Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with activity

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..."?

Should I attempt a long bike ride even though I'm sick?

misskaz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:45:27 -0800

I had plans to ride my bike from Chicago to Milwaukee tomorrow with my husband and two friends (about 100 miles). Now I've come down with a pretty bad cold. Should I cancel or try to power through? Have you ever done a lot of physical activity while recovering from a cold, and how did you fare? Pros:
I really, really, really want to go on this ride. We've been planning on it as a capstone to our season all year. I think it will be fun, and it would be a nice accomplishment (my first century). I rode a metric century a couple weeks ago and other than being sick, feel fairly well prepared. We are planning to take it easy anyway as not everyone has really trained as much as would be ideal for such a long ride. Although we'd like to make it before sundown, we can take as much time as we need to complete the ride. We've already made the hotel reservations to stay in Milwaukee overnight and bought the Amtrak tickets to get back home the next day.

Cons:
I'm sick. I have a bad cold and feel, frankly, like crap today. I'm congested, going through boxes of tissues, and tired. The ride is just the four of us - bailing mid-way will be difficult, if not impossible. (There are no Amtrak stops mid-way; the only chance to bail is the final Metra stop which I think is in Kenosha.) There's a 30% chance of rain in the morning and it will be fairly cold (high in the upper 40s).

I think I know the smart thing is to stay home and wish the others well, but the idea of it is so disappointing that I would like to know if anyone else has done something like this and survived - and even enjoyed him/herself. Also, any tips for feeling better quickly, riding under such circumstances, etc., would be appreciated. I'm already taking Cold-Eeze and doing the usual rest, chicken soup, and fluids bit.

What education-themed webapp should I build?

primer_dimer — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:19:28 -0800

What education-themed webapp should I build? I need to build a webapp as part of learning a new programming language and it would be nice if the end product was useful to someone. A few of my friends who are teachers have suggested that I do something that would be helpful for teachers - like a wordsearch generator, etc. I know we have a few teachers here on MeFi - does anyone have any suggestions? Any tedious tasks that could be made easier?

Part of the reason I'm asking here is that I suspect traditional classroom activities vary greatly from country to country. For instance I recently found out that bingo games are popular classroom activities in the USA, which I never would have guessed - in the UK, bingo is strongly associated with old women and gambling, and it would be very odd to find it in the classroom. So please give your suggestions even if you think they're obvious.

The Good and Bad of Living With a Bum Ticker

lekvar — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:48:48 -0800

My father's been diagnosed with stable angina, and he's looking for a little reassurance... The longer version:

Yesterday my dad calls me up to tell me that he has stable angina, but it's advanced enough that he's going in for further testing, and likely stents, today. He's a little freaked out about this, not because of the procedure itself, but because he's afraid that having a bad heart is going to affect his over-all quality of life.

If you've got anecdotes about you or your loved ones living with stable angina, I'd like to hear them, especially if they lean towards the "active, vital member of society" end of the spectrum, though all perspectives are welcome.

Not golf, but golf-like.

pseudostrabismus — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:08:58 -0800

Please suggest informal, fun activities or settings to help a group of potential collaborators get better acquainted. Recently I met a number of individuals I really like. We all work in the same field, and now I'd like to introduce them all to each other. I think they'd form all kinds of bonds as friends, mentors, and collaborators. But I'm not sure how to mingle them. What should we do?

The people are mostly extroverted, talkative, loud-laughing women, ages 25-45. There would be about 10 people. I would like a setting that allows for some large, full-group casual conversations, but one that also makes "splinter conversations" comfortable, too.

Some ideas I had:

A potluck dinner party - the kind where people sit on the floor & couches. This would be ideal, but my place isn't really suitable. I might ask someone else to host, so it's still an option, but I'd rather leave that as a last resort.

A restaurant - I've been to meals and drinks with some of these people, and they are LOUD, raucous talkers and laughers (it's awesome), which sometimes doesn't work so well in a restaurant setting. Any bar loud enough to camouflage the hilarity is also is too loud for real conversations, and because of the age range, it's a bit harder to find a place for everyone to feel comfortable. But I'm definitely open to suggestions for specific places where it's ok to be loud but you can still have a great conversation. (We're in Toronto).

Golf - I think this is what golf is for, in a business context. But we don't play golf, and we don't want to learn.

A picnic in a huge city park - this option is pretty good. Kind of a pain to get everyone together, but the atmosphere would be good.

Are there more ideas I'm not thinking of?
Thanks!

Need to de-stress quick

reenum — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:24:39 -0800

I need to relax. Badly. Suggestions? I have had an epically horrific week at work. Everything that could have gone wrong did. All of the worst people called and acted like the asses they are. My phone was ringing non-stop. My stress level is through the roof right now.

