Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with block

How do I force myself to write more freely again?

kingfisher, his musclebound cat — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:05:59 -0800

I've started writing too slow, thinking too much, not imprisoning the editor, etc. I'm looking for an online or osx tool that encourages writing. It might be as simple as a field that asks you to enter x words within y time. I am having trouble shifting my mindset.

How can I stop freaking out over timed LSAT games?

AAAAAThatsFiveAs — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:49:41 -0800

The LSAT is next week and my games section is abysmal. I know it's a psychological thing. What do you recommend? Hello Hive,

I've been doing self-study since the beginning of October with the PowerScore books and scads of real LSATs. My diagnostic was pretty middling (low 150's), though I've inched my way up to the mid 160's.

Games... There's just something about the timer running in the background that causes me to panic. But when I review the games afterward, I have *substantially* less difficulty and everything seems to click. To give you a typical example, I only managed to complete 1.5 games on the last timed practice exam. Reviewing them a few hours later, they seemed jaw-droppingly simple, and I solved them all within thirty minutes. Untimed games are usually a breezy affair, though the occasional bastardly one crops up.

Has anyone had this problem? If so, how did you conquer it? Should I focus exclusively on untimed games? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

What to do with a nice, fresh stretch of blacktop?

eamondaly — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:15:35 -0800

Our street in Chicago was just repaved, and in honor of The City that Works, we're closing it off on Saturday to throw a block party. We've got 100 feet of beautifully smooth black asphalt with a slight crown and a gradual west to east fall of about 3 feet or so, enough for things to slowly roll with a starter push. We don't have enough time to make soap box racers, but what else could we do with the street before it's ripped to shreds by snowplows?

How do I get my mojo back?

SebastianKnight — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:23:15 -0800

How do I get artistically unblocked, fast? I'm about to start the next year of a (sort of) art-photography course and I need to come up with a Big Idea very very soon (like, two weeks soon). I've had a rough few months and have lost of lot of momentum, had to scale back my reading regime dramatically, and effectively done nothing creative since Spring. Now time is running out and my idea-tank is dry. I've been trying to expand on the one or two mini-ideas that I do have, and frankly, they're terrible. I need tips on getting unblocked in a hurry.

Over the last week or so I've been trying (and mostly failing) to do some brainstorming, mind-mapping, and general idea-capturing, and I've also re-read Art and Fear and The War of Art. I've had a copy of The Artist's Way on a shelf for months, but now I don't have time to work through it, so if anyone could recommend the best bits that might help me. I'm hesitant to start reading any new books in the short time I have left, so other book recommendations might not be so helpful.

I have come up with some very vague parameters for the project, and I know which artistic movements I have an affinity for, but beyond that I'm completely stuck.

Thanks everyone.

I dont have self-control, but I AM lazy.

who else — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:24:20 -0800

Is there any way (on a mac) that I can block myself from being able to visit a website without being able to go back and unblock it, aside from getting someone else involved to block urls for me? Right now I have opendns set up and have blocked a url. But it would be too easy to just go log into opendns config and just unblock it. Is there anything that wouldn't let me unblock for a year or an amount of time I can set?
And I could block and throw out the password to opendns but I would want the ability to block more urls in the future.
With opendns I can still bypass it by just stopping using opendns but it is a hassle to reconfigure my IP settings, compared to just logging in and unblocking what I blocked. I need more roadblocks.

Can you beat a San Francisco parking ticket if it has no VIN number on it?

roxie110 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:28:06 -0800

Can you beat a San Francisco parking ticket if it has no VIN number on it? Can you beat a "blocking sidewalk" ticket in San Francisco if they say "can not read" VIN number, even though it was readable? Or any other way... :) This is one of those lovely "pulled into boyfriend's driveway leaving plenty of room in front of car for pedestrians to walk by, ran upstairs for 3 minutes, came back to find a ticket--even though it was 8 at night in the middle of nowhere in Outer Sunset." All the other identifying info on the ticket is correct--including the gasp-inducing fine of $100.

Any advice would be appreciated.

How to block P2P on ashared internet connection.

boby — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:25:57 -0800

How can I stop my roommates from using our shared internet connection to download or share copyrighted files? I recently got a warning email from my ISP (Verizon) stating that someone used my account to downloaded a copyright protected television show using Bit Torrent.
I share my internet connection with 3 other persons. Can Verizon or I block all P2P traffic so there won't be any more problems?

Are self-installable dental electric nerve blocks on the horizon, at all?

