This is the most amazing piece of advice ever. Even though I'm too cheap to ever buy a first-class ticket, I'd definitely pay for an upgrade. Thanks! I wonder if this is doable for international flights?

Pretty sure foxglove is highly toxic. I know that a chemical in foxglove is now used in heart medication, but as a child, I was instructed to steer clear of these.

Totally off topic, but Kristen, your new profile pic is really lovely and beautiful!

Ha! Awesome. :)

Uh, are you single? This sounds like the best date idea I've ever heard.

"Celebrations" seems like a great idea, though I don't know if we get enough questions to warrant multiple sub-categories. We do certainly get a TON of questions like, "I need a restaurant that'll take a reservation for 40 at the last minute..."

Yep. That's the right answer. Individual email addresses are notoriously difficult to get if the person in question doesn't post it somewhere. Just call the switchboard -- they'll put you though, and you can leave a message.

What a great rant. I was lucky enough to go through elementary school before rote memorization completely fell out of favor (in the late 80's/early 90's). We memorized multiplication tables, the capitals of all of the states, etc.

I took math all the way through Honors Calculus, and although I was never a huge fan, I very much enjoyed geometry, writing proofs, and other logic-based approaches to math.

Where my math education fell down was in discussion or exploration of how professionals use math on any kind of day-to-day basis. I remember thinking in my calculus class, "who the fuck cares? When will I EVER need to know how to do this?" Instead, it would have been more helpful to see simplified engineering and science problems that illustrated where this math would have been used. Likewise, I would have benefited from seeing other kinds of math that are used commonly in professional and scientific settings, such as statistics and economics.

About statistics, specifically, if I could go back and switch out this for my Hon. Calc. class, I totally would. I'm now in the position where for work I need to take