Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with shape

Name that book: super powers from imagining you're sucking on a funny shape?

vytae — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:57:29 -0800

Is this a real book? All I remember is that 1 or more characters could activate some kind of special powers or transformational abilities by imagining the shape of a particular object in their mouth. I vaguely remember a story from my youth in which the character(s) could trigger something special by very explicitly imagining how a particular shape would feel in the mouth. My memory is that they would try to vividly conjure the feeling of holding a diamond-shaped, dice-like object in the mouth. If they did it right, they would temporarily have some magical power, or they would change into another form, or something. I've also got this phrase "form the sembler" attached to this particular memory, but I have no idea whether it's really related. I think the characters had to use these powers to fight against something sinister.

I think I would have read this between the ages of 10 and 15, so early 1990s, but I was reading a mixture of youth and grown-up fiction at that point.

Does this sound at all familiar? Google is giving me nothing, probably because I can't think of a concise way to describe imagining the shape of an object in the mouth.

"Soft in some places, lumpy in others. It's ghoulish. You are a ghoul."

The Whelk — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:24:51 -0800

My Disgusting Body And You: For reasons I can't divulge, I will be appearing nude in public come November. What can I do in a month so I look my naked best? I don't have a gym and really can't afford one, and my time is going to be pretty tight for the first two weeks in October... 1- I'm a 25 year old 220 pound dude shaped like Judah Friedlander.

2- I kinda went to hell this summer for work and other reasons. I'm pale, my upper body strength is shot completely and my clothes are starting to rebel. My motivation to move around has been nil, hence doing the nude thing to force myself to do something.

3- I already eat pretty well, not a whole lot of processed food and lots of veggies. More than willing to cut out the big things like beer and bread and fried foods. My problem is that I'm never hungry. Ever. I eat maybe one meal a day. Everyone says you have to eat little meals to up your metabolism but I just can't force myself to eat that much.

4- As I said before, no gym, but a big empty floor and 2 ten pound weights. Also, cause of the money situation, I can't do classes or anything that costs money.

5- Anything else I should be doing Right Now to ensure I look Super Great Naked in a month? Start scrubbing off the foot calluses or full body moisturizing or what?

How to turn an apple into a banana

cloudsandstars — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:15:40 -0800

I'm an apple, but I'd much rather be a banana. How can I get rid of my middle and reshape my body? Unfortunately, my lofty goals at the beginning of the year turned out to be an epic fail for me. I have managed to lose about 7 pounds over the last 7 weeks, but I remain around 50 pounds overweight. I am the textbook "apple" shape, with most of my extra weight around my middle. I know this is unhealthy, and it is starting to look bad, too. Not to mention the effect it is having on my emotional state of mind and confidence level.

I've already cut way back on my sugar intake and portion sizes, and have simply started moving more. That is helping, but I'm afraid that with my slow metabolism, it will take years to get this harmful weight down to a manageable level. I'd rather it take months.

So, what I'm really asking here is: Are there any specific foods should I eat, foods I should avoid, and which exercises would be most effective in helping me get rid of this particular type of stomach/hip/back fat?

I'm a busy girl, I work a lot, am trying to save money, and would prefer to do any exercising in the privacy of my own home.

Thanks.

Fighting Blubber—The Gym Reassurance Questions.

wildrain2008 — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:06:36 -0800

Fighting Blubber—The Gym Reassurance Questions. INFORMATION:
=================

Background: So here's the deal, during late high school and early college I hit the gym on and off for a month or so, always breaking my routine and never getting the the exact point that I wanted to reach—which was getting cut like B. Lee but with a bit more mass.
After college work left me drained so even though I had time to hit the gym after.. I rarely did.

Negative Result: The result of not hitting the gym was not so much as getting overweight (I have a relatively fast metabolism) but rather the addition of blubber... that fat over the 6 pack and the love handles and especially Gluteus Maximus.

Resolution: After a year I switched jobs (on my new job 5 months now) and I've forced myself to get back into shape—watching my diet and resurrecting my gym routine. My current weight is 190lbs, I guess that's not so bad for a guy who's 5'11. But there's definitely has room for improvement from what I've read.

The Stalling: So I've been hitting the gym 3 days a week for almost 2 months now. My routine involves 30 mins of jogging or stationary bike, followed by 45 mins to an hour of weight lifting.

Weightlifting Routine breakdown:

Bench Press: 3 sets/ min 127lbs max 157lbs
Lat Pull Down: 3 sets/ min 90lbs max 100lbs
Sitting Bicep Curl: 3 sets/ 22.5lbs
Tricep Pull Down: 3 sets/ 40lbs
Dumbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets/ 30lbs
Butterfly: 3 sets/ 110lbs
Shoulder Machine: 3 sets/ 70lbs
Glutes Leg Press: 3 sets/ 260lbs
Abb Death Circuit: 3 sets of: hard medicine Ball leg lift, large medicin ball crunches (lying on top), standing oblique lifts (45lbs each side)

Positive Results: I've noticed definition on my body in general and the showing of the 3pack lol upper abbs.

Again my goal still remains to: to get cut up but have a bit more mass than just the average kung-fu fighter lol.

QUESTIONS:
=============

I know that 2 months at the gym is a short time for me to expect major results, but I would really love to get rid of the blubber that is still covering the results that I'm trying so hard to improve (aka the muscles and the tone that is slowly appearing.. again very slowly lol).

