Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with friendly

I can haz GBLT Sandwizh Apartmentz?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:52:51 -0800

What does GLBT friendly mean in the context of roomate ads? Many ads for cool apartments say "GLBT Friendly". I know what the acronym stands for but I'm wondering what specifically that means.

In my own case, I
1) Fully support and 2 human's right to get married, have health benefits, etc.
2) Feel that homosexuality is a natural situation and not a sin.
3) Erm...have a very good gay friend! I mean, some of my best friends are gay. Well, one of them, anyway. Very happy for him and his partner. However, he's generally critical of the gay scene and works as a mechanic. I don't know.

on the other hand, to be quite frank:
1) I've had a hard time in my life making friends with many (but definitely not all) of the lesbians I've known.
2) Not particularly interested in listening to someone's personal sexual history. Straight or gay. Unless I am, when I'd probably ask. But it's not something I necessarily want to be forced to talk about.
3) As a fairly solitary and contemplative person, I'm generally put off by flamboyant behavior in general.

So I'm wondering, do I qualify as GLBT friendly? The thing is, I'm not sure I'm straight friendly, or particularly friendly in general. I guess I see people as individuals. I'm hesitant to declare myself GLBT friendly because I feel like there are aspects of the culture as I see it that annoy me. Not really different than how aspects of straight culture annoy me. But I don't have to say I'm "straight friendly" to find a roomate.

Thanks for your thoughts here. I end up thinking about this a lot. I apologize in advance if in asking the question I've raised anyone's hackles. I'm seriously interested in the answer.

A question for (straight) women about varieties of casual eye contact with semi-strange men

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:30:28 -0800

A question, especially for straight women, about varieties of casual eye contact with semi-strange men: At campus, a large workplace or other site with lots of people you see fairly often, most of whom you don't end up acquainting with, to what extent do subtle (or less subtle) differences in how men make passing eye contact affect your impression of them?

I'm not necessarily even talking about overt flirting here, but rather of being at all approachable in the first place, particularly to women who might understandably be wary of drawing attention from men who they don't know but are going to have to see every day, even if they, upon first hint of a smile, turn out to be awkward creeps (disclaimer: I've at least been one).

I do, occasionally, make such unspoken friendly connections with strange women, and then it's a lot more fun and easy to actually flirt and chat up than it is without, even when there otherwise is obvious mutual physical attraction. However, I have hardly a clue of why this happens at times, and doesn't at others. I want to know a) if it really is a matter of variations in eye contact (what else could it be?) and b) if it is, what exactly are the details that make the difference!

Thanks a bunch, I know you'll make my day :)

Howdy Neighbor

frwagon — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:27:07 -0800

Just moved into a new apartment, help me meet my neighbors! So I just moved out of a rather unfriendly apartment complex, and into a new one that seems ... friendlier. I'd like to extend a gesture to meet my neighbors and start our relationships on a positive note... My current thought is to bake a batch of cookies, and bring them to nearby apartments. Creepy? Appreciated? How would it make you feel? Do you have any better ideas?

Service Dog in Training

TauLepton — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:05:24 -0800

What "tricks" would you teach a Service Dog? My daughter's Service Dog is in training through the Colorado Correctional Institute (CCI). The dog is to help her stand when her chemo makes it too difficult to do so on her own. He also knows how to retrieve objects for her and bring things to her. Otherwise, he is allowed to socialize while "on duty".

CCI has asked if there are any "tricks" we'd like the dog to know. This is with the intention to make the dog more approachable to other children at our Oncology Clinic and allow my three-year-old to easily introduce her dog to others.

What tricks have you seen a dog perform that would be good for this purpose?

What do I write, and give to him the last day of a friendly brake up?

zulonline — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:42:44 -0800

What do I write, and give to him the last day of a friendly break up? We've agreed that the best thing for both of us is that I move out of his place after a year and a half, (as I can't bear any more the situation of loving someone who does not love me).

I will move out while he is away of the country travelling for work, so when he gets back my room will be empty. For the times we've shared, and the care and support he’s showed for me on several occasions, I would like to leave in my bed room a little something, and a short letter.

Any of you imaginative/ writers out there, could give me some advice what to Buy? Also, what to write? (English is not my first language and it’s difficult for me to write something special, touching and well written to him for this occasion and the circumstances).

weekend trip from Boston?

lalalana — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:40:51 -0800

My boyfriend, our two small dogs, and I would like to take a weekend trip in the Boston area soon... We want cost-effective, swimming opportunities, quaintness, dog-friendly, nature... Any suggestions? It's a been a crazy summer for work, and we just want to go somewhere relaxing with the dogs. We also want somewhere CHEAP if at all possible. I know it's the season, so cheap is not the easiest, so any places that aren't necessarily big tourist destinations would be fine.

