Ask Me Anything

Welcome to Ask Me Anything, a community for asking, and answering, some of life's less Googleable questions.

If you're new, please check out the community profile. As with an empty swimming pool, there's just a few things we'd like you to be aware of before diving in head first.

Feel free to join us on our IRC channel - the chat channel details are in the profile page above. Mibbit and browser add-ins like ChatZilla are easy ways to get into it even for the non-tech-savvy!

22/05/12 Current Community Events and Info:

AMA PostSecret Big Reveal: here
Have you seen AMA's new (and entirely not original) regular feature? Check out Free For All Friday

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18266118

Highschool kid makes out with high school girl

Girl accuses him of rape

He is charged.

He enters a "no contest plea and serves 5 years.

She sues school and gets 1.5 million dollars.

He gets out and she contacts him on facebook say "Let bygones be bygones" and admits to lying about the rape.

He is then exonerated of the original charge.

What if anything should happen from here?

Have any of you gone through the Job Corps program?

What is your opinion of how well/bad it is?

what are some good blogs with vegan recipies?

Probably no one will answer this, but I figured it's worth a try. Has anyone here tried eating chia seeds? Did it help curb your appetite and make you less hungry? Did you have any negative effects from it?

Brought to you by a friend of mine talking them up but me never having heard of them being used in that way before.

What are your favorite meals that don't rely on breads/cereals in the morning?

I don't particularly care about "breakfast appropriate" foods (I'm currently plowing thru snap peas and seitan sauteed w lemon/garlic/mint) -- I'm just trying to kick my deep love of bagels, as they've begun to render my midsection a little bagel-like.

What were you afraid of as a child?

Did your parents threaten you with the boogeyman, the kukui cucuy, or Bloody Mary (or anything similar)?

Why do you think people like to sing? Especially if they know they're bad?

My dad used to tell me that I couldn't carry a tune if it were in a bucket when I was growing up, but that never stopped me from singing alone. And I LOVE it, but I can't figure out why.

When I was a kid in Cyrpus I remember my mum always used to put lemon juice in my hair telling me it'd lighten it. Does it actually work? Neither of us even remember. 

Are there any other 'natural' methods of lightening your hair a very small amount?

I have darkish brown hair. I only want it a shade or two lighter so that I can use semi permanent green dye ( I ~WANT~ it really dark and sludgy so its gotta be over medium brown hair rather than blonde)

I have also been there and done that of years of hair abuse so im not really keen on bleaching ever again. I only want my fringe lightened so its not a large area. 

If I did have to chemically colour it, how would I go about lightening a small amount without it going orange as bleach always does when left to process for a short amount of time?

For me, i'm going to the MDNA tour for Madge's Madison Square show, and plan on seeing One Direction at the same venue along with Lady Gaga when she plays there, or at the IZOD Center. I'm so excited for these shows

What concerts do you have planned on going to AMA?

Hello everyone. I have a question about some long distance dating etiquette.

I met a guy while on vacation and we hit it off really well. At the end of it we kissed and exchanged numbers and I left it up to him to decide if he wanted to contact me or leave it as a vacation fling. He started texting me on my trip back asking how everything was going, and we've been texting and playing games on our phones together ever since.

I have no idea how to bring up meeting for a date, as he lives 2 hours away and I am not medically allowed to drive. I would love to spend more in-person time with him, but I hate being like "Wanna go on a date? And by date I mean do you wanna drive all the way out here, pick me up, drive me someplace, hope the chemistry is still good, then drive me home and drive yourself all the way back?" What is a good way to bring up my interest and my inability to drive?

Also he hasn't texted me in over a day when usually we send a good 4-10 to each other a day. I assume he's just busy, but it's a rather sudden drop. What is the etiquette with texting with a long-distance interest? Is the usual rule that you take turns and wait for the other to respond? I know it seems like a childish question, but I usually befriend a guy before I date him, so I already know how they behave and stuff. That leaves me rather inexperienced in this area.

Thanks!

You've been tasked with designing a flag for your family. What will it look like?

What about if it was your own personal flag?

Anyone get nervous talking on the phone to someone professional?

My heart starts to race when I'm getting ready to call someone and when I start talking to them. No idea why. Maybe I'm just worried that I'll say something wrong.

