ririmorigi

I have a group of friends that I hang out with everyday, and we have so much fun and can act however we want(often very silly). They're rarely annoyed and never snobs. They include anyone who wants to be included and doesn't cause drama. They don't judge people without getting to know them first.

Then, I have a specific friend, let's call her "R" for now. We've known each other for 4-5 years. We met, and only really see each other online(different states). Have met her in real life twice, and it was pleasant, as long as she wasn't being crowded by people(she's very popular at conventions because she makes costumes and is an aesthetician).

I've had one conversation with her where she mentioned that some of her real life friends probably are friends just to take advantage of her talents, and when I asked why she lets them, she said she doesn't care... that she will do it as long as she's not busy.

She can also be really snobby about fashion, art, and people. She's from a wealthy family, and an only-child. I used to think she was really nice, but I start to question that because of how she has been more blunt about not liking my friends.

I introduced her to one friend, who was being REALLY polite and friendly/warm... and as soon as my friend left, R blurted out to me, "Thank god she left!", and said she didn't like her because she was being a "passive aggressive tomboy"... (more below)

I've tried searching with Google, but have some unanswered questions and doubts that guides do not answer.

I bought a gas mask on eBay, and I have never worn one before. I bought this for a costume, so I don't need it to function, but I need to be 100% sure it's safe to wear without a risk of suffocation.

First, I noticed there is a lot of rubber parts attached to the mask... all around inside the mask, and flaps of rubber covering the bottom where the mouth and side openings are. Are these meant to stay this way, covering it completely? I am worried about them blocking airflow.

I also noticed there is a rubber piece that is attached to the opening itself, and it sticks out on the outside like a rubber spike... This worries me the most since it seems like it would block air, but I have no idea what it is, and can't find any guides that explain it.

Also, for the detachable filter, does anything need to be done to this? Because I only need this piece as decoration, can anything be done to make it more breathable? Do I need to open it at all? I noticed there is a white mesh-like material inside.

Would it be better to just remove parts of the mask(ex: the rubber) for clearer/cooler breathing?

I remember when I was in middle and highschool, I had one period in a class where there was a teacher and an aide, and they would help students with their homework, rather than teaching a subject of their own.

What I want to know is what the name of that class is.

I remember it had a name on my school schedule, but I can't remember it at all.

It is not special education, but there was always a small amount of students in it, like 10ish. I believe they had me in it because I did not do my homework before.

I'm making a fictional city area in 3D, and would like to know which term is better to use for a certain part of the city.

This part of the city is urban but without skyscrapers(1-3 story buildings), and has mostly small storefront shops(most with 1 or 2 floors above the shop for housing) and few restaurants along the streets, a few small alleys, and maybe an apartment building.

Would "Shopping District" work as well? Or maybe "Downtown"?

I don't know which would be most appropriate, though.

A long time ago, I had a friend I met online in a 3D social game, and we often hung out in a group of friends and would usually just chat or goof around. We were all really silly and immature, and he was the more calm/serious/mature one of the group, but still had good humor.

However, after a few months of close daily friendship, he kind of stopped logging in much, and stopped hanging out with us entirely for about a year or two...

And then after a long absence he came back, but he was... different. He had that calm demeanor as always, but his hobbies and interests become creepy.

He had become obsessed with things like US conspiracy theories(even though he lives in the UK), and would often tell me things like the government is poisoning us by dropping toxins in the air above our houses with jets.

He also talked about a milkshake that replaces every nutrient needed to the human body, and sounded really dead-set on living on nothing but that stuff...

Also, he showed a sudden obsession with sex. His game avatar would be an almost-naked demon woman in bondage straps, and he claimed to have become a MTF transsexual, which he later stopped, and went back to a male character(still sexualized).

As if it couldn't get any worse, well it did. He apparently joined some kind of porn or webcam website, and would post pictures/videos of his REAL genitals, and send it to me and a few other friends, who were thoroughly creeped out.

Then he disappeared again..

What could've changed him?

I brought Jellyfish Salad from a Chinese restaurant back home in a takeout box, but I can't find any information about how long it is safe to keep it(assuming it's fairly fresh).

The only information I can find is that they can spoil within hours after being caught and not processed right away, but it doesn't say about jellyfish that has already been prepared/cooked to eat.

Does anyone who has experience with jellyfish as food have any idea? Is it similar to any other seafood?

For example, if you went diving underwater and swam into an underwater cave, then swam upwards, and found there was air at the top inside of it due to pressure(like an upside-down cup pushed down into water), what is that called?

