Merv Goldstein

2 questions -

My newer Xbox 360 E with a 4 gig drive was acting weird lately. This happened right after an update. Both Live profiles were gone as well as some save data. In the system settings my USB drive showed up but the HDD was unformatted. Thinking it became unseated, I opened it and the drive was gone. Someone stole it. Empty space and nothing inside.

To make things worse the Xbox froze, started to make a loud noise, and the red light came on the front of it. I quickly turned it off, unplugged everything, let it sit but nothing works now. No green light on the front, nothing happens when I hit the "on" button. Orange light on the power brick, but nothing else going on.

So... 1) is there anyway to figure out when the HDD was removed to narrow down the time frame to figure out who may have done this to me 2) is my Xbox dead? I'm guessing it overheated.

Also, I went on line and checked my Xbox accounts on my computer. My last log in was 5 days ago with the old profile. I'm not sure if that means the drive was taken out at that time, but it seems like that data was stored on the drive, not on my USB stick.

Any help to figure when the drive went missing would be great.

I noticed my 1994 Accord seems to lean on the front passenger side. With a fully inflated tire it almost seems like I am carrying a heavy passenger or something.

I wondered if the tire was bad, pulled it off and found a nail.

However, I put the spare on and it looks the same...like the spare tire is "sagging", but I put air in it last week.

What is up with my suspension?

I did notice there was a bolt missing from the radius rod that connects to the lower control arm.

What could be wrong that makes it lean so much solely on the front passenger side area?

Trying to advise some friends, perhaps you can help.

A few of my friends rented a townhouse in NC for 6 years. Originally they signed a lease with a realty company but they retired and another realty company took over. The lease ran out after the first year and they basically rented month to month with the new realty company. The original landlord died, his daughter ended up getting ownership. They gave verbal notice to vacate 2 or 3 weeks in advance, moved out the first week of the next month, paying all their rent as well as the pro rated rent.

The realty company informed them they will not get their security deposit back due to insufficient notice to vacate as well as leaving a full can of trash out back with bags next to it...trash day was the day before they moved, there was no other bin to put the last few remaining bags so they set them next to the bin out back.

I suggested they get an itemized list why it was denied, I believe per NC law landlords are required to do that.

Is there anything else to do?

For instance, if I posted a pic on instagram would a user be able to view it's meta data? Like if it was taken from a phone? Specific operating system info? Cell provider or anything like that? Would instagram be able to access it?

My doctor diagnosed me with contact dermatitis on my face, neck and a little on my arms. It seems its most likely from a switch in laundry detergent. Food and other irritants were ruled out.

It started with a slight itch on my face, forehead got a little red. It spread down my face to my neck and a few small patches on my arms. On my face, it looks very much like windburn, very red, a bit raised, some small bumps, pretty itchy.

This is my third day of prednisone (60 mg daily x7 days) and puffiness has gone down but there redness is still there. Itch is still present, and I'm using hydrocortisone and benadryl to help.

I'm almost tempted to try some triamcinolone cream I have on it, but that might not be the best idea.

So far it only seems to be clearing up slightly, do I just need to be patient or is something other than prednisone needed?

I am buying a handgun for the first time in NC and just started reading over the process involved. Despite being a shall issue state, it seems like the catch is in order to buy a gun you need a permit from the sheriff and he can deny you for any reason he wants despite a clean record if he feels you aren't of good "moral character".

I reside in Davidson County and it appears you also need three character references listed on the application as well. This is the problem for me as am fairly new to NC. Most of my coworkers do not live in Davidson County and I'd prefer not to use immediate neighbors as references simply because I don't want it to be known I have guns because break ins are common and they aren't the most upstanding people nor are their acquaintances.

So my question is, how thorough is NC (Davidson in particular) with references on gun permits? My record is clean but I'm just worried of a denial if my references aren't good enough.

Trying to offer a friend some advice, hopefully you guys can help.

My friend was involved in an accident about a month back were she apparently rolled through a stop sign at a 4 way intersection and collided with a driver on the opposite side. She admitted fault at the accident which was obviously a mistake on her part, but she was shaken up and perhaps a bit overly apologetic for the whole thing. She was charged for failure to stop and expired plates.

Subsequently, the other driver was charged with DWI and arrested at the scene. Its unknown if his impairment contributed in any way to the accident, but to me if he perhaps wasn't drunk he could have reacted better and avoided the collision. Heck, he shouldn't even have been on the road in the first place.

She's prepared to accept responsibility but is hoping perhaps the judge will drop a charge, or just throw the whole thing out possibly. The cop was at the scene may not even show up, who knows.

She has no attorney and will be going to court tomorrow, how should she plea to this? How should be approach the judge in this situation?

Thanks.

I just upgraded my phone and noticed this...I'm guessing its a data charge?

I have the T mobile $79.99 plan

We typically participate in Trick or Treating with our young kids, so we don't usually stay home to hand out candy to the other kids. Though last year, I was a bit sick so I decided to stay behind at home and dole out the treats.

We had a group of older kids stop by at around 9:15, they were polite and I liked their costumes so I still gave them candy. I thought it was kind of late but not too bad. Most of the traffic seemed to have waned off by about 8:30.

