basement living room. In the background, I hear the door open and the owner's voice signaling that he is in the house. The garage door is not an option now, since he will see me from the foyer. So I run to the basement living room and duck down behind the TV. This was the mid-eighties, so people still had lots of those \"console\" style televisions. It's like a big piece of furniture. I could hide easily behind it. So I sit and I wait quietly behind it. I figure this guy is probably just coming home to pick something up and is going to leave right away...\n\nI hear a set of footsteps come down the stairs. Sounds big. It's the owner. I hear him lazily plop down on the couch, fumble for a remote and turn on the TV. I can still remember that dusty electrical smell when it clicked on. I could actually see the light from the back of the TV through the wooden grill. All the while my heart is racing double time. When this all started happening...I was thinking, even if he saw me, I could explain it away and nothing would probably happen. But now, it was different. I can't just pop up from behind this guy's TV and and say \"Hey, what's going on?\" He would probably put me through the wall for scaring him. So I sit there motionless and wigging out in my head. For about about 30 of the longest minutes of my short life. \n\nFinally he leaves, and as soon as I hear him reach the top of the stairs I race over to the garage door. It opens! The garage is full of junk. I can't find the garage door opener. The garage door is partially open and I grab the bottom and force it open enough that I can crawl under it. I make it out and run next door. ",
"score": 81
},
{
"body": "Probably not the most awkward I've been in but one of the most awkward I have gotten out of.\n\nA thin girl with HUGE breasts was walking past the window of this pizza place we're eating at and my 60+ year old boss says \"Well that's a healthy girl!\" and nudges me. I didn't want to have an awkward moment or discuss this woman's rack with him so I say \"Huh... what are you talking about?\" and he started explaining it but after 4-5 words in he was just like \"Ah nevermind\"\n\nProtip : If anyone ever makes an uncomfortable comment you should ask them for clarification. It forces them to explain what they were implying; after the moment from their comment is lost they are guaranteed to be embarrassed. This is the kryptonite of the awkward office joke guy.",
"score": 66
},
{
"body": "One day I was walking around in downtown Vancouver, just taking my time until my casual date come up. I was at the intersection and waiting for the traffic light to turn green. At that point I just pull out my cell phone to look at the time. While I'm there I look through the call I received recently too. \n\nAt that point, the black dude standing beside me suddenly goes \"Nice view huh?\". I wasn't paying attention so I just said \"Yeah sure\". After a second or two I figured something was not right, only then I realize the girl standing in front of me have turned half way round and giving me that nastiest look I ever saw. People around me starting to looks toward us too. Then I realize the black dude though I was taking picture of her ass, with my cell phone just happen to be pointing right there. \n\nI just sorta widen my eyes and gave her the deer in high beam look. She looked like she was going to slap me. But then the traffic light turns and she just turn away without saying a word. I looked toward the black dude but he was already gone by then. I couldn't even remember if that girl was hot or not, I didn't look at her beyond her glaring eyes.\n\nThen I told my casual date about it, we had a small laugh.\n",
"score": 63
},
{
"body": "When I was 16 I was caught in the passionate act of cunnilingus with my then girlfriend by her mother. She had been out of the house and being the frisky rabbit like teenagers we were, we decided to get down and dirty on her mother's bed. Well, lo and behold she (of course) came home early. Seeing as I was not in the most perceptive state, being between two thighs and all, I didn't notice her right behind me when she exclaimed \"Yodeling in my girl's valley are we?!\"\n\nHow did I get out of this one? Well, I didn't but nothing EVER came of it. However her mom gave me a ride home later that night and man, that was about ten minutes of face burning embarrassment. ",
"score": 42
},
{
"body": "Back when I was a musician, I had 4 girls I was concurrently seeing show up at one of my gigs. I still don't know how I got out of that with my balls intact.",
"score": 36
},
{
"body": "In a restaurant, my friends and I had a long conversation about one of teachers and how much we disliked him. I believe the topic of his body odor, our fear that he'd rape us, and other such comments were included in the conversation.\n\nWhen we got up to leave, we noticed him sitting in the booth next to us.",
"score": 34
},
{
"body": "Back when WoW first came out, I was in Orgrimmar on my priest and saw a warlock summon an infernal for the first time. I noticed the warlock had to cast \"enslave demon\" on the infernal to maintain control over it. As a priest, I wondered if I could cast dispel and remove this enslave demon effect. Well, it worked, the warlock must have been afk because the non-enslaved infernal went around smashing all the low level players in the area to death. I immediately ran inside a hut and watched as the infernal continued his rampage until a few high level players and guards killed it. I felt incredibly embarrassed; thankfully, no one really cared and I wasn't blamed. ",
"score": 33
},
{
"body": "Going at it on her parent's couch in the basement, having climbed in the window minutes earlier. We usually heard her dad wake up and walk to the bathroom upstairs. This night we didn't. Instead HE heard something. He walked halfway down the basement stairs and flipped on the light, not expecting to see anything. The light flips off, then quickly back on again. He saw something. Her dad yells \"WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!\" and stomps the rest of the way down the stairs. I pull out and begin pulling my pants up as I run toward my coat and boots piled up underneath the window. She tries her best to cover herself and hide her face as he screamed obscenities at the top of his lungs. Within seconds, her mom flies down the stairs and tries to calm him down. She knew about her daughter and I sleeping together for some time, so this was no surprise to her. After I gathered up my things and determined that he probably wasn't going to kill me in front of his daughter and wife, I waited for my break to run past him and up and out of the house. Her mom, I think sensing this, tried to get and hold his attention long enough for me to squeak past behind him and bolt up the stairs and out the front door. She succeeded, and so did I. I nearly shit my pants as I ran through the front yard. Literally. I mean it was poking out.\n\nA month later he invited me over for dinner with the family. He's a good friend to this day and hasn't approved of a single guy (or girl) that his daughter has brought home since me. Go figure. ",
"score": 25
},
{
"body": "I didn't get out of it per se... but I didn't get punished as much as I deserved.\n\nA girl I used to like brought me over to one of her family friend's house. They were all extremely nice people, and the father had a serious man-crush on John Lennon; but that's beside the point.\n\nThis family had son who had some sort of disorder where he basically unable to control his body at all, kind of like Steven Hawking. He was all there, he just couldn't move around. We were having a good time, and we got on to the subject of the *Chapelle's Show*. As soon as I heard it, my favorite episode popped into my mind, and before I could even think, I said \"And how about that show where he pushed that crippled guy down the stairs.\" ... Fuck...\n\nThankfully, nobody noticed, except for the girl I liked (and possibly the kid himself, although I would have no way of knowing). She just stared at me for a few seconds furiously, and I just looked back completely apologetically. I'm a fucking idiot.\n\nI've kind of always been a fucking idiot.",
"score": 22
},
{
"body": "When I was in college, I had the annoying habit of turning every statement upon someone, regardless of the content or context.\n\nFor example- Friend:\"That shirt is too green\", Me: \"YOU'RE too green\". \n\nYes, I know, stupid. It became an uncontrollable habit, and manifested itself in the worst way when a girl in my statistics study group thought that a classmate's estimation to a problem was a bit too high, and said about her answer \"That's a bit too large\". \"YOU'RE a bit too large\" spilled out of my mouth before I could clap my hand to my face. You could hear a pin drop, and I backed out of the room with a morbid and palpable level of awkwardness.",
"score": 21
},
{