Is there a specific name for it that I can search for on Wikipedia and read more about it?

A yukata where one sleeve is left hanging down the side instead of being worn on the arm, and usually the person wears bandage wrap over their abdomen.

I have seen this a few times in Japanese media(anime/games), but I cannot identify what it's called, or if there's specific reasons to wear it this way, or any history behind it.

Is it a yakuza or samurai thing? Does it have a function, like mobility? Is it a fashion trend or status symbol? Is it just an anime thing?

This is an image of what I'm trying to describe(but I usually see it on males).

http://i.imgur.com/ILGVIEr.jpg

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs32/f/2008/223/f/a/fa1...

http://navitoworld.com/shop/images/shishio_makoto_...

I don't think I have any kind of eye conditions besides nearsightedness, but...

All of my life I have noticed that sometimes my vision will lose focus when I'm relaxed, and it causes me to sort of do this slight eye-cross thing that blurs my vision. It's probably unnoticeable if you look at me, but I can clearly see my vision going blurry and physically feel my eyes turn slightly closer towards each other.

It's not really involuntary, because I can control it 100%(and can do it by will too), but it seems to go like that by default sometimes without thinking, and I will have to really focus to get my vision normal again. I notice it happens a bit more often when I stare at something specific on my computer screen.

It's a lot like trying to get a bad thought out of your head... your mind is wanting to think about it, but you yourself know you have to keep distracting your mind away from it.

It's not a problem right now, but I just want to know if it's normal or not, or maybe it could lead to something in the future if I don't keep my eyes focused. It's so tempting to just keep staring at something with it un-focused because it just feels so relaxing, but at the same time it worries me because I don't want my vision getting worse.

I don't really have any health problems that I can think of that could be a reason for this, unless mental health counts... I do have mild depression and anxiety, but doubt that affects eyes.

I was walking by a Claire's accessory store in the mall recently, and something caught my eye...

A black mini top hat.

It was the same exact top hat that I had bought from a Chinese seller on eBay for about $2.80, with free shipping.

Everything about it was the exactly the same. The feathers used, the lace with the polka-dotted pattern, the clips underneath, and the laced brim.

The only difference was that the material of the hat itself was slightly different, like they just covered the original hat material with a different black fabric(one was satin and one was velvet).

What bothered me most, was that the price of the hats was greatly marked up, to $12.50. That's pretty much $10 more, and a huge percentage markup from the $2 I spent.

I do know this hat has several listings from different sellers on eBay as well, but I am not familiar with law regarding overseas trade or resale, and this has gotten me curious.

Is this a common or legal business practice for well-known mall stores to do? If not, do they require some sort of license allowing them to do this?

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if it's legal, and I can accept it if it is, but still it's kind of a surprise to me, since I used to always shop there as a kid, before I had the internet or income.

I have 2 small red ear slider turtles, and they're really gentle and docile... they never bite or fight each other.

However, as they grew I noticed something.

When I feed them, they become really competitive, racing over to the food and often they will rush to the same food pellets rather than going for the plenty of food pellets on the other side of the tank.

This results in them always climbing over each other and sometimes as a response, the one being climbed over or pushed will bite at the other turtle. I don't know if this is healthy or normal behavior, or if it hurts the other turtle.

Is this abnormal or harmful behavior, or is it something I should just not mind? I don't really like the idea of separating them since we only have one small-ish tank for them, so I only would do it if it's something vital to their health.

I haven't noticed any visible injuries.

I have a friend who I have known for a few years, since high school, and so I know her as a friend who has always been very shy like me. We met through a school counselor, and I had been going to therapy for my shyness. I am unsure if she has had any therapy outside of school. I am diagnosed with depression and anxiety being the cause for my shyness, but I am unsure if she has the same or something else.

We were both so shy that we would write notes or chat online to converse with each other instead of using our voice, and we still do write notes to chat. She only really uses her voice if she is ordering food at a restaurant or something, and the few times I do hear her, it's very mumbled and quiet.

After some years of not seeing her, I met with her again and she didn't seem too different, except she would occasionally have these whispered verbal ticks of nonsense? I could never understand it, and it seemed really strange, like chanting clear gibberish in a whisper... Usually in public places she would do it, but I don't think anyone else was ever close enough to hear it. She never seemed upset or anything as usual, so I assumed everything was fine, besides the whispering.

Now, after about 1-2 years of not seeing her since I noticed her whispering thing, her dad notified my dad about her dog having passed away, and that she apparently does not do anything at all anymore since that, except stay in her room or in the bathroom to wash her hands...

So since he has been insisting on us meeting again, we've been doing that.

