The_MoUsY_spell_checker's Advice Column

my boyfriend just got an iphone, and he has the facebook app and talked about how it updates him everytime someone post something on his wall or whatever. and i thought that it would be cool to post a comment on his wall every now and then just to surprise him during the day, but i dont wanna just tell him i miss him everytime, you know? so what are some other things i could say?

thanks. (:

Post about things you see that remind you of him or those that you think might interest him. These kinds of posts will let him know that you're thinking of him without sounding like you're always missing him, and they will also be good for starting a conversation.
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i have a pretty good voice. not trying to brag but thats the fact.

however, i am absolutely TERRIFIED of singing in front of anyone...like i don't know why, i'll sing with my friends like jokingly and stuff but i don't sing seriously...but i kind of want to. and my ex boyfriend is really into singing and when we were dating i promised him that i'd sing to him but we broke up shortly after...but i kinda want to....soo how can i overcome this fear?

Start by practising singing in your own time, and then with your friends. (Pick the ones that are closest to you. You need to be comfortable with them.)

As you get used to singing more often, you'll be more comfortable with singing. Ask your friends for feedback. They'll tell you how good you sound, and then you can start singing more seriously.

See if there are any community choirs in your area. The ones that let just anyone join and sing. Those tend to help.
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14/f
I weight 100 - 102 pounds ? Somewhere around there. And I'm 5'4 - 5'5. Im pretty sure I'm a little underweight because all my other friends are at least 110 pounds. One of my friends say I just have high metabolism. I eat a regular diet, I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their all fair amounts where I actually am full. I don't think I eat too less, but I can't eat too much cause I get too bloated. But anyways, I don't have very big breasts either. Around, 24 AA - A ? Sorry if I don't always have exact measurements, :P. But the point is, how do I gain at least a bit more weight? Cause I think I weigh too less, though if you look at me, I look the same as my friends who weight 110+ ,just smaller breasts.
Any advice would help, Thanks. :)

You might have a smaller frame than your friends. The friend who said you have a fast metabolism is likely to be right too.

Unless you suddenly lost a lot of weight or if you have reason to suspect that you have a health problem that is causing you to be underweight, there is no need to worry.

If you have regular meals and you're not going hungry, do not force yourself to eat more. Do make sure you have a balanced diet though. Carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals, vitamins... are you sure you're getting what you need? Write down what you eat in the next few days to make sure.

Building up muscles will help increase your weight, so if you don't do much exercise, it might help to do more. (If you do, make sure to eat a little bit more, or you'll lose weight.)
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does anyone know a good exercise to get a lot of arm strength??? anything would be good

The simplest thing would be to do push-ups. You don't need special equipment for it, so you can start now.

Weight lifting is another obvious one.

Racquet sports such as tennis tend to be good too, but for those you obviously need equipment and someone to play with you.
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Well, here is my dilemna in a nutshell....
I'm in my thirties, and I'm going to be getting married in a few months, and I really want to drop some pounds before I do the dress shopping.
My troubling factors are that I am not able to do actual work outs or high impact aerobics, "because" I have had surgery on both feet and still live with lots of pain that does not allow me to be on my feet for a long period of time.
What do you think are some good weight-loss exercises that can be done without alot of foot action?!?!?
I know, tough one, but any advice will be helpful, I'm sure!!

Swimming is relatively low impact.

Lifting weights doesn't involve your feet, and it's good for toning up muscles. (Don't worry, it's not easy to bulk up.)

Situps don't either, nor do pushups if you do the variant with your knees on the floor.

Check with a doctor if in doubt.
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if chemical plants are soo bad for people to breathe and cause lung cancer, POLLUTION, brain cancer and other diseases then why do they expose that stuff into the air if it kills so many people? I just dont understand.
Do they put stuff in the stuff that they release or are people just exaggerating about chemical plants?

Chemical plants do cause pollution. It's a side effect. The reason why people still run those plants is that useful chemicals are made in them.

In most chemical plants, there are measures taken to reduce the pollution output.
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is there a way to make a survey online that depending how you answer the question, it directs you to different questions. What i mean is like i want to do a survey that has different questions for males and females so like i'd ask if they were males or females and then if they were males it would direct them to the male survey and same for females. Oh and it has to be free too. Or very inexpensive. Please give me a website! thanks.

The function you described is called "skip logic" on survey-providing sites.

Kwik Surveys offers surveys with this function for free. http://www.kwiksurveys.com/

If you want other options, click the search button.

so there's this guy that i've been talking to. he's such a sweetheart and i know he likes me for me. we've been talking for a few month. okay so i want to have a little fun...don't tell me not to because i know i do, thats not my question...my question is, what/where/when can we hang out in which i'll be wearing the least amount of clothes possible haha...and preferably with a group of friends too.

