Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with activities

How to entertain parents you don't get along with?

thegreatcokeolympics — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:29:58 -0800

Activities to do in San Francisco for mellow people... My parents and I will be visiting SF for christmas and staying a few days after. This is the first time in a while we are spending time together due to the inevitable drama and negativity that comes when we get together. I really want this trip to go well! I need some suggestions for activities that will keep us preoccupied (so we don't have the chance to argue or complain), but not annoy us, and by us, I mean my mother. This means nothing too loud or that has that "young person" vibe. I'm 28 and my parents are in their mid 50s, so I'm aiming for something age neutral.

I ask for suggestions because I seem to either find young person hot spots or family oriented spots (which inevitably means directed at kids), but nothing in between. Please point me in the right direction!

Also, nothing too expensive.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheap fun activities to do in Malden, MA (Boston) this week

bbyboi — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:05:03 -0800

I am traveling to Boston (Malden, MA - to be precise) this week and will be there for a about 2 1/2 days. What would be fun but not too expensive activities for two people (1guy/1girl) without a car in this weather? I have read many of the previous posts on Boston travel on askme but I will be in Malden instead of Boston and wouldn't have a car and am dependent on public transportation. I'm looking for activities I could do where we don't have to travel too far away as I don't know how it would be traveling via public transportation if it snows most of the time.

After going through the previous threads, I have thought of museums, watching some movie, ice skating, visiting the mall, any Christmas related event, duck tour?, etc am open to anything which sounds like fun and specific things as recommended by the hivemind.

(I might be able to book a zipcar for a few hours though but not for too long. No animal related activities please.)

Thanks!

Holiday Recommendations for Denver?

soupy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:56:55 -0800

Denver filter: My boyfriend and I will be in the Denver area from Dec 25 - Jan 1st. I would love Holiday/ winter activity recommendations for my boyfriend and I (mid-20s and early 30s) and activity recommendations for us and my parents. I lived in Denver ex-urbs for many years with my family, but we were never around for Christmas / New Year's.

Your favorite Denver area winter time activities would be swell as well. We live in Seattle. Casa Bonita is already on our list.

The most fun way to hold a raffle

biwa-shu — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:23:30 -0800

Are there more fun ways to give away a variety of prizes at a raffle than just draw names/numbers from a box? ie: gameshow-style, competitions, etc. We'll be having a raffle at an event with about 80 people. We'll have a variety of prizes worth anywhere from $5 to $50. What are some fun ways that we can choose the recipients, instead of just going "OK, next one ... OK, next one..."?

What gift(s) could I request for Christmas that would make my life more interesting, social, or creative?

Kirn — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:41:00 -0800

What gift(s) could I request for Christmas that would make my life more interesting, social, or creative? I've been asked by my mother for suggestions of what she could get me for Christmas. Recently I've realised that I spend too much time reading books, watching movies and playing video games, and not enough time doing creative or interesting things, attending cultural events, or being sociable and meeting new people. This is particularly daft as I live in the interesting city of Brighton, an hour outside the even more interesting city of London.

What gift(s) could I ask for that would help me to have a more interesting, social, creative 2010? There's infinite interesting stuff happening in London (and Brighton), so what would give me an excuse to see/do more of it? There's infinite new creative activities I could get involved in (none of which I really engage with currently) so what would give me an entry into them? What would get me out the house? What would get me outside my comfort zone? What would bring a bit more culture, a bit more social scene into my life?

Absolutely any and all suggestions welcome, I'd love a wide grab-bag of ideas. Thanks!

What to do at Grandma's house

yawper — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:30:43 -0800

What kind of activities can a 5-year-old do alone to entertain herself? My daughter goes to my mom's 2 days a week, from 9 am to 3 pm. She’s getting really, really bored. My mom is an amazing grandmother and does all the things grammies should do. My daughter loves her to bits. But she’s old school. Just as she never played with me – she expected my brother and I to entertain ourselves/each other – she doesn’t play with my kid. She’s not elderly or inactive, and she talks and jokes with her. But doing crafts or baking brownies is not her thing, and that’s not going to change. And money is tight right now, so paying to put my daughter in daycare is not an option either. Nor do I want to enroll her in classes or organize playdates that would require my mom to drop her off/pick her up/otherwise intrude on her schedule. She is already helping me out a ton (in this and many other ways) so I don’t want to impose on her any further.

