I do believe you've got yourself a thirteen-lined ground squirrel there.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 10:37 PM on July 26, 2008 marked best answer

Good News by Edward Abbey. Perhaps Nightfall.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 7:02 PM on June 27, 2008

Nthing the Goodtime here, it's the model I learned on. I'd add that you should look around at your local pawn shops a fair bit prior to buying one new. I picked up a used Goodtime in fantastic condition a couple years ago for just over $100 from a local pawn shop.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 7:07 PM on June 3, 2008

Tokyo Suckerpunch comes to mind.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 9:31 PM on March 23, 2008

Most of the people you'll meet in law school will be disgusting degenerates, and the ones who aren't horrible human beings are married and don't have time to make new friends. You won't make good contacts.

Christ, a little perspective? My brother is in law school now and I've visited with him and his friends. It's a top 20 program, and the placement rates reported post-graduation are pretty good. Not just for folks who want to do the bar but for... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 10:33 PM on March 22, 2008

Also on the timepiece front, Nixie Clocks are some of the coolest ever.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 12:53 AM on March 18, 2008

I'm an American currently doing a MA in Australia, and went through the PhD application rigamarole around 3 months ago. All my PhD applications were to US schools, and since I was accepted I'll be heading back stateside later this year. So, all my graduate application process experience has been with applying abroad, relative to where I was living at the time.

I'll Nth what everyone says about the mail taking longer, though all the universities with which I dealt did... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 5:54 PM on March 11, 2008

Dammit, deathalicious beat me to it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 1:33 AM on March 4, 2008

Big hat tip to killdevil for the idea for the question.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 8:00 AM on March 3, 2008

I've actually stored cash in a computer before. I don't remember the reason why I did it, originally, but I ended up completely forgetting about it for nearly 2 years. Imagine my surprise -- and delight! -- to open up my desktop tower for some maintenance, only to find a wad of cash.

In that time it never caught fire, got ripped, blocked an air vent, or caused any other manner of mischief. I had left the bills laying, loose, on top of one of my CD-ROM drives in the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 7:04 PM on February 29, 2008 marked best answer

Sia - Breathe Me, perhaps?
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 11:03 PM on January 30, 2008

Salt mines! Do not miss the salt mines.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 4:22 AM on January 28, 2008

I'm no parent, but I'll offer up a quote I quite liked from the book Underground by the Australian author, Andrew McGahan:My mind went back to a conversation I'd had years ago with an old friend. He was a long-lapsed Catholic, but he had decided to send his son to a Catholic school. When I asked him why, he said one word: "Inoculation." His theory was this -- all religions and cults were dangerous, and he did not want his son involved in any of them. The problem was, if he... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 12:28 AM on December 31, 2007

Stop in Canberra along the way! We're 3 hours outside of Sydney, though, so you probably wouldn't want to crash there for the night. However, a trip to the War Memorial, up Telstra Tower, to the National Museum, or to the old and new Parliament Houses would be worthwhile.

Heading from the 'Berra to Melbourne you might head by Lake Eucumbene, and be able to see the remains of the old town of Adaminaby as the lake recedes. Old (dead) trees, building bases, steps,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 12:19 PM on December 29, 2007 marked best answer

Realized, far too late, that I had sullied the good name of the Ned Kelly Museum -- I actually meant to refer to the "Ned Kelly Show" (for which I can find no good links)! Corny, hokey, rather overpriced: The Ned Kelly Show in Glenrowan.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 1:26 PM on December 29, 2007

You'll be here during the National Folk Festival, which takes place in Canberra from March 20 - March 24. If you're into folk, bluegrass, irish, acoustic, etc etc etc music, it would definitely be up your alley.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 2:15 PM on December 29, 2007

In "Blue Latitudes", Tony Horwitz travels around the world to the locations visited by Captain Cook (sometimes on a replica of the Endeavour), reading and recounting Cook's journals along the way. I highly recommend.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 5:29 PM on December 20, 2007

I think I might actually take a different tack than you're thinking, as in my experience cameras just love to die during remote fieldowrk. If I had $600 to spend, I might buy three identical $200 cameras or two identical $300 cameras that met my base requirements rather than one $600 camera. If (rather: when) you're way out in the boonies and something happens to the camera you're using, I bet you'll prefer to have one or two extra low-quality cameras than to have... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 11:43 PM on December 11, 2007

Have you asked them how they feel about the whole shebang? I know that when I was a kid, I got over the whole shebang pretty early. You might be surprised to find out that your kids might want nothing more than an undecorated tree and a few strands of tacky blinky lights. Ask them!
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 3:11 AM on December 2, 2007

amyms, sounds like a great time (and excuse) to transfer the primary decorating duties to the kids, then! "You're old enough to decide how the decorating should be done; have at it kids! Mom's going to just sit here with some wine and direct things." In a few years they'll be in their own places and doing all their own decorating, couch it in terms of being a preparatory experience for their future.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 3:33 AM on December 2, 2007 marked best answer

I believe it says "Bochkarev [name of the beer] celebrates the new year!" The Comic Sans is a nice touch.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 2:37 PM on November 26, 2007

Thanks for the clarification, nasreddin. My Russian skills grow weaker by the minute. I really must practice ...
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 2:51 PM on November 26, 2007

Pretty nebulous answer here, but I have a friend doing some part-time study at a university in Istanbul and she says her courses are conducted in English.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 7:17 PM on November 24, 2007

You might check out Christian Williams (Gothic Prarie Music). Here are tracks on the Hype Machine.

