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but questions are welcome from any corner of the globe

Sorry, just to be clear on that point -- questions are welcome but will be interpreted as though they have come from Canada, and will be answered in a Canadian context. A question about Bollywood will be adapted and treated as though it was a question about shooting film in Vancouver or Toronto, etc.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:13 PM on October 18, 2018

Do you know anyone who owns a treadmill desk? I know a few people, and it seems like the walking/typing thing isn't too high a hurdle to cross.

Personally, I'd measure the treadmill bars and consider just using some plywood and 2x2 to make a platform for the computer that you can carry in with you. The plywood is the same depth as your laptop, and four pieces of 2x2 cut to the same length get screwed into the bottom, two on each side, with a gap to fit over the side… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 2:56 AM on August 8, 2018

Good grief! Thank you. WELL INTUITED MOM.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:56 PM on August 3, 2018

Thank you, everybody! I'll investigate many of the above (avoiding lead).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:53 AM on June 13, 2018

We have had a LeBistro for a decade and it is still going strong, but only does 3 servings a day and the minimum serving size might be too large for your needs. It was about $100 and was originally for 48-hour weekends away rather than strict portion control. Steadfast but may not meet your needs.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:22 PM on March 24, 2018

Just to clarify... not really looking for music, just people saying/shouting/speaking "wake up," etc. Thanks, though!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:21 PM on September 19, 2017

Thank you, everybody! My wife just started hosting a morning show on the local campus-community radio station (Indie Morning Wake-Up Call), and asked if I'd record a theme song for her. I have no musical talent, but I do have Reaper and loops!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:43 PM on September 21, 2017

These are all great, but no, puns/cuteness is not a requirement. Suggestions all appreciated thus far!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:45 AM on July 19, 2017

There's a credibility issue with anonymous messages coming through a proxy, but I'd absolutely CYA with a throwaway Gmail created via Tor or something. Maybe I'm overparanoid, but.

That said, what I'd consider is composing a letter to the press with as much detail as you can bear to put into it: specific dates, any key phrases or words you recall, the nature of the images; I would then send that letter to the party leadership,… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:45 AM on July 7, 2017

I started a daily, >3-minute podcast called Jerk in Progress on January 1 of this year, about staying sober and (trying to) eat right and exercise. I don't think it's any good, but my wife likes it. I will occasionally make a joke, but it's not a "comedy podcast."
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 9:43 AM on July 5, 2017

Our culture has arrived! I will be Instant Potting up some natto this weekend!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:27 AM on May 1, 2017

It turned out really well!

Pressure-cooked soybeans & natto culture, 20 hours in the Instant Pot on the yogurt setting. Turned out beautifully, froze some to make more down the line.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:15 PM on May 15, 2017

Just closing the loop on this -- thanks for all the great suggestions! What ultimately wound up happening is we got a sponsor who really wanted to be an upper-tier sponsor, but all those tiers were full, so they sprung to underwrite co-branded Google Cardboard for all our attendees.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:27 AM on May 1, 2017

My banjo teacher, who is in his seventies, recommends that you love the banjo you have, until you have the banjo you love.

I had a pretty brutal starter banjo, and until I actually played a nice one, didn't realize how brutal (hard on my fingers, weird action on the strings) it was. A few recommendations...

- if you're in the USD$500 range, you might want to check out the banjo-builders at banjohangout.org -- I bought a really nice handmade… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:44 PM on April 11, 2017

The quick and sad answer is "no."

My wife is American, I'm Canadian, and we thoroughly explored this when she moved up; without permanent residency or another form of immigration scheme that recognizes a right to work, she simply can't (legally). The one exception might be NAFTA-categorized labour, which we never really looked that deeply into, and which tends to be specialized trades work (which is why we never looked into it).

Work… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:23 PM on March 7, 2017

Thanks for all of these so far! Highly arbitrary best answers based entirely on personal resonance.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:19 AM on February 8, 2017

Hello! I am your husband. I bought the black bean flour with the idiotic idea that I could use it to make tortillas, so I could have black bean tortillas with black beans as filling, and just black bean black bean black bean. This was ill-advised and my first attempt was a disaster, so I promptly forgot all about it.

This does nothing to change the nature of your question, but I'm reading MetaFilter when I should be working and thought you might like to know that one is on me.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:00 PM on January 13, 2017 marked best answer

I am not much better versed in web design than you are, I suspect, but is there some way to introduce a simple captcha into the download process? That would thwart the vast majority of bots.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:43 PM on November 17, 2016

So what is left over when you make soy milk?