Quarter Pincher — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:39:24 -0800

Would it be very plausible to hope that a consumer-good electric(al) nerve block be developed for dental/oral surgery pain management? Soon? I will likely be having lots of dental work in my future, unless I can somehow discover a drastically inexpensive way to skip right to dentures.

In the meantime and less pricey time, I'd ideally like a consumer-implementable electric(al) nerve block that I could install myself when needed, because getting the chem-shot is almost as bad as the toothache itself, so much that I've had my last umpteen fillings bored and filled without any shots and going purely off nitrous and goa-trance.

The pain-to-the-point-of-insanity I feel when injected with whatsit-caine nerve block meds into the gum is absurdly fearsome, but I'll overlikely be needing a number of root canals later in my years -- and it seems like an electric/electrical nerve block would be the answer, but to get a dentist to buy one and use it would take decades rather than me just bringing one in and using it myself.

Would you suppose the installation of electric(al) nerve block is too delicate or sensitive (pun, yes) of a procedure for standard consumers to implement, or could a rudimental version be contrived that essentially accomplishes the goal without needing to know advanced bio-science?

Pleas Please Me

gensubuser — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:24:21 -0800

I need security software that blocks specific programs from using the internet. ZoneAlarm does this well, but it does not do this completely. Help? I've had good luck with ZoneAlarm over the past 5 years--it does pretty much what I want. No, Word, you don't get to use the internet. Sorry, Adobe Update, no phoning home. Unfortunately, there are some scraps remaining:

The other day I caught a program using some Windows Help .exe to grab its html help files from the web. It sounded pretty innocuous, but could used to sinister ends. Then, there are the "Windows Generic Host processes" -- you can't really lock them down (with ZA) without paying a huge price, because nothing really works then.

So, I want software that runs programs inside a web-less sandbox. I may end up having to run a VM with file-only access, but I'd rather not--that's kinda slow, and not very seamless. If there were software that viciously scalpeled all web dlls from the offending program, that'd be okay too. But I need to know that this software isn't phoning home. I don't give IE permission to use the net until I have to use it, because I have a suspicion some programs show up as IE in ZA.

99% of the programs out there talk about "stopping spyware before it's even installed" or removing it once it's been identified. I don't want that--I'm paranoid, what are my options?

Help me become a higher-output writer!

Bardolph — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:55:20 -0800

Academic writing filter: I am a painfully slow writer. How might I go about developing a composition process that's higher-output, requires less concentration, and is more revision-friendly? I've never been the kind of person for whom words just spill out onto the page. When I'm able to write anything at all, I usually manage it by pacing and thinking through things until sentences shape themselves spontaneously in my head, at which point I transcribe and move on. What emerges is (I'm told) fairly high-quality, but to get into "writing mode" at all requires hours of unbroken concentration-- and once I'm in the zone, I generally have to write the paper more or less continuously for the next few days, without doing anything else (including social interaction) that might break my focus. At my best, I can squeeze out an average of about four pages per 24 hours, assuming I do nothing but write.

Now that I'm staring down the barrel of some serious writing, I'm realizing I really need to overhaul my composition process. If I'm ever going to tackle book-length projects, I'll need (a) to be able to work in reasonable stretches-- say, five hours at a time instead of 96-- and (b) to find a way to write with only a reasonable investment of concentration and effort, as opposed to the torturous, childbirth-worthy levels of focus I currently require.

I suspect the answer might be to aim for lower-quality, higher-quantity prose, and to revise as necessary. Thing is, I have
no idea how to do this. I'm not some crazy perfectionist saddled with debilitatingly high standards; at this point, I'd be perfectly happy to pour out dreck, given that I suspect my advisors won't read half of what I write anyway. It's just that my mind doesn't really allow me the option of producing high-volume, bad writing. In the throes of composition, it doesn't come down to a bad sentence in five minutes vs. a good one in 15; it's the good sentence, or else a blank page. If there IS some time-consuming process of mental revision at work, it's taking place way below the surface of my consciousness, at some level where I can't presently access it. (An additional guilty secret: I've never really revised an academic essay. All the sentences end up being so bound together by rhythm, logic, sound, shape, etc. that I can't really amend much without just taking everything apart and starting over from the beginning.)

Any advice, suggestions or inspirational stories would be very very welcome, particularly if there's anyone out there who's successfully turned this corner. Useless advice thus far: "Just relax, don't worry, and do it!" (I'm not worried, but I can't), and "Just sit down and type anything, without thinking!" (I've tried; nothing comes out, which is my problem in the first place). Any ideas?

