Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with away

Please make this Libirum stop spoiling my water

reverendjim — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:45:40 -0800

My doctor recently prescribed some Librium for awful stomach cramps. It seems that it is making all my food and drink now taste just terrible, like it's all got nutrasweet in it. I know the simple answer here is "just stop taking it", but that's really not an option. The Google is useless on this, and I really miss drinking water that tastes like water, and not water with some awful chemical in it. I guess, long question short: Is this the medication causing this or do I have a brain tumor?

Gotta Get Away

Venadium — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:19:33 -0800

Why has iChat stopped setting my status as Away? I'm not sure when this started happening but I just noticed it recently. When I set my status in iChat to any of my stored away messages, including the default "Away" one, iChat only changes my actual status message, and doesn't flag me as being Away. I have no way of telling what happens after I've been idle for 15 minutes, when I should be automatically set to Away, but I'm guessing nothing. Has anyone else had this problem? Google came up with a lot of irrelevant results, except for one person on some message board somewhere with the same problem, but even that wasn't any help since nobody there was able to help them.

What do you do with your old clothes?

seagull.apollo — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:00:03 -0800

I've had a lot of clothes over the years that I've hung on to, for no reason other than that I can't bear to throw them away. What do you do with your favorite clothes once they are too worn out to continue to function as clothing?

Music for a going-away party?

mikeand1 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:23:20 -0800

Need music for a going away party. Title says it all. I'm hosting a party for a good friend who's moving away. Nowhere exotic (Washington DC).

Song recommendations?

Thanks Mefites!

If you'll just point me in the right direction...

segatakai — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:10:01 -0800

I have a question in two parts. If that's illegal, admin, please delete the last part. I'd like to hear suggestions for websites I should look at, and then advice on whether this is really how I should move forward with this. Hopefully, this is much clearer in the ... part 1: I'm thinking about putting together a blog/website/internet doohickey that would eventually become an online encyclopedia about a very narrow topic. Narrow as it is, there could end up being many hundreds, but probably not thousands of entries. I'm intrigued by the wikipedia idea, where others can contribute and change etc, but for the time being, I'd like to have comments be the modus operandi for feedback and improvement on the main entry. I think the main thing about the wikipedia model that I like is the community aspect. I like the idea of building something with a group of people across the world (as far fetched as it may be, ultimately). My question is, what recommendations do you have for internet doohickeys that do this well? Do you know of a good encyclopedia/glossary/dictionary type site that ingeniously (or quite capably) handles comments and feedback from visitors? One obvious example is, ahem, AskMe, but please give me some more things to look at and get inspired by. Additionally, one thing that AskMe doesn't really allow that I'd like to incorporate if possible, is a way to comment about, say, one sentence in the main entry, and be able to see that comment in close proximity to the sentence in question, but never be confused about what is the main entry and what is the comment (like notes in the margin?). And I'd like people to be able to comment on the comment, etc. So there might eventually be six or more 'conversations' going on about different parts of one entry, all viewable (with some scrolling necessary, perhaps) on one page per entry. Does that make sense? Is that possible?

part 2: Should I do this?
Sometimes lately (in my more hubristic moments) I've begun to feel that maybe, among English-speaking individuals, I might actually be on the brink of becoming the most knowledgeable person on my narrow topic. I want to share the knowledge I've acquired over the last 10 years studying this narrow topic, but I do feel uncertain about 'giving it away.' The topic is narrow enough (and the 'target marget' infinitesimal enough) that I'm never going to make a million bucks writing books or lecturing about it, but I'm sure there's some money to be made, and I am reluctant to just toss it up on the net for the world to cannibalize. I understand the idea that having an effective web-presence leads to other opportunities, but there's a part of me that can't help asking: Wouldn't I be better off to write a book and just advertise it on the web? I sense that there are probably two camps on this -- please tell me which camp you are in and why, and where possible/applicable, point me to other resources to support your argument.

Thank you kindly for your support.

*I realize this "narrow topic" stuff is a little hinky, but somehow I'm uncomfortable spilling the details (though I realize you can all probably figure it out, this being the internet, and all). I also feel that being more general might induce more creative answers (?).

