Sleep, plenty of water, quiet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 3:24 PM on August 17, 2008

If you don't take an active interest in what you eat then you will fail on your weight loss programme. Sorry to be so blunt but that's just the way it is.

Sign up to weightwatchers online and input everything you eat. You'll soon develop a picture of what works for weight loss and what doesn't. You'll be amazed how some food brands carry much more calories than others.

Tracking calorific intake in real time helped me to moderate my eating... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 7:57 AM on June 22, 2008

Our product may be out of this world but our service is the best on the planet.

We [heart] space hardware.

When Huston has a problem, we sort it.

"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them."
Albert Einstein
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 1:55 PM on May 29, 2008

There are some unusual biodynamic wines you should check out at Racines, a small wine bar with good food in Passage des Panorma.

Also, Chez Georges on rue de Mail is a friend's favourite. Then there is Willi's Wine Bar on rue de Grandchamps and Aux Lyyinaisse by the Bourse.

One of the greatest restaurants I have ever been to (I went late on a sunday evening, on my own) is called maison blanche. I had a tasting menu, I think, but I remember that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 1:05 PM on May 27, 2008

Go to the old favourites for comfort:

Mack the knife (start softly, belt it out around "lady ella too)
Sweet Caroline (start building it at "warm touchin warm")

Then there's:

I fought the law and the law won (Go crazy at "I left my baby and I feel so bad")
I love rock 'n' roll - Joan Jet (corny, but the whole room will join in)
Likewise, Come on Eileen by Dexys (gets everyone going)
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 2:46 AM on May 25, 2008

I've just picked up on a husband and wife writing team from the sixties: Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Try the 10 novel "Martin Beck" detective stories.

Beck, an enigmatic, unhappily married character arguably set the trend for the world weary detective characters we see proliferating book shelves today.

Should be a decent summer read.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 1:31 AM on May 24, 2008

How about:

an impromptu choir practice
a city-wide treasure hunt
a tug-of-war competition
a circus skills training day - juggling, monocylcling etc.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 4:33 AM on May 19, 2008

You've got kids. You need fruit. Raspberries are easy - you can get a mix of summer and Autumn fruiting varieties. Blackberries are similarly easy to grow and you can't have too many strawberries.

If you want to put things in the ground and come back when they're done, grow potatoes and onions, though you'll still have to weed around them.

Tomatoes are actually quite fiddly to grow and carrots can be beset with problems. Try broad beans and peas.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 3:49 PM on May 12, 2008

My second child is due in three days. No thank you, we don't want the placenta. It just seems against the natural order of things.

Bury it under a tree quick.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 11:00 AM on May 5, 2008

Try weightwatchers online. It helps you hour by hour, day by day.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 10:54 AM on May 5, 2008

Clean towels. You can never have enough. Trust me on this.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 1:17 PM on April 27, 2008

This is the day your life will surely change.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 11:27 AM on March 16, 2008

Thank you all. I've redrafted what I'm going to say having considered a number of your comments. The words "Build stuff small, test it out then iterate, iterate, iterate" are going to appear. I'm also going to talk about:

Transparency, data mash-up and release, building confidence around data sharing,increased customer focus,wikinomics, open source solutions, My Society's "Power of Information" report and the need for in-house technology competence.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 8:18 AM on March 9, 2008

I spent ages to finally decide on a Canon. I was lucky enough to talk to one of the Guardian newspaper's top photographers. He said go Canon for the quality of the lenses. Seawallrunner is right - it is the lens that will make the difference to your photos.

So, I got the Canon and six weeks later my friend on the Guardian switched to a new Nikon. Still, he's at the high end and way out of my league.

Canon or Nikon - you'll be fine either way.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 11:06 AM on December 31, 2007

They're just asking what kind of design I want. Working on the principle that you should be careful what you wish for, I want to give them a clear steer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 3:11 PM on December 19, 2007

Steven Englund's Napoleon would be a good starting point. Good for politics at least.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 3:38 PM on November 25, 2007

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Usually read in your twenties, only understood in your forties.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 5:05 AM on November 25, 2007

Contentment is an under-rated pursuit in this day and age. Can you find it in this relationship? Can someone else help the two of you find it? If he loves you and values his family, he will go to counselling with you.

On the WYSIWYG argument; people change. It sometimes takes men a longer in life to realise what's important to them but they get there in the end.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 3:10 PM on January 14, 2007

You have two options here:

1. Buddhistic calm. You only get angry if you allow him to make you angry. Just let his arsey prejudice float over you. Develop pity. You feel sorry for the guy. He doesn't know any better because he is inferior to you. That's a shame. You wish you could help him out but alas, you can't. Poor, poor man. Make him cups of tea and be exceptionally nice to him. You'll go home feeling much calmer and more virtuous.

2.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 1:36 PM on November 25, 2006

How can we ever know what bleak abyss a human must dive into in order to take their own life. You have to be suicidal to know why he killed himself.
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 12:54 PM on November 25, 2006

It sounds like you are going to be in Cities for most of your trip so there will be many interntet cafes for you to pick up emails. You probably wont need the laptop.

I've just spent a weekend in Berlin. You will not be disappointed, nor I suspect, will you be too cold. Most of the hotels and bars we visited were very warm. At that time of year, there will be strange wooden sheds that serve gluewein. These places are like saunas without the steam. Your main problem will... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by baggymp at 12:40 PM on November 25, 2006