"body": "I almost threw up on the President when I went to the White House. However, two antacid tablets later, I'm fine, his suit is clean, and I have a great event to talk about.",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "In August 2000 at Burning Man, I paused at camp a few blocks away from Center Camp to bounce on a trampoline. There are a few places there where the road on both sides is only about 50 yards away from each other. After getting throughly bouncy, the little group got tired and someone from that camp pulls out from somewhere a bong. We pass it around a few times and then I and one other guy see a sheriff's K9 SUV creep by on the outer road away from the esplanade... We're a little edged about that and start to tell the guy who brought it out and he's, ' aww, he was to far away to see and he'll keep on going.\" Yep, 4 minutes later the K9 and ANOTHER cop comes back our way on the inside road... both me and the guy who had seen it had turned our heads to the exact spot they were appearing from only about 120 feet away and tell the dude that owned the bong ( who very luckily had the bong just come to him ) and he tips it between his legs almost under his crotch... \nBIG COLLECTIVE SILENCE as the two cars S L O W L Y roll by... I'm thinking and feeling as much calm and relaxation into everybody there, the cops and myself as I can. They roll by and we feel like everything's good.. and the rear car stops 50 feet beyond us and a tall skinny cop gets out and starts walking towards us. I feel everybody start to freak out inside themselves and hear inside my self a countdown from three to one... as my inner 'voice' goes to zero, the cop's gaze (which had surveyed everyone there swung right to me and I, as completely nonchalantly as I've ever seen or felt anyone ever be, smile at him and really slowly and thoroughly grab the big bottle of water I've got in my lap, open it up, and drink from it feeling like it's the best water in the universe right then . \nThe cop stops in his tracks 10 feet away from the guy with the bong in his lap ( spilling bong water all over him btw) and gets this shocked, confused and embarrassed look on his face. While he turns around to his vehicle, he apologizes and says that he must have mistaken me drinking from my water bottle earlier with something else, sorry about the interruption. The two cars pull away and everyone on the trampoline sits around in complete silence for about 3 minutes. I was the first one to get up and leave. Freaked me out in a good way so much I had to zoom the fuck outta there. Totally am unable to remember the camp or the guy's name that a bottle of water kept outta jail... \nGood times.\n\nTL;DR - Slowly drinking from a bottle of water, I kept a generous fellow from going to jail at Burning Man in 2000.\n\nEdited as detail surfaces... especially about better grammar and syntax.\n",
"score": 14
},
{
"body": "So back in undergrad, well, we my friend and one of his friends started an enormous mushroom growing operation. This was following up a summer of heavy hallucinogen use, and we had all sorts of things lying around still, like baby San Pedro cactus (for great mescaline).\n\nWe had gotten a mind to construct a bar, though, and I invited another friend over, who I had forgotten was completely straight edge, to help us sketch some plans. She comes over and we discuss the layout, etc., and then she's thirsty and wants a glass of water. So I lead her into the kitchen...\n\nWhere there are buckets, literally 5 orange buckets, full of cow shit, bags of vermiculite, and the most enormous stainless steel pressure cooker (ebay) that you'd ever seen. My friend's friend was wearing latex gloves and was literally hands deep in one of the buckets on the floor and just froze, my friend froze too. \n\nHer neutral smile dropped into an expression of extreme confusion and fear: \"What on earth are you guys doing?\"\n\nAnd in that split second, I saw the little baby San Pedro cactus. \n\n\"We're growing Bonsai Cactus! See?\" and I pointed at the set of 6 baby San Pedros. My friend lit up like a neon sign and took the cue from there\n\n\"You have to get the soil just right.\"\n\nThe girl loved it: \"Ohhhhh!!! They're sooo cute!!! Can I have one? When will they be ready?\"\n\nAnd the day was thus saved. ",
"score": 12
},
{
"body": "When I was 18, someone started a game of *shoot, shag or marry* with me. My options were:\n\n* A male friend of mine. (Beau)\n* A 15 year old girl known for her quietness. (Silent Mel).\n* A girl my age I liked (Rebecca).\n\nSince Rebecca has asked me this question, I hardly wanted to tell her that I wanted to marry her or sleep with her. Here's what I said to get out of it:\n\n\"First, I'd marry Beau, because we're bros. We'd be in an open marriage, allowing each other to have extra marital affairs, but not with anyone we both knew.\n\n\"Then, I'd shag Silent Mel, because I'd have to do it at my house, and I know she'd be quiet enough not to wake the neighbours and, more importantly, Beau, because Silent Mel is a mutual friend of ours.\n\n\"Now unfortunately, while I was shagging Silent Mel, you [Rebecca] walked in on us. Not only would Beau be mad at me for sleeping with Silent Mel, I would have to go to prison for statutory rape. I can't go to prison. I can't be labeled a sex offender for the rest of my life. So, I'm very sorry Rebecca, but I'm going to have to shoot you.\"\n\nCrisis averted.",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "I was out dove hunting once with some neighbors who were really into the whole sport. I, on the other hand, have never shot a shotgun other than a couple times at clay pigeons and was a terrible shot at things that didn't move predictably.\n\nAfter an afternoon of missing *every bird ever*, my dad and I were walking through some brush and saw a bird jump out from hiding and take flight. We both take aim and fire at about the same time and the bird goes down. Considering neither of us have hit anything but air all day, we both immediately try to take credit for the one and only bag of the day. We continue, jokingly, saying that we each were the one that got the killing blow as we trudge over to where we think the bird has landed.\n\nIn the meantime, we see the warden off in the distance making his way over to presumably check our papers and make sure we haven't gone over the limit (yeah, right!). The warden is about halfway over when we find our kill. In the bushes is a bird with the brightest yellow belly I have ever seen, most assuredly **not** a dove.\n\nOur tales of bravado and precision aim quickly turn into heaps of praise on the other for making such a fine shot. After a few jokes at the bird's expense, my dad quickly says to \"keep looking\" 30 yards in another direction so as not to alert the warden of our unlawful kill. Unfortunately for us, the warden is a really nice guy, and has been watching us search for this bird on the 3-4 minute walk over. What ensues is this man \"helping\" us look for a bird that we know will land us with a $2000 dollar fine for a good 10 minutes.\n\nOf course, we never did find it (again).",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "ALMOST responded with a \"that's what your mom said last night\" kind of joke to a friend of a friend, but remembered his mom had recently died...",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I was at my friend Eric's (gay dude) place with a few other people. We were getting high and watching Futurama. A rich Saturday night. \n \nAt some point in a conversation, my other friend Nathan starts talking about how there are no famous Nathans, and how he could possibly be the best Nathan in the world. \n \nI say, \"Well what about Nathan Lane?\" \n \nNathan replies without blinking, \"Well, he doesn't count. He's a... \" \n \nAnd he gets the most perfect deer-in-headlights look ever. All of a sudden he realizes that what he's about to say is grossly offensive to the guy hosting the thing. He pauses for half a second, but drags out the last word so it looks like he wasn't pausing.. \n \n\"...broadway actor.\" \n \nHe and I start laughing for about five minutes and nobody else ever found out why. ",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Me and four of my friends decided we would take some mushrooms one evening. We were drinking beers, listening to music, tripping out, and just having a good time. Well this girl shows up at our house that one of my buddies was screwing around with at the time. Nobody really liked her, and he was just with her because she was good looking. Well she was kind of ruining the trip so I pull my friend aside and tell him that he needs to get rid of her. So he takes her back in his room where he is gonna talk/mess around with her and then send her on her way. \n\nSo about this time when they are back in his room, his ex-girlfriend (who he is also still screwing around with) shows up. She saw the other girls car out front so she walked right in the front door, right at the time my buddy is walking out with the other girl. Now we are all pretty much tripping out of our heads at the time in the living room when this happens. Me and the three other guys get up, go directly into the garage and just start laughing hysterically. We were so loud that my friend said he could hear us in the other room. The first girl ends up leaving all pissed off, and my buddy ends up leaving with his ex. Later he told me that night he had the weirdest sex of his life. \n\n",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "My friend and I were sitting in a booth in a restaurant. A server comes up to us, and happens to be the sister of another girl I used to be friends with. We make small talk while she takes our order. When she leaves, I tell my friend that I heard that her sister moved to Idaho and lives with a guy that beats her up all the time. The look on my friend's face told me that she was right behind me. She was. My friend says \"you should have seen her face.