Well, unless you genetically engineer the perfect mate in your basement laboratory, you're going to be marrying a flawed human being with all kinds of faults and frailties and foibles (like a weakness for alliteration, for instance), so it goes without saying that on some level, you're settling, I guess.
posted to MetaFilter by jonmc at 9:57 AM on February 10, 2008

> I wish I could talk to an older, wiser self who could tell me what is the right thing to do in the long run

Speaking. I won't lay claim to being wiser, but I am definitely older. I was bright, passionate and dissatisfied too when I was in my 20's. I was also a colossal flake and not so mature and I would find fault with ANY situation I spent more than a month at. I changed jobs several times, some lasting less than 9 months. Any of this sound... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Artful Codger at 7:47 PM on February 9, 2008

I thought bogging the question was proposing in the shitter.
posted to MetaFilter by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:01 AM on February 9, 2008

As a professional writer, I don't much care about "correct" usage (e.g. rules laid down from some authority) or the descriptive vs. prescriptive debate (though I completely agree with languagehat).

I care about what image -- if any -- a phrase evokes in the general reader's mind. Phrases are tools for evoking images. Everything else be damned, including origin, history and correctness. In fact, the ony reason I care about spelling and grammar is because, in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee at 9:02 AM on February 9, 2008

I would watch this show.

Most brilliantly written and executed sketch comedy EVAR. But I don't want to oversell it.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 11:42 AM on February 6, 2008

Aha. The cult of complaining about the cult of the quasi-significant number strikes again.

Round numbers love you, man. Why can't you love them back? Why you got to break their aesthetically striking if not actually intrinsically notable little hearts?
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 9:36 AM on February 4, 2008

I'm disappointed the shortest name didn't go to "Justin."
posted to MetaFilter by Mr Bismarck at 4:48 AM on February 4, 2008

My question is, with two years in the senate, if Obama was as white as chalk, would he be credible?

Because seven years in the state Senate of Illinois, four years as a community organizer, and eleven years lecturing on constitutional law was, what, sitting at home with his thumb up his ass?

Perhaps a better question to ask would be if Obama was white, would some people be as agitated about the idea he's only where he is because of his race, hmm?
posted to MetaFilter by XQUZYPHYR at 3:24 PM on February 2, 2008

We should all be a bit god-damned more critical than to surrender our votes and hearts after we see pop stars sing along with a political speech that contains nothing specific about anything.

Please people.

Who are you telling this to? Of course you should be more critical than that. It's up to you, though - assuming that people are supporting Obama because of a YouTube video is downright insulting.

I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 7:39 PM on February 2, 2008

A model of dot from 'A Bug's Life'.
posted to Ask Metafilter by sien at 3:26 AM on February 3, 2008 marked best answer

UPDATE: I'm not sure where to post this, it's been so long since I asked, but we took the kids to Bob Baker's Marionettes last week! Then to an old fashioned soda fountain for ice cream. And, OMG, they were so friggin' adorable!! First of all, only kids would be thrilled by the idea of sitting on the floor. And the place looked like some kind of magical secret hideaway. Their eyes could not soak it up enough. The little girl turned to her dad and said, "Only kids who give back 100... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by generic230 at 8:07 PM on January 29, 2008

Here's what men want: sex, money, power, glory, and fame.

No, if that's anything, that's what young men want.
posted to MetaFilter by aspo at 5:30 PM on January 30, 2008

languagehat, I'm with you that a point in this neighborhood could be made. ("The Man Show", celebrating being stupid and childishly cruel - eg Tucker Max - as main features of being a man, as aspirations for adults, these are indeed harmful trends that weren't as much around in the 70s.) And certainly something like adolescence is expanding. But it's expanding for college-educated women too. She seems to think because women spend their time... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 9:51 AM on January 31, 2008

The Mrs. favors "grooming the poodle" when referring to the act.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SMELLSLIKEFUN at 3:29 PM on January 29, 2008

Is there any way to informally discourage the exact same comments from being posted every time a celebrity's death is memorialized in post form?

Yes. We could not feed the trolls.

It's amazing how many people post things like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35. How long have we had the internet now? And how long has MeFi been around? And we... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by DevilsAdvocate at 8:55 AM on January 23, 2008

When you respond to trolls in the Heath Ledger thread, it just proves that you don't care enough about trolls who post in other threads at the same day, but unfairly escaped you attention because they're weren't trolling in the thread of someone famous. There are trolls making fun of people in Africa! There are trolls making fun of people who died in car crashes! But, in our celebrity obsessed culture, they just don't warrant mention, do they?
posted to MetaTalk by Astro Zombie at 9:01 AM on January 23, 2008

Coming into a thread several hundred comments in and demanding that people who care are obvious misguided or whacky or have stupid priorities is not a differing viewpoint. It's an act of aggressive rudeness, akin to eavesdropping on people in a restaurant and then butting in to lecture them on how wrong they are.

