Additional to ear-to-the-ground myth - the ear-to-the-tracks myth - that you could hear an approaching train from miles away by laying your ear to the tracks.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:29 AM on January 25, 2007

Nope, no ice-chewing, thanks. Hmm.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 4:16 AM on January 3, 2007

Nope - only frozen desserts (all types/brands). It's so local (and consistent in placement), that I'd be amazed if it was an allergic reaction - could be though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:07 AM on January 3, 2007

I'm 6'3", and just went through this, was looking for a mid-size or small SUV. Unfortunately, you really have to go and sit in the car to get the best idea, It took me about 3 trips to different lots (comparing RAV4, CR-V, Forester, Jeep Liberty, 4Runner, Pilot and more). I ended up getting a Jeep Liberty - I wasn't so excited about it being a domestic car, but the headroom is amazing, and legroom is really good (no more indentations on my shin while driving). Even cars that look huge from... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 10:02 PM on January 2, 2007

Moved myself and family from Seattle to Boston 3 yrs ago. Here's how:

Remote Jobsearch - tried hard to find work in Boston while still working in Seattle (luckily my employer knew about it and was okay with it). Very very tough to do though. Many places won't even give you the time of day if you live further than 50 miles away. They do not want to wait for relocation - and especially do not want to PAY for relocation. I offered to pay for my own move, but that didn't... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:31 AM on October 23, 2006

Just one more note to add: A Japanese version of Finnegan's Wake listed on amazon.co.jp.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 9:47 AM on October 20, 2006

My guess is that there is a commercial service nearby that uses a common PIN number for multiple vehicles. Like a limousine service or trucking company.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:32 AM on September 19, 2006

I have the same exact problem - certain sites never come up for me in FF, yet do just fine in IE, and yet many other people have no problems with those sites in FF (for me, it's msnbc.com and slashdot, go figure). This, after multiple re-installs of Firefox.

Just today I started using adblock to try and block every ad component on msnbc.com one at a time until the page rendered, and it seemed to work - although it looks less pretty than I'd like. I'm thinking that more... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:53 PM on July 7, 2006

I've heard that the art of spitting is well-refined there. Would like confirmation - with anecdotes.

Seriously though, am always interested in SK thoughts about NK. North Korea sems like an entirely different planet to those of us in the West, and I'm always looking for insight into how it came to be that way (like an older documentary informed me that Kim Il-sung really took strong advantage of the cultural disposition toward a paternalistic leader, helping to cement his role in NK)
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 6:57 AM on June 22, 2006

Wow, amazing amount of people here with feet in both places. I grew up in Washington State, and spent about 9 years of that in Seattle (Capitol Hill, Leschi, Greenwood). I've now moved to the Greater Boston area (Hudson, a dinky town north of Marlborough), and work right in downtown Boston (on Congress St. By the Children's museum)

I have to agree with a lot of what Jessamyn says - it really did ring true. Steven Den Beste as well.

I have just a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:41 AM on May 5, 2006

I don't know the official steps, likely varies depending on the severity of the heart trouble.

My personal experience with this was brief - several years ago, I developed an atrial fibrillation (sp?) which is basically an arhythmic heartbeat that didn't seem to make the doctors overly concerned. They even treated me initially by letting me rest for a couple of hours, expecting it to self-correct. When it didn't, they opted to zap me with the paddles. They sedated me,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:14 AM on April 21, 2006

I just did this with Thunderbird, and ran into the same problem. But then found thay every time I closed thunderbird, then re-opened it, it grabbed a whole new batch of mails. I had to do that about 6-8 times total, then I got everything. There may have been a manual way to force it inside the client, but I could not find it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 9:40 AM on March 20, 2006

I graduated in 1986 - I recall being in a class of only two students (in a school of 1,400) taking programming courses, including machine language for Apple II computers. And the two of us had to flip a coin to see who got the color monitor. I was a complete nerd - but the other guy was actually a cool kid (jock, socialite, nice guy). But I suppose that's too small of a sampling to answer your question.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 9:18 AM on March 17, 2006

PBS Kids is the big fave in my household.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:15 AM on March 3, 2006

I'll have to say 'clear unimpeded view of very distant hills and mountains' as well. That sets it apart from plains lands like Kansas. even if the mountains aren't huge in the distance, the uneven horizon and your natural ability to judge distance and scale when viewing faraway hills and mountains, even peripherally must contribute to this sensation. When I first moved to Alaska, I felt over and over that there was something different about the air or the sky, something about the way things... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 6:47 AM on February 24, 2006

