Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with introduction

Help me identify a poem in a specific introduction to a specific copy of Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

DeltaForce — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:46:12 -0800

Help me identify a poem in a specific introduction to a specific copy of Kate Chopin's The Awakening. A couple of years ago I read The Awakening and remember being particularly struck by a poem in the introduction. I do not remember who wrote the poem, nor the introduction (two different people), but I do remember that the poem had to do with the sentiment of no matter how close we can get to another human being, we are fundamentally alone and separate. The person who wrote the introduction, I remember, was discussing another author, I can't remember the gender, who had influenced Chopin, or perhaps not Chopin, but the movement of women in writing at that time.

I realize that this is all very vague, but I know someone must have read the same copy that I did. It was a fairly recent copy as well, perhaps just a few years old.

Thank you!

Cat Grudge Match

murrey — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:08:23 -0800

After 3 months of trying to merge our cats into one household, should we just let our cats fight it out? Nothing else seems to have worked to peaceably introduce my cat into my husband's two cat home. Or should we wait until we move into our new home? I posted previously looking for insights into introducing my cat and problems we have been experiencing here. Nothing has worked other than to keep them separated.**

But we can't live with cat wrangling forever (I am having a baby in 2 months). My husband said we should just allow them to "work it out" and that my cat will find places to hide/escape/etc. Does this work? Will my smaller cat be traumatized or hurt (she seems fine immediately after these fights, emotionally and physically, so long as they are separated again). Has anyone just let them work it out on their own?

One side note...his cats definitely know my cat is in the house because she has been in all of the rooms (we rotate them) and we have had numerous supervised interactions. I think it might be a territory thing. Should we wait until we move into our new home 3 months from now where his cats don't feel so territorial?

How the heck do people have multi-cat households? Please help.

**I have now also tried Feliway for almost a month, but one of my husband's cats (female) always attacks my much smaller female cat. We can't tell, but his male cat seems interested and runs after my cat but doesn't seem as mean about it...more curiosity. My cat just runs away. I have also put bells on his cats to warn my cat of their presence and to hide.

70s style character intro freeze-framey thingie?

drjimmy11 — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:32:24 -0800

70s style character intro freeze-framey thingie? I need some examples (ideally on Youtube) of a technique used in film to introduce characters. it's kind of like the intros from Trainspotting, where there's a freezeframe with the character's name printed on it.

Except that there's also colorization on the freezeframe. I'm thinking of this kind of 70s style where the background goes to a solid color, there's a thick, usually white border around the character, who himself stays in normal color (or is maybe colorized too). I want to say it's been used in martial arts films, but I could be off on that.

Does this make sense to anyone? I'm pretty sure this exists and I have not hallucinated it. Any links to video would be fantastic!

thanks!!

introduce me to semiotics, please.

heeeraldo — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:13:39 -0800

I'm interested in learning more about semiotics. What are some good books, websites, or other resources? Specifically, I'm looking for stuff on semiotics and either industrial or graphic design but I should probably start with a general introduction to the whole field.

Thanks!

How can my pal introduce herself in a fun way?

k8t — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:38:59 -0800

Good introduction for possible later? More grad-student-induced awkwardness inside. One of my fellow female grad students has been scoping out a grad student dude in a different department. We all cross paths relatively often, as we're in the same building and grab coffee/food in the same places. They've had some long looks, but nothing more.
BTW, he is a geography grad student (does cool stuff with maps and GPS) and is very hot by grad student standards, as is my female friend. From Google stalking we know that he is late-20s, as is she.
We are grad students, we are awkward. He doesn't have a visible Facebook profile, or she'd "poke" him. How can she get his attention in a fun way?

What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople?

limon — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:40:03 -0800

What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople? I'm particularly interested in introductions for non-experts to subjects like biology, physics and astronomy, but I thought that opening up the question as broadly as possible would make it most interesting to me and other readers, especially as a future reference-point. I am thinking of books like "Mathematics for the Million", which made math accessible to a great deal of people.

