Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with tricks

Simple Magic Tricks anyone?

AzzaMcKazza — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:02:59 -0800

I am in need of some new simple magic tricks capable of impressing young children and inebriated adults. So I've worked in childcare for around 8 years now and I've gathered a simple set of magic tricks that I've found win the attention and interest of the very young. I've been using these for awhile now and I've found that at least one of the tricks is capable of winning over even the toughest and most disinterested under-5. The problem is that I've done the shtick so much that I've grown bored of my own routine - regardless of how much I amaze a new audience.

My shtick consists of three classics...

The Old "Oooh look I can take my thumb off" Grandpa trick

The "Check it out I can stick a pencil up my nose, and out of my mouth and in my ear and out my mouth and in my eye " gag - Best used for over fives. Though in my history I've only had one kid try to copy me ( I stopped him in time). Nowadays I just tell the kids that they need to go to Hogwarts to learn how to do it and they must never, ever try the trick until they have.

and

The Amazing "Check it out I have a coin/rock/piece of lego in my hand, I've grabbed it with my other hand and "Wowee" it's disappeared" routine. - Very simple, but amazingly effective. Works on adults too.

So....Does anyone know of any other very simple prop (or not) based magic that is easy to learn and easy to impress? Surely there must be some cheeky Magical Mefites out there?

I could almost handle the headaches, but I can I handle the stupids?

onshi — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:33:31 -0800

Tips & tricks for adapting to the side effects of Topamax (topiramate) for a full-time office worker & part-time grad student? I have been dealing with chronic migraines for about ten years, and have tried a number of preventative drug therapies during that time (elavil, flunarizine, propranolol) with limited success. Recently another disruptive health issue cropped up, which spurred me to try to get the migraines under control.

I am now a few weeks into a daily dose of Topamax.

Some of the much-discussed (on AskMe and elsewhere) side effects have already become apparent, most notably:

Difficulty with attention / concentration - last week there were at least two days where I accomplished almost literally nothing at work. I continually zoned out for quarter- to half-hour periods, and had trouble thinking clearly even when I did remain on-task for more than a few minutes at a time. Although this did provide some useful insight into my partner's not-always-so-wonderful-world of living with ADHD, I probably cannot justify trading sick days at home with migraine for zombie days at work on "Dopamax" for too long.

Clumsiness / ataxia / psychomotor slowing - terminologically, I'm not sure how to differentiate between these, but at any rate, I'm much more of a klutz than usual. I had been walking carefully on a torn medial meniscus since May while awaiting an MRI and (maybe) surgery, but since the Topamax my knee has been very sore due to countless stumbles and mis-steps. One slip was bad enough that I was walking with a cane for stability for two days afterwards, and I was almost tempted to keep doing so just for the added sense of security. I'm normally a brisk walker, and on top of the cognitive side effects it feels like adding insult to injury that I should have to shuffle along in physical space as well as in my mental environment.

Communication - both in written and verbal form... even simple sentences come out mangled, and I've been producing the most egregious typos -- e.g. "licidiouse" for "delicious" -- and completely mixing up word order to the point of utter nonsense without noticing (with that in mind, I apologize if my sixth proofread doesn't catch all of the errors in this post). At school, I have had to drop one of the two courses I was taking this term because the prospect of full participation in a grad-level seminar was too much to bear right now; as it is, I had to revert to a 'behind the scenes' preparatory role for a group debate for fear of making an ass of myself in front of a tutorial tonight.

Getting to the point, my question for anyone who has taken Topamax or another drug with similar side effects is: what strategies were you able to emplyo successfully to mitigate these (or other) impacts on your life? I know that it will only be possible to 'push back' against the drug to a certain extent, and that I will ultimately have to decide if its effectiveness versus migraine (if any!) is worth the cost, but at this point I'm trying to remain optimistic and gather whatever tools I can.

Thanks.

