the advice thread
 

im not sure if this is in the right place, or if theres alreadly a thread like this. but here it goes...

the idea is simply to just give some advice. it could be anything, about anything.

as for me, all i got to say is, and im sure everyone knows this but i feel its needed, but dont sweat the small stuff (and by small stuff i mean everything.) it makes life too hard. and also, spend as little as possible on clothes (shoes included.) trust me, goodwill has the best shirts.

never pull the trigger on a gun unless you want it to fire, i don't care if you "think" its unloaded, it isn't.

You could end up with a .22 slug stuck in your stairwell :-[

For those heading to college and don't know yet what to major in, just major in Liberal Arts (the basics), and get an Associates degree in that. It's fast and easy, looks good on a resume, and when you decide what to major in, all those classes credit toward it. Do NOT, under any circumstance, "test" a major you think you could be interested in. It's not only a LOT of money down the drain, it can leave you in deep debt if you took out student loans. And that can destroy your credit. A destroyed credit can ruin your life. So don't do it! Don't dig yourself into a hole! :(

Also, don't paint yourself into a corner. You will either have to wait there until the paint dries (which could take hours) or leave foot prints in the fresh paint and get paint on your feet, which in turn can track on the carpeting. 8D

or dead.

This is kind of similar to Partymember's point and like his, it ought to be obvious. Before you start any machine or vehicle makes sure you know how to stop it. This goes double for chainsaws.

LOL exactly

my dad has a couple of buddies who call him "zipperhead" bacuase he's 6'4" and thinks he's man enough to use a chainsaw with one hand...inevitably he will get a kickback and split his head down the middle :/

If you have cats, FEED THEM!!! If not, they meow so much you're up all night!

... That or they chew off your foot.

Don't eat yellow snow. There's some routine advice for the imminent holiday season. :cheese:

Erm, on a more serious note, the most heartfelt advice I can offer would be that if something's bringing you down, reach out and tell someone. It doesn't do to keep your emotions all bottled up, for they'll force their way out eventually. Just ask my friend Wilt here: :(

frank zappa

good call :bloogrin:

i'v been rich, i'v been poor. ill always shop at goodwill. lol

you want my advice? ok, its good to be different. most kids feel like they have to be just like everyone to fit in. if people dont accept you, its for a reason. the dont accept who you are. you dont have to act emo, you dont have to go around singing "soulja boy" lyrics and you for sure dont need drugs. the drugs wont kill you, but the addictions will destroy your life. you'll say "ill never do that" but when all your friends are begging you, then its different. my point is, be yourself. let them wear baggy pants, wear what ever you want. (hang with the nerds trust me)

I have a question. Can you ask for advice on a certain subject here? Or is it only just a random advice advice thread.

My advice: Don't cook bacon shirtless.

yeah, the point is to give advice so others can use it, so asking for it is a good idea.

why, you need advice on something?

fire away dude

Remember that there ARE certain topics that could get this thread locked though. This is not the place to look for help if you're depressed/suicidal, in an abusive situation/relationship, if you're going to be down on yourself etc. Also no religious topics are allowed, and that extends into the realm of the supernatural. I've already been keeping a close eye on this topic; when I thought it was just a place to randomly spout advice with no questions being asked I felt it was okay. But if y'all are going to go Dear Abby on me, please watch it.

It wasn't anything like that. Don't worry I've decided not to ask. It was something dumb, just forget about it.

Here's a question... Does anyone know if there's a program available that can convert a large number of image files from one type to another all at once? To be more specific, I have a lot of old screencaps that were saved in TIF format that I'd like to convert to JPEG files. I can do the conversion with Paint but it can only do one file at a time, and we're talking about several hundred files at least. I would love to automate the process; doing every file manually, one at a time, would be tedious at best, and in the case of the oldest ones I have to convert them to bitmaps first, then open the bitmap file and save it as a JPEG. Anybody have a solution?

i know what you were going to ask....

As much as i love US made anything, Toyota is a good company. I really like their trucks. Stay away from Kia, though, its some Korean outfit and i think they're all ChiComs. Crappy cars.

your welcome

YES.

UniDream PowerBatch

That's what I use to convert my screencaps from their original bmp format to jpg. It will do as many files at once as you'd like. You can even specify a new size for the new image (that's how I make my thumbnail images). You can also use it to compress the files to make the filesize small, and if you don't compress by much (I do 75%) you save a lot of space (and in my case, bandwidth) and the pics looks exactly the same. That program saved this site. And its free.

