Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with easy

Learning an Instrument

sciencemandan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:36:58 -0800

I'm looking to pick up an instrument. What would you recommend that doesn't cost too much to buy and maintain, is fairly easy to learn, can be self-taught (i.e. with online resources/videos), and works well as a solo instrument? I really enjoy music, but the only instrument I know how to play is the trumpet, and that was almost a decade ago. I want to pick up something new, but I don't have a ton of money and don't have hours a day to devote to learning. I have a midi keyboard that I suppose I could use to learn the piano, but I don't really know of any good software packages to learn (I tried Garageband 09, but it was a very basic introduction).

I'm thinking acoustic guitar, but I thought I'd check to see if I'm not overlooking anything else out there.

Also, please suggest ways to get the best deal on the instrument (for instance, if I'm looking for an acoustic guitar, should I go the Craigslist route or the music shop?).

Thanks!

Easy photo blog software and system for elderly person.

jcdill — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:08:22 -0800

I'm trying to find the easiest photo blogging software for my father (age 74) for his travel blog. My father has a MacBook Pro. He is using iPhoto for his photos. I am trying to find a REAL EASY way for him to incorporate his photos into a travel blog. Budget reasons mean we can't use expensive hosting services where he has to pay $$$ every year. I already have a website where I can install blog hosting software (such as wordpress etc.) but the complication of using one program to upload photo here, then get the online link for the photo, then incorporate photo link there (in the blog) then publish the blog entry is just way too many steps for him. We need a simple solution on the Mac where he can drag-n-drop the photos into a blog entry, type his text, then click "publish" and the software will upload the photos where the photos need to go, upload the text for the blog entry, make the image links automagically.

The photos can be uploaded to the website, or to flickr, or to smugmug - whatever works with this EASY to use blogging software, which MUST run on a Mac. Ideally the Mac software would be free or inexpensive. Open source is ideal, if it is EASY for an older person to use. (It doesn't have to be easy to setup - I can do the setup for him.) Suggestions?

What's a good simple and cheap media or file server setup?

wastelands — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:15:38 -0800

Advice for a server newb who needs help getting started with a simple media/backup/torrent server? I've got a 438 GB movie collection an on external 500 GB USB hard drive right now, so I need to upgrade. I was thinking of buying two 1 TB external drives and using rsync for a poor man's RAID 1 setup. But for good drives plus shipping, that's nearly $250, and I thought, why not just setup a real file server? And maybe get a Bit Torrent thingy going too, so I could turn off my main computer at night and keep transfers going? Heck, I'd probably come up with other useful things for the server to do too.

But I don't know where to start. For hardware, looking at, say, a Dell Inspiron 530 ($379), it's too powerful and too expensive for what I'd use it for.

And for the OS... Windows Home Server? Ubuntu? I don't know what'd be easiest.

Ideas? Thanks!

Help me find easy tactical RPGs!

MostHolyPorcine — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:33:17 -0800

Help me learn to appreciate and have fun with tactical RPGs! I love RPGs. Can't get get enough of 'em...JRPGs, western RPGs, action RPGs, all great stuff. But for the life of me, I just can't get into a tactical or strategy RPG. I've tried Final Fantasy Tactics and a few others, but I always find myself so overwhelmed by the complexity of the whole thing and the snail's pace that I never make it past the first battle or two.

I want to learn to like them, though, since it seems like most new console RPGS are tactical, and they're all getting freaky good reviews....so where is a good place to start? Are there any "My First TRPGs" out there? Something with dumbed down rules and faster paced battles, with a low frustration threshold...Where's a good place to start before I graduate to the big leagues of FFT and the like?

I have a PS2, DSi (so no GBA, unfortunately. Stupid purchase on my part), and a 360.

Thanks!

What should I put in my lunchbox?

anotherpanacea — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:43:50 -0800

Help me brainstorm easy packed lunches. For more than a decade, I've eaten turkey & cheese or peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, with a yogurt and crackers. Sometimes with fruit, sometimes carrots and hummus. Sometimes couscous and garbanzos. It's fine, but it's boring.

I'm stuck in a rut, and I need to get out. Unfortunately, I'm feeling fairly uncreative around lunch foods. Please give me your best recipes and packable-food blogs. I'm looking to be less carb-intensive but mostly I'm just looking for tastiness, variety, portability, and ease of preparation.