I'm going to get a haircut at Supercuts, today. How much is a normal tip for a haircut at a place like that? I get my hair cut so rarely that I can't remember. Do I tip the stylist when I leave the chair or when I pay at the register? x_x

Would you consider it cruel for a dog to be shared between several households?

The main pro being that several varied schedules would mean more total time and attention given to the animal / less time stuck in the house during a workday -- the main con being the animal (who presumably needs some structure and routine) would never have a "normal" or consistent schedule.

You and a relative or close friend both struggle financially, living paycheck to paycheck and have very little wiggle room. If they had rapidly become wealthy (due to hard work on their part) would you expect them to help you out financially? Would you be upset if they did not offer to help you out with money?

While my personal style is probably pretty questionable, it turns out I actually have a brilliant knack for finding highly saleable  (is that even a word?? ) vintage and fashion clothing in charity shops.

I want to set up a small business selling the things I find, nothing too time consuming or serious, just extra money on the side. 

What would be the best way for me to do this? (I live in the Uk if that makes a difference) 

Im relatively familiar with ebay and already have a 100% buyer and seller rating, but can only list 10 (?) items a month and also theres the listing fees. However everything does seem to sell there. 

Etsy? 

What about a blog with some sort of link to paying with pay pal? 

Im clueless. Any help is appreciated.

Due to my work schedule I will generally grab fast food on my way home because seriously, who wants to cook? Recently I found a blog on "freezer" cooking and it looks like it may be a way for me to trim my food budget (and my waist).

What are your favorite crock pot recipes?

I'm in the process of looking for a new place to live. This time, I've decided NOT to move into another apartment because I'm kind of done with apartments after a couple of bad experiences. I really want to rent a house now.

What's the best way to find houses for rent? I Google it and it comes up with sites that always seem to require registering with them in order to see any useful information about the place. Is there a way to find a good place to rent without having to sign up for a whole bunch of websites?

Female bodied people who are on/have taken abilify:

Did you notice any changes in PMS symptoms/menstruation while taking this medication?



Inspired by yesterday having such extreme mood swings that I was completely out of control of myself until I took a Xanax to calm down and I'm wondering if the meds are exacerbating my usual few days of PMS.

Does anyone here use Photobucket for storing, editing and posting pictures?

They recently revamped the entire editing suite so now if you want to re-size pictures they no longer have pre-set sizes. Now you need to set your own proportions.

Does anyone know what the proportions were to the original large and medium pre-set re-size options? I always posted "large" pictures because they fit the dimensions of my journal perfectly.

This is definitely a long shot considering Photobucket couldn't answer my query.

Edit: Sorted! So, does anyone have any tips on any more superior online photo editing websites? Bonus points if they also have a phone app.

Who are you? Will you please introduce yourself to the community?

(Anything goes really. Post your face. We'd like that.)

What can you do, in terms of legal assistance, if a mother does not pick up her child, dodges phone calls, and prevents you from working because you can't leave her child unattended in your home?

I'm currently living about 2 hours west of home, and I am seriously struggling with the humidity. Weather.com tells me it's currently 20% more humid here (Eastern PA) than it is at home (NY). That would be manageable, except that the air conditioners at work and in our housing don't seem to do anything to cut through the moisture. I honestly can't feel a difference between being inside and outside, as far as moisture goes, and the humidity is at 86%!
How can I get it to be drier in my room? Do you have any tips for dealing with this? I feel like I'm living in a bowl of soup, AMA!

Do you have eczema or any other type of skin problem?

Does your campus has free Wi-Fi for the students/professors/etc?

I'm curious about your input on this, AMA.
I like to cook and I like to eat good food. I'm always trying to make new stuff and I usually feel the need to pimp stuff up with at least some seasoning, olive oil or something, just to make it perfect. I recently cooked at a friend's house and in the end he got a tomato and sliced it straight onto the plate and added some sweet corn from a can.
I asked him if we wouldn't at least add some salt because that looked really uninteresting and tasteless and he said I was the one with a broken palate that can't taste stuff without adding something fancy to it. This got me wondering.

Can he be right?
To which of us are you the closest on this subject?

Let's talk cereal, AMA.