\"\r\n\r\nStupid me. Another server finished waiting our table. I felt like an ass. But, turns out it was true.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "One thing you should know -- Wiccanism is a Pagan belief centered around a \"harm none\" golden rule.\nI mean, it's all bullshit. I was, most unfortunately, raised Wiccan. But there are major distinctions between Wicca and bad juju or whatever.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I threw up what felt like 2 liters of pure liquor behind a couch at an extremely fancy strip-club. I was engaged in conversation, said.. \"hold that thought\", turned around, chugged, then went back to it. Nobody knew a thing, and we were leaving in a few minutes either way.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "When I was 13, was at a funeral of a friend of the family. He had committed suicide. While standing talking to his parents with my parents, telling a story of something that had happened at school, I finished with the statement \"I could have died.\" I was mortified, apologizing profusely. They all just laughed and told me not to worry about it. I have never felt so awkward since. and that was almost 20 yrs ago.\n",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "I was working at a Waldenbooks in San Diego about 5 years ago. Every few hours, on my smoke break, I would go next door to the Charlotte Russe and visit my friend Sophie and she would take her break with me outside. \n\nWe only hung out at work, since we both worked in the mall, and we couldn't really chill during our off-hours because we both had SOs. Anyway, we loved to flirt, and our flirtations bordered on cheating. She had a game she liked to play with me which involved me guessing what color panties she was wearing, and if I guessed right, I could ask her to do something for me. This could have become *very* bad, but something happened before things got to that point.\n\nOne night I was at the local Mr. Peabody's bar, and I couldn't drive home, due to the fact that I was wasted. I called a cab. I get picked up an hour later by a very funny older black gentleman. We strike up a conversation, and before long, we start talking about chicks.\n\"Man\", he says, \"The trouble with black women is that they *love* gettin' their pussies licked, and you white boys looove to do it!\"\nI agreed. \"A lot of us black guys don't like that shit! So what happens is our women end up goin for you white boys for it!\" The cabbie even started telling me stories about how he couldn't get it up anymore, and how his wife was a nag, and his daughters were promiscuous.\n\nWe were both laughing about that, and then I remembered Sophie. She was black. We always talked about sex, and she told me many times that she never liked cunnilingus, but she loved giving blowjobs, and I told the guy so. Strangely enough, I was so drunk that I even dropped her name to this stranger, and told him where I worked and where she worked.\n\nI then went on to tell him about how she liked sex, and what positions, etc. When he dropped me off at my place, He gave me an odd smile, and gave me his card with his cell number on it and told me to call him *any* time I needed a ride. I was drunk, I thought nothing of it.\n\nThe next day, Sophie stopped by my store in a state. She said she needed to talk to me, so I took my break with her outside.\n\nThere was no flirting this time. To my surprise, one of the first things to come out of her mouth was \"Sean, my Dad gave you a ride home last night.\"\nI couldn't believe it. It was so awkward after that I avoided my usual smoking area for the remainder of my employment there. I didn't talk to Sophie anymore. Apparently, she got kicked out of her house not long after, according to a friend of hers I knew. \n\nWhat amazes me most of all is how the whole situation reminds me of that story of the kid who buys a condom from a pharmacist, bragging about how he'll get laid on his date later. When he shows up at his date's house, who answers the door? The pharmacist, who is his date's father.\n ",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Getting to know a hot girl, just walking her home after a night out, and using all my usual charm and inappropriate jokes. After a whole slew of \"your mom\" jokes, I put on my serious face and ask, just to be sure, \"your mom's not dead or anything is she?\"\n\nShe looks at me with the most empty stare ever. \"Actually, she's dead.\"\n\nThe rest of the walk (about a half mile) wasn't so hilarious.\n\nEDIT: typo",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "So my friend, his girlfriend and I were leaving a bar. We were walking some ways to where our cars were parked. We stopped to say our goodbyes, as this might be the last time I talk to them for a while. I was living in NY and they were living in Trampa. So I was saying how they should come to NY and blah blah blah and she was about to say something when two guys ran up to us with guns. I ran. They didn't. Apparently it was awkward for them...and scary. It wasn't awkward for me though. Plus I got to keep my iPhone.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "When I was a Freshmen in High School I had an abbriviated scheduel, so they made the short bus pick me up. The driver was this old guy in his late 60's, happy to have a non-challenged (and I mean that in the upmost respect) occupant, so we would small talk the 10 minutes to school.\n\nOne day when we drove in it was the start of second period, and a girl was walking through the parking lot wearing skimpy clothes. \"WOO-EEEEE, they didn't dress like that when I went to school!\"\n\nThe girl happened to be one of my friend's older sisters...\n\nI just said mmmhmmmm and quickly got off the bus, turned the corner, and tried not to fall over from laughing so hard.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I was once talking to my friends during recess (9 grade or something). I was telling them about how bitchy a certain professor was, i was like \"miss garcia is a witch, she shouldn´t be allowed to interact with human beings\" and suddenly, my friends gave me the most awkward look I´ve ever seen and I had one of those \"she is standing behind me, isn´t she\" moments.\n\nAnd a split nanosecond later, I continued \"Yeah... that's what those guys were saying about miss garcia. I told them that she was alright\".\n\nAnd she bought it :D",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Mushroom Hallucinations | I've been reading stuff on this reddit for a long time and have never posted anything. i am really fascinated with psychedelics though there aren't a lot of people to talk about them with since all my friends that do them are really excessive and cynical about the whole thing.
i was wondering if anyone could recall any vivid closed eye hallucinations while on mushrooms?
i think they have a really distinguishable quality to them compared to the other psychedelics i've done like lsd, 2cb, salvia, mdma, some piperazines, and dmt once.
i'm not as experienced as a lot of the people on here so am i right? do they stand out compared to other hallucinogenic drugs? | 6 | [
{
"body": "Almost every time I have dosed on mushrooms I have had the same 'vision' of an elongated tunnel stretching skywards. The tunnel is covered in hundreds if not thousands of hexagons, each of which contains a purple and gray eye ball that is staring at me. I always associate this imagery with speaking directly to god/some sort of holy entity. Very Alex Grey-esque and perhaps subconsciously influenced by his own work. ",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Every single time I closed my eyes while on shrooms, I instantly became another man in another place and saw things from his point of view. It was the same man every time and he was always on the ground or in some kind of state like he'd lost control of his body or fallen. There were usually people surrounding him trying to figure out what had happened or they were friends laughing and trying to help him up. He was almost always wearing yellow-tinted sunglasses so everything I saw was yellow and the locale was invariably Las Vegas.\n\nThe only time I saw different was on a particularly bad trip when my mind began wandering and everything in the world instantly took on the properties of whatever new idea came to mind every few seconds: oranges, impossibly sharp edges, chicken guts, itchy wool, vomit, a frigid blue...it just kept going for an hour or so while I peaked and was so disorienting that I had to hold on to my puppy just to calm my nerves and fasten myself to the real world in some way (he didn't mind).",
"score": 5
}
]
|
I have a sexual problem. | My boyfriend and I are young, we are both clean, and don't smoke. I started taking birth control Aviane about three months ago (my first experience on the pill). We started with using condoms, but have been going without for the past few months now.
The problem is that even when I really, really want to have sex, it's incredibly hard to get him in. He has a larger-than-average sized penis, and I am a little small, but we haven't had this problem until recently. It takes up to five minutes to get him in, and it's usually painful for me. I don't seem to have a problem getting turned on, wanting him, anything like that. It's really frustrating when it's too painful for me to even start so we revert to fooling around instead.