So, I've decided to take Monday off. Any ideas as to what I can do to de-stress so I can come back strong on Tuesday?

Last-minute July 4th plans for NYC wanderer

jckll — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:36:59 -0800

Last-minute July 4th plans for NYC wanderer? My plans for July 4th fell through over the weekend so I'm left with nothing to do. I beseech you, AMeFi armchair travel agents: Help me find something fun for the long weekend!

I would prefer to travel outside the city, and would do so by plane, train or bus. Don't own a car. I will spend a reasonable amount of money, but cheaper is, of course, better. Would also consider city-based activities or maybe a daytrip or two to a nearby locale. I am a Manhattan-centric NYCer, so recommendations of things going on in the outer boroughs would be very welcome. Help me show myself how cool Brooklyn and Queens are!

Things I like: hiking, interesting food and restaurants, camping (but all my camping gear is elsewhere! boo), biking (bike=with the camping gear), reading, water (to play and to drink), music/concerts, sports, documentaries and movie screenings, outdoor festivals, etc etc etc

I am open to almost anything. Even if I didn't list it above, and you know of something cool going on, tell me!

You take care of my kids

doorsfan — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:33:30 -0800

My kid’s nanny starts next week – Help me with some sort of daily structure for 3 kids all different ages. This is our first nanny experience for our 2 children (2 ½ year old boy and 7 week old girl) who will be joined by their nannies 10 month old little girl. While we’ve tasked her to come up with a loose lesson plan I’d like to also provide suggestions that she might use.

We’d also be using this schedule as the kid’s daily development worksheet that she’d be leaving with us (similar to daycare) just so we know what the kids are doing. So this is what I’m looking for, your suggestions on individual activities, duration of activities, or lesson plan resources for similar aged kids.

What to do in Orlando, FL?

thekiltedwonder — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:30:33 -0800

What to do in Orlando, besides the obvious? My SO and I are driving down to Orlando tomorrow to visit my SO's friend. We're visiting my family in Tallahassee & her friend recently moved to Melbourne from Germany so we're splitting the difference & meeting in Orlando. We're looking for suggestions for things to occupy us for the day. We've ruled out going to any of the parks, since they are too expensive for my SO's friend. Any suggestions for free (or really cheap) things to do in Orlando?

We already know where we are going to eat, so we do not need any food related advice. We have cars but don't really plan to drive anywhere too far from Orlando, as our drive down there will be 3 hours long.

In addition, we need suggestions for things to do during the day as we will be leaving Orlando around 6PM.

Looking to blow $500 doing something awesome in NYC

HotToddy — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:09:33 -0800

I am looking for something completely awesome to do in NYC on January 17 or 18 for <$500. Anything goes!

How to take up XC skiiing?

unSane — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:09:42 -0800

I"m looking for a winter aerobic activity to keep my fitness level up for mountain biking. Cross country skiing is one of them. What should I buy and how hard is it going to be to learn? A few data points:

- I'm pretty aerobically fit

- I'm a good snowboarder but have never been on a pair of skis in my life

- I already snowshoe, but one of my favorite trail systems is XC ski only. Also, XC skiing is supposed to be better for maintaining cycling muscle groups.

- I like to explore the backwoods

- Most of the trails I would use are not groomed and quite often will not be broken. There are a few Nordic centres around here with groomed trails which it would be nice to use now and then but probably only once or twice a season.

- I already have the right clothing... it's the skis, boots and techniques that I'm concerned about.

- I'll probably take a couple of lessons at a local Nordic center first... I'm looking for your advice in addition to theirs!

NB This previous question answered a few questions but not in much detail.

Are there any alternatives to the (Boy|Girl) Scouts that are secular in nature?

mboszko — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:54:41 -0800

I have a son, almost 12, and a daughter, 9, and have been thinking about getting them involved in more outdoor activities. They're home-schooled, so they do get the opportunity to get out and play in the yard and with a few other kids in the neighborhood, but I'd like them to be introduced to a wider range of activities that outdoors-type groups like the scouts might provide (and not being an outdoorsy-type myself, might be able to better instruct in), but I'm put off by both the nationalistic and religious overtones that seem to pervade the Scout oaths. I'd prefer something with more of a global/wildlife focus. So, are there any alternatives to the (Boy|Girl) Scouts that are secular in nature? My wife is a little more open than I am, but I'm an atheist, and I'd prefer that if there's any group that they join, that it not be one where they're going to be taught to be "reverent", and do their "duty to God", when we don't believe that that is necessarily a virtue.

Are multiple DashboardClients bad?

pantsonsteven — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:45:13 -0800

I'm on a 15" MacBook Pro (Intel) and I have 3 instances of DashboardClient showing up in my Activity Monitor; is this a bad thing? Is it sucking up resources? Running 10.5.5. Previously here, but no help.

