Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with tips

In Portland, OR for a week with a toddler. What shouldn't I miss?

mmc — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:33:26 -0800

We're going to Portland for a week-long vacation (and maybe a moving trial run) in a few days. We've visited before, but this time we're taking our 2-year-old daughter, and I wanted to ask if there are any great toddler friendly destinations or day trips that we shouldn't miss. Any tips on kid-friendly restaurants and organic grocery shopping in NW Portland are also appreciated. It doesn't have to be a spectacular place. Just a nice neighborhood park with a cool play area would be good to hear about. Or a cool toy store - we saw Finnegan's last time, are there any other ones we should hit up?

Are there any great kid-friendly restaurants we should know about? I'm not talking chuck-e-cheese games, but if it has booth seating and is informal enough that a little loudness is OK, that's friendly enough.

We'll also be cooking while we're there, so any tips on where to shop for good organic groceries would be appreciated. I can find a Whole Foods, but if there's a local store that's better, I'd love to know.

CoffeFilter: What are your best tips to help quit drinking coffee?

Tevin — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:28:03 -0800

Did you kick your coffee-drinking habit? If so, how? You know how in Breaking Bad there are meth addicts who will take any kind of meth they can get their hands on, no matter how terrible it might be or what awful additives it might contain?

I'm like that with coffee. I will drink any kind, no matter what. If it's available I will drink it. Office coffee, church coffee, coffee I found on the sidewalk - it doesn't matter. It is brew and I must put it in me.

This has worked for much of my life but I am becoming less and less fond of myself in those few hours when I do not have a steady stream of java coursing through my veins.

In short: I become a complete and total asshole without coffee and I really don't like that.

I want to quit and I know I can. But I need your help!

I need to fill my bag with all your tricks so that when the cravings come (and boy I know they will come) I will have lots of new things to try to get me through the worst of it. Any advice is welcome!

Advice for the anxiously attached.

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:16:26 -0800

I'm in a great new relationship, yay! It's been about 4 months. I like her. She likes me. But I am a classic anxiously attached type, and I would like your advice on how to cope with the "omg what will I do when she figures out I'm a loser and she dumps me and why didn't she call last night and she seemed annoyed when I said that and omg what if she doesn't like me anymore" feeling. I know that I'm experiencing a cognitive/emotional glitch, and I don't act out by asking for lots of reassurance. Been there done that in other relationships, and I have a better handle on it now. However, when these thoughts and feelings arise, it's very uncomfortable, and I would like to enjoy myself more as I get to know her better. What are your tips/reading recommendations/mantras etc.? Let's leave therapy off the table for now.

Tip that!

Mach3avelli — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:20:37 -0800

I serve tables at a restaurant (California), and management (large corporate chain) insists we declare 18% tips on sales (whatever the outcome of the night) or face reprimand... The restaurant is apparently under close scrutiny by the IRS, and the response to take eyeballs off is to require employees to declare a minimum 18% tips every shift. Now, the law "requires" we declare 100% of our tips, but where it gets a little dicey arrives with tipping out. Bartenders, back waiters, and bussers. After I tip them out (fixed amount based on sales), I'll be lucky to retain a 15% take-home ratio (especially on crappy nights/weekends).

Management insists it's the law that ALL tips accrued (before tip out) is the amount I'm expected to declare. I mentioned I thought it was odd to be taxed on earnings I don't take home, and then to have that same cash doubly taxed when the next person down the line (busser, back waiter, etc.) has to declare tips themselves. I was told to look it up. I did, and the specifics don't seem to address this particular distinction (unless I missed it).

Anyway, "reprimand" includes getting written up and receiving limited sections and hours. I just care about making money, but I wanted to know what my specific rights are in this instance. I feel the employees are being "compelled" to declare more on most nights than we actually make, and I was curious about the legality of it all, specifically if what we're supposed to declare should reflect post or pre-tip out.