Could it be a result of the pill? The symptoms are dryness and lower sex drive--could that be it? Or is it a mental block? I love my boyfriend and want to enjoy sex with him. Thanks 2X :) | 17 | [
{
"body": "Use lube and lots of it. Put towels underneath you guys first as all the lube and froth (ugh) will get messy.",
"score": 25
},
{
"body": "Yep - dryness is one of the more common side effects of oral contraceptives. The easiest thing to do is use lots of lube - but that doesn't solve the sex drive issue. As suggested by others, you can try switching to another method of birth control - however although Mirena is an IUD, it's partially hormonal, releasing progestin just like the birth control pill (although the amount is significantly less) and may cause the same side effects. If you don't have painful periods right now, you may want to look into a copper IUD - there are virtually no side effects to it, and the cost is minimal. ",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "Lube might help. The problem you're experiencing could also be psychological, it's called vaginismus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaginismus). It often takes women a lot of experimenting with different types of birth control in order to find what works best for them. I hope this helps.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "This is the problem I have with BC too. \n\nTry a water-based lube. (Test it on your hand first to see if you might have a bad reaction and to see if it's the right viscosity). \n\nYou might want to consider the Mirena or a non-hormonal type of birth control. ",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "Use lube. Lots and lots of lube. I have problems with lubrication from time to time on the depo-shot, so I'll use lube. Otherwise it's painful at best, or at worst, I just wont be able to get him inside of me. ",
"score": 4
}
]
|
hey watmm, need some advice on cd duplication houses | my band has a new cd out and I'm looking into where to have it printed. were looking for someone who does short runs, maybe 500 cd's. anyone have experience with or can point me to a house that is not discmakers? thanks in advance | 3 | [
{
"body": "You can always try services like CD Baby or LuLu. I know for a fact that LuLu lets you order small quantities, so you could order one to see if you like how it came out and then order more. If I remember correctly, prices are decent as well, for both services, if you have the money to spend on them.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I realise that there's an intrinsic value in a physical disc with gorgeous artwork, but my recommendation is to distribute digitally. If people really want a CD, they'll burn one.\n\nSell your stuff easily through most of the online giants via [tunecore](http://www.tunecore.com). It's dirt cheap, and they don't take a cut of your royalties.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Closed Eye Hallucinations | I know it's just not me. If I smoke a decent amount of weed I can close my eyes and see changing patterns and moving swirls. Most of my friends say they don't see stuff that vividly but I know there has to be other people out there that see stuff when they close their eyes after smoking a bong.
| 18 | [
{
"body": "If I close my eyes while listening to music (with headphones, real loud) I usually can visually see all sorts of thing, which then morph into more of a music video in my mind. I take from the visuals and create something mentally, in real time. I like being able to view faces mouthing words as they come through my ears in real time.. seems like a phenomenon to me, but there's some amount of delay I'm sure.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Reddit, what helps you to get to sleep at night? | Personally I find I sleep better during the day, you know, when I ought to be working. The sound of rainfall and , bizzarely, the cold helps me to fall asleep. | 6 | [
{
"body": "I have to watch at least one film per night, whilst in bed. Then I close my laptop, put it next to me in bed and snuggle... I think I need a new girlfriend.",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "I installed f.lux on my desktop so I'm not staring into bright monitor light during the evening. It adjusts the color of your monitor with the time of the day. \nI also pop a Unisom if I don't think I will be sleeping by midnight. If I use Unisom 1 or 2 times a week, I'll try melatonin instead the next week. ",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I just got my certificate in nutrition education and this is what I recommended to a client of mine (who had severe insomnia from previous being a drug addict):\n \nThere are two types of insomnia:\n1) Inability to fall asleep\n2) Waking up in the middle of the night and not able to fall asleep after that\nSuggestions for staying asleep throughout the night: …KAVINACE from a wholistic doctor which works beautifully. It consists of Vitamin B6 ( as pyridoxine HCI & pyridoxal 5-phosphate) and their Mix 4 (Taurine and 4-amino-3-phenylbutyric acid). Contains no wheat, corn, soy, salt, sucrose, starch, yeast, artificial flavors, or artificial colorings or other known allergens.\n\nFor “onset” insomnia (not being able to fall asleep): Valerian Root has worked for some people but for others, it can be a stimulant rather than a natural nerve relaxer. It's safe to test under ideal conditions. Here's more info: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Valerian.asp\n\nFor both types:\nMetagenics is a safe herb/alternative supplement company and they have a product called \"Somnolin\" that people at my school use. It has a combo of different amino acids known to cause relaxation and stress reduction. Main players: 5-HTP (great for depression and anxiety), Theanine, B-vitamins\n5-HTP is a great supplement on its own. It's been known to help people with extreme anxiety. You can probably read more about it in Julia Ross's book.\n\nI love GABA. It comes from the Amino Acid L-Glutamine (great for healing the gut if you have leaky gut from antibiotics/birth control/anything else - did you know that if you just take one round of antibiotics, it take about 6 months to restore all the good bacteria in your gut? anyway, I digress). Whenever I feel like I'm going to get all anxious and annoyed and bad things will happen (get angry at alex), I pop a couple chewable GABA tabs and I chill out - it feels slightly like pot sometimes. Anyway, this is good when you feel like your anxiety is getting out of control.\n\nMelatonin comes from Tryptophan I believe. So that would be a good supplement as I mentioned before. Either form can work. Melatonin might be more direct – easier for the body to assimilate.\nVitamins/Minerals that may help with insomnia: B-complex (which is also good for energy - go figure), Magnesium/Calcium for muscle and blood vessel elasticity.\n\nHerbs like California Poppy Root, Skullcap, Hops, and Passion Flower help with stress reduction and relaxer. Passionflower is perfect for calming the racing mind and California Poppy acts as a sedative for sleeplessness and over excitability in children. Stress Free Tea: The following herbs can be made into teas:Skullcap, passion flower, hops, valerian, Siberian ginseng, ashwagandha, rhodiola, kava kava, oat straw, chamomile.\n\nYoga helps with stress reduction. But you might want to do some strength building or cardio as exercise during the day, which would help with insomnia.\n\nNutrition-wise: You also want to have more fats and protein for breakfast (bacon and eggs) if you find it hard to stay alert in the morning instead of sweets (sweets cause all sorts of blood sugar imbalances that it may cause insomnia)\n\nLastly, we are the most dehydrated in the morning so a big glass of warm/room temp water in the morning with lemon is always tasty.\n\nGood luck and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions (though I may not be able to reply until I get up in the morning)\n\ntl;dr PM me and I'll do some free nutritional consulting for you. Eat good food and it'll help you sleep. You migh also want to look into amino acid supplementing like druggies do. ",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Okay! It's settled. Orlando Redditor meetup at Johnny's fillin station, 5PM Sunday January 31st! | I figure we can shoot some pool, drink some beer and eat some phenomenal burgers. Bring your appetite, they're HUGE burgers!
I'll be wearing my blue Reddit alien shirt, I'm easy to spot. I'll get there a little early to score us some seats.
I've created a Google Group:[Orlando Redditors](http://groups.google.com/group/orlando-redditors) so that if you want you can get notification emails and stay in touch after the meetup, you don't have to always watch /r/orlando or this thread. Eventually I will lock down the group to keep out spammers, hopefully google handles that well.
How many people do we have coming?
**UPDATE:** I've made a reservation for us, so we have 2 large tables by the pool tables starting at 5 PM.
Here's the link: [http://www.johnnysfillinstation.com/](http://www.johnnysfillinstation.com/)
I said 10 people, but if we get bigger, I'll call and ask for more space. | 16 | [
{
"body": "Can everyone upvote these posts so that more redditors have a chance to see this event?\n\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/ucf/comments/aqhe1/orlando_reddit_meetup_january_31st/\n\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/florida/comments/aqhcn/orlando_reddit_meetup_january_31st/\n\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/meetup/comments/aqhdq/orlando_fl_reddit_meetup_january_31st/",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "1 person coming (Reply and increment.) Also, I will see if I can reserve a table near the pool tables.\n\nEDIT: ** In a few days, I'm going to lock in this number and make a reservation or something so they can hold tables for us. **",
"score": 4
}
]
|
So I'm going to install Ubuntu 9.10. Here are a few questions. | I've been on the edge of Linux for a while wanting to jump ship from Windows (not to say there's anything wrong with Windows) and I've finally decided to install Ubuntu. With that said, and my acknowledgement that I'm a n00b, here are a few questions that you will probably be able to easily answer:
* How can I install flash?
* How can I install Java?
* How can I configure my printer, which is an Epson Stylus? How can I check ink cartridge levels?
* Are there any quality virtual Windows-like distributions that I could get to on Ubuntu in case I need Windows support? Does that even exist?
* What tips, programs, etc. would you recommend to a person on Ubuntu?
