The Notorious White Moth

There's a monster from some folkloric tradition, I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in central Asia. It's described as a tiger, but it's usually depicted in stone, in an extremely abstract, almost cubist way, looking something like pre-Columbian mesoamerican art, and it swallows people whole, banishing them to a realm of infinite shadow. I'm pretty sure it was the inspiration behind Belome from Super Mario RPG.

I'm fairly new to TiVO, my mother moved from one bedroom to another and asked me to move her TiVO mini for her. I did, and the hardware was easy, but it now lists no account information - no host name, no DVR type, no IP address - and with no account it isn't getting any service. It lists the master unit (the DVR) when I try to connect to it, but has it blacked out with a red circle with a line through it next to the name, and won't let me select it. Can anyone help with this?

There's a catch-22 out there and I can't imagine I'm the only one dealing with it. If you're looking for work, there are two things prospective employers expect you to have on your application or resumé: references and recent work experience. Without those two things, you're going to be thrown out without a second thought. How does someone who doesn't have a job change that when you're not allowed to look for a job unless you already have one?

Formal speech, used in speaking to superiors, is 丁寧語 (teineigo) - including humble (謙譲語 - kenjougo) and honorific (尊敬語 - sonkeigo), but I haven't been able to find two sources that agree on a term for informal speech, for the non-teineigo forms, used in speaking to equals.

I know there's a lot of variety in video games, and a large number of popular genres, but I'd like to get a sense of the market for what people want in low-budget games. Is there a market for shmups, tactical games, jrpgs, metroidvanias, puzzle platformers, abstract puzzle games? What's popular? What do the people want? I'd like to get a sense of where the demand is.

When I was young, I remember coming across a certain book - I think it was one in a series - and I'm hoping someone out there recognizes it and can help me come up with the title. The story was about three children siblings who were generally seen as troublemakers (though I don't remember them doing anything to especially deserve that reputation). I remember the story said that they breezed through school because teachers would move them ahead a grade whether they deserved it or not so that they wouldn't have to put up with them for more than one year and wouldn't have two of them in the same year. I also remember a particular plot point where the sister played Mary in a Christmas pageant and wanted to name the child Bill; at first adults were upset, but then they considered and decided she raised a good point: that Joseph and Mary weren't given a choice in what to name their firstborn child. Does anyone know the book I'm talking about?

I've been recording videos, and when I try to play them back in winamp the audio is fine but I get no video. Please advise?

In the 18th and 19th centuries, defensive military buildings were made of wood. Why? What's the point? What is wood supposed to defend against? You can kick over a wooden wall with no weapons and little effort, even the most basic firearms will go straight through it, it won't even slow them down, and if your enemy has half a brain they'll set your defenses on fire and your fort becomes their trap. What's the point? It won't help you at all, you would be better off with no fortifications whatsoever!

Often when I ask someone a question, they give me a response that, while it does answer a related question, tells me something I already knew - usually information that was already in the original question. If I try to clarify the question, to dispel any possible ambiguities, for example to point out that their answer was already in the question and/or to emphasize the key point or points that they seem to have misunderstood, then I am accused of either being a control freak or trying to make them feel stupid. How can I get people to answer my questions rather than echoing them back to me as statements, without losing friends in the process?

Please read my exact words carefully, and make sure that you are answering a question that I have asked, not one that you assumed I meant.

What possible reason could someone have for blatantly disregarding a friend's thoughts and feelings? I had this happen to me twice within a week of each other: there was a girl I was interested in, a friend, so I asked her for one date. She said maybe - she didn't want to rush into something and risk compromising our friendship. A few days later, she's suddenly a lot more seriously involved than I had asked to be, with someone in whom she'd had no interest when I asked, and wants me to sanction their relationship. Can someone please walk me through, step by step, how someone can get from "I don't want to rush things with you" to "I've rushed into more with someone I just met, and I want your blessing"? Can someone please outline some theory for me of how it's possible for someone to be aware enough of my emotional connection to them to ask me to support their decision without also being aware that doing so without first acknowledging my position is a betrayal?

I have been told in the same conversation:

That I completely disregard when I hurt others' feelings, but when my feelings are hurt I act like it's the end of the world - in response to my shutting down to avoid making a conflict worse, which I explained.

That my feelings were being validated, in response to my saying that I felt my feelings weren't being validated - thus invalidating that very feeling.

