Ask MetaFilter posts by klangklangston

Los Angeles Business Cards

klangklangston — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:46:11 -0800

LA business card printer? Anyone here have any recommendations for getting business cards printed in LA? I've been overwhelmed by the number of printers that I've found listed, and a couple that I've contacted have either not been "that kind" of printers or have been out of business (thanks, phone book!).

The ALA took my baby away.

klangklangston — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:13:50 -0800

Things to do in Anaheim on June 28th? I'm currently planning on driving down and dropping off my girlfriend at the ALA conference, then bummin' around until the meet-up at 8pm. I'm looking for things to amuse me. I like music, baseball, drinking, museums… Lunch ideas? Breakfast ideas? Things that I shouldn't miss? Cheap things?

I want my music back

klangklangston — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:50:16 -0800

iTunes failure. Version 6.0.5. Attempting to open it through terminal gives "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::out_of_range' what(): basic_string::substr" What does this mean? What are my options? I've kept 6.0.5 because it works with OurTunes and various other cheats around DRM, also because I haven't felt the need to upgrade. But it just stopped working (like, crashed) on Tuesday night and I haven't been able to find any advice since then on what to do.

LA LOCAL MUSIC

klangklangston — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:55:27 -0800

LOS ANGELES LOCAL BANDS, recommend me. I used to cover local music in Ann Arbor. Now that I've moved to LA, I'd like to engage in some more blatant localism, to cop from JFA. I read the Weekly, City Pages, Onion and Record. I keep up with a couple of local blogs. Still, I want more, especially based on the WEST side, including West LA, Westwood, Santa Monica, Venice and Culver City.

Please tell me: Their name, where they're based, WHAT THEY SOUND LIKE, whether they have shows coming up, whether they have records out, WHETHER THEY HAVE FREE SAMPLE MUSIC UP ANYWHERE.

I tend to favor weirdo punk like No Age, Crystal Antlers, Underground Railroad to Candyland, as well as pop, hard rock, jazz (preferably freakout/skronk jazz), metal and rap. But the important part is that they're local and they're playing out, and, ideally, I don't have to drive for an hour to see them.

GMAT tutor? Sure, why not.

klangklangston — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:29:31 -0800

GMAT tutor in Los Angeles? OK, so I was drunkenly and ironically bragging in this bar on Friday night that I was 28 and the only thing I was good at was standardized tests (based mostly on an SAT and ACT taken in, what, '96?).

Anyway, this guy from the bar got all excited (he seemed like an excitable guy) and started talking about paying me $40 to $60 an hour to tutor him for this GMAT thing. I tried to demure, being all like, "Uh… I met a guy at a party once who did that…" (true), but hell, I don't even know what the GMAT is until my girlfriend tells me on the way back to the car.

Longer story shorter: he wants to trade Dodgers tickets or pay someone to be his GMAT tutor for the aforementioned rate. I told him I'd ask around, and (not wanting to be someone who backs out of a drunken bar promise), I have been. What the hell, I'm also asking here.

Do any of you have recommendations for private tutors? Or maybe ten tips that I can parcel out to him?

PISS LASER!

klangklangston — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:08:39 -0800

PISS LASER! How to use urine most efficiently in carving of urinal cake? In one of those quixotic quests to amuse myself in an office building, I've been attempting to piss in the same place into a urinal cake every day, hoping to carve a hole through. But lately, the sheer numbers of people pissing in another, more obvious place on the cake (I picked mine because it was accessible and unlikely to be hit by as many confounding streams) have been digging deeper and faster than I have.

There have to be tricks of angle, or of motion, that will allow me to cut faster with roughly the same amount of urine. Should I be trying to hold steady on a single point, should I be attempting to hit it head-on, should I be attempting to change the chemical composition of my urine? What are the secrets used by miners with high-pressure hoses?

Picking up where I left off.

klangklangston — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:01:08 -0800

Creative Zen Nano 1gb— The damned thing's stopped resuming where I left off. Creative's customer support has been useless. For troubleshooting recommendations, please keep in mind that I have a Mac, but I use it mostly as a USB drive that can play mp3s. Theories: Internal battery dead? If so, can I open/replace it myself? Is it a firmware issue? A hardware issue?

I have tried clearing out everything from the drive that I'd put on. I'm hesitant about wiping the drive, though I suppose I could.

I attempted to use the Creative Zen forums and was ignored. Most people there seem like idiots anyway, and now I'm really annoyed at the no mac support official policy from Creative.

Minty fresh puke

klangklangston — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:39:20 -0800

Help me stop puking in the morning (toothpaste). I looked here, but there didn't seem to be an answer. I'm a guy, so I know it's not that I'm pregnant.

But I've tried switching toothpastes, and all of them seem to give me this thick coating of mucous in my mouth. I've always been sensitive to mucous, and when it gets to the back of my throat, I start to gag and then inevitably vomit.

It sucks, and I don't want to do it anymore.

Variables I've controlled for:

Eating/not eating. Eating a little something that doesn't include dairy, bread or fruit seems to be better than not eating anything, but finding a breakfast food that includes none of those things is kinda tough. Salty stuff makes it worse, as does dairy.

Coffee: Coffee does not have an appreciable effect (sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse, I've been unable to control for variations in the coffee enough to tell if that has a significant effect).

Variables that seem to have an effect that I have not yet been able to isolate:

Cold weather: This seems to happen more as it has been getting colder.

Los Angeles: This seems to have become more frequent since I moved to LA, though I don't know if that's because I need to be up earlier in order to get to my job.

I have tried Tom's (Cinnamon, Peppermint, Spearmint, Mango Orange), Crest (Regular flavor, whitening/non-whitening, kids bubblegum), and just baking soda and water (which seems to have less of an effect, though it is vile).

What next? I know that I need to set up my first meeting with my new doctor soon, I imagine this is something that I should take up with him. There were many folks who seemed to have the same problem the last time this subject was broached—have any of you controlled for variables I've missed? Any success? I spent 15 minutes puking this morning, and I'd like to avoid that in the future.

I weep for my pan

klangklangston — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:48:44 -0800

In a moment of epic dumbassery, I turned on the wrong burner this morning and managed to melt part of a spatula to an $80 calphalon fry pan. If it wasn't coated, I'd just use steel wool. Is there any way to get the melted plastic off? How fucked am I? Can I heat it up again? If so, how should I do it?

Los Angeles Falafel Filter

klangklangston — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:58:41 -0800

Los Angeles Falafel filter: I want good, vegetarian Middle Eastern food up to the Dearborn standard, ideally on the west side of LA (Palms neighborhood), but I'll roam from Culver City to Hollywood (or around Amoeba) to find a great pita place. Further help narrowing it down— the falafel should be spicy, but not over-garlic-ed. It should come with hummus and tabouli, and the tabouli should be fresh and primarily parsley. The falafel sandwich should ideally be wrapped in the pita, not stuffed in a pocket (though pocket is acceptable). The best are the Syrian-style with the fries in the sandwich, and a slather of baba ganoush for good luck.

But let me know if you've found the perfect mujadara or sfouf or halva or even some great baklava.