skokiesam

I have a 2GB Captain America flash drive that I got December 2014 and used only once. (Really only once; I misplaced it and didn't find it till a few months later.) About 2 months ago, I tried to put the drive in my Mac at work, and it wasn't mounting. I tried to use it on my Macbook at home (OSX) and it didn't work. I have External Drives clicked in Preferences, and I see the drive in the left-hand pane in Disk Utility. I can get the info on the drive, but I can't do anything else other than eject it from DU. All the options that are available to me are grayed out when that drive is selected (it just says 1.99GB Generic Flash Drive)—can't repair, verify, clear the history, restore—nothing! My boyfriend tried using it on his Surface Pro 2, and he could at least select it to reformat (his computer says that it's unformatted), but he gets an alert saying that the dang thing is write protected, and I don't know how the heck THAT could have happened. I'm reluctant to use Terminal to try to fix the problem (as I've read in some of the Mac forums), since I'm not SUPER tech savvy and I'm afraid I'm going to mess things up.

I can try to cash in on a favor and ask one my computer guys at work if he can help me, but I kind of want to make that my last resort. (He's busy, and this is a personal favor. I just want to be able to use my cute little Captain America flash drive.) Anyone have any ideas as to what I can do?

Whenever I try to open Internet Explorer on my boyfriend's Dell Inspiron, I get an alert telling me that there's a connection problem with my WiFi. I've checked, and it says that I'm connected (I have a secured wireless router). When we switch accounts and my bf uses the laptop through HIS account, he is able to access the Internet. I don't understand why he's able to access the Internet through his account but I can't through mine. We haven't downloaded anything or updated anything recently. It just upped and stopped working for me. Any suggestions? It's driving me nuts.

Hi,

In August, someone came to the door, asking if I would buy a magazine subscription that could be donated to be a charitable organization. Because it was for charity, I agreed and wrote out a check. (I know, VERY poor judgment.) However, upon reflection, I decided to look up the organization (Midwest Circulation LLC) and found that they've received an F rating with the BBB. Concerned, I had the check canceled the next day, but did not inform Midwest that I was canceling. Because no product had been delivered and no payment had been made, I didn't think I needed to. Today, I received a letter from them stating that they had tried to cash in my check but had it returned to them for insufficient funds. They're requesting payment, with an additional amount for service fees. I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm apt to ignore the letter, mostly because I distrust the form of the letter (it's typed on a typewriter, used the singular pronoun of "me" although no name has been provided to me, and my name has been handwritten into the salutation, as if it were a form letter). I am, however, concerned that Midwest could pursue legal action or ruin my credit. Any advice? Should I call them at the number they've provided (please note that they still say that I would owe them $25 for the service fee) and inform of the cancellation? Should I write them back at the address they've provided? Or can I just ignore it? I don't want this explode into something costly and want to nip this in the bud now, while I can. Help!

Many thanks in advance!

I had a large Bartholin abscess drained by an ER doctor two days ago, and the ER doctor had inserted packing inside me to, I guess, keep the wound open to drain properly. She told me to go to my PCP within 48 hours to do a wound check. I went to a doctor today, and he said that it was too soon to do a wound check, since I'd just had the procedure. He needs to give me time to heal in order to check that the wound is healing properly, which makes sense to me. However, the packing is still inside me. Now, my next appointment is 9 days from now. I had asked if it was okay to have the packing inside me for that long, and the doctor said it was safe. However, I was curious to know what the material was, so I looked it up and on a medical website (not Web MD, but it was more of a site for doctors than regular people like me), it said that the packing is usually removed 24-48 hours after insertion, unless a catheter was inserted. In my case, no catheter was inserted.

Should I be concerned? I don't know if I'm being superparanoid, but I'm uncomfortable with the idea of having foreign material inside my body that's not supposed to be there. The gyno said it was safe, but then I find contradictory information online. Can someone in the medical profession help reassure me? If it's safe to have it there, that's fine. Anything to help me heal faster is okay by me. But if it's not safe, can someone out there advise me?

I had created a template in Word that has the styles we use for our copyedited manuscripts (I'm in publishing). For example, title pages have the style name of TITL and it's centered, Times New Roman, 16 pt. All of the styles in this template is for Times New Roman and we've asked for editors to make sure that the files they give us are in TNR (long story why we've done this).

Now, I sometimes get a stray file that's NOT in TNR, like the manuscript I'm working on now. When I applied a style for the whole document, and it didn't really work. The style name is correct, but the typeface is not. No matter how many times I reapply the style, it doesn't work. I've tried checking and unchecking the Automatic Updates for all of the styles, including Normal; fixing the style, etc., but for some reason, this one particular style won't change the typeface.

