Ask MetaFilter posts by youthenrage

Uhm Doctor, whats the belt sander for?

youthenrage — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:55:07 -0800

Where can I find information about laws in Virginia related to tattoo removal? I'm trying to find out what the legal requirements are for opening or operating a tattoo removal business in Virginia. I've heard that Virginia laws requires a doctor or nurse to perform the procedure (or operate the laser tattoo removal machine) but haven't been able to find out if thats true or not. I haven't even figured out where to start... A google search doesn't really turn up anything but spam tattoo removal creams or fake chinese laser removal machines.

at least all my pinkies are intact...

youthenrage — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:29:44 -0800

What should I expect as a heavily tattooed person traveling for a month in Japan? I´ll be in Japan for a month, starting in a couple days. Traveling all around. I have a lot of tattos. None of them are on my hands or above my collar. In short sleeves or shorts, they are very visible. Fortunately it will be early spring when I'm there, so I'll be in long sleeves and pants most of the time, but what level of discrimination can I expect? I've heard 3rd hand stories of friends-of-friends not being allowed into certain stores or restaurants. Will I get turned away from clubs? What about Onsen? I'm used to having people stare at me/approach me from going to the beach in South America, but I feel like Japan might be a little more... intense. I'm about as gringo as you can get, blond hair and all that, so there's no mistaking me for Yakuza. Whats the best way to deal with it if people are offended or try to discriminate against me? Ignore it, let it slide and move on?

First there is a mountain then there is no mountain, then there is

youthenrage — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:52:15 -0800

I'm going to japan from march 9 until april 6, and I want to climb Mt Fuji, from the bottom to the top. How much snow should I expect? How cold is it going to be? Do I need to bring boots and 3 layers of technical outdoor clothing or a warm jacket and sneakers? My lonely planet says its doable, but thats pretty much it. If you feel like throwing in some other "Can't Miss in Japan" places to visit, feel free.

mas despacio por favor

youthenrage — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:30:19 -0800

I need to improve my spanish, specifically my listening comprehension. I've done all the Pimsleur and Michel Thomas courses, and I can easily read spanish with very few problems, but I want to get better at understanding native speakers. Anybody have any good resources? I can read the newspaper, web sites, books no problem, I chat over gchat and aim with my spanish friends all the time but my comprehension of the spoken language is still lagging way behind. I listen to the spanish language news podcast from democracynow.org, and can understand that without problems, but I'm 99% sure the announcer is not a a native speaker, and they don't use a whole lot of tenses either. I try to watch Telemundo and listen to podcasts like Radio Caracol, but Telemundo is just waaaaay too fast and insane for me to do anything but pick out more than a couple of words and Radio Caracol is a little better, but the format of the show (think the morning zoo crew type shows here in the USA) and the low quality of the podcast (sounds like it was recorded in a submarine) makes it hard to understand. What I really need is a recording of a couple of people talking back and forth in a civil manner (without the interruptions and cuts of a talk radio type show - like Radio Caracol) I'm thinking something along the lines of This American Life in Spanish.

Anybody got any resources for me? Any tips on how you improved? Should I just keep watching telenovelas and wait for the day when all of a sudden I get it? Basically I feel like I've gotten to the point where my spanish is good, and I'm having trouble getting to the next level.

PS: to preempt everybody who would like to answer this question with any variation of "the best way to learn is to spend a long time in a spanish speaking country", 1. I've done that before, 2. I'm going to do it again, but can't afford it right now.

Pray for public transportation.

youthenrage — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 15:29:01 -0800

How can I prove to the DMV that the lien on the car I just bought has been paid off? The secured party listed on the title (a bank) was bought by FCNB bank and then by BB&T bank. I bought a truck from a friends dad about a week ago. The truck was registered in Maryland, but I live in Virginia. I just got the title, which needed to be replaced as they had lost the original one. The bank listed as the lien holder on the title no longer exists, and neither does the bank that bought the original bank. All are under the control of BB&T now. I need to prove to the Virginia DMV that the lien is off the truck, but have no clue who contact about clearing this up. The Maryland DMV? BB&T bank? If it's BB&T, who should I call? Their general 800 #? A branch local to the Maryland town where the truck came from? Will they issue me the notice that the lien is no longer valid even though I'm not the person on the title or in their paperwork?

help please.