Thanks to anyone for answering. | 5 | [
{
"body": "Flash, Java JRE, most video and audio codecs can be installed with 'sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras'. Depending on the model of your printer, it will either work out of the box or give you a real hard time... Printers are a very weak side of linux. For virtual machines get either VirtualBox or VMware. Just remember not to ask which one's better unless you're up for a huge flamewar ;) Most of the apps you will want to use are going to be there already, but if you want more I suggest taking a look at [Lifehacker](http://lifehacker.com)",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "I'm a linux admin by trade, but not with Ubuntu. I found the guide at this link to be extremely helpful. It should cover almost every question you could have about the install and post config of Ubuntu. If my wife, mother-in-law and own mother can all use Ubuntu successfully then really, anybody can! Good luck to you and welcome to the club.\n\nhttp://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Karmic",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Read this article, it's an excellent starting point and has some good info:\n\n[Top things to do after installing Ubuntu Linux 9.10 Karmic Koala](http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2009/09/top-things-to-do-after-installing.html)",
"score": 4
}
]
|
Notable Similarities Between Immoral Behavior and Annoying Behavior | It's a common religious argument that there would be no morality without god. There is much evidence to the contrary, but I would like to argue along a different line than other things I've read on the matter.
There are very few laws against being annoying, yet the majority of people somehow "know" not to be annoying. For the most part, people don't walk uncomfortably close to strangers, stare at others for inordinate amounts of time, or fart in a large group of people (even if they're likely to be able to do so without getting caught). We make every effort to appear normal and well-adjusted, yet there are no laws, religious or otherwise, that tell people to do this.
Granted, there are few benefits to being annoying, whereas breaking moral laws can often yield some good for the individual. However, some annoying acts, such as farting, will benefit the individual by making him or her more comfortable at the expense of others. But most of us just don't do it, and we don't turn to god or anyone else for guidance in the matter. | 8 | [
{
"body": "In this day of reality TV, being an annoying asshole would seem to have a monetary benefit (see Jersey Shore).\n\n(just throwing that out there, I actually agree).\n\n",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Dear Reddit: I am moving into a tree house in the rainforest. How should I refrigerate my food? | I am almost done building a tree house in the rainforest. Rain catchment and spring water provides the water for plumbing and showers. Solar power for the Mac Book. But how do I power the fridge? Are there alternative forms of refrigeration?
Update: I found a high-end RV fridge someone is selling, and it looks like a great fit. I'll be able to power it with minimal gas, and then switch to electric when the hydro is installed. | 6 | [
{
"body": "[Here you go](http://www.communicationagents.com/chris/2004/04/14/cool_fridge_without_using_electricity.htm). It's the same principal people have used for thousands of years. [Here is how you can cook things.](http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_box_cookers)",
"score": 6
}
]
|
Congratulations to our new mod: rightc0ast | And thanks to our longstanding mod SamSLembas for continuing to do a great job and proving it again by listening to our community and providing us with a new mod the caliber of rightc0ast .
Three cheers!!! | 9 | [
{
"body": "Thanks another\\_account\\_5.\n\nI'm really only .30, but I'm accurate! ^_^\n\nAnyway, I got a PM from SamsLembas asking me if I wanted to be the second moderator here. It's more to just keep up on the posts blocked by auto filters, or to show flagged comments. It's to increase the potential visibility of posts and submissions by all of us, if anything.\n\nI'm of the opinion that for the most part, this place can almost wholly police itself. It's a good a time as any to repeat the point I made with a submission a couple weeks ago.\n\nThis is still a relatively small community compared to reddit's large communities. Going to http://reddit.com/r/libertarian/new and voting there gives the reader a fair degree of influence. With a few quick downvotes of political party BS, a couple of upvotes for some theoretical discussion and thought provoking submissions ... the main pages of /r/libertarian, and our own respective front pages will be mostly crap-free. ",
"score": 6
}
]
|
Can anyone recommend a good site to buy Xing Yang Mao Jain? | I've been looking to get some good xing yang mao jian tea, but have been having horrible luck finding any decent place to buy some ;( Does anyone have any suggestions? | 3 | [
{
"body": "Google suggests [this site](http://www.teaspring.com/Xin-Yang-Mao-Jian.asp) but you may have already tried it.\n\nAlso, I don't know if they have exactly what you're looking for but the guy I get my tea from has a [website](http://www.jteainternational.com/tea_shop.htm) if you're looking for something new. He gets everything from Taiwan, and it's all really amazing.\n\nSorry if that didn't help.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
So, everyone will be forced to buy health insurance EXCEPT those whose religion forbids it. Did we just get screwed with our pants on - again? | WTF?
Please don't argue the merits of the health care bill. I personally find the idea of a mandatory purchase of anything repugnant, but that is neither here nor there. What I'm pissed about here is the fact that atheists are excluded from the possible 'out'. I feel like I've been denied something. It may be something I don't want, but since the government is involved it makes me feel like a second class citizen.
| 68 | [
{
"body": "I agree with you completely on this, and just to clear up any misconceptions, I'm going to copy-paste something I typed in a thread about this issue yesterday. I also am not looking to debate the merits or failings of the bill, but I want people to understand what it is:\n\n\"This is not a universal health care bill. It is a mandate for every person to purchase insurance which they may not be able to afford, not to mention that it will be the first time the government has ever mandated that every citizen purchase a good from a private company.\"\n\nHopefully, this can head off discussions about the merits and demerits of a universal system of health care. That's not what's at issue here. Also, I do think that it's discriminatory that religious people can \"opt out\" but secular conscientious objectors can't. Maybe if we call ourselves Pastafarians we'll be allowed not to pay. ;)",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "Remember, the prophet says: \"FSM outlaws mandatory health insurance unless you really want it after all.\" ",
"score": 10
},
{
"body": "If people have personal convictions then they should paid the penalty clause for not purchasing insurance. They can gripe and protest and vote, of course, but they shouldn't be exempted.",
"score": 7
},
{
"body": "Or you can have insurance pay for [this](http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/03/nation/na-health-religion3).\n\nI haven't heard if these provisions are still in there, but I'm betting so. These folks can hire really good lobbyists.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Can someone point out where in the legislation this exemption is located?\n\nEDIT: Found it: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20090806.html",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I figured the health bill just extended medicare to cover all citizens. I really didn't think it was just forcing people to get health insurance? If that is indeed the case, it absolutely does not mitigate any of the problems with our current health care situation.\n\n",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Is there a travel map that shows flight prices going from one destination to all possibilities? | Like [this](http://www.stayaspensnowmass.com/files/images/deltaFlightMap.gif).
I'd like to select one airport and have it show me the different possibilites, or to select two airports, and show me the different and cheapest ways to get there. I am trying to meet up with someone far away and would like to find a middle ground between the two of us where it wouldn't be too expensive to fly to for either of us. | 24 | [
{
"body": "Bing Travel is one of the best travel sites around for stuff like this. If you try their \"Explore multiple routes at once\" option. \r\n\r\nSelect your departure city from the pull down menu, but don't put in a destination city and click \"go\". You'll get a map with the cheapest fares from your departure city to a number of different destinations. It's one of the only places I've seen where you can do that. ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "How about one that shows you all flights from a single origin to any destination, with prices charted over time? http://www.skyscanner.com",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "[Skyscanner](http://www.skyscanner.com/)\n\nSelect your airport of departure and then select the country/ where you want to go - it shows all airports where there are direct flights... don't remember if it shows all airlines or not... ",
"score": 3
}
]
|
[FIXED] Know how the mail and toolbar icons are screwed up in Safari and Preview under Snow Leopard? It's because they apply the color profiles included in the header (which are corrupt). Here They are with proper ones. Please use them, reddit! | Example: http://metacollin.com/screens/a36370689ca8e51d53e55efa22dc54aa.png
Here are fixed ones you can use: http://metacollin.com/reddit/
I tried to post this in the bug trac, but didn't have the necessary permissions (for whatever reason). It should be noted that other browsers don't apply these profiles, hence only Safari is effected.
**EDIT: Chrome is effected as well, but here is a temporary (albeit inelegant) fix.**
First, download the latest build of Chromium (the development version of Chrome) from [here (pick the newest one).](http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/chromium-rel-mac/)
Then go [here](http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/66618) and hit the install button. The pngs for the mail AND the toolbar should be fixed.
