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I bought a dremel. Tell me everything!
I bought a dremel a couple days ago after years of thinking about it; got here today, tested it out, and I'm already very satisfied with it being a good solution for the soft carving I was primarily getting it for (soapstone, anthracite coal, wood). But now I've got this good tool and no experience with it, so: what else might I want to get for it for carving/shaping art and craft purposes, and, hell, what else in particular have folks found themselves surprised/pleased to be able to accomplish in general with a rotary tool?
Help me plan a cinema-history-grounded Muppet movie marathon
I am contemplating a multi-session viewing of every Muppet cinematic release with friends. I would like to (primarily) match one period appropriate contemporaneous film and (secondarily) match some snack or meal with each film. Please give me your recommendations for some or all of these!
Help me throw a good bachelor party for 15-20 in Portland, OR
I'm spearheading a three-day bachelor party for a dear old friend, with a guest list of 15-20 folks total, and it's not something I've done before. My biggest blind spot here is logistics: I'm local to Portland and have plenty of go-to spots, but it's enough people that my usual small-group planning experiences don't feel sufficient. How can I best make this work seamlessly for a dozen and a half people who don't know my home town?
What's your Check Please hand signal, and what does it signify?
I was just out with for lunch with a friend at a busy place and did my usual eye-contact-hand-signal request to clear out to the passing server, and that turned into a conversation about what, exactly, that hand signal actually means in like semantic terms.
Dancing On My Own vs. Run Away With Me
I've been thinking about hard-driving pop songs I love and one of the things I've recognized is how much I love emotive but club-ready tunes that have a driving but expertly musically well-rounded vibe like e.g. Robyn's "Dancing On My Own" and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Run Away With Me". That's a fuzzy definition but the key is: absolutely unstoppable pop production married to a lyrical vibe that has a stark emotional/narrative appeal.
When did cars stalling fall off as a movie/TV trope (and in...reality?)
I have a subjective feeling (corroborated in conversation with a friend today, which means it's 100% accurate) that what was once a ready standby in film and TV of cars stalling out while e.g. at a traffic light has fallen by the wayside in the last...bunch of years? Does this feel like a thing, and does it correspond fairly directly to changes in automotive technology over the years?
How should I learn Linear Algebra?
I'm a mathematically-minded person, but informally; I was great with math in high school and so-so in college, didn't deal well with calculus, love recreational mathematics on my own terms, and do best when I have a good conceptual basis for any bit of mathematical theory. (I do great with planar geometry. I do okaaay with symbolic algebra.) But I never learned linear algebra and matrices, despite them applying to a *lot* of things I'm otherwise interested in. Where's a good, accessible, concept-driven way to get familiar with lin alg territory?
Umbrella/generalist terms for jobs/roles that have distinct subroles?
During a recent MeFi podcast conversation I found myself explaining "recordist" as term used by folks who do some mix of recording, engineering, mixing, performing, etc. music, and specifically that the term was useful as an umbrella term because it was distinct from someone who did only a given specific sub-role as their focus or primary job. Which got me wondering: what other examples are there of umbrella terms (for a vocation or avocation or ?) that aren't simply less-specific generalizations but useful for encompassing that jack-of-all-trades role in particular vs. a dedicated specialty?
It’s a round…thingy?
What the hell are the things in this tweet thread?
lighting solution for lowkey improving my art photography
I want to get better photos of my artwork when I'm documenting it. Doesn't need to be stunning, just better and more consistent, and I think that's probably mostly a lighting question. What's my best bang for buck on this, for both literal bucks and simplicity of solution?
What's the origin of "Portland Orange"?
I learned this morning that traffic signal engineering specifications for DON'T WALK crosswalk signals in the US require that "Portland Orange" be the color used. This appears to go back to at least the mid-1950s as a specification, but I'm having trouble finding out (a) when exactly that specification came into being and more to the point (b) what the etymology of the name "Portland Orange" is in the first place!
Buying or building a good light table for stained glass
I could use a light table, aka light box, aka flat rectangle with light coming out the top, for use in stained glass work I'm doing lately. I'd like to buy one or build one. I'm finding Amazon listings worse than usual for sussing out alternatives and quality, and not having much luck with general googling either. Point me to good reviews and/or good DIY instructions?
Help me be a good art fair vendor!
I'm gonna be one of a couple dozen vendors at an upcoming local arts and crafts fair, and it's my first time doing something like this. I've got my 10 foot by 10 foot spot, a pop up canopy to stick on it, and I'm gonna have a table with stuff on it and a cash box and a credit card reader on my phone. What else should I be thinking about?
Good reading about the little process details of painting and art-making
I've been doing a lot of oil painting lately and a fair bit of reading about painting and painters, but haven't so far come up with much stuff that takes a really close, documentary look at artists' step-by-step working processes. Book and blog recommendations?
Garage door opener remote's operating distance abruptly very short?
My mother-in-law's garage door opener abruptly stopped responding to the remote control a few weeks ago. But it appears it didn't stop responding entirely—it'll still open/close if you press the button...from about one foot away from the receiver. We installed a new unit, no joy. What gives? What are our options?
Space efficiency for oil painting in a mixed-use room?
I've taken up oil painting in the last few months, and I'm trying to work out how to best carve out space in my home office for things like workspace and storing wet, work-in-progress canvases.