Help me put these things I did into resume language

BlahLaLa — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:54:31 -0800

Pimp My Resume: Mommy Edition. How can/should I describe these volunteer things I've done at my kid's schools on my resume? My kid's getting older and I'm trying to ramp up my freelance work, so I'm getting my resume all snazzied up. And I'm having trouble coming up with the proper way to spin these two things I've done as a parent volunteer:

-- At School A, I founded their first-ever e-newsletter. Used the Constant Contact system. Wrote the damned thing every week, collecting info from all concerned parties, like administration, PTA and teachers. Devised a system to collect the email addresses of school staff and parents. Helped the administration see what a great thing this newfangled form of communication is. Distributed it to an audience of about 500+. Basically made it all happen singlehandedly. (This all happened over one year; three years later it's still going strong without me.)

-- At School B, I took their moribund Facebook page and made it into a very effective part of the school's communication plan. The first part was a solid year of lobbying the administration, convincing them that FB wasn't something to be feared, which took a patient, slow-and-steady approach, getting buy-ins from people at various levels. Went from just a couple hundred friends to over 1000. Devised a content strategy to ensure that important info is communicated but that nothing ever makes the school/admin look bad or compromises student privacy. I am the sole administrator/moderater of the page, responding to all comments and messages. I post every day, have gotten creative with it, figured out which posts people engage with, etc. I hear every week from some random person or another how helpful the page is in terms of knowing what's going on at school and feeling connected as a community.

If it matters, the rest of the (actual, paid) work I've done in the last 10 years since my kid was born has all been in the category of wordsmithing -- copy editing, writing marketing copy, stuff like that.

Two professionals working together; who do I tip?

not that girl — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:39:03 -0800

Getting a photo shoot that is a package deal; photographer has let me know that I should be ready to pay her and the makeup/hairstylist separately. Do I tip the stylist? I am having a pin-up shoot done tomorrow; it's a package deal booked through the photographer and hair and makeup are included. The photographer has let me know that if I want to pay by check, I should be prepared to write separate checks to her and the stylist. Now I feel like it's a tipping dilemma. It has never occurred to me to tip a photographer for an in-studio session, and if it were set up so that I paid the whole fee to her, it probably wouldn't have occurred to me to add a tip. But I do normally tip a hairstylist, and since I now know that I'm paying the stylist directly, it seems in keeping with that practice to tip her. But in that case, it seems odd not to tip the photographer, especially since she'll be providing some minor pieces for my costume from her stock.

Thoughts?

Pimp my instagram

dinosaurprincess — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 18:13:16 -0800

Pro tips or tutorials on taking A Beautiful Mess style photos please. I am wondering how to take pretty girly blog type photos looking at those from blogs like a beautiful mess or more artsy vintage ones like these.
I am going to start off with using my Samsung galaxy phone but I have a Canon G9 at my disposal... My brother has a DLSR which is happy to lend me. I am a complete beginner and was hoping for your pro-tips on lighting, composition, things like shutter speed and aperture and ISO, or any photography tutorials you might know of that are useful for taking stylish (rather than technically well-done but stock photo style) photographs because google mainly directs me to those.

Thanks =)

What are your best painless tips for saving money?

bq — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:21:50 -0800

What are your best tips for saving money in ways that don't impact your quality of life and don't require much effort? I'm talking about things like: cut the dryer sheets in half, get twice as much out of a single box, impact on quality of laundry = 0, effort = nearly 0.

F'ing gas stoves, how do they work?

Neneh — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 08:02:22 -0800

After burning my second pot and almost poisoning myself by not quite turning the knob off, it's clear that I need remedial gas stove cooking classes. This question is a great start but I need more tips for Gas Stove Cooking 101. Stuff like how it's different from cooking on an electric stovetop, rules of thumb, science facts, safety tips (I'm a klutz), etc.

Tips and Tricks for playing concerts?

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:08:12 -0800

I have a big important concert that I'm playing coming up sort of soon. I'm not even sure what to ask... but here goes. I have a big important concert that I'm playing coming up sort of soon. I'm not even sure what to ask... but here goes - what happens during soundcheck? Between soundcheck and playing, especially when it's hours between? Do places ever let you go over your allotted time slot if you are the headliner? Is there anything I should do with regard to the venue management or anything? What's the best practice for selling things like CDs and posters outside after the show? What's an acceptable price per song for a demo EP? What about bracelets? 8x11 posters? How can I put on the best show (I have things down musically) possible, sell things outside the best possible, make the best impression on the crowd and the venue? What should I bring that I might forget - capos, cords, wires, water, picks, what else? As my last question, what's the best way to attempt to get good video and audio of this show on one singular device - i.e. no boom mics will be happening. Like camera, videocamera, iSomething. Help please? Thank you much.

