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I must re-recommend Starbound; it's like Terraria, but in infinite space, with tons of worlds to explore, weeeeiiiird stuff to discover and (at the moment) a relatively robust progression/discovery experience, even though it's still officially in beta.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:13 PM on March 18, 2014

I'm going to head into Emerg, I guess... dragging my feet because where I live, at least, there's a six- to eight-hour wait to see a doc if you aren't literally bleeding all over the place. Maybe I'll get lucky, but English people in French towns who aren't in a state of obvious physical distress (as is, there is a knife visibly sticking out of you or some sort of limb at an obviously wrong angle) usually get to watch the queue cycle three or four times before you get called in. I'll bring… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 9:59 AM on March 6, 2014

There now; unfortunately the admitting nurse confidently declared that it has nothing to do with my lithotripsy so I assume the urologist will not be contacted.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:51 PM on March 6, 2014

13+ straight hours in emergency and still no doctor. This is why "you should go to Emergency!" type solutions really aren't super great for Quebec.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:35 PM on March 6, 2014

The first time you're walking down the hall to pee at 1 a.m. and you step on something and it goes squelch and you turn on the light and realize that your cat has killed, brought home, semi-disembowelled and left a thing that was once a mammal on the carpet and you aren't sure what kind of mammal it was and now its liver is stuck between your big and second-largest toe and NO AMOUNT OF SHAKING WILL GET IT… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:18 AM on February 17, 2014

Technically not a novel or a movie -- a graphic novel -- but Essex County is amazing.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:36 AM on February 10, 2014

If you can accept him going, and want a glass-half-full perspective on that:

Depending on what your SO does/wants to do, several weeks of heel-cooling whilst helping his mother would leave lots of time to invest in things that could help with a job hunt, even if he's not actually putting feet to pavement in your city: dusting off and revising a CV, writing cover letters, upgrading some skills online, brushing up on recent developments in his field, or even starting some… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:44 AM on January 6, 2014 marked best answer

If you know how to make seitan, and know how to make dough, you can make a killer "roast" by making the seitan, wrapping it in phyllo, and baking that. Very similar to Field Roast, but home-made! Since seitan is so easy to season and adjust to your preferences, you can get something that really captures seasonal flavours, and since it's so "carveable," I like it much more than sitting down with a bowl of something... even a very hearty something.

My… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:11 PM on December 18, 2013

Not to threadsit, but just to address that prospective line of thought: I'm not sure if allergies can have random incidence, but I eat peanuts and other peanut-including foods very consistently. The peanut butter thing is more about the consistency, and that along with the hummus... semi-solid, goopy, I try to swallow a large gob and the above happens.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:46 AM on November 17, 2013

DirtyOldTown, what did you do about the index.php files? I just tried your method to restore an old site, and kind of borked the whole thing in the process.

My host just added Ghost to the preinstall options that come with the site -- any experience here?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 9:59 AM on November 10, 2013

Good feedback, and thanks, brianvan and artlung and scooterdog.

I guess one of my concerns is that every plugin and theme is itself an infection vector/security hole, as I understand it in my limited way, so using third-party plugins to increase security seems to both open up more exploit opportunities even as it makes things more secure. In other words, if these plugins increase security, why aren't they integrated into the WP core?

Via a… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:14 AM on November 11, 2013

Oddly, it was while watching a Prezi that I thought about the misgivings I was having about doing a parallax site, and thought that if I could pull off something that works like a Pezi but is non-linear, that would be awesome.

I dabble in so many areas that non-linear navigation is a must, though.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 3:34 PM on October 3, 2013

I have to confess I'm very taken with the Leaflet/turn it into a map idea, but I'm finding the whole idea super daunting. It's probably too late to alter the direction of the question, but I may be asking another next week about resources on Online Maps 101. The Leaflet documentation and tutorials assume a vast amount of existing knowledge of how to create/find, upload, and use maps.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:26 AM on October 4, 2013

Your problem is that you are bringing a knife to a saw fight.

My dad, who is awesome, made a squash-cutting tool for my mom by taking a hacksaw blade and screwing two pieces of wood to either side of the already-existing holes on it to make a handle. This thing can cut through a squash in about 15 seconds. He's also made one for me.

But you can skip the handyman stuff and just buy a small saw. The fact that it's technically… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 7:57 AM on September 13, 2013

On the mic front, you can get pretty good quality out of USB mics these days. Professionals will poo-pooh you, but I'm actually getting good work out of a Blue Yeti right now. There are certainly less expensive but still pretty good options.

A computer. Doesn't have to be super current or expensive.

Software. You can get by with Audacity, which is free, and has probably a six- to eight-hour learning curve to get what you need out of it.… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:57 AM on September 6, 2013

I'm struggling to come up with an appropriate brand name, and I'd particularly fancy something that's a short chemistry- or dermatology-related pun. I also like the idea of a Latin word or phrase. I've gotten to the stage of overthinking where I've seriously considered calling it "Rub This Lotion On Its Skin", which is the point where I decided I might need outside help.