When my daughter was close to being born, my wife staarted showing signs of pre-eclampsia, and the doctors were taking it really seriously. I later read about how dangerous it coupld have been, and that there was a theory that went like this: The Mother's body is tolerating this foreign object inside her body because of a flood of hormonal signals telling the immune system to leave the baby alone, and in pre-eclampsia, those signals start to fade, and the Mother's body says "get this thing... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 10:46 AM on February 17, 2006

Fwiw, I'm revamping my Amazon Light site (mostly clean-up), and will see what I can do to incorporate the wishes in this thread - I agree that the 3rd-party seller experience is sub-optimal for a number of reasons.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2006

For those still following this thread, I've finally updated Amazon Light, and one of the main features is "95% Amazon-Only", which means items qualify for Super-Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime.

Why "95%"? Because Amazon's own webservice is imperfect, and will occasionally serve up items that it shouldn't. Enjoy (feedback welcome)
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:06 AM on February 13, 2006

I worked there as a web developer for about 2 yrs. I'd have to say that it's a lot like any place, the environment depends heavily on what group you're in, who your managers and co-workers are, and how they interact with you. There were definitely more-favorable and less-favorable places to work within Amazon. It's a big place in many ways.

The company always treated me well. They have a well-earned rep for being frugal, but not painfully so, in my experience. I had a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:52 AM on February 6, 2006

I just got done speaking at a conference about 4 days ago, and have to agree with orthogonality here - communicate your enthusiasm. That was the thing that people came up to me and commented on afterwards - a lot of "You really must enjoy what you do", and "It was so fun to listen to you." Oh, and watch the speed-talking too, that always kills me. Also, in a panel, deft hand-offs are always nice when you know another panelist might have a good response or riff on yours. And,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 6:55 PM on December 5, 2005

Shower time, absolutely - but then I forget if I've rinsed all the shampoo off already.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:15 PM on November 24, 2005

I used to really like U2 - when I was in High School, especially some of their more moody pieces. I'll venture to guess their popularity was spurred on largely by MTV back then. I haven't heard much from them in the past few years that I really enjoyed listening to though - and funny enough, have found myself actively avoiding them (switching the radio channel) recently. Tastes change over time? Dunno.

It's hard to answer why I liked them when I did, but at this point,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 12:08 PM on October 21, 2005

Also, it may sound obvious, but re-evaluate your caffeine intake if appropriate - I've noticed, as I get older, the effects of caffeine on my sleep patterns have changed, sometimes just a little can wreak havoc, where I used to down it by the gallon and have little to no effects.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:46 AM on October 12, 2005

Turtle's Proxy suggestion is good, or you could also code something up as a userscript for greaseMonkey (for firefox), It has an xmlhttprequest component that routes around the security roadblocks.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:37 AM on August 26, 2005

Assign yourself a project, (or better yet, have someone else assign it to you), then figure out, step-by-step how to accomplish it with JS, if you can (solving problems as they come with books & google). Far better than just copy/pasting tutorials. For instance, build a mortgage calculator, or a slot machine, or a photo gallery.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:18 PM on August 4, 2005

Tangential - just curious why you say "I don't want to rely on my own guys' opinions", is it because you want your own independent take on things, or because you don't trust them to give a good "non-techie" view of things (or other)?

Asked in the spirit of "I am often in this situation on the other side of the coin".
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:59 AM on July 19, 2005

I get the same sort of thing, but for me, the trigger is violent coughing, not sneezing. Pretty much every time I have to cough more than 3-4 times within a few minutes, I end up with nasty hiccups. My theory is just that it's a violent disruption of the diaphragm's natural rhythm, and that triggers the hiccups.

Also, holding my breath with my tongue (like effugas) works very well for me too,
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 4:28 AM on July 5, 2005

Godsmack got their name from an Alice in Chains song, I believe.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:22 PM on July 4, 2005

Yeah - (I'm actually a former Amazonian now). There used to be more lists out there of cool apps built on AWS, but aside from mine (linked above), and allconsuming.net, there's a pretty nice list on the AWS blog of recent AWS apps: http://aws.typepad.com/aws/cool_sites/index.html
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 10:07 AM on June 24, 2005

Touch, tickle, peek, sing, try 'em all - see if any get his attention, then riff on that as long as it makes sense. Also, he may be in the mood to be left alone by Daddy for a while, and just explore the world within his reach, even if it's passively listening and watching.