However, I noticed that along with all of her behavior from before, whenever we're at her or my house, she becomes far more strange now.

Every time I come over to her house, she is almost always in the bathroom, and I often see her in this "about to cry" mood, hiding her face or unenthusiastic about doing anything. It seems to get even worse when her family is around, especially her dad. I do notice that he is very impatient and pushy with her, and he has a very loud voice too. She often gets upset and sometimes has this difficult breathing/gasping motion like she's crying(but without the tears) when he pressures or rushes her too much at once.

When I visited her once before(years ago), I had seen her dad yell at her for not doing dishes and she didn't seem upset at all back then... but now even with him just talking to her normally, she seems upset. It seems she is sort of losing control of that and maybe she has always been suppressing any upset mood towards him all these years?

She has a sister who is the epitome of talkative.

The most baffling to me, is that she goes to the bathroom every few seconds to wash her hands. She comes out with wet hands(only sometimes drying them halfway), and doesn't seem to mind getting things she touches wet.

Sometimes she will even go to the bathroom to wash them, come out, but turn around and just go right back in again before she's even come back to the room. Is this some extreme form of OCD? Whenever I search about hand-washing obsession, I only see information about OCD or germaphobia, which I don't really know if she has either, because she only seems obsessed with hand-washing, from what I can tell. She doesn't have problems doing other things like eating, and she acts normal(for the most part) when we go out in public to shop or hangout...

I have tried asking her by writing why her hands are always wet, but she just writes something like, "Sorry, I'm feeling really hot", but I don't understand it because we live in ~60 degree(F) temperature and she was wearing a short-sleeve shirt. Is she just making up excuses? She seems to make excuses about not being able to get on her computer as well, which is the easiest way for me to talk and hang out with her. When she cries in my bathroom, I will write asking if she's okay, and she completely avoids the question, changing the subject.

Because of this, I'm sort of obligated to meet with her, whether I want to or not. I don't want to refuse because I'm afraid it would make her condition worse, but if I have to keep putting up with it, I feel like I'm torturing myself.

We're not exactly close friends, and I'm no saint, but I still get concerned seeing her like this, especially since I've gotten so much better with my shyness, yet she's been getting worse, since we met.

Does anyone know what might be the best way to deal with this?

Should I just endure and keep meeting with her(I can't solve her problems)? Should her parents be sending her to a psychiatrist/therapist? Would the therapist/psychiatrist be able to do anything even?

I have a friend who... well... he stinks very strongly of body odor or sweat.

When we first met, he smelled very clean and soapy, but the second time, he smelled as if he hadn't showered for months. He had a very strong sweaty or musty smell.

I do know he has Cerebral Palsy, but don't think it connects fully to body odor, does it? Another friend who knows him better than me tells me he never showers, so that is likely. However, when I ask him myself, he denies it and says he showers everyday.

Recently he told me it was because he was allergic to wheat, and that it was his guts causing the smell... but I don't understand how that could be, because it doesn't smell like guts or farts, it smells like just old sweat.

Another thing causing my suspicion is that he had been addicted to WOW for a long time(not sure if he still is), and so that could be another potential reason for someone to not care about their hygiene. I understand the feeling because I also do not shower much and play a lot of games... but the difference is I shower if I'm going out.

I don't really understand how he can brave it out in public without showering... I'm sure he knows he smells, because we tell him he does.

Could he be lying, or can such allergies really make you smell like that? I do like him as a friend, and am asking this mostly out of concern. Also I don't like the idea of him causing problems for other people in public, which could embarrass him.

I have this pretty big and flat/dented inwards spot on my skull, about the size of a hand palm, at around where it's circled in this photo:

http://oi54.tinypic.com/2928ft3.jpg

I was abused a lot as a kid, and so I'm starting to wonder if my skull was shaped this way because of the abuse. Every day from age 5-7, my great grandma would hit me very hard right on my scalp with a very hard and thick bamboo stick. For some reason it was only me, while my brother and cousins of the same age never were touched.

I also remember a time when my brother and I were playing outside, and he threw a really heavy and big rock in the sky, which somehow landed right on top of my head, so I wonder if that could also have helped to dent my head.

I am not really sure, though, because I think the skull is only soft as a baby, isn't it? Could such sustained trauma in childhood(not as a baby) dent it?

Also, is it possible for such a dent to be an influence in developing mental illnesses? I do have therapist-diagnosed clinical depression and anxiety, though I had always believed it was caused by social trauma... Lately I sometimes wonder if there is a physical cause along with it, such as physical trauma and nutrient deficiency.

