Recent stuff I'd recommend:

Most things by Warren Ellis (although I tend to pick up anything Ellis I happen to see, nothing's beaten Transmetropolitan for me yet; the space stuff is alright, but I'm not a fan of Gravel.).

Almost anything by Brian Michael Bendis: Powers, Jinx, Goldfish, Sam & Twitch - a Spawn spin-off, and most especially Torso.

The first two compilations of 100 Bullets (just read the third one and it... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:30 PM on July 1, 2008

Seconding hangashore on checking for hyperthyroidism - the vomiting combined with the neediness (and a lot of hyperactivity for an elderly kitty) were the indicators for my cat - she was just so active, like a kitten...

That said, for our younger cat, who is not afflicted with any known disease besides boredom in the middle of the night, the SO crafted an effective (if obnoxious) cure. A vacuum cleaner next to the bedroom door, hooked to a remote... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:20 PM on May 16, 2008

All these great songs and no mention of Kashmir?
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:10 PM on April 4, 2008

Probably a good idea to try the advice of setting your alarm clock for a little before she wakes with the dream to try to disrupt the pattern (if you haven't been doing that already). One other thing to try is to send her to sleep with a talisman of some sort - like a stuffed animal. A family member had dreams like this (also sleepwalking) around that age, vivid enough that we all were really questioning whether there weren't in fact bad people in the walls. His stuffed panda was a real hero... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 8:12 AM on March 15, 2008

I had 4600 feet of Super8 tape transferred by HomeMovieDepot.com for Christmas a few years ago @ .18/foot (looks like it's cheaper now, .16/foot). I was happy with the output (and the returned the tape in good condition when they were finished). You can even get them to put the mpegs (or .dv files, if you don't get the Premium transfer) on a hard drive for you. They provide DVDs by default. You can price everything out on their site; the folks I dealt with there via email were pretty responsive... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:23 PM on March 14, 2008

Lebkuchen?
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 5:40 PM on March 6, 2008 marked best answer

Love Bud Hibbs' site!!

If the debt collectors violate the rules here, report them here (I have never dealt with any of these folks that did not violate the FDCPA in at least one way).

When they call, if you can actually get to a human who won't hang up on you, tell them you are not the person they are looking for, ask them to stop calling and ask for an address to send them a cease and desist letter. If you get a recording, try calling them back... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 8:21 AM on February 9, 2008 marked best answer

Will be watching this thread - sometimes get up to 10 of these per day for people with my last name, but different first name or completely different names altogether. Always really shady - some claim they're lawyers serving paperwork soon (they're not), others make it sound like an inheritance is coming (again, nope, it's not a law firm, it's a collections agency). Often it's a recording and/or I'm not here to answer the phone and tell them to go jump. My mother got one very persistent one and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:26 PM on January 23, 2008

re: changing the phone listing to an accurate first name per TeatimeGrommit's comment - unfortunately, that probably won't work. These folks call anyone they can with the same last name no matter what the first name is. My first name is in the listing and I get calls for many different names - in addition, if they're collecting a debt from someone who's passed on, they assume they can collect from any unrelated person with the same last name. I think a lot of these companies purchase old, small... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:57 PM on January 23, 2008

Temp! You never know what you'll end up doing in temp work - one day stuffing envelopes, the next making copies, the next making sandwiches, the next doing writing, editing, and page layout, the next scripting and editing a corporate safety videos. When I temped, I felt like a corporate spy, it was much more interesting than retail work. It's also pretty flexible, too -- it's been several years, but I think with most agencies, you call in when you wake up and say you're available and they send... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 9:26 PM on January 19, 2008

The Samsung u740 shows a little icon and makes a periodic noise until you open it. I was able to get it free last year on Verizon when re-upping my contract. Only negatives are that the buttons are kind of small for dialing (but great for texting, if you're into that), Verizon's web interface is pretty limited (probably an issue on any Verizon phone), and battery life can be kind of sketchy if you have it in a place where you go in and out of network often (like an office building). But I've... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 2:21 PM on January 1, 2008

