MetaFilter

Great description of illiteracy.
If you get frantic calls after five minutes, you're being treated as if you have nothing better to do. If you're not hired exclusively as a helpdeskist, behave like it, and be like the IT folk at my work: helpful, but sardonic and slightly intimidating. You're a professional.
When you get a call you suspect is someone dumping their problem on to you, first get a cup of tea, eat a biscuit, *then* go and show them how to print to the network printer.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:04 PM on April 21, 2008

A pair of murderers in Shakespeare's Richard III who are sent to kill the Duke of Clarence work out how and why to do it.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 8:50 PM on April 20, 2008

Fiasco.

Yes?
Try the Australianism 'rooted' to describe clusterfucked situations or objects. It covers an almost infinite range of rootedness. Broken household appliance? It's rooted. That excel spreadsheet? Rooted. Public transport system in your major city? Rooted. War in Iraq? Rooted.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:07 PM on April 17, 2008

Gallery2 is lovely, and it integrates well into Wordpress and Drupal, if that's what floats your boat.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 4:39 PM on April 17, 2008 marked best answer

Fiasco's Red Risotto:
To your bog-standard risotto recipe (stock/rice/salt), add 1 chopped spanish onion fried in balsamic vinegar, a finely chopped stalk of celery, a red capsicum, 1-2 chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, chorizo and/or bacon, paprika, red wine, and chilli to taste.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:15 PM on April 15, 2008 marked best answer

Alternatively, find a more tactful/respectful way to describe the female characters in your production.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 10:51 PM on April 13, 2008

I've used Civic CRM (with Drupal 5) and I'll vouch for its awesomeness, if I understand your project right, it'll be perfect for some of the things you need. The vocabulary takes a bit of getting used to and the documentation is patchy in places, but if you plan the database right, it should do anything you could possibly want for collecting information on supporters.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:52 PM on April 13, 2008

Defcon might suit if you're into quirky strategy and hypnotic effect.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 11:17 PM on April 7, 2008

Asimov's The Last Question. Apparently it was his favourite.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:43 PM on March 30, 2008

Seconding Layer Cake, the book is even better. And if it's English you're after, you can't not see Get Carter. No, not the Stallone one.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:20 PM on March 25, 2008

Intelligence services are always on the lookout for IT-qualified foreign-lanugage speakers.
Might be a lot more on the 'interesting' side than the 'well-paid'.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:46 PM on March 25, 2008

Not talking about is probably wisest. But...
If you *want* to have the discussion, because you're friends and you like to talk about the things that interest you, you might want to talk not about the actual physical events of September 11, or try to 'convince' her of anything, but instead talk about the significance of the way different people explain those events.
The "9/11 truth" argument is classically occultist; by which I mean that it centres on a need to… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 10:42 PM on March 19, 2008

Don't give out sensitive information on the internet. That's about it.
If you keep good strong password discipline and actual physical access to your machine isn't a problem, then deleting your cache/history/etc. isn't going to do much.
Yeah, and I'll add to the consensus. Threats of physical harm are offences. Cops cops cops.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 11:06 PM on March 17, 2008

Paper Plane Top Gun
Required: Paper planes. Rubber bands. Knowledge of at least some of the lines in Top Gun. Works best as a round-robin competition. Warning: this game is [pause] ...dangerous.
1. Everyone chooses a wingman (and must accept offers with the phrase 'bullshit, you can be mine').
1a. Everyone chooses appropriate call-signs.
2. Pairs face each other an agreed distance away from each other, determined by the available… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:05 PM on March 16, 2008

Whatever you choose for your blog engine/CMS you should check out Gallery2 for your photo galleries and portfolio. It integrates well with WP and Drupal, though I favour the latter for its superior fiddleability.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 11:28 PM on March 13, 2008

To visualise polling.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:35 PM on March 13, 2008

You could take the quiz.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 10:35 PM on March 11, 2008

White Men Can't Jump. Cheesy pants, really quite good story.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:47 PM on March 11, 2008

Before your girlfriend buys a ticket to the Middle East full of politics and enthusiasm, tell her to check out what local trade unions and community organisers are doing. Whatever area she's grown up in, she's heir to vast local knowledge that'd be a lot more helpful turned against negative forces in your community than in the West Bank. If you can tell me there's no injustice where you live, then yeah, she ought to go overseas for politics.
Perhaps she won't risk being shot or… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:56 AM on March 11, 2008

I'd settle down.
Of the two people in this situation, one got paid in full a couple of days late, the other owes lots of money to two different people.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 8:20 PM on March 10, 2008

Second the kit of little screwdrivers, because when you *do* need them, you'll really need them. They're the must have of every office ninja.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:50 PM on March 10, 2008

Homebrew beer. The startup costs will break your $25 limit but it'll well pay for itself over time.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 8:54 PM on March 5, 2008

Only thing that cheers me up is to learn how to do something I didn't know how to do before. I don't mean anything big like starting a new course or a degree, more like fixing myself on some trivial household problem and working out a new skill. I don't know how manually-minded you are, but for me, if it's a job done with my hands and it works out successfully, that's the best of all.
So... I give you knots.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:16 PM on March 5, 2008

You know, if brushing your teeth wasn't an accomplishment, dentists wouldn't spend so much time telling people to do it.
Just sayin'.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:45 PM on March 5, 2008

But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate

Dylan's All Along The Watchtower, but of course Hendrix mangled the object and subject better.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 10:40 PM on March 4, 2008