If you're looking for a fun/kicky/pomo sort of vibe, I'm immediately… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 7:32 AM on August 29, 2013

My wife and I are biiiiiiiiiiig fans of our Yaris. It's not as visually fun as a Soul (and if she'd had her way, we'd have bought a Cube!), but the mileage is great and it's a pretty decent drive.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:26 PM on August 2, 2013

I don't want to threadsit, but I don't feel like "gamification" is necessarily the answer here.

Gamification feels like a way to impose game-like rewards on undesirable or repetitive tasks; what I'd like to do is try to recognize some of these activities as desirable and interesting in and of themselves, not overlay a "game" structure onto them.

Building a Web site and making it look nice isn't very… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:55 AM on July 23, 2013

Saveur tried a number of bullying and deceitful tactics on us after we tried a "free issue" and decided not to subscribe, up to and including sending fake notices from a "collection agency," IIRC. We reported them to the Better Business Bureau, and I wound up leaving a few messages for their subscriptions manager at Condé Nast. Never got a call back, but the weird, abusive letters stopped.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:59 PM on July 19, 2013

You guys are the rockingest. We're going to analyze, discuss, and come up with a plan of attack, and follow up later.

If anyone in this thread is ever near Sherbrooke QC and wants a vegan* cupcake, we've got one with your name on it.

*which are like mad delicious! That's why they keep winning things like Cupcake Wars.†

†but I've tried other "vegan treats" at festivals before and holy God I… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:40 PM on June 25, 2013

"To Serve Man" in elegant script.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 3:39 PM on April 19, 2013

I'm going to see a GP tonight, actually -- I'll ask, and thanks.

If this is PF, can I walk on the foot without aggravating the condition? It's annoying, so far, but seemed to be gradually diminishing over time (until I went for a run this morning).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:04 AM on April 17, 2013

This has been going on for months, to be honest -- I just assumed it was a normal part of the healing process and I'd eventually "walk it off". I only asked about it today because going for a short run exacerbated it considerably.

I walk to work and back every day, about 80 minutes all told, in an old pair of construction boots. Again, I've been seeing what I think is a slow diminishment over time, but running today really dialled it back up to 11.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:02 PM on April 17, 2013

I saw this a couple of years ago and I think about it -- honestly, seriously -- almost every day.

It doesn't address all the causes of my anger, but somehow it even affects things it shouldn't. I still grapple with things like how mad I get at people that ride their bikes on the sidewalk, and there are a few pet peeves that make me a bit nuts, but somehow the way Louis C.K. nails this had a profound, perpetual effect on how much I… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:28 PM on April 12, 2013

The second Eleventh Doctor episode of Doctor Who starts in a 33th Century classroom, but doesn't stay there very long. Great visuals, though, with robotic instructors that look like versions of old fortune-telling booths.

The Twilight Zone's "Examination Day" is about dystopic future education.

The Jetsons had frequent scenes at the Little Dipper school (Leroy) and Orbit High School (Judy).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:03 PM on April 11, 2013

Nobody seems to have covered this yet, but for me it's knowledge that is both (a) secret, and, by virtue of (a), unrecoverable. Secrets that are not only inscrutable but for which we are also lacking some sort of link between Now and The Past When Things Were More Raw And Pure to uncover.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:56 PM on April 4, 2013

I am (pardon me for thread-sitting, but this may save people wasted time asking) waiting to talk to our office HR manager so she can follow up with the insurance company for me (or give me the go-ahead to do it myself).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:34 AM on February 12, 2013

Much delayed follow-up: my HR person at work contacted the insurance company, who eventually sent me a letter (in French) saying that their US insurance counterpart never got the bill from the US hospital, and that I need to send the original bill (which I never received) to this second insurance company (which I have never been in contact with).

So I strongly doubt they're going to be much help either.

In the meantime, this U.S. hospital keeps… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 3:24 PM on April 1, 2013

I'm not 100% sure I'm clear on how the Blogger/Dropbox_Adrive solution would work: as I understand it, each contributor would

1. Upload files to their shared folder on Dropbox/Adrive etc.
2. Copy the addresses of said files
3. Post on the private blog, with the post containing the URLs of the files

and then users would open the post, download the files, and listen to them?

