mobiuslemniscus

Alright, here's the scoop. I'm working on writing a play for my playwriting class. The premise is that a young man is about to head over to his girlfriend's home to have dinner (a barbeque) with her parents, who are pretty conservative. The father is the stereotypical republican manly-man sort of character. The boyfriend, on top of being liberal and studying art, is a vegetarian. So I need some good examples of snide remarks the father can make in reference to the boyfriend being a vegetarian. It's meant to be a comedy, but a tense one. Any ideas?

I think I may be pregnant - I am going to buy a test from the drugstore in the next couple days but I know that those are not always accurate depending on the time they are taken, and it's hard for me to know when exactly I might have gotten pregnant because I have a very irregular "cycle" to begin with. So next week I am going to visit the Planned Parenthood center in a city nearby and I was just wondering a few things beforehand:

Will a pregnancy blood-test be free?

If not, how much will it cost?

How long will it take to get results from that test?

If I am pregnant, I can't afford to have a baby...what are the abortion procedures like? It's definitely still a very early pregnancy if I am pregnant.

How much will an abortion cost? Will my insurance help me pay for it? I'm still on my parent's insurance but they are extremely low-income, to the point that most institutions (for instance, college) recognize my need for financial assistance.

Because I am over 18, will it be confidential? I'd rather not have my parents find out. It just keeps things simpler.

I've had my Toshiba Satellite for over a year now and it always used to put itself to sleep/hibernate after ten minutes of me not using it...however, a friend of mine installed Vuze (a bittorrent downloader) onto my computer about a month ago and I feel like ever since then, my computer refuses to put itself to sleep. I checked the power options and they are still the same, but I would have to manually press the power button to make it hibernate. But now that's not even working... I pressed the power button when I left for class this morning and when I came back, my computer was awake and running. And the other thing that bothers me is that it continually has the fan on high power, as if it's working real hard on something. So when I play games or try to watch videos or even open a new tab on internet explorer, I'm always afraid my computer is about to overheat or something. Not only that, but all the noise keeps my roommate awake. So basically, does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do to figure out what the problem is?

So I'm a college student who is living with friends at their house off campus for the next week, at which point I will be allowed to return to the dorms. I accidentally parked on the side of the road during the "no parking" hours and got a parking ticket...it's the first ticket I've ever had and it says I need to pay within the next seven days. But here's the problem. My checkbook is in my dorm so I can't write any checks, and the bank I use doesn't have any nearby locations. So how am I supposed to pay my parking ticket in time? It says I can either pay by mailing a check, or by "money order" but I have no idea what a money order is. But I'm very concerned about getting it paid off immediately because I don't want any late charges. Please help!

Okay...not like terrified but he was raised in the rugged backwoods on a farm, and I was raised by hippies. So while he gets a real kick out of guns, I don't know the first thing about them. And I'm excited to learn more about guns and cartridges and shooting because it's something I just never got to experience, but I have a major problem with loud sounds. Even a balloon popping makes me jump about three feet in the air. Someone who owns guns or has had this problem, please reassure me that I'll be able to get used to it and could I have any suggestions?

You know, where they say "To hear this prompt in English, press 1. To hear this prompt in Spanish, press 2. To hear this prompt in French, press 3. Etc, etc...." What are all the languages they offer? Like, what would number 6 or 8 or 9 be? Czech or something? I just have a spur of the moment sudden curiousity and I really want to know.

I've known this guy for three years, ever since high school. We had an art class together during senior year and I always found him interesting but back then I was struggling with eating disorders and back then he was drinking a lot and abusing medications and then he went away to college and I was dating someone else and we only saw each other a couple times during that period. But he's always been someone who I could have called a friend and counted on if I needed someone to talk to. And about a month ago we started hanging out, kayaking and watching movies and driving around at night after work and reviving all these feelings I used to have for him. Because I always thought he was out of my league...and apparently he always felt the same for me. But we were both too screwed up back then to be anything more than casual friends. And now I'm healthy and out of a bad relationship and now he's kicked his drug and alcohol habits (he went WILD in college, but burnt out pretty quick) and these past few weeks have been great. He treats me like a queen, he holds me and kisses me and we spend hours together every night and I love him but I can't say it because I'm afraid to scare him away, in case he doesn't feel the same. But I'd like to think he does. Just last night we went for a drive and sat in his truck and he told me he wants this to be a "spiritual, intellectual, and emotional relationship" as well as physical, because he's "never had one of those before" and I am completely down with that but...well, doesn't that sound a lot like "love" to you? I'm committed to him and he's committed to me and I believe in my heart that he is in love with me, whether he realizes it or not. Time is running out because I leave for college in two weeks and I can't stand the thought of leaving without letting him know that I love him.

