Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with methods

Help normalize my spiking blood pressure!

rachaelfaith — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:54:25 -0800

Can you help me not freak out about my suddenly spiking blood pressure? This is related to birth control and anxiety. Also looking for methods to calm myself down in anticipation of a reading. Some history: Have not had any indication of high blood pressure since I started taking birth control 5 years ago- I typically register in at 120/80. I was on Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo for 3 years and switched to Yaz 2 years ago after some ovarian cysts showed up.

I used to be overweight but lost 45 pounds and am now at what I believe to be a relatively healthy weight [about 5'3", 137 lbs]. I do not smoke and I don't consume caffeine. I don't have a stellar diet, but I try to keep an eye on my sodium intake. I work out around 3 times a week, though college classes are taking a toll on my consistency.

I have had a history of anxiety for just about forever. Panic attacks, avoidance, social anxiety, health anxiety, and so on.

Went to my OB-GYN yesterday for a regular pap and pelvic, they were about to renew my birth control scrip when they mentioned my blood pressure was too high- about 130/89. They waited about 10 minutes and took it again- even higher, because I was nervous. Now I'm told I have to get it retaken elsewhere before I am given the scrip to prove it's not prehypertension or higher.

Of course, I'm now freaking out [over the possibility of HBP, over possibly not being able to obtain my birth control] and my heart's been racing ever since. I took one measure at home of my blood pressure and it was really quite high- something ridiculous like 144/89.

Now I fear that I will not be able to calm myself down enough to get back to normal, much less when I go for an official reading.

Is there any reason my BP would jump so high in a one-month period since my last normal reading? Besides deep breathing, how else can I calm myself down in order to obtain a neutral reading?

Yaaargh. Help!

What birthing methods should we choose?!?

lil' ears — Tue, 01 May 2007 11:48:50 -0800

My husband and I are expecting our first baby in August and since the reality has kicked in...it's time to start thinking about birthing methods. Since we are new to all of this, we've been talking with a few friends about birthing methods and classes, but more thoughts would be great!

So far, the answers range from "DEFINITELY do the ($300, 12-week) Bradley class!!!" to "Don't even bother (taking any classes), they were a waste of time."

I work days and my husband works nights, so finding time for classes may be difficult, but do-able. What did you do? What method did you go for? Could we learn what we need to know from books (book titles would be helpful!)? When push came to shove (literally!), did what you learn in classses or books help you?

For some background info, I'd like to TRY without an epidural, but if it becomes too painful I am in no way opposed to having one (please no debate on the pros and cons of meds!). I like the idea of Bradley's focusing within vs hypnobirth's external visualization. I'm not interested at all in water-birth, homebirthing, etc. We'll be in a birthing room at the near hospital.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! (and sorry if this has been posted somewhere before. I checked and had the husband check too!!)

Good usability books

|n$eCur3 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:44:59 -0800

I'm looking for books dealing with usability for web and software applications. Not so much books that focus on coding or theory, but instead books that primarily relate to usability methods and the execution of usability studies Most of the books I've read on the subject either deal to heavily with coding (I am not a programmer) or devote too much time to theory (why usability is cost effective, necessary or otherwise grand). I don't need these types of books.

What I want are books that are nuts and blots. For instance, those that deal with methods, best practices, collecting data, consolidating data and finding agregate usage patterns across multiple users. Also, any book that focuses on how to correctly utilize collected data to appropriately inform design would score high marks.

Basically, google and amazon searches yield too much information, many of which do not focus on my area of interest. So which books would you recommend?

(By the way, Nielsen and Norman are a little bit on the whiny side for my tastes fwiw, but go ahead and recommend whatever you feel fits.)

My fingers feel useless.

mittenedsex — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 21:50:24 -0800

Violin/Musician Filter: Help me whip my fingers into shape! [more inside] Background: Played violin for 9 years. Studied privately for 6 of the 9. Stopped two years ago. And by "stopped" I really mean "I have played the violin maybe 4 times since I graduated two years ago." FWIW, I'm 20 (so I guess relatively young).

I wasn't particularly diligent in terms of practicing, and even when I did practice, I wasn't half as careful as I should've been (in terms of pitch, positions, bow movement, the little things).

Having said that, I wasn't TOO bad. I wasn't the best, by far, but I didn't sound too awful, and I had a couple of obligatory violin pieces "mastered." (Lalo anyone? :-D) (And by "mastered," I really just mean "pretty decent to the untrained ear").