**I based this off of [haldean's](http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/ajku9/hey_chromium_for_mac_users_i_fixed_your_orangered/) greasemonkey script. Credit should go to him for this fix.**
Sorry, no Safari fix as of yet. | 141 | [
{
"body": "Can someone please explain to me how a problem with a color profile can cause a monochromatic line drawing to get kerfliggered? How can a corrupt color profile could do anything other than make the lines the wrong color?",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "You know something *really* annoying about web development? A few browsers apply PNG metadata to transform the images. Unless you know about this, it's a *severe* pain in the ass. IE applies brightness metadata. Safari applies color profiles. Both lead to a somewhat nonstandard color representation.\n\nIt's incredibly annoying to deal with.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Now the empty plain envelope looks botched to me.. Havent noticed that before.. Always been that way? Maybe I overlooked it or never paid attention. Im on Safari BTW.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
My hair is naturally curly. Washing it makes it go into an unworkable state. Leaving it unwashed for days makes it usable. Help? | So here's the thing: I have black, lucious Italian hair. As stated, my hair is naturally curly, especially at longer lengths. A few months back I got it thinned for the first time in my life to help control it more, which does help but only on certain occasions...
The problem lies here: after I'm done showering and using my hair products(Pantene Pro-V shampoo and condioner for curls, seperately), my hair frizzes up into a "jewfro" state. It feels silky and great but it for the most part remains unmovable.
If I wait a day or two after a shower, my hair becomes more responsive. Sometimes I can just wake up and my hair would be more malleable. Problem is, I have a bit of a dandruff problem, and not only that but if I need to take a shower to wash my body, my hair will likely get wet as well(although a shower cap could easily remedy this).
Could anyone provide some insight on this? | 16 | [
{
"body": "Alright. I am the queen of the super curls and have it mastered ::\n\n- Shampoo your hair if you want to or need to; otherwise, apply conditioner and use your fingers to untangle your hair. Use a wide-tooth comb if you can't get your fingers through your hair, starting at the bottom and working up.\n\n- Now that you are all conditioned up, take the rest of your shower (soap, shave, etc) and maximize the time spent with conditioner. I use Tres Emme (sp?) curl conditioner and Johnson's Baby Shampoo (I like the smell).\n\n- If your hair is long, lean your head forward and make a unicorn (or narwhal) horn, that is, a single big curl, while rinsing gently. This step encourages the curls to get into shape. Leave some conditioner in your hair.\n\n- Keeping the big curl (you can make a little bun or something on top of your head, get out of the shower. Wrap one towel turban style around your horn (un-bun it at this point) and another around your body. Do you body things (lotion, clothes) and keep the turban soaking up the water from your hair. Don't towel dry it hard or you'll ruin the curl shape.\n\n- I like to use some cream, or gel, or mousse. LA Looks has an amazing Curl Gel (light blue) for about three dollars that's bomber good. Place a bit in your palms (depending on length of hair) and work it through (avoid running your fingers through your hair or fucking up the big curls that will form from undoing the unicorn horn).\n\n- Lastly, add a bit more gel to your hands and twist some curls around your fingers for maximum perfection. Sometime I go crazy and finger curl my whole head. It looks kinda funny for a while, but after it dries, you can shake them loose for more natural curls. Also, you can hair spray it after you curl it for added perfection.\n\n- I used to have waist length super curly dark hair (lots of it, volume-wise, but the single hairs are fine and soft) Now my hair is shorter and I still do pretty much what I described above (except for the unicorn horn).\n\n[sorry for the weird pic](http://imgur.com/gmVXB.jpg)\n\nAlso, I allow my hair to air dry, which significantly reduces frizz; however, it can take upwards to three hours for it to dry completely (less time if I have less products in my hair).\n",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "What's happening is your scalp is producing natural oils that act like a hair gel would. For the longest time I wouldn't wash my hair because it looked so much less lame unwashed. It would be textured and malleable (but eventually get too oily and i'd get dandruff). \n\nNow i wash my hair daily so it's clean and use a gel to give it the unpoofyness. I use garne fructis gel... it comes in a plastic box (not tube) and it's pretty cheap",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I don't know what kind of dandruff you have, but that combined with the frizz makes me think you are washing your hair too much. It sounds like you are drying out your hair and scalp. I would recommend getting a shower cap and only washing your hair a couple of times a week, or whenever it starts to get funky. I had a similar problem with my scalp and hair. Right now I only shampoo my hair 2-3 times a week. If it starts to get smelly, or I feel a bit too gross I will condition it in between. My scalp has drastically improved in the last month and it is much easier to style hair with a day or two of grease (don't ask me why). Also, all of that soap down the drain can't be good for the environment.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Old black and white pictures in 3D | These stereograms were taken in pre-WWII Poland, except for the one in Palestine.
EDIT: Sorry, I didn't realize that when you add text, the link is lost and it becomes a self post. Here is the link:
http://wyborcza.pl/duzy_kadr/1,97904,7457898,Stare__trojwymiarowe_zdjecia.html | 3 | [
{
"body": "Incredible. The one with the old lady is just amazing. I wouldn't have thought an old woman could do that with her mouth, especially back then. ",
"score": 3
}
]
|
What are your top 5 games ever made, and do you consider video games art? | I'm one of those people that constantly makes top 5 lists in my head of everything I can think of. I like to share them and also I love seeing what other people's are.
Here's mine:
1. Metal Gear Solid 3
2. Shadow of the Colossus
3. Half-Life 2
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
5. Super Mario Bros. 3
It's hard to pick a top 5, because there are so many different ways your can make the list. I feel like I've probably played a few better games besides some of these, but these are the games left the biggest impression on me. The ones that I get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking about.
The Legend of Zelda series and Mario are especially close to my heart, because I have so many good memories of playing them with my mom and brother while growing up. Shadow of the Colossus, Half-Life 2, and Metal Gear Solid are the games that made me realize that video games can be a legitimate form of art. I'm in the middle of playing Ico right now, and the way this game is going so far, I could see it taking a spot on that list once I finish it.
Also worthy of mention:
SOCOM II: US Navy Seals
Lemmings
The Legend of Zelda series
Most of the Mario games
Metal Gear Solid series
Half-Life
Call of Duty (first one)
Civilization
Will probably add more.
