This is a liiitle off-topic, but what about getting into a hobby like freshwater planted aquariums? Once you've gotten a spot for the aquarium, the rest of the hobby is contained to that space; You can buy new plants and move them around, get rid of old ones and plant new ones, put in some hardscape or take some away,…

Usually one - two. But that's only because we eat one - two meals a day. My husband & I are not big on breakfast, and since he works until midnight or later most nights we skip. Lunches are generally something small and since I'm generally at home for lunch I can make something right then and there — a sandwich, or…

Check out places like Goodwill or Savers for a secondhand crock-pot/slow cooker. I've seen some as low as 10$ and while they look fugly, the increase in food diversity is worth it.

We actually were invited to Christmas Dinner at my landlord's place. He and his wife cooked us all a traditional Italian meal (several courses, and dessert, and alcohol), thanking us for helping out around the property (he suffered a fall that year and broke his arm, and was looking at a knee replacement, too). Yeah,…

I had a very similar scenario when I rented my first place — most places in my price range were dumps. I ended up going through a realtor while trying to find apartments, and he showed me a real gem: 650sq feet 3rd floor 1b/1ba with a HUGE picture window in the living room and a skylight in the kitchen. His asking…

Component cables are fine, but I'm hoping you didn't run the power cable inside the wall, too. That's against code just about everywhere. If your place goes up in flames and the insurance company finds out you ran a power cord in your wall, they can deny your claim based on that (just in case anyone reading doesn't…

I just went in for an interview that ran nearly three hours... Was interviewed by five different people, back-to-back. The first hour or so was easy. The next hour, not so much. The final hour? It was all I could do to seem interested and enthusiastic, but all I could think about was how exhausting it all was. That,…

I generally take the attitude of "be aware". There's nothing wrong in stopping to help someone, just be aware of your surroundings. Chances are they genuinely need help. Send someone a text, if the situation allows for it; something like "stopped on hwy 101, near exit 14, helping broken down car". If something doesn't…

Fairly easy. I did a few "prototypes" with cardboard and scrap paper first to get a feel for the techniques, and then made some for real.

I think it depends on what I'm doing. When I was taking a lot of math-heavy courses in college, I found that I'd almost exclusively listen to soundtrack music (without vocals). The same thing happens when I'm programming: soundtrack music really helps me focus and get in the groove or the mindset (or whatever else…

I haven't tried the JP binding, but it's on my TODO list. :) I've told myself I need to use up the notebooks I already have before I go making more. Or, if I do make one, I have to give it away.

The coptic stitching is more likely to lie flat (but depending on how much paper you add, not always); the more traditional…

There's two different methods I use. Coptic stitching (http://www.tortagialla.com/2010/08/16/cha…) and the more traditional method (http://imgur.com/a/VuG1S). Neither of those tutorials are mine, but they're where I got started.

I think a lot of that depends on your particular basement, too.

Our house is 100+ years old and we were toying with finishing out the basement; we have rock & mortar walls/foundation. After living here for a year, we found that our basement would flood whenever we got really heavy rains — the water table would rise…

I find that when I get stuck in the middle of a project, cleaning up my workspace helps. Something about it just being clean and fresh seems to reboot something in my brain that then lets me work again. I also like cleaning up at the end of a project - cataloging and filing and really cleaning down the workspace with…

You can sometimes find clove oil in 'toothache packs' at pharmacies like CVS. Mine came with some clove oil, some gauze, and some long tweezer things for helping put the gauze in your mouth.

Clove oil is also good for euthanizing pet fish, if you need to. Much more humane than sticking them in the freezer or flushing…

What about when your job lays you off via e-mail? And not even a direct e-mail, but a forward of a forward? That happened to my entire department once, and my immediate supervisors didn't even know. We all came in saying "wtf is this?" and they had no clue...

D'oh. That should say "720p" ... my life for an edit button.

I actually have a BenQ W710ST projector; It's short-throw and 780p, but my husband and I do use it to play games. I find it's fantastic, unless you're playing fighters or FPSs. There's a slight amount of lag that if you spend hours and hours and hours playing them you'll notice. My husband says he notices it a lot…

Actually, building a multitouch table was my reasoning behind purchasing a projector. I did it, and then I ended up having to disassemble it (not enough space in the house, and some of our remodeling plans fell through so the space it would have gone into never coalesced). Now the projector is mounted firmly to my…

I'm in New England, and this sounds in no way typical of our 4th of July food...