Inspire My Weekly Dinner Menu !

duckus — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:51:46 -0800

I need more quick, healthy, dinner suggestions, but I am Picky, Picky. I've perused many a thread here about this, and am hoping to catch something new with a smaller net. Spicy is the key here. If it tastes good with my rooster sauce it will be a keeper. What I love:
SPICY !
Chipolte in Adobo Sauce
Rooster Sauce (Sriracha) ** This is Key.
Vegetables, (frozen or mixed bags)
Black Beans
Egg whites/Eggs
The occasional chicken breast

What I don't like:
Lentils
Peas
Water Chestnuts
Pork
Beef
Pasta

What I've been eating because it's FAST and Tasty:
Fried Brown Rice with Vegetables (and egg whites)
Chili - (with chips, cheddar and sour cream which I should probably stop doing because of the de-healthifying effects).
Some roasted vegetables with a Boca Burger mixed in a corn tortilla with Salsa.

What say you MeFi ?? Anything I can add to my weekly menu? What smack-in-the-forehead dish am I missing?

Imagine a world...with no movie theatre popcorn...

sararah — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:06:06 -0800

A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with Meniere's Disease -- basically chronic vertigo and other inner ear/balance issues. The first course of treatment is through diet: very low salt and no alcohol. The trouble is he still eats like he is in college... My friend has been having vertigo episodes for a few months now and after a docket of tests the doctors have come up with the diagnosis of Meniere's Disease. The verdict: no (or very little) alcohol and a fairly low-sodium diet (around 1800 mg daily right now).

My friend's diet consists of sodium laden convenience foods like frozen pizzas, frozen french fries, lunch meats, canned soups, etc. It would be a lot easier to help him eat better were he not halfway across the US, away from his girlfriend and most of his friends who would gladly batch cook healthier meals for him were it more convenient. He's coming to visit in October so we will have the chance to teach him how to cook some stuff.

I am looking for easy, simple low-sodium "replacements" for the stuff he is used to eating -- he is not a whiz in the kitchen and he is somewhat of a picky eater. As his girlfriend puts it, he "hates eating." He does eat some fruits and vegetables, although usually raw fruits are the extent of it.

Things I have come up with so far:
-I want to look into prepackaged pizza dough mixes (Betty Crocker, etc) to see what the sodium content is like, but the trouble is coming up with low sodium pizza sauces, cheeses, and other toppings?
-Roasted sweet potato "fries" that would have a lot more flavor without the salt.
-Low sodium batch cooking of easy soups and stews -- maybe look into getting him a crock-pot?

Low-sodium resources and recipes are appreciated. Also any advice from people who have dealt with this disease or vertigo episodes would be much appreciated as nobody seems to know anything about this strange affliction. He's committed to feeling better and we'd like to help him as much as we can! Thanks!

Steamed Rice with what?

bigmusic — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:12:56 -0800

Steamed Rice with what? I'd like to use my rice cooker more often. I'm looking for recipes that take five to ten minutes that I can add / pour over / serve next to my steamed rice. Bonus: What are some things I can add to the rice cooker as the rice is being cooked to make it a one pot meal?

70's and 80's songs to play in a business.

ptsampras14 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:15:49 -0800

What are some good 70's and 80's songs suitable for playing in a pharmacy? My father owns a family pharmacy and we have an iPod with nice 70's and 80's songs set to play for the customers. Can you tell me some that I can add to the playlist? Remember nice calm easy listening ones are best, and no dirty or bad songs about dying etc.. To get an idea of some of the songs I have here's a link to the playlist so far. Specific songs are great, but I will also take artists. Try not to give duplicates. If 10 people give 10 songs that's 100 new songs! Thanks!

Un petit d'un petit s'étonne aux Halles...

low_horrible_immoral — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:59:53 -0800

I need some really easy-to-learn nursery rhymes in foreign languages. What are some cool *really* easy foreign language nursery rhymes to sing to my baby? I don't mind which language as long there aren't too many words (and some guidance on pronunciation) - or if they are sung to a recognisable tune - like in the case of Ah, vous dirai-je Maman which is sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Thanks!

What song should I learn on the guitar first?

handee — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:54:10 -0800

I've just bought my first guitar & amp. I want to teach myself. What songs are easy for a complete newcomer to pick up? Right now I know one chord (D) and I am not very good at that but boy am I looking forward to learning chord no. 2. I have a teach yourself guitar book which I will work through, but I want to get onto proper songs as soon as possible.

Bonus points for things I like (Talking Heads, 90s Indie, New Wave, Springsteen...)

Can I make this secure?

Ignatius J. Reilly — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:54:06 -0800

Is there an easy way for a non we-savvy person to create a password-protected url on which to demo a website before taking it "live?" I have had an outside contractor develop a website for a client, and I want to be able to demo the site securely before taking it live. If I buy a domain and pay for hosting, is there an easy way that I make it require a password to view any web pages that are hosted there?