Overcoming a Human Roadblock

GeniPalm — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:33:18 -0800

I guess the question should really be, "how to overcome a MENTAL roadblock that has taken the form of a person?" I guess my situation can be likened to those age-old stories of someone not being able to forgive a parent for a bad childhood, and blames the parent for his/her failures. But my story is about an unwelcomed competition from a cousin, one that instead of facing I've always cowered to, and have thus grown in resentment and have become stifled as I continue watcihng my life unfold in misery, Wondering how to reclaim a personal sense of power regardless of her presence in my life, even though it seems it keeps "haunting" me. I guess the question should really be, "how to overcome a MENTAL roadblock that has taken the form of a person?"

I don't really know how to articulate fully this years-old dilemma of mine into a paragraph or so, but I will try, only because I honestly don't know what else to do. I don't know how to get past this and it's eating at my life, or more accurately, has devoured my life.

I have a cousin around the same age as me. Ever since I can remember, her parents have pitted her against me, competing on everything, especially educationally. I think this was a holdover from a competition between our moms, sisters also closely linked in age. I honestly never seriously considered the competition until it was continually brought to me. Like I vividly remember years ago, my cousin making snide comments about my scoring higher on the SAT, or when I had any semblance of happiness in my life on a social front, she would do these passive-aggressive things that showed her displeasure with my happiness! I really grew to resent her and tried to distance myself from her until unfortuately we ended up not just at the same college, but even as roommates. It was horrible. I increasingly grew self-concious of everything I did. It seemed every step I made toward trying to establish the kind of life I wanted that didn't include her, she would find a way to maneuver her way in. Following me to church, befriending my friends, joining the sorority she knew I wanted to (I ended up not joining for the sole reason of trying to avoid her!), and the list goes on. A few years ago, I found out that when I started grad school, she was asking around about what I was studying, "what's SHE doing there?" Not long after she enrolled. I quit. It came to a point where I looked back on my life and saw so many things I forfeited on, for the sole purpose of avoiding her, like her negative spirit was just daring me to succeed and be happy or something. It's weird I know, and it sounds strange. But after therapy for a year (yep I went to therapy over this ONE person!), trying to figure out how to be strong enough to just focus on me, after years of thinking and re-thinking, analyzing, turning to church and spiritual and self-help books, you name it, I still haven't figured out how to get past this.

I link all of my failures to her presence in my life. So many times I've thought about how free I would feel if I never knew anyone like her, if she was never born or something. I feel so weak, so beaten down. I wish my spriit was as strong as hers, but it's not. I wish I could be as aggressive at my life as she is at both hers and MY life, but I'm not. In theory, I know the answer: Just focus on your life. But we're first cousins in a tight-knit family. She is not someone I can just remove from my life forever. Even when I don't want to hear anything about her, people volunteer the info. So erasing her is not an option. I guess getting over my resentment towards her is paramount to moving on, but how? Every time I make a step forward, I start thinking about how that step should have been taken years ago, then I start thinking about why it wasn't, and there she is again, in my head, stifling my energy. I'm lost.

How do you get over someone you [rightly or wrongly] blame for your misery? Or better yet, how do you overcome the power you've allowed this person to take from you?

Taxes are due today!

Felicity Rilke — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:05:03 -0800

Where should I go to have my taxes done in Toronto (today!)? I have to file three years worth of taxes. I've never done this before (I used to send everything to my dad for his accountant to deal with). I have been told to go to H&R Block, I have been told not to go to H&R Block. I do not know where to go, or if I can even just do this myself online. Some place (individual accountant or otherwise) in biking distance of College and Ossington appreciated.

Help! What/who do you recommend?

(Yes, I procrastinate. No need to point out the obvious.)

Construction site curiosity

nnk — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:44:57 -0800

What's the purpose of painting concrete/cement block black and what are those flaps above the windows for? I pass by the building site for an addition to a large, multi-storied school. It looks like eventually the building will have a brick exterior to match the rest of the school. Right now, the building is concrete block with no windows. At some point, flaps (tyvek?) were added above the window frames and the concrete/cement block was painted black. Why?

Block every shred of traffic from a referrer

JWright — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:45:42 -0800

How do I block absolutely all traffic from a specified referrer? I've got a handful of referrers I need to block completely - even pings. I want anything from the referrer ignored, and not to register as a single byte of traffic, if possible.

I've put PHP and .htaccess blocks in place, but they still seem to register a sliver of traffic on each hit.

Any way to block these completely? I have a dedicated server running Fedora, so I can install whatever I need wherever it needs to be.