Need iOS help. Hope me!

Admiral Haddock — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:10:15 -0800

I've used iPhones for five years or so now, but there are a few things that bug me, and I wonder if there is a trick or preference I'm missing or a third-party app I can use or what. No interest in jailbreaking or switching phones. Specific questions inside. I've loved my iPhones, but there are a few things I'd like to be able to do. Again, no interest in jailbreaking or switching to Android, etc.

1. Autocomplete suggestions / different suffixes. If I'm tapping out a word, is there a way to nudge the autocomplete suggestion to use a different suffix? For example, say I want to type "antagonized," and when I type "antag" iOS suggests "antagonizing." Right now, I might just accept the autocomplete and then delete the "ing" and type "ed"--in this case, it's the same number of taps to accept the word and delete and retype as it is to type "onized"--but I'd rather just given the choice of word in the first place. Autocomplete will learn to suggest a word, but my complaint is not limited to my commonly used words. I get different suggestions if I misspell a word, but not for different suffixes of a partial word.

2. More than just song name on lock screen. I have a lot of music, and I don't always recognize the name of a song--I need the artist and album. Even with tracks that have album art displayed, there are times when the art doesn't help. Is there really no way to add the artist and album to the lock screen?

3. Stopping websites from asking me to download their apps. If I go to IMDB, I have to click through a splash screen that asks me to download the IMDB app. On other sites, I get a little floater at the bottom of the screen that asks me to either download their app or save them to my homescreen. Please make it stop.

4. One touch settings switches. Is there any way to put a button on my home screen to toggle attributes selected in the settings app? For instance, if I want to turn off wi-fi (which I do often due to bad wi-fi in my apartment), I have to tap settings, tap wi-fi, then tap the on/off toggle. I would love a button on my home screen that just toggles wi-fi on and off. But not just wi-fi--I'd love to be able to do this for airplane mode, different levels of brightness, etc.--I'd like this to be customizable. Any ideas?

All this is on an ATT iPhone 5 running iOS 6.01 (10A525).

Help me be a better runner.

thank you silence — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 13:38:24 -0800

Help me be a better runner. After years of despising running, something has clicked within my brain and suddenly I can stomach the idea of running enough to have signed up for a 10k which I have been training for, and which I feel confident I can complete. I have done a few 5ks and a mud run before, plus I do crossfit regularly, but I've always secretly hated running.

Now, something funny is happening...I kinda look forward to my runs instead of dreading them. I'm getting stronger for sure. I'm picturing myself doing more 10ks, half marathons, even a marathon at some point, which sounds like an impossibility, but somehow as I plod the pavement, slogging up a hill, I think maybe it can happen.

What are your best tips and tricks for training? Do you ever feel yourself getting bored while on a long run, and if so how do you combat this? What phrases do you chant to yourself when you feel like your legs are made of rubber and you just want to stop but don't? And as a bonus, what is your favorite music to listen to? I use Pandora on my iPhone and listen exclusively to dubstep, which keeps me in rhythm and puts me in sort of a trance, however I am wide open to suggestions. Thanks in advance!

NYC bars/restaurants that don't pay their workers via tips?

suedehead — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 07:35:25 -0800

Are there any restaurants or bars in NYC that pay their workers with proper, decent wages, rather than with tips? I've always been against the pay-employees-lower-than-minimum-wage-and-let-them-earn-tips system that the US continues to support. After seeing this image via a post on Reddit, I started thinking pretty hard about trying my best to support a better system.

I'm currently traveling abroad in a place where tips rarely exist, whether in restaurants or bars or anywhere else. As a result, I can be (relatively) confident that the workers are being paid with regular, stable wages, rather than leaving the worker's wages up to the fickle attitudes and moods of each individual customer.[1] Not only is this unstable for the worker, it also creates a pretty class-based system where the customer feels like he/she is "rewarding" the worker for 'good service'. I live in New York, which is restaurant/bar central, and thus also want to support businesses that feel the same way.

