I'll chime in and hit some low hanging fruit here. If you're going to go the Batman route check out Hush and Arkham Asylum once you have a sense of the characters and history.

V for Vendetta isn't a superhero comic, but if you like Watchmen or the movie version I'd strongly recommend it. Also, I would NOT recommend Wanted, which someone did, since it tries to do for villains what Watchmen did for superheros, but despite a good opening act it fails by being juvenile and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 11:44 AM on July 1, 2008

As a child my mother kept two subsequent turtles, one land turtle and one semi-aquatic turtle so I might as well give the rundown on them to give an idea of the differences and the care involved.

The semi-aquatic turtle needed a huge plastic storage box full of shallow water. No idea what species it was, but my mother called it a Chinese swamp turtle and it liked to be in water almost all the time but couldn't actually swim all that well. There was a filtration system... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 3:54 AM on June 20, 2008

Same thing as the other posters, ten up business cards is a very common style and you'll find them on the Avery website without too much trouble. Avery templates can be pretty well customized in Word with a little finicking.

However, if you have access to Adobe InDesign and know how to use it, I'd recommend that as a more efficient alternative. It'll go much quicker to set up new cards once you have the initial printing dimensions set. I'm particularly thinking in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 12:19 PM on May 21, 2008

In the interest of not repeating other people's answers, I'll say that The Matrix closed out the 90's pretty well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 5:10 PM on May 15, 2008

I think it's important to point out that software piracy is taking some of the pressure off the need to own an actual copy. If something is priced reasonably, a game will usually sell pretty quickly, but once the price creeps up the only people who are interested anymore are collectors who want to own a physical copy and are looking for mint editions.

If you want a sense of an average price, try going to a place that carries used video games and see how much they are... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 2:53 PM on April 29, 2008

I've never played a Call of Cthulhu game, so I don't know how helpful this answer will be, but I know that there is a setting for it called Delta Green where you play as a secret government organization fighting against the forces of madness, X-files style.

I'd imagine that it would at least have some examples of characters that break less easily. Perhaps someone else could offer more information about it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 6:02 PM on April 27, 2008

Hello Mr. zebra by Tori Amos has a strong Bond vibe and references Moneypenny.
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 9:00 PM on April 26, 2008

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is probably longer than you're looking for, but it goes well with Catcher in the Rye and is about growing up, alienation, mental illness and betrayal.

If you're wiling to expand your answer to films, I'd say Donnie Darko is similar thematically once you get past the weird sci-fi stuff, and there is also a movie called Chasing Holden about a boy who is obsessed with catcher in the Rye. It was much better than I was expecting and is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 4:25 PM on April 26, 2008

There aren't a lot of fps type games that are going to be kid friendly. I know I started out on the Mario games as a kid, and those really are classics.

I would not recommend Descent. I only played it a little, but it was very challenging and being able to move in any direction can get bewildering quite fast. Chex Quest would be fine, but it's looking very dated these days.

The only one that comes to mind is a version of Myst they made called... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 8:01 AM on March 2, 2008

Not quite the same thing since it was limited to country music, but maybe look at this thread for some suggestions in a similar vein.

http://ask.metafilter.com/84013/Satin-sheets-rich-apparently
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 11:18 PM on February 29, 2008

This is only an issue to you. Disliking how you look in some form or another is common, but really very few people actually notice whatever detail it is you're obsessing over, and even if they do notice it's unlikely that they consider it as anything more than trivial. The people in your life aren't lying to you, and you should take them at their word. If they acted at first like they didn't know what you were talking about, that's because they probably didn't.

From... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 5:51 AM on February 18, 2008

You've got it right I think

Here is a photo I just took of some English instructions that you can judge against. Generally you cook the stuff just a little longer than cup ramen, and its best if you leave just a tiny bit of water in it so the powder mixes and it doesn't get too dry..
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 2:18 PM on February 12, 2008

It's hard to describe, but after working in a copy center I'm much more aware of the size of paper goods. Like 8 1/2 x 11 inches is the standard sheet of paper everything is geared around, and if you cut that sheet in half you've got a greeting card size, and if you cut the sheet into quarters you've got postcard sized. When I'm presented with an unusual piece of printing outside of work I find myself considering how to duplicate it. Same thing goes for print quality.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 2:06 PM on February 12, 2008

I am not a game designer, I simply enjoy MMOs, but here are some tips to point you in the right direction. First off, don't look at Second Life or Project Entropia as good examples because they both rely fairly directly on the player pumping cash into the system to get any sort of buying power, and the more your game is an actual game (and not SL's glorified 3D chat room) the more alienating this will seem to the player. Secondly, realize that while Eve is a good example of a robust economy,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 4:04 AM on February 10, 2008

While not technically a single movie, Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably the most counter intuitive title for a show about giant robots. The words in it tie into the show thematically, and the robots are called Evangelions, but it was picked out by the director to be deliberately obscure.

Sword of Doom is an awesome movie, and the title is perfect for it, but there isn't anything that is special about the protagonist's sword aside from his technique and personality.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 1:12 PM on February 7, 2008

Watching 12 Monkeys followed by Fight Club shows Brad Pitt evolving his slightly generic crazy role in the first film to the excellent performance in Fight Club as Tyler Durden.

You can see the same sort of evolution in Jean Reno's hitman character between the movies La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional where he goes from a bit part to a nuanced role. Those movies aren't linked, though they are thematically similar and by the same director.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 12:31 PM on February 7, 2008

I suspect non-perishables is probably the best answer you're going to get, but in the flavor of Philip K. Dick I'd like to suggest kipple as a possible single descriptive word for the stuff, but only if it is aggressively gathering dust.
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 8:43 AM on January 24, 2008

As the long distance friend of someone who is married, I'll add my thoughts on the situation. I think that in a relationship like the one that your S.O. has with the far-away woman, the level of sexual intimacy can be quite deep even with the distance between them being insurmountable, so the natural result is to day-dream and fantasize and bridge the gap in little ways that doesn't really cross boundaries. It's natural to wonder the "what if's" of the situation and imagine what it'd... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by CheshireCat at 2:07 PM on January 11, 2008