I'm writing again, but the song I just composed is not my song.

RobotHeart — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:03:49 -0800

Should I transcribe what I'm hearing in my head? How? (And should I see a shrink?) So, a song just fell into my head. It's fully developed with the exception of some of the lyrics missing. I've got the main vocal line, a background descant, a very full piano part, and some drums. Sometimes the background lyrics don't match the main lyrics.

It's a very nice song. I like it. The problem is, I'm pretty sure the aether misplaced it. It's clearly meant for Tori Amos's brain. In fact, it's Tori's voice singing it! It's built like a song of hers, too, in terms of the chords chosen and how the vocals drape across them -- maybe a kissing cousin of Tear in your Hand.

It would not surprise me too much if tomorrow some of her people banged on my door and threatened me for stealing the song already on the way to her. (Okay, yes it would. But you see where I'm going with this.)

I frequently have bits of music I have composed just pop up in my head, but I'm always the one singing, and it doesn't seem so derivative. But I never seem to be able to finish those.

Three questions:
1) If I wanted to try and transcribe what I'm hearing, I'd need a quicker way to write the music down. I could run to a store nearby for paper pre-lined with music staves, but is there a way of doing it digitally? I'd like to create a JPG or GIF of some sheet music.

2) Is my writer's block over, or has it just begun, if I'm writing someone else's song?

3) Given all of the above: do I need to see a shrink? ::toothy grin::

Walls came a-tumbling down, now what?

korej — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:14:00 -0800

Looking for advice on rebuilding / repairing a section of concrete block (cinder block ) wall that once upon a time separated two yards. If nothing else, the dog is happy with the new expanded yard. About a year ago a section about six feet long of the concrete block / cinder block wall between our house and the neighbor's fell in a wind storm. Her insurance said they would pay for it, but then she's had health issues, and we all got busy, and now we're back to trying to get this dealt with. Not sure what the insurance will do at this point, so we're checking other options.

The blocks aren't broken, but it looks like we should put a foundation down under the section that fell (there wasn't one before - old, funky neighborhood)

Any reason why we shouldn't try to rebuild this ourselves?

Anyone with experience with this sort of thing? I know we need to put the foundation down to the frost line - I suppose I can call county extension to find out what that is here (Albuquerque).

Thanks all.

Don't want to hurt annoying/tedious person's feelings

porpoise — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:35:25 -0800

Asking for a friend: Facebook - is it possible to block friends (ie., not see their contributions) without them knowing about it? Is there an app or a setting so that someone remains on your "friends list" and you on theirs, but when you login you never ever see any-/be notified- of their content?

GPS to Census Tract?

suedehead — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:15:01 -0800

How can I convert GPS to Census boundaries? I want to convert latitude-longitude pairs to a unit of census measurement -- namely, the census tract. I also want this to happen offline -- without querying any online databases/scripts -- and to be automated. I'm looking specifically to do this within the NYC metropolitan area, or Manhattan at least.

What's the best way to do this? Any tips appreciated. I'm somewhat comfortable with coding Perl, C/C++, Java, etc.

Thanks!

Methods of semi-precise breaking of a cinder block in half lengthwise?

vanoakenfold — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:40:14 -0800

I want to use cinderblock halves for the border of an outdoor project, but my question -- how to break them along intended lines without cracking/fracturing the rest of it? I'd like to break a cinder block (two-hole) lengthwise, that is, down the center of the two holes, so that I'll have two wide "m" shapes. How can I break the cinderblock semi-precisely, without fracturing the rest of it? I'm going to be implanting them into the ground, so the exactness isn't necessarily perfect, as long as I have to flat surfaces on the edges of both halves (two flat tops on the "m" shape) to line up end to end to make a border. Any suggestions of how to accomplish this, without having to buy/rent a concrete chainsaw or drilling perforation holes? Solutions that are slow/tedious are just fine.

Are there recordings of Stephanie J. Block's Elphaba?

Rowgun — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:34:08 -0800

BroadwayFilter: Is it possible to get a non-broadway cast recording of Wicked? I've slowly turned into a fan of Wicked: the Musical. The first time I saw it was the first national tour, when it featured Stephanie J. Block and Kendra Kassebaum as Elphaba and Glinda. Unfortunately, as much as I like the original 2003 cast recording, it does not feature these two (Trust me, I like Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, but you only get once to make a first impression).

The only things I've been able to find is bits and pieces on youtube, and bits from the video trailer for the official tour (see here and here).

Is there a recording of these two wonderful women out there? or am I stuck with these clips?