Why is it not applying the style that I want? When I actually go to Styles, it's the way I want it to be, but everything sort of gets lost in the application.

Eep!

I'm a 33 yo female, in fairly good shape. I quit smoking in July 2008 and before then, had been smoking for about 10, 11 years. Back in September/October, I started to experience shortness of breath. It was so severe, I went to see my doctor, who promptly told me it was stress. He had prescribed some anti-anxiety medication (which I have opted not to take at this time because of their addictive nature). I had a X rays done on my lungs due to my concern about any damage I may have done to them, and they came out clear. My BP and blood work came back normal, and I had a flu shot back during the first week of December.

Despite all of this, I have this weird feeling in my chest. It's isolated to the left side of my body, about an inch below my arm pit, toward my breast. My heart pounds hard; it's as if it's working through a lot of mucus. I feel as if there something at the back of my throat, but I have had no cough/no productive cough. It's like fingers are gently pinching my breast, underneath the skin. I have a sneaky suspicion it may be mucus or some kind of liquid in my lungs/chest, because the feeling I have is what I can only describe as being "thick"; as if the heart is beating through something thick. This started about four, five days ago, so it's fairly recent. I am dehydrated (I haven't been drinking very much water lately), and this past year, I have been drastically reduced my caffeine intake (although this holiday season, I have imbibed in some Coke and coffee).

The feeling is annoying; I can feel it through my back as I'm leaning against a chair. And I'm pretty sure it's not anxiety, because this feels different from what I was feeling back in Sept./Oct. I was planning on calling my cardiologist for an appointment, just to check and to go on a Holton monitor and to follow up on these sudden chest pains I get. And I KNOW that most people will tell me to go to the doctor, anyway, but I was wondering if anyone was familiar with these symptoms and could give me some peace of mind. If I was just sick or whatever, I can deal. But if not . . . Should I push for an emergency appointment asap next week or no? The last time I made an appointment with him, it wasn't for another 2 weeks after I called. . . .

Thanks in advance!

I'm 33 yo, and I've recently quit smoking (as of 7/4/08). I'm 5 feet 3 1/2 inches tall, and I weigh 135 pounds. I'm prone to anxiety, but over the course of the past five days, I'm experiencing shortness of breath. I realize that my anxiety is making the situation worse because the more I think about the SoB (ha!), the worse it gets. However, I'm starting to become concerned. When I quit smoking, I had suffered some heart palpitations and shortness of breath, which my doctor said was normal for someone who has recently quit smoking. This current onset came out of nowhere. I AM stressed out at work, but I don't FEEL anxious about my stress. I'm unsure as to whether or not the SoB is due to anxiety/stress or if it's actually something physical (like chronic bronchitis, or something I, god forbid, got because I was a smoker for 11 years).

I'm trying to figure out if this could possibly be a physical rather than a mental thing. I had a cold about 10 weeks ago, and I had some congestion in my chest for a long time after it. I currently have a heaviness in my chest that I associate with having a chest cough, but I'm not coughing.

I know, I know, the only way I'm going to figure this out is if I go to the doctor. I'm going to call my doctor to make an appointment (their phone lines are closed now), just to talk about taking those breath exam dealies and getting some tests done, but in the meantime, do you guys have any advice? I'm TRYING to relax, but I can't stop thinking about it, and the SoB is driving me crazy. I'm hoping a real doctor can help alleviate my worries till I can see a doctor. Looking stuff up myself on WebMD has just scared the bejeezus out of me and has made things worse!

Thanks!

I've noticed since November that it's been become harder and harder to remove my engagement ring from my ring finger. It's the ONLY finger that's swollen. Initially, the swelling came and went; some days the finger was swollen; some days, not. However, these past two weeks, it appears to be getting worse. It's always accompanied by a ring of dry skin, right below the knuckle, and some very slight tenderness (I think the tenderness comes from my yanking my ring on and off). The dry skin is darker than the rest of my finger, like it's a bruise. I thought I may be retaining water, and I did start using a new lotion right around then, but it seems weird that only one finger is affected by it and not the rest, so I'm apt to discount an allergic reaction. I work with computers often, so I thought it might be carpel tunnel, but I can't be sure. Has this happened to anyone else? Help!

My bro (in MA) loaned his bf (in NJ) several grand last year, but hasn't been paid in full yet. Only received about 2 grand back. Has backup of voicemails, txts. He's been lied to and ignored, & he's getting sick of it all, and wants to take his friend to small claims court. How does it work if he lives in a diff. state? Does he even have a case?

Thanks!