Finding an easy-to-get job that requires a BA

Ndwright — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:44:29 -0800

What's a job that's easy to get that requires a bachelor's degree? In order to stay in the country (U.S.) a friend of mine, on the verge of graduating, needs to find a job. However, due to immigration laws he can't stay in the States unless he has a job that requires a bachelor's degree. He's having difficulty finding employment at the moment and I thought I'd help him out.

A little employment-related info: His major is Econ with a physics minor, but he doesn't need work specifically in the area of business/econ to stay in the country. He's quite intelligent, very literate, highly competent with computers (basic C++ and java programming ability) and speaks English more fluently than most of the people I went to high school with. Personally, I'm baffled by his difficulty in finding work.

So, to my question: what's a job that requires a bachelor's degree that is relatively easy to get?

Help this impatient person learn how to cook from a book.

mintchip — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:50:25 -0800

Help this impatient person learn how to cook from a book. I don't know how to cook. I am extremely lazy in the kitchen and want to learn to make good, tasty meals that require a MINIMUM of preparation* and utilize as many shortcuts as possible (e.g. frozen veggies, pre-made stir fry sauces, etc.).

I love vegetables, chicken and fish but don't eat red meat. I prefer ethnic flavors such as thai, indian, asian etc. I'm thinking learning some stirfry techniques might be a good place to start, but I'm open to other ideas.

What are the best cookbooks for me to try? In addition to a lack of cooking technique, I also know very little about basics such as stocking my kitchen. Thanks!!

*Ideally 10 minutes or less.

Rainy day math problem!

keasby — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:57:26 -0800

How many different conversations can six people have? How many different conversations can six people have?

Assumptions:
-Topics are not important, individuals are (this is a factorial problem, not a philosophical one). Therefore any unique combination of individuals counts as a conversation.
-Conversations are bidirectional (ie. A talking with B and B talking with A is One conversation, even if neither is listening)
-No crazies (conversations must have not less than two people. However, "People" may or may not inhabit separate corporeal vessels but each single "people" may only participate once in a single conversation.)
-No ghosts
-No ventriloquists

Basically I just want someone to check my math. Thanks mefi!

Help me find an easy & cheap way to set up chat for my forum?

tastybrains — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:54:42 -0800

I run a small, private forum for a few friends who are scattered across the US & Canada. I'm looking for easy ways to incorporate other ways for me to enable additional communication between members - whether it's a group voice chat or a chat room. I need help figuring out how to do this very easily (I was barely technical enough to install a pretty skin for my phpBB), very cheaply (preferably free), and so that it maintains a reasonable level of privacy. Can you help me figure this out? Basically, a few of us who were longtime members of a very large weight loss forum decided to split off to maintain a more private & close-knit group. To enable this, I set up a phpBB that is hosted at Dreamhost (it was a one-click install), and made it so that only members I approved could view or post messages.

I'd really like to somehow add a private chat room (not all members use an instant messaging tool), and it doesn't have to be fancy, just functional & private.

I'd also possibly like to set up some sort of voice-chat thingy if such a thing exists and is easy enough to set up.

The main purpose for either of these is to have weekly "meetings" in real time.

Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!

my wife is pregnant; we need easy healthy things to cook.

BigBrownBear — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:50:01 -0800

my wife is pregnant; we need easy healthy things to cook. on the weekends we make great thing: homemade pastas & pizzas, fresh fish, stews, etc. but during the working week we don't have the time or energy to prepare elaborate dishes.

any suggestions for things quick and easy (that will also be good for the bun in the over)?

What easy, small, cheap instrument should I learn?

marginaliana — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:55:24 -0800

Please help me find a musical instrument to learn that fits all these qualifications (in order of importance): super easy to learn, small, cheap. I'm looking to learn an instrument as a hobby, but I know myself well enough to know I don't have the patience to learn something that requires a lot of practicing just to get mediocre. I'd ideally like to pick up something that I can be okay at fairly quickly. I'd also like it to be portable and inexpensive so I can stick it in my pocket and take it wherever and practice when I feel the urge. I can go larger than pocket sized but not as big as, say, a guitar. Something funky and unusual would be cool, also. I don't particularly want to learn the harmonica (although if you really want to make a case for it, I'll listen).

I've checked out this thread which has some great portable instruments but not much commentary on their ease of use, and this thread which talks about ease but in relation to things like violin and piano, which are above both my size and price range.

In terms of what type of music I'd like to play, I'm pretty flexible, except I'd rather not go for something that's going to sound country-esque (ie, not the spoons or the washboard or something like that).

