billybobthemonkey92

Hello,

I woke up this morning around 10 AM to the back of my hand feeling like it was bruised. I didn't think anything of it, and didn't check (haha, yeah, I was being oblivious). It wasn't until an hour or so later, when I happened to look at my hand when making a fist, and realizing that it looked rounder than it's supposed to be. Upon further inspection, I saw that it was quite swollen, and you can see a relatively defined circle of swelling and redness. There's no other discoloration besides the redness, but it feels like it's bruised. Making a fist, stretching out my hand, moving it around, and shaking it all feel like it's bruised. Palpating, lightly scratching, and otherwise tapping it also feel like it's bruised. After I noticed it, it also started itching. Throughout the day, it's sometimes not too bad, but sometimes it itches like no other. It also feels a little warmer than the surrounding skin, but not hot.

I figured it was a bug bite of some kind that I got an allergic reaction to, but I can't see the any entry wounds. Usually, with mosquito and flea bites, I can find where they bit me and squeeze some of the venom out. But with this thing, I can't find the bite, and I can't pinpoint where it itches. The entire swollen part just itches.

It's now 9 PM, and it hasn't really grown in size I don't think, but there's been flashes of increased pain. Not to an unbearable level, but just uncomfortable. I've had no other reactions anywhere else in terms of nausea or anything like that. The last time I had something similar was when I was in Taiwan and got bitten by one of their nastier mosquitoes that aren't native to here. And that bite spread like crazy (1 inch in diameter to covering half my hand and entire arm in a matter of a few hours). So I'm pretty sure it's not the same thing.

I'll get it checked out if the swelling doesn't go down or if it gets worse by tomorrow, but any ideas on what it is and how to treat? Hydrocortisone cream doesn't work on me.

My brother is being a turd. He'll be 22 come March, and he's still living at home, leeching off of my mother. After a rather serious argument last night, my mom's on the edge, and really wants to kick him out now, though she's been thinking about it for some time. My brother claims that my mother cannot kick him out because the house is jointly signed by my father, who doesn't live with us. He lives in Taiwan, and though they are still legally married, have been separated for some time.

My brother does not contribute to the payment of the house. My mother still provides some meals for him (though he complains they are not to his taste, so he often goes out and buy food), pays for the house, his car insurance, and his phone bill (under family plan). My brother claims to have done plenty, including paying for his financial aid, his own gas money, and plenty of his own meals, though he pays this with his over abundance of financial aid when he was still a full time student. I know there was some issue with his finaid this last semester since he was technically part time. I don't know what he is now. He's in his fourth year at a community college. I think he got more than me too, even though I go to a 4-year university, and my other brother who, at the time, was in culinary school.

So, does what my brother say have any weight to it? Can my mom really not kick him out?

Hi, I bought an Acer Aspire One 722 netbook a couple months ago and it's been working fine until tonight. All of a sudden, wireless Internet dropped, and the display keeps going completely dark (all the way down to 0) instead of dimming from inactivity every 10 minutes or so. I've already gone through the usual control panel stuff, and it's still not working.

As for Internet, all I was doing was watching Netflix. I only had one tab open. And it's not a modem or router issue because I've already checked those. Plus, my roommate's Internet is working.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Hello, my roommate's towel smells absolutely horrid. It smells like really, really intense B.O. mixed with some foul sour smell. She also has the habit of closing the bathroom door after use (even after showering and is still super humid in the bathroom, no windows either), and this in turn causes the entire bathroom to smell of her towels. Sometimes, it gets so bad that the smell even clings to my towels. If her towel even overlaps mine a little bit, the sections that get overlapped smell like that foul B.O. smell as well. At first, I thought it was just me that could smell it, but after asking some other friends, they all agreed and were repulsed by the smell.

I've asked my roommate to please leave the door open after she showers at the very least, but completely dismissed me saying that it was a habit she's had for 19 years, and not something she can break easily. I also just found out recently that she only does laundry once every THREE weeks. And I'm pretty sure she doesn't wash her towels every time either. How she "cleans" it in between laundry cycles is she... uh... 409's it? She's not here for the weekend, so I plan on boiling her towels with some vinegar, but how do I tell her her towels smell so bad, they made my eyes water and cause me to cough whenever I catch a whiff?

Does anyone have any suggestions to get rid of the smell?

