Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with spring

Songs similar to Spring Awakening's "Touch Me?"

mellifluous — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:24:35 -0800

I love the song "Touch Me" from Spring Awakening. Are there more like it? I don't know if I can fully articulate everything I like about the song, but here's my best attempt:

- A moderate to largish group in vocal harmony: I like the vocal interplay between the group, e.g., everyone building into a crescendo, which quickly segues into a solo, or when the group emphasizes particular parts of a phrase by coming in to sing it in unison.
- A melancholy, yearning tone, and sparse instrumentation (I don't want anything too operatic or saccharine, like songs from Disney musicals or something.)
- Pretty lyrics.
- A de-emphasis on showy vocal gymnastics.
- I think I also kind of enjoy that all the solo singers are male, but this isn't necessary.

Your suggestions needn't come from other musicals (especially since I don't care for the stupid speaking interlude in the original cast recording.)

Thanks.

Estranged pieces of metal in an Organ from the 1960s are the topic of the day

tmcw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:33:36 -0800

Fixing an old transistor organ: how do I fix these switches that seem to rely on the springiness of metal in order to make contact? So, I'm working on fixing this big ol' Doric organ (previously), and I stumbled upon a big break: it appears that the voices, as well as the vibrato, may not be broken, but just the switch activating them. However, this switch seems to rely on the exact same principle as the key contacts, and that principle is failing hard fourty-something years after this thing was built.

See this picture for a quick hint.

Basically, two wires, one which is the contact and stays at a certain place, and the second which is supposed to spring onto that contact when the key is depressed. Unfortunately, the second one is no longer very springy and I believe that these contacts are a bit rusty/bad.

So, contact cleaner is obvious solution #1, but the other problem is that with a few of these buttons, the piece of metal which is supposed to move onto the other just doesn't, and I don't have much of a way of bending it, since the furthest it can travel right now is the other contact. Also, just rebending this wire is a temporary fix, I'd guess, since, after all, it'll bend back like it has over all these years, leaving the next aspiring electrician thinking that the vibrato circuit is broken.

So, please let me know your thoughts! I am not even sure what the term for this 'keying system' is called, so my google-powers are weak. And any help would be so, so appreciated!

Thanks!

From Austin to Spring, Texas. How to stay sane.

bodywithoutorgans — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:09:39 -0800

After 7 glorious years in Austin, I have been demoted to relocating to Spring, Texas for a job. After a few days of getting the lay of the land, I am very disappointed. How do I stay sane? If distance makes the heart grow fonder, I now realize the dearth of coffee shops, independently owned businesses, ecological consciousness, artists, and general quirkiness in Spring only confirms my love for Austin.

To get a feel for my personality, I am a mid-20s male who enjoys art installations, large libraries, experimental music, and social theory. The brutal compulsion of the economic has forced me to get a "real job" and move to a suburb dominated by god, country, and guns.

So:
1) I know that I am 20 miles north of Downtown Houston. I have taken a look at this thread for suggestions on interesting things in Houston. Can one suggest interesting venues for my personality type in Houston? For example, the Nameless Sound collective is something I could get excited about.

2) Would it be a better idea to commute 20 miles to work from Downtown Houston instead of living in Spring itself?

3) How does one maintain one's individualism in a deeply conformist community? More specifically, how does one make friends in Spring Texas. I've got Metafilter for esoterica and email to keep in touch with my Austin friends but I'm missing the physicality of meatspace.

4) Does Spring have any secret gems that I've overlooked? Or is it Starbucks Starbucks Starbucks all the way down?

Please help Hivemind!

I miss recess

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:29:08 -0800

I'm fresh out of college, I have a job I love, and everything's going great. But it would be awesome if I could have more time off, because of a few reasons, and I can afford it... but does anyone do that? I'm making 'A' a month and spending almost a thousand bucks less than that paycheck. As odd as it is, at this point I could afford to support myself for a few months, maybe a year even, with savings, since I rarely spend and always work.

Everything's great, except I'm in a long-distance relationship (about 100 mile distance, with bus/car/train transportation in between) with an amazing girl who is leaving the country for three months, and then going to be in school for a year. So, going down for weekends is great, and I will do that as much as humanly possible, but I'd like weeks. I get 15 days of vacation time (how does that compare to other jobs in the web-field?), which I'm going to split between a few days before and a week or two during her trip to the other side of the world, in which I'm going to fly there too.

So, my situation is: I'd like to just say, could I take, say, another 10 days off of work, unpaid? I know this is a personal thing, but I'm wondering if it's so nonstandard and possibly annoying for the company that I shouldn't even bring it up? Has anyone does this and how does it work out?

More time would be so great, if I could take off fall/spring break or something, that would be so incredibly golden, and seriously, I could do it financially.

