Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with short

Help me find this short film...

iam2bz2p — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:52:24 -0800

MeFi Internet Connoisseurs -- PLEASE help me track down this online video... A few years ago, I saw a short, online video about a man who finds a woman's digital camera and tracks her down via the stored images.

The video is made entirely from individual digital iamges, not actual video.

If I recall correctly, at the END of the video, the man ends up at the door of the woman's apt. She opens it...

This one shouldn't be too hard for the hivemind!

Thin pencil anyone?

nam3d — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:27:30 -0800

I'm looking for a 'thin' pencil... I recently purchased a PicoPad . Overall I've been impressed with the product but I've found the pen supplied not to be 100% reliable and I'd much rather write with a pencil.

Could someone point me in the direction of a thin and short pencil that I can use instead of the supplied pen?

You can really get the size of pen by watching this video.

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type "i" for Internet and "f" for Firefox to open that browser?

oxit — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:12:54 -0800

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type i for Internet and f for Firefox to open that browser? Prior to Windows 7 I was using the classic Windows start menu to access most of my software by pressing only three keys on the keyboard:

1. the Windows key, then
2. a key for the folder, e.g. (I)nternet, or (O)ffice, then
3. a key for the application, e.g. (F)irefox or (I)nternet Explorer.

Typing a part of the name in Windows 7's start menu is a lot slower, more cumbersome and error-prone.

Is there a solution to have this in Windows 7? There are many start menu replacements out there, but none I've seen does this. Can you help?

Words to money

schmichael — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:23:49 -0800

(Pro)sefilter: want to sell prose. Looking for advice. So I want to sell some work, get published. Now, for all intents and purposes, let's consider me to be unpublished. But I am confident in my words and confident in my ideas. Currently, I'm working on travel stories from my recent time in America - I'm a New Zealand citizen.

However I fear that the combination of the internet and the recession - and a generalised apathy towards the written word - means that it is particularly hard to make money writing these days.

Wise and generous denizens of Askme, I humbly request advice - preferably wide-ranging and learned - for a newcomer.

Looking for movies that take place in a day (or a few days)

kampken — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:30:54 -0800

I'm looking for more movies that take place in a very short time-span..like a few days or even a single day. Real-time movies are welcome too..and I'm open to all genres. I'm not really interested in flash-back movies where a character remembers back to their past, but the person himself stays put in a single day (like Saving Private Ryan)

Examples of movies I'm after: Training Day, Collateral, Before Sunset (and the prequel too), Der Untergang (kind of), Dr. Strangelove

Doesa anyone recognize this 80s horror short scenario?

joechip — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:03:46 -0800

Does anyone know of a horror short film/ ad/ preview from the 80s wherein a fisherman at the edge of a lake bites into an apple he finds on the ground, realizes there is a line coming out of the apple... ... grabs his throat which starts squirting blood, realizes there is a hook attached to the line that is sticking out of his neck, and then gets dragged, gurgling, into the lake?

Know it sounds silly, but I saw this as a very little kid and for years I've had this image of the fisherman being dragged into a lake in my head. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with a horror movie I was shown as a little kid (damn multiple older brothers.) Maybe it was a preview on an old VHS of Friday the 13th, maybe it was a screwy PETA ad, who knows. I can't say. Just curious if that scenario rings a bell for anyone.

Making sweet music in fiction?

motsque — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:48:08 -0800

What's your favorite online fiction site, and did you find what I'm looking for? I found some great resources here, here, and here. Now I'm in a time crunch and hope that you can recommend the best short story or novella you've read about or involving music or musical characters (by which I mean gifted with musical talent, not singing princesses or anything). HUGE BONUS if it's online. Thanks!!

Two Weeks Later...Not You Again!

fantine — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:05:07 -0800

Is there a way to lengthen my annoyingly short menstrual cycle? Discussion of menstruation and good times after the jump! OK, I'm a female college student, in good health, etc. Historically, my menstrual cycle is a solid 28 days, give or take (it's very predictable). However, whenever I come back to school, it drastically shortens to 19-21 days, which is hellaciously irritating. I don't have particularly awful periods, unlike some women I know, but it's a nuisance to have a 3-week instead of 4-week cycle.