The leftover pulpy stuff is called okara, and we already use it for a bunch of foods (made some fun funky "fish" burgers last week), but more okara = more interesting stuff for us to do with it, too.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:47 AM on August 21, 2016

WWII, not Cold War, but if you have an opportunity to name your cat Das Boots and you don't, I weep for you.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:51 PM on May 18, 2016

Fantastic -- thanks, everybody! You can tune in Saturday at 8AM (ET) at cfrc.ca streaming -- or via the archives -- if you want to see how it turned out. Not everything will fit the show, but there are some great ideas here.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 3:18 AM on March 9, 2016

Dixit lacks text entirely and is based on images, and is fun for families.

Well, Dixit is entirely based on telling (short) stories about the images on the cards, so it might not be an intuitive fit for a multi-lingual setting; if the "clue" for your card is "jellybean passion," that might not scan with somebody that doesn't know what a jellybean is.

That being said, I also came in… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:54 PM on February 16, 2016 marked best answer

Thanks, all. Bonus question: any idea whether the included "cup" with the unit is a proper 250mL, or if it's like my Zojirushi rice maker, where a "cup" is actually about 190mL?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 7:01 AM on January 3, 2016

The manufacturer got back to me! Colour me shocked. When I asked if the "cup" was actually a cup, they told me they could answer any more questions about such an old machine. Anyway, since this is now the #1 result for searches for this model of soymilk maker, here's the manual, for posterity.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:45 PM on January 3, 2016

I do not have the cup.

I bought the machine at a thrift shop. I need to know if the cup shipped with the unit holds 250mL of soybeans (as the manual refers to measurements only in "cups", but also expressly says only to use the cup that ships with the unit), so I know how to measure a "cup" properly for use.

It may seem strange, but the "cups" that ship with Asian appliances often don't actually hold a standard… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 7:25 AM on January 4, 2016

And! Detective work (well, asking a bunch of people on Amazon about their different-but-similar soy milk machines) shows that the "cup" is in fact 125 mL. More grist for the FUTURE SOY MILL.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:42 PM on January 5, 2016

I've been stalked under similar circumstances (genders, timeline, methods), and actually wrote a short Web page explaining this at one point: I call it the Big Red Button.

The person in question may well be in a position where they can't correctly interpret any signals from you as anything other than "attention".

Your approach might be to think that a certain combination of words or expressions will convey what you want to convey, but… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:56 AM on November 19, 2015

Ever since I read this book, I've benefited from a greatly rewired brain in terms of understanding actual risk versus perceived risk, and can't agree enough with the above poster that says that driving around presents a much higher risk of something happening to you than terrorism ever will. If you have some time before your trip and want to read something that might help you feel better about these sorts of descriptions, it's a pretty good book.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:56 AM on November 19, 2015

Thanks, all. I didn't even think about nursery rhymes -- aught's post above was perfect and not too much information at all. Still happy to have any that meet that pattern suggested (sadly, neither the Lewis or the Wonder quite fit the syllable patterns).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:19 AM on November 5, 2015

One house ago, I decided to re-side it myself. I was in my late 20s and dumb as hell. I regret not saving up money for several years and having a professional do it.

What I don't regret is the material -- I used T11, which is a multi-ply plywood with a nice fir outer facing, grooved so it looks like long vertical 8" slats. I staggered it going up my two-story house, so there was an initial direct-to-wall layer on the bottom, 1x3 studs and a… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:50 AM on November 5, 2015

Thanks for the encouragement and details -- it's working well so far, and I'm excited about the possibilities here, even without ever investing in the paid stuff (other than the iOS apps). I've got the home network down, and Internet streaming will be the next major hurdle.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 9:28 AM on July 30, 2015

Another follow-up to say that I am just thrilled to death with this -- listening to my home music at the office right now, and it's been running since July 30 without fail. Making it work at home involved Plex, Samba* (to share the drive on my home Windows network for ease of media transfer) and the external HDD, and that's about it.



*which is great for small file transfer (like music) to the server over wifi, but video needs to either be… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:38 AM on August 20, 2015

Another small addendum for anyone reading this and considering the same: setting up SSH and limiting it to a single user/pass was pretty easy on the Ubuntu box, and PUTTY on Windows now means I don't have to lug a keyboard and mouse around and unplug and plug in monitors to apt-get updates and upgrades, and update the Plex client manually, when it needs doing. It's well worth the effort.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:40 AM on September 23, 2015

Kitteh covers a lot of stuff we do above but my absolute #1 rule is to try to be mindful of, and announce, when I am hangry. Which seems minor but seriously, when we're out and about and I am hungry I get super pissy, and I think 99% of the shitty stuff I do is a result of low blood sugar and poor filtering. Being self-aware of when I am hangry, being clear that I am hangry, and trying my best to get some damn food in me is my top tip for myself.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:35 AM on August 31, 2015

Monster Loves You! is a kids' game but I have enjoyed it immensely. Very shallow without a ton of replay value, but great on Steam if you can get it for super cheap.

