Brian

I have a Vizio TV and a Samsung soundbar. I d really like a remote where I can program the volume button to control the soundbar and everything else to control the TV. I don t want to switch to a different programming just to change the volume. Is there a remote like this? Preferably under $15

I work in a small office of four people. It's me, the president (my boss), and two others. Me and the my boss are on salary and the other two are hourly. I show up at 8am every day. My boss told me that I only have to stay until I finish my work. I try to spread my work out, but if I really set down to it, I could probably finish my work by noon each day. Regardless, I stay at least until 3 each day in case something comes up that they need me for. I don't leave early EVERY day either; about 2-3 times a week.

I think me leaving early sometimes is making one of my co-workers bitter. She doesn't have anything to do either, but since she is hourly, she has to stay until 4:30 to get paid for the day. Usually by the time I leave (even when I leave at 3) my boss has long since left for the day. Once in a while, I am required to stay late or come early and obviously I don't get paid more for that. My boss hasn't expressed concern to me for leaving early after he has left.

What are your thoughts on this? Should I stop leaving early? Would it be okay for me to start leaving even earlier (say, around 1pm) if I'm done? Should I bring this up with my boss or keep my mouth shut?

I've had my little betta for about 5 months now, and suddenly he's become sick. His eyes got all puffy, he stopped eating, and his scales are raised up like a pine cone. Everywhere I read says that he's a goner, but he looks so miserable.

I really love this fish and I want to at least make him more comfortable before he passes. Is there any way to do that? We've been changing 50% of his water every day since he started looking sick. I just don't want him to be in pain (he keeps moving his mouth and comes up for air WAY more than normal). If not, should we euthanize him? And what would be the least painful way to do that?

=(

I read that since they are closer to the ceiling, the air flow is greatly reduced. But the flush-mount ones are so much cheaper. Will they still work just as well? My ceilings are about 8' high.

I'm putting my e-mail address on my resume and want to know if it's a professional enough e-mail address. My name is Brian Roger Blaine, so would it professional for my e-mail address to be BrianRBla@somewhere.com

I didn't include the actual domain for my e-mail or my real name, but you can get the picture. Thanks.

After doing some reading, I've decided to get a shotgun strictly for home defense purposes. Right now I live just with my wife in a small 640 square foot apartment. I only have a little bit of experience with guns.

I'd like to get a shotgun and attach a tactical light and (possibly) a laser sight. It doesn't have to be fancy, as I'm only using it to defend a small apartment. I figure smaller would be better so it doesn't get in my way if I'm trying to move around my home with it.

Which firearm would you recommend? Would a tactical shotgun be better for moving around the house? What else should I know before buying?

I would like to get everything for under $300.

I live in California.

I'm 25 and my mom keeps pestering me to come home and visit this weekend. They have little family gatherings about twice a year with my parents and mom's side of the family. I just got married a few months ago and saw them all then, but she keeps insisting. The gathering is about a 5-hour drive away.

I have two problems. One, it's really stressful for me to go home; my parents are insufferable and I don't want to subject my wife to that. Two, we're living on one income right now as my wife finishes up college. We're doing fine, but the gas money and cost to get a hotel (we're NOT going to stay at my parent's place; they will pester us to no end) would be our entire discretionary income for the entire month. We wouldn't be able to do anything else that whole month if we went down there, and on top of that it would do nothing but stress us out. And three months down the road they will have another reason why we have to come down and it will all happen again.

I don't want to tell my parents the truth (that they just make me stressed out). What can I tell them to get out of going home?

My wife has this friend that just really frustrates me for some reason. This friend of hers is really incompetent;

*She's boring. She has never had an interesting thing to say as long as I've known her.

*She is hard to get along with and easily offended.

*She runs the powerpoint slides at church sometimes and her timing is way behind, messing everyone up. It is NOT hard to run those slides.

*She took pictures for a church event one time with her really expensive camera, they came out blurry and terrible, and she still wanted to charge for them.

*She's in college but fails most of her classes despite having an easy major and no job to distract her (her parents are paying for what I call her "failure tuition")

*She's plain looking, fat, and makes no attempt to make herself look the least bit more attractive. She just throws on baggy shorts and a men's t-shirt or flannel and no makeup.

*She uses my wife to tell all her stupid petty little problems to.

So I don't really have to interact with her save for a couple minutes at church each week. My wife knows I don't like her, so when she comes over she makes sure her friend leaves before I get home. I'm just annoyed because I think she's a waste of time. I feel like my wife should have better taste in friends. I've tried giving her a chance and invited her and her boyfriend (also a pretty dull dude) over for dinner. It was the most dull, boring dinner of my life.

I suppose that since I don't have to really interact with her, it's not a big deal. But I just get annoyed because I think she's a waste of space. Like, I feel like she's not even worth the 5 cents it takes to turn on a light while she's there visiting at my apartment each week. So whenever I see her I'm reminded of that and frustrated.

We're all in our early 20's.

How should I deal with my wife's annoying friend?

I'm sure there are a bunch of little details that I'm overlooking here, but simply put; I don't know a whole lot about guns. I've shot guns before, but never looked into buying one. Now I'm married and would like one to defend my wife just in case someone wanted to break into our small apartment. I've decided on a revolver; I don't want to worry about loading clips and I need something that will fit in my small 9x11.5" safe. I won't be using it for recreation and I don't need any of the fancies or a caliber big enough to shoot through a brick wall; just enough to disable someone from 20 or so feet away.

