Therapist recommendations in Orange County / South LA. Specifically for procrastination and laziness issues.I'm nearly very successful, but I can't seem to work quite hard enough. Let me be clear. I'm not someone who's working 50 hours a week, and needs to up it to 100 hours. I have months where I'll barely work 20 decent hours in the whole month. I'm fantastic at the last minute multi-hour last minute cram, but that's no way to live. I'm talented and good at what I do. Better than a lot of people who work harder than I do. I'm productive enough in those 20 hours to keep an apartment rented, my own business running, my utilities paid, and my life chugging along. I know if I could just get myself working regular, full time 40 hours a week I'd be much, much more successful. But at age 40 I haven't been able to manage that. And it's not that I'm enjoying the time I spend lazing around either. I mostly sit around, surf the internet, read, and feel bad that I'm not working like I feel I should. Maybe it's depression, but I don't think so. I work out regularly. Have no trouble sleeping or getting out of bed. I have an ok social life and so on. I really think it's procrastination and a lack of "work ethic"/laziness. And I'm sick of it. I've read books like the "Now Habit", and while interesting haven't gotten me where I want to be. But when I think about where I could be in my life if I consistently worked a 40 hour week I'm disgusted with myself. I want to change, but can't quite get there. (In the past, with a boss looking over my shoulder I have no problem working 40+ hours at a high level, but can't manage it myself. So I know it's something that I can do.) What I'm looking for is a reasonably priced therapist in the Orange County/South LA area (well, I'll drive farther for someone fantastic) who can help me get to the point where I'm self motivated enough to work a regular 40 hour week without the threat of a boss looming over me, tracking my hours, and saying I may get fired. I won't get fired. I work for myself. My clients love me because I get them great results. Other people in my field recommend me to people they can't help. I'm good at what I do. But I know I'm wasting my prime earning years and I need to make bank now so I can retire someday. And, mostly, I just want to be better. I know I can be, but I can't quite get there. So please, let me know who's helped you. I'm wary of the effectiveness of therapists, I see lots of bad/useless ones in my work, so I may not be the best patient. But I do want to change. I'm approach agnostic. CBT. Fine, if it does the job. Freudian psychoanalysis. The same. I just want something that works, someone who's competent and effective. Thanks in advance.
Read More...

My family has an ongoing joke about finding the Chistmas spider. Help me find songs that mention spiders!The joke started to help my sister react more calmly when finding a spider in the newly cut Christmas tree - oh, don't worry, it's just the Christmas Spider! She's still afraid of spiders, but has taken well to a couple cutesy spider presents I've given her over the years. This year I'd like to make her a mixed CD of songs that have spiders in the lyrics. Doesn't have to be much of a reference - got the idea from one mention of spiders in a Neko Case song, Fever. Not looking for scary Halloweeny creepy crawlies or too-cute itsy bitsy spiders. Ideally she'll listen to most of the CD before she notices what connects the songs.
Read More...

Where should I live: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, or Utah? Or beyond?I'm teaching overseas at the moment. I'd like to return to the US and continue teaching. It seems like the most efficient, affordable route I've discovered is though the ABCTE program. (http://www.abcte.org/teach) I'm about ready to take the plunge on doing the program (although other suggestions are welcome), but I'm not sure what state to choose to live in. ABCTE is recognized in 11 states, and out of those, I think I'm interested in Utah, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. I've been to both PA and Utah, but not to New Hampshire, although I've been around New Hampshire and I like that area. So, if you have experiences in these places, where should I live? Lifestyle wise, things that are important to me are: - Great art and theatre. I've been living remote for over five years now, and I miss going to plays and museums more than anything. I really want to be close to a good artistic center. - Walkable. I'd prefer not to have a car. - Affordable, safe place downtown. I guess this goes with being walkable. I'd like to live in an accessible area that's near a lot of things and public transport to get to work. - Climate is not a huge issue. I've lived in super hot states, and I've lived in very cold states, and I can do either pretty easily. I love to ski, but I like going to the beach, and all of the things in between, basically. Work wise, I'm not sure. I've only worked at one US elementary school. It was low-income, and a fairly small student population but with large classes. It was OK, but I didn't love it. Thanks for any advice on this.
Read More...