-Gasp- how did you know? Thanks.

you are welcome sir

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working on my old TIF files, although that may just be me not understanding TIF files. On the other hand it works perfectly on bitmaps and late yesterday evening it turned about 5GB of them into less tha a half gig's worth of JPEGs, so thankyouthankyouthankyou!!! ;D

Here are a couple of tips I have learned along the way:

- When working with ejection seats in combat aircraft...treat it like a LOADED gun!

- Do not buy securities unless you intend to trade; stick with mutual funds, and keep it simple - indexing is a good way to invest if you are young.

- "It only happens to the other guy/gal" - you could be the next one. We are ALL on that side of the fence too.

- "Never go for your gun unless yer shore it's there!" - Western gunfighter's Proverb.
:frankiesmile:

LOL

good to know, man :P

You can lose a whole day on You Tube &/or Wikipedia.

been there done that

You can lose your lunch there, too. :P

Okay, I periodically consider getting an account on MySpace or LiveJournal or some such site but never do. Any thoughts on the matter, y'all?

meh. i never use mine.

Bow to the pressure! Get a myspace. It's addicting :P

I don't get much use out of Myspace. I've been on LJ for years though, and while I really don't blog there too much anymore, being a member means being able to join members-only communities that are fun to read, read friends-only journals (if the person friends you, anyways...), and having a stable identity if you choose to post. I pay for membership which affords a few cool extras, such as being able to have many more userpics at my disposal. (If you're not registered you can't use a userpic at all, and since you've made so many good ones, that would be a shame...)

I'm still brand spankin' new at LJ, but I think Sparky covered it excellently. All I've done so far is make a few posts to communities, as it's fun to share certain stories with others who share the same interest, or at least empathize with you. And then it's fun watching and waiting for people to leave comments about your post. Comments are the way to make friends. It is fun to read a lot of the stuff too, but most of them you can still read without joining. I think LJ is most popular for blogging/journal entries, both posting and reading. You can upload pictures, but it's not a big feature I don't think. The pictures are mostly just so you can have an assortment of avatars to choose from depending on your mood at the moment (and you can use a different one for each post you make, which is kind of cool). LJ has two free memberships, the first has a tight limit on pretty much everything (only for those who don't plan on using it much), the second is better but has a lot of advertising (I have the second, advertising isn't really any worse than pretty much anywhere else you go), and then there's paid membership, with which you get more access to stuff and fewer limits. I'm sure if one wants to pay for it, they'll want to be more serious and active there.

I'm technically still new to MySpace too, having been there only a few months. But I think I know my way around pretty well, and MySpace is loads different. It's more personal, as you can customize your page however under the sun you'd like with the help of sights like "PimpMyProfile.com" and others, many of which are advertised on sight so they're easy to find. It's fun looking for new things to add, and designing your own layout. It not only has a photo feature, but it's set up very similar to many online photo albums. You can post blogs, include pictures/videos in them, include pictures/videos, music and tables on your profile, and really make it all your very own. Someone could learn a lot about you just by looking at your profile- how you set it up, what you included in it, what you say in it, etc. Unless someone has their profile set to private, you can view people's profiles without having your own account. But I think to view all blogs and pictures in albums, you need to be signed in. It's also cool that there are a lot of actors/actress', artists/singers, comedians, and other celebrities, and also some movie and show production crews have their own pages. Most are run by fans for other fans, but a few are owned and operated by the personality(ies) themselves. I've already learned MySpace can have its downside though. Accounts are easily hacked into for some reason, and people are needing to change their passwords every few months or so (my sister says she's been hacked three times in the last two years, and her profile is set at "private"). So far I've only seen one of my friends hacked although all that happened was spam messages sent out to all her friends. Once alerted, she changed her password and it stopped. It can also be addicting, seeing how many "friends" you can add to your friend list, even if you have no idea who they are, and trying to get as many people to leave comments on your profile as you can. It can all become quite competitive. I've already decided I'm not there for competition, but it can be easy to get sucked into it if you're not careful. My bro was once very active there and had a great page, but he deleted his page because he said it was getting too competitive, and he was "ashamed of it". :P I wish the dork was still there though. He never calls me, and it'd be the only way to keep in touch.

Eh hem... Anyway, that's my input on LJ and MySpace. I'm enjoying both places personally. If I think of anything else, I'll add it later. :frankiesmile:

Honestly, I haven't used LiveJournal much in recent months. I still use it; however, I hardly make any entries over there nowadays. I still believe it's a nice site. I did use a paid membership, but since I'm using it less, I may do the plus membership thing. MySpace; I registered back in 2004-5 (can't remember), but I never really used it until late 2006. It definitely has its pros and cons. I've had some annoyances with it (random friend requests, especially from those that have no friends and have inappropriate photos on the site), but it is a nice way to communicate with those that don't come here, or don't even use IM.

