My goal for the year 2010 is to try one new thing every week. I'm compiling a list of new things to try, and would love input! Looking for ideas in all different areas -- new skills to learn, new hobbies to try out, fix-it projects, tech/computer projects, new recipes to try, magic tricks, you name it.
posted by stennieville to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 11 at 10:39 AM
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Abandoned in a hat in the middle of a snowdrift as a newborn, rescued by a woodsman and guarded by a lioness, stolen and raised by a wood nymph, instructed in the ways of all the languages of the animals as a child, on the threshold of manhood he visited medieval Europe, feudal Japan, and Arabian markets to learn the inherent evil of humanity. For his insistence on toymaking, he was terrorized and repeatedly captured by a race determined to corrupt young minds, until his immortal protector came out to defend him with a laser-shooting axe which eradicated the malevolent culture. But can that same protector defend his ward's life to the likes of the Commander of the Wind Demons? The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause, a Rankin/Bass production, Part
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
posted by Navelgazer to MetaFilter at Dec 7 at 8:12 PM
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Is it a grand gesture to anonymously give a woman I think is beautiful a banjo?
At the beginning of this semester, I briefly was in a relationship with a woman who I cared a great deal about. It didn’t end well, and really, it couldn’t have ended well. We have nothing in common. But as it is, I still think she is beautiful, and I’d like to do something truly grand, both to make this world a better (albeit stranger) place, and to give myself some closure.
posted by Archibald Edmund Binns to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 12 at 2:09 PM
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True story. My friend's mother once claimed that if you burned a D&D book, you could hear the demon inside the book screaming in pain.
"OK, Mom, tell you what," my friend said. "I paid $20 of my lawnmower money for this here Dungeon Masters Guide. If you give me $20, you can burn this one, and then we can settle this stupid st...
posted by Cool Papa Bell to MetaFilter at Dec 8 at 5:58 PM
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Let me see if I understand how this ACORN thing has worked.
They register voters. They tend to register poor people, who tend to vote Democrat, so that had to be stopped. The Republican narrative is that ACORN was deliberately registering non-existent people to defraud the election, which contributed to Obama's win. The reality is that several e...
posted by Astro Zombie to MetaFilter at Dec 8 at 10:10 AM
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"The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue."
THEY ARE CALLED EXPERTS BECAUSE THEY HAVE EXPERTISE AND SPENT MANY YEARS OF THEIR LIVES STUDYING AND LEARNING A THING
THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM QUITTING EV...
posted by Optimus Chyme to MetaFilter at Dec 9 at 1:20 PM
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jessamyn [8:33]: gay elf sex means what?
*cortex [8:33]: Dragon Age
*cortex [8:33]: it's this new game
*cortex [8:34]: there's this elf
jessamyn [8:34]: okay
*cortex [8:34]: he's gay
jessamyn [8:34]: you can stop at this point
*cortex [8:34]: and you can totally have sex with him
jessamyn [8:34]: and by you
jessamyn [8:34]: you do not mean...
posted by jessamyn to MetaTalk at Dec 10 at 5:35 PM
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But, we've waged this war on Madison Avenue. I mean, so many of the commercials that come out there -- in the way of a message, what's really being said? Your life would be better if you could work a little less, if you didn't have to work so hard, if you could get home a little earlier, if you could retire a little faster, if you could punch out...
posted by delmoi to MetaFilter at Dec 9 at 4:42 AM
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I was a Harrah's employee during the time that Watanabe was losing his shirt.
I quit for a lot of reasons, but one of them will always stick out in my head: the woman who came to me crying hysterically and begging for a hotel room so she could continue gambling in order to finally win and pay off her house in foreclosure.
She couldn't sto...
posted by librarylis to MetaFilter at Dec 8 at 10:45 AM
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James Cameron. The Dude who directed Piranha 2, Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2, The Abyss, True Lies and Titanic, a fucking filmmaker who makes entertaining movies has a new film. It is expensive, but apparently very entertaining.
And instead of "Hey neat, I might go see that new film from James Cameron" we get "Fuck Him, Fuck...
posted by Lord_Pall to MetaFilter at Dec 12 at 6:39 AM
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Apparently, 140 extra private jets and 1200 extra limos will be brought in for this environmental summit. "The eleven-day conference, including the participants' travel, will create a total of 41,000 tonnes of "carbon dioxide equivalent", equal to the amount produced over the same period by a city the size of Middlesbrough."
...
posted by Theta States to MetaFilter at Dec 9 at 1:20 PM
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My wife was born dead and revived. I had horrific allergies that might've been life-threatening in a previous time. My daughter was delivered via emergency C-section when she, so help me, got stuck. She was just a wee bit too late to meet her great-great-grandmother who did get to see other members of the fourth generation of her progeny.
This e...
posted by codswallop to MetaFilter at Dec 13 at 8:31 PM
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It's sad that the people who believe INFRINGEMENT = STEALING are so short sighted that they fail to see the greater theft, that of the mountains of works which should be entering the public domain in a timely fashion, and instead are locked up under copyright for what will certainly be the rest of our lives.
I have yet to see a member of the sim...
posted by mullingitover to MetaTalk at Dec 13 at 12:44 AM
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If you are a blue collar worker, or are in some service industry, you will be treated with real disdain by people who are not blue collar workers, or who are not in some service industry.
Maybe not disdain, I don't think that's the right word. Not contempt, either. I don't know right now what the word is. The fact is that you are invisible. ...
posted by dancestoblue to MetaFilter at Dec 9 at 8:11 AM
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Is there any tactful way to pursue this other girl?
Sure. First, break up with your girlfriend. Second, realize that she was drunk-flirting at a party and that there may be some less charitable reads of her behavior - for instance, someone who flirts with someone else who is clearly in a committed relationship may be a little enamored of drama ...
posted by Miko to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 9 at 1:41 PM
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For you, the absence of catastrophe would be the real catastrophe, because you would have to face the things that really frighten you: the emptiness of your own lives; the shallow meaninglessness of your relationships; the worship of false gods that have let you down; the nagging possibility that you may someday be called to account for all that yo...
posted by Optimus Chyme to MetaFilter at Dec 9 at 2:41 PM
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it's that accidental strikes to her belly are likely, whether it's a spike from the other team or the elbow of a diving teammate.
By that logic, any woman with a toddler should be prohibited from becoming pregnant.
posted by GuyZero to MetaFilter at Dec 10 at 11:37 AM
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and comments 