Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with lose

Help Keep Me From Losing My Voice

Simon Barclay — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:48:26 -0800

I'm looking for advice to avoid losing my voice while speaking for a long time. Can anybody help me...? A couple of times a month, I need to give a presentation that lasts a whole day. The presentation mostly consists of me talking. Sometime after lunch, my voice starts losing its power and I find myself having to "push" harder to maintain the same volume. By the end of the day, my voice is almost gone. It takes a couple of days before I get it back.

Does anyone know of things I can do while speaking that will prevent me from losing my voice? Or, alternatively, what can I do to get it back quickly?

I don't know how frequently I can stop to drink, because I'm not usually standing behind a podium, but I can take a few gulps here and there. Last time this happened, I tried tea with honey during the evening, but that didn't seem to help.

How to mitigate the damage of a dreaded interview question?

liquado — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:35:34 -0800

Question-for-a-friend filter: How do you truthfully answer a job interview question about a previous job that you were asked to resign from, because you were an idiot? Long-story-short: After six months as CSR, friend gets promoted to great job as account manager, which includes on-the-road sales visits to customers. After only four months in position, friend gets stupid, drives drunk and loses license. Company asks him to resign and offers severance package, as he can no longer drive to sales calls. Friend acknowledges stupidity, takes the golden handshake, goes back to working construction. He left the position on good terms with his supervisor.

Now, friend is applying for new sales position that will likely not require driver's license. He's almost certain to get an interview, but is not sure what the best approach is to answer the likely question, "Why did you choose to leave your last sales position?" He doesn't want to lie or be dishonest, but we're both at a loss as to an alternative/vague answer that limits the damage to his chances of getting the new position.

Thanks for any pearls of wisdom.

About ready to write on my cat with permanent marker . . .

dlugoczaj — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:43:10 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good cat collar that can break if necessary but is difficult to lose? Two of my cats wear their collars quite happily and seldom lose or break them. I'm at my wits' end with my other one. And, of course, she's the one that needs it most--she roams the farthest and is the most likely to be affable with people.

If I were tremendously worried about her getting lost, I would microchip her, but we live in a fairly safe suburban area and I know she knows her way around. I'm more interested in putting an immediately visible sign on her so people don't think she's a stray and start feeding her. She has plenty to eat at home--she's just thin because she's very active, and since she's a charmer I suspect she can get handouts very easily.

I already know she can't wear the kind of safety collar that breaks away at the buckle itself (i.e., plastic buckle with little "pinchers" that fit inside) because she'll lose it in an hour. For a while, she was wearing the kind that's made in two pieces with a stretchy elastic in the middle and a buckle like a belt, but she's apparently figured out how to get rid of those too; she lost two within two days. Is there anything else?

It doesn't help that she has a teeny-tiny neck and it's hard to buckle a collar securely on her without much wiggle room. My husband says I'm paranoid about buckling collars too tight as it is, so if anyone can give me a safety standard for fitting cat collars, such as "you should be able to slip a finger under safely," that would be appreciated.

Covert Mental health cover-up operation gone wrong. Help!

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:14:00 -0800

I was a part time student with a part time job. After a nervous breakdown, a brief stint in a mental hospital, and a cover-up to keep everything secret...I am in deep trouble with my job. Please help me unravel the mess. Because of a mental health issue (better now via a doctor and medication), I dropped some courses that my employer paid for. The trouble is that my employer doesn't know that I dropped. I was an idiot for not telling them, but I was afraid to come clean to them about my mental health problems (and likely be fired anyway). They believe that I just stayed home “sick” for about a week.

The prof doesn’t know what happened to me either, but I dropped out of his course after missing a midterm (large impersonal uni). Would have likely failed his course anyway.

The drama is that my employer wants to contact my prof to run a workshop for my business. In which case, my web of lies would break down and balance in the world would be restored (ie, I’d be fired).

Do I come clean to my employer now (and be fired anyway), or try to get the professor to lie for me and cover it up (I don’t’ know him very well)? I can’t really afford to lose my job, but I feel stuck because of the stigma associated with mental health issues.

What can say to my professor to get him to help me out and not mention that I dropped?

No, this is not my best moment in my life and I am moving on. Any help is much appreciated, I know that I messed up badly.

Loser

honeyx — Sat, 06 May 2006 11:42:19 -0800

How do I stop losing my things? Over the past year or so I have developed a pretty serious problem with losing things that are very important to my day-to-day life (keys, wallet, cell phone, library books...). I am looking for advice on how to better keep track of my things. I generally lose things when I am out and about. I actively think about where my things are whenever I am out, but it only takes one slip up in thinking about it (engaged in conversation with a friend as I leave the table, or leaving in a rush because I am late for something else) to leave something behind. I think I lose things in two ways generally, either setting the object down somewhere or having it fall out of my pocket, which I partly blame on the tiny pockets of women's pants. I have tried carrying a bag, but this generally causes embarassment because every few minutes I have to shuffle through it in a panic to make sure I all of my important things are still in there and I might just leave the whole bag behind too. I'd really like to figure out a system for keeping track of my things, especially one that doesn't involve me stressing out about where they are all the time.

Any advice on how to better keep track of my things is much appreciated. Thanks!

You win You lose

gearspring — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 09:36:06 -0800

Do contest winners lose money because of taxes? If I enter a contest and win $100,000 in non refundable travel will I end up having to pay the taxes (US) from my savings? Can I refuse the prize and save my money? I didn't win anything, but reading the contest rules started scaring me away from even playing. What do people with no savings do in that situation? This whole system just seems wrong.