Is there any way to regain a normal-length cycle? I have a good idea that it might be stress-related, but that might be just an inclination without medical merit. It's not just a beginning-of-the-semester thing where living on a hall with other women makes the hormones go nuts; this lasts for as long as I'm at school.

I'm not interested in taking birth control to artificially regulate it for a variety of reasons. But does anyone have other solutions or advice to go back to a 28-day cycle? My uterus will thank you.

Children's lit again...

anonymous78 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:06:11 -0800

I'm looking for the title of an action/adventure short story collection that I read in middle school (early 90s). It included The Most Dangerous Game and Leningen Versus the Ants. There were a number of other stories, but I can only remember the plots of two of them:

The first was about two men trapped under a tree in the woods. The come from rival families but as they wait for help to arrive, they grow friendly and each assures the other that if his family comes first, he will help the other. It ends with them seeing movement in the woods but to their dismay, it's a pack of wolves.

The second was about a man who falls into a pit of some kind and can't get out. He's stuck in it for several days and every night, it fills up with large, furry spiders. It ends with a rainstorm that kills the spiders and allows him to escape.

Monstrous boxes don't fit under my bed!

hamsterdam — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:11:51 -0800

What are some good under bed storage solutions that are shorter than the average 6" tall under bed box? Most boxes and containers sold for under bed storage purposes are 6" or 6 1/2" tall. My bed only has 4 3/4" of clearance underneath it, which obviously doesn't work. Does anyone have any clever ideas for off-size under bed organization, short of building my own boxes?

Assume bed risers are not an option.

Can literary journals ask for a reading fee?

uans — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:32:52 -0800

There is a literary journal currently asking for a $1 "handling fee" to fast-track submitted stories. Is this okay? What really, is the point of asking for a dollar?

City of Light

diode — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:54:51 -0800

SF short story filter: I read this sci-fi short story a long time ago. It's fairly memorable...I'm hoping someone on AskMeFi knows of it. Here's the synopsis.
The story begins with the protagonist attempting to enter a distant city, an alien one on our planet. The aliens have destroyed civilization and planted their cities on the planet in various places.
In the first passage, the hero is attempting to cross a field guarded by a floating energy being. Another traveler warns him the only way to get across is to move in a haphazard fashion with no particular pattern to his movement. He gets across safely and into the city.
Here's where it gets interesting. The city is composed of what I remember being described as solidified light that is responsive to concentrated will or focus. Our hero takes up residence and meets other humans living there who have pretty much the same status as rats in a human city.
The humans are generally ignored by the aliens who seem to be composed of complex energy patterns and have no point of reference for communication with earth folks.
Over time the hero learns to manipulate the alien city's light substance and performs various tricks like creating a sled through mental control that whisks him through the city at one point.
Finally, he learns the secret of the aliens is that when you can form circles of certain colors of the solid light energy and pass one inside the other, energy is emitted. The suggestion at close is that the hero has found a way for humanity to win back control of the planet.
I'd love to find and read this short story again.

Motor needs some drying and tlc

stormygrey — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:36:46 -0800

We need to salvage an the blower motor in the our ac unit. So, our ac wasn't working so well so we decided to clean the coils and such, unfortunately I think we got the motor wet. It will turn on for a while then it flips the breaker. While being 5 seconds or so. What if anything can I do to dry everything out and if I succeed in doing that, will it still work anyhow?

I would like to start working out during my lunch hour.

heeeraldo — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:47:19 -0800

Help me plan a lunch-hour workout. There's a gym in my office building, and I've decided to use it on my lunch break, which will mean I spend less time puttering around malls downtown, I bring lunch more often, and I get in to better shape.
I'm not too worried about cardio, as I am doing the 6 weeks from couch to 5K thing.

The gym itself is decently equipped with free weights, cardio machines, a bunch of the not-free-weight machines and a couple of balance balls/yoga mats.