I have a relatively new HP laptop. My mom is trying to get a disc to read the the laptop's optical drive used to be able to read, but now cannot. The CD itself has no issues as it's readable on both my Macbook Pro and a separate Windows laptop. My mom tells me that the issue started when she tried to burn some files onto a blank DVD, but it didn't work and a bunch of messaged popped up. She didn't know what they were talking about, but for some reason pressed "OK" for all of them. She doesn't recall what they said. -_-

I've tried going through system profile and reconfiguring the drive. I've tried disabling and enabling as well as using the Miscrosoft Fix it Solution thing. I've updated both the optical drive and the entire system as well. I've cleaned the disc, and to no avail. The optical drive isn't broken because it can read pretty much all other discs.

Any suggestions on what to do?

For as long as I can remember, I've always had higher than usual temperature fevers than others, that would last longer. Up until high school, I'd get fevers that would hover around 101-102 degrees that would last 2 or 3 days, then would go down to 100 for the rest of the week before returning back to my normal temp of around 98.6 degrees F. This would occur at least once a year, like clockwork almost. I didn't get those kinds of fevers in high school except one year (but it wasn't as bad). I don't know why.

When I was younger, I had a 106 F fever. It was a bad reactions to the MMR vaccine and was documented by my doctor. It also left a scar on my tooth, and it's what my ophthalmologist thinks damaged my eyes.

But I was wondering if that one high fever had any other long term side effects? The recurrent semi-high fevers is one thing I've always wondered about. And also, I get headaches pretty easily? At least, more commonly than my friends. They're not migraines. Just headaches. Sometimes it's a dull ache towards the front, sometimes it's a sharp pain through the center. Other times, it's like the feeling when you get whacked in the head, or hit your head on something. Those are usually in the back. They get bad when I don't get a lot of sleep, but sometimes, I just get them. Just curious if the high fever may be the cause why I get them more easily than others.

Thanks for any help! :)

I have an Optoma GT720 and an AOC 1080p flatscreen TV. The screen on the TV cracked (but the TV still broadcasts fine), so I wanted to connect it to a secondary screen, like my projector, to watch TV. I just bought an HDMI cable, and connected the two. Both devices only have one single HDMI port. When I connected them, the projector just keeps searching for a signal, then proceeds to tell me there isn't on. I tried switching between all the inputs on the TV (TV, PC, HDMI, AV, S-Video, and YPbPr), but none of them work.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Because of people's, mainly the United States, addiction to fossil fuels, we have created our own Achilles' Heel. Our dependence on it means our dependence on foreign countries that control the oil. As a result of that, and the whole "going green" thing, more and more people have turned to alternative energy sources, namely, biofuels (the most common one being ethanol).

What most people don't know, and what I argue, is that biofuel is bad. Not only for the environment, but for the economy as well. To satisfy human's need for oil, more and more farmland is being converted to plant soybeans, corn, and sugarcane, all vegetable matter that is commonly used for ethanol. These crops are going to refineries to make oil for cars, causing the food shortage that people were going crazy about, about a year ago. Rain forests are also being chopped down at a faster rate to offer more farmland to making biofuel.

What do you think about this? Do you agree or disagree? Convince me that your stance is the correct one.

I sold a textbook on Amazon, and i described the exact condition it was in. Apparently, the buyer (who only bought my book to sell it) claims there to be water damage and is demanding a refund WITH shipping or else they threatened to do an A-Z claim thing.

They should know that damage to the book due to shipping is a risk they take for buying online, especially during a week where it was raining. However, I packaged it incredibly well, so the book would've had to be drenched to be as bad as they make it out to be.

How do I resolve this without issuing a refund?

I'm a high school senior and I want to give a Christmas gift to two of my teachers from previous years who wrote my recommendation letters for college. They're both men, one in his mid 40's the other mid-late 50's. The mid 40's teacher is a World Geography Honors and AP US History teacher, so naturally, he loves politics as well. The other teacher is a biology teacher, and taught me for AP Bio. He's got two sons who have graduated college with PhD's (I think) in some field of biology, and a grandson, who's a toddler. He's retiring at the end of this school year.

We were thinking of giving them gift cards to restaurants, but we don't want to seem cheap, so I don't want to give them gift cards to a restaurant like CPK or something. (I live in Southern California, by the way). Or maybe movie gift certificates, but that seems like something I would give my peers. My friend suggested a book for the history teacher, but he's got loads, and I would want to get him something that stands out from the ones he already has, which is kinda hard to do.