That I was being overly sensitive for wanting to know what I can do to stop people from completely disregarding my emotions.

What am I doing wrong? What can I change to keep from being verbally and emotionally abused, neglected, and taken for granted? Why is it such a horrible thing for me to even have feelings while I am punished for having no way to recognize the feelings that those around me don't express?

Experience has told me that this disclaimer is necessary. Please read my exact words carefully. Before you post an answer, please be absolutely certain that it answers something that I have in fact asked in my own words, not something that you assume I meant. For example, if I have asked why people act a certain way, do not answer by saying "People act this way" unless you are going to qualify it with some insight into the underlying thought process. If I have asked about behavior, please do not assume that I am seeking relationship advice. If I have asked what I can do to influence others' behavior, please do not assume that I am doubting my own worth, or otherwise speaking negatively about myself. If I were looking for answers to questions other than those I have asked, I would ask them.

Near the end of the game, the twelfth chapter, after learning that Barthandelus is turning the Cavalry against Orphan, the heroes return to Cocoon intent on defending Orphan. Why, then, is the very first thing they do when they get back an attack on a sporting event, needlessly murdering dozens of innocent civilians and giving Barthandelus ample excuse to launch an invasion, blaming it on them? How does the fight at the racetrack, visually impressive though it is, benefit anyone other than Barthandelus?

I engage in text-based role playing online and I'm tired of being treated like shorts posts make me a bad writer. When I've already said all there is to be said about a scene, how can I make multiple posts long enough not to be dismissed as not trying without resorting to boring myself to tears with redundancy and meaningless fluff? I'm not asking where I can go to avoid the problem, I'm asking how to solve it when it comes up.

I do a lot of text-based role playing online, and I'm fed up with being treated like a no talent hack just because my posts are no longer than they need to be! Other than padding my posts with pointless minutiae like which hand someone picked up a cup with or which of a fox's ear twitched in what direction, breaking the storytellers' creed--"better showed than telled"--be outlining a character's every most insignificant thought, or becoming painfully redundant by copying and pasting the same three line description of a single situation with the occasional minor edit to show that a few seconds have passed, how am I supposed to make a full paragraph out of every post, especially in the heat of the moment when the character has neither the physical ability nor the presence of mind to do much of anything?

I have a problem. I wouldn't hurt a fly, but as long as I can remember, more often than not, complete strangers--both in person and in electronic media--tend to treat me like I'm a complete monster by the time I've said hello. It can't be anything I'm doing, because by the time I've alienated them I haven't done anything. Have I committed some horrible act for which I'm being punished? Am I dangerous? Why are others given carte blanche for obscene behavior while I'm brutally punished for lesser offenses? Why am I treated like less than human for wanting to be treated like a human being?

I'm an aspiring artist, looking for information on the anatomy of certain animals--dogs in particular at the moment--to help me gain a better understanding of what's going on under the surface so that I can draw them more effectively. Why can't I find so much as a list of the bones of a canine skull? Why can I find more information on any given bone in the human body than I can on the entire canine skeleton? Most importantly, where can I find specific information about animal anatomy without having to pay for it?

I'm an aspiring artist, looking for information on the anatomy of certain animals--dogs in particular at the moment--to help me gain a better understanding of what's going on under the surface so that I can draw them more effectively. Why can't I find so much as a list of the bones of a canine skull? Why can I find more information on any given bone in the human body than I can on the entire canine skeleton? Most importantly, where can I find specific information about animal anatomy without having to pay for it?

I'm struggling as an aspiring concept artist, trying in vain to make some progress from mediocre at best to at least halfway decent, and among the vain, rhetorical advice I keep hitting--most of which is just a regurgitation of basic terms I already known, having taken a high school drawing class--is that I should study art history. What exactly is to be gained from this? How is reading about history supposed to help someone become a better artist?

I'm an aspiring artist, I love to draw, but I keep hitting a major roadblock. Any time I try to draw an animal--notably one of my mother's cats--unless it's asleep at the time, I can only get one (or at most two) lines on the paper before it moves, and what I've drawn no longer applies. What then? How do I draw something that no longer looks anything like what I've drawn by the time I've started drawing it?

Can anyone explain the symbolism of the clocks (Mr. Gateau's backward clock and/or the clock in the Australian legend) and/or the hummingbird?