Personally, I bought a Pfaff a few years ago for $350.00. It's a tank, sews leather, has made ballistic nylon harnesses (3+ layers) and still keeps on kicking. No real bells and whistles, I was looking for exactly what you are. And found it.

Pfafff.

I'm a longtime maker of things, of every stripe, and appreciate a good, solid, versatile tool.

I don't have the model number in front of me, but it's featureset... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 9:28 PM on May 11, 2005 marked best answer

I've got a set of Greenlee strippers, from Grainger, in my kit. They're automatic (fantastic from lamp cord on down) and are equally as good as sets costing over 100 bucks.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp?xi=xi&ItemId=1611699214&ccitem=

The automatic strippers are not a gimmic. I've been using them on a weekly/sometimes daily basis for over 15 years, and they're awesome.
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 9:46 PM on May 7, 2005

I went for the canon D10 for exactly this reason. I got sick of pictures of people turning away, eyelids at half mast. I just bought the new sony cybershot t33, as a second, carry around snappy, and I love it. A wee bit soft in the lensing, but great color, amazing screen, and the response time is excellent for a 400 dollar camera.
Even has a nifty, auto-winder sound effect when you press the button.
Cons are that it's not that great in low light, and no RAW.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 10:04 AM on April 24, 2005 marked best answer

Thanks for the quick advice.

Forgive me for sounding like an idiot, but do the blinds come before you get your two cards, like an ante? Or do they happen after your two cards but before the flop? Thanks mischief for the estimated game times, that helps a lot.
Also, does it always go: small blind, then big blind?
For limit hold'em with that $10 buy in, is $2 a reasonable big bet, with the blinds and the limit doubled after a couple hours?
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 8:47 PM on April 23, 2005

Sorry, I'm running 10.3.8 on a 17" 1.5ghz powerbook.
By "camera control" I mean software that will communicate with this camera, tell it when to take a picture, and give me either sequential photos, automatically taken at predetermined intervals, that I can compile into a time-lapse, or do that for me in the software. All three of the programs you mentioned do something like that, as does istop motion, it seems that either
A. I lack the proper usb driver... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 10:43 PM on April 8, 2005

I'm very late to the party, but add these two thoughts:
I used to work as an assistant for a Mexican Irish sculptor (Chico MacMurtrie- no kidding) who was fluent in both spanish and english, with nary an accent in either. He made excellent quesadillas for snacks, but only referred to them in my presence as "Cheese Crisps" If I said quesadilla, anglicized or not, he'd simply respond with "cheese crisps" until I gave in.

There's a story... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 2:52 AM on April 8, 2005

I'd also like to point out that the $5 they're promising you comes out of the employees pockets. While this may act as a deterrent in some cases, Denny's used to have a policy that they had to tell you about their desserts or it was on the house.
Of course, "on the house" meant "your waitress pays for it". Seems like they're being generous, but as always, it's at the expense of the employees.
I remember working in a movie theater, it didn't occur... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 9:18 PM on April 2, 2005

I'll add two:

A friend once did "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadder, here I am at, Camp Granada..." and only midway discovered that it's like twice as long as "American Pie". Wow that was excruciating.

The other is dykes singing "What's going on" by 4 Non Blondes.
When someone starts screaming "and I said HAY UH HAY UH HAY UH HAY UH..." It's clearly time to go outside for a cigarette.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 8:39 PM on March 31, 2005

Wow, I could write about this for days…
20 years ago or so, I had a girlfriend join a Cult in NYC called Direct Centering (don’t know if they’re still around). I talked with a deprogrammer about her plight, and ended up becoming very interested in cults and their techniques in general. I ended up doing their “Course” which lasted 3 days, and even (as part of my research) went to see Werner Erhard speak at the Felt Forum in NYC. An amazing experience, mostly to see how well... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 1:09 AM on March 21, 2005