So, what’s a bored 5-year-old to do? I need ideas for activities OR toys/products that will stimulate her imagination and keep her entertained for half-hour stretches. Things that she can do almost completely independently (my mom would help her set up, or answer questions for her etc). Here are the things she’s getting maxed out on:

TV or computer time (she’s not a big fan of these to begin with)
Books (she’s just in the beginning stages of learning, so it’s mostly looking at pictures and making up stories)
Colouring/activity books
Jigsaw puzzles
Play-Dough
Playing with dolls (CRAZY about dolls but tires of playing them by herself)
Leap Pad (we have an older version; can anyone recommend the best newer equivalent type of toy?)

I am fully open to old-fashioned suggestions, like paper dolls and basic science experiments. We lean more towards that kind of stuff in my house than gadgets anyway.

Also, my daughter does go to school the other 3 days of the week and gets plenty of social activities on the days she’s not at her grandma’s.

How should we spend $400 as a floor?

aaronbeekay — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:11:20 -0800

Fun, interesting activities, or other ways to blow $400, for a floor of freshmen in a university dorm? I'm a freshman at a large university, in a big tower full of freshmen. My floor is co-ed, half guys, half gals. We get along all right, but my RA tried to get us together for a floor dinner one week and it fell flat: lack of interest. (I think this was more because it wasn't pushed at all, not really because we all dread being together.)

He sent out an email the other day asking for suggestions for things we WOULD want to do together as a floor. We have about $400 a quarter, apparently, and we can spend it on Whatever for the floor, as long as it's approved by the building-boss.

I was going through some roughness at the beginning of the quarter, and I don't think I started myself off very well socially: just wasn't my normal outgoing, interesting self because of sitting around and being sad. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to put out a creative suggestion, have fun doing it, and make friends. Something along the lines of "awesome floor decorations", "themed cookout", etc. We're a floor of college freshmen, remember, so I expect that "silly awesome"/over-the-top ideas will be received well; the RA's attitude seems to be "hey, we have four hundred bucks here, let's do something cool", so that's helpful.

Ideas? Help me make friends!

naughty fun in broad daylight for a couple, possible?

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:28:23 -0800

Give us some ideas to have naughty fun in the day time. I don't know what I mean by naughty. really, I don't know. something risque. something fun. something we didn't do before but possible to do in the broad daylight. I and spouse want to spend entire day together having fun we never had before, while our kid goes off to daycare.
In last 3 years, after birth of our kid, we have not done any outdoor activity as adult/couple. We don't know anyone close enough to take care of our kid. We don't like the idea of having someone babysitting. So last 3 years have been just busy/burdened/not having any fun alone. so this time around, we want to chill out for one day - 9 to 5, without worrying about taking care of our kid.
If we could go out at night, we could go to club and dance. Or try something more risque like visiting a swinging bar. But going out at night is out of question in this case.
So, you all experienced askme users, please put on your creative hats and give us some ideas to make our day exciting, thrilling and fun and naughty too if possible.
The only idea we came up with so far is to go to universal studio. It's fun adult outdoor activity but not risque/naughty at all LOL.. But we are just going to go with this if we can't think of anything else.
I created this throw away account since I'm posting this annonymously - throw_away (at) fastmail (dot) fm
misc. tidbits - It's a weekday. We are taking off from work. We are in LA.
P.S. we love having kid/raising her. we love all the activities we can do along with her e.g. going to disneyland every once in a while. Just being with her, watching her is sheer joy. but we need a break.

I can't believe I can't do this!

Pennyblack — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:15:42 -0800

What can some people do that other people can't do? What can some see that others can't? Think: Tongue rolling.
I'm looking for some simple, fun party tricks for showing neurological, psychological or physiological differences in people.
I know of a few for showing gender differences (bending chair lifting) and determining left or right brained (lining up a finger on a straight wall and alternating open eyes), but that's about it.
This is for a teen group, so no UR Gay (crazy, retarded...) pseudo psychological stuff. I just want to show that people have differences, and that is a FUN thing.

Need country-specific activities for a Hispanic-American heritage event.

jimdanger — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:31:54 -0800

Need country-specific activities for a Hispanic-American heritage event. I'm coordinating a dinner celebration for Hispanic-American heritage month. The current schedule is to have the introduction, a guest speaker and a band.

Each table the guests will be sitting at is going to have a flag representing one of the South/Central American countries. The plan was to have a table activity portion, where the people sitting at the table will be read a brief statement about their table's country, and then do some sort of activity that represents a tradition from that country. For example, the Mexican table will have a pinata, and the people sitting at the table will actually break the pinata for the kids present at the event. For Colombia, we were thinking of offering the adults sitting at the table, cups of Columbian coffee. Unfortunately, that's about as far as we've come.