The Question: What can I do to whip myself into shape musically as a violinist? I played the piano for six years when I was younger and lost almost all of it thanks to my laziness. I don't want that to happen to the violin too though at this point I'm regrettably pretty damn close. I know that at this point in time, I have to pay extra attention to my posture, my bowing, etc to make sure I don't pick up any bad habits. Any recommendations on how I should best go about this? Any obligatory pieces or ways to practice? I have the Kreutzer, and the Bach. Should I just go through them slowly and painstakingly? I don't want to potentially screw myself over in the long run. I'm a broke college student and really can't afford to hire a teacher to reteach me the basics if I can do them myself.

Kyrgystan's religious censorship via web: technique?

vanoakenfold — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 17:20:32 -0800

Does anyone know, loosely or extensively, of Kyrgystan's methods of web censorship of religion? More specifically I need to know how the actual censoring action works: by scanning words and phrases, by domain/IP blacklisting, by a person actually checking them out with their eyes, etc?

Teaching Under Privileged Kids

JPowers — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:03:26 -0800

Help my wife get a hold of her class room! My wife teaches middle school math to overwhelmingly under privileged kids whose parents could care less about how they are doing in school. In addition, her school district more or less refuses to fail kids because they don't have the budget to increase the school's population each year. So the kids have no reason to want to learn (parents don't care, school will pass them on) and they have no reason to behave in class (parents don't care even if the kids get suspended, which is as far as the school is willing go). My wife has tried everything to get them to pay attention and not to bounce off the walls, at least to listen in class, but nothing works. She feels like there is nothing she can do to help these kids or get control of her room (she is the youngest teacher at her school by a decade -- all of the other teachers have the same problems but have ggot used to the situation a long time ago). Do you guys know of any resources (books, seminars, methods) that deal with teaching under privileged kids with no support from parents or school? Also, anyone have any first hand experience with this sort of thing?

How do I get my work onto slide film without shooting on slide film?

tarintowers — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 15:57:40 -0800

Methods of Documentation: Getty My Work Onto Slide Film Next weekend I am participating in an art show, my first in which work will be for sale, and because for one thing, I hung a piece in the silent auction, I have reason to believe I will sell at least one thing. (I have sold work before on commission, but this is still pretty exciting.) I would like to have, in the future, in my portfolio, slides of any sold work. I do not have a tremendous budget but I'd rather spend a bit of cash than not have documentation of early sold work. What method should I use to get my paintings and soforth onto slides? (See extended explanation). Thanks much. I've got until the weekend to figure this out. /tarin Should I:

1. Hire a slide photographer to shoot the work hanging in this show?

2. Shoot the work myself on slide film with my 35mm SLR, even though I've never shot on slide film before?

3. Shoot the work myself on digital, and THIS IS WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW: Take it to the photo shop, where they can magically process a digital CD into a slide roll? Is #3 here possible?

4. Because time is a constraint and so is money, shoot the work myself on digital, project it onto the wall, and shoot that with slide film later when I have more leisure to shoot and get it right?

What would you do?

Baptize my method

carmina — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 09:02:00 -0800

NameFilter: Please help me give a name to a method I developed .... It is based on decorrelation scales and we use it to fill in gaps (missing values) in datasets. The paper is coming out soon but I am missing a name that will stick. Nothing fancy, please... I cannot come up with anything better than Decorrelation Based Filling Method (DBFM)?
I promise to aknowledge you properly...
Thanks!

Book Binding

blueshammer — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 06:22:14 -0800

Book binding: I want to make some one-off children's books for my daughter and her friends, and I'm trying to determine the most cost-effective way to make something extra-durable. These kids are all about 2 years old; my own daughter has been known to rip pages out of favorite books as a sign of enthusiasm. My current thought is laminating two-sided color pages and spiral binding it, but to me that's only about a 6 out of 10 on cheapness and durability. Other thoughts?

Why don't US elections use a pencil and checkbox for voting?

jontyjago — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 07:00:11 -0800

I've just read an article in the Economist about the pros and cons of using machines to count votes in the forthcoming US elections. It seems there are 7 methods of voting - optical, electronic etc. This might be a silly question but what's wrong with putting a cross in a box with a pencil like we do in the UK (at least in all the elections I've voted in)?

How do I create a book index?

SpecialK — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 15:23:07 -0800

How do they create book indexes? I have a friend who's a grad student, and she needs to create an index for her hundred page scientific thesis. Is there any easy way to do it in MS Word, or another software product -- something that a non-geek could churn and burn with in a couple of hours?