I guess this is related to the question 'why don't people work less when they earn more?,' which I also wonder about...

Help me beautify my front yard.

desjardins — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:32:52 -0800

I'm a totally novice gardener. What should I plant in my flowerpots? I live in the Chicago suburbs. We have four flowerpots (each about 1' square) on the north side of the house that are mostly in sun, and a 3' x 6' area on the ground next to the house that is almost always shaded. This area has wormwood and snapdragons that come back every year.

Desires:

Widely available and inexpensive
Not much work beyond watering
Can stand up to violent thunderstorms
Not particularly attractive/tasty/poisonous to dogs/cats
Would be nice if they were attractive to butterflies, but not necessary
If it helps with the whole bee situation, so much the better
Does not matter if they come back next year, because we'll have moved by then

I would like to not put a ton of thought into this - I'd like a "grocery list" that I can take to the store, plant 'em and be done with it.

Allergy relief methods?

greatalleycat — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:58:13 -0800

What can I do for relief until I get to my allergy doctor? It's been a bad spring allergy season for me, I've been constantly tired and I have had a low-grade headache constantly for the last few weeks. Nothing seems to make it go away. I take Claritin D daily, along with an RX nasal spray (Astelin) and I use the neti pot at night several times a week.
Does anyone have any other possible relief methods? I can barely get up in the morning and I must use caffeine to get me through the day.
I was forced to cancel my allergy doctor appointment scheduled for today due to work issues and couldn't get one for two weeks.
I am trying to avoid grass and other things, but I had to go outdoors yesterday for a commencement and will have to mow lawn in next couple days (yay)

Where to find sour plums?

caelumluna — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:48:14 -0800

Where to find sour Persian green plums in New York? My wife and I have a huge craving for these plums. Got some from a website (tulumba.com) but it is fairly expensive. Are there any new yorkers who knows where to get these sour plums?

Drinking water questions

jcdill — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:18:04 -0800

What is the best way to obtain non-tap drinking water at home? I just move to a new neighborhood, and the tap water isn't the greatest. We have several 1-2 gallon water bottles and dispensers. What is the lowest cost and healthiest way to fill these bottles? Here are some of my local options:

1) Water store
2) Water dispenser in front of the super market
3) Home filtration system (e.g. Britta)
4) Buying bottled "spring water"
5) Water service (Alhambra)

Also, how is "de-ionization" different from distilled water? I know that distilled water isn't good for drinking water - without minerals the water tastes flat. Does the same thing happen when the water is de-ionized?

I tried googling and ended up more confused than when I started. If anyone knows of some good sources on this topic, links would be greatly appreciated!

What can I say... I love growing things!

Mastercheddaar — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:57:54 -0800

Spring time gardening care filter. Need a little advice. With warming weather coming I thought it would be a good idea to prepare everything now. I have a green thumb and I pretty much can grow anything so general maintenance is a snap. The only problem is I need some help with the more complicated stuff.
I have planted the following: a Victory Garden! (many years running), Raspberry bushes (1 year old), Blueberry bushes(1 year old), 2 peach trees (2 years old), a nectarine tree( 3 years old), 2 cherry trees(2 years old), a buckeye tree(1 year old), a dogwood tree(1 year old), and lastly a fig tree(1 year old).

For the bushes: I have read on several different sites plenty of different pruning methods (cut the cranes, don't cut the canes, let them grow out, give them something to grow on, etc.) Which ones work? Which ones don't?

For the peach/nectarine: I had peach scab on them bad last year. What can I spray them with to prevent that this year?

For the Cherries: Japanese beetles nearly killed one of them last year. Any hints on how to prevent that from happening again? I heard an herb "Rue" helps keep them away. Anyone ever hear of that?

For the victory garden: I have done this for a while and have the regular veggies down pat. Any unique ones anyone can think of? I got a small patch of about 10-15 feet square I can use.

AND lastly I order some hop rhizomes to plant along my fence. Anyone have any hints for those as well?

Sorry for the huge question but any suggestions are welcome.

Things to do for my fiancee during spring break?

Inkoate — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:19:24 -0800

I have a week off school for spring break, help me do fun, silly and romantic things for my fiancee. I have a week off of my second year of law school coming up for spring break, and I want to take amazing care of my fiancee while I have comparatively less to do so she'll still think wonderfully of me when finals come around and I don't see her for a week straight. Can you help me with ideas?

Ladies, what wonderful things have your SOs done while you were away at work that really blew you away?

We've gone away a couple weekends recently, so things that are easy on the wallet are preferred, but not mandatory. We're in Washington, DC.

(Also, I've seen a couple of older threads in this general vein, but I thought I'd ask more precisely with my requirements, but links to places with good ideas are obviously welcome too).