How do i stop running away?

Anonymous — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:51:28 -0800

How do i stop running away? So I'm a twenty something a coupla years out of college and I've pottered around a few jobs here and there.

I've met great people wherever I've worked who've always taken me seriously at the start and plied me with opportunities and the freedom to choose my projects: and yet I manage to do this everytime.

What I've essentially ended up doing for a long long time now is: getting terribly excited about some idea, and then sitting on it for days and months, fretting the crap out as the deadline approaches, keep putting off doing anything real till a few hours before, and throwing together something hasty for the meeting.

I think I can manipulate people pretty well so it ends up sounding serious and high falutin but if you peer beneath the surface there's nothing deeper.

The thing is, every now and then amongst all the bullshit, I can come up with a pretty neat idea and this has lead to an impressive resume on paper - but I don't really know anything.

I've sorta convinced myself that I was 'still searching' but that line seems more and more implausible and downright bs even to me.

This is not to say that I doubt my abilities: I think I'm pretty smart and have pretty good sensibilities about the things I like: but if I never actually *do* anything about them, and instead keep running away, then I'm dumbing myself down.

So I am asking for your help.

Especially worrisome is that I live with this constant feeling of dread - I've had this since I was a kid. The cause itself maybe trivial or important - but the dread is *always* present. The physical sensation is a weight at the pit of my stomach and feeling like I need to go to the toilet to take a shit. This causes me to fret, pace, eat junk, smoke, neglect the people in my life and generally self-destruct slowly.

I also tend to live thinking of how my biographies will look like - so I talk as I think will look 'good in a book', assume poses all the time. Only complete surprises jolt me into an honest response, but this is quickly tailored to how I want this event to 'look and sound' later.

In college I'd be glib and pass this off as 'solipsism' (leaving other people to pick my shit up after me) or crave for little laurels: 'maverick' etc.

Is this something pathological? How can i cure this. Please help.

alwaysrunningaway@gmail.com

Is Continental going to punish me for evading their clutches?

de void — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:13:14 -0800

Is Continental airlines going to penalize me for evading their attempt to double my ticket price? Originally booked a round trip ticket from EWR (Newark) to LAS (Las Vegas) on Continental.

Between originally booking the flight and today, I purchased a used car located near JAN (Jackson-Evers, Mississippi).

After looking into car shipper pricing, I decided it would be more economical to fly to JAN and drive the car home.

I went to continental.com, pulled up my original itinerary, queried a change in the return leg to JAN and saw my ticket price more than double from $350 to $750. Screw that.

I canceled the change and instead went to kayak.com. Through kayak, a one way ticket from LAS to JAN is $155. Continental is the carrier and it's the same exact flights (LAS to IAH, IAH to JAN) as they wanted to charge me $400 extra on top of my original round trip ticket price on the Continental site.

I booked the $155 one way flight.

Was discussing this with a co-worker and they indicated that the airline can fine you for "throw-away ticketing", i.e. not using the return leg of a round trip ticket.

Is this true?

Remember me while you're away

mcarthey — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:08:56 -0800

Help me come up with the perfect "remember me while you're away" gift. For circumstances outside our control, a great friend that I love is going to outside communication for a couple of years. I'd like to give her something to remember us and the love we have for each other. I'm not particularly crafty so it'd be great if it was something that didn't require elaborate skills. (This is not jail, for those of you that were thinking it, and she will be living in a house). I realize this sounds like a hallmark moment and that 'the best gifts come from the heart', but other than some sort of picture collection I'm not coming up with anything exciting and new.

Holiday Celebrate. Just one day out of life...it would be so nice!

Snoogylips — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:35:30 -0800

Looking to spend a romantic get-away weekend somewhere in Texas after the new year with my husband. Possibly January or February. We live in West Texas and would like to travel somewhere nearby and stay for a Saturday and Sunday. We do not drink, smoke, and will not be traveling or lodging with pets. We would like somewhere close by preferably in Texas. We usually visit Austin, Tx for getaways but I want something closer and not so busy. Just for ideas when we do go to Austin the main things we do are eat at Rudy's BBQ, Wan Fu, and watch movies at Alamo draft house. We usually stay with friends there but I prefer something for just the two of us. Cost is a factor-hopefully something under $150.00 a night. Doesn't have to be anything fancy just away from home for a day or two. We have never been to a bed and breakfast, so i am not sure about that. Maybe a lake house that would rent for two nights for a couple? Any towns and/or ideas?