I've been trying to Google traditions or activities that are specific to other countries, but I'm either unable to find anything specific, or unable to find something that can actually be turned into a short table activity (We can't exactly have people celebrating Cinco de Mayo)

So, can some of you more culturally-aware people help me out?

Trip to Marbella: where should I take the kids?

dimon — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:25 -0800

Marbella filter: does anybody know great places (or even good or just ok ones) to take kids to in or around the Marbella area? We're off on hols on the 29th, and although I'm vauely familiar with Marbella/Estepona/Malaga, I've never been with the kids.

Can you recommend anywhere to take my 2 yr old boy? My other baby is only 12 weeks so I guess his entertainment needs are still quite basic..

I'd prefer activities/entertaining/active things that are out of the direct sunshine, but seriously anything will help, thanks!

Keeping Busy

sycophant — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:35:07 -0800

Keep us busy in Melbourne. What to do for a few days in Victoria's Capital? My wife and I are visiting Melbourne for four days in about a week. We've got a few things planned (art exhibit at National Gallery, dinner on one night, optimistically in the audience for Rove) but basically have three days free.

We were last there for a little under a week about three years ago, and did some of the most obviously touristy thing then, but are looking for some more inspiration this time around.

We're planning to visit Bridge Road, and maybe the museum, but that's about all we've got on our minds for sure this time around. We're staying in the CBD and probably planning to stick relatively central, but we're not afraid of a wee train or tram journey for something interesting.

Bonus points for a few great ideas in close proximity. And, I suspect, Mrs. Sycophant would be interested in other bargain shopping opertunities beyond Bridge Road and DFO.

Fun in the sun

crewshell — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:04:42 -0800

My buddy and I (25,23) are hitting Kissimmee up today and staying through sunday afternoon. We know we can go to Disney world or Orlando or even a long drive to the beach but does anyone have any really cool fun suggestions for activities for us to get into? We are both crazy busy young professionals and are looking to cut loose and have a good time... we both want to try something new and hey, if we meet a few beautiful girls while doing it, even better!

Any suggestions? We will have a rental car, are open to spending a little cash and pretty adventurous! (on that note I am already considering sky diving)

Inspire us hive mind!

Husband-wife morning activities?

jennyhead — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:43:22 -0800

What kinds of quality-time activities can my husband and I enjoy in the morning before we go to work? I'm starting night classes and he works during the day, so our schedules are pretty well incompatible. So I'd like to make the best of our midweek mornings together (6:00 to 8:00 am). Thoughts?

25 and fabulous?

mittenbex — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:09:41 -0800

My 25th birthday is coming up and I've been brainstorming on some projects I can do this upcoming year that I can blog about. Help me come up with some brilliant ideas to keep my 25th year exciting and productive. I anticipate getting engaged in the next few months so I'm sure that will be taking up some of my time so I don't think I can undertake any HUGE projects. Nor hugely financially expansive ones. Also, I've lost about 50 lbs in the last 6 months so I've sort of checked that off my to-do list. (Only 10 or so lbs to go.)

I've been a member of 43things.com so am thinking along those lines. A like pre-kicking-the-bucket bucket list (though I guess you never know!) I just want to make this year an extremely awesome one. I anticipate having kids early after getting married so I want the flexibility to get some stuff done now.

Anybody have any suggestions for must-do awesome things?

I live on Long Island. But travel back to Michigan occasionally to visit family/friends so places in between are accessible to me.

Thanks.

What's Fun for Teenagers in San Francisco?

kirkaracha — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:00:41 -0800

What are fun things for teenagers to see and do in San Francisco? My niece (13) and nephew (16) are coming for a week-long visit. What would be fun for them to do? Would something like going to Alcatraz, be cool, boring, or boring now but cool when they remember it later?

We're already planning trips to the King Tut exhibit, Santa Cruz boardwalk, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I thought of a Giants or A's game but they don't like baseball.

Help us choose an NYC birthday activity!

rachaelfaith — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:24:06 -0800

NYCFilter: Group of four 20-something friends need a birthday activity for this Sunday! Conditions: not too pricey, preferably Manhattan or Brooklyn, nothing too physically strenuous. My friend's birthday is this Sunday, and while we have reservations for dinner, we all wanted to do something fun beforehand. We were considering mini-golf, but Chelsea Piers seemed too expensive and we're questionable on The Putting Lot.

