HBPattskyn

We just moved into a new house and a friend came over to help me in the garden. She was wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and socks. I was barefooted and in a skirt. She is complaining that she got poison ivy on her legs. I haven't seen any in the yard, but I'm not claiming to be an expert on what it looks like, either (I have since looked it and poison sumac and oak up so I can go back through the yard and check).

I'm just perplexed how, since we were working right next to each other the whole time, she got it *through* her jeans and socks and me in my bare legs didn't get it. I always thought that clothing protected you from poisonous plants.

I'm in the market for a new laptop and I want one that will actually handle the only game I play (Sims 3). I didn't do my homework before buying my current laptop and I've never been happy with it. Among other things, the Sims are constantly crashing because the video card is woefully indequate. (And I purchased it with the "help" of 2 sales associates).

I'm doing my homework this time around. I have a pretty good idea of the range of graphics cards I need and how much money I have to spend. Other than wanting to be able to play the Sims (without constant crashes and lags/freezes), my demands are pretty light. I'm an author. I need to run Office and the Internet. I do a little movie making (software: Wondershare, nothing complicated, I've just done a book trailer) and some very minor graphic art (again book related, I'm not doing my own covers or running a heavy duty graphics program).

My more specific question is: when I look on sites for gamers/gaming laptops, I don't see any HP laptops. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what's wrong with something like the HP Envy 15 (i7 quad core, NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M (2 GB dedicated) graphics card, 8 GB DDR3 memory, 750 GB 5400 rpm SATA hard drive http://shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/product... The audio looks middle of the road, but anything is going to be better than the tin speakers in my Toshiba (not to knock Toshiba, but playing music sucks).

Other machines I'm looking at are a more or less comprable (okay, can't suss out the right spelling and spell check is being uncooperative) Asus, MSI, and Sager. Asus and HP came recommended by some of my writer-friends. Sager and MSI are totally new to me. (http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-noteb...

I want to buy a good computer (for my price range) and be done with this for a while (at *least* five years). I use my laptop every day to write (upside: I can write it off as a business expense as long as I don't go overboard on the budget!)

Thanks in advance, all advice is heartily welcomed :)

Please let me be clear, I'm an author. (I've asked questions before and gotten sniped at to either do my own homework or by people assuming I'm looking for an insult to use on a real person, not a fictional one).

Here's the paragraph:

Ivan gave him a long measured look. “Okay. So maybe you’re ‘just friends.’” He didn’t sound like he believed it. “I know you’re good boy, Pasha. I know you don’t mean to do wrong things. But maybe Amy’s drook—what’s his name? Leon? Maybe this Leon no like her having….” He hesitated, as if searching for the right word. Failing to find it in English, he said in Russian, “Bleezkiy drook.” [Близкий друг] A male friend—someone close, but not romantic. “Maybe he thinks you trying to steal her, huh? Why cause trouble between them? Let Amy be. It’s no good to go sniffing around skirt of another man’s woman.”

Is Близкий друг used correctly here?

Thanks!!

I'm a fairly novice gamer; I love the Sims 3, but haven't played much else. I'm hoping for a recommendation for a good World/Empire building game. (Ages ago, I played Pharaoh and whatever the Greek/Roman equivalent Empires were and *loved* them, but they're a little simplistic. I want something bigger :) (What I love about the Sims: building and legacies, but instead of dealing with an individual family, I'd like something where I'm dealing with a country or region.)

What I don't want is a game that requires a constant Internet connection. I game to get away from people, not to interact with them (not to mention, I might like to take my game on the train or somewhere else w/o wifi). I play on PC and have a fairly newish laptop (it plays the Sims 3 with no more than the usual crashes/problems pretty much everyone seems to have).

Any suggestions?

If a Russian man wants to insult his daughter in law what are some of the phrases he might use (and their translations?) I'm not looking for really harsh language (i.e. swear words, those are easy to find), just something along the lines of "that shrew" or something to imply she's no good for the son, Dad disapproves of her, etc.

Thanks bunches!

We're getting desperate. Our formerly very good kitty has refused to use her littler box for over a year. We have two cats and four litter boxes; two are covered, two are uncovered. Three are on the main floor, one is in the basement. While not perfect, they're scooped at least every other day and changed regularly about twice a week. (And seriously she will dedicate in the same spot right on top of her previous mess--and yes, I do clean it up, but there have been a few times when it's taken a few days to locate her new spot because she hides it so well).

Kitty doesn't have any health problems--and she doesn't go everywhere, just in a few select places. But then when we put a litter box there, she picks a new favorite patch of carpet.

We've tried retraining her, isolating her in a small bathroom with food in one corner, liter in another and bedding in the third--and there she uses the box. The second we let her out, it's back to the carpet.

I seriously cannot live like this any more. The last thing I want to do is take her to a shelter, she used to be such a wonderful companion and friend, but I can't have my house smelling like a toilet, either. It's unsanitary and it's really embarrassing.

I'm trying to put together an article on the Q in LGBTQ--but the Q is the letter I understand the least, so I'm appealing to the Yahoo community for help.

I'm hoping for personal insight, not just definitions (I could get those in a Google search).

I welcome all comments, but have a couple of questions, too:

If there was one thing you could tell people about being "Q", what would it be?

What does being "Q" mean to you, personally?

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm an m/m author and will be using the information gathered here (and elsewhere) to write up a short article for my blog, which will be posted during the three days of the Blog Hop Against Homophobia. My blog is usually pretty light and fluffy, but that doesn't mean I don't take important issues seriously or that I don't intend to treat this issue with the respect it deserves.

