I find it nearly impossible to do any real work, unless I happen to feel like it. But I don't want to end up drifting through life, settling for mediocrity. If you managed to get your act together and are now able work hard on things you aren't interested in, as we all should be able to do from time to time, then my question is: how did you do it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 10:57 AM on June 5, 2007 (26 comments)

Please explain "Friday Night Lights" to me, specifically, the college football part.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by AmbroseChapel at 5:04 PM on August 3, 2009 (32 comments)

Real USSR is a blog containing commentaries on everyday life in the former Soviet Union. The liberal use of family and other amateur photos provides unusual insight into the daily experience of Soviet life. Topics range from 1940s homemade double-exposure photography to queueing to USSR - the birthplace of feminism. via
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 2:50 PM on August 5, 2009 (23 comments)

How to you curb your desire for material goods?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fairchild at 7:39 AM on May 21, 2009 (36 comments)

How do I style my own hair?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by srrh at 5:36 AM on March 12, 2009 (11 comments)

Is there a "sartorialst"-style website for haircuts?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by lekvar at 5:58 PM on July 25, 2007 (5 comments)

Forgotten Bookmarks. "I work at a used and rare bookstore, and I buy books from people every day. These are the personal, funny, heartbreaking and weird things I find in those books. "
posted to MetaFilter by milquetoast at 9:33 PM on July 25, 2009 (47 comments)

If you’re into crafting, you’ve probably stumbled upon Craftster, a crafting community web log within which members can post pictures and documentation of their own crafts and processes, share information and tutorials, and get feedback. The crafts tend to be off-beat and original and many involve upcycling – this is not a site where one would proudly post pictures of a completed paint-by-numbers or rug hooking kit project. The Craftster esprit de corps is nicely expressed by its slogans, which include, “No tea cosies without irony”, “Knit fast. Die Warm”, “Measure twice, cut once. Meh. Just start cutting”, and “Cheaper than therapy”. Craftster was launched in 2003, has 700,000 visitors a month, and, besides posting and discussion boards for every possible subset of crafting, its features include a calendar of forthcoming crafting events, member-created city guides to craft resources in your area, and staff-written articles. But I especially wanted to draw your attention to the Craftster Craft Challenges, the first one of which was announced on April 28, 2005. If you’re competitive and crafty, you have just enough time to whip up something for the 41st crafting challenge, which is to create an “edible craft” (the entry posting window is August 1st to August 5th). For inspiration, check out the 40 previous Craft Challenges.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan at 2:16 PM on July 29, 2009 (20 comments)

Housing, preserving, and providing access to these small-scale, homemade rags that document some corner of [often do-it-yourself and punk rock] culture, zine archives can be found via independently operated centers in Georgia (physical library in construction), New Orleans (myspace link, www address out-of-commission), Florida, Minneapolis, Denver, Cambridge, Olympia, Chicago, Seattle and...
posted to MetaFilter by ethel at 3:07 PM on January 19, 2008 (21 comments)

T-SHIRTS T-SHIRTS T-SHIRTS! Funny T-shirts, user-designed-and-voted T-shirts, artistic T-shirts, geek T-shirts, just cool T-shirts, hacker T-shirts, more artistic T-shirts and even offensive T-shirts (NSFW). Like comics? web comic T-shirts. Still not right? make your own T-shirts. Or maybe you'd just like to read about t-shirts.
posted to MetaFilter by patr1ck at 9:49 AM on September 22, 2006 (47 comments)

Please help me stop the butt spread and weight gain related to my 12 hour/day telecommuting computer job before I am relegated to a muumuu.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by citystalk at 9:43 AM on May 3, 2008 (36 comments)

The New York Times commissioned Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins to travel around the United States and take photographs of abandoned construction projects left in the wake of the housing and securities market collapse.
posted to MetaFilter by acb at 8:14 AM on July 7, 2009 (254 comments)

We're drowning in quirk. It is the ruling sensibility of today’s Gen-X indie culture, defined territorially by the gentle ministrations of public radio’s This American Life; the strenuously odd (and now canceled) TV sitcom Arrested Development; the movies of Wes Anderson; Dave Eggers’s McSweeney’s Web site; the performance art, music, and writing of Miranda July; and the just-too-wacky-to-be-fully-believable memoirs of Augusten Burroughs. It’s been 20 years of beneficent, wide-eyed gazing upon the oddities of our fellow man. David Byrne probably birthed contemporary quirk around 1985— halfway between his “Psycho Killer” beginnings with the Talking Heads and his move to global pop—when he sang the song “Stay Up Late”: “Cute, cute, little baby / Little pee-pee, little toes.” (As it happens, Byrne appeared on July’s recent book tour.) Jon Cryer’s “Duckie” Dale in Pretty in Pink came a year later, and quirk was on its way.
posted to MetaFilter by psmealey at 12:33 PM on September 5, 2007 (173 comments)