What is the service that lets you change your DNS settings to route through a safe-site filter?

JPigford — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:16:33 -0800

What is the service that lets you change your DNS settings to route through a safe-site filter? Just weeks ago I remember reading about a simple service that would let you modify the DNS servers on your computer so that all internet traffic would be routed through a "safe-site" filter so that it'd block questionable sites.

There was nothing to download or anything of that nature and it was free...just simply modifying the DNS servers on your computer.

Any ideas?

Writing Here To Avoid Writing

thinkpiece — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:34:29 -0800

How can I unblock and get to work? I took on a freelance writing job that came to me from a friend/colleague with whom I've worked very successfully in the past. He pitched me to his team, we had some meetings, I got a retainer and ... was offered a different full-time, demanding job which I could not turn down. I thought I could bang out Freelance Job during my weeks before starting Real Job and now I'm stuck ... I'm supposed to be the expert, so when I submitted a first draft and my friend told me it was 'the wrong direction' I was shocked into being blocked (I've never come up against such a wholesale No on a project).

I'm over deadline, clueless as to how to jump start a new plan of attack, not-so-motivated anymore, and also, legitimately busy at my new gig. My friend is no expert (I'm supposed to be) and he is very busy and isn't sure what direction I should take anyway -- just thinks the one I've submitted is wrong. Of course, it would suck to have to return the retainer. Help.

Block Contact on gmail

JayRwv — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 18:44:47 -0800

I use google gmail and like it. But I cannot find out how to block a certain contact. I do not use google chat. It is my understanding that you look at the contact list and under "Show in Quick Contacts" select BLOCK. I cannot find quick contacts and I assume it is part of google chat. Does anyone know for sure? Thanks

Finished Basement Flooding & Cinder Block Walls - How to Fix

Kellyu — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:22:18 -0800

The torrential rains here on the east coast a few weeks ago resulted in some fairly minor flooding in my finished basement - one room floor was completely covered by 1/2" of water (where the leak seems to have originated) , and 2 other rooms were partially covered by the same amount. Have owned the house since 1991 (it was built in the mid-1970's), and we met the original owner a few years ago who said he had done an extremely thorough job water-proofing the lower floor/basement area. Until this incident, we never had a single drop of water come through. The worst-flooded area has a cinderblock wall. Parts of the cinderblock in one corner, from about 4' up down to the floor, were drenched with water, and you can see streaks of water on some blocks in this area. So I assume water leaked through the cinderblocks from that area, where the blocks were wet.

There were no holes evident anywhere, so I'm amazed so much water could simply - it appears - soak through the blocks in 8-9 hours time, and not reveal any obvious holes for the water to proceed through. (We live on top of a very moderate hill, BTW, so the bottom floor/finished basement area is built into the ground, into where the hill slopes. That is, the basement floor is partly underground and surrounded by land about 2/3's around the front and sides, so the presumeably leaky cinderblock is the barrier between the rooms and the ground here.)

We've had 1-2 heavy rain storms since this incident, but no more leaks have occurred since the prior incident.

So the questions ares:

1) Why did this happen?
2) Do cinder blocks start getting permeable after a number of years?
3) What is the best way to insure this flooding does not happen again if we get days of prolonged and heavy rains another time?
4) Should we get a mason or a waterprooofer or both to patch up the cinderblock?
5) Could we do something to repair it ourselves?
6) Is there a way the walls could be tested for leaks?
7) Is this evidence of more serious problems, such as what?

This was all pretty upsetting, given it was unprecedented in this house and in all of our experience of places with basements.

Thanks for any help on this!

How do I block the websites that kill all my time?

logovisual — Tue, 23 May 2006 19:17:47 -0800

For the sake of my productivity and my sanity, I need to block certain websites that eat up waaaaay too much of my time. I use Firefox (specifically, Deer Park) on a Mac. How can I do this? Oh, and there's a twist inside... I poked around the Extensions listing at the Mozilla site, but it's strangely impossible to find anything there (I searched the AskMefi archives about this, but couldn't find AdBlock, one of the original suggestions, on the Moz site... all they seemed to have was "AdBlock Plus," which didn't have a "Block Website" option that I could find).

But really, it'd be best to find some kind of program that would make me jump through a bunch of hoops if I ever wanted to unblock said sites again. Some programmer with dubious self-control must have invented this at some point -- maybe something that asked you multiple choice trivia questions or used an iSight to watch you do twenty jumping jacks or something? (These are slightly fanciful examples, but you get the gist...)