I'm therefore looking for places that don't accept tips, or don't pay their workers with primarily tips.

Obviously places like a food cart or a to-go-coffee shop, where tips are optional rather than 'semi-mandatory' don't really count. I am looking for, say, a sit-down restaurant that always has a mandatory service charge, no matter the size of the group. But any place that has exceptionally good working/labor practices is welcomed also!

Thanks, AskMe!

1. Of course, the question of whether or not the workers' wages are high enough is another question entirely.

How can I make my eyes brighter and less tired-looking?

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:04:36 -0800

How do I make the area around my eyes look softer and younger? I have genetics, Lasik complications and sinus issues working against me. I'm a 38 year old male, recently divorced. I'm trying to get re-accustomed to dating. It's hard. I'm not used to analyzing my appearance much and I think I've aged fairly well. I do have an issue with the area around my eyes that would be nice to treat somehow.

Basically since having LASIK about a decade ago, I've been light-sensitive and my eyes have been very dry. As a result, they create more tears artificially which just makes them look glassy and squinty. I believe that sinus issues have helped make them look puffy with black circles most of the time too.

Those things combined with being almost 40, I feel like I look more tired that I am, even after a good night's sleep. It makes me less confident, which affects my concentration talking to women, and so on.

Any suggestions based on personal experience would be great to hear, thanks!

LA travel tips!

deathpanels — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:58:01 -0800

I'm going to LA in a week. What are some things I should see or do? "Off the beaten path" tips encouraged! Some details:
- I am traveling with my partner.
- We will be there just short of a week.
- We are staying at an Air BnB around Echo Park.
- We are trying to live cheaply, but are totally down with splurging on a few meals/events if they are worth it.
- We are museum people, especially weird/rare art exhibits.
- We don't eat meat.
- Yes, we are renting a car.
- I like hiking, cycling. My partner however dislikes being outside for longer than two hours.

Best tips and advice for a sewing beginner?

mireille — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 12:20:37 -0800

Sewing-filter: Top 5 tips for a beginner working on my first real project from a pattern? Bonus question: can I do this? Pep talks welcome. I'm about to start my first ever project-- this reversible apron. I could use some tips before I get started. If you're relatively experienced at sewing, what would be the top five tips the now-you would give to the earlier-you before you began your first project?

Here's what I can do:
Reliably thread the machine, wind the bobbin, iron, and sew a reasonably straight line. I've practiced on scraps of fabric and I've also made this practice apron out of a sheet which came out pretty well.

That's it.

Here's what I have:
Beginner's machine (Brother), appropriate amounts of (beautiful!) fabric, coordinating thread, seam ripper, good scissors, pattern and written instructions with some (but not many) pictures and drawings.
Also: lots of motivation (and quite a bit of apprehension).

Here's what I'm missing:
Rotary cutter/mat (not an option just yet), chalk something-or-other to mark with, sewing skills and pattern-following experience.

Given these details, what should I know? What are your top beginner's tips? Also-- can I even do this in the first place?

Baby tips for car-free biking couple in Washington DC?

tkbarbarian — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:00:46 -0800

We're Brits in Washington DC about to have our first baby! We have bicycles but don't own a car (use Zipcar / taxis). All the standard baby-prep advice seems to assume owning a car... so do you guys have any tips for car-free baby living? In particular: car seats (for occasional use / quick installation), diaper services and bike trailers? Details inside! Key questions:

1) My hospital requires me to have a "rear facing infant car seat" installed in "my car" to bring my kid home. I don't own a car but will likely take a taxi home - which car seats / legal baby-transport means do you folks recommend? All the ones I've seen are heavy, and have giant bases that are intended to be left in the car.

In general, what's the "correct" way to take a taxi with a newborn baby?

2) I'd like to get a bike trailer / stroller combo - something like a Burley D'Lite with the jogger wheel at the front. I'm told you can install an infant carseat into one of these (like a Chicco Keyfit 30) - is this a good idea? Any tips on this too?