1. How many moths do I have to wait to see substantial results aka the evaporation of this darn flab?

2. Is there anything I can do to improve the weight loss but not damage my other goal (building mass)?

3. My brother after a year of swimming completely transformed his body, would adding maybe 1 or 2 days of pool to my overall routine damage or improve the results I'm striving towards?

END NOTES:
============
I told myself this time that I'm never quiting gym again.. and it looks like I've caught the gym bug as I get antsy (like an addict) towards the end of my work.. to get back into the gym.. :)

Andy advice is always helpful.

Where to find circular graphic/image?

zenpop — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:10:25 -0800

Need to find or create a graphic that resembles a circular shape made by sealing wax -- like one would find on an old letter or document. Could be a photo image or a graphic/drawn image. Though that's just one design approach we are toying with. We could also go a more heraldic emblem route, but circular in design. Or a sort of degenerated circle shape that type could be laid into, to resemble a "stamped" document.

Google doesn't turn up much.

What does this symbol mean?

hummercash — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:12:09 -0800

Picture this: three squares arranged in a triangular formation... one on top, two on the bottom. Does it have any symbolic meaning? Is it a company logo? I ask this because I'm getting a tattoo saturday that means something to me but before I do, I want to make sure it doesn't also have some negative meaning to other people... like some symbol for being a nazi, or even the corporate logo for some strange company... because that would suck.

Get out and do something, you punk kid!

pcameron — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:00:51 -0800

My 17-year-old little brother needs something enriching to do this summer. Any suggestions? He is a very smart, straight-A kid (he just represented Haiti at the UN Model Conference for high school students in NYC, and debated in favour of a position paper he wrote in front of 3000 people in the General Assembly hall). He used to think of himself as the dumb kid compared to me and his older sister, but my parents sent him to a new school this year and he is suddenly excelling beyond our wildest hopes.

However some of his friends from his old school are not, shall we say, high achievers and are pressuring him to get a crappy retail job and spend the summer drinking in the park with them. As his older brother, I think it's my responsibility to encourage him to pursue something a bit more enriching than that. But I need some intruiging ideas to throw at him to get him thinking of the possibilities.

Anyone have some suggestions or leads? Examples I'm looking at would be volunteering somewhere out of the city, French lessons in Quebec City, camp counselling, a summer educational program, treeplanting... Personal anecdotes are extremely welcome.

ps we live in downtown Toronto, and our family budget is average middle-class meaning we can spring for something not too extravagant

Help me prepare for a foot race!

crewshell — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 05:24:09 -0800

Help me tackle an 8 mile foot race one month from today with an elevation gain of nearly 1000 ft. I am an active 22 year old but my time in the gym has been very limited lately and I rarely run anymore.

I have a job were I am on my feet for about 8 hours everyday - was very active over the last 5 years up until I moved to LA and now the Virgin islands (about a year and a half between the two places) and I want to run "8 Tuff Miles" http://www.8tuffmiles.com/ on feb 24th. It gains 1000 ft in the first 6 miles and is mostly down hill from there!

How can I get in respectable shape to tackle this race? I work two jobs (a part time and a full time) so I can't spend hours a day.

Mostly I dont want to get hurt. Help me plan my course of attack! Cheers

Regaining hourglass figure after birth

true — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:55:46 -0800

My wife recently had a baby and is looking for tips on how to regain her hourglass figure - specifically, how to put back the ribs the baby moved for comfort. Her shape is/was traditionally hourglass, about 5'8' and 140 lbs. Small in the waist, bigger in the hips and chest. About 7 months into the pregnancy she felt the baby wedge tightly on one side and a rib pop out slightly [later confirmed by the doctor]. Now that the baby is out she's looking for ways to regain her waistline - losing the weight isn't an issue, but once the weight is off she'd like to be closer to her original shape.

How to get in shape in one month?

dcrocha — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:37:10 -0800

Getting in shape in one month. How to do it? How to get in shape in a short period of time, such as a month, if I hate to work out at gyms? I get bored fairly easily at those places, and I don't like people who are in a real nice shape (specially men) showing off and rubbing that at my face :)

I used to swim couple of years ago, but I don think it will have the esthetic effect I'm looking for, in the short term, although it gives me a real nice endurance.

I do not need to lose any weight; quite the opposite, I'm 6' 0' and 160 pound, a slim kind of guy.

Any thoughts?

SpheroidTruncatedIcosahedronFilter!

i_am_joe's_spleen — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 18:57:10 -0800

My daughter wants to decorate a sphere in a football pattern. How do we determine the correct side length for the pentagons and hexagons, given a sphere of diameter n?

Where are premade shapes in Adobe Illustrator?

punkfloyd — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 10:22:00 -0800

I'm new t Adobe Illustrator. Where the heck are all the built in vector shapes in Adobe Illustrator 10? Even PowerPoint has tons of premade shapes ready to go. Why do I only get a rectangle, oval, polygon, and some other freaky looking thing? Help?

Do my feet look weird to you?

e^2 — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 16:27:27 -0800

What's normal for feet? Toe length/shape/etc? Google has not settled the argument.

Photoshop 7: Exporting a path as a vector graphic

Grod — Thu, 13 May 2004 16:15:48 -0800

Is it possible to export a path (or shape) from Photoshop 7 as a vector graphic? Or do I have to rasterize the path, open the file in Illustrator, and then autotrace the shape? (Please tell me the former is possible) Oh, never mind, my damn computer just crashed and I lost an hour's work.