If that's the path,… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:17 AM on March 28, 2013

Depending on where you're at and the seasonality of your area, you might want to look at wrapping a thermal pump into the quotes you're getting. I'm in Quebec, Canada and when my oil furnace died a few years ago, switched to a cheaper electric furnace + outdoor air-driven heat pump – it's still expensive to heat my house in the dead of winter, but in the six months a year of transition season it's been amazingly cheap to heat/cool the house.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 7:59 AM on March 28, 2013

Ultimate Answer.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:37 AM on March 5, 2013

This has been working well for me, on Windows, for calls that have lasted up to 45 minutes. Free. I'm an Audacity user, but haven't been able to make the trick krisb describes above work -- but that's probably more me than the software.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:22 AM on February 15, 2013

Why don't you contact the local school, talk to the instructors, and ask them what they think? They might be open to letting you participate and use your own ingredients. They may even be curious.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:07 AM on February 13, 2013

Thanks for the thoughts so far. I'm obviously barking up the wrong tree trying to find somebody that can do both.

But here's why I've been trying to do that, which might be helpful:

I know enough CSS/HTML to set up a basic home page.
I know enough Python/Django to get to the third page of the Django tutorial.

But when it comes to implementing somebody else's design on the site, I frankly feel like I would… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:25 AM on February 1, 2013

And also (sorry): if I were looking for a pure designer, which of the initially listed sites will get me the best results?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:26 AM on February 1, 2013

This is one of those instances where AskMe told me what I needed to know, instead of what I wanted to know. I'm going to mark this resolved and follow up in some of the recommended directions above.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:24 PM on February 7, 2013

Longish story short: I decided to proceed despite the well-intentioned advice not to, but intend to imbibe the product only in small amounts and at lengthy intervals.

My one mistake was putting the container out in the morning, going to work, and retrieving it when I got home: instead of wine with icy chunks floating in it, I wound up with a giant about 95% frozen block, not solid like water-ice but definitely with no evident liquid present.… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 2:01 PM on January 29, 2013 marked best answer

Werewolf is free! If you have a group of 9 or more, incredibly fun. Not technically a board game, but played around a table, fast-moving, and frequently hilarious and suspenseful in equal turns.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:17 AM on January 22, 2013

Marvel Comics’ Elektra is a dual-sai fighter, like the aforementioned Raphael.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 1:34 PM on January 17, 2013 marked best answer

GREAT answers so far. I've got a couple of roughs of tracklists for both groups based on the above, but here's where I'm a bit stuck (aside from the "I don't want three tracks from Cleanse Fold and Manipulate and only one from every other album" hangup, which I just need to get over)... how do you CLOSE the Puppy CD?

I've got a natural bias, from being an old fart who made mix tapes back in the day, to run with a rise, rise, rise, RISE, fall, coda thing.… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 5:49 PM on November 9, 2012

Lori Arnold.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:32 PM on November 8, 2012

Not trying to threadsit, but we live in a part of Quebec where it regularly gets down to minus twenty (Celsius), and don't have a garage, so any kind of burner that requires outdoor use is pretty much out. We can year round, largely to make our own vegetable broth etc.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 11:00 AM on October 25, 2012

Hey, thanks everybody! We've got a Wii, so I'm totally going to look into that, as well as just listening to more Latin music and getting more used to moving with a beat.

Less Swans, more Samba will be my mantra for the next few weeks...
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:25 AM on September 21, 2012

Just to provide a different viewpoint, two axioms:

1. "It is far easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission."
2. "Rules were made to be broken."
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 8:02 AM on September 14, 2012

So I wound up rolling with the Dagon Design script; I like its "for dummies" approach of really commenting the hell out of it so I know what bit does what.

For now, I'm trying to test this on my own site.

I've got it half-working, with some help from my host's support team. The half is that the "mailer" part of the script actually works: it sends the text fields no problem to the recipient I've specified in the script.… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 4:44 AM on September 5, 2012

Shoot! Thanks for mentioning stock -- I can't believe I forgot it above. We do make our own, keeping a "broth bag" of veggie leftovers in the freezer and pressure-canning 4-5 litre jars of stock every two weeks. It's a huge savings over buying it boxed in the store.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:03 AM on August 10, 2012

I haven't read it, but Allen Carr's book The Easy Way to Stop Drinking gets good reviews.

YMMV. My mileage sure as heck did – I wanted to stop drinking for a while because I was mildly concerned about my intake levels, but I found the Carr book to be so smug, self-satisfied and based entirely on the idea that the white, middle-class American white-picket-fence lifestyle is the apex of human achievement that I couldn't get through… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 12:59 PM on August 7, 2012

Thanks, smart people!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:16 AM on July 25, 2012

976-EVIL.

please don't ask
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 10:53 AM on July 24, 2012

Not trying to threadsit, but I'm really looking for 10-inch things; naming things that come in broad categories ("a book", "a doll", "a cat") isn't particularly helpful because those aren't things that are 10 inches tall, just categories of things that contain individual items that might be 10 inches tall.

So "A box of Quaker Harvest Crunch cereal, 454g size" would be super helpful, but "a box of cereal" isn't really… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:49 AM on July 12, 2012