Am I being duely compensated?

youthenrage — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 09:19:58 -0800

Am I making enough money? According to salary.com my pay should range between $50k and $70k, but I make $40k. Are online salary comparison tools to be trusted? Am I getting ripped off? Some details - I'm a relatively recent college graduate with a bachelors in CS. I graduated cum laude, have about a year of work experience and am currently employed by relatively small, but growing super quickly, consulting company. My job title right now could be best described as J2EE/Java Developer.

We have good health benefits, and get a bonus at the end of the year as well as accruing 1.25 vacation days a month (these are lost at the end of the year, no reimbursement or carrying over). This sounds pretty generous on its face, but most people never have enough time to take vacation because we're kept so busy. The company expects you to put in whatever hours are necessary to complete projects on time, including lots of extra hours. I've worked 60 hour in weeks, including one 21 hour day. We're told that these sacrifices will be taken into account when our bonuses are distributed, but there's nothing in writing or any guidelines.

We have a couple of offices on the mid atlantic coast, and most on site locations are relatively close to our offices, but there's no guarantee of this. If we pick up a client 2 hours away, and are assigned to the project, travel is mandatory. You're reimbursed for the expenses, and sometimes given a per diem - but sometimes the client site can be as far away as New Mexico.

I've been working here since the summer, and because I was desperate and my credit cards were rapidly becoming maxxed out, I accepted an offer to work here for $40k a year. According to salary.com's salary comparison tool, I'm in the bottom %1 percentile for this job category, with the average salary ranging from $53k - $67k. Is this accurate? Am I being taken advantage of? Should I ask for a raise?

I feel like there's a huge disparity, but can't prove that I'm not just inflating my own worth in my brain.

Love it or leave it

youthenrage — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:14:44 -0800

What's the best way to get a job abroad? Specifically in the broad field of computers? I'm a recent college graduate with about 2 years of work experience, a bachelors in CS. I really want to work overseas, preferably in a spanish speaking country, but really anywhere would be awesome. I speak basic spanish, definitely not fluent, but I got around south and central america for about 3 months.

How do I go about getting a job overseas? Dice.com kinda sucks for outside the US, monsters a little better. Anybody whose currently working overseas, specifically in IT/programming/computers/etc... how did you end up finding your job?

Ridin' Dirty

youthenrage — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 11:47:22 -0800

If a person has a valid out of state license and has had their in-state (lets say... Virginia) license revoked, and is pulled over driving in Virginia, if they produce an out of state license, can the police officer link this valid out of state license to the revoked in state license? While I appreciate anybody and everybody who takes the time to read and respond to this (and every) askMeFi question, I am specifically NOT looking for criticism of the situation or the question without a constructive answer, so if you do NOT know the answer to this question and don't have anything constructive to add to the "conversation", feel free to skip this question, I've already heard pretty much everything there is to here about this situation except for the answer to the question I'm specifically asking.

What the *@#! is NADH?

youthenrage — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:45:46 -0800

What is NADH, does it work, is it safe to use? I'm working a job where I sit in front of a computer all day. I'm supposed to be doing work all day, but I'm almost always lured into clicking through random crap on the internet. I came across this post on boingboing today (http://makezine.com/pub/tool/NADH) but couldn't find a lot of information about NADH on wikipedia, and my google searches bring up mostly online health store/pharmacy type sites. Anybody have any experience with this stuff or can tell me how it works?

Where can I learn the in's and out's of Independent Contracting?

youthenrage — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 17:02:28 -0800

Are there any good websites with information about being an independent contractor? Google is failing me. I'm looking for the sort of site that would be titled "Independent Contractor Resource" or something like that. A place that could answer questions like "What % of my pay would end up being paid as taxes?", "What can I write off and what can't I?", "What can expect from my employer (or whatever they're called) as a Independent Contractor?" etc... I've been in touch with a number of companies who want to offer me contractor positions (In the hugely general field of Computer Science), but I'm young, fresh out of college, and don't have a lot of experience, I'm not sure what I should charge per hour, and how much of that I'll end up being able to keep at the end of the day. I'm not sure what the laws and regulations are, or where to find them. Can somebody point me in the right direction? In a perfect world I'd like a well maintained website that includes an active forum where I can ask any questions that I can't find the answers to...