Can you please recommend one or a few and give me a basic idea of price? Thanks.

My wife and I got married 17 days ago and never had sex before that. She is on birth control pills and missed her period a week ago (which is normal for these pills). For the past four days she complained of cramps that feel like menstrual cramps. She hasn't had any cramps since she started taking the pills until now. She also has light headaches, a bit of nausea before she gets out of bed, and says her hormone levels feel "funny".

I read somewhere that early pregnancy symptoms are caused by the pregnancy hormone, so should the pregnancy test detect it? We're using the First Response ones.

She started taking the birth control pills (lo loestrin fe) a few months ago and we only started having sex once we got married. We use only the pills as protection, and we generally have sex every day. She always takes the pills on time and never misses a pill. Two nights ago and this morning she took pregnancy tests and they both came back negative. Could she be pregnant so soon - just 17 days into our marriage?

My wife and I got married 16 days ago and never had sex before that. She is on birth control pills and missed her period a week ago (which is normal for these pills). Yesterday and the day before she complained of cramps that feel like menstrual cramps. She hasn't had any cramps since she started taking the pills until now. She also has light headaches and says her hormone levels feel "funny".

She started taking the birth control pills (lo loestrin fe) a few months ago and we only started having sex once we got married. We use only the pills as protection, and we generally have sex every day. Last night she took a pregnancy test and it came back negative. Could she be pregnant so soon - just 16 days into our marriage?

I'm thinking about spending a few months out on the road, driving around the US. I would probably sleep in my car most of the time, but I would like to be able to shower somewhere without renting a motel room or something. Assuming I'm in a major city or something, where could I shower for free (or just a few bucks)?

I've been dating this girl for about a month. We're starting to get pretty serious but she's hesitant about making it official. She says that, if we were to get married, she's not sure I would protect her. Protect her from what? And what can I do to make her feel protected? She has never dated before. We're both adults.

I have this friend and we've been hanging out for about a month now. Whenever we're alone together, we're snuggling or holding hands or (sometimes) kissing. But about three times now she has told me that she doesn't want to start dating me because I'm moving too fast and she doesn't know me that well. And then the next day we go right back to snuggling and going out and stuff. But I'm tired of that, I want to date her officially, and be boyfriend and girlfriend.

Also, we hang out a lot and we talk about all kinds of stuff together. She is just entering college and I graduated last year, so we're six years apart. And she has never dated before. So what should I do to get her to date me?

So I met this girl at church, and immediately we hit it off. After a few weeks of seeing each other at church, we started hanging out together. We'd cuddle with each other and kiss whenever we were alone, and we talk about everything. After about 10 days of that, she tells me she likes me, but isn't sure if she wants to date me. But the day after that we went to the lake together, and it was more intense cuddling and really couple-y stuff. (btw, we've never gone beyond just kissing and don't plan to)

A few days later she tells me that she considered all that previous stuff as dates, and now she really just wants to be friends. And a week after that, we hang out again and it's back to just us cuddling and being just like before.

So I know she just doesn't know what she wants, and she's never dated before. Also we're both adults; she is just starting college and I graduated from college last year. I think if I just keep on what we've been doing, she'll eventually figure out what she wants. I could use some insight.

And no rude comments please, thanks.

I saw that the game takes place over 72 hours.

1. How fast does an hour pass in this game?

2. Also, if you don't finish it in the 72 hours does that mean you have to start all over?

3. I heard the saving is weird, or like you can't save. What is the saving like in this game...like are there any problems with it?

I guess I just need some encouragement. I'm turning 24 soon. Ever since my 12th birthday I've always hated having birthdays. I never tell people when it's my birthday or when it's coming up. I guess it's like, people don't really see me as special any other day and I just fear that if I have a party or something, a bunch of people won't come and I'll find out who really doesn't give a crap about me.

And now that I'm turning 24 I feel like everyone my age is getting married already, like younger people think I'm too old and people my age are all already pairing off and I just missed the train.

Is this normal?

So, to premise: I'm a strong Christian believer, and about a year ago I really felt like God was telling me to marry this friend of mine. So I made her my girlfriend. But after eight months, she broke up with me.

That was five months ago. Ever since then, I've been moving on, trying to get over her. We haven't spoken or even seen each other in four months. But since the night we broke up, every week, at least once or twice a week, I've been having dreams about her. They're never the same dream, but they usually involve us running into each other and in these dreams we're snuggling, holding hands, hugging, like we're back together.

I've been having these dreams for five months and I just keep wondering if they mean something!

When I started my job six months ago, I was part-time and signed a work agreement (at-will, in California) that said I would stay under 30 hours for part time.

A month ago I became a full-time employee. My boss was supposed to give me a new agreement to sign, but she has been neglecting it. I have all of the employee benefits, I'm working 40 hours per week, I just haven't signed the agreement. Is there any reason for me to pressure her to get that agreement ready? For example, legal reasons, or if I become unemployed, would it make a difference?

Every weekend after work (around midnight) my coworkers invite me out to the nearby sports bar. I've only gone with them once, and I barely ever drink to begin with, so I had no idea what to order. So I just ordered a beer so they wouldn't give me a hard time. But I honestly find beer repulsive (they gave me a hard time anyway because I took like 90 minutes to drink the small beer).

So what drinks could I order? I like fruity drinks, but those seem girlie. Is a screwdriver considered manly? I'd also like to be able to drive home afterwards. Please give me some suggestions.

Also, don't know if it matters, but I'm 23.