Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with clock

To spawn or not to spawn?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:38:56 -0800

I am entering my mid-thirties and nearing crises stage about whether or not have children. Please tell me about your experiences to help me think this through. My whole life I assumed that me having kids was inevitable. There was no question in my mind that I would want them, be great at it, find meaning in it etc. When I met my husband he felt the same way. We would talk about it and have those, "When we have kids we'll do X" kind of conversation.

Now that we're both getting to the age where we should really start, we just can't make the decision to actually do it. We have a harder time talking about it, we're not sure we can handle it, we're worried about/afraid of the reality of it.

We're concerned about how it will affect our lives (sleep, I need it to be a happy person--no, really I *need* it; we would hate to go back to the financial place where we have to count every penny; we don't live near family; neither of us have much experience with babies; etc.) We keep waiting to feel ready and that moment never comes.

And yet we both intrinsically want the experience of raising children. We both feel we would be great parents, we think the kids we raise together would be AWESOME, we can't really picture our lives without them.

Utlimately I think the part I'm afraid of is having a baby, not having kids per se. We got a puppy and although she was very cute when she was young and I loved her, I didn't start liking her until she was about 5 months old and was more than a little need machine. I feel like I'm overthinking this and spinning my wheels. I'm definitely not asking anyone to make this decision for me (!), I just need to get out of my head a little.

Have you or someone you know gone through a similar debate? What happened? Do you have advice about how I should approach this decision?

help me find a cool clock

helios — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:47:32 -0800

I'm looking for suggestions for a clock that's unique/interesting from a design perspective. My only requirements are that it's illuminated at night, and that it displays time in an easy-to-read XX:XX format (so something like this is out). A perfect example is this, but unfortunately it's just a concept.

Where to buy a specific clock.

Mitheral — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:03:18 -0800

Where can I get a kitchen clock similar to this one. Difficulty: Plug in electric not battery operated. By similar I mean:

relatively plain.
8-10 inches in diameter.
Relatively thick as pictured.
As previously mentioned it must be plug in electric not battery operated which is the problem with the pictured clock.
Up to 40 dollars.

I'd prefer a Canadian source, brick and mortar or online, but I'm willing to pull from the states as long as shipping isn't more than the clock (IE: No FedEX/UPS only shipping options).

Tick-tock biological clock

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:33:25 -0800

38. No kids. Want kids. Loving relationship. HELP! So. I'm a professionally successful woman who just turned 38. In my 20s, I was never particularly interested in having kids. About 5 or 6 years ago or so, though, I decided I wanted them. I've been dating my current awesome guy for 2 1/2 years; we've de facto lived together for about a year and a half (officially for about 4 months). He's great in all kinds of ways and I love him very much. He would be a great father. I'm pretty sure he wants kids. We joke about names for them (silly names), he dotes on his nephew, he is very sweet with our cats.

But. It isn't pressing for him the way it is for me. I mean, he KNOWS the facts, presumably, but he can't hear the bright loud "TICK TOCK" that is echoing in my head. And I think that if biology didn't enter into it, he wouldn't want them right this instant. He can be a little bit oblivious, and I don't think he's aware of just how fast fertility declines, and that we would have to start trying asap.

So, to my question: how on earth do I bring it up? I am terrified of being a cliche (the late-thirties-marry-me-monster). I am terrified of scaring him off. I have already let it go on too long without discussing it... and am starting to plan next year around the hope of being pregnant in the fall. I realize that this is crazy, and that it's almost pathological that I can't quite bring it up.

Tips or advice on how to start the conversation would be very much appreciated. I saw this thread -- http://ask.metafilter.com/80182/Propose-or-hint -- but it's more about marriage than babies. I care a lot more about the baby thing than the marriage thing -- or, at any rate, than the *wedding* thing. (Frankly, at 38, it's only sensible to worry more about trying to get pregnant.)

