punker_rocker

Every night around 11 pm I've been hearing some kind of bird (at least I'm 99% positive that it's a bird) making noise outside. It's a long, drawn-out and slightly croaky "krawwwwww" that steadily raises in pitch, and each call probably lasts just around 2 seconds. I'm interested to know what it might be but none of the bird call websites have anything that sounds very much like it, at least for birds that I know are nocturnal.

I live in Northern Virginia on a 4-acre wooded lot for an idea of the location/habitat.

Thanks in advance!

I live in Virginia and in our woods we have these absolutely massive hornets. They have to be at least 2" long and they're really thick, beefy things with a black thorax and a burnt orange abdomen. I haven't gotten a super good look at them because I see one and usually book it in the other direction (my brother got stung once several years ago and he still has a scar) but they don't seem to have much in the way of stripes.

They are NOT Japanese Giant Hornets, European Hornets, or Cicada Killer Wasps, as far as I can tell. Of the three of these, they look the most like European Hornets but they are much, much bigger.

If anybody could help me identify these hornets/wasps I'd be very grateful!

I have a .FLV video file that has issues with the audio being out of sync. In starts out fine but as it plays the video lags progressively farther behind the audio, so I can't just delay the audio a bit like I have with other videos that had syncing issues. I've converted the file to a .WMV and ripped the audio to a .WAV file (if that's the right terminology, haha) and time-stretched it a couple of seconds so it stays in sync if I play the video (muted) and the audio at the same time, but now I need to combine the video and the corrected audio. I'm sort of new to this whole video editing thing, but what's the best way to go about doing this and what program should I use? Or is there another way to fix the audio syncing issue that would be easier than what I've done so far? Thanks in advance!

Which episode is the one where Gibbs lets Ziva interrogate one of the female suspects and the lady ends up terrified of Ziva? Sorry that's the only thing I remember about the episode.

But random second question: what's your favorite NCIS episode? :D

Thanks in advance!!

I always have a problem when people ask me to play something cool on my guitar and I immediately draw a blank and forget 99% of the songs that I know. I usually fall back on something like "Crazy Train" or "Inside the Fire," but I get tired of playing those pretty quickly.

I want to learn some songs that sound cool even without the drums, singer, etc. Does anyone have suggestions for songs with cool riffs that I could learn? I'll probably be able to play them if they aren't too blistering-fast, but I won't object if they aren't difficult either. ;) Thanks in advance!

PS, I like rock music, and have definitely don't object to the hardcore. :]

I'm finally caving on this. It's so important to me that the name of a character is perfect, that I don't think I've ever asked for help before, but I guess I've finally had it. The name is for one of the main characters in a fantasy novel. She is seventeen, which in her society makes her a young woman, but at the beginning of the story she isn't exactly mature. She's a bit manipulative, and while she enjoys the perks of reaching adulthood, she isn't big on the responsibilities that come with it. However, she is going to "grow up" a lot over the course of the novel, so the name needs to be one that she won't grow out of as her development progresses. I've been tossing around names like Alaya and Kyrima, but nothing I've come up with so far has struck a chord. I want the name to be something people haven't heard before, but I want it to be easy to pronounce and easy on the ears. Just to give a taste, some of the other names I'm using (and these ones HAVE all struck chords haha) are Cuorn, Taronhelm, and Rythaen. I guess it's just easier for me to come up with male names than female names.

Anyway, suggestions would be incredibly helpful! Thanks in advance.

I'm trying to help my brother install his game Battle For Middle Earth 2 and the expansion pack Rise of the Witch King. The computer we're using is a Dell Inspiron 1525 and the operating system is Windows 7, 32-bit. We had it installed on the same laptop when it had Vista, but we upgraded to Windows 7 and it stopped running correctly. I uninstalled both games from the computer to see if they would run right after being installed again, and now the computer's not even reading the disks. What can I do to fix this problem?

