Of the topics you list, the one that seems most suited to making money is the movies stuff. Because you can affiliate link to amazon and amazon-like DVD sites, gets ads about upcoming movies, etc.

All the other stuff just isn't an obvious moneymaker. The perspective of Joe Random Guy on the differences between India and the West might make for interesting reading (though, like many others, I skipped your sample post on the grounds of tl;dr) but as it doesn't tie out to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 2:25 PM on July 22, 2008

Manchego. It's relatively mild, but with wonderful mild flavor. Most people will not be offended by it. Pairs wonderfully with a variety of jams (quince is the classic, but many things will work).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 8:07 PM on July 19, 2008

I'm pretty sure Evite does this. Of course, evite sucks in myriad other ways, so it might not be your best choice, but it has car pooling functions built in.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:52 AM on July 19, 2008

Ludwig_van's pretty much said what I would have said, so I'll just add the data point that at multi-day festivals, the interval music is very often other bands that are playing other nights, or the festival compilation or similar.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 8:10 AM on July 18, 2008

I'm currently working on the same problem, and rather than look to technology solutions, I'm just looking to willpower. Like you, I can easily get up and go to the bathroom and then go back to bed, so alarm clocks on the other side of the room is useless. Dawn simulators, similarly, since i can easily sleep while the sun is blazing in my bedroom window. My problem is clearly not waking up -- it's getting up and staying up.

Instead, I'm following the Seinfeld Don't Break... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 8:02 PM on July 17, 2008

My favorite place to stay in Montreal -- Petit Auberge Les Bons Matins. It's half way between a B&B and a hotel -- it has B&B charm, and included breakfasts, but has quite a few rooms so is somewhat like a small hotel. The owners are wonderful, and the location is very close to a subway stop, so it's quite convenient for getting around the city.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:00 AM on July 15, 2008

Talk to the other bridesmaids about this if they're friends of yours as well as the bride.

If they're not coping financially either, come up with solutions that'll help all of you -- like doing your own hair and makeup, the three of you all sharing the same hotel suite (or the three of you staying with whatever relative any of the three of you can scrounge up, even better), the three of you combing your known friends and relatives for someone with a king sized bed, the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 6:52 AM on July 15, 2008

Nothing for your part 1, but for part 2, if there's not a strong market for a successful book on the topic, then becoming THE acknowledged expert on the subject might be the only way to get paid for your knowledge. The world of talking head experts is surprisingly small -- once you've done a few interviews on a given subject, you'll get asked to do more by default, because you'll be recognized as the go-to source of info on a given subject. That could lead to paid speaking or writing gigs or... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 6:40 AM on July 15, 2008

We almost never get mail on Tuesday at our house (in Canada, where we don't have Saturday delivery). The way I figure it is thus: mail that's sent locally or just slightly non-locally on Friday is sorted on the weekend and gets here by Monday, and is thus delivered on Monday. Mail that's sent slightly non-locally on Monday doesn't get here by Tuesday, nor does local mail that's mailed later in the day on Monday. And since most business mail isn't likely to be prepared for sending on a Monday... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 12:19 PM on July 9, 2008

Your new employer won't generally check references at your current employer until they've got a firm offer subject to references for you. Don't stress this too much. It's great if you can offer a trusted co-worker to act as a reference for you (especially since your boss probably won't/can't based on corporate regulations) but it's usually not necessary. The people you're interviewing with know this is a normal issue.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 6:49 AM on July 9, 2008

If you approach it from the perspective of 'I am going to make this work', you've got a good chance of it being a positive, life-enhancing experience. If you approach it from the perspective of 'this is going to suck', then you've got a rock solid, 100% chance that it will suck.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 10:29 AM on July 8, 2008

You could have them all slap their hand on the same buzzer -- that way, the hand on the bottom wins.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:40 AM on July 8, 2008