And please, I don't need anyone to tell me that if we can't talk about having a baby, we shouldn't have a baby. We have a very good relationship, and usually talk well. I think I'm partly having a hard time because of a past relationship, and crazy commitmentphobic behavior on the part of that ex. I also think I'm partly having a hard time because I'm just not one of those women who has always known they wanted kids, and planned their life accordingly. It's a weird, hard thing for me to say, this "gimme baby now" thing.

Posted anonymously because said boyfriend knows my screen name. I may need help with this, but at least I know that coming across an Ask Mefi post is NOT the way to bring it up.

Help my computer become strict and overbearing.

mammary16 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:56:34 -0800

I'm looking for special task-scheduling software, and am looking for suggestions. Lately I've been setting small daily goals for myself - twenty minutes to study Esperanto, twenty minutes to learn a song on guitar, twenty minutes to perform a discrete work task, etc., and am really starting to believe that the less time I give myself for a task the better I perform.

I remember studying for the GRE, and the software I used included a "virtual proctor", instructing me at different points to end or begin a section. Does something like that exist for everyday life?

As such, I'm looking for a program which I can use to micro-schedule my day, with special alarms at specific times (1:10, 1:20, 1:50), etc. Ideally, the alarms would also display the task to be performed. Even better, I'd like something that reads aloud the text I've entered for that alarm. That way, a computer voice could cue me for my next task!

I've seen a few examples of this sort of thing online, but I thought I'd ask you all if you have a particular program you like, isn't very demanding on system resources, and (possibly) has the extra functions I've mentioned above.

Thanks!

beep beep beep

KateHasQuestions — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:28:52 -0800

Where can I find an alarm clock like the one I've had and loved for years? (General Electric Clock Radio 7-4837C) Required features are inside. I've searched ebay, amazon, and the GE website, they probably don't even make this model anymore because I've had it for so many years. Probably the reason that the only image I found was so tiny.

Here are the features I need in an alarm clock that this one had:

Must be able to adjust time (on both clock and alarm) both up and down
Adjustable snooze time
Nap feature - really easy to use, can adjust for 10 min - 2 hour nap
Easy to hit snooze button, and easy to hit off button
Not a switch between the off/on button (I always seem to set that the wrong way) but an actual off/cancel button
Choosing between beep and radio for the alarm
For the beep alarm, must start out at low volume and gradually increase
Must turn off by itself after a reasonable amount of time (say, if I'm not home, so no one has to listen to it all day - I hated those people in college)
~$20 - I think this one was even cheaper. I don't need anything fancy like automatic daylight savings time or iPod hook ups, I just want all the convenient features I listed.

Does anyone know where I can buy the same one I had? Or maybe a newer model that has the same features? If not, who can recommend one that does all of the things above that they currently use and love?

I've tried searching online but the descriptions and specs just don't list all this in detail. Next step would be to go to stores and look at them in person and try to figure out if they would work for me, but I just don't have time at all this week, so I wanted to ask here. Thanks!

Cuckoo for Cuckoo Clock Repair!

GJSchaller — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:00:17 -0800

Need help finding a reputable cuckoo clock repair shop near White Plains, NY. My girlfriend's father has an old German cuckoo clock that has been sitting in his garage for ages, gathering dust. We know it's broken, it has visible physical damage (little bits broken off of the decorations), and I believe the innards are also broken (We have a bag full of parts). We'd like to get an estimate on how much it's worth before and after repair, and how much the repair is going to be.

I tried googling "cuckoo clock repair white plains", but only got a few hits for local businesses on map / listing sites, and no actual reviews or websites. The one site that did come up for Westchester county no longer repairs clocks. Everything else is 2 hours away by car, north in New England. I get the sneaking suspicion that any shop worth its salt is going to be an old fashioned kind that isn't up to the internet age.

Also, I don't recommend searching MetaFilter for "cuckoo" alone - you'll get everything BUT the clock. ;-)

Setting Date and Time on a Mac

anonymous78 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:01:02 -0800

My Mac refuses to keep the right time. I have to re-set it every day. I'm in Cairo right now, where they changed the clocks early b/c of Ramadan. (The time difference between Cairo and NY is now only six hours as opposed to seven.) Clearly, my computer didn't get the memo b/c every time I re-set the time it just reverts back.