I don't have my Reeltime Travelers CDs happy, but I do know that there area few of their tracks that are exactly what you want.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 11:53 PM on November 5, 2007

"happy"? I'm an idiot. I don't have the CDs handy, so I can't give you track names, but ... etc.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 11:54 PM on November 5, 2007

I also use Commonwealth. Its online features are comparable with my bank back in the US, and the few times that I've had issues I've found the support personnel to actually be helpful. As jacalata says, they've made their web services much snazzier in the last week. To sum up: I use Commonwealth, and I can at least vouch for the fact that -- online -- they don't completely suck.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 7:10 AM on November 3, 2007

Granted you might trust us more, but I reckon the translation on footnote #1 on this Google Book Search results is probably pretty well-credentialed.

Unless you think Thomas Ollive Mabbott, a Poe scholar, isn't good enough.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 8:23 PM on November 1, 2007 marked best answer

Here are a few more, biased towards my CD collection:

"Like a Tiger" by Fourth of July is about a guy whose SO isn't nearby and is trying to decide whether to let a woman pick him up or not. Some lyrics, since they're not available online:She can't even think of what number drink But she waits for something to say to me
You see, I tend to lose count
And you're out of town
And she hopes for something to say to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 3:07 AM on September 16, 2007

ArscncHeart, you might want to save it for keeps from here (Quicktime) so you don't lose it again.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 11:07 AM on September 8, 2007 marked best answer

There are no Maccas in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 8:31 AM on September 6, 2007

Boy, this is an wide-open question, especially since we're talking about an undergrad level thesis. In my opinion, your friend needs to really take a narrow approach. Figure out a geographical area, a technology, a single site, etc. In particular, for undergrad level theses it seems like you can almost never go wrong with taking an approach that has been done in a different geographical region and applying it to a new one. For example, if GIS has been used to track early village sites in the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 1:36 AM on September 3, 2007

Thirding the gang from Repo Man. I think this little exchange sums them up pretty well:

Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes.
Duke: Yeah. Let's go get sushi and not pay.

posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 6:41 PM on August 27, 2007

A little more information on the episode (Source):

Dexter and Computress Get Mandark!

When a six-year-old boy sent in an episode idea on audio cassette, complete with voices (he did a pretty good Dexter, and his Mandark wasn't too shabby either), the show's producers decided to animate a story directly from the tape (complete with animation done as if a six-year-old did it all) about Dexter and "Mandark's sister Computress"... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 9:08 AM on August 19, 2007

Is this the scene you're thinking of?
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 8:54 AM on August 19, 2007 marked best answer

Magodesky, I could have written this exact question a couple years ago! I did the exercises in the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book, as cocoagirl suggests. The main benefit I gained from them was getting the confidence that I could possibly draw better, given practice and effort. I was so used to knowing people that seemed to be able to draw well without any effort that I totally discounted myself.

Anyways, fast forward a few years and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 4:59 AM on August 10, 2007

The main character of Snow Crash, Hiro Protagonist, is half-Korean and half-black.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 2:56 AM on August 9, 2007 marked best answer

The page linked in rtha's comment states that:

If the spider has a conspicuous web out where you can see it ... it is NOT a recluse.

Based on your pic, reckon it's no recluse. Seconding letting it live!
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 10:57 PM on August 7, 2007

I would add the highly underrated StarTropics to the list. Fantastic platformer, unique puzzles, fun game.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 1:55 AM on August 5, 2007

I blame it on my family being from the Rocky Mountain West, but I completely unable to say the "g" in any word like "walking", "talking", "seeing", etc. (walkin', talkin', seein'), I'd suggest that you add a word like that to your test sentence. Maybe "Debbie does fisting sex daily".
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 1:05 AM on July 22, 2007

Seconding the Schipperke. Go meet some today! They're a highly underrated sort of dog. And, according to Science, they are also just about too cute for words.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 6:40 PM on July 8, 2007

If you want a ride on a jet, it depends on how much "ultra-cheap" is to you. At the moment, at Airfare Watchdog, you can get round-trip flights from DFW to other places in Texas for just under $100 per person, and round-trip to places farther away (e.g., Kansas City) for $140 or so.

A private plane ride would be a lot of fun, and not too expensive -- and probably more fun than going through airport security. Here's a company in Dallas that will take 2 people... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 9:49 PM on July 7, 2007

Damn, mckenny, you beat me to it. I agree with your sentiments entirely.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 8:16 AM on June 29, 2007

You all rock, thank you very much!
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 5:56 AM on May 20, 2007

Seconding IronLizard's Harbor Freight recommendation. When I did what you're doing (though I was doing so with an old Ford truck), Harbor Freight was practically my second home.

Good luck! It's great fun working on old vehicles, I've learned. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 6:52 PM on May 15, 2007

Barcelona by The Rentals
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 11:20 PM on April 8, 2007

A little alcohol can go a looooooooooong way.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 4:14 AM on March 10, 2007

That was a flippant response, but it's also my serious answer. I'd say I'm a bit like you (probably not as good of a public speaker, but I can get by), and I find that some liquid courage works wonders for being able to chat with people I would never ever talk to, otherwise. Don't overdo it. There's a fine line between chatty friendly guy and obnoxious drunk.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 4:16 AM on March 10, 2007

I'm sorry, this is only tangentially on-topic, but I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only guy with the Fry's-Dog-In-Futurama issue. I've seen that episode just once, and all the rest many times. It's good to know I'm not an isolated case.
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 5:25 AM on March 9, 2007

Budapest?
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 3:27 PM on March 6, 2007

Besides the first Albini link, there a few others that first accompanied it:

Some of your friends are already this fucked
posted to Ask Metafilter by barnacles at 2:22 PM on March 6, 2007