Thanks much,

Helen

thylacine.yawn@gmail.com

helenpattskyn.com

I'm writing up a short article on transgender issues later on this month (it's going to be posted on my blog); but I'm not transgender. I can look at it from the outside in, but what I'd really like is some feedback/insight from folks actually living as either m-to-f or f-to-m -- people who wish they could make the transition for whatever reason are unable to.

I welcome all comments, but I've got a couple of questions as well:

First please let me know whether you're m-to-f or f-to-m, because I'm doing to articles, one focusing on each.

What is the one thing you wish other people could understand about being trans?

What is the hardest part of your situation?

If you want to contact me privately, please feel free to do so: thylacine.yawn@gmail.com

I'm going to leave "best answer" up to voters, because all honest answers are the best answers!

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm an m/m author, participating in the Hop Against Homophobia; I want to use the increased blog traffic on those days to spotlight trans and Q issues because they seem to be some of the least well understood. (I don't understand Q at all, but that's a separate question).

Yes, my blog is usually pretty light and fluffy--this subject isn't and I don't intend to treat it that way.

Thanks for your help!

Twice I've drawn the 3 of wands (single card reading) when asking this question: "What would seriously happen if this was my last day at my job?" (I'm not expecting to get fired, I'm wanting to quit.) I don't need all the usual common sense advice (I have that in spades coming from my own head, which is why I'm still there), just wondering how another reader would interpret this one.

Just a survey question. Would you date someone who is HIV Positive?

Why, or why not?

Thanks!

Why, or why not? This is literally a survey question, I'm not looking for advice (or dating anyone myself ;-)

Thanks much, I appreciate your time!

I've Googled it, but not found any solid information. What incense would you use for a Norse ritual? Any clues?

Thanks much!

I've put out so many applications, I have totally lost track of who all I've applied to. Yesterday, I finally got a call for an interview, but even though I set it up for tomorrow morning, I realize it is for a job I desperately don't want. It's a job I could do. It's job I've done in the past. It's a field I'm trying to break out of (in fact, I have a degree in a totally different field), but because it's where most of my experience lies, I'm feeling like I'm stuck...

I also feel like I *have* to go on this interview (they called me, they're obviously interested) and if offered the job, I know I would take it. I keep telling myself that maybe I'll love it, it might just be the best job I ever had, and I know I'll go into the interview with an outwardly positive attitude, regardless of how much I don't want them to even offer me the position.

My husband thinks I should just cancel and keep looking.

Thoughts? Advice?

I Absolutely must find a job by January, it isn't an option, but we're relatively okay until then.

I don't mean to insult anybody and I'm not passing judgment, I'm just asking because I honestly want to know what motivates a person to summon forth a demonic presence.

Now, BEFORE YOU ANSWER:

NO flames (no pun intended!)

NO "there's no such thing as demons" replies

NO religious rhetoric (i.e., please do not go on at me about how evil demons are and how one should fight them by praying the rosary or whatever.)

I'm asking an honest question and I would appreciate honest replies.

Thank you!!

I'm a female writer and have caught a little (well intentioned) flack from my critique group so I decided to pose a question here; I've only got a couple of friends I can ask and wanted to try and get a wider perspective on the answer. Thank you in advance for indulging me!

Guys: When you meet someone you take a fancy to, what do you feel? (E.g., in the past, when I've met someone I was attracted to, I felt a little bit of a flutter in my stomach, or I'd catch myself smiling and staring. My husband tells me that about sums it up for guys, too, but the guys in my writers' group tell me that most men *don't* react that way, that a man's breath doesn't hitch in his throat when the stranger he's attracted to suddenly starts flirting with him, that a guy wouldn't get all tongue tied and flustered--in other words that I'm writing my gay male lead too much like a woman and I need to learn to better think like a man. Which is a fair criticism, seeing as I am a woman and my perspective is limited by my experiences.)

Last details: I am writing for a female audience, and the character in question is 22; he's comfortable in his sexuality.

Thanks again!

A friend of mine looked over my resume the other day and told me I needed to add my Twitter and Facebook info to my contact information. I graduated just a couple of years ago, and when we talked about resumes (in more than one class), Facebook and Twitter never entered into it (my field is library science, if that makes any difference.)

What do other people think? I have to admit, to me it seems a little unprofessional to add social networking information to a resume, but maybe it's the next trend? You tell me.

Thanks!

Both cards are about loss, about not seeing what you've got in front of you (or in the case of the five, about not seeing the cups you still have.) So what is the difference between these two cards?

My 15 year old wants to see it, but I'm leery about the sexual content. Opinions? (I'm a little bit of a prude when it comes to what my daughter sees... but by the same token, she's really not quite a little kid any more and I'm trying so hard not to treat her like one. I was about her age when I saw my first R rated movie. Of course it was the Terminator... so....)

I'm not sure how to ask this "politely", but I'm going to do my best, so please bear with me. I'm a woman and a writer, and lately my writing has become increasingly m/m. There are lots of things I know enough about from personal experience, but one thing a woman can't experience is what anal sex feels like for a man (from the perspective of the bottom). I've done plenty of reading so I know the "theory", but if anyone is brave enough to give me a little (tactful, please) insight, I would appreciate it. Just please keep it clean enough for a public forum.

~Helen

I have an odd question. I was just told that no one in the UK uses stove top tea kettles any more. It seems odd, because at least on my side of the atlantic lots of people still use them. I was wondering how true it was, does honestly everybody in the UK use electric kettles to heat water? (Or am I honestly just that old fashioned that I would never bother with an electric tea kettle ;-)