That round robin approach feels like it would end up giving the win not to the best team, but to whichever team had the most bad teams in front of them. If your two best teams are side by side, for example, the later team is almost never going to get any second chance questions, because the earlier team will answer them all, as well as answering their own question.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:57 AM on July 8, 2008

I have an IKEA Galant desk system. It shakes if you bump into, but I have, on one occasion stood on it. I wouldn't recommend that by any stretch of the imagination, but I weigh over 300 lbs and it doesn't appear to have collapsed under my weight.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 8:19 PM on July 7, 2008

In 'vocabulary' terms, the difference between promise rings and engagement rings is clear. In jewelery terms, not so much. Engagement rings are more likely to be the solitaire diamond that's kind of the classic (or cliche, depending on your perspective) shape, but any ring can be an engagement ring, as long as your intended will be happy to wear it for the rest of her life.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 1:53 PM on July 7, 2008

Outdoor heaters I've seen (though not at gas stations). Outdoor air conditioners, though? Never heard of it.

Gasoline, on the other hand, comes out of the tanks cold, and the metal parts on a gas pump can get pretty damned chilly. I wonder if that's what has them mixed up?
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:10 PM on July 3, 2008

I've always like to follow up the question 'What do you do?' with 'What do you do when you're not doing what you do?' It takes people have a second to parse, then they laugh, then they tell me about the things they like doing instead of what they get paid to do.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 3:07 PM on July 3, 2008

Go to Mefi meetups. We don't really sit around and talk about our own posts at meetups. I mean, sure, the site as a whole sometimes comes up for discussion, but on the main, the topics of discussion at a meetup aren't that MetaFilter specific. People who don't read MeFi at all have come to meetups and had a good time.

Speaking of meetups, allow me to once again suggest meetup.com as I do in all these threads. Go there, find a group related to your geeky interests, or... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:00 AM on July 3, 2008

If you don't think they're all conservative and likely to object, just bring it up. My brother's brought a few girlfriends home for Christmas over the years, and my mother's always agonized about whether she needed to find a way to accommodate them separately, or if she should put them together, and which they'd prefer and how it'd work and blah, blah. If your mother has mentioned it a couple of times, she may be trying to make it clear that that's how it's going to be, but she may also be... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 8:15 PM on July 1, 2008

I get the bounces and other inquiries about email mix-ups for a very large website and here's the thing that many people probably don't realize. A really large number of people don't actually seem to know what their email address is. It's not that they typo it (though that too happens a great deal), but we get many registrations from people literally seem to think that they know what their email address is, but don't. If someone out there with the same name as you thinks their email address is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 11:56 AM on July 1, 2008

One of the things that may well be the difference between the lasagna you're making and the lasagna they're making is the pasta itself. If you're using store bought lasagna noodles, you essentially have holes in your pasta for sauces to mix through. Using solid sheets of freshly made pasta might make a considerable difference on that front.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 2:33 PM on June 29, 2008 marked best answer

In October, you might hate each other or you might be in love, as you said. But the two of you are seeing those two possibilities in the opposite way.

For her, the worst thing that could happen is that the two of you might really be in love, because then she'd have to consider whether it was worth giving up her dreams to stay with you, or ask you to give up yours to follow her. Promises like 'I'll make her leave and break up with her if she won't' don't meant much now,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 12:20 PM on June 28, 2008

I'll try to expand on my thoughts in case it helps further. I think she's doing emotional math and it's not working out in her favor. Look at the possible outcomes of continuing to date you:

1. Before October, you break up for reasons unrelated to her leaving town.
Additional emotional trauma: moderate, since she's gotten more attached to you in the mean time.
Effect on her career: low to moderate depending on how close to October.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:46 PM on June 28, 2008

There are a few pubs along Yonge St. closer to Sheppard -- The Black Sheep, for example. There's also a Firkin of some sort there. There's a Firkin-like pub (Fox & Fiddle, maybe?) at Finch & Keele, too, but that might be too far west. These are all pretty interchangable places places -- if you're familiar with the Firkins, that's about what you're getting.