I'd like to figure out a routine or a number of them I can rotate through (which is better?) for four workouts a week which take up no more than 30-40 minutes altogether, as I need time to eat, change, shower, etc.

Thanks in advance, gang!

Picking Short Stories for a High School Literature Class

John of Michigan — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:00:31 -0800

If you could plan a high school course introducing freshmen to the short story, what stories would you recommend? I'm designing a ninth-grade class, Introduction to the Short Story, and I've got a rough idea of what I'd like the students to read, but I've had a lot of luck polling Metafilter users in the past, coming up with a lot of texts I wouldn't have thought about, so let's try this again. (Yes, I've spoken to reference librarians, other teachers, and a couple of professors at a nearby college, but, c'mon, there are tens of thousands of readers on this site, so . . . .)

In addition to building reading comprehension and improving students' use of reading strategies, I'm going to focus on plot, character, theme, point of view, and setting, so, Metafilter, what stories do you think I should teach?

(Reading levels will vary, from third grade- to college-level readers, with a couple of ESL students, too.)

Need a fast loan!

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:43:42 -0800

Is there a reputable place (online or otherwise) where I can get a quick emergency loan within the next 10 days for $600 - $900? I have somewhat poor credit. I just spent all of my available cash and my emergency saving bailing a family member out of trouble. Saying no wasn't an option, as I was the only person close to her who had the funds available.

I am paid monthly at my job, so this has put me in a position where I'm strapped until the 15th of next month. I have one credit card with $300 of available credit that I'd rather not max (but I will if I need to), and I will be $900 short to pay my rent on the 31st, plus a utility bill and groceries.

The highest you can go on a payday loan in my state is $500, and you can't have more than one. My credit score is around 650 right now so that rules out a lot of the less costly options I'd have with a better score.

I checked with Modest Needs already but they don't have any available slots for applications. I think everyone is in pretty dire straights right now.

I know this isn't the best way to get money, but I'm desperate here. I already talked to my landlord and he said he really can't defer my rent because the economy is killing him. I probably won't get evicted but the late penalty will be just as significant as any fees I incur on a short term loan. And I'd rather keep my payment history with him current because the rental market here is very tight and I will probably need a reference if I ever move.

It's been a rough year for my family financially and basically I've sold everything I own of any value in order to help different people out. So that's pretty much out at the moment.

Also, if people have some suggestions about any odd jobs where I can raise cash quickly, that would be good too. I can't do manual labor like raking and mowing at the moment because I just had knee surgery and am on crutches, but anything else that you can think of that pays cash quickly would be appreciated. I have a young child at home, so that's also a consideration as far as time.

Anon because I don't want this to sound like a thinly-veiled attempt to beg for money off anyone. I'm really not. I just need some suggestions to scrape up this money for the short term. If I borrow it, I'll be more than able to pay it back around the middle of next month.

Small-portion podcasts?

We had a deal, Kyle — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:26:03 -0800

I miss Slate Explainer! Looking for short but interesting podcasts to round out the podcast CDs I compile for my commute. Suggestions in the 2--10 minute range please? Most of the podcasts I listen to -- Kermode, TAL, RadiolLab etc -- run 30 minutes or more. And somehow 10 minutes unused on an 80 minute CD seems awfully wasteful to me. Slate Explainer's daily 3-minutes-or-so podcast was awfully useful for filling those gaps, but it went on "hiatus" in January, probably never to return.

My tastes tend towards science/technology. I'm already subscribed to SciAm's 60 Second Science and 60 Second Psych and to NPR's Krulwich on Science. But I'm willing to give anything MeFi recommends a chance.

What's the name of short 1970's ballet film set to Pachelbel?

Araucaria — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:31:23 -0800

Hive mind, please help: I'm thinking of a short ballet film that came out in the 1970's (1975?). There is no plot -- it's basically a pas de deux, set to Pachelbel's Canon in D. I think I saw it in 1976 or so, just before Pachelbel really crossed over into the mainstream.