Is there a way to do this manually? I tried locking it but that didn't work.

What is the date, Gates?

fish tick — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:29:42 -0800

Windows clock/calendar annoyance: why does the date appear only sometimes when the mouse pointer hovers over the taskbar clock? It seems to be the same with XP and Vista.

seeking bargain priced ipod clock radio

jcdill — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:53:10 -0800

seeking a bargain priced ipod clock radio + charging station I tried googling, but the search results are single pages for single items, and I got brain freeze trying to make sense of competing items. I'm hoping someone here has found a solution and can save me hours of searching.

Criteria:

1) Low price. I'm unemployed and spending $$$ on a non-essential is not going to happen.

2) Clock radio, with options to wake to a buzzer, to the radio, or to an iPod playlist.

3) Works with and charges my iPod nano (2nd generation).

What time is it?

woolylambkin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:43:02 -0800

I'm looking for a clock. Here's the catch: I don't want it to be able to keep the right time. I want a clock that will be within say +/- 10 minutes of the actual time. It should stay randomly in that range so that I can tell the approximate time without knowing the actual time. I find that once I get into a routine I am constantly cutting the time close to leaving. Mind you I'm never late but I'm also rarely early. I figure a random clock will force me to leave earlier because I'll be basing my decision on the worst case scenario. Just setting my clock 5 minutes fast won't solve anything if I know that it's always 5 minutes fast.

So does anyone make a clock that doesn't keep time?

Is there a radio to receive DTV audio?

ThyroidBob — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:49:45 -0800

Posting for a friend:

"I own a Sony ICF-C113V bedside clock-radio that receives television signals from the soon to be obsolete VHF channels (2-13). Does anyone know if there is a clock-radio solution on the market yet that receives the audio portion of the DTV television signals in a clock-radio footprint? I have an iHome which I use as my primary clock-radio for alarms and music (iPod), but would still like the option to listen to television periodically."

Case for a French Prayer Clock

Carsey — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:35:36 -0800

Where can i find the case for a French Prayer Clock? I have the innards (the clock, mechanism, pendulum) for a French Prayer Clock, but i want to find the wooden case such a clock is normally housed in (like the one at http://www.lesprit.com/images/misc/36730.jpg). Any ideas?

Does my ideal alarm clock/radio exist?

Balonious Assault — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:00:51 -0800

Does my ideal alarm clock/radio exist? I've been searching for years for a bedside alarm clock/radio with the following features:

1. Can play one radio station while going to sleep and play a different station when the alarm goes off in the morning. Sometimes I like to listen to George Noory while drifting off to sleep, but I never want to wake up to the political hate radio that the same station plays in the morning.
2. Adjustable "snooze button" time. Sometimes a 9 minute snooze interval is great. Sometimes 20 minutes would be better.
3. Can set a different alarm time for each day of the week. If I find myself working a schedule that allows me to sleep in an extra few hours on Wednesdays, I don't want to have to reset my alarm every Wednesday, then set it back again every Thursday.
4. Gradually increasing alarm (radio) volume.

I realize I could set something up with a computer or multiple alarms & radios to get a system that has all those features. I also realize that there all kinds of other alarms and features that work for other people. I don't want to wake up to a buzzer. I don't have a problem getting up in the morning so I don't want an alarm that forces me to get out of bed by being on the other side of the room, rolling off my night stand, or flying around the room. I just want a single alarm clock/radio unit that has that particular set of features. I've found several that have most of them, but I want one that has them all. If you know of such a thing I'd love to hear about it. Thanks.

Show me calendars and clocks

sidr — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:04:31 -0800

Calendars and clocks. I need calendars and clocks. Show me calendars and clocks. I'd like to see calendars and clocks that slice up time in different ways. I've looked at the wikipedia pages for the two and a bunch of other links. Variety appreciated, any time period, any culture or country. I don't mean software solutions like Google Calendar, I mean things like the Julian calendar vis-a-vis the Gregorian etc. Thanks!