Or will I be doomed to sit in a hotel room and gaze forlornly at the Arctic Circle?

kittyprecious — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:18:06 -0800

Would it be worthwhile to go to the West Fjords of Iceland in springtime? I am spending a few days in Iceland on a stopover at the end of April and am flirting with the idea of flying up to Ísafjörður to drive and/or hike around the fjords for a couple of days. So, "worthwhile" in the sense that the roads are likely to be open/nonhazardous and the weather won't be bone-chilling. (...and that flights won't be canceled for the same reasons.)

The guidebooks I've looked at give travel advice for summer, fall, and winter, but are curiously silent on springtime. Should I just stick to Reykjavík and the Golden Circle and save this diversion for a warmer time of year?

Two people seek affordable hammock

billtron — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:58:11 -0800

Help my partner and me find a place to take a well-deserved vacation in mid-March. We have a budget of about $1500 including flights. We are looking for something near a beach where it's warm, within flying distance of New York City but preferable outside the US. Something more upscale than a straw hut in Dominica but less pre-determined than an all-inclusive resort in Antigua. Bonus points for ecotourism and cultural memorability.

Calling All Engineers!

Black_Umbrella — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:19:32 -0800

I am stuck on a "design of machine components" project. Anyone care to take a crack? Its actually a pretty simple spring problem. Overview:

I am messing around with the design for a helical torsion spring but am having trouble finding part of the force.

Specifically the spring that is used on the end of barbells to prevent plates from sliding. I do not know how to determine how much force the spring is putting on the bar.

What i figure is it has to do with the coefficient of friction, number of coils, diameter of the inside of the coil**, etc.

My professor who is a goof ball told me to solve for the angular spring rate, does that sound right?

**as it is a helical spring, when the handles are forced towards each other the numbers of coils increases (i.e. 4.375 turns --> 4.5 turns). As this happens how does the inner diameter change? How does this effect the force when the original diameter is a little smaller then the diameter of the barbell (lets say the barbell is 2 inches and the UNFORCED spring is 1.9, forced its 2.1...)

As you can see I am a little lost....I know the hive mind is usually not so good at engineering questions but I thought I would ask anyway.

How do I move from PHP to JSP/Spring without a J2EE background?

secret.osha — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:05:49 -0800

Anyone have experience moving from PHP to Spring/JSP? What approach made the change easiest for you? I'm comfortable in PHP. I know Java from a college classroom setting, but I've never had to help develop a J2EE app. I've looked at Spring tutorials (done the MVC step by step one), but the toy examples that they give just don't do it for me, probably because it seems like a lot of extra work for something I can write in PHP in a fraction of the time. I don't have a current project to work on, I just don't want to be caught with my pants down when the time comes when I'm required to use Spring and JSP. Anyone learn from sample Spring apps that aren't toys but also not ridiculously complex? Any other suggestions for the transition?

Thanks!

Asparagus...it's awesome because it makes your pee smell funny.

sararah — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:38:09 -0800

Share your favorite asparagus recipes! I love it grilled and roasted, but I eat it like this all the time. What are some new ways to prepare one of my favorite veggies? I love asparagus and eat it at least 1-2x per week, especially when it is in season. Since it was a late spring here in the Midwest, I scored some gorgeous purple (and some green) asparagus at the farmer's market this morning. I'd like to branch out from my grilling/roasting rut and try some new preparations -- I'm especially interested in ways to use the woody ends in soups/stews/whatever.

Safety restraints - no zip

Acari — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:44:17 -0800

Sluggish seatbelt retracting thingers: How to fix them? It's annoying, and too many older cars suffer from this for somebody to not know how to fix it.

The seatbelt doesn't go back into the mysterious seatbelt-dispensing portion of the car like it used to. And then you slam the buckle in the door, and look like a dweeb while you jiggle it up and down to try and feed it back in there.

I removed the mechanism, jiggled it around, poked at the pokable parts, and came to the conclusion that in this particular car [an 88 K-car], the issue is not friction/lubrication in the unit itself, but a spring weakened by age and overuse. Everything zips/spins/clicks like it should when it's just the belt and the retractor, but when it gets re-mounted and encased in plastic panelling, there's no poop/zip/vim.

I can't get at the spring so far as I can see; the retractor doesn't appear to be serviceable. But maybe it is and I just don't get it. Anybody have any clues?
Is this one of those times when I should just go to a junkyard and tug on all of the seatbelts I find?