We're all female. Common interests include food, movies, parks, dessert. [So unique!] We're not really into coffee/tea, biking, touristy things.

So, any cool festivals or activities going on this weekend? Hit me with your creative ideas!

Help us have fun without The Almighty Cable

Gonestarfishing — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:15:48 -0800

Just moved my boyfriend into a new apartment, and he will be unable to afford cable tv for quite awhile. As admitted boob toob junkies, we are quickly running out of things to do when we just feel like being around the house. Suggestions of fun and relatively budget friendly (under $30 to accomplish, preferably with a re-usability factor) activities to do at home, without the magical box. I live about 5 minutes away in my parents house, and we are getting sick of hanging out there, or having to go out (and thus spending money) when we get sick of sitting in his technology free pad. He has: no internet, no cable for at least 3-4 months (but we will be getting a free 35" tv in the coming weeks), minimal cell phone service in the apartment, minimal kitchen (2 burners, a toaster oven, and 1 old cruddy microwave that I'm afraid will give me cancer if I use it), but a very large living space/bedroom. The apartment is in the basement of a house, and has a large walk out patio area as well.

We do have my laptop, and have been subsisting largely on a dvd of 7 or 8 assembled Star Trek TNG episodes and season 1 of Flight of the Conchords. We have very few other dvds, but enjoy watching movies and would also appreciate suggestions of used dvd merchants or something of the like. When we eventually get sick of watching those, we have been known to just sit around and drink beer and talk, or just sit there in silence which is really pathetic.

We are both 23, and enjoy lots of off the wall kinds of activities but due to stress at my home and job, my usually creative brain is running on E. Please help us with some ideas of things to do on a budget with little to no technology...the crazier the better, we're up for anything and aren't afraid to act like children. To be specific, we are looking for at home/in the yard activities.

I doodled SO MUCH today. Then I fed pigeons.

showbiz_liz — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:21:13 -0800

What fun thing can I do with my hands at work? My new job consists of standing around all day being bored out of my mind. My job is to stand outside and help people use a new model of parking meter. I speak to maybe one person every half hour, and the rest of the time I just have to stand there. Books and ipods are not allowed, because they could cause me to miss a customer.

I want to pick up some kind of hobby or activity that I can do at work. It needs to be something that will allow me to keep an eye out for approaching customers, and that I can put down quickly when somebody comes up to me. At the same time, I'd like it to be something that could take a while to master. It would be amazing if, after this summer, I had a brand new skill to show off.

Things I've thought of so far are trick coin flipping, juggling, and knitting. Things I considered and rejected include harmonica (too loud), Zippo tricks (too dangerous), and whittling (same).

What sorts of activities do eleven year old girls enjoy?

elgalan207 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:50:09 -0800

I have a ten (nearly eleven) year old niece who is coming to spend a week and a half with me this month. What sorts of activities do eleven year old girls enjoy? I have a ten (nearly eleven) year old niece who is coming to spend a week and a half with me this month. I am super excited, but I haven't really spent much time with her in the past 5 years since I moved away from home. What sorts of books, tv shows, magazines, movies, and summertime activities do eleven year old girls enjoy? I want to stock the house with things she will like having around. Most of my friends have children, but they are much younger, so to ask around is moot. I live in the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin (boo), so lots of outdoor options are available to me.

Ideas for "non-lame" activities for a wedding reception?

lifeless — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:02:13 -0800

Me and the fiancée are getting married on August 1st. The plans for the ceremony are set in stone at this point, but we're still partially in the planning stages for the reception. From the beginning, we've worked hard to avoid the usual wedding clichés. Right now, though, we've got a bit of a planner's block going on. That's why we turn to you for ideas and insights. Googling "wedding reception activities ideas" etc. produces umpteen jillion results, many of which I intend to read and some of which are no doubt useful, but I've got a hunch that AskMeFi has some real pearls to share.

What unusual, unique, inventive or particularly memorable wedding reception activities have you seen, taken part in or arranged yourself that you and (your/other) guests really liked? The one thing that we're looking for is "non-lameness". This is subjective, but I won't define it further. Take a crack at it :-). The activities may be performances by a small number of people or something that everyone present can participate in, or anything in between - as long as you found it cool or clever or funny or engaging etc.