The Pacific War Photographs of Pfc Glenn W. Eve — "In the summer of 1942, the U.S. Army called up a skinny California boy barely out of his teens. But at 5'9'' and 125 pounds, Private Glenn W. Eve was deemed unfit for combat. He might have spent the duration of World War II at a desk, except that he had field skills the Army needed – he was a gifted artist, draftsman and photographer who'd spent the previous four years working for the Walt Disney Co. In July 1944, they promoted him to private first class (Pfc) and assigned him to the Signal Photo Corps, bound for the Pacific to document the war. This is his collection, never before published. All comments in quotes are Pfc Eve's, written on the back of the photo."
Read More...

For how long and in what unforeseen ways will the making of a fake ID continue to haunt me?You are not my lawyer: In Illinois in the mid 80's when I was 18 or 19 years old, I was arrested during a bar raid for underaged drinking. I had a fake ID at the time that I had made in my own name which the police took. They asked me right then if it was fake and I said yes. Flash forward to early 90's when I went to apply for a state ID and was told to wait off to the side because I had to answer secretary of state's questions (3 or 4 questions akin to, 'do you plan to distribute/sell/create false IDs to minors..' type of thing). The woman at the DVM who handled this told me it was forgery and that I would have to do this every time I applied for an ID for the rest of my life. She said something else regarding what would happen if I ever applied for a driver's license–but whatever it was that she said, I've completely forgotten it. I had no need to obtain a license at the time and figured I never would. A few years later when I went to re-new my state ID, the same phone call with questions happened. But, when I went to re-new my state ID this, the most recent time (2009) nothing happened. I didn't ask anyone at the DMV 'why' because I was so happy and didn't want to rock the boat. I assumed that either enough time had elapsed or the law had changed (or that first woman from the DMV in the early 90's was exaggerating about having to check in with the sec of state 'for the rest of my life' for cruel effect). My problem now is that I suddenly need to go get a driver's license for work reasons. There's really no way around it. But, as I was studying the Rules of the Road today, I got to the section on Revoking and Denial and had this awful sinking feeling. There was a bullet point regarding the making of fraudulent IDs under both of those headings. It mentioned that it would be a year before one was allowed to 're-apply' for a license after it being revoked. It also suggested that it might be permanently revoked. It was not clear. Now, I'm scared that I will be out and out denied or cancelled or something. I searched google and am horrified to find that making fake IDs is currently considered a felony in certain states (it definitely wasn't considered a felony 25 years ago–or I would have done time in jail–right?!). I should mention that I wasn't ever charged with making a fake ID or for forgery. As well, my charges (everyone's) for the bar raid/underage drinking were dropped due to some glitch or technicality. The fact that the fake ID came back to haunt me when it did was a complete surprise. I feel worried and irrational and want to be prepared for what might happen--if anything. Will I be flat out denied a diver's license? Revoked? Is that even possible? This is 25 years later. I have never been arrested or in trouble with the law since. I have never applied for a driver's license before. Does anyone have any idea what I might expect? I can't afford a lawyer and there are weirdly few people I feel ok talking to about this. Is there anything I can do to make this go better? Am I going way overboard or is this going to wind up with me in serious trouble (like with a felony on my record) or simply unable to attain a driver's license? Help! Thanks, Mefi!
Read More...

Edmonton, Canada! That's where we (me, husband, 13 month old daughter and our trusty dog) are considering moving. We currently live in sunny Perth, Western Australia. What should we know?Husband has a work opportunity in Edmonton and we think we'd like to live abroad for a few years before the kidlet starts school. I lived in Canada (Windsor Ontario) for a year when I was a teenager, so I do understand that it will be much much much colder than Perth. Much. But that's ok, we can buy appropriate clothing and find a house with central heating and lose our minds by February. I also understand that Canada is big, really big, and we won't be driving down to Toronto for the weekend. The things I would like to know include what suburbs would be good for a young, active family used to living in a lively, walkable inner-city locale; availability of childcare places; things to do on weekends; cost of living and getting around etc. But what about our dog? Is it really hard to find pet-friendly rentals? And the logistics of living with a dog in a cold climate also puzzle me - do they sell snow boots for pups? I'd also really like to get a sense of what Edmonton is like as a city. What are its charms, its peculiarities and its flaws? What do we really need to know before we take the plunge and shift our whole lives to the other side of the world?
Read More...

How can I create keyboard shortcuts for browser bookmarks on a Macbook Pro?I'd like to take a few of my favorite bookmarks and assign them to specific keyboard combinations such that hitting that combination will both open the browser application and load the website. Is this possible on my Macbook Pro? Ideally, I'd like to also add a few key clicks to the process so that I'm also logged in to the various websites. I tried Apple Script but all I could get was the browser itself to open. I couldn't get it to recognize the bookmark. Is any of this possible and, if so, how?
Read More...