Ayuda me, por favor!

sprocket87 — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:42:03 -0800

What are some Spanish-language idioms or expressions for "Goodbye" (or similar) to put on a going-away cake? We have some friends that are moving away soon and who are also in the process of learning Spanish as a family. We're having a going-away party for them and would like to have an appropriate phrase on the cake, but in Spanish.

Obvious choices would be "A Dios!" or "Hasta la Vista", but those are pretty generic. It'd be nice to have a cute little Spanish saying or idiom that would fit the going-away theme.

I had three years of Spanish in high school and am pretty comfortable with the basics, but I was never immersed in the culture enough to know any really unique expressions like this.

Thanks!

Toronto here we come!

gaby — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:56:10 -0800

1 Year in Toronto: My wife and I are moving to Toronto for a year in January. She has a job already sorted (that's why we're going) and I'm probably going to carry on being a freelance WebDev/SysAdmin/etc whilst we're there. Questions are many, housing, work, tax, transport, fun, recommendations, advice... Things we haven't sorted out yet:

- Where to live? What to pay for it?
- What to do with all our stuff? Ship it over from the UK or try and live without it for 12 months?
- What am I going to do it freelancing doesn't work? Will I have to pay tax on my earnings, even if I'm contracting for US an UK clients whilst in Canada?
- What should we make sure we do in the year we're there? What's good to see and do?
- Should we rent a car or rely on public transport?

And probably a gozillion other things that just won't occur to me until the day before we fly out. There must be people who've done this before and have tales, wisdom and experience to share. Can you help make this an amazing year in Canada?

Delayed delivery for daily doses of ... uh ... me?

yellowbinder — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:38:01 -0800

I'm out of the country with my family for the next few weeks, and don't want my boyfriend to get too lonely back home. How can I schedule pre-written emails to be automatically sent to him? I don't think I will have regular internet access while I am away, so I want to write a bunch of emails and schedule them to be sent on specific days.

I don't have a dedicated email program, but I have Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Small Business email accounts. I could sign up for another free web based service that offers this feature if none of those do.

What to do when you FINALLY clean out your closet

friendlyfire — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:58:33 -0800

The cleaning out of my closet (finally) has resulted in two garbage bags full of clothes. Now what should I do with them? I'm in NYC. I will donate the majority of the clothes to charity, but I'm not sure exactly where I can/should take them. It would be a bonus if it was close to where I live on the Lower East Side.
I'd also like to try to sell some of the clothes, as a lot of them are new or only worn a few times. I really want to get rid of them as fast as possible though, because I know if I start looking through them again, I'll probably reconsider and keep a ton of things that I just don't need. So no ebay, I don't need them sitting in my apartment waiting for me to get tempted and put them back into my closet. I don't expect to make a large amount of money at all, but it would be nice to make something. Is there any place (again, near me, I can't be lugging these things around!) that buys large amounts of clothes/shoes/jewelry?
I feel really guilty, I don't think I'll be buying clothes for a looooong time....

Writing an away message for work vacation

ferociouskitty — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 05:07:13 -0800

"I will be out of the office this week. If you need immediate assistance, screw you." I need help writing and recording away messages for email and voicemail! I work in a very small office, and simply put, no one wants to have to deal with the people I have to deal with. Okay, so I deal with a lot of people who are very needy and demanding, but my co-workers are right - just about anything they come up with can wait a week. I would love some suggested scripts for a tactful message that says, essentially, quit your whining and be patient

Keeping an outdoor space bee-free

internal — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 19:47:08 -0800

How do we keep the Bees away?
We are having an outdoor party this weekend and I am sure the Bees will be bad. What can we do to keep them away? I have heard that placing a bowl of honey nearby, but far enough from the crowd, works. Anyone try this? Any other options?