Any ideas? Nothing that I have to make please. I don't have the time or creativity to do that stuff, and frankly, I think those things always look stupid. I want to get them something they can actually use.

I've been told that since I can get a few channels on my TV (like three in HD) that it is in fact a DTV receiver, but I'd need a booster. Would this still hold true if I have satellite TV as well (Dish network)? Or does this mean I have to get some different equipment?

I have a Sony MBD-XBR950 media receiver unit connected to a Sony PDM-4210 display. We got this quite a few years back and it has worked fine. We never watched anything on HD because compared to our old TV, it looked like HiDef. However, as the switch to DTV grew closer, it seemed the quality started deteriorating. Ever since the switch to DTV was made, we can't watch any channels at all, unless we add a "decimal point" to it and there are only a few channels at that. For example, before the DTV switch, Fox was on Ch. 11, now, we don't have it. Channel 11 is just snow. Or before, CBS was on channel 2, now channel 2 is snow, but I can find CBS HD on channel 58.2

Anyway, my main question is, is this receiver a DTV receiver? Or do I have to go buy a digital converter box? If so, what kind, and which one would you recommend?

He has been a US Citizen for about 10 years but has been coming back and forth between Taiwan and the US. His two sons are permanent residents and are coming here to go to school. My uncle has had liver problems and has had a full liver transplant. He has to come here to live for his sons to take care of him. The problem is, they're very poor, but he still has to have regular hospital visits and immuno-depressant medication. My mother has been a US citizen for about 20 years, is currently employed, and pays taxes. Does he qualify for medicaid/medicare? If not, what do you recommend as an insurance option? He's trying to figure out a way to teach classes here as a job when he comes.

I am a US citizen and a minor. I will be in Taiwan for 27 days (leaving on the 27th day at 11:30 AM). Do I need a visa?

Please tell me what college you attended so I can gage my chances of getting in.

I have just finished my junior year in high school and I have a GPA of 4.09 (not including this semester) and I have taken the hardest possible classes each of my high school years. Below, I will list my classes each year, and the grade I received in both semesters in parentheses

Freshmen year I took English Honors 1(B, B), Geometry(A, A), Biology(A, A), Honors World Geography(A, A), Japanese 1(A, A) and PE(A, A).

Sophomore year I took English Honors 2(B, B), Algebra II/Trig(A,B), AP World History(B, A), Chemistry(A, B), Japanese 2 (B, B) and Golf(A, A)

Junior year I took English Honors 3(A, A), AP biology (B,B), AP chemistry(C, ?), AP US history(B, B), Honors Precalculus(B, C), and Golf(A, A)

Senior year I will be taking AP English 4, AP Physics, AP Calculus BC, AP Econ/Gov, and AP Stat.

I've also taken Chinese for 3 years off campus (it counts for credit) and will be taking it next year as well.

I know that the C's are really bad, but to be honest (and I'm not the only one who thinks so, almost the whole class does) the AP Chem teacher was horrible.

For extracurriculars, I've had piano for 11 years and I've passed the Certificate of Merit curriculum, I've had Chinese School for 10 years, and I've gotten a black belt in martial arts (Wushu). On campus, I'm the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper (including next year, 2 years), Treasurer of Key Club (1 year, member for 4 years), VP of MUN (1 year, member for 3 years), Red Cross (member for 3 years), and Social Activism Club (member for 2 years).

I am planning on interning/volunteering at hospitals this summer.

Let's assume that I have two fantastic recommendations letters from my teachers and an average letter of recommendation from the high school counsler. And assume that my personal statement is very well written and unique.

I am Asian American, and my family financial circumstances aren't exactly the best. But they are very willing to let me go to Hopkins if I get in.

A professor at Hopkins (Professor Quinones; neurosugeon, ongologist, and something else, I forgot) already knows my name. I had a chance to intern there this summer, but an administrative person on his team said no 'cause it's too complicated to have out of state high school students intern there. They offered to give me another chance to intern there when I'm 18.

In your opinion, what are my chances of getting into Hopkins?