Yep...that's pretty much what I want to know. In your opinion, what makes one rock band stand out from all the others? What makes a band memorable?

Okay first, I rarely read Rolling Stone magazine because it's a lefty piece of junk that thinks that the ringleader slut from Jersey Shore eating a pickle or Justin Bieber playing basketball counts as headline news. That said, I was surprised when I saw an interesting article in it a few weeks ago, and it was talking about how there hasn't been a hit rock single or a breakout rock band in years. So I'm just curious as to what everyone thinks the reason for this is. What's missing from rock music these days? Any ideas?

So, starting with f(x)=3^x, what is the equation that results from reflecting f(x) about the line x=2?

Yes, I mean 3^x and not x^3.

I have an Epiphone G-400 SG, and I usually use Elixir light-gauge strings with the nanoweb coating. I was at my friend's house the other day, and I noticed how much easier it was to play her Epiphone LP than it is to play my guitar. I feel like the strings on mine are much tighter than on most other guitars that I've played. I've tried lowering the action on my guitar, but this makes the strings buzz loudly against the frets. I'm not really sure what else I can do to make the strings lower/looser. Does anybody have any suggestions? Is there another brand of strings I could buy that are better, or is there a possibility that I'm installing them the wrong way?

I am looking to buy another pedal for my guitar lineup, and this time I want a pedal with good metal distortion. I don't want anything that sounds digital or tinny. I've tried several Ibanez and Boss pedals, and nothing has worked very well so far. I play an Epiphone guitar with Seymour Duncan pickups and a Line 6 Spider III 30 watt amp. Any suggestions for a good pedal?

My hair is not too thick or too thin, but it resists styling like nobody's business. When I had long hair, it wasn't too much of a problem because I could just get layers and it would look fine. Now that I have pretty short hair, though, it looks terrible if I don't try to style it. What I do right now is use mousse and blow dry it with a round brush to give it volume and then finish with a little bit of spray wax to hold it in place. It looks good for the first few hours, but by the end of the day it's lost most of it's volume, and looks kind of bad. What should I do differently?

My band wants to get a photo shoot done soon. We are called Last One Standing, and we have six members, all girls. We are a heavy rock band, with inspiration from an interesting mix of Christian rock (Flyleaf, Skillet), some punk rock (Paramore), hard rock (Three Days Grace, Rise Against) and European metal (Nightwish, Kamelot, Masterplan). We need ideas for a background, outfits, poses, etc.

I'm kind of new to the program, so I don't know where I would look for it. An airbrush is basically a necessity for the kind of art I do though, so if there isn't one I'm going to be majorly ticked off. Please help!

I consider myself a fairly good artist. I don't have problems with actually drawing my pictures, I just need tips on how to make a picture look...dramatic, I guess. I get really cool ideas in my head, but when I go to put them on paper, they always come out looking flat and kind of boring. I could use tips on "camera angles," mood, perspective, etc.

Please post links to good online tutorials, if possible.

I am a guitarist, and I've played about four years. I have lately been trying to learn some Metallica songs, but when it comes to the solos, I don't have nearly enough speed. What are some excercises I can do to increase my speed and improve my accuracy for both hands?

i just discovered the band, and i really like their style, but i cant tell which songs i should get from the 30 second clips on iTunes. any suggestions?

CO2 is not a pollutant, guys, so give it a rest already. CO2 is plant food. It's what every living thing is made of. It is GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!! I know it's a greenhouse gas with a minor role in maintaining the temperature of the planet, but it is a VERY minor role. Only 0.0384% of the atmosphere is CO2. That is ONE THREE-HUNDREDTH of a percent. And then if you take the amount of CO2 that we're worried about, the man-made part, then that number gets way smaller.

Anyways, I guess my question is this: WHY ARE WE PANICKING???

totally random i know, and probably totally obvious. i've seen her with a guitar in photos, but never actually performing with one.