You threw him under the bus by not avoiding the whole situation. He was in a vulnerable place, when he's in your home turf, with the two people who love you most, who will always be on your side, it in that place is YOUR job to protect HIM from harm.

If I were you, I would apologize to him for dropping the ball, for showing yourself incapable of not regressing to such childish behavior when in your parents' home, and then call your parents, explaining to them that your... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:18 PM on September 4, 2008

If you are sick, you are sick and you should just take the day off and stop dwelling on it. Rather than your boss and co-workers, the one person you need get permission from is yourself. Just give yourself permission to take the day off. Realize that any other person in your office would do the same thing. Realize that most of them won't even realize you were gone for one day and probably won't even bring it up tomorrow unless you do first.
posted to Ask Metafilter by monkeydluffy at 2:21 AM on September 1, 2008

OK, I posted an ad for a guy on a TX craigslist and he got a lot of great responses and is actually dating a few girls at once (with full disclosure).

--DO NOT respond to F seeking M, it's a huge waste of time.

--DO post M seeking F, there's not as much spam and you get to sit and watch the responses roll in.

--DO use specifics. Instead of "I have a good sense of humor" write "I love stand-up comedy and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by sondrialiac at 12:16 PM on August 29, 2008

Relationships aren't suppose to suck. You deserve to look across the room at your guy, thinking "I'm the luckiest person in the world", and know he is thinking the exact same thing about you.

Do not settle for less.
posted to Ask Metafilter by socrateaser at 9:26 AM on July 10, 2008

(I'm going to assume that you are a guy; if you aren't, hopefully some of this will apply in some way anyway.)

Do you jerk off? Stop. Not forever, just until you are reliably coming from sex with her. Think of it as retraining your body or a "sex hack" or whatever keeps you from pulling the pud, but stop for the time being. Your only sexual release should come from or with her -- if it involves your hand, if she's not an active participant you don't get to do... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Forktine at 8:28 PM on June 27, 2008

After 12 years of marriage where the sex has only gotten better I can only add this:

Establish the rule that each of you are in charge of your own orgasm and the other must obey the directives of this rule. Like everybody said above be explicit.

Don't fuck in a bed.

Don't fuck laying down.

Don't fuck as much at night. If you do the lights stay on and do it early—not at bed time.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by tkchrist at 10:07 PM on June 27, 2008

IAAMAASB (I Am a Microbiologist And a Structural Biologist)

Your coworkers are probably talking about how the prevalence of antibiotics in various consumer products contributes to the rise of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. They're not wrong about that part, but most alcohol-based hand sanitizers rely on the action of alcohol, not antibiotics. The difference with respect to resistance lies in how these things kill or inhibit bacteria.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Mercaptan at 11:39 AM on April 9, 2008

And, despite being so obviously superior, the pay attention to you. They look right at you as you voice your dim thoughts, and they actually respond to what you say, or even kindlier, what you meant to say.

I just saw a perfect example of this this morning - watch, in that linked clip; Clinton pretty much locks his eyes on the questioner and never lets go. It's almost unsettling, but amazing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by joshuaconner at 5:11 PM on March 19, 2008

You might be interested in watching this documentary about people who deal with stuttering/stammering. I think the young girl specifically complained about people who finish words/sentences for her, but it's been a while since I watched it so I can't say for sure. In any case, I think it's a pretty good glimpse of what it's like to live with and try to overcome a significant stammer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stefanie at 12:05 AM on March 19, 2008

Your teacher is subscribing to something akin to a Cartesian view of the world. Descartes, way back when, said that humans are special because we have minds (and our minds are separate from our bodies). We are moral agents and we are capable of thought. The problem is... Animals aren't. Animals are just bodies. They have no mind. What this means is that animals are not capable of any mental activity. It may appear as though they feel emotion, or even basic pain. And... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Ms. Saint at 11:36 AM on October 16, 2007

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.

Apply what you learn from that book and everything else will follow.
posted to Ask Metafilter by COD at 11:41 AM on July 31, 2007

Anon, You appear to be gay friendly, but coming out is a scary scary moment. My father's best friend was a lesbian. My mother had two friends I grew up calling "Aunt" & "Uncle". Neither of those titles were applied to the appropriate gender. You'd think I would have had the easiest time coming out. Fact is, I'm still scared to do it. Oh, I'm sure my parents have figured out I'm gay, they stopped referring to my potential mates by gender specific pronouns ages ago.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by aristan at 8:56 PM on July 11, 2007

A friend of mine told her father, "Dad, I'm homosexual."

He was quiet for a second, then nodded slowly, and responded, "Daughter, I'm heterosexual."

That was the end of the conversation.

I rather liked that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by olinerd at 4:07 AM on July 12, 2007

Also, you can apple-click on the window's title to see a pop-up of where you are in the tree.
posted to Ask Metafilter by bonaldi at 7:39 PM on July 2, 2007

the permanent gallery of faces looks like the factory line where our alien overlords no doubt weed out seconds from their android production run before secretly seeding the quality-endorsed models amongst the normal human population: "fine, fine, fine, argh! - mutant baby crossed with a pig!, fine, fine..."
posted to MetaFilter by UbuRoivas at 6:03 AM on June 18, 2007

"If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life. "

- Henry David Thoreau.
posted to Ask Metafilter by nasreddin at 6:30 PM on June 5, 2007

In the end you learn that if you have goals and you want to meet them, then you buckle down and do it. And although, laziness, lack of practice, whatever, sends you away from your desk after 5 minutes, you go and put a load of laundry on and sit at your desk again, and again and again.

Don't pay so much attention to how you feel. Set your goals (study for this long, read this many pages, understand this bit of theory) and then do it.

It's not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by b33j at 12:12 PM on June 5, 2007

What you have described is quite often the curse of the gifted student. You spend your childhood learning things easily while your classmates struggle. Unfortunately, this means that your classmates learned a much more important life skill that you never did--dedication to completing a difficult task.

Seriously, do you think other people really enjoy slaving over their homework while you bang out A-quality work in a few minutes? Do you think there's some special... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by turaho at 1:18 PM on June 5, 2007

I've been sliding up and down the scale (not a euphemism!) all my life. Not just in terms of behaviour, in terms of which gender I find actually fancy - it's never one or the other exclusively, but there have been periods when one gender or the other has won out by a huge margin for years at a time. Whether this means people could change their orientation, I don't know, but as a sometimes non-simultaneous bisexual, if you know what I mean, I'd say it is at least possible to be gay one minute... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jack_mo at 9:37 AM on May 16, 2006

It's going with friends, but with less banter and stuff during the slow times. Not quite as much fun, but still well worth it.

However, the most important thing is that if you are dependant on friends coming to be able to do things, you will spend your life missing out on things you want to do. Friends are great when they're there, but they can't always be there - never, ever, get into the habit of not doing things you want to, just because people... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by -harlequin- at 6:46 PM on May 26, 2007

Oooh, had to come back in and overthink a plate of sushi -- I figured out why it makes me (at least) feel so good to watch this.

When you see a stranger's face, it generally falls into one of three categories:

1. Face to face, and since they're a stranger to you, they look at you like strangers look at strangers; wary, indifferent, guarded, etc.

2. Through the lens of a camera held by a person, and since they generally... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davejay at 5:18 PM on May 25, 2007