Mindhack me into a smooth interviewer (in four hours).

anthropomorphic — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:10:24 -0800

I'm an unemployed third-year law student, have my last interview in four hours. Any tricks on appearing intelligent, charismatic, and, most importantly, not desperate? Have had four interviews with different employers so far, have not heard anything back. This is my last shot at employment before I go back to desperately combing job listings. Interview is with a judge in a district I've never lived in, who is of the opposite political persuasion as I am. This will be my first of this type of interview so give me your all-purpose i'm-the-right-person-for-this-job tricks.

EASY secrets of taking great photos

JensR — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:31:34 -0800

What are your favourite photographer's tricks that an amateur could use to create stunning photos on a hobbyist budget? As a hobbyist DSLR photographer, I find that once in a while, I stumble across some simple little trick-of-the-trade that instantly makes my photos much better... and it is these little "Wow!" moments that keep me motivated to keep shooting and learning.

I am not talking about expensive studio rigs here, or vague lifelong lessons ("learn about composition and color theory", "know your camera"). I am specifically talking about the low-hanging fruit that a low-budget amateur photographer like me could apply and see an instant difference.

If there are any photographers out there who have experienced the same kind of "Wow!" moment after trying out some new technique or equipment, please share your best suggestions in this thread.

Traditional-schmaditional

owtytrof — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:49:42 -0800

RecipeFilter: Seafood stew stumper! A local Italian restaurant serves a fantastic bowl of cioppino, which I would like to try to replicate at home. The problem is that the dish I'm trying to make is not cooked in the traditional tomato and garlic broth, which is all I can find via Google, but a creamy lemon butter version.

I'm fairly handy in the kitchen, and not afraid of improvisation, but I need a starting point. Any tips, ideas, or actual recipes for this apparently rare version of cioppino would be greatly appreciated!

In hot pursuit of clever pursuits

np312 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:24:58 -0800

Any clever ideas (based on truth, fiction or anecdote) of how a resourceful character might potentially track down someone who's fled the country? For a story I'm writing: a father leaves the country in haste via plane. The following day, his exceptionally clever and estranged son wants to find out where he went, and as a civilian, only has access to his father's property and computer. What are some clever ways the son might track down the father?

I'm thinking more than one trick, but several in a row (A leads to B leads to C type deals.) But one really smart one would do.

I myself am not exceptionally clever, and though I imagine the son could sort through his father's garbage cans to find receipts of purchase, check a google cache to see where the plane ticket was purchased for and hotel reservations, etc. But I am hoping for something more interesting and challenging than that.

To clarify, I'm looking for something along the lines of, having the son see the indentations on a memo pad underneath where the father had written a phone number for a hotel, the son dusts it with some chili powder or something to "reveal" the phone number that was pressed into the bottom sheet. But I suspect that trick's been used a million times already, and it seems like a bit of a stretch.

I don't watch cop shows so I'm not well versed in this stuff, therefore I am mining the hive mind. What interesting tracking methods, that don't involve the police or super technology, might a clever but regular Joe use to track someone who doesn't know he's being followed?

Many thanks.

New road warrior looking for the tricks of the trade.

wile e — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:24:53 -0800

New road warrior here! Looking for sites, blogs, toys etc that all you other road warriors use to help ease myself into this lifestyle. With my new position, I will be traveling around two weeks per month flying mostly. All international flights, so not many short runs. I know the usual jazz, drinks lots of water, get up and exercise every hour or two, etc etc. What I'm looking for are the tricks, the websites, the toys that make it easier.

Thanks to all who can offer any help!

A trick is something a whore does for money. Or CANDY!

disillusioned — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:40:56 -0800

MagicFilter: How best to shoot sparks from your hand? There's an episode of How I Met Your Mother where Barney shoots sparks out from his hand and catches them with his other hand, to reveal what he guesses the person he's showing's reaction will be.

This cracked me up. More importantly, I thought how dorkyawesome it'd be to shoot sparks like that.

I've found a Funken Ring online, but the Youtube videos make it look unwieldy and woefully underpowered. (Specifically because it shoots out sparks that Barney "catches" with his other hand.)