Saw this one, but emphasis on cost-effectiveness and dog-friendliness rather than commute...

How do normal people go about finding casual sex?

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:16:43 -0800

How do normal people go about finding casual sex? For someone who thinks that taking advantage of drunk girls in clubs is immoral and adult match-making websites are scams or dangerous, is there any outlet to meet nice (albeit frisky!) gentlemen and ladies? I'm an easy-going and friendly guy, but I have no idea how to broach the topic with single female friends, lest I scare them or have them consider me a deviant! How do I go about meeting (or finding) friendly, open-minded people who are open to the idea of casual (but fully consensual, not alcohol-fuelled) sex?

I'm not averse to the idea of developing friendships with such open-minded people, but I have no idea regarding the etiquette involved.

I'm a young, male university student in Melbourne, Australia who spends way too much time pontificating on societal hang-ups, if that matters. Throwaway email for the discreet/propositions: casualsexaus@gmail.com

dog-friendly car-camping in east tennessee

thinkingwoman — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:12:10 -0800

recommend a good dog-friendly car-camping spot in east tennessee, please. (or recommend a site that can help us find one) the bf and i are hoping to meet some friends for a little camping halfway between our home in nashville, tn, and their home in asheville, nc. i'm thinking somewhere around gatlinburg or pigeon forge, or maybe big south fork, but i don't know anything about the camping around here, so i was hoping to avoid just throwing darts at a map by seeking a little hivemind input.

we have dogs, and we don't want to hike far with our gear. we don't need showers or facilities.

can anyone either recommend a place or a website where i can search for such parameters? thanks!

Help me overcome and introverted nature.

mintchip — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 19:56:55 -0800

Help me overcome and introverted nature. I am basically introverted. I don't have a hard time talking to people if I have to, or if I really want to. I just often don't really have the desire to overcome my default state of introversion.

It's not that I don't like other people; in fact, I love it when people are friendly with me!! I've just always been more content to sit back and observe others and wait for them to talk to me. But more often than not, this results in missed opportunities. Seems like people just don't notice the quiet girl who sits back and waits for them to talk to her :(

Recently I've been spending time with someone who is very outgoing. He makes friends with all of the wait staff (male or female) whenever we go out. Honestly, this leaves me feeling a little jealous--I would love to meet people too and have friends wherever I go but feel that no one ever talks to me.

I think the issue is that I just don't know how to make the first move. How can I push myself out of my comfort zone?

Bush refuses mac

Funmonkey1 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:14:47 -0800

George W had a press conference today. How can I get the whole thing unedited in a mac friendly format? Tried C-Span, they have it, but am prompted to install windows media converters and its in a compact format. Any ideas or resources?

Suffer Fools Gladly

jasondigitized — Mon, 14 May 2007 08:26:14 -0800

How do you remain friendly and patient with people? Through the course of my day, if I am not in the right mood, I have neither the time nor the patience for certain people. For example, someone may come into my work area and want to chat. I would like to be more friendly and chatty but if I am in the zone, or having a stressful day, I just can't be bothered. I tend to be curt and/or dismissive. I think this gives people the impression that I am an asshole. This applies to interactions with different people throughout my day. Someone asking questions, my boss going off on a tangent, a small-talker on the ferry, sometimes I just can't stand interacting with people. Does anyone else struggle with wanting to be friendly, but not having the energy or constitution to consistently be friendly? How do I build up my friendly muscles?

Read only the User Friendly comics, inline?

bkudria — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 16:48:49 -0800

Can I get an RSS feed of the User Friendly comic that includes only cartoons, and has them inline in the feed? I like to read the User Friendly comic (http://www.userfriendly.org), but I'd like to read it without seeing the Daily Link, and more importantly, without having to click the link to see the cartoon (the feed just links to a cartoon which displays the comic). Is there any way to do this?

I've tried using Yahoo Pipes with their Regex filter, but the best I can do is filter out the daily link entries.

Creating an image tag fails, because the actual image is stored in a subdirectory that includes the short name of the month (i.e., aug, or sep), and there is no way to get this information in Pipes.

My second try was to put the whole linked page in an iframe, but that didn't work, because Pipes seems to completely strip out the tag. Bummer.

What else could I do? I guess this could be done manually using a PHP or Ruby script (I know both), but I don't look forward to coding all the infrastructure and scaffolding (which Pipes provides me), and I don't really have a place to host it.

What else can I try?

Short cut to "Printer Friendly Format" on news sites?

de void — Mon, 09 May 2005 10:17:09 -0800

I'm really tired of all the advertising and dancing crap that clutters up most news/magazine web articles. I find myself constantly searching for a "Printer Friendly Format" link so that I can read the article in a column wider than 1 inch and not paginated in such a way as to maximize ad views. Is there any utility, web site, firefox extension, something, that can take me to the "PFF" right away?