I received The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing for Christmas--really readable and common-sense and turned me onto the Bogleheads' forums, which are also useful. See BankRate.com for calculators beaucoup. Will have to check out the Get Rich Slowly forums, thanks for posting this question!
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 3:31 PM on December 30, 2007

Also, haven't used this myself, but here's a free budget spreadsheet from BankRate.com and an online budget calculator (I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have the attention span for this one...) from Kiplinger.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 3:38 PM on December 30, 2007

Also - haven't used this, but here's a free budget spreadsheet from BankRate.com and an online budget calculator (I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have the attention span for this one...) from Kiplinger.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 3:34 PM on December 30, 2007

This may be helpful, too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:24 AM on December 24, 2007

Here's Part II. Apparently, the trickier part...;)
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:29 AM on December 24, 2007

Solzhenitsyn's "Red Wheel" trilogy - August 1914 will suck you in, even at 832 pages. November 1916, which I'm currently digging through, is over 1000 pages with, if you can believe it, smaller print sections for historical background.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:46 PM on December 17, 2007

Have you cleared your cache, shut down the browser, and re-opened it? Have you tried checking or having a friend check your site from a non-Comcast connection? Many Internet providers use proxy servers that cache pages for speed's sake; it's possible that the old version is cached and hasn't gotten refreshed yet?
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 5:24 PM on December 11, 2007

Jude the Obscure, Hamlet, Anna Karenina. Little Women, possibly.

Jude the Obscure and Hamlet both had that sort of turn-the-page "holy heck, everyone's dead" shock for me.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:25 AM on October 27, 2007

Another vote for acrylic over watercolor or oil if you're an amateur (like I am!). I've tried both but have a much easier time with acrylic paint (also dries a lot faster so you have more instant gratification).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 1:41 PM on October 17, 2007

There's the National Cryptological Museum and the Small Press Expo. Both outside DC, but maybe worth hitting.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:13 PM on October 2, 2007

Ooh, the Museum of American Art is fantastic, and especially worth it to see James Hampton's The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' General Assembly.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:29 PM on October 2, 2007

A few other options are described here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 8:03 PM on September 26, 2007

Hrm, or here and here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 8:05 PM on September 26, 2007

For home- and small-batch brewers, it's not actually the snob-aspect. If you're capping the beer yourself, air is more likely to get into the screw-top bottles because of the form factor, and the beer can get skunky. Make that mistake a time or two, and you'll be sure to only save only your non-screwtops for bottling.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:59 PM on September 26, 2007

Long stakes (or, if like us, unprepared--a really good instinct for stable tent-stake angles) and an unworried attitude about getting sand *everywhere.* I really recommend camping at Assateague in the fall--we went last year in November, on one of those unseasonably warm weekends--cool sand squishing between your toes, crashing waves and pounding but not punishing wind, a gazillion stars above you--it was pretty awesome. No mosquitoes, either, but I guess you gamble on cold--I bet mid- to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:11 PM on July 30, 2007

Seriously, have to second "Murakami on vacations" and Coldest Winter Ever. Sister Souljah is a little self-referential and full of herself at times, but it really is a pretty good book (and if you like that--go get ye some of Kenji Jasper's Dark and Nichelle Tramble's A Dying Ground).

I couldn't put down John DuFresne's Louisiana Power & Light, which I picked up solely based on its title. Smart,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:30 PM on July 30, 2007

What worked for me consistently was to kneel behind the cat so that when she tried to squirm away, she was held securely. I gently pressed on each side of the jaw with my left hand, inserted the pill with my right (as far back as possible, in the middle and not the cheek), and held her jaw shut until she swallowed--this usually only took a few seconds--about the time it took to figure out how to wriggle free.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:25 PM on July 2, 2007

I've been making a faux ceviche kind of recipe lately with regular crab; it might actually be better with imitation crab.