If you expect people to stand and mingle more than sit and eat, the bar at the Milestone's in North York... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 11:29 AM on June 28, 2008

Oh, and I think there's a pseudo-Irish pub in the Xerox building right at Yonge & Finch, too. Slug & Lettuce, maybe?
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 11:36 AM on June 28, 2008

I'm afraid of chickens. Not dead, grocery store type chickens, those I like (more chickens in the grocery store means less chickens sharing my air), but live, clucking, moving about chickens. I was attacked by a rooster when I was a child and there was blood, and then they killed the rooster that attacked me and I got to watch it run around bleeding with it's head cut off (yes, that really happens) which was even more trauma. So, while my reaction to chickens (and other largish birds) is not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:47 AM on June 28, 2008

I wouldn't insult your husbands friends to him -- that's not really going to help anything. But do take the time to make some 40-something female friends, and some couple friends that are more in your age group than his. Having some people around that you can more clearly relate to will help.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:36 AM on June 28, 2008

In my experience with various work environments, people who are disliked get mocked behind their backs. If they're doing it to your face, it's not because they dislike you.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:55 PM on June 27, 2008

One thing that I've found makes a significant difference for me is buying 'tall' jeans and then hemming them. That's part of the reason for the gapping at the back. It's generally caused more by their not being enough fabric vertically for the jeans to reach the waist (especially when you're sitting/bending and there's simply more ass sticking out for them to have to wrap around) rather than there being too much fabric in the circumference of the waist.

Though I'm not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 6:51 AM on June 27, 2008 marked best answer

A friend of mine, right before he finished university, got his hair cut, dyed it back to a colour other than blue, and took a job at IBM, deliberately renewed his driver's licence with that look. It was never a problem for him, and was often a subject of amusing conversation.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 5:59 PM on June 26, 2008

You can do this with Yahoo Groups. Some people can choose to receive only administrator announcements (ie, the stuff you send) and other people can choose to receive all messages.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:34 PM on June 25, 2008 marked best answer

Would it help to realize that there's a 99% chance that your co-worker neither gives a shit nor remembers even having that conversation? That's about 9% more not giving a shit than you are a vegetarian, so it's a pretty high percentage.

I can understand your general feelings, but seriously, no one cares that much about what other people eat. They'd really rather you didn't talk about it all. If it somehow comes up again just explain that you only occasionally eat meat... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:30 PM on June 25, 2008

Music isn't plot driven. Knowing how it ends takes a certain amount of pleasure out of watching plot driven entertainment.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:15 PM on June 24, 2008

Some people won't sign up as a result of an email -- it's a lower commitment form of contact than phoning someone.

That said, if I sent you an email and your follow up was 'please call me', that wouldn't happen unless you had something I really needed and I couldn't get it any other way. Offer to call them at a time that's convenient to them, or continue the conversation via email. Presumably if they have your email, they also have your phone number. If they'd wanted to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 10:09 PM on June 21, 2008

Nev has some good tips on wording the email. Describe your rates, your process, etc (put some effort into making this templated copy really, really good) and also describe the next steps in the process, ie, 'I will call you to set up an appointment for an evaluation session. At that session we'll determine what kind of schedule Fido needs for his training. Would you prefer that I call you during the day or in the evening to book the appointment? And what number can I reach you at?'
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:38 AM on June 24, 2008

I tend to favor the 'divide it all up evenly' (minus the train fare, which is none of your concern) approach.