(could be a bathing suit or w.e.)

thanks :)

Why does it matter what you're wearing?

If you want to wear a bathing suit, the obvious place would be the pool. Find a heated indoors pool somewhere if it's winter.

Other than that, you can have a themed costume party somewhere indoors (and heated). That way, you can wear whatever you want as long as you can incorporate it into a costume. (Kind of like the Halloween costumes in Mean Girls.) Since it's your party, you have the choice of any kind of entertainment you can provide. Dancing? Showing a movie? Board games? Do what you want.
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Ok so me and my friend were messaging on Facebook and this is the conversation we had: friend "Hey you know what I was thinking" me "Whats that?" friend "Well do you email alot?" me "Yes" friend "We should start an email chain". Well I don't really know what an email chain is so I just said I had to go. So my question is what is an email chain? Is it like chain mail stuff saying you'll die in 12 hours if you don't send it or is it just a long chain of emails that me and her send to eachother?

Yes, your friend is probably talking about the emails that say you'll die in 12 hours if you don't send it, although they are usually known as chain emails.

Your other friends probably won't appreciate it. Seriously, those are annoying.
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i was just wondering, can autistic people become psychologists? because you know, with autism you kind of aren't so good with reading people's faces and things, so is it possible to be autistic and become a psychologist?

thanks!

The autistic spectrum covers a large range of people. Whether an individual autistic person can become a psychologist depends a lot on exactly which symptoms they have, and how serious the symptoms are.

Also keep in mind that it takes a lot of training for anyone to become a psychologist. While autistic people are likely to be disadvantaged due to their natural difficulties with communication, it is not impossible to make up for it by learning.
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16/f

I consider myself a straight individual. I've always been attracted to guys, and I'm only interested in having a romantic relationship with a guy. But sometimes I question if I am weird or not, because I like to watch porn. Especially girls, either with another girl or with a guy. It really arouses me and makes me consider want to like, touch and goof around with another woman and their bodies. However, like I said I would never want a relationship that way. Its like a curiosity, I guess.

Is this normal? Is watching porn bad? I'm just really afraid my parents might find out or my friends.

There's nothing wrong with being curious. However, do keep in mind that most porn does NOT reflect reality, and as with any interest, it is a bad thing if you become obsessed with it.
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My cat Allie got out of the house for 5 days. Allie is an indoor cat and she is not fixed. Recently i've been noticing that she has been gaining a little bit of weight (or i might not look at her well enough every time i see her), my sister and I try to touch her stomach to see if its hard, and she starts hissing at us. finally we got ahold of her and touched her stomach, and it felt a little hard. this was about 3 weeks ago maybe more. but no more then 5 weeks ago. could my cat be pregnant?

if she is..
how long does it take for a cat to have kittens?
what happens if she delivers the kittens and no one is home?
anything else i would need to know?

Note that cats tend to settle down on specific comfortable spots, and they do not like to be moved for at least a week after the birth. So, be careful not to have say, your laundry basket lying around, otherwise if the cat sets up its bed in it, you really cannot disturb it or it might reject its kittens.
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Should you thank every individual person that wishes you a happy birthday on Facebook?

I think it's acceptable to just acknowledge all the well wishes in a status message. Realistically, people are unlikely to expect individual responses to "happy birthday" posts.

That said, if you do want to thank people individually, go for it. I would recommend being consistent with this though. That is, if you do this, make sure not to leave anyone out.
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What is the benefits of these two?? Right now, i have Windows 2003. Should I just stick to this one? plz help! thnx

I've seen Vista in action and wouldn't recommend it. Window 7 is meant to fix all the problems that Vista has. I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that it's better than Vista.

As for whether you should stick with what you have, ask yourself, why do you want an upgrade now? Is there something that your current OS won't do? (Say, are there specific applications that it won't run?) Go for it if you need it.

Also, are you really using Windows 2003? From what I can find online, it seems to be a server operating system.
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i'm 19/female.

i talk really fast .. i don't mean to i just do and i hate it because when i talk i basically mumble then and nobody can understand me. i feel like if i try talking slower i'll feel like a robot or something and people will be like ... why are you talking weird? is there any way to fix this? bascially everything i say, i have to repeat because people are like.. what?

I've had the same problem too. What I found really helpful is reading text out loud for practice. Book, newspaper, website, anything. It'll help you slow down since it takes more time to read something and then say it. Take care to pronounce all the words correctly.

Also, try recording yourself speak and hear what it sounds like. Try out different speaking speeds until you find one that sounds right, and practice speaking at that speed.
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i have a 3rd generation ipod nano with video. I'll be listening to a song, and when it goes to replay a song, it'll say its playing but it'll be stuck at 0:00. it happens 2 to 3 times a day. What i normally do is hold the play and menu buttons until it restarts and it will be okay. Is there any reasoms why its doing this?