A ballet dancer goes into a rehearsal studio. She starts warming up, begins dancing. Her partner joins her, and the emotion of the dance increases to passionate heights. The music ends and they leave the studio, a wistful smile on her face as if they've shared something more than just a practice.

What was that film? Is it online anywhere?

How to Write Short Stuff Better?

l33tpolicywonk — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:33:25 -0800

How do I learn to write crisp, short and in-depth memos? Inspired by all this publicity over Gladwell's Outliers, I've decided I have to get in my 10,000 hours of practice in my craft (public policy) if I'm going to be any good at it. Problem is, I don't know how to get lots of practice with feedback in the writing style I think I need to bone up on: the clear, short, and to-the-point memo. While I've been taking plenty of internships, I don't think they're providing quite as much practice as I need to get really good at this really quickly. While I can do some blogging, I don't really think the voice people look for on my blog is quite the same.

Any ideas on places my writing can get the once-over by tough critics? Any ideas on how I can better critique myself? Any organizations / web places I can write for that will just let me get in as much practice as possible?

They get younger every year

svenx — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:30:04 -0800

Long-shot: I'm looking for an animated short from the 80's. It involves a very young boy who was accidentally drafted into the army, and nobody seems to recognize that he doesn't belong there. I believe it was on a collection of award winners from some film festival. Thanks!

How to stop worrying about a future child being very short like us?

trillian — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:28:08 -0800

Am I worrying too much about our future child being very short? How can I get over this? My husband and I are very short people, and we both come from short families. (As an example, I am barely five feet.) I can't see how our future child(ren) wouldn't be unusually short as well. This might seem like a pretty silly thing to worry about, especially if the child is otherwise healthy, but I do worry -- especially if this hypothetical child turns out to be a boy. Tall/average people just have it a lot easier. I guess I'm looking for some reassurance.

Tips for binding my own copies of books in the public domain?

cilantro — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:41:09 -0800

I took a few bookbinding classes in university and really enjoyed them, but I stopped doing it after I had saturated the market (i.e. my friends and family) with blank books to use as journals, notebooks, photo albums, etc. I recently thought that it might be fun to make hand-printed and bound editions of novellas and short stories that are in the public domain. What are some good stories I could use? And what will be the best way to get the text on to the paper? I would consider hand-lettering a very, very short story, but what to do for something a bit longer? I don't have access to a printing press. My first instinct is to lay out the text using photoshop or something, use my home printer to make a mini-mockup of the text block to ensure that everything will be in the right place after the folios are folded, and then take the file to a kinkos-type place to have the folios printed on large sheets of paper (two copies of each folio, natch. I am terrible about tearing my pages when I go to rip the edges). Anyway, my biggest issue with my plan is paper quality - I cringe at the idea of using 'printer' paper instead of good-quality art printmaking paper, but without access to a printmaking studio I can't think of another option. Any other ideas, or anything I might be overlooking in my plan?

Does anyone know shorthand?

sweetmarie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:19:01 -0800

I'm working on a historical postcard exhibition and one of our postcards has some type of shorthand as the message. I was wondering if anyone could translate it? I don't know what type of shorthand it might be written in. Here's a link to a picture: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3046/3046872988_aaecc48b29_b.jpg

Thanks!

tongue-twisting short story

eaglehound — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:05:16 -0800

I'm looking for the title and author and anthology location (and url, if possible) of an amusing short story about a man who gives a cocktail party, and for whom the invited guests all have rhyming names. He spends the story answering the door, then introducing everyone to everyone else - which becomes an incredible tongue-twister. For example he finds Uma Thurman at the door,and is then forced to introduce her to assembled guests as "Uma, Irma; Irma, Emma; Emma, Alma.....etc, etc, etc." Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Suggest me some unpretentious literary magazines.

scarello — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:57:56 -0800

Suggest some magazines which publish short stories and poetry that are not stuffy and pretentious. Also, any science fiction magazines that are worth reading would be greatly appreciated as well. Basically, I am looking for a magazine that publishes works for the everyman, so to speak. Some of the authors I enjoy: : Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Philip K Dick, John Fante, Chuck Palahiuk just to name a few. Hope that's enough info.