Zombie blood in 28 Days Later doesn't count
I was joking with a friend about how we should postpone our blood pact because he has a cold, and we realized neither of us really knows if that even makes medical sense. Could you realistically pass on a cold via an ill-timed super-swearsies? Are there any surprising or lesser known "totally can!" or "totally can't!" illnesses in that category? Interesting underlying blood mechanisms?
How do highway signs get (incorrectly) made?
I saw this remarkably borked road sign and got mildly curious for the nth time in my life about the process by which road signs get made, start to finish. What's the modern Big Green Road Sign production process, how has it changed over the years, and what, exactly, is the likeliest explanation for this particular fuckup?
Best practices for handing a customer bills + coins in change?
I was having a conversation with a friend recently about returning change to a customer for a cash purchase, and we got curious about the methods, and their rationale, for handling a mix of bills and coins. Help me understand this territory!
What's this recurring occasional sharp pain in my ribs?
Maybe once or twice a year for as long as I can remember, I've had a short-lived sharp pain at a certain spot in my ribs. It doesn't seem to be related to anything else going on with my body, once it stops I'm not sore, and I have no idea what it is or why it happens. Is this a thing people are familiar with?
Good resources for learning about new and upcoming non-fiction about the internet?
What are some good resources for finding out about recent/new/upcoming non-fiction books that discuss the web or the internet?
Simplest/quickest path from DVD stillframe to resized image in blog post?
I want to find the simplest/fastest possible route to get from a single frame of a film on a DVD to a small image displayed inline on a wordpress blog post.
Who was the 80s? band with white pants and/or white belts?
I'm trying to remember the name of a band, among whose defining aesthetic characteristics was the prominent use of a band-wide? uniform including white pants and/or a white belt. Probably 80s? Maybe New Wave?
Help with buying a new mid-range windows gaming PC?
I'm looking at purchasing a new PC for gaming, wanting to spend between $1000 and $1500 total, would prefer not to put it together myself, and am waaaay out of the loop on hardware at this point, particularly graphic cards.
Choosing an affordable projection screen for my living room?
What do I need to know when choosing a wall-mounted projection screen for my living room?
What's the simplest way for me to grab a daily digest of my twitter output?
What's the simplest way for me to grab a daily digest of my twitter output?
How can I get websense to undo a nonsensical "sex" block on my boring blog?
Websense has apparently blacklisted my personal blog (my whole domain, in fact) for adult/sex content, which is pretty strange. What can I do about this?
Using DVD stills in TV commentary blog?
Incorporating still frame captures in a TV commentary blog: is it possible/affordable/practical to get general permission from the studio to do this?
"vorEhrfurchtErzitter"? Hoffen Sie mich!
What does "vorEhrfurchtErzitter" mean? I don't speak a lick of German.
I have black hairy tongue! Yikes! Advice?
Following some dental adventures, I seem to have some lingua villosa nigra, aka "black [hairy] tongue". Reportedly harmless, but is there anything (a) I should know or worry about, and (b) I can do to quash it on the double?
In search of free online tool for creating radial graphs!
Are there any free online tools for generating radar (aka radial, spider, star) graphs/charts?
Is live-monitoring a USB mic in Audition 1.5 possible?
Live monitoring a USB mic in Adobe Audition 1.5: can it be done, or not?
How to make it easy for user to upload images, mp3s to a blog project site?
Good, free solutions for implementing super-easy userland image- and mp3-upload capability into a Wordpress-based blog project?
Web/etc resources for autodidactic upright bass rookies?
I'm looking for good resources for upright bass DIY education—especially regarding bowing basics and other physical/form questions.
How to record a sing-along choir track without a pile of headphones?
Lo-fi group recording: how can I record a 6-8 person sing-along choir cleanly if I don't already own a bunch of headphones and splitters?
Good web-based (tablet-oriented?) art/drawing games/apps?
I'm looking for fun web-based drawing/art games and toys and apps.
How do I cheaply promote a compilation CD?
How can I promote a small CD release on the extremely cheap?
Budget first-lens wide-angle options for a Canon 350D purchase?
Budget first-lens wide-angle options for a Canon 350D purchase? I'm looking at buying the latter, and want to find the most bang for few bucks on the former.
How do I make money off of songwriting?
How do I make a (portion of a) living as a songwriter?
Point me to blogs about found objects and such!
I'm looking for websites that informally catalogue found objects of some sort: sites (particularly blogs) that operate around the thesis of "look at this stuff I found".
How do I fetch the slug, sans domain, in WordPress/PHP?
Learning my way around WordPress. How do I fetch the slug text, sans domain, in WordPress/PHP?
Source/recency of "i pooped a little"?
I've recently noticed "I pooped a little" as an expression of joyful mirth/surprise. Local example. Googling reveals examples of this mixed in with non-examples.
Great, natural sounding drums from software/tracking: how?
I want a fake drummer who doesn't sound fake, on the cheap. Drum samples and software ideas: help me out!
Music education charities?
Charities/non-profits related to music education?
Why should(n't) I officially start a business?
What are the advantages, disadvantages, and Important Things To Know about officially starting a business?
Recovering background conversation from a live music recording?
Help me recover background conversation from this stereo live recording.
When Babelfish Fails...
Guidance for locating translators for diverse and specific languages?
How much cello can I get for $500?
I'd like to buy a cello for around $500. I know nothing about celli.
Cabling: how do I run stereo audio from my mixer to my breakout box?
Audio Cables 101: tell me exactly how to feed a stereo mix from my mixer to my breakout box.
Help me dig into lexical analysis!
Lexical analysis! What are some good resources for a beginner?
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