A Month of Sundays. Seattle's The Stranger sends 31 writers to 31 houses of worship.
posted to MetaFilter by monju_bosatsu at 9:03 AM on June 22, 2007 (97 comments)

“...the Platonic nerd is invariably male. The stereotype is flexible to incorporate women and girls on an individual basis, but few people conjure up the image of a woman when they think about nerds.” Feminist blog Pandagon reviews two books about nerdiness and geekery, Jason Tocci addresses the question of why female involvement in geek culture seems to call for a special explanation, and two feminist geeks set out in search of an egalitarian future.
posted to MetaFilter by velvet winter at 4:21 PM on June 26, 2009 (137 comments)

Comfortable-and-cute-shoes-filter: can my wife find a pair of shoes that don't blister her feet?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by burnfirewalls at 5:49 PM on August 29, 2008 (30 comments)

What can I do to make these shoes less hurty?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by crinklebat at 1:28 AM on May 3, 2007 (14 comments)

Your household probably gets something like 800 pieces of junk mail per year. Other than sighing and tossing the junk into your recycling bin, what are your options? Of course, I’d urge you to support any one of the numerous current anti-junk mail campaigns (do be aware of any possible conflicts of interest), but until those measures take effect, there is always crafting.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan at 2:52 PM on May 24, 2009 (27 comments)

A private school student asks "Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school?"
posted to MetaFilter by spock at 1:37 PM on May 24, 2009 (96 comments)

How to pair foods, if you've ever wondered whether oysters go with chocolate but didn't want to end up with an expensive mess
posted to MetaFilter by sim.possible at 2:24 PM on December 2, 2007 (55 comments)

I'm Michael, not Mike. How do I make sure people know this? (Extra degree of difficulty: for a few years I was a girl, so I'm sensitive about names in some weird ways.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by madcaptenor at 6:41 PM on May 22, 2009 (66 comments)

The High Cost of Poverty : The Washington Post explores why the cost of living is proportionately higher in poor areas. Double Jeopardy: Why the Poor Pay More (pdf): a report on payday loans, the cost of homeownership, medical debt, and banking in poor communities.
posted to MetaFilter by desjardins at 8:38 AM on May 19, 2009 (230 comments)

I'm looking for examples of insanely overbuilt, reasonably-priced consumer goods: "Cheap, bombproof...XXXXX"
posted to Ask MetaFilter by oalocke at 9:27 AM on January 13, 2008 (94 comments)

Some would say that Holga never really died... Welcome to the surreal world of plastic photography. The run away champion site is DigitalSucks, though great galleries and daring feats of technical innovation are scattered across the net. I'm already looking to get my first Holga.
posted to MetaFilter by kaibutsu at 2:07 AM on February 13, 2003 (11 comments)

Please help me get organized. I have read far to many books and blogs about personal productivity and organization. I have tried practically every computer-based and web 2.0 application. I've tried GTD, Franklin-Covey, and my own home-brewed ideas, and while I seem to be able to take something good from them all, I can't seem to find a cohesive way of being and staying organized. I'm considering ditching some of the high-tech stuff for something simpler (paper), and I need some advice.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by 4ster at 12:24 PM on April 19, 2009 (14 comments)

Just what is the deal with Jughead's weird crown cap? I'm learning to share investigates a forgotten history of haberdashery.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 6:15 AM on April 28, 2009 (101 comments)

I want to hear songs that are ironic reimaginings of other, more popular songs. This is hard to explain; examples inside.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by crinklebat at 8:02 PM on December 7, 2007 (75 comments)

Satisfying my inner fashion maven: Is it possible to experiment with style & fashion without getting caught up with its superficiality?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by divabat at 7:18 AM on January 5, 2008 (49 comments)

How do you pick fonts that go well with one another? I recently decided to rewrite my resume, and I'm trying to decide what font to use for the body. My name, and the headings, are in Copperplate Gothic Bold. How do I find a second font for the body that will look good with Copperplate Gothic? Are there rules? A cheat sheet? Thanks
posted to Ask MetaFilter by LDL707 at 5:34 PM on April 19, 2009 (30 comments)

I'm watching the movie Bottle Rocket and spotted some kick-ass patio furniture. Help me track it down please!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by phoeniciansailor at 9:24 PM on April 19, 2009 (4 comments)

3600 VHS Video Covers Not sure what it all means. Pretty awesome, though. (I Netflix'd this one, though, and it's not nearly as good as it should be. One eye good, two eyes bad!)
posted to MetaFilter by incomple at 10:38 PM on April 18, 2009 (64 comments)