Some details that might be useful: about 100 people will attend, almost adults-only, just a few kids present. Significant age groups: 24-30 (our friends), around 40 (my cousins), 50-70 (biased towards 50-55; family, relatives, family friends). Live instrumental music by a professional duo. Several friends with musical abilities as guests. Current focus on appealing to young and "young-minded" audiences, although trying not to offend or (unnecessarily) confuse the older folks.

I Would Be a Member of Any Club...

drjimmy11 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:34:57 -0800

What group/club/organization can I join on L.A.'s eastside? Film-related is a plus. I'm looking for something, but I don't know exactly what. I'm trying to solve two problems:

1) I feel kind of adrift in my film career. I have made a few short films at an almost-professional level but am yet to make any money at it and still have a dayjob. I've always had issues finding collaborators and am frustrated by the fact that I didn't really meet many people I'd want to work with again on my last project. I want to meet like-minded people to collaborate with, but I really haven't. For the sake of this question let's assume I am not a total clown and have enough ability as a writer and director that i wouldn't be laughed out of a room of professionals or talented amateurs. I'm just not sure exactly what I should be doing next.

2) I moved to the eastside (Silver Lake) two years ago and I really haven't made many friends over here. I have an existing, westside-based group of friends, but I spend a lot of time alone because they often aren't interested in the same things as me. Also, getting back and forth across town is a hassle.

So in an ideal world I would find some kind of film collective- people who were interested in working together to make cool, low-budget indie film type things. In addition, it would provide a peer group who I could talk about film-nerd stuff with. The closest thing I'm aware of is the Echo Park Film center, but they only offer one class longer than one day, and it's in documentary filmmaking, which I am not especially interested in.

I definitely have a lot to learn, but I'm not interested in beginner classes like those offered at a community college at this point. And in an ideal world I would find more like an ongoing club or society than a class.

Even if it doesn't have to do with film, I would love to find any kind of likeminded group of people on the eastside with whom i could share some or all of the following:

1) literature
2) hiking/outdoor stuff
3) good music
4) Even if they're not filmmakers, people who are interested in good movies- more like the Agnes Varda double feature I saw Sat. and less like, say, Transformers II
5) writing, screen or prose
6) still photography
7) Anything else I haven't thought of where I might interact with creative, open-minded people

Just a few more notes:
1) I have tried and failed to start something on my own before, a writer's group. I found it exhausting to maintain on my own and I really wasn't able to grow it how I wanted, and eventually it fell apart.

2) I am mainly looking for specific things I can join on L.A.'s eastside. General suggestions like "join a club" or "volunteer for something" aren't that helpful because I have tried and I am struggling to find the right thing for me.

3) i work a dayjob and am gone from home 7am - 6pm every weekday. this rules out things that take place on weekdays, like tutoring at 826LA in Echo Park, which i would love to do otherwise.

thanks!!

What are men to do in Seattle?

vansly — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:49:40 -0800

What are some activity suggestions for a group of (pre-wedding) men in Seattle? I'm standing up for a friend who is getting married in Seattle in July. He has asked me to help organize a daytime activity for the "groomsmen" on the day before the wedding. This will be on a Friday. I am from out of town, so I am at a little bit of a loss for things to do in the city. Copious amounts of drinking would not be acceptable as the rehearsal dinner is on the same day.

With Kids In Portland, OR

jalexei — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:06:37 -0800

Looking for kid-friendly activities in Portland, OR We'll be staying in the Pearl District next week with 2 and 5 year-old kids in tow - beyond some of the obvious stops (OMSI, the zoo, Children's Museum, etc) we'd love to hear of any destinations that would make the kids happy (I'll be swimming in Widmer's once the kids go to bed, so I'm less worried about the adult fun). We don't have a car, so mass transit accessible is pretty much required - thanks!

Help us survive a boring summer!

One Second Before Awakening — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:53:23 -0800

What are some fun things to do as a teenager in a small-ish town? I'm a teenager living in Sarasota, FL, and my friends and I are constantly lamenting how little there is to do in this town. We're bound here for the duration of the summer, and lacking the social amenities of our respective colleges. The main thing people our age seem to do around here is sit around outside a starbucks and waste time, or sit around on the beach and waste time.

For anyone who grew up in this situation, what did you do? What are some fun ways I and my friends can spend time? Especially appreciated would be easy-to-orchestrate activities that can be repeated fairly often. Don't worry about censoring your own experiences or suggestions. References to drug use or other illicit activities aren't going to offend or corrupt.