And agree with above - talking is always good.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 1:33 PM on May 17, 2005

I use a pocketwatch-as-keychain too. Don't buy expensive or delicate ones, since they get a lot of rough treatment.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 12:06 PM on May 12, 2005

I've been using Speakeasy as my ASP webhost for several years now. Great price, occasional hiccups (to be expected), but overall very reliable and quick to answer tickets/issues, etc.

Don't know about their suppoort for .Net, but their email plans and DB setup is all very nice too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 10:39 AM on May 12, 2005

I did that (relo from Seattle to Boston). Took me a good year of looking (sometimes harder than others). Eventually I landed a position that understood my situation, but it took persistence and luck. That's about the best advice I can give - it's tough, even if you state upfront that relocation costs aren't an issue.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 2:35 PM on May 9, 2005

From what I hear, effective treatments vary tremendously from person to person. When I was having a bad flare-up a couple years ago, I tried some steroid-based topical treatment - didn't really help too much. When I quit though, my body had a huge "bounce-back" flare-up, responding to the sudden disappearance of the steroid. That was pretty hellish. At any rate, the most effective thing I've found for plain old skin (not scalp) is plain old Cortizone. Diet never seemed to have an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 1:56 PM on May 1, 2005

Cool, I wondered if there was any sort of hidden overhead for returning 404s. Thanks!
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:16 AM on April 27, 2005

Todos Santos - smaller, sleepier, more welcoming. Cabo is a party town for sure.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:01 AM on April 15, 2005

There's a bunch of them listed here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 1:45 PM on April 13, 2005

I love "Wa-hing" - that's my Dad, exactly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:25 AM on April 12, 2005

I'll second Kirkland and Redmond, but don't think either of them is quite what you're after. You may want to take a look at Mercer Island as well, I had a few good friends who grew up there and loved it (though it's expensive). I would also whole-heartedly recommend that you try to live on the East Side of Lake Washington - if that's where you'll end up working, even if there are attractive neighborhoods on the West Side. I made the cross-lake commute for years, and really really hated it - I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:42 AM on March 31, 2005

I thought of it as a Venn Diagram Intersection (The shape made by two overlapping circles)
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 9:10 AM on March 29, 2005

From Bachelor#3's link, "It is also known as the fish bladder or vesica piscis... Renaissance artists frequently surrounded images of Jesus with the vesica piscis."

It's the Jesus Fish!
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 9:27 AM on March 29, 2005

Didn't Miguel ask a similar question before - I recall him saying that Portugese men almost all wipe themselves when finished. (I may be wrong)
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:37 AM on March 25, 2005

Mr Chrysler, why did you steal 40,000 hotel coat hangers, knowing as you must have that hotel coat hangers are designed to be useless outside hotel wardrobes?
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:49 AM on March 23, 2005

Happens to me when my kids get me laughing. I remember it happening when I was a kid, getting tickled. More of an all-over upper-body weakness though. Bodies are strange.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 7:01 AM on March 18, 2005

Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever. I still have the original book, and now read it to my little boy & girl. (It's a little worse for wear these days).
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 1:33 PM on February 28, 2005

This is something I have definitely experienced before - not just in NYC. But I never noticed a racial aspect - just a 'young tough guy' thing. It seems to be one of those socially borderline acts that they could openly do to show their disdain - and yet, if they were ever called on it, could easily deny. Like passive-aggressive sidewalk hogging or slightly-too-hard jostling in a crowded bus. Just posturing, imho, but often deliberate. For the record, I'm a big dorky white guy and I think I've... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 8:04 PM on February 26, 2005

Try combing through the tagged photos on Flickr: Cove, Beach, etc. See if one looks familiar. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/cove http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/beach
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 9:06 AM on February 18, 2005

I see no image. Is there another version somewhere?
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 9:54 PM on February 17, 2005

Okay - I'm gonna vote that this is some sort of Rotary Kiln. Here's the best Google Evidence I've found (from this page) Have a look around Google Images for Rotary Kiln, and you'll see a ton of similar-looking devices. Used for soil treatment, mineral preparation, mine-waste cleanup, etc.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 12:52 PM on February 14, 2005 marked best answer

Here's one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0004EEMZQ

It's a starbucks in the same building as some amazon offices in Seattle - one user photo. Don't know of any way to search specifically for this though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by kokogiak at 12:01 PM on February 11, 2005