DirecTV seems too cheap to be true. Is it really a good deal vs. cable vs. fiber?Ok, so we're a household of college basketball junkies (we live in Indiana, natch). We had u-verse a year or so ago, but ditched it to save cash. The prices at U-Verse and Comcast seem pretty similar. If we want a good package that serves up all the sports, we're looking at roughly $130 a month (this includes HD service, DVR, Sports pack, etc..) DirecTV has a comparable package (Choice Ultimate) that is only $45.99 a month the first year, and $65.99 a month the second year. The catch is that there's a $99 up front fee for the DVR, and the big one: you've got to sign a two-year contract. So, people of the green, tell me of your experiences with DirecTV, especially if you can compare it with cable or fiber. Is the service good? Are they tricky/sneaky with hidden charges? I know, you've gotta sign a two-year contract, BUT ITS ALMOST HALF THE PRICE. Which frankly, makes me a little scared.
Read More...

It has been a bad week for contemporary Marxist scholarship [earlier this morning]. This past Saturday, the geography world lost Neil Smith, versatile theorist, advocate for social justice, LA Times Book Award winner, and founder of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at CUNY. Best known for his theory of the uneven spatial development of capitalism and for changing the way we think about gentrification, his numerous contributions to the field of critical human geography include a sustained critique of neoliberalism, a history of American empire, and the declaration that there's no such thing as a natural disaster. Here's Neil on Occupy Wall Street, urban securitization, deconstructing USA Today in 1984, and singing the Socialist ABCs.
Read More...

I need an a capella audition piece for an alto on short notice.Really short notice, but I learned tonight I have an audition in two days for an small, eclectic choral group, where I would ostensibly be joining as an Alto I. I don't have an audition piece ready -- help me find something I can learn quickly, like an a capella madrigal. Thanks.
Read More...

31 for 21 in honor of National Down Syndrome Awareness Month, bloggers will be writing a blog article a day concerning the issues of Down syndrome. In addition, there is a blog hop of "best of" weekly posts. The month also begins with Senator John Kerry agreeing to support the ABLE act, which will allow people with disabilities to save and prepare for the future (link, scroll down).
Read More...

What do you get a super white wine connoisseur that's more special than a really great bottle of wine?I would love to get something super special for somebody that was nice enough to act as my deputy at my wedding. He wants white wine and is very fancy but I would like to go above and beyond and maybe get a great bottle and maybe something to help his other bottles breath, or some accoutrement wine people love. I know nothing about wine. Thanks!
Read More...

Jerry Seinfeld and Michael Richards get a cup of coffee, have a few laughs and talk candidly about the past, chess, comedy, and Richards's breakdown from seven years ago. (SLYT) (via laughing squid)
Read More...

How can I route hotspot traffic through my Android phone's VPN?I have the galaxy nexus, rooted and with the stock Ice Cream Sandwich ROM. I really don't want to install a custom ROM at this point if I can avoid it. Currently hotspot traffic (when the phone becomes a wireless access point for other devices) does not travel across the VPN. I have a working OpenVPN and a PPTP VPN that I can use, if either will work better. Preferably the fix would be VPN agnostic. I'm thinking/hoping I can configure iptables to route the traffic properly, but I never really learned more than how to block or open ports and don't really understand what I'm doing in this arena. Is this something that will work? Why, exactly, if you want to take the time to explain it to me? And will it fix traffic over both VPNs, or just OpenVPN? If not, what is a better way? Bonus: I believe I'll have to install iptables. This is one guide I found. I'd be interested in actually compiling it for the device myself, if that's not too much of a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately I really don't have time to do too much actual research and head banging, as I'm way too busy with other stuff right now in my life. So a walkthrough would be welcome. This is pretty much the opposite of me reading TFM, but really. It would be nice.
Read More...

Looking for recommendations of a particular kind of "exploring the unknown" SciFi book.I'm getting back into reading novels, mostly SciFi. What I enjoy most is the feeling of exploration, that I am going into uncharted territory and unraveling its mysteries along with the book's characters. Could be exploration of a planet, outer space, traveling into a mysterious future, etc. Examples that come to mind include Ringworld and Rendezvous with Rama. Lesser-known gems are be great, since it is less likely that I've read them or encountered spoilers.
Read More...