I've been noticing that gradually I'm becoming weaker, or more sensitive to sore/strains.

In particular, I've been a bit worried about my fingers. They get tired and sore so easily, while my arms are fine. It makes it very hard for me to try exercising my upper arms with weights.

When I go out for a power-walk, run, etc, I find my muscles sore afterwards for nearly a week.

I've always had foot problems from going out and just standing or walking normally as well. My feet would get so tired and achy when shopping with parents, and they don't seem to feel/understand my pain, forcing me to endure it until we get home, and my feet bottom are pulsing and red.

I do live a very lax lifestyle, constantly indoors on the computer playing games and rarely exercise, so I wondered if it might be some sort of atrophy. I'm not sure, though, because it doesn't really feel like "tiredness" as much as it feels just "sore".

Could it be my skin? I do often feel like my skin will break if I try too hard, but don't really get blisters, just soreness. I can't tell if the sore feeling is at my skin, muscle, or bone/joint, it may be a little of all of them. The pain I get on my feet from walking for long periods of time does not feel like skin pain, though. For my feet, it feels more like I've been putting too much pressure on the heels, which I don't think I do. Shoe pads don't help much.

Besides the pain, the worst that I can actually see is some redness and warmth, but it goes away after a while.

Things that put a strain on my fingers are carrying a filled shopping basket, playing a button-masher game, and opening jars.

I play the piano, draw, and type a LOT, but don't get sores from these, so maybe it's weight-related? Should I try weight-training my fingers, or will it only strain them more?

I'm planning to do archery in school soon, so I am hoping it won't be too hard on my fingers...

If anyone has experience in bows, does pulling the string require more effort on the fingers, or the arms?

I'm starting to worry about myself, because I feel that I am starting to fear more and more about people around me who have severe mental disorders, such as bipolarity or anything potentially violent.

I absolutely do not blame people for it or hate them, and know that it's not something they can control, but I still feel great fear being around them. However, I also fear that I will be labelled as discriminatory for wanting to avoid such people. I do have friends who I enjoy talking with online, but I feel a great fear of ever meeting them in real life, especially if I am alone with them. I've also been noticing that many, if not, all of my friends have some mental issue, though most are harmless. I do not fear things like learning disabilities.

I do have disorders myself, but nothing that I consider myself afraid of, as it is not violent. I have social anxiety and depression, but the most it does it makes me extremely shy, quiet, and socially akward.

I do have a history of a relationship with someone who claimed to be bipolar, and as we broke up he had been showing signs of being a stalker, and it led to a restraining order. We went to the same school, which was meant for mentally/socially disabled high school students, and my therapist there had to warn me about him mentioning harming me or other students, and suggested me to transfer schools and not tell any other students about it.

So, I do think that history does affect my fear of such disorders... but that happened over 5 years ago, and only recently I have started feeling this fear growing.

Also, I think I have stated it before, but I do NOT want to be discriminatory or offend anyone, so please do not say that I am... I fear their disorder, not the person themself. I can make great friends with someone who has bipolar or other scary disorders, and I know they can be geniuses, but I still have a FEAR of their disorder which could make them go out of control. >_<

I fly between San Francisco, California and Narita, Japan every few years, and it usually goes in a normal route that looks like a simple arch. I know this is normal due to flat map's shape compared to a globe but...

This year while it flew from SFO, instead of going across the coast from San Francisco's land to the ocean as per usual, it went north all the way up to the border of Canada and Washington's land before finally flying over the ocean...

Does anyone know why it did this?

My grandpa in Okinawa has a Sanshin, but I've never learnt how to play any string instruments, and am also afraid that if I try, I might break it.

I want to know if it's difficult to learn how to play a Sanshin. I currently cannot play any instruments or read music properly. How difficult or easy would you say it might be, compared to other instruments?

I have a synthesizer, but do not know how to properly play it(for some reason I can only play a short part of the titanic theme by memory ever since I was a kid).

Does anyone know if classes for vocals(music) in community colleges require you to sing in front of the whole class? Or do they usually have you sing privately with the instructor? I'd like to improve my singing, but am too shy to do it in front of others. Thanks.

Let's say I want to start a small online game, and wanted strict guidelines on who to hire for PR/Moderator/GM work.

I am wanting to know whether it is considered against the law(USA/Canada) for us to clearly state that we cannot allow mentally/emotionally unstable people to work as a volunteer.

There is no profit or money involved, and it is all within the internet as a fan-based community, so I am not sure whether the law applies here. I thought it would be best to ask for some input to be safe.

Thanks.