I can't find a YouTube clip of him doing so, but it looks real enough and I can't imagine that they're CGIing the sparks... so, ideas?

How to I get my Outlook contacts under control?

colecovizion — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:00:49 -0800

How to I get my Outlook contacts under control? I've never been a fan of how any version of Outlook handles its contacts, from the funky autocomplete in email to the tediousness of making mass edits to many contacts.

Concerning Outlook 2007...

* Is there any way to easily make a change to a particular field and apply it to many contacts without having to go into each one individually?
* Is there a way to directly connect the autocomplete when entering an email address to my contacts rather than the funky cache? For example, Apple Mail and Gmail do this.
* Is there a a way to make a "smart" group of contacts based on specific criteria?
* What other tips, tricks, tools do you have for managing contacts?

Thanks!

Tips and tricks for Chicken Pox

B(oYo)BIES — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:24:42 -0800

Chicken Pox, or not? Also, what tricks or tips have you learned in your experiences with Chicken Pox? So far, they are mostly along her right side. There are what look to be a couple on her leg, and a handful on her arm, but most of them seem to be on her right side, from her armpit to her hip.

From checking images on the web, they look similar to Chicken Pox, but I am interested in knowing if it could be a rash, or if anybody has any other insight to what this may be.

Also, please give me any advice, tricks, or tips you may have on Chicken Pox.

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Brevity is the soul of wit, which is funny, because it reminds me of this short joke I heard a few months ago...

contessa — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:17:24 -0800

How can I be less long-winded? I have a tendency to go on and on, especially with written things (like emails, reports, Mefi comments...) but also in spoken communication too. If I realize what I'm doing while I am doing it, I start to self-edit and get to the point. That switch in my brain doesn't always fire. Part of it, I suppose, is that I don't want to leave anything important out. Getting there can sometimes be like telling an epic saga, I swear.

I don't want to be the boring/rude person who doesn't know when to shut up. Do you have any tricks or tips to keeping it brief?

Office Wizard

jasondigitized — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:35:31 -0800

What's your favorite technique for getting things done in the office. Answers to this question can span the topics of communication, psychology, politics, organization, time management, technology, etc. For example, I read a technique employed by a famous someone ( can't remember who ), who, without reviewing someone's work, would immediately fire back the question "Is this your best work?", saving his time, and motivating his staff to do better. I stay organized by using Gmail to tag project emails by sending them to 'jasondigitized+projectname@gmail.com'. I have seen a project manager use sticky notes to organize projects with great success. My boss will purposely posit incorrect assumptions in emails which tend to increase response rates. A coworker usually follows up his emails with phone calls to ensure the message was received and understood. What means have you seen, or employ, that make things happen in your cubicle, office, or corner suite?

Are there dirty tricks?

gadha — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:48:15 -0800

Is it true about dirty tricks being played in the US elections? Watching the US election on the BBC last night one interviewed woman was talking about how in some areas leaflets were being distributed saying that republicans vote on the day of the election and democrats the day after, and in others signs that if you had an outstanding warrant you could get arrested there.

Is this sort of thing true? If so who does it and why isn't it being stopped?

Service Dog in Training

TauLepton — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:05:24 -0800

What "tricks" would you teach a Service Dog? My daughter's Service Dog is in training through the Colorado Correctional Institute (CCI). The dog is to help her stand when her chemo makes it too difficult to do so on her own. He also knows how to retrieve objects for her and bring things to her. Otherwise, he is allowed to socialize while "on duty".

CCI has asked if there are any "tricks" we'd like the dog to know. This is with the intention to make the dog more approachable to other children at our Oncology Clinic and allow my three-year-old to easily introduce her dog to others.

What tricks have you seen a dog perform that would be good for this purpose?

tricks

Knigel — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:31:15 -0800

Teach me or help me find fun tricks to entertain my friends. I'm looking for any kind of trick, specifically psychology ones. Anything "magic" and fun or even just plain silly. I currently have a few tricks but would like to extend my knowledge.