I've been wanting to get a laptop for a while now, mainly 'cause of portability. I wanted to get something relatively cheap because in a year I'll be going off to college and I'll probably get another system that has more memory and whatnot (probably a desktop or a better laptop). I saw these netbooks and I was wondering which one's better for me. I saw some reviews online but I still can't decide.

I'm primarily going to use it for taking notes, homework, and probably watching videos. I heard that the dell mini 10 does a weird thing with the VLC player, so I'm a bit hesitant on getting that one, and that the aspect ratio/resolution for the screen is weird, but it does come in HD. I like the HP a lot, but I think my brother wants to get that, and I'm guessing he wouldn't like it very much if I got the same thing as him. Plus, I don't like the design of it, and I really like the colors/designs that dell has.

Memory's not a problem for me because I have a 1 TB external hard drive that I'm currently using with my desktop.

What are your opinions? Based on personal experience, which one should I go for?

I am doing an American Writer project for my English Honors class, and I decided to write about Doris Egan and her script for the House Season 5 finale, "Both Sides Now" because it was a fantastic finale and a lot of the themes and criteria my teacher wants us to touch on, is in the storyline.

So, I was wondering if anybody has the script for the season finale of House. It would be much appreciated if you could either send it to me, or direct me to where I can find it.

I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm going there for less than a week (6 days counting the day I arrive in London). I'm 16 and I am a legal citizen of the U.S. Do I need a visa? I read somebody else's Q/A thing and there were a lot of people who said that person didn't need one and a lot that said he did...

I go to a southern californian public high school and we students have created a club called the Social Activism Club. One of our objectives is to show movies that cause viewers to be more socially aware (i.e. Blood Diamond) and potentially cause the viewers to go out and do something about some of the horrific situatons that people of this world are in. Usually for these movies, history teachers over a miniscule amount of extra credit (like 5 points) for going to watch, but they often emphasize that we students should not go to watch the movies purely for the extra credit, but to further educate ourselves about the world we live in. Tonight, we were supposed to show the HBO film "Fast Food Nation" which is mainly about the meat industry in the USA and it actually goes inside a meat disassembly factory to show just where your meat pattie comes from. The film is rated R primarily due to some gruesome shots of the meat factory and also because the main character, an immigrant who has no where else to go for work, gets raped by the boss of the factory in order to keep her job. That part of the film has been cut out of the film by the teacher that is offering his room for the Social Activism club to use. He also is requiring all students who attend the showing to have a parental permission slip to view this rated R movie. This is required to get inside his classroom.

One of his freshmen students complained that this is unfair because she is not allowed to watch rated R movies and therefore is at an unfair disadvantage becuase she won't be getting the tiny amount of extra credit points. Her mom therefore called the Superintendent of our school district to complain about the matter. She said that she did not want to complain directly to the teacher becuase she believes he will treat her daughter differently in class and on grading. This teacher that she's accusing of being biased and unfair (basically a bad teacher) is well loved teacher of the campus and has won the teacher of the year award just two years ago. The superintendent told our teacher that he cannot show the movie unless the principal allows it after viewing the movie. The principal viewed the movie and has just informed that teacher that he believes it should be shown to the students, BUT the superintendent called and decided that the school district is no longer allowing teachers to show rated R films for extra credit becuase it is "unfair." My teacher proceeded to ask the principal that if the club members were to rent a building off campus and has no affiliation with the school and organize an event to show the movie, would it be okay? The principal said that the superintendent will, in all likelihood, say no becuase the club is school affiliated and therefore this cannot happen. Basically this means that, if we club members, as a group of friends (we are mostly all friends) organized an event, like a party, and showed the movie, it would be illegal. Isn't the superintendent superceding his power a bit too much? scratch that, WAY too much?

Just becuase ONE parent is not giving her child permission to view a rated R movie becuase they are very conservative christians (i'm serious, they are), her power gets to over-rule all the parents who allow their children to watch such an educational video? These are kids who actually WANT to be a part of making the world a better place. We are kids who are the leaders of tomorrow hoping to educate ourselves and help educate others in the process so we will make less mistakes compared to current leaders in the future. How is barring the teacher from even showing the film after school hours, and even off campus, right? Especially in the US where we pride ourselves on freedom and uncensorship?

Someone explain to me how this is right. Please feel free to add to my arguments that we students and teachers should be allowed to show these films that cause viewers to become more socially aware as long as parental permission is given if the film is rated R. I'd like to read the opinions of the people.