How do I work with Adobe Lightroom, massive amounts of images, a modest laptop, and a simple backup scheme?I've been using Adobe Lightroom for the last couple years, and the last year or so have been shooting a lot, with an accumulation of RAW files ready to hit 500 gigs. The problem is my laptop is constantly packed full. I backup to an external drive, but need a solution that allows me to continue to use the laptop for my digital darkroom with access to my selected images. I'm confused about splitting up libraries and such, so hoping some Lightroom gurus can help me out with workflow.
Read More...

Looking for help figuring out ways to teach a tween how to make films.I have an opportunity to teach filmmaking to a child for pay. I have some experience -- made three short films (the last one playing at festivals), directed a dozen plays, performed longform comedy improv, have written screenplays, and studied film editing in a well-respected program. But, given a chance to make this anything I want it to be, I feel stumped. The particular issues related to teaching a child worry me. It has to be fun, give her plenty to do (and fail at), be paced in a way that works for kids and, I would think, should leave her with something to show for the experience (in addition to what has been learned). This doesn't even begin to get into the logistical issues -- equipment, actors, locations/sets, etc. The child is 13 years old and has no filmmaking experience, as far as I know. This would probably be done as a kind of after-school enrichment program, approximately once a week, for a period ranging from 3 months to, possibly, 9 months. I thought I'd throw it out to the hive mind. I hope to get some practical advice on how to approach this and/or be pointed towards some resources that might help me. It occurs to me that there might even be ready-made curricula out there that I could play with and adapt.
Read More...

I took several long videos (25 - 50 minutes each) with the camera on my new iPad, and now I would like to transfer them to my Macbook, so that I can convert them to .avi files and give them to a friend. Dropbox will not upload them ('upload pending' forever). Backing up the iPad results in many folders with random numbers, none of which look big enough to be the videos. What should I try next?
Read More...

I have a design for a new keyboard. Any ideas/advice on where to look for help with the circuits, driver programming and anything else I'm forgetting?The plan is to have the prototype body 3D printed, but I have no clue how to actually interface with the computer. Google wasn't too helpful, but I could easily have been searching the wrong thing. Have: 3D body/case design Need: everything else
Read More...

Barry Commoner has died at age 95. Commoner was a scientist, an environmentalist, an author, and 1980 presidential candidate. He was one of the founders of the Committee for Nuclear Information and of the Citizens Party.
Read More...

I've had this vague memory of a 1970s-80s crime movie in the back of my brain. Can you help identify it?It's a cop drama, and one of the characters that the movie follows is a male who is some kind of stalker. The one scene that shocked my young mind when I saw it is of this character somehow getting locked outside a car in an isolated spot at night. Inside the car is a woman, who is his victim and who owns the car. She somehow tricked him to go outside, and locked him out, and so he goes absolutely crazy, stomping on the windshield, trying to kick it in. The scene I remember is taken from the vantage point of the woman in the car. Scared me quite a bit. I think that's the climax of the film and the cops show up pretty soon thereafter. One of the two other scenes from this movie (I think) are of the guy starting to tail a victim by striding up to her station wagon on some isolated road during the day, and plopping himself on her bumper and hitching a ride. I remember thinking that was a really weird thing to do. And the final scene is of two cop-like characters walking through a busy night-market, bazaar type scene, chatting. (I realize almost every cop movie has a scene like this.) Do these scenes ring a bell for anyone? Was I just imagining this movie, or has my memory pieced together scenes from different films? Just idly curious. Thanks!
Read More...

Just moved to Parker 5 days ago for new job. My wife's birthday is Friday and we are celebrating that/new job. I am looking for a restaurant w/ live music (jazz perhaps) near Parker, CO & Denver. I don't know the area well but would like to surprise my wife with a nice place and accessible parking. $80-120 budget. (Gluten free menu a plus for me...). I will also settle for a nice restaurant w/o music if you would like add those as we hope to live here a lonnnnnnnng time. Thanks, everyone.
Read More...

The Edge Effect. Daniel Kukla spent March of 2012 as an artist in residence at Joshua Tree National Park.
Read More...

Can I still eat this? 2 small avocadoes, mashed juice of 1 lemon about 1/4 cup "lite" mayo salt & pepper One week ago today I made a spread for sandwiches. I actually ended up not eating any yet. Is it still good?
Read More...

Ronald D Moore talks about Star Trek: The Next Generation at 25
Read More...