Looking for a Countdown Timer That'll Go Higher Than 99 Hours

interrobang — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:55:41 -0800

I'm looking for an OSX application, widget, or menubar item that will display a countdown to a date. Ideally, I'd be able to set it for, say, May 14th, and it'll show me how many months, days, hours, and seconds are left until the date. It'd be even better if I could run more than one of these timers at a time. I need this to work on Tiger, but Leopard stuff could be useful, too. Thank you!

Please help me find an alarm clock ...

MegoSteve — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 08:43:36 -0800

Please help me find an alarm clock ... I want to buy a new alarm clock and can't seem to find the perfect one with all of the features I want. I'm willing to compromise, but beyond the obvious basic buzzing alarm function, I'd like the following: digital FM tuner with presets (and/or internet radio) and some kind of MP3-playing capability via an SD card or USB flash drive, wireless network (ideal) or even CD-R (okay, but not perfect). Photo/slideshow capability is a big plus, too, and so is random techy coolness.

What I definitely don't want: an Ipod dock. I don't have an Ipod. I also don't want that cheap looking Chinese-made white cube.

The top contenders so far are The Philips AJL308, the Transcend PF720 (or the PF810, which was just announced) and, at the very high end of what I'm willing to spend, the Chumby. The Philips, the cheapest and most ubiquitous of the lot, has got some fair to middling reviews and the consensus seems to be "wait for 2.0." I can't find much information at all on the Transcend one since it's fairly new. The Chumby, while the coolest, I have some misgivings about, namely the high price, the advertising (is it obtrusive?) and the potential that the company may go out of business leaving me with a beanbag brick.

Do you have any experience with any of the above-listed products? Importantly: is the Chumby worth it?

Am I overlooking any other possibilities?

Find this clock!

sah — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:06:40 -0800

Where can I order this clock? My girlfriend came across this clock while browsing through shops in Amsterdam. Now that Christmastime is upon us, she's looking to pick it up for a friend. The hitch? She's not in Amsterdam anymore, but in Toronto.

Where on earth could she order this clock from and have it shipped to Canada? Like anything, the cheaper the better. But there's a budget involved, so price is definitely an important factor here!

Thanks everyone!

Recommend a gentle alarm clock

Wild_Eep — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:35:09 -0800

Please recommend to me an alarm clock that will wake me gently, rather than jolting me from my slumber. I'm in the market for a new alarm clock, but I have only one reqirement: its buzzer volume must ramp-up, rather than coming on at full force immediately. Waking to music or radio won't do.

While the latter style does indeed wake me up, it makes me angry. I stayed at a hotel that had a clock like this and I found that I really liked it. (I had no idea such a thing existed!)

I've read mixed reviews about the Zen Clock, but I'm looking for a product that is well designed and will last.

Need a computer chess clock - for up to a dozen players at once.

bartleby — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:33:39 -0800

Looking for a Multitasking Timer: a bunch of timers on screen, clicking on one stops the others. Like a chess clock, but for 6 to 12 players. First, multitasking is a lie - it's just switching back and forth between tasks quickly.
But I find I now need to be able to track all that switching, without stopping in between to jot down the time and task every time I switch.

Metaphorical scenario: Right now, all I can say about what I did today is that I made Thanksgiving dinner for 8, with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, candied yams, apple pie, bread, and a green salad. I order to get it all done, several things were always going on at once at all times, with a lot of switching around. I have no time how much time I spent focussed on each thing, and I can't say that it takes 6 hours to cook a turkey because most of that time it's in the oven and I'm doing something else.

I now find myself in a position where I need instead to be able to report that I spent my time actually focused on
3.5 hours for turkey
2.0 hours on pie
20 minutes on cranberry sauce
45 minutes on the salad
25 minutes setting the table
etc.
So that all that time can now be analyzed, saying that while the homemade cranberry sauce has maximal benefit with minimal time, the bread could be outsourced without affecting overall meal quality, and the salad should be discontinued because no one ever eats it anyway so it's a waste of my time.