3) Recommended diaper services for newborns? We'd like to use cloth / washable diapers but I don't have any recommendations for companies serving the Dupont circle area.

Thanks!

Day-drinking hacks: Would like to avoid 1) passing out at 5, or 2) feeling suicidal the next day. Tell me what I haven't thought of...

lovableiago — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:41:10 -0800

I know how to treat a hangover but am trying to do one better--how do you PREVENT a hangover (when you get them really easily and know that a day of fun might make it inevitable)? I am getting together with some old friends this weekend--we are meeting up in the morning and there will inevitably be drinking and merriment throughout the day. We are friends from college so when we get a rare reunion we often fall back into old habits as far as imbibing, but were now in our late 20's and definitely can't handle our booze like we used to. SO, while we plan on doing our best to keep the drinking to an absolute minimum, knowing that enthusiasm and friendly peer pressure might take over at some point I am looking for any strategies, tips, or strange I-never-would-have-thought-of-that tricks you might have discovered at some point in your life to avoid 1) passing out by 5 o'clock, and/or 2) feeling suicidal the next day in this scenario.

We plan on starting with brunch, which will likely include mimosas and/or bloody marys. For the rest of the day we're going to various events around the city and probably bar-hopping in between (so alternately walking around and sitting for long periods).

The only two I can really think of are drinking water in between drinks and 'don't mix', but I'm also looking for stuff along the lines of (totally making these up here) "Eat bacon at brunch instead of something carby" or "Eat some toast with peanut butter and bananas before drinking" or "Have a bloody mary instead of mimosas, it will be easier to move to liquor later in the day" or "Try to sit for a while after you finish a drink instead of getting up and walking around, you won't get drunk as fast" or "Drink room temperature water in between instead of ice water" or "Avoid coffee" "Avoid spicy food" or "Drink a quart of pineapple juice and do 30 jumping-jacks halfway through the day" or "Keep your body warm" OR "Keep your body cool"....haha, I'm not sure, I may be asking the impossible here but at least I'm thinking ahead, right?

I'm not looking for answers to the tune of "Don't drink at all". This is a special occasion and that would be totally unreasonable. We're all healthy, intelligent, responsible adults and are by no means lushes--it's just a rare occasion where you get to spend the whole day with old friends and cut loose a bit, so I'd like to make the most of it but am really trying to minimize damage, you know? I'd like to somehow outsmart that little goblin that seems to take up residence in everyone's livers around their 25th birthday and henceforth causes them to get hangovers after 2 beers (which is basically what happens to me at this point). :/ Many thanks in advance.

Can making a tiered tipping system ever be ethical?

_superconductor — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 03:57:26 -0800

Is it ethical for employers and managers to tier the tips of servers and bar staff as a means of creating an "incentive" programme? Hey Mefites!
So recently, the small café that I work at in the UK has implemented a new tipping policy that pools all tips at the end of the month and then tiers them, so that the newer employees get less while the employees who have been working there longer get more. The idea is that by placing the newer employees on a probationary period with tips, we are increasing their incentive to work harder.
However, this idea is problematic for this café because all of the "newer" employees have already been working there for 2 months or more, and all the employees with more experience are managers. This means the "newer" employees will be handling the majority of customer service without seeing any financial benefit from it.
As I'm not familiar with the service industry in the UK, is this something that is even remotely ethical for an employer to do? I have spoken to most of the employees and even the older ones seem to agree that this policy is ridiculous, especially when wages are already minimum.
We all really love working at this space and would hate to leave, so if this is in fact unethical, are there any measures I can take to make sure this doesn't happen? Is there anything I can say to the owner that might change his mind?

Thanks so much for your input!

What's the quickest way to code this data?

lollusc — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:32:20 -0800

I have an Excel spreadsheet with just over 3000 sentences in column A. I need to go through looking at each one and entering some data into columns B-F. The first thing I have to enter is whether the sentence is in the past tense or present tense. If it is past tense, I can ignore it and not have to enter anything in columns C-F. I just move on to the next sentence. Is it going to be quicker if I go through the whole spreadsheet filling out column B first (past/present) and then do a second pass to fill out the rest of the details for the present tense sentences, or quicker to do it all at once for each sentence? Or is it a wash? The features in the other columns are each things that can take a second's thought to decide on, but no more than that. For example "Is the subject a pronoun?"; "Is the verb a form of the verb to be?", etc.