I have a year old Toshiba and it runs quickly and smoothly and I use it for gaming mostly - nothing serious, just Sims 2 and Guild Wars and Oblivion. But I like the fact that my computer processor is efficient and there is no lag in running the games. However, my internet service provider is threatening to shut off my internet unless I get my computer protected... my Toshiba is my baby and I love it, so I want a great program that will not only clean up whatever might have already gotten into the system, but also protect it from anything else that could harm it. I just don't want the antivirus program to ruin my computer's speed. I used Norton once with a past computer and I hated it because it seemed to cause EVERYTHING to slow down...is that normal? And what program SHOULD I get?

There is a section on "Psychiatric" and there is a list with boxes to check off. I have been treated for Attention Deficit Disorder since I was seven, I have been diagnosed for anxiety, in and out of treatment for major depression, and for nearly four years I have struggled with an eating disorder (anorexia). Should I really provide them with that much information? Or should I just keep those things to myself if I feel that they are relatively well maintained. What I mean is, how will my answers affect me if I reveal those honest facts about myself - will they cause me to become a liability? Will my financial aid suffer? Or will anyone even care?

A former teacher caught me yesterday and asked me if I'd do a painting for him...guess he's into minimalist stuff, like Ed Ruscha, cause he literally wants black text on a white canvas and that's it. He's unsure of what it's really called, but he wants a saying that he and his wife try to live by - he said Freud or someone had this theory that people worry so much about what has happened in the past and what will happen in the future that they forget to appreciate the present, which is the only real thing we truly have. He seemed to think the term is "Das Heim", but I tried looking it up last night and got no real results. Can someone help me out?

Okay, not really my laptop...it's my mother's - a year old or so, Compaq or Dell with Vista. But I'm asking here because she's not very tech savy and is probably going to shell out way too much money to fix what is most likely a very simple problem. She just got herself an iPod and when she installed iTunes, the speakers suddenly stopped working. No sound - not just music, but everything (online, popup alerts, etc). When she uninstalled iTunes, the sound started working again. But she needs to have it installed to use her iPod, so she downloaded it again...and guess what. No sound. So tell me, please, how does one go about fixing this problem? What can I do that won't cost her practically half my college tuition?

The Tech Coordinator at my school and I have a unique relationship in that, while we both are actually pretty good friends, we tend to just pull pranks and blatantly insult each other any chance we get. He calls me a slacker, I steal the exercise ball from his exercise ball chair...it goes back and forth. But he's been calling me "winger" recently ("Hey winger!") and I have no idea what it means. Can anyone clue me in? I know one use for the term is in sports but I'm gonna assume he's not calling me a soccer player.

I am taking the AP English exam tomorrow. I have a good selection of literature to choose from for the free response essay...but I want to have a work of literature which includes a character who experiences prejudice and discrimination, just in case the prompt ends up being related to that concept. Now, I know, I know...A Raisin In the Sun, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. But I'd rather steer clear of the typical choices about african americans...are there any relatively quick reads that contain a character who experiences prejudice because of her gender, not race? Like Virginia Woolf or Sylvia Plath novels? I'm a speed-reader, but I'd prefer it not to be too obnoxiously long...like I said, this is the last day before the exam.

Can someone please just help me find a list of birds local to New York state? My final quarter project for Environmental Science is going to be a massive painting/chart sort of thing - of every single bird species which can be found naturally in NY. I understand that's alot, but don't worry... that's for me to work out and I've got it covered. I just really need a comprehensive list of all the birds in New York State so I can be sure I get them all. Accuracy is very important. Thank you!