Help me spend my company's money on me

KirTakat — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:57:21 -0800

My company has offered to spend $25,000 on 35 people for an activity in February. What do we do? We're currently working on a big project at my company, and if we meet our target date, our company has ponied up $25,000 to do *something* for us. The target date is January 31st, so it would probably end up being some time in February or March.

Here's the conditons:

-There's 35 of us (or there abouts)
-$25,000
-Mostly male, but there are a few females
-Fairly wide age range
-At least one person in the group isn't very "mobile", and would have a hard time doing something like bungee jumping
-Several people have children
-We're at least starting from Chicago

Suggestions? So far my best suggestion is a 3 day trip to the Carribbean, but the company couldn't afford to bring along spouses if we did that. Other suggestions I've heard: Murder Mystery train trip, pool table/arcade for the office, and cash.

What to do at the beach besides gamble?

frosty_hut — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:45:09 -0800

Avoiding beach boredom! It'll be me, my dear hubby, my mother in law, my sister in law, and my adorable nephew Stevie on a short trip to the beach. Last time we did this, the adults all hung out at the casino, and I felt bad because we neglected Stevie.

What fun things can we do to include him this time? He's thirteen, but is a younger thirteen. Loves video games, and if we don't come up with alternatives, he could well spend the entire trip playing them.

He does like to wander on the edge of the water and find the weird little animals that live in the rocks. I can do that for an hour, and then I get bored. What else should we try? It wouldn't have to be beach-specific. Stevie is artistic, and I thought it would be fun to take some Sculpey with us and build things together...

Any other ideas would be welcome.

Calling all nerds/geeks/dorks and Socially acceptable people

hadjiboy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:51:29 -0800

Asking this on behalf of a friend of mine: can you help him out with a quiz that will give him an accurate description of how someone will stand on a DNG/SA scale that he's created--where DNG stands for Dork, Nerd, Geek, and SA stands for Socially Acceptable? (Bear with me for a second, will you?) "So while out with my roomie and a friend of ours, we discussed how my g/f rates as a 4.5 on the nerd scale. However, she disputed this, saying that the rating system was overly subjective and that she would like to appeal the rating given out by the committee (the committee consists of myself, my roomie, his brother, and two friends). So, we've decided to come up with a rating system. The "Dork/Nerd/Geek" rating divided by the "socially acceptable" rating gives us the DNG/SA ratio. Our goal is to come up with enough questions covering the DNG area of things (with varying degrees of dork, nerd, and geek dom) while still factoring in how socially acceptable or "normal" someone may be or might appear. So, to keep some sense of objectivity in the creation of this, I thought I'd seek some suggestions.

What I'm looking for from you guys are some activities, habits, or quirks that may make someone either DNG or SA and give that activity a rating between 1 and 10. For instance, what the committee agrees upon as the a 10 in the nerd area of things is LARPing (Live Action Role Playing). For the record, I've never done this, never plan to, but I've known people who have. Another instance would be watching sports or following a popular TV series...that would garner somewhere between an 8 or 10 (depending on the sport or TV show) on the SA rating.

So, if you have any suggestions, please, let me know. Also, if you're suggesting anything for the DNG, please indicate whether you believe this activity to be dorky, nerdy, or geeky.

Once we figure out which questions to include, we're going to figure out whether or not we'll do a "yes/no" format, or the "strongly disagree/often/whatever thru strongly agree/least often/whatever" format that you see on weirdo personality tests and job apps sometimes. After that, it's a matter of figuring out the math and a little bit of coding. We're thinking of putting it online ;p Yes, our DNG/SA ratio is undoubtly high."

Seeking information about self defense course(s) and related activites/classes.

iamkimiam — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:03:32 -0800

I am interested in self-defense classes. There are lots of methods and places to do this. The options are a little overwhelming and I know very little about the topic. Can somebody break it down and make some suggestions and/or recommendations that might be best suited for me? Based on the following (below), what would be a well-rounded type of self defense that might be most effective for confidence-building, safety, and exercise?

• I am a 5' tall, physically active, late 20s female
• I have lots of free time (could attend one class, or a series, but don't know what the difference is between a single session or an intensive course)
• I live in Oakland and can travel
• Would be interested to martial arts (there's so many kinds!) and/or other forms of activity
• Classes that allow me the opportunity to meet other women and/or men in the area would be great too

Any other info and ideas welcome. Thanks!

Salon activities for Non-poets and dreamers

ikahime — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:25:09 -0800

We're holding a salon tomorrow (in the artsy sense of the word), and are looking for good activities to suggest for those who might not be blatantly artistic. We'll be having a few poets and musicians come, but what can we suggest for those whoe might be 2-D artists, or those who don't consider themselves creative at all (which I think is a myth anyway). I'm considering things like Exquisite corpse type activites, but was hoping MeFites could give me more ideas...