What physical change or other observable change was most influential in changing how people perceive you (for the better)?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by pricklypear at 3:12 PM on November 2, 2006 (49 comments)

My girlfriend is an avid amateur photographer and was recently contacted by a postcard company about licensing one of her photos for use on a postcard. Neither of us have any experience with this. What should she do to protect her rights to the picture while allowing them to use it and what level of compensation should she expect/request? She is also concerned about having the photo attributed to her on the postcard itself. Is that standard operating procedure or a special request?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by thekiltedwonder at 8:26 PM on April 8, 2009 (8 comments)

There was no way to simply say, "I read a really bad description in this book last night." I had to scan it and share it for you to understand just how bad it truly, truly was. It is the sort of bad that causes pain and must be shared with other people so you can feel better. Part 1, Part 2. This really is prose so purple that it verges into the infra-red. Some NSFW descriptive naughtiness.
posted to MetaFilter by fearfulsymmetry at 10:45 AM on April 1, 2009 (145 comments)

We're going to be experimenting with some gentle scaling back of Metafilter's scope and services.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 8:00 AM on April 1, 2009 (476 comments)

I've never been someone who practises their married signature or plans a dream wedding dress. Now, suddenly, I like the idea of getting married to my SO very much. Why? Help me reconcile this!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 11:22 AM on March 20, 2009 (22 comments)

Help me ID this image.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mds35 at 7:22 AM on March 20, 2009 (8 comments)

Where are the best cheap used book shops and cheap used clothing shops in London?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by crazylegs at 5:02 AM on January 23, 2009 (7 comments)

My girlfriend and I need questions and inspiration for our bedtime question game before it dies of creative block.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by TwelveTwo at 11:59 AM on August 8, 2007 (20 comments)

Can you recommend some books to me similar to the sociology-of-a-subculture style of Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels, Sudhir Venkatesh's Gang Leader for a Day and Bill Buford's Among the Thugs?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Ufez Jones at 6:02 PM on March 15, 2009 (26 comments)

Apparently I'm a fan of graphic novels now, but I don't even know where to start. I love (LOVE!) Preacher; I liked Watchmen. What should I read next?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by wonderyak at 9:19 PM on March 12, 2009 (51 comments)

Meet Arlo Weiner, America's Most Stylish 8-Year-Old.
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 8:52 PM on March 10, 2009 (123 comments)

Help me transition to a healthy, low fat/low calorie breakfast that is more "salty" than "sweet"...
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mingodingo at 10:53 AM on February 18, 2009 (43 comments)

Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo, beautiful disaster.
posted to MetaFilter by punkbitch at 5:15 AM on February 18, 2009 (68 comments)

It's time for the wife's new IUD. She's terrified of the pain, so what to do?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 12:19 PM on February 18, 2009 (54 comments)

The Socially Conscious Gamer is just the most recent example of growing discussions about how gamer culture and problems with silencing and pushing women out, wallowing in racist stereotypes, self-fulfilling cycles of exclusion, and why these conversations are hard, if not impossible to have. Still, if rational discussions can be had about games dealing with slavery, perhaps there is still hope. Personally, I can't wait for escapism to be for all of us, and not about escaping FROM us.
posted to MetaFilter by yeloson at 1:46 PM on February 16, 2009 (159 comments)

Despite being a kid's show on PBS, Marc Brown's Arthur series is still the favorite of many older viewers for its elaborate parodies and references to things like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Law and Order, Harry Potter, and even South Park.

Wicho262 is busy posting episodes on Youtube, while some misguided fans attempt to create an Arthur of their own...
posted to MetaFilter by mmmleaf at 10:50 PM on February 15, 2009 (17 comments)

The cult of fashion; the fashion of cults.
posted to MetaFilter by fiercecupcake at 7:10 AM on February 11, 2009 (40 comments)

I am a useless procrastinator, I see it happening, and I can see the outcome but I can't help it, I feel out of control almost. It's something I tend to deal with okay at work (a more direct task-based environment I guess) but at home it's terrible.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 5:14 AM on June 16, 2008 (24 comments)

I am going to be dyeing some sections of my hair some wild and funky colour. I have done this before, (blue, pink, purple) using Jerome Russell's "Punky Color" product. Recently, a new product has become available in my town, "Manic Panic." Does anyone have any experience with Manic Panic? With both? Which would you recommend? Please don't suggest any other dye brand, these are the only two I have access to. While you're at it, any tips on dyeing hair unnatural colours? I do plan on bleaching first.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by arcticwoman at 11:40 PM on June 11, 2005 (31 comments)