So what is the latest trick or treater to ever knock on your door?

Halloween is come and gone, but for many of us candy lovers we'll have Halloween treats around for the next few weeks.

Whats your all time favorite Halloween candy?

The phone is a Blackberry Curve 9300 that is approximately 2 years old.

Before you say "Get rid of it" - here's the deal...My contract is up in a couple of months. I don't necessarily want to upgrade and get locked into another two year contract with my provider. I'm trying to make it the last few months of my contract so I can switch providers and get a decent deal on an iPhone with a new contract.

Anyway, the problem is the phone randomly shuts off. Typically when the battery is below 80% however it seems much quicker if I am web browsing or using apps. It seems to not shut down if its been idle for awhile.

I don't think its necessarily a battery issue as once I plug it in the battery level its basically unchanged once it boots up again. I don't get any low battery warnings, it simply shuts off without any notice.

Once the phone turns off, occasionally it might reboot with a battery pull but typically it begins to boot and shuts off again.

Any ideas?

...when there is no evidence to prove he started the altercation?

He could have easily confronted him when he first saw him driving. Or when he was parked and Martin approached his vehicle. Instead he just remained in his car and asked the dispatcher how quickly an officer would be responding. There's nothing to suggest he even wanted to talk to Martin let alone engage him in a fight. When he approached with his hand in his waistband and then ran off, Zimmerman relayed this to the dispatcher who in turn asked "Which way is he running?" Zimmerman got out to simply answer this question because he lost sight of him and later admits he has no clue where Martin went.

By this alone we've already established: Zimmerman has no wish to confront him and calls police for their assistance. He becomes even more uncomfortable when Martin approaches him and wants the police to get there ASAP. We establish Martin has no fear of Zimmerman and walks straight up to his truck perhaps to intimidate him by gesturing he may have a weapon in his waistband. Finally we conclude Zimmerman leaves the SUV to answer the question of which way he was running which quickly leads to George losing sight and therefore unable to chase Martin down as he had admittedly lost visual of him.

Zimmerman had no motive to lie on the police call, the actual confrontation didn't happen until a minute or two after he hung the phone up right on the same path he walked from his truck to the opposite side of the street.

Nothing suggests a motive to confront him and nothing suggests an elaborate chase. Where's all the evidence?

I still noticed some fleas so I applied Frontline Plus after he dried off.

How quickly will it kill the remainder of the fleas?

I had an unexpected expense come up which would qualify me for a 401k hardship withdrawal.

However, I'm wondering its a bad idea to withdraw from my 401k for it. It would be a relatively small amount of money, but would help greatly.

From what I gathered, I can either defer taxes or pay state federal taxes on it and receive the difference. But, I will be penalized and have to pay a 10% penalty fee to the IRS (I'm under 65, I think thats why) when I file my taxes as well as as any other taxes if I don't do so beforehand.

I'm debating if I should do it or not. If I defer the taxes or not I will get a 1099 IRS form to include with when filing my taxes. I will also not be able to contribute to my 401K for several months thereafter.

The thing is, I really don't want to mess with my tax return. I get a nice amount back every year, its a very simple return and I don't want to complicate it with a 1099. I use Turbo Tax and haven't had any problems is last several years, but I obviously don't want to compromise what I get back in taxes.

So are there too many penalties for 401K withdrawals? Is it worth it to withdraw or will I have a headache when it comes time to do my taxes?

I used to sell on ebay pretty frequently years ago and accumulated a pretty decent seller rating. I took a break from selling once my normal job got busy again so I basically left the account untouched for about 6 months. I racked up a $25 fee somehow and both my ebay and paypal were suspended. Well, the ebay is suspended...I can't even log onto the paypal now so I'm assuming thats the same story.

Its been almost a year now, would I be able to pay the $25 fee and reinstate both accounts and be able to go back to my old ebay seller account?

With paypal could I simply start a new account or would they find I had a suspended account and apply fees from the old one?

I can't for the life of me remember the name of the movie, but I almost want to say it was a short film collectively part of a single movie, like Tales From The Crypt or that Steven King one...where 3 or 4 mini movies were part of a single film.

From what I remember it was late 80s, maybe early 90s where a group of paranormal investigators explore an alleged haunted house. The investigators were filming it, so it had a bit of POV filming much like Ghost Hunters on TV and movies like Blair Witch, Cloverfield etc.

The people exploring the house started to lose radio contact with each other and started to die one by one, presumably from a ghost or some entity inside the house.

Any ideas?

I've been looking a some small 9 mms, and generally most people tend to favor the PF 9 because its very concealable.

However, I haven't heard much about the P 11. I know its slightly larger, with a larger ammo capacity, a bit less recoil.

Anyone shot/own both of these? Any comments?

Murderers typically don't call the police the ahead of time and give out their location, right? I also wasn't aware of any murder strategies that involved getting beat senseless prior to the killing. Also screaming for help repeatedly trying to attract witnesses to the "murder" about to be committed, that must be some new criminal technique I'm not aware of.

George Zimmerman is clearly a diabolical criminal genius.

Or perhaps just acting in self defense....