The quick recipe: Mix crab with store-bought corn & black bean salsa, add fresh lime juice. Add hot sauce and pepper as needed. The slightly-more-involved-but-yummier recipe: mix crab with diced red peppers, red onion (or shallot, if you've got it), garlic, corn, diced jalapeno, fresh cilantro, hot sauce, a little salt and pepper, and fresh lime.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 2:26 PM on May 26, 2007

It sounds like you've got a great opportunity to get a great deal of information about the job before you jump into it--I can give you a hundred annoying questions to ask:

What are their release cycles are like? Is it common for development schedules to slip, and if they do, does the release date slip as well (or is QA expected to work 100 hour weeks to make up for the Dev slip)? Who plans and coordinates releases? Project managers? Product Managers? Development managers... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 9:08 PM on May 5, 2007

As far as I can fathom it, his promise is now your responsibility. Why? Because you knew, when you walked out the door with the painting, that your father promised it to your sister. At that point, your father transferred the responsibility to you. Had you no knowledge of it, or had you told your father, "I'm sorry, I don't want to get between you and my sister and if you promised it to her, please do give it to her," you'd be absolved...but you took the painting knowing that accepting... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:57 PM on April 18, 2007

We had a subscription for a few years and I still have some around, assorted hardcovers from 1979 to 1982. They're all titled "Highlights for Children" with a few that have "THE MONTHLY BOOK" between the "Highlights" and "for Children" parts.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 5:09 PM on April 10, 2007

Incredible. I somehow knew AskMe would come through--thanks so much to all for the answers and especially to bristolcat--I'm totally amazed! Almost emotional, but maybe that's the effect of seeing the dresses we took pictures years ago in a video with dramatic movie soundtrack music...

We realized today in talking that there's really no other place that would make sense for us to get married, it's gotta happen in New Orleans, so I guess I'll be giving Harold Clarke a call!
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 9:06 PM on March 24, 2007

This sounds a little weird, but what worked for me, right away, was eating a few nuts, peanut butter, or something with a little protein. Keep a little jar of nuts by the bed. Not much, just a bite, and the pain went away and allowed me to sleep. For long-term heartburn management, I've cut down on breads and starches (the heartburn alleviation the only positive I found out of the Atkins diet, really) and found that I can drink coffee, wine, and eat spicy foods again without pain or feeding the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 8:55 AM on March 20, 2007

Honestly? At 4 I wouldn't bother, especially if he says it correctly mimicking you. If in 3 more years, he still has trouble with his rrrrs, then maybe. Even then, having been a kid that couldn't say her R's until magically in 6th grade (after years of speech pathology and teachers who thought my tongue should be sliced), it's still kind of a crapshoot. Kids can sometimes speak weird for years and then magically, no more peanut butter on the roof of the mouth, no more wed wooster, it just all... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 11:31 PM on January 6, 2007

Congrats on the new addition! Seconding the many suggestions for the "In the future" message and also recommending Google Calendar. My co-workers and I use it to combat this very issue. Anything business-confidential, you can codify somehow, and you can share calendars such that all or just specific items show up only as "Busy"--so your privacy is retained, but co-workers still know you're busy. Just make sure you set the calendar as Not Shared by default and then explicitly... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 4:58 PM on January 3, 2007

Google's got a new Google Checkout service that looks worth checking out. I don't know a lot about it, but my mother's looking to try it out--she's in the same situation where paying several hundreds of dollars per year for just a few credit card transactions doesn't make a lot of fiscal sense.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 5:01 PM on December 21, 2006

Hrm, on second thought after looking at the web site, it looks like Google Checkout is all online and doesn't support off-site with-machine processing. I guess it all depends on the price--if the rates are low enough, you could always consider setting up a "kiosk" at the venue to handle on-site registration.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 5:08 PM on December 21, 2006

I'm so glad you posted this question--I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia this summer and am eager to see what advice other people may have.