A few that I know now are:

-Blowing mysterious steam out of my mouth (condensing the air with pressure)
-Asking people the colour of white objects and then asking what cows drink (they usually say water)
-Writing down 7 and then asking them to think of a number (usually 7)
-Two coins on a shot glass of which the other person should pick up and drink from without touching the glass (the coins touch the glass)
-placing chopsticks in weird patterns and asking what number. (the number is in my fingers, not the chopsticks.)

I have more but I want to see what other ones you all have

Bodyhacks

bobobox — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:39:32 -0800

I am looking for experiments, useful tricks, and fun things to try out, using my biological cycles, chemistry and anatomy. I recently reset my day/night cycle to combat jet lag after a long flight using information from this thread and knowledge of my circadian rhythm and the experience was SUPER satisfying to me. Whenever I need to sneeze and don't want to at that moment, I can get rid of it by pressing my tongue into my soft pallet, interfering with some facial nerve, I suppose. I am eager to try out other bodyhacks but I can't think of any more.

I found this article on Men'sHealth.com which has some good stuff in it but not quite what I am looking for.

I am most interested in: the useful, complex, or grand, along the lines of clock reseting
I am less interested in, but am open to: gimmicky tricks of the anatomy, along the lines of the sneeze example.

I am willing to use: supplements (used melatonin to help reset my clock), diet, my environs, and of course, my senses, anatomy and anything in it.
I am not willing to use: illegal drugs, anything I have to spend a lot of money on, ideally I should already possess everything I need to do it

I am female so if you know of any that are gender specific I will only be able to do things that require two X chromosomes. But feel free to contribute XY suggestions for the sake of completeness.

If you have suggestions, please also give the scientific explanation of how it works.

Guides/tricks for my new DSLR?

meerkatty — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:55:24 -0800

Please help me use my new DSLR camera. Are there guides/tricks for specific cameras online? I took a course today on how to use my new Canon Rebel xti, which came with a handy password protected guide online. (The guide was far superior to the camera manual - with explanations of when and why you would use a certain function, complete with photo examples.) The course was a little basic for my needs but I can't take the more advanced part of the course for a few months. Are there guides along these lines available online?

Big bonus points for anyone who has the password for Henry's School of Imaging Canon xti Part 2 guide.

How can do I do those crazy card tricks?

jasonspaceman — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:47:31 -0800

I've recently been enamored by card tricks that appear to be magic. Can anyone suggest reputable teachers/mentors and study guides?

Streamline a conversation

colecovizion — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:49:54 -0800

Outlook Cleaning/Archive Gurus: Help me eliminate emails with similar (but not duplicate) content! I'm having a hard time finding a way to automate the search and deletion of emails with similar content. I have a manual process that I'm trying to automate.

The method: Every time an email is responded to, the full text is usually retained from the previous response.

Example (without attachments):

* Person #1 sends email
* Person #2 replies to email (includes the first email's full text)
* Person #1 replies to email (includes the first two emails)

Why not just keep the latest response in the conversation and any emails that have unique attachments? This way, you can reduce the Outlook size without compromising any data! Of course, this gets more complex with multiple recipients and responses.

The setup: Let's assume 1000 emails are in 1 giant archive folder. These emails include my sent email and my received email that are ready for archiving. Hence, my manual process....

* Sort by conversation (more often than not, the email text in the body is duplicated each time there is a response)
* Delete the oldest emails within a conversation UNLESS there is a unique attachment or unique text that isn't already in a newer email

In a world without attachments, this would usually keep the most current email in the conversation (which has all of my replies and their replies).

I know this is a very specific request, however, I think this method is pretty snazzy (to blow my own horn here) because it keeps all the unique information and it eliminates the duplicate information. Hence, smaller backups and better searches.

Any guidance is appreciated! Also if you have any Outlook email tricks please post for all to see!

Show Me the Way

cloeburner — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:25:30 -0800

What are some ways to tell the direction [North, East, South, West] you are headed? And more generally, what are some cool nature tricks you've learned through the years? I know of ones such as looking at where the moss is growing or where the sun is relative to the time of day, but there must be tons of direcitonal tips that I do not know. It would be great to hear of them, even ones that only apply to certain localities.