Stream many .flv files one after another

matthelm — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:45:28 -0800

How can i stream 50 short .flv files from a player on a website that I am designing?...is this possible? I have a site to design that just needs a flash player set up to stream about 50 .flv files one after the other...is this possible? Are there stand alone softwares that let you do this outside of using Flash? I am trying to make this as painless as possible for people who don't know much about designing websites etc. Maybe they could just upload .flv to their server and then edit some sort of playlist that will update the stream...maybe?

Good, basic cooking ingredients, please!

elquien — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 12:55:57 -0800

AlwaysPreparedFilter: What are ten (give or take a few) ingredients that are handy to always have on hand to cook a good meal? I love to cook, but I just don't have the time to sit down every week to plan meals in advance. I try to make a big grocery shopping trip every couple of weeks or so. What are some ingredients (both perishable and non-perishable) that tend to show up in a lot of recipes or can be adapted to make simple meals?

Some more information: I eat meat, but don't require it in every meal. I love all different types of foods, and suggestions specific to certain types of cooking would be appreciated.

Help me help my girlfriend create a website.

themel — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 08:48:54 -0800

I recently had the brilliant idea of giving my girlfriend a domain name plus hosting for her birthday. While it was well received, I haven't yet found a way to help her write a web site. While I know web technology really well, teaching my girlfriend HTML, CSS and JavaScript is not an option. We tried Frontpage (which is simply crap) and Dreamweaver (which is too closely coupled to the code for her) so far and didn't get anywhere. Is there any really simple page creation software, possibly web-based, that would allow her to create her own site without too much hassle? I'm thinking about something with the difficulty level of Google Page Creator, but maybe with a bit more power. Linux servers running pretty much anything are available.

I'd like a little wiki, please.

freddymungo — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:48:08 -0800

I want a little wiki to host on my web space just for my use and possibly for some friends' use, but I can't seem to find anything to fit my preferences: (1) stores data in text or HTML files rather than a database, (2) lets me change the template by editing the files themselves, and (3) can have cruft-free URL's. I've searched all the Ask Metafilter questions I could find about this kind of thing, but none of them quite seemed to fit the bill. Not necessary, but it'd be nice if the design was just really plain... as in, not a ton of buttons and colors or CSS treatment. Any help?

Easy ways to make life easier

0xFCAF — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:09:49 -0800

What are some cheap and effective ways to make your life easier? I only buy one kind of socks (other than the two pair of dress socks I own). This means I don't have to match them up when doing laundry, never stress about where the extra one in a pair went, and getting dressed is easier in the morning.

I also switched to using plastic cups for pretty much all beverages. Since most of the time I was running the dishwasher it was just full of glasses, I end up doing the dishes far less often. As a bonus, they stack up nicely so I don't have a small army of dirty glasses on my desk.

What other things can I do to eliminate annoying/tedious parts of my day? Bonus points for cheap/free ideas

What is the easiest country to immigrate to in Europe?

Livewire Confusion — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 11:42:06 -0800

What is the easiest country to immigrate to in Europe? I want to live in Europe. I am not a "skilled laborer", I do not want to go to University, or marry someone either. I would like to just fly to a country, live off my savings until I find work , and get naturalized at some point. I realize this is next to impossible to do in some E.U. nations. (I have looked into Ireland, United Kingdom, and France) but are there any other countries I am not considering? How about Iceland, Norway, Finland, Poland, Germany, Denmark or Austria? Ideally, I would like to be able to just move there, work and be naturalized at some point in the future. Again, I am not a Doctor; just a student and a bad one at that. All I want to do is just move there and work like I could do within the U.S. if I were moving from state to state. I realize language would be an issue, but I willing to learn a new one before I leave.

What to do with myself?

slapshot57 — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:22:48 -0800

So I have 7 weeks in an office with basically nothing to do. How should I be spending my time? Resources: Computer, desk chair, phone. Goals: Enlightenment, Entertainment, and/or Fast Cash I recently got into Med school and so will be leaving my current place of employment at the end of the summer. Not being an ass, I alerted my employers to give them plenty of notice to find a replacement. Unfortunately, they've started shifting my work to other people so now I basically have 1-2 hours of work to do per day. They still need me to maintain a couple of high-profit projects so I'm not worried about being fired. And I can't leave because I've already spent my last two paychecks in my head as I will be dirt poor soon.

The question is: What should I do during the day? Does anyone know of a good way to make money or volunteer over the internet? Any good repositories of literature online? Where do you all spend your time when bored (besides here)