I did very briefly get roped into this whole MySpace thing in summer 2006, but they flooded my inbox with so much unwanted mail that I decided to cancel my account after barely 24 hours. After which, they pursued me with a few more alerts, telling me that if it was the immense amount of spam which had turned me off, then I had the option of limiting it, but I really couldn't be bothered. Occasionally, I still log into my inbox to find some form of MySpace communication, totally uninvited, but it normally doesn't stay there very long.

Yeah I forgot to mention the spam and the unwanted friend requests. I have a note in my profile thing saying not to friend me if I don't know you, but people make a game on there of friending as many people as possible. Its a bit creepy. It hasn't gotten so bad as to make me want to cancel the account, but I'd do it if it gets worse.

I've heard about that game. Always struck me as pretty pointless. I'd rather have just a few friends that I actually talk to rather than a long list of people I'll never hear from again. Quality vs. quantity.

Exactly the way I feel. It's ALWAYS better to have a few good friends that you know and trust than a bunch of people you barely even know. And yes, I made a Myspace back in June, added some videos, pictures, and built it the way I wanted it, but I too started getting spammed with random friend requests and advertisements for certain sites that I won't describe here, so I just set my profile to private and that put an end to most of it, but I kinda lost interest after that and haven't even been on it in over 6 months. I might go back to it and edit a few things, but I don't really have much interest in the whole thing in general.

Oh, and as for advice: If you have a problem with something and you don't know how to fix it, ALWAYS ask someone who does know for help. NEVER, EVER try to do it yourself.

The joy of DirectX
 

Still thinking about it. A special thank-you to Lynnie, who, when I recently asked her for more information, sent me an epic. ;)

As some of you know, I bought a laptop computer last year. It's a fine machine in every way but it does not run my Sims game particularly well. As part of the process of trying to improve it's performance I recently uninstalled and reinstalled the game. During the reinstall process one of the game's expansion packs sent me a notice indicating that it couldn't find any DirectX files. I searched the unit's hard drive and much to my astonishment, there are no DirectX files of any sort on the machine. No DirectX 9.0c, no DirectX 10 either, and I think the latter is supposed to come installed with Windows Vista. I can find DX9c easily enough on my main system but there seems to be no trace of DX in the same folders on my laptop. Yet oddly enough, the registry keys are present. It's very confusing. Given that this is a Vista system and not XP I'm wondering if I missed something. I downloaded a copy of DX9c but I'm reluctant to go ahead and install it for fear of overwriting something that may be present but I haven't been able to find, and a general worry about doing damage to the system in general. I'm not a tech person, so however you look at it I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, and frankly I'm not sure what to do. Yes, I did pass this info along to a couple of tech sites but I'm hoping for some answers here, too, if anyone has any. Help!

Technically I'm on Myspace, but I never go there. I do update my livejournal from time to time, though.

Hehe, you're most welcome. :frankiesmile: And for the record, it was late at night when I typed all that up, and even though I was trying to be as thorough and detailed as possible, I'm sure my sleepiness could be seen in some of it. :herrsleep: I have all that info saved on my hard drive, and if you want I can "sort it out" better to at least make it easier to read and therefore, understand. Just holler. 'Tis my pleasure. ;)

Hmm, I'm not sure what this DX is. Is it an .EXE? Is it a drive? But I think I know where you're getting at. I'm wondering if, when you installed the game the first time, there was some type of compatibility problem with it (having already been present with Vista), and that may have possibly been one of the reasons the game ran so slow. When you uninstalled the game, it may have had a "hold" on the DX somehow, and in doing so, the DX was warped. It's possible it had been warped slightly to begin with, otherwise the game may have had better compatibility. The DX might still be there, but the computer thinks it's something else and may have "moved" it or renamed it. But then, if the computer thinks it's something else, my guess is it's useless now anyway. If you're sure the DX9c is compatible with Vista, I'd think you can go ahead and download it. If you've looked everywhere for the DX10 and can't find it, especially when you already know where it should be, it's simply not there anymore, and if it is, it's posing as something else that's useless now. That's my guess.

But yeah, wait and see what the tech guys at the other sights say. They may be able to do more than just "guess". Good luck. :D

The only thing I'm certain of at this point is that I long for the days when I played with Lego. 8D :cheesegrin:

You'll get a better explanation of DirectX if you Google it instead of asking me. It's a graphics/gaming program but that's about all I know. :P

It's a pity that Legos are so expensive these days.