Anyone who thought the Ledger discussion was pointless or trite was free to walk on by and find something more worthy of their attention, or constructively... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by phearlez at 9:35 AM on January 23, 2008

In Cheparinov's defense, it was reported by multiple eyewitnesses that minutes before the match was to have begun, Short had been spotted backstage vigorously polishing his bishop.
posted to MetaFilter by Atom Eyes at 10:40 AM on January 22, 2008

I remember one evening 4-5 years ago when a friend I sometimes buy dope from called me up. "Get the fuck over here!" he whispered. "Right the fuck now!, you want to be here!" was all the clarification I got before he hung up.

A few minutes later I was down the street in his basement, looking at Heath Ledger and a few random australian dudes, sitting around passing a joint. For some reason, when Heath was looking for weed while filming Brokeback... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chudmonkey at 2:30 PM on January 22, 2008

I disagree with people who are certain that AI won't make any progress in the near future.

I think it's clear to most people (outside of MIT) that the current approaches have played out, and there are a lot of young smart people trying everything under the sun right now. If ever a field was ripe for a breakthrough, AI is it.



Pssh, speak for yourself, my farts already smell awesome.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tkolar at 8:52 AM on January 22, 2008

Maybe it's not the case any more, but it used to be that if you left out the http:// part of the href= the result wouldn't link properly (maybe appending your href= text to the end of the current page's address?).

A test:

google, without http://
google, with http://

I never thought to bring it up (and made the mistake myself a few times), but is there any reason not to recode this to work as one would expect... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by nobody at 11:38 PM on January 21, 2008

Wow. Just wow. I'm in tears, but so incredibly hopeful. Earlier today I was feeling a little downtrodden—maybe it was the rain, or Monday malaise, the ridiculous amount of $$ I spent on groceries, the Huffington posters which are now leaning against my wall (thanks to this post) and reminding me of the current sorry ass state of American politics, or the homeless woman I drove past today, just general blahs, who knows, there are lots of reasons to get caught up in oneself or allow disheartening... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by iamkimiam at 11:59 AM on January 21, 2008

I would check out this movie. It's changed my outlook a lot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgiving_Dr._Mengele

You may have a touch of OCD. I know from experience that if you have a touch of it (I do), it's very hard to get a thought out of your head. One thing I learned (from the Anxiety and Phobia Workbook) is that if you have the thought running in your head, you can say outload to yourself, forcefully "Stop!Stop!Stop!". Maybe... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by sully75 at 7:39 AM on January 21, 2008

I'm not sure if music like this could be made on purpose.

That right there's pretty close to precisely the appeal of the Shaggs. It sounds like music made by people who invented their instruments earlier that day, and have sort of half-discovered just enough of the basics of melody and harmony to bang out a few tunes, and this extraordinary capture-of-fire discovery is so singular they simply must slap these swatches into the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gompa at 10:24 PM on January 20, 2008

This sounded very familiar, like a Todd Barry sketch...

Aaaand, this seems to indicate likewise as well!
posted to Ask Metafilter by NikitaNikita at 10:57 AM on January 20, 2008

Yeah, I should probably change that. I think the original thinking was you might want to know what else they favorited so I tried to save a step and take you right to that instead of dumping onto their userpage, but I could see how that's confusing. I'll change it.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 9:42 AM on January 18, 2008

I like these sorts of questions. They come up every so often with regards to one author or another. Should we publish the letters about dirty panties that Joyce wrote to Nora Barnacle? Etc.

Personally, I'd much rather that the work not be burned. But that's because I like Nabokov and have a quidnunc interest in seeing what he wrote. But if I were his son, or if I were advising his son, I'd have the stories be burned. It seems like a weird fetishization of "the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by painquale at 12:30 AM on January 18, 2008

If God can do anything, why can't he make a good video game?

Can God make a videogame so awful even He won't play it?
posted to MetaFilter by Legomancer at 6:12 PM on January 17, 2008

Well, apologies for being sappy, but don't do anything. What's coming will be challenging but immensely more gratifying than your previous life.

A few people have mentioned that you should sleep. Okay, sleep, but it's not as though you will look back any less longingly at sleeping though the night. But the sleep interruption lasts a couple of years. Nothing.

Your childless self should, in my opinion, instead be looking forward excitedly to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Turtles all the way down at 4:54 PM on January 16, 2008

Organize your whole house. All the rooms. All your closets. Your office. Weed out your possessions. Go through all the boxes stashed in the basement/attic/under the bed. Put important papers in an important-paper file folder. Clean it all. Then make up some kind of weekly cleaning routine, whatever suits you, and write it down, just some guidelines to follow so you can stay on top of keeping everything in order with minimal effort. If there were one thing I could go back and make sure to do... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Melinika at 6:35 PM on January 16, 2008

I want to say right now that anyone who tries to make the argument that Christianity is no more viable a belief system than Scientology should be dragged out into the street and shot. (not really.) While we're all free to disbelieve anything we want, Christianity at least has the benefit of not having a single heavily provably documented charlatan that created the religion in order to get rich. Belief in its doctrine is based entirely on Brainwashing and Pyramid Schemes. And not that societal... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by shmegegge at 3:16 PM on January 15, 2008

*You* implemented that checkbox?