While it varies from person to person, I really can't recommend daily exercise and good sleep enough. The things that have really helped me are walking daily (I've been slacking on this lately and can feel it but the pain is really a lot milder now as opposed to those constant electric shocks and freaky neuropathic pain), getting... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:26 PM on December 20, 2006

It's listed on whocalled.us, too--I found whocalled.us via Google months ago after we were phone spammed--it's a pretty good resource for figuring out whether a number's from a scammer or not.
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 4:52 PM on September 1, 2006

Victor Pelevin!
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 7:25 PM on July 16, 2006

Seconding Gulag Archipelago (read I and II and then check out Tolstoy's Resurrection), In Cold Blood, and Devil in the White City.

I'd add Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, Dostoyevsky's House of the Dead (really, anything by Dostoyevsky), Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Sanyika Shakur's Monster: The Autobiography of an LA... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 8:19 AM on July 4, 2006

Add me to the list of "Don't do it!"s. On behalf of your future employer who may really want to hire you, I ask you to please not lie about a degree. Nothing sucks more than spending countless hours screening and interviewing to find a person with the right skill set and fit, and just after the offer is extended, HR calls down and says "Sorry, they lied about their education and failed the background check--find another candidate."

The worst part is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 8:25 PM on May 9, 2006

Don't know if it qualifies because it's not really mainstream, but for favorite endearing gem-like awful songs, I'd vote for T. Valentine's "Betty Sue." Audio samples available here.

For just plain awful, there's always "Muskrat Love" by Captain & Tenille or "Tonight's the Night" by Rod Stewart...I know there are some really, really bad modern songs, but am drawing a blank right now.

It's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:29 PM on April 25, 2006

Seconding "Misguided Angel' (beautiful song!) and would also add Concrete Blonde's "Joey."
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 6:43 PM on April 24, 2006

I usually slice off the tops with a bread knife. If you've an aversion to waste or just like to optimize, you can break up the excess mound pieces and layer them in a glass dish or bowl with whipped cream and raspberries (or any other fruit you have around) smashed with a little sugar and whatever liqueur or fruit juice you have in the house, and voila, you've got two desserts--delicious cake and half-arsed English trifle (which I actually enjoyed more than the cake last time).
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 5:42 PM on February 20, 2006

I like Whey Delicious, the chocolate flavor. In fact, I'm drinking it right now, heh...It's alright in milk, though I think it tastes really good in water for some reason. It's $35/giant jug (I think that's kind of pricy, but I haven't found any I like better, so they've hooked me) and uses Stevia as a sweetener instead of an artificial sweetener, which is another reason I like it. You can only get it online or by phone, though, which I find annoying, but deal with it since I like this stuff so... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 12:49 PM on January 6, 2006

My favorite dish to make when I lived alone...relatively cheap, easy to make (5-10 minutes prep-time and about 30 minutes cook-time), tastes good, and not horribly bad for you. The only drawback is no veggies, but you could probably toss some broccoli or other vegetables into the mixture to no ill effect. You could probably even replace the potatoes with squash or leave them out altogether:
a salmon filet (I bought those cheapish frozen filets in a bag, about $8 for 4, i think).... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 9:06 AM on January 2, 2006

I received these two Hollywood tell-all type books for Christmas:
Hollywood Rat Race by Ed Wood, Jr.
Fortune and Glory: A True Hollywood Comic Book Story by Brian Michael BendisHaven't actually finished the first or started the second, but they both look what you're describing...and great fun as well.

You might also be interested in books about the Black Dahlia murder as well as Clive Barker's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 11:19 PM on January 1, 2006

If you're not interested in programming, how about technical writing? The 2.5 years of Comp Sci and the writing skills apparent in your post give you a significant leg up...and for many tech writing positions (any, actually, that companies for which I've worked for have hired writers), a degree isn't a strict requirement--especially when "the ability to pick up things rather quickly" is involved.

It's something you can do pretty much anywhere, and with a few... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jenh at 10:49 PM on January 1, 2006