junglesgal

I've bought a great Faber Castell Trio Grip sharpener. I can't believe that I can't figure it out but how do you open it so you can clean it?

It even says "clean" on one side with arrows in two directions. I tried pressing, pulling every part everywhere with no success. And I'm afraid I'll break it.

This is the sharpener I'm talking about: http://www.dickblick.com/products/faber-castell-gr...

Every time we come together with my friend, she seems sadder. Not because she has to meet me :) But because how things are going in her life. Since she turned 30, it's been even worse. How could I help her? How should I encourage her to keep going?

Here is what her life looks like now:

- Although she's beautiful, smart with a great sense of humor, she's never had a boyfriend. She tried internet dating, speed dating, etc. but she just didn't meet the right guy. And there is nothing wrong with her in my opinion, so I don't know why. If you're not her friend who she tells her problems to, you won't even know that her life isn't perfect.

- She has an advanced degree and is successful at her job. The problem is that she's burnt out and this job is really low-paying. Liking what she does used to motivate her but not anymore.

- She is amazingly creative and innovative and tried starting some businesses but neither of them was successful.

- She's been looking for a job in another profession for 1.5 years with no success. In spite of the fact that she is perfectly qualified for the positions she applies for and even has experience. She checks all the job ads every week and applies to each one that she's qualified for.

- Since her job is very unstable and low-paying, she can't move out of the home of her mother. They have to live together in a really small apartment. My friend works 80% at home and her mother has retired and hates going out for any reason so she is 100% at home. Being together so much would drive anyone crazy... Finding a job would solve this problem but like I said - it's been 1.5 years since she started looking and so far nothing...

She feels like any time she tries to improve her life in some way, she hits a wall. Unfortunately, I can see why. So how would you help such a friend?

I would like to start a blog about a popular music related topic. Nothing controversial. My goal with this blog is to become a recognized expert in the field, network and maybe some day be able to do some business in connection with this.

All modern business books suggest that if you want to be taken seriously, you should name your site/blog/business YourRealName.com. However, my name is totally unique. There is only me on earth who has this name. It makes the situation quite risky. Anybody who googles me will see everything I've done online… And what if in a couple of years I change my mind and want to have nothing to do with this field anymore? I can't just erase everything I want from search engines.

In addition, I'm quite a private person and I'm not even on Facebook or Twitter. For some reason, I feel uncomfortable about sharing private info online, no matter if it's just my name or hobbies, etc. But I know that I might be paranoid. 99.99% of people don't care about me or what I do so it doesn't matter that much if it's online. I'm just one of 7 billion people.

But I also don't want a pseudonym. I'd feel silly being called another name when I know it's not really me.

Another thing is that I'm looking for a job (and have been for a year) in a totally different and more serious field and hr people google you nowadays. I don't know if they would consider my popular music related work to be a disadvantage or not.

But what Mark Zuckerberg said is also true: "The biggest risk is not taking any risk."

Maybe I over-think this topic but I really don't know what to do. What would you do in my position?

I've been offered a job at Oracle and McKinsey & Company. It's a simple assistant position at both companies. The salary and perks are about the same. The future colleagues seem to be equally likable.

Which company would you choose?

My mother was pregnant with twins but my twin sister/brother wasn't fully developed therefore died early in the womb. I heard on tv that there have been some studies about such cases. And the twin who is born will always be looking for something that's missing from his/her life because of this.

Do you know anything about this? They didn't explain in what way you might miss your twin sibling or what the consequences of it could be.

If you write a book that consists mainly of interviews with celebrities, do you have to pay them from the income?

Just cause I heard that people who submit stories for the Chicken Soup for the Soul books get $200 and 10 free copies of the book as an incentive. But for celebrities, publicity might be enough, right?

I'd like to bid on an item on Ebay (and win it!). It'll probably cost $300. I know that the overall dimensions of the item are 8" wide by 10" tall by 14" long, including 1.25" thick base. I don't know about the weight, but probably no more than 4 pounds (maybe just 2). The seller uses Fedex for shipping. The item ships from San Luis Obispo, CA and I live in Budapest, Hungary.

The problem is that I used the shipping rate calculator on Fedex's website and the lowest fee is $155. That's more than half of the price of the item!!! Plus VAT... It's ridiculous.

However, there is a company in the US that I regularly order from and they also use Fedex. And they charge me only about $35 for shipping.

How come the Fedex calculator says $155 and the other company charges only $35? Is it because this company has some individual contract with Fedex or is the Fedex calculator wrong?

(I can't ask the seller because it's stated that they can't calculate the shipping frees for international orders in advance.)

When I flew from Paris to Los Angeles everybody pulled down the shades after about the first 30 minutes. Then all the shades were down during the flight. When we were about 30 minutes from LA, I pulled up the shade a little bit then the flight attendant came and told me to pull it down. So why do you have to keep the shades pulled down on the plane?

I read HP and the Half Blood Prince when it was released then watched the movie last week. However, the reason why Snape was the half-blood prince and why it is important was left out of the movie (or I wasn't paying enough attention?).

I don't want to read the book again just to find out why Snape was the half-blood prince, so can somebody tell me the reason? And why it was important?

Is it normal to feel smarter than anybody you know? Or does everybody feel this way about themselves?

Hi, I'd like to create a pdf ebook with some links in it to different websites. First I wrote the text in NeoOffice, inserted hyperlinks (they worked) then exported it into pdf. The hyperlinks don't work anymore.

I tried using Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. I pasted the text into an empty page then tried to create clickable links but no success.

I've been looking for a solution on the internet but didn't find one.

How do all those ebook writers put links to websites in their ebooks?

Can somebody help me? I'd really appreciate it!

Does it expire after some time?

Hi, I just heard that Kindle 3 may come out tomorrow. I've also heard that it will have a bigger screen for newspapers, etc.

But is there anything else that will be different?

I'd love to see a Kindle 2 and 3 comparison chart, similar to this one with Kindle 1 and 2: http://www.mobileereaders.com/Amazon_Kindle_Sony_e...

Do you know if there is one?

Do you know when Beyonce's If I Were A Boy Will will be in stores as a single?

If an English man ends his email with "stay in touch", does it mean that he really would like to stay in touch with you, or is he just being polite?

Hi, is there a site where I can look up who designed a certain house in California?

Hello, I have a friend who just received his green card (based on employment) two weeks ago.

However, he realized that his new job isn't right for him, so he would like to find a new one in the States.

Can he do that? Or does he have to find a new sponsor for the green card?

I told him that if you have a green card, you are a permanent resident so you can work where you wish (but I'm not sure about this). Was I right?

Hi, are there any places besides Hawaii in the United States, where you can buy oceanfront properties with a private sandy beach? Possibly in a warm but not extremely hot climate, for $15-25 million?

Can you tell me if there are any German language examination centers (or something like that) in the USA where I can take a B1 (i.e. basic level) exam?

It's compulsory. This is the only subject I still have to do before I get my MA in a European university.

For example, I read somewhere that Jennifer Lopez doesn't drink alcohol.