Who, What, When, Where, Why and How

I'm in love with the song quot;God and Manquot; from the Deadwood soundtrack. I need to know what Sonny Terry amp; Brownie McGhee album(s) I require to supplement this feeling. - 1 second ago

I'm going to London for a week in August. Can you recommend a good hostel for a young traveler type who wants to meet other travelers and have a good time? Just wondering if anyone had a sweet hostel in London for a young traveler that they could recommend unequivocally. My only hostel experience before was staying at the Green Tortoise in San Francisco, and it was pretty ideal: cheap rooms, a common dining/party area where you could bring beer or liquor in and hang out, talk to other people staying there, even smoke pot as long as you were somewhat discreet. The hostel organized pub crawls down the street on Wednesdays, and even had internet connected computers for everyone to use. I thought it was an ideal place to stay, and I'm looking for something like this in London. It seems there are a lot of hostels in London, but looking through listings it's hard to tell what kind of a place a certain hostel is, whether it's a straight-laced hotelish type place, or if it's more of a traveler's hostel, and some reviews of places I've seen have depicted certain places as crapholes. I'm looking to just rent a bed in a dorm room, I've never done that before and want to see what it's like. I was curious, what can I do with my backpack (that'll be my only luggage) if I want to say, go to a pub or something. Any chance a hostel would have lockers or something? Or should I get one at say, a train station? Is there really a secure way to store my backpack for a few hours or maybe a day at the most at a time? I mean, when I'm out seeing the sights and taking pictures and whatnot, I won't mind carrying the backpack, but sometimes I'll want to just leave it behind somewhere. Previously, I'd just leave it in the room I'm staying in, but if I'm just staying on a bed in a communal room, what should I do with it? Does anyone know of a specific hostel in London that sounds like what I described above, or is just generally a fun place for a 23 year old guy in London by himself for a week? Thanks! - 1 second ago

Crazy old guy filter: Picking a keyboard. Learning to play the piano. How best? A friend was throwing out a bunch of books while moving, and I picked up quot;Piano for Dummiesquot; by Blake Neely. I thought quot;how about delaying senility by exercising the old brainquot;? So, I'd like to learn to play the piano - just a little. I realize the insanity of the ambition, but my excuse is that I have no illusions whatsoever, and I'm just having fun. I realize I'm never going to be wowing crowds, merely annoying the cat. What I'd like to accomplish: learn enough, so that I can doodle out some melodies that rattle about in my head. You see, the extent of my insanity is such, that I'd like to pursue - purely for fun - some electronic music composition. I'm a life-long music lover, but have never ever played any instrument, not even a little. I'm also in my 40's. Yes, I am nuts. But I'd like to have some fun with this, and I am willing to put in the time and effort (60-90 minutes daily practice) for a long time without getting discouraged by meager results. My evil plan: buy a keyboard, use the book to learn the basics. The book is old, so I cannot follow any recommendations in it about specific keyboards. I need to go the electronic route on account of space and my ambition to produce some music down the road. I gather that I need a keyboard, but I'm clueless as to what would work best given my goals (learn basics of piano playing + have something that can be useful in electronic music production). Would it be a synth? A sampler/sequencer? An X? Which brand, model, configuration? I'm vaguely aware of features such as weighted keys and multi-note polyphony, but really, I'm an utter novice, so speak to me as if to a 5 year old. Is my plan horribly flawed? Budget for the keyboard: $1,000 or less. Preferably not the size of a couch. Specific recommendations very welcome! - 1 second ago

I am in L.A., my buddy is in London. We're trying to video-chat via iChat. We can both see each other, I can hear her, but she can't hear me. We've checked the volume on her computer, and nothing is muted. My computer mic is working fine. What are we doing wrong? - 2 minutes ago

What should I do with my leftover meds? I have bottles and boxes of prescription meds that I don't take due to undesirable side effects or the fact that I simply don't need them anymore. They were expensive and it seems ridiculous to flush/throw them away when there are so many needy people out there. Is there some sort of drug recycling program? A charity that could take them off my hands? I'm in LA if that makes a difference. - 5 minutes ago