If I had some way of having several renamable timer widgets that I could call up, and click on the course I was preparing just that moment, I would be a happy chef. One timer would stop whenever another timer was clicked on, and resume its count when clicked again - pie timer running while rolling out crust, stopped when turkey timer clicked on for a basting, turkey timer stops and pie timer resumes counting when I click on it and swap the baster for the rolling pin.

Chess players use a thing where each player has a clock timing their moves - Black's stops when he makes a move, which automatically starts White's clock, White moves and Black's timer resumes counting. A chess clock widget deal, where I could set up onscreen timers for Turkey, Pie, etc., that would then print me out a report for each at the end of the day is what I'm looking for. But I need anywhere from 6 to 12 players.

Does such a thing exist?

I have modern furniture. Now what?

burnmp3s — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:36:38 -0800

Help me find some modern accessories to go with my modern furniture. I ditched my old furniture and went with a modern style (lots of glass, steel, and shiny plastic). Now I want to continue that style with the rest of the decor. I'm looking for lamps, clocks, coasters, art, etc. Basically anything that isn't a table or something to sit on.

Please point me in the direction of stores or individual items that would fit. I'm located in between Chicago and Milwaukee, but I'm expecting that I'll probably buy a lot of it online.

Best method to remove the glass cover on a vintage ad clock?

kuppajava — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:18:56 -0800

Help clean my clock! I need suggestions on how to safely remove the convex glass on a vintage ad clock in order to clean the inside and get the bugs and dirt out, then reassemble it. I'm intrepid about taking things apart and am careful and deliberate, but this one has me completely vexed. The glass is held in place by a unibody housing (closeup photo can be downloaded here) made of metal (aluminum, most likely) and there are no obvious ways (like screws or clips) to take this apart. It's an old advertising clock, so perhaps it wasn't manufactured with taking apart in mind. My thought is that the aluminum housing was simply bent/formed into place around the face and clock motor when it was originally placed inside the housing after the clock mechanism was connected to the face (in fact, the back of the face is connected by metal spring clips that are held in place by small rivets).

Are there tools available to safely bend the lip, allowing me to then freely remove the glass, and then safely bend it back so that it isn't obvious that it was essentially pried up?

I would rather do this myself, as I don't want the expense of taking it to someone only for the purpose of cleaning the glass and cleaning out dead bugs, plus I don't want to risk getting 'the run around' or hassled by a shopowner or clerk about doing this.

Want to buy Japanese clock from Heroes

BiffSlamkovich — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:19:59 -0800

HeroesFilter: Where can I find a clock from tonight's episode (season premiere)? (No spoilers, but if you didn't see, you probably can't help) Early on, we see a clock on Hiro Nakamura's desk. It's small, made out of silver or some silver-ish metal. The numbers are all in kanji, and it appeared to have a little spot for the day (i.e., Monday, etc., again in kanji). I need one. Any ideas?

Mac OSX: I need an app or some way that allow me to display the clock +3 hours.

Leech — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:57:18 -0800

I live in Argentina, and I'm working on an app that requires to use the time of a city in the US otherwise it doesn't compiles (NDA related, I think). So I've changed my macbook hour to that city timezone, and hidden the mac clock to only show the clock in analog (so I don't see this much). I need an app or some way that allow me to display the clock +3 hours.

Looking for mp3s to use for my alarm clock

alligatorman — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:42:27 -0800

Looking for mp3s to use for my alarm clock. I'd like to wake up to a 5-10 minute track that progressively gets louder so that my awakening feels more natural. I want to burn a CD with such tracks so that I can put them into my CD Player alarm clock. I tried Google, but could not find anything.

Do you know where I could download tracks that progress in volume?

If not, I could settle for a simple mp3 editor that could let me adjust levels appropriately.

Any ideas? Thanks!