Help me think of an interesting group activity that I can do with a group of kids aged 12-15.

913 — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:47:01 -0800

Help me think of an interesting group activity that I can do with a group of kids aged 12-15. The more abstract, the better. Myself and a group of friends (college aged) have been getting together with about a dozen kids aged 12-15 for the past few months. We meet every Friday evening, have some pizza, joke around, and try to do activities or have discussions on anything meaningful. Since we're in class all week and they're in class all week, we really try to keep everything lively without making it cheesy, and for the most part we chill with them, trying our best not have have an authoritative role but rather more of a friendship based one.

With all that said, help me come up with an engaging activity for this upcoming meeting.

For example: Last week I did an activity where the the kids brainstormed problems in the world (homelessness, global warming, war, etc - we went pretty in depth) and they had to choose one and focus into it. Once they had a focus, the goal was to design a product that would help fix the problem. The product didn't actually have to work but it was all about getting a group discussion going and it worked out really well.

Thanks MeFi!

Why Does the Hard Drive Light Blink Exactly Every Second?

petebest — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:21:11 -0800

Why is my (windows) hard drive light blinking every second? I've started in msconfig "diagnostic mode - basic devices and services only" and it still does it . . . I noticed it was blinking every second - on the second - when I noticed it synched up with the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Then I wondered what was accessing the hard drive every second.

Using the Start -> Run -> msconfig utility, I've started bare-bones and run diagnostic "Disk monitor" and "Process Monitor" (and "TCP View") from the seemingly excellent Sysinternals site.

I've gotten it so Registry, File System, and Process & Thread activity is essentially stopped - but the HDD indicator light keeps blinking. Every second. Tick . . tick . . tick . .

Nothing looks out of the ordinary TCP wise . . . Spyware, malware, virus, etc. scans show it's clean . . . ???

I thought it was spyware but no processes run, no ports are open, no disk activity - just this @#! blinking light . . .
It's a 5-yr old Dell Optiblast or whatever, and afaik the HDD light didn't blink like this before

Thanks very much for any suggestions . . and happy bidding!

Beware. PHB lurking ahead.

Jonsnews — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:45:03 -0800

Help me prevent my Pointy Headed Boss from implementing a daily required karaoke session. Theres definatly Ok.. Well my boss has it set in his head that we need to do some daily activity at some point in the day to boost morale. His current idea consists of MAKING everyone in my office sing a song together.
Words cannot express how horrible this sounds to me.
So what can I counter propose as a fun (to everyone, even introverts) activity we can all do for 5-10 minutes a day.
I have been searching google on team building activities, but I think this is more of a attitude adjuster then team building..
I wish I could convince him how much fun a 10 minuite networked game of GTA would be, but alas, I'm the only gamer..

Party ideas?

eustacescrubb — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 06:23:15 -0800

I need inexpensive but fun ideas for a birthday party attended by 3-4 year-olds. There will 8-10 toddlers at my son's birthday party. Last year, just letting them run around was entertainment enough. This year, I'd like to have some games and fun activities for them. I'd prefer if it wasn't too structured. Also, with the heat, I'd prefer no outdoor activities. Most of all, I want the activities to be fun stuff the kids and parents will enjoy, and I want it to be DIY if possible.

unique nyc experience?

saffron — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 12:38:27 -0800

Unique New York experience for a couple - beyond helicopter rides? I'm looking for a unique activity in New York for my partner's birthday. It will be just the two of us, and we like it that way -- no touristy/big group/too-trendy stuff. Perhaps some kind of private tour of a hard-to-access place? A very unique dining experience? Our concierge suggested a helicopter ride, but that seems a bit cliche. Something along those lines though would be great. I appreciate any ideas!

What to do with a rediculously long & narrow balcony?

shanevsevil — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:31:50 -0800

My new apartment has a balcony with some pretty strange dimensions. It's only 3 and a half feet deep (wall to railing) but it's over 25 feet long. I'm really not using the space, I'd like to come up with some cool uses for it. The best idea I have so far is a hammock (there's a pretty solid wooden awning above that I could anchor it to) but I'd almost be afraid of toppling out over the (3 foot high) rails if I rolled over. How can I make this a space that me and my guests will want to use?

What are humans best at?

stoneegg21 — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 06:48:14 -0800

How are humans different physically from other creatures? What are we best at? What sort of things are humans best at? I've always heard that while humans can't hear very high or very low, we've got the largest hearing range. As well, I don't think many other creatures have the same range of color vision that we do. I think that humans aren't good at sprinting, but that we're pretty good at endurance activities. Finally, I've been told that humans have pretty huge penises considering their bodysize, along with the weird fact humans don't have penis bones of any kind. Which of these are wrong, and what else are there?