[you know. like all those other times where that's the answer]

how to design a variable torsional spring

edtut — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:53:43 -0800

how do i design a cheap spring to attach to a small plastic lever, that will only act over a portion of the rotation of that lever? i am designing something with a small straight plastic lever, about 40mm long. it is attached to a plastic door by fitting into the shaft at the end, and the lever rotates over about 40 degrees to open and close the door. the door opens from a flat bottom position to a top position, and seals at both ends.
the lever is rotated by a mating pivot lever, that has a pin. the pin runs down a straight slot in the lever. the ratio is just slightly amplified, but the rotation of each lever is near enough to equivalent.
i want to add a torsional spring to the lever to help lift weight of the door from the bottom position. the spring is a simple 3 coil torsional spring, with one fixed end, and the other end rotating with the lever.
but when i do, of course, the door doesnt seal well at the bottom most point (because the mechanism force is too low). the spring works against the pin force, to open the door slightly.

is there a type of torsional spring that can be free of tension at the bottom point, but then help lift the lever through most of the travel.
or alternatively, is there a simple way to fix the end of the torsional spring to have the same effect?

What do you do for spring cleaning?

hazyspring — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:38:06 -0800

What do you do for spring cleaning? Specifically along the lines of either cleaning, home maintenance, or yard work. It's my first spring in my new home. I'm probably going to clean the windows and I haven't thought further along than that. What do you do?

Auto spring cleaning

yellowbkpk — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:14:22 -0800

Happy Spring! What should I do to my car after a long winter of snowy roads and lengthy sitting in the driveway? My last car was a Volvo 240 and it seemed to enjoy getting road salt rubbed into its nooks and crannies (my average mpg would go up in winter) and loved basking in the sun on the driveway when I took the train or bus on a business trip. I bought a newer car (2005 Jetta) last year that I'd like to treat a little bit better.

What can I do to make sure my newer car lasts as long as possible after its first winter in my hands? I'd like to hear about your spring cleaning ritual for your car. Do you wax it yourself? Do you pay a porter to do the cleanup for you? How do you clean out the underbelly beyond a run through an automatic washer?

I need a catchy title for a spring dinner fundraiser

special-k — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:09:06 -0800

Help me come up with a name for a spring fundraiser dinner for a farm alliance I’m helping a friend organize a dinner fundraiser for a farm coalition and I need to come up with a catchy name [think spring, organic, local, earthy…]. The dinner will be in May and held at an organic farm in northern California [if the setting helps inspire ideas]. Suggestions, anyone?
Thanks!

Help me remember a physics website.

nile_red — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:53:44 -0800

Help me find an interesting website I've forgotten the name of. There was a website a while back that had masses and springs and you could create 'animals' or machines that would move but also make interesting sounds. I can't remember the name of it, and I want to use it in a physics course.

spring design

edtut — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 23:55:47 -0800

design and calcs of a helical torsion spring - how do i calculate the effect small design and production changes will have on the spring constant? i am trying to do some simple calcs on a small helical spring.it is a simple 3 coil spring in a light application with in-frequent cycles. it's coil size is around 22mm and wire diameter is around 1.25mm. the input force is onyl around 22N at a moment arm of 15mm.
the spring is used to resist or assist movement between two small actuating plastic levers.
i want to calculate the difference in the spring rate for a smaller wire diameter (1.2 or 1.0) and if i went to 2 winds instead of 3.
can anyone help with where i would start with the calcs, or send me to some freewear that might help me?
sorry for such a boring question!

When does Spring bloom in Washington, DC?

Dr.James.Orin.Incandenza — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:50:37 -0800

Historically, when is Spring in full bloom in Washington, DC? I have friends coming in from out west and would love to have them visit during that three to four week period that DC turns into a gigantic botanical garden. I've lived here for three years and seem to remember all this occurring in late April/early May (after the cherry blossom festival)...

Fellow DCists please respond, I need your validation...

How/where to rent a beach home when I'm only 21 years old?

boscord — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 18:21:09 -0800

How/where to rent a beach home when I'm only 21 years old? I am looking to set up spring break plans for some well-behaved students somewhere along the east cost, but cannot find a rental service that would rent a beachfront home to those under 25 y/o. Any help/experience/services you could provide? Looking to travel to the Carolinas, Florida; something nice and fairly low key.

The prices I'm seeing now, they make me weep.

empyrean — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:23:22 -0800

So what are the other common big sales events/times besides Black Friday? Specifically after next March. We're moving cross-country March of next year. The move also coincides with a windfall of money that will be used to purchase the necessary items, so buying now and shipping it unfortunately won't work. We'll be getting new furniture (living room + bedroom), a big-screen LCD, kitchen items, etc. The old stuff that we're replacing is being sold, given away, or thrown out

I've never paid any attention to these trends, so please soothe my fragile consumer-ego and tell me that post-Christmas prices will linger long into Spring and there's some fantastic seasonal sale that happens. Lying is encouraged, as long as it involves bears.