Name this Tune

Oriole Adams — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:39:09 -0800

What is the title of this common piece of music? Here's a sample of the musical notes in question - it is the introduction to Billy Preston's "Nothing from Nothing." The very beginning of the tune utilizes a common introduction used on other (often old-timey) songs. I just wondered if these notes are from a longer piece, a la "Shave and a Haircut"?

All about skiis

|n$eCur3 — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 13:24:30 -0800

Please help me understand the differences in ski/ binding/ boot technologies for downhill skiing. Kinda like... longer skiis are good for w, wider skiis should be used for x and stiff bindings are good for situations y and z. Feel free to throw in discussions about materials and whatever else I should know before I go out and purchase a pair. (If you can't tell, I haven't been skiing for a long time). Sorry if this seems too chatty; I don't even know how to ask the right questions.

Installation intro, not really an intro, but needing a short name.

Blue Buddha — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:56:31 -0800

What should the first tab for online product installation instructions be named, if that tab presents an intro solely to the instructions, but is not an intro to the overall product demo? Therefore the word "intro" cannot be used. The word Intro cannot be used, because it is already being used as a "main menu" option in this product demonstration.

The main menu option in question is the Installation Guide, where the first tab gives an introduction to installation, but the second tab is actually step one.

Presently, the first tab, i.e. the intro, is numbered #1, then the second tab, step one is numbered #2, which may confuse people.

The word I'm looking for has to be short and concise, since it is part of a sub-menu bar, with 4 numbers (1-4) next to it as the four installation steps. I hope I explained this properly!

How to introduce myself unawkwardly?

awesomebrad — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:31:20 -0800

DelicateSituationFilter: Help me introduce myself and get to date #1. I hope this doesn't get too complex. There's a guy I'm interested in and know of from afar, it's a fair assumption that he's aware of my existence simply because the gay community at my college is close-knit and talky. I have a perfect opportunity to introduce myself to him tomorrow: I've recently begun training to be a campus tour guide and must shadow several tours, he's a current guide. It's my plan to go shadow his tour tomorrow morning, and in the process introduce myself.

The ultimate goal would be to get to a first date. I'm concerned about a combination of awkwardness and forwardness - I'm not convinced that it's the best way of doing things to just ask him to coffee some time after the tour, which is the best thing I can think of. Any advice to make this go more smoothly or less awkwardly?

Help Me Teach Programming

grumblebee — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 11:35:57 -0800

Help me teach people how to program: I need simple examples of functions, classes, etc. When I teach programming, I always try to boil language constructs down to their essences. On the other hand, if I get too abstract, students start shifting in their seats because they can't understand how the constructs can be applied in the read world.

So when teaching, say, functions, I give a brief definition and show them the syntax (in whatever language I happen to be teaching); then I show them a practical example. Which is where things get difficult.

Most texts use math for the real-world examples. They show how to make a really simple function that takes in a number and outputs its cube root, or something like that. And I see the appeal, because math examples are often simple, and (the idea is) that one can focus more on how functions work (while still seeing a real-life, useful example) more than on what some specific function does.

But I want to stay away from math, because most of my students are designers who have been forced (kicking and screaming) into programming. Mathamatical aspects of programming are the LAST things I show them -- after they get comfortable with other aspects. (Yes, I know that on a root level, all programming in mathamatical. But I'm trying to avoid sytax that reminds them of high school algebra class, except where it's totally unavoidable, like with variables.)

So I'm looking for simple examples I can use to teach object oriented techniques, functions and the like. Please minimize the math. But, if possible, give examples that DO solve real-world problems. (Example: a function that takes in a word and searches for a smaller word within it).

The idea (and the tough trick) is to come up with examples that can stand on their own as much as possible. In other words, the student shouldn't have to focus on arrays, string methods and for loops while trying to understand functions. It's impossible to teach each language construct in TOTAL isolation (a string method or two might HAVE to be used), but I want to keep this at its minimum.

To summarize:

1) avoid math
2) make practical
3) isolate language constructs

If it helps, I mostly teach Javascript (Flash & Browser versions), but I occassionally teach other languages.

What's a good book for a novice wine connoisseur?

turbanhead — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 10:51:09 -0800

Looking for a good book as an introduction to learning about wines. This will be a gift to a novice who wants to learn the basics and then proceed from there.