I relax with Banished, which is a pretty chill build-a-town-for-your-people game, but it does have a bit of a learning curve and your townsfolk do die of old age (or from accidents) from time to time, and you can potentially really mess things up in terms of food and firewood. On the other hand, there are… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:05 PM on August 27, 2015

Thanks for the suggestions so far. However, just for clarity, the model I'm seeking is not a "we're considering playing a board game at such and such a time, what time works for all of you?" situation.

The model is "we are playing these boardgames at these times, so check out this calendar and sign up on nights where there are open seats if you want to join us."

My experiences with… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 3:20 PM on August 3, 2015

Keepass has already been mentioned above, but it's worth also noting that Keepass supports both a strong password and a key file, and if you don't have both the password and key file, you can't access the database.

I keep some passwords (nothing critical like banking, but login stuff for various Internet forums, etc.) in an online Keepass database, on a cloud drive service, but I also keep the key file on the hard drive of my work computer and home computer. This way,… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:29 PM on July 6, 2015

In the broadest sense, if somebody is passionate and adaptable, it's never too late to start a career in anything, really. I'm in my forties and moving into politics seems entirely doable, especially if I was looking for something that was a way to make a modest income at a municipal or regional level.

That being said, being motivated to get into politics as a way of "starting over" doesn't really sound like a great reason to get into politics.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:45 PM on March 12, 2015

Thanks to all for the answers and the reality check; special bonus thanks to Kabanos for pointing me at those resources.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:06 PM on January 15, 2015

Whitehouse
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:58 PM on November 24, 2014

It's not the new hotness any more, but I stand by Agricola as an awesome game that skirts the edges of your time limit. I'd third or fourth Kingdom Builder, too. While it's technically "war" in a sense, King of Tokyo is loaded with fun, but its successor King of New York is due out any day now, so you might want to wait on that.

Bohnanza! is awesome and fun and it's about competitive bean farming. Bonus: pretty cheap.

If just… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:25 AM on November 6, 2014

Adding to some of the excellent advice above, if you're in a position to do so, try bracketing a 15- to 30-minute break around lunchtime to sit quietly and listen to music (or just sit quietly and do nothing at all). I'm lucky enough to have an office with a door, so I can shut the door, put headphones on my iPhone, set a 30-minute timer and listen to music with my eyes closed for 30 minutes. Sometimes I snooze a bit, sometimes I just listen. I don't pressure myself to nap; I try to focus on the… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:18 AM on November 6, 2014

No intent to threadsit, but just for clarity, the terms "brand" and "branding" were in the job description, and used multiple times by the hiring committee (including the Dean and Associate Dean). It may be less of a stressor than common sense would dictate (but who knows?)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 9:26 AM on June 16, 2014

Michael Ondaatje is better known for his novels, but I prefer him as a poet. The Cinnamon Peeler is a great book of poetry.

If any of the bridesmaids has a keen sense of humour or taste for the bizarre, I have never laughed harder than I have at the Second Charnel House Anthology of Bad Poetry.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:19 AM on June 13, 2014

Hereafter? (you were possibly thwarted by this being a "psychic" movie and not a "disaster" movie).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:11 AM on June 13, 2014

Biscuit.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:38 AM on April 29, 2014

...and searching around in the interim, it occurs to me that maybe I should just switch to voip.ms, which seems to offer lower prices and better support.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:32 AM on April 26, 2014

Hi empath,

Unfortunately not -- I've already forwarded the ports.

I'm forwarding them to the IP address of the PAP2T phone adapter, as the DIR-825 won't allow me to open ports without a URL -- the screenshots you linked don't seem to work without a URL in the Computer area, despite there being no URL in those screenshots.


akk2014, the old router doesn't work at all -- powers down at random intervals -- so while that's a neat idea, I don't think it'll work out.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:36 AM on April 26, 2014

Thanks, fladbablet. I've tried various flavours of options on the Firewall page, but there's no clear way to "deactivate" anything. I've turned SPI and anti-spoof checking off, set both TCP and UDP to "Endpoint Independent," which seems to be the least restrictive option.

The ALGs at the bottom seem to enable, not disable, stuff. I deactivated the SIP one just to see, and lost the line I had on the VoIP, so that's actually a step backwards.… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 9:29 AM on April 26, 2014

(sigh)

Firmware update solved it. Should have been my first port of call, but I got stuck in problem-solving mode and didn't even think about the damned firmware. Thanks for all the help.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:29 AM on April 26, 2014 marked best answer