Are you a one-type kinda person? Specific brand? Or is it whatever strikes your fancy that day?

Me, I'm pretty specific - I like the plain-ish woven type cereals: Chex, Crispix, and especially Quaker Oatmeal Squares. :3 Those are the best.

What about you, AMA?

I need your advice, AMA.

My doctor told me I need to lose 30lbs because my body isn't producing enough cholesterol and I am also a few points away from being pre-diabetic. She then went over all the basic dietary things such as how to portion my food and what to stay away from and how much exercise I get per week. I genuinely surprised her by how educated I was on the subject the first time but then every time I've gone in to see her after that she asks me how often I exercise each week and what my eating habits are and all of that (not as follow up but like she's asking me for the first time all over again). She's basing a lot of this off of blood work which is understandable but the more I go in there the more I'm beginning to feel this is just another one of those "ZOMG UR FAT YOUR GOING TO DIIIEEE!!!" doctors.

Should I bring this up with her or should I change docs or what? I personally wouldn't mind losing a couple of pounds but I don't want to feel like I'm being judged solely for my weight every time I set foot in the office.

While cleaning things out today I found a set of four tea cups with saucers and would like to know what the pattern is.  On the bottom it says "Johnson Bros. England" and "Old Staffordshire".  Yet when I Google, I don't see anything that matches the pattern!  Lots of other patterns by Johnson Bros. but not this one.
Any ideas?

I was reading the papers today and some guest speaker was saying how it's not the economy but the workforce (basically, people coming out of high school these days are not prepared for manufactoring jobs) and that there are 300K+ manufactoring jobs available in the US and nobody qualified enough for those.

So, anyone knows where these manufactoring jobs exist and what type (i.e. packing, auto, plastics, food industry, textiles)?

People familiar with 'Blogger' - 
How do you know of someone replies to one of your comments on their blog? 

How do you find blogs of your interest on that site? 

As a bonus, what are your favourite DIY , Punk , Vegan ect blogs you can link me to? 

What speed do you read at?

http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/technology-research-centers/ereaders/speed-reader/index.html

where is your dream place to live?

Are you an adventurous eater?

I just handed you a 12 pack of Coke. How long will it last in your home/apartment?

Poll #1843205
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 158

have you ever broken a bone?

Please tell me your stories of broken bones, teeth and accidents you were sure would break your bones.

I am madly cramming for a math test on Thursday but am stuck on how to draw a Venn diagram for this expression and can't find a solution anywhere (A n C) – (C – B)  (n= intersection), so I figured I'd ask AMA and see how many creative answers that demonstrate the solution we can come up with. Be as creative as you like, my answer is below.

If I don't pass this test my teacher will be proved right that someone with Dyscalculia (me) can't learn in her math class.

Have you had or have you known anyone who has had an ectopic pregnancy? What was their experience like?

So.... I want to compost. Everyone I know that does this is basically telling me you make a pile of decaying plant matter in your backyard (yes, thank you) but I'm worried about it smelling or attracting animals and pissing off the neighbors. I've seen all sorts of barrels and gadgets to compost more uh, awesomely or something but to anyone that composts: how the hell do I do it?

There's all this grimy greasy stuff all over our tea kettle. It's clear but a bunch of dust is stuck to it and it's all gross. How can we get this off? Scrubbing with hot water and Dawn does not help.

Is http://www.edenfantasys.com/ ever not "out of stock" on 60%+ of their items? I actually no longer shop there because of this.

Is there any good reason for any store, ever, to always be "out of stock" on shit they still have listed?

What caused your last nostalgic rush?

This afternoon we went to visit family and my father's cousin's granddaughter was watching Pocahontas. :D

What are some foods that you just CANNOT stop eating?

For me its Wheat Thins, graham crackers, cereal and Peachy-Os. Nom Nom Nom.

What book(s) are you currently reading? If you're not into anything right now, is there a book that you've been wanting to read but just haven't gotten around to yet?

Are you scared of birds? Do you know anyone who is?

Why were all those people watching a roadway?

alternate question: Do you always wear your seat belt?

would you be so kind as to list your available supermarkets in order of how far up the social ladder you see them? starting with the most "aspirational"

Where you are on the planet might help too.

( for example )