I understand the argument that #4 owes less, but your car is in X. Your 4th passenger is in Y. Your destination is in Z. In order for #4 to get from Y to Z in your car, the car still needed to get from X to Y, regardless of how many people were in it at the time. And it's not like you can realistically find and take on a passenger who is going from X to Y to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:31 AM on June 24, 2008

I'm going to advocate in favor of two things that have really helped me with my social anxieties:

1. Toastmasters. There's probably a club at your university, and if not, there will be one in your nearby community, though it may be a somewhat older crowd than you want to befriend. It'll help you learn to speak more clearly (the perception is that it's all about speeches, and that's definitely a focus, but it's also about communicating better in general, including more... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:13 AM on June 23, 2008

Linen reacts to heat much like cotton. Linen garments tend to be much thinner, though, so would likely offer less overall protection.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 11:54 AM on June 22, 2008

I think your primary mistake is treating this as an either or situation. It shouldn't be a debate between one guy and the other. Decide if your relationship with your current boyfriend is working. If you decide it's not, then break up with him.

Then, decide if a relationship with this other guy is worth pursuing. If it's not, don't. If it is, try it and see.

Alternative number three, that others have suggested is to find a different guy who... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 10:27 AM on June 21, 2008

Unless your roommate is insisting that only one person be permitted to sublet instead of another couple, he's perfectly reasonable in demanding that his share of the rent not change.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:00 AM on June 18, 2008

Barring a situation in which the term of address specifically mentions your obedience/faith, you should generally address foreign/other religion dignitaries in the same manner someone in their faith/country might. It's a basic etiquette rule that you address someone as they wish to be addressed, whether it's a preference for Ms. over Miss, or a preference for 'Your Excellency' over 'Hey, Joe'.

The specifics of when to use formal forms like 'Your Excellency' vs. informal... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 6:13 AM on June 18, 2008

I realize it kind of fits with gift cards, but get them a gift certificate for a really nice restaurant. Tell them it's for their one month anniversary or something.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 7:56 PM on June 17, 2008

Do you have a multi-sized pants pattern available to you for any other pairs of pants? Take a look at how and where they add more fabric to go up a size, and make similar adjustment to the pants you've got now. It tends to be evenly down the side seams but curved through the front and back crotch, and then evenly down the inseams again.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 9:30 PM on June 16, 2008

You're betting on the odds of it being found at all, plugged in by the person who finds it, that person knowing enough to realize that it contains encrypted files, and that person also knowing how to decrypt encrypted files, and that person thinking your encrypted files are likely to be worth bothering with. The odds are astronomically low that this is going to be an issue. On the other hand, changing a couple of key passwords would probably take you less time than it took me to write this... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 6:22 AM on June 16, 2008 marked best answer

What more specificity are you looking for? 'The projects' is used pretty generally (not just in New York) to describe any neighbourhood with significant quantities of government subsidized housing. It tends to be used with a reference to the overall rates of crime, poverty, drug-use, etc, but there's not a distinguishing characteristic of a housing project other than that it's, you know, a housing project.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 12:39 AM on June 14, 2008

I love the ones from Babylock. The self-threading, self-tensioning thing is a god-send. They're already expensive though, and afaik, coverstitch capabilities up the price of a machine considerably.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 11:47 PM on June 13, 2008

I've also heard that buying vowels is encouraged in the contestant briefings which might contribute to it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 8:56 PM on June 13, 2008

To be honest, reading your side of the story, which is probably skewed a little to making you sound good and her not, I still think you sound a little too entitled. Guests who don't have opinions on what they want to do are annoying. Guests who clam up, doubly so. Your behaviour also makes it seem like you hate her boyfriend, even if your actual feelings are more ambivalent. Not that she's an angel in this scenario, but I don't think this is a clear cut case of 'Oh my god, she was so mean to me!... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 8:45 PM on June 13, 2008

You might be interested in the book that this NPR article talks about. It doesn't say much about whether different cultures are bored by their limited diet (my guess would be some people yes, some no, and more of one than the other in different cultures) but it provides insight into what it looks like.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 2:14 PM on June 12, 2008

This request is pretty much tailor made for IKEA.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jacquilynne at 10:03 AM on June 12, 2008