Any other tips for speeding this up would be appreciated. I've already arranged my columns in optimum order, I think, through a bit of trial and error.

(Incidentally, this needs to be extremely accurate, so I can't just program in an algorithm to reduce my sentences by weeding out anything with e.g. "he" followed by a word ending in "-ed". I tried various more complicated versions of this - they all had too many errors - both false positives and false negatives. And the language is a non-standard dialect, conversational and colloquial, so I'm not having luck with automating things like subject identification either. I'd appreciate it if this doesn't turn into a discussion about that sort of automation and just assumes I'm going to be doing it all by hand.)

How have you gamified your life?

inbetweener — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 09:06:08 -0800

How have you gamified your life? Currently, I am addicted to Guild Wars 2, but I've been there with many of the other usual suspects in the past.

I want to know how you have taken the magic ingredients that make games so addictive and used them to keep you motivated to make progress in specific aspects of your life, including the really mundane things like housework.

I've googled this, obviously, and looked at a sites like Nerd Fitness but they are a little too abstract on how you set the micro-goals to ensure that constant "just this one more quest" feeling that keeps you going until you reach Elite.

So, I want to know what you have personally gamified, and what tricks made it work for you. Any hidden gems also appreciated (e.g. for me duolingo.com has transformed the way I learn languages with effective gamification).

It's a spider poop remover AND a dessert topping!

Toekneesan — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 09:15:11 -0800

Do you have any recommendations for the tough job of removing spider poop from vinyl siding? We have a nice big porch and it's lit by a string of lights on a timer. The lights can make it popular with bugs and the bugs are popular with spiders so under the roof, spiders tend to live and feed. This inevitably seems to lead to these smeary spots under their webs. I figure it's spider poop, but I suppose it could just be spilled insect innards. Anyway it's a bothersome chore to scrub. Any suggestions for quick and easy removal? Colors seem to range from white to red to brown to black. Is this poop and why is it so hard to clean? Tips and tricks?

Bleach... Noooooooo!

outlandishmarxist — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:28:16 -0800

How do I negate or minimize the effects of bleach on my clothes? I work in a bar, and at the end of the shift, we have to put bleach down the drains. When I'm tired and not paying attention, I sometimes get some splash back, which has left large bleach stains on a couple pairs of pants that I'm very fond of. Is there a way to fix this?

Quotes, Tips, Facts of the Day RSS Feeds

matthelm — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:14:11 -0800

Best sites for Quote of the day rss feeds... Any ideas? I am looking for inspirational quotes of the day, or tips of the day, ideas of the day, facts of the day kind of rss feeds that I can throw into google reader... any ideas for good sites that have worked for you? When you do a search online there are so many sites for this kind of things but most of them seem full of ads or seem like they might not be updating anymore.... your help would be highlay appreciated!

I before E except after an odd number. Uh...

andrewcilento — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:50:25 -0800

What financial rules do you follow that you'd suggest to others? I spent most of last year paying down several years' worth of credit card debt. I've spent most of this year trying to put myself into position to ensure I'm never in that position again.

I had the idea a few days ago to create a list of rules for myself to follow. Some of them I've cribbed from other people; some of them are just common sense. Either way, I tend to do well when I have some kind of standard to hold myself too.

While I'm putting this together, I thought I'd come on here and see if the hive mind has anything that I might not have thought of. I'm not necessarily talking about things like "save 3-6 months' expenses and don't touch it unless there's an emergency" or "spend less than you earn and invest the difference" or anything that's more commonly known, though there's nothing wrong with those and I don't mind hearing them again.

By way of example, there was this story going around a couple years ago about a woman who saves every five dollar bill she gets. I did this for a year and it does add up pretty quickly.

Whatcha got for me, guys and gals?

(Please note: I realllllllly don't want to turn this into a debate over the relative merits of Idea A vs. Idea B. I'm sure it won't become that.)