Does this only happen with a specific song? If yes, delete the song from your iPod and get a new copy of it from the computer.

Otherwise, using iTunes, check for software updates. If there is an update available, install it and see if the problem persists.

If all else fails, backup everything you have on the iPod and restore it to factory settings. I repeat, BACKUP FIRST!

Details on restoring here: http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/nano3gen/
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is it:

- "a unique" or "an unique"?

- "an year" or "a year"?

citing any other weird ones would be appreciated too

"A unique" and "a year". It's the sound that matters, not the spelling.
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Hi! I was hoping that maybe someone can answer this for me. I am 18 years old. I got my period when I was 9. I'm 4"11. I'm a very short girl. I don't mind being short. I mean, everyone has I always thought I was adorable and I look good short. But, I've been dealing with problems with my weight since I was 9 years old.I was always very thin as a child. I was very underweight when I was little. I had a lot of trouble eating and I wouldn't eat at school and things like that. I was at a healthy weight, though, up to when I was about eight years old. Once I got my period, I started gaining weight like a mad-woman. But, interestingly, I wasn't overweight or obese or anything like that. I mean, I had gotten my period, and my body was changing. I started getting breasts, and things like that. So, most of the weight was just me growing into my body. It wasn't necessarily that I was fat. It's just that I was still growing into my body. Then, when I got to Jr. High and High School, I would say that I was pretty chubby. I mean, i was weighing like 120 and I was like 4"11. I wasn't even overweight in my BMI, but it's just that I wasn't in a weight that I liked or felt comfortable in. I went to an endrocronoligist. I know I spelled it wrong (but, basically a doctor that deals with growth and bones). I had tried everything to lose weight, but I felt like nothing worked. So, I wanted to grow a little bit, so I would feel more comfortable. At the time I was about 4"9 1/2 or 4"10. They told me they couldn't give me growth hormone shots because I got my period so early on, that it wouldn't do anything. It turns out that I grew to be 4"11 1/2. During my senior year in high school, I was so frustrated that I became anorexic. I was weight about 90 pounds. Now, at my weight, I didn't look that thin, as someone who is anorexic does. But, I started to look like a little boy. I was obviously sick. I had bags under my eyes, I had no body fat, and my heart rate was very low. I was eating like 600 calories a day and it became an obsession. I've realized that after I lost weight, my body does everything it can to stay at 112. It's so frustrating! I don't look FAT at 112. But, I'd like to be at 100 because that's where I look GOOD. If I were just 5"2, I know that I would look the same at 112 as I do now at 100 pounds. I excersise every day, but I don't think I can go on a strict diet right now. I just recovered from anorexia. The last thing I need is to go on a diet. I just need to know if there is any way I can grow just an inch or 2. I'm almost 5 feet right now. I'm not one of those people who wants to be tall or grow for superficial reasons. I just want to be able to deal with my weight a little better and not struggle so much with it. I know that we have a lot of technology now, and probably a lot of things have evolved since I was 14. If you know of anything, can you please let me know? Just so I can explore a little more on it.

Thank you so much!!

Cristy

Have you been to an endocrinologist more recently? If there's anything that can be done at all, the professionals will know.

Other than that, get a bicycle and ride it everywhere instead of using any motorised transport. The exercise will stimulate growth.

Besides, when you're on a bicycle, you'll notice the slightest increase in your height because suddenly your saddle won't be high enough.

Also, make sure you eat well. Getting enough nutrients is very important to growth.

Yes, it is definitely possible to grow after you're 18. Some people continue growing until they're 25. I'm 20 and I put on 5 cm earlier this year. (I needed a new bicycle because of that. Then again, I only got my period when I was 11, not as early as you.)
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I'm skinny. I have a good body shape.I want to gain weight but its so hard....i can't....i just don't have much of an appetite. I don't starve myself, i do eat, but not too much. I want to know how I can gain. In the past I have forced myself to eat more often, I end up gaining weight after a while, but then I just fall back into my normal state and lose it all. I don't know what do do! I'm 5"2 105. I want to gain five more pounds and be more lean....like a little muscle...does anyone know an easy way to do this?

To gain muscle, do some weight training exercises. Go to a gym if possible. Otherwise, use large water bottles as weights.

Here are some videos to show you what to do: http://www.uwlax.edu/strengthcenter/videos/video%20main%20page.htm

The extra exercise should increase your appetite. Do eat proper meals rather than junk food though.
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At dance we wear leotards and our bras always show really bad. We have our Christmas recital coming up soon and we cant have our bras showing on stage. So how can we stop our bras from showing under our leos? Should we wear something eles under our leos?

Wear a t-shirt bra. (That is, a seamless bra that is designed to allow for a smooth shape when one wears a tight-fitting top.)
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