To anyone who doesn't consider video games art, I would direct you to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (I can't fucking wait till The Last Guardian comes out). A lot of people say that video games haven't developed their own style of story telling, but I would say games like Half-Life 2 and BioShock have nearly perfected a very unique method. | 20 | [
{
"body": "okami\n\nff6\n\nmgs2\n\nsystem shock 2\n\nshadow of the colossus\n\nhell yes i consider video games art. i think video games can have the most varied types of story telling of any media. in fact, take a game like [flower](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUC2tpY5gb4). what other type of media can reproduce the experience of playing it?",
"score": 9
},
{
"body": "I'd probably say\n\ndeus ex,\n\nthe secret of monkey island,\n\ncivilisation 2/4,\n\nplanescape torment,\n\nLittle Big Adventure 2\n\nThese games have entertained me easily as much as any of my favourite books, films, albums or pieces of art\n\nedit: format",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "I would like to attempt to put this whole \"Are videogames art?\" debate to rest (at least one Reddit).\n\nIn order to discover whether videogames are art, one first has to define art. This is a bit difficult because the term is so nebulous. As I see it, there are two principal definitions, the first objective, the second subjective. However, there are many people with their own definitions for the term such that an object need satisfy a wide range of largely arbitrary criteria for them to consider it art; these definitions are often so complex that they could scarcely fit in twenty pages and the people who harbour them probably aren't even consciously aware of how convoluted (and often internally inconsistent) their definitions are. In order to have this debate, we need a common foundation, so let's just accept my definitions for the time being. If you see them as being excessively generalized or flawed in some other regard you can attempt to amend them:\n\n1. Any object or complement of objects taken as a gestalt wrought by a sentient being with a sense of aesthetics whose purpose be not purely pragmatic, having being designed to appeal to one's own and/or others' sense of aesthetics and beauty - to induce in oneself and/or others positive (or even negative?) feelings / emotional sensations.\n\n2. Any object or complement of objects wrought by a sentient being that appeals to the sense of aesthetics of a person. According to this subjective definition, an object is only art to those such as find the object or objects beautiful and not to those who do not.\n\nAccording to the first definition, I would say most videogames are indeed art.\n\nIf you accept the second definition as the valid one, the question in the first place is somewhat moronic: Videogames aren't homogeneous and neither are peoples' senses of aesthetics and neither is any given person's sense of aesthetics likely to be homogeneous over time. The question needs to be asked on a game by game basis (or even level by level basis, or portion of a level by portion of a level basis, etc...) and on a person by person basis. Even that doesn't going far enough; one may find beauty in something one day and then ugliness in that same thing the next day - or even next hour, minute, or second - due to high affective lability, reactivity, or inconsistency.\n\nI wonder where in the answer to such a question utility even lies in the first place. Why do we need to classify games as either being art or not being art? I don't even find it to be an interesting question. (However I do find it annoying that the question so frequently comes up and that people make such half-assed efforts to bring the debate to a satisfying conclusion. Hence, this comment.)\n\nI suppose the reason why those who defend the notion of games as art do so is that by convincing others that games are art, it lends gaming a sort of dignity or prestige, and by association, those who play them the same; few welcome being regarded as churls or philistines and so this desire coupled with the unwillingness to forsake their beloved videogames produces the incentive to defend the notion. By the same token, those who reject the notion of games as art do so perhaps because they hold gamers in low regard, thinking them immature or uncultured, and so try to distance themselves and their world of artistic endeavour and appreciation from gamers lest gamers drag them down / diminish their social currency.\n\nThis is why, IMO, there is any interest in the question. If it weren't for peoples' desire to maintain and increase social standing, then wouldn't even care about the question, or so I posit.\n\nNow, on the topic of what seven (I can't list just five; don't make me) games of those that I have played created the strongest [positive] emotional impact upon me:\n\nShadow of the Colossus\n\nMajora's Mask\n\nOcarina of Time\n\nOkami\n\nFinal Fantasy IX (Really, it's tied with a number of other FF's; I chose to list IX because it was the first to come to mind.)\n\nChrono Cross/Trigger (I really did like them both equally well, strange as that may seem.)\n",
"score": 6
},
{
"body": "1. Knights of the Old Republic\n\n2. Final Fantasy VII\n\n3. Gothic II (don't judge me!)\n\n4. Oblivion\n\n5. Dragon Age\n\nAnd yes I consider them art.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "1. Shadow of the Colossus / Ico\r\n2. Psychonauts\r\n3. Knights of the old Republic\r\n4. Metal Gear Solid 2/3\r\n5. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time\r\n\r\nI wouldn't generally consider them as art, they haven't found a real voice yet. But i think games as Ico certainly are a big step in that direction. ",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "1. fallout 2 \n2. ultima 7 pt1 & 2\n3. cod 4/mw2\n4. x-com: ufo\n5. mass effect\n \nnot a definitive list, but the most memorable that spring to mind. \n \ni wouldn't consider any of these games to be art, they dont sacrifice anything in the sake of greater artistic vision or push boundaries in terms of art direction or by challenging societal preconceptions but as entertainment they are top notch. I'm yet to play a game that doesn't come across as glib and somewhat fickle in its reflection of society even if the art direction has been a step forward.\n\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Final Fantasy X\n\nFinal Fantasy Tactics\n\nSuper Metroid\n\nVagrant Story\n\ntied for 5th: FF6, Tony Hawk 4, Demon's Souls, Mario Galaxy, Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Ocarina of Time (I struggle to put this on here, because I've only ever beaten it once (although I've started replaying it many times), but I do treasure the game so much).\n\nAs for whether I consider them art, yes, absolutely. Everything on that list save Tony Hawk 4 is just artistic gold, especially Vagrant Story and Demon's Souls. But if I had to pick the most artistic games, my choices would be much different, and much more modern: I'd add in Bayonetta, Muramasa: Demon Blade for sure.",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "GTA: San Andreas\n\nShadow of the Colossus\n\nSuper Mario Bros. 3\n\nFallout 2\n\n...can't come up with a last one, too many are tied and my head will explode if I have to choose just one. Morrowind, Final Fantasy Tactics, Saints Row 2, Space Quest 4, Rez, Solar Jetman, Deus Ex... man just writing these titles I'm having a rush of nostalgia. Thanks for that :-)",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "This is a really hard question, haha. I think I'm going to cheat slightly and split it into my top 5 gameplay and top 5 story/experience/atmosphere games. Even then, I'm still going to cheat some more and include whole series of games as entries, haha.\r\n\r\nGameplay:\r\n\r\n* Tetris: The Grand Master series\r\n* Battle Garegga\r\n* Street Fighter II (Hyper Fighting or Super Turbo) and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (I'm a horrible cheater, but I couldn't pick.)\r\n* StarCraft\r\n* QuakeWorld and Quake III\r\n\r\nExperience:\r\n\r\n* Mother/Earthbound series\r\n* Cave Story\r\n* Another World/Out of this World and Heart of Darkness (Haha, cheating again and putting two different Eric Chahi games, sorry.)\r\n* Secret of Monkey Island series\r\n* Yume Nikki and Knytt (Unrelated games, but I think both did a great job of creating a world with amazing atmosphere and just letting you search and explore it.)\r\n\r\nI'd say any game can merit being called art, not just ones that are trying to tell a story or immerse you in their world. Games are creative works, no matter what way you slice it. Those that focus on delivering refined, well-designed, well-composed gameplay are no less deserving of being recognized as the masterpieces they are than those that tell a wonderful story.\r\n\r\nI think sometimes games that have brilliantly designed gameplay don't ever get the recognition they deserve. Instead, they get relegated to niche audiences and never see a whole lot of popularity. It doesn't help that it can be difficult to relate to another person _why_ those games are so amazing. For example, I've noticed a lot of people have a hard time understanding how Tetris: The Grand Master is anything more than \"just Tetris.\" I try and try to distill it down to the essential things to understand about it, but I think the only thing that really comes across is \"it is faster.\" I think sometimes one just has to play it for a little bit to begin developing an appreciation for its perfection, but most people don't seem to put in even that much effort.\r\n\r\nPS: So, I think I technically mentioned over 25 games here -- rough count -- if you count all the entries in each series. I still feel bad about leaving out certain games, and I jammed as many as I could into each slot. I'm awful at picking favorites.\r\n\r\nAlso, I felt bad making the \"for gameplay\" list as I don't feel I've even come close to scratching the surface on the games in four of the five entires in the list, haha. I only feel like I've \"mastered\" one of them, and I sometimes question even that. Despite this, I feel like I've played and seen enough of them to include them in my list. One day I'll be halfway decent at them, haha.",
"score": 3
}
]
|
Are you going to actually DO anything today? | Just spent hours reading articles, watching interviews and learning all kinds of fascinating things on reddit...fiancee just walked in and asked me if I was going to actually *do* anything today. | 16 | [
{
"body": "You should of said \"you\" then ripped her clothes off and had hours of passionate sex. Then see the new submissions on reddit. ",
"score": 29
},
{
"body": "I bottled 58 beers that I brewed, and I will proly start another batch later, while drinking with some friends.",
"score": 4
}
]
|
VVVVVV is a really refreshing and wonderful game. The demo doesn't do it justice either. | This game was already submitted to /r/gaming before (it's how I first heard about it) But [VVVVVV](http://thelettervsixtim.es/) is just fantastic. The demo is but a small taste. It has a nice huge overworld that's very Metroidvania-ish, and the levels become more and more clever as you progress. I really can't recommend it enough. It's one of the best games I've played in a long time, indie or not.
I have nothing to do with the developer at all, just a satisfied customer that thinks this game deserves more appreciation. | 21 | [
{
"body": "I wish it wasn't $15. Call me cheap, but considering how fast game prices drop these days, $15 buys a retail game that's 1-2 years old, or 3-4 games on GoG.",
"score": 12
}
]
|
I just installed KDE in Ubuntu - HOLY HELL! When did it get this nice looking?! | I think this is better looking than GNOME, when did this change? Damn, I'll have to run for a bit I I've got to say, based on what I'm seeing I'm impressed.