Can someone please just help me find a list of birds local to New York state? My final quarter project for Environmental Science is going to be a massive painting/chart sort of thing - of every single bird species which can be found naturally in NY. I understand that's alot, but don't worry... that's for me to work out and I've got it covered. I just really need a comprehensive list of all the birds in New York State so I can be sure I get them all. Accuracy is very important. Thank you!

Please help me out here. We are filming a "point-counterpoint" sort of routine in our AP French class...the "hot topic of the day" (or "la theme chaud de la jour") is celebrity parenting and somehow, I landed in the roll of playing the trashy, half-drunk, cigarette smoking tramp who is defending Britney Spears while absentmindedly flinging a baby (doll) around in my other hand. Very Jerry Springer. The "man" I'm arguing with is a serious, professional child psychologist type of character, with charts and statistics and facts and whatnot. It's very comical...but the thing is, I don't know much about Britney Spears and I need some suggestions for absolutely ignorant things to say while at the same time being related to the subject of Britney, her substance abuse, her relationships, and her children.

My little sister is in sixth grade, and she's begun to express interest in reading "classic" literature. Lately, all she's been reading is that Twilight garbage and other cheesy book series, but she's looking for a change of pace. The only problem is, she obviously has no idea where to begin and is currently insisting upon wasting all her money on Jane Austen. Now, no offense to anyone who likes Jane Austen, but seriously. My sister will HATE it, and I am sure of this. However, she trusts my input here (after all, I am going to be an English major) but unfortunately, it's been so long since I was her age, I can't really think of many books that I read back then. I was also an extremely advanced reader for my age, so I'm trying to take that into consideration as well. For instance, I'm not going to suggest the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I do remember a couple books that I read when I was 11 or 12 - Jacob Have I Loved, A Wrinkle In Time, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, The Adventures of Huck Finn (that last one was useful to have under my belt, because at some point in high school it is almost certainly required reading material)...

But can anyone give me any other suggestions? I'd love to be able to point my sister in the right direction.

So, over the weekend, I started experiencing symptoms of what seemed like a bad head cold. It started out as a mildly scratchy throat, turned into a runny nose...and now I can hardly breathe. I'm all stuffed up and it's just awful.

But on Monday morning, once I got to school, I immediately started to feel better and by the end of the day, I was pretty much fine. But as soon as I got back home, my nose started to get all irritated and runny and stopped up again. And the same thing happened today - I went to school and felt fine, but now that I'm back home, I'm a wreck and it's making me feel miserable. II'm not allergic to animals (we have three cats) and the only thing I can think of is that maybe the air is too dry? It's very cold in the region where I live...is it possible that the problem could be dry air? If that's the case, what can I do to feel better? Would drinking more water help? I am really not looking forward to feeling this way right around the holiday, so please give me some input. Thanks a bunch.

The question is:

Why do you think Shakespeare used the character of a ghost to provide motivation for Hamlet's plan for revenge? How might a modern playwright provide this motivation?

I understand the first part of the question alright...but the second part is driving me nuts! What do you think?

My boyfriend left in August for college so I have only seen him once between now and then (he is home for Thanksgiving break), and unfortunately that one time, I was too sick to hang out or anything so we didn't really do much then, either. But now that he's back, I've realized I am really dreading spending any "quality time" with him...see, I used to worship this guy but now that I have spent so much time away from him, I've kind of become my own person again and I am just not interested in having sex or "needing" anyone right now (and that means ANYONE), I'm too busy with school and friends and art and music and the other things that really mean alot more to me, I'd almost feel "dirty" if I he and I were to get intimate now...I kissed him goodbye yesterday when he dropped me off at my house after hanging out with friends (good way to keep from being one-on-one) and I just wasn't into it at all...I mean, I still love him and care for him but I'm afraid I'm just not wanting to fall back into the depths of such an intimate relationship...but I don't want to hurt him. Please help me out here, I don't know what to do or tell him.