Additionally, nature tricks would be great to know as I set out into the great expanse. I know neat things like making whistles out of acorn tops and other semi-useful miscellany, but the more you know the better!

Perhaps a zine could come of all this information.

Can you please suggest pranks, stunts, and tricks that fall under the category of "physical challenges"?

chr1sb0y — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:56:54 -0800

Can you please suggest simple pranks, stunts, and tricks that fall under the category of "physical challenges"? For example: Offer 2 kids a piece of newspaper, and challenge them to find a way for both to stand on the paper at the same time, without ripping it, such that neither kid is able to touch the other. Answer: Slide the paper under a door; they stand on either side of the door. I know there must be whole books/websites/etc. of these out there, but I'm not finding them.

These are for use at a birthday party of 7-9 year olds.

I Can Haas Fast Ripened Avocado?

dancinglamb — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:36:16 -0800

Fastest way to ripen an avocado? I'm making Cobb Salad for lunch tomorrow for my inlaws. The only avocados I could find at the store were rock hard. I've got roughly 20hrs to get them to an edible consistency.

Googling around, I saw some theories on nuking them in the microwave for 30secs, brown paper bags, tops of refrigerators, apples, bananas, burying in flour (?!).

Help me Mefites. What's tried and true?

Oh, and if it makes a difference - I have them sitting on a windowsill, in a ziplock with some apples and very well ripened bananas. I figured it's better than nothing...

A new bag (of tricks)

jazzkat11 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:58:18 -0800

This dog needs a new trick. "I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts." - John Steinbeck

I'm looking for suggestions for a new trick, you know, for my dog. We've done all the standard ones, sit, etc. She even knows a couple of commands in other languages, just to add confusion. But I can tell that she is bored of all those tired, banal commands. Her eyes plead to me, 'Please teach me something new'. Either that or she needs to be walked.

What I'm looking for is something different. Routine? No. Practical? Possibly. Kitsch? Definitely. Think entertaining, different. I'm not looking to embarrass her at the doggy park and we're not going to enter synchronized doggy dance competitions, at least none that I would admit here.

Any suggestions are more than welcome. She's a 4 year old chocolate lab / german wire haired pointer mix, that is bright and energetic , if that helps.
Thx!

Looking for simple tricks that only kids under 8 appreciate.

jeremias — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:05:25 -0800

GoofyTricksForKidsFilter: Looking for simple tricks that only kids under 8 appreciate. They shouldn't require props, preferably none. Looking to add to my limited repertoire. You probably know the type of body tricks I mean, hard to explain in plain english :

The "removable thumb" trick: Tuck your thumb under index finger and place it next to your other hand. Hey look my thumb comes off!

Place both hands over nose and mouth, thumbs go inside and thumbnails are on edge of front teeth. Move your hands to left and right and synchronize the motion with the clicking of the thumbnails. Hey I'm breaking my nose repeatedly!

"Grab" one of your eyes, (as you really just close your eyelid). "Put" the eyeball in your mouth and move it around (really just using your tongue). Then "put" eye back. That's how I clean my eyes!

Please hurry with suggestions. My kids are getting older and they need skills on the playground.

HomeDecorFilter: How can I dye some curtains to very closely match my new walls?

littlerobothead — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:05:12 -0800

HomeDecorFilter: How can I dye some curtains to very closely match my new walls? I've recently began to paint my office a most excellent shade of apple green, not unlike the one seen here. My wife and I have been trying to find ideas for window treatments, and I think we want to do curtains—but white seems boring. Can I get Lowes to give me some of the pigment they used in the paint, and use it to dye some white tab top curtains? If that won't work, how the heck do I get curtains that will very closely match the walls, and is this even a good idea? The walls are apple green and all the trim is a nice, semi-gloss white. Realize this is more subjective than many questions that get asked here, but I need the hivemind's opinions!