EDIT: I wasn't trying to start an FSCK'en holy war, I was simply impressed with the progress of KDE in the last few years. | 152 | [
{
"body": "I just recently switched to kde (previously being a long time gnome user) and I'm rather liking it. [Here](http://www.flickr.com/photos/aperson/4266973950/) are some [screenshots](http://www.flickr.com/photos/aperson/4266974058/in/photostream/) of what my desktop currently looks like.",
"score": 24
},
{
"body": "I wonder if the day will come when I will say the say the same thing about GNOME.\nI have tried it from time to time over the past years and I would always switch back to KDE. \nKDE is just prettier, more customizable and more flexible than GNOME.\nWhat I have seen from GNOME 3 really does not impress me.\nWhy would anyone want 1/4 of his screen space taken away by some menu just to switch from one window to another?\nThat does not look convenient.",
"score": 16
},
{
"body": "ubuntu is nice if you want to use gnome, but if you want to use KDE then go for openSUSE, it has the nicest KDE implementation IMO.\n\nscreenshots here http://en.opensuse.org/Screenshots/11.2",
"score": 13
},
{
"body": "Is there a way to keep the two desktops separate? Last time I installed KDE on Gnome, it flooded Gnome's menus with KDE apps, and vice-versa.",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "I think it looks ok.\n\nOf course, the more eye-candy, the slower the rig. \n\nUnless you've got 2 gigs of ram. \n\n[here's mine](http://i.imgur.com/T6b8u.png) - 'buntu 9.10 (gnome)+[Screenlets](http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Home)+[Shiki-colors](http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Shiki-Colors?content=86717) = good enough for me.",
"score": 11
},
{
"body": "I just revisited it last week. Have been using kubuntu karmic ever since. I am actually happy with it. In spite of the fact that it's treated like the red headed step child by canonical. \nHave you tried digikam for photo management yet? I really like it. Amarok takes a little tweakin but is good. ",
"score": 8
},
{
"body": "No matter how nice it looks, it will always feel like a toy to me. It just seems much less responsive than Gnome, and I have a pretty high-end machine.",
"score": 5
},
{
"body": "Yes, I've switched to Kubuntu. It's now ready for the big time. I've been using it for two months with no problems. The composting is much smoother than in Ubuntu.",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "Huh? Nice looking? I don't really understand what you are talking about.\n\n**TL;TR**\n\n1) KDE has horrible design: If you take gnome or OS-X default design you'll end up with something as usable as Reddit. If you take KDE or Windows default design, you'll end up with Digg.\n\n2) KDE has better toolchain, more features, easier to personalize.\n\n3) Gnome-shell is going to suck, so it seems KDE has the future. Perhaps we can make them fix their usabilty issues and horrible design?\n\n**The main advantages of KDE:**\n\n - Better toolchain: more code-reuse, qt deals with a lot more than just interface.\n\nUnlike with GTK or GNOME, the vast majority of KDE apps, and almost all default apps, just use C++ and qt libraries. The gnome api is so bad, most new programs are written in python / ruby / mono and use a lot of nice libraries that either encapsulate gnome api's or even extend them. This is why a gnome desktop tends to use more memory.\n\n - More features: in general KDE apps tend to be able to do more stuff. \n\nThese differences are becoming less and less, ever since GNOME moved to a simple app, _but_ with plugins mentality. But it's will take some more time for gnome to catch up. (although simple by default + extensions/plugins is a good approach for usability though)\n \n - More options to tweak\n\nAlthough this a bit overrated. Some options shouldn't be too easily accessible. Since they make it harder to support the application. But just removing them and making them impossible (the old gnome approach) is not a very good choice either. And gconf-editor might be a little too complex for some of these issues. I like the extension/plugin methodology for the more complicated options as well. But currently, this is too under-used and KDE is clearly superior in this area.\n\n**The main disadvantages of KDE:**\n\n - It's shiny. But it's like a christmas tree. The design is horrible and this really effect usability. \n\nI'm talking about contrast and color choices. I'm talking about inconsistent design elements that simply communicate nothing. This is a very polarizing issue, because some people seem to think it's a matter taste and personal preference. But it's not. Readability of text and usability of interfaces are something you can measure and which have had a lot of research done. The design choices of KDE affect productivity. No matter what you think to prefer, you'll be more productive if they've made different choices. \n\nBut I'll have a simple mind trick, to make you see it:\n\nImagine KDE's default desktop + text editor to be a website layout. Imagine the text in the text editor to be the article: the place that should get the focus. If you take gnome or OS-X default design you'll end up with something as usable as Reddit. If you take KDE or Windows default design, you'll end up with Digg.\n\n - KDE is less usable because of their horrible defaults and choices\n\nThis has gotten better with KDE4, but not nearly enough. And even GNOME isn't really a superstar in this area, even though they seem to think they are. But gnome at least has some clue about what they are doing in this area, KDE does not. \n\nAnd the funny thing is: it's easy to fix, we are talking about:\n\n1) which buttons to show by default on a toolbar_.\n\n2) moving features that are only used by 1% of the users and confuse the other 99% into extensions/plugins\n\n3) revisiting the phrases of options, menu labels and dialogs\n\n4) revisiting the order and default choices of dialogs.\n\nYou could literally fix this with a one week sprint. The issue in the KDE community is that design and user-interface aren't centrally managed issues. Application developers tend to not care too much about this and just see it as an after thought. They don't care, and they don't want to be bothered in general about this stuff, so just set up sane defaults for them to follow, and patch their work by a central team. \n\nAnother interesting example of them not considering usability at all is the desktop-widgets (plasma?) and normal-window distinction. Why on earth didn't those guys just add a button to a window border to 'stick' any normal window as an auto-launching desktop-widget? Which the current setup it isn't even technically possible. (which results in a lot of code duplication, with file browser written in both javascript for desktop-widgets and C++ for desktop applications for example)\n\n - there are less KDE apps, so you are more likely to run mixed environments\n\nThis is not KDE's fault at all. But it is a reality. And when you start to run mixed environments you loose almost all the advantages of a desktop environment in the first place. UI isn't consistent anymore, memory usage is no longer limited due to code-reuse, etc.\n\n**What we need:**\n\nWe need to convince the gnome-guys to drop GTK and switch to QT. And for the love of god, somebody kill that gnome-shell before it's too late. Because despite all my critism here of the usability of KDE, only gnome devs are able to come up with an interface, with high-new-user usability, yet kill productivity in the mean time. Here's are two general rules of thumb if any gnome-dev is listening. \n\n1) screen-space is expensive and personal. You are supposed to get OUT OF MY WAY. To make me not think about your existence at all.\n\n2) if I have to switch between mouse and the keyboard involuntarily, I'll get RSI and I can't be productive. \n\n3) Take a note of what people that personalize their desktop are actually CHOOSING. Gnome-do as laucher bar at the bottom, with nice zeitgeist plugins is what the user seems to want. Less screen-space, idiot proof interface, expert user can use keyboard to do whatever.\n\n",
"score": 4
},
{
"body": "I still think gnome is better in terms of usability, its just simpler to maneuver. But yeah kde looks great now",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "Trust me the deeper you get into it the better it gets. Try adding shortcuts, they are -all- controlled from one app versus gnome's beyond a mess of a mess. Compositing? Use kwin, it has the options you want and actually listens to you, unlike compiz-config-manager. The only reason I'm not on KDE right now is because of gnome-do, but even it's implementation is buggy like you would expect from gnome. Even still I know I want to switch back, just gotta wait for a time to jump to it :/",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I've been considering using KDE, but my computer with 512 MB of RAM doesn't even run GNOME too quickly. Will KDE make my computer lag even more?",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "I think KDE looks nice for sure, but I never really liked using it.\n\nI find gnome to be fairly clean and always felt KDE 4.x was just trying to be pretty. I also found during my experience that I liked the tools more with gnome then KDE and the tools/programs I used had native support for gnome and not KDE.\n\n",
"score": 3
},
{
"body": "You should try [Ion](http://www.modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/) or some other tiling window manager! :) But I suppose they're not for everyone...\n\n[scrot](http://imgur.com/od1fn.png)",
"score": 3
}
]
|
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