Yeah. It's the one labeled "If you don't want to see the unanimated version of this application, uncheck this box"
posted to MetaTalk by tkolar at 9:32 PM on January 15, 2008

#835030 +(2478)- [X]
(Khassaki) HI EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!
(Judge-Mental) try pressing the the Caps Lock key
(Khassaki) O THANKS!!! ITS SO MUCH EASIER TO WRITE NOW!!!!!!!
(Judge-Mental) fuck me
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 1:56 AM on January 15, 2008

That was wrong of him, and not a normal thing to do. Whether it "counts" as sex or rape or whatever, it's understandable that it's very upsetting! WTF, jerky guy?

It seems like it's a borderline case of sex and also of rape -- doesn't seem to be clearly either one. It's such a borderline case that I really think you should choose to view it in whatever light makes most sense to you. The point is not to decide on which words to use, but to come to an... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by LobsterMitten at 10:05 PM on January 14, 2008

Don't snowjob us, languagehat. I've met Alaskan Native Americans, and they love nothing more than to loll about, stroking the snow and dissecting in a rhyming verse of synonymns the quality and character of each frozen patch they come to.

Alaskan Native Americans: absinthe-drinking weather poets of the tundra.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 6:23 AM on January 11, 2008

Here's a list I put together for pundits.

Bad Stuff About Hillary.

Did you know that in her first marriage Hillary Clinton was married to a man who was once twice her age?

Fact: Hillary Rodham was born October 26, 1947. Her first husband, Bill Clinton, was born August 19, 1946. When Hillary was 13 months old, Bill was 26 months.

Did you know that Hillary was never cleared of wrongdoing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dances_with_sneetches at 1:41 PM on January 10, 2008

I think we should also have a "Recent Pluperfect Meetups" page, for meetups that recently had been going to have happened.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s at 10:03 AM on January 10, 2008

One time, I was in a sold out movie theater for the premiere of a blockbuster (can't recall which), and we arrived late and were relegated to the front row. When the previews started, they were blurry and difficult to watch; slowly but surely, cries of "focus!" began echoing throughout the large room.

After a few minutes, the majority of the crowd was chanting in unison: "Fo-CUS! Fo-CUS! Fo-CUS!" over and over, demanding that the problem be rectified.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ORthey at 11:40 AM on January 9, 2008

Discuss.

No.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 3:09 PM on January 8, 2008

That's awesome, Mr Zombie. My kids have specifically requested I not put faces on their food because it squicks them out (I have no complied with this request--"builds character" is my reply). Another good one is cutting a sandwich into cubes and building a fort. Or cut it into a long spiral and making it a maze.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 12:21 PM on January 9, 2008

On giving money to the homeless: I do this without qualm. If they get enough to buy drink, they'll spend the leftovers on food.

I agree with Dr Johnson:

"Why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence? It is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:40 PM on January 7, 2008

Heh, I do all of these things, except moderate my swearing, which is an unconscious black flood from my mouth at all times. My girlfriend, having a more "professional" job, has learned to say "Crumbs!" instead of "fucking bullshit, man, that's some motherfucking bullshit," when the diner only has mixed fruit jelly.
posted to MetaFilter by klangklangston at 5:03 PM on January 7, 2008

Sk4n, what the hell are you talking about? No it doesn't.

Anyway, this is a GREAT post.
posted to MetaFilter by Terminal Verbosity at 9:41 AM on January 8, 2008

stammer, I think you're right in much of what you say. But it seems to me that for a long time, a lot of what the role that American presidents have played has been figurehead, cheerleader, public face, or, to put it negatively, and thinking of the incumbent, puppet. Better communicators like Reagan or Clinton, regardless of the actual powers they wielded or decisions they made, are to varying degrees lionized by history (even in the face of their glaring weaknesses).... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:01 PM on January 6, 2008

I loathe threaded discussions. Every conversation instantly splinters into dozens of essentially unrelated one-on-ones; the same ideas get repeated in multiple threads, because nobody can bother to read them all; and the noise factor instantly gets upped by a million percent because now people can derail with glee because, hey, it's not a derail, it's just its own thread!!! Kewl!!!

if all the noise had been contained to its own sub-thread,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ook at 9:21 AM on January 4, 2008

He rubbed one out in thirty seconds, while the two of you were waking up? And it seemed kind of violent? I'm wondering if he was waking up from a sexual dream, and his body was already in the vinegar strokes before he was even fully conscious. Happens to the best of us, male and female.
posted to Ask Metafilter by freshwater_pr0n at 9:25 PM on January 3, 2008

"Condescendish" returns 0 hits on a Google search. Well done.
posted to MetaFilter by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:35 PM on January 2, 2008

Personally, the word webinar elicits the same fight-or-flight response as candiru.
posted to MetaFilter by LinusMines at 2:34 PM on January 1, 2008

And on the subject of 1984, from the man himself. An old 'un, but a good 'un.
posted to MetaFilter by YouRebelScum at 2:21 AM on January 2, 2008

....but perhaps we could maintain a bit more, you know, dignity.

I think that the ideal place to start working on that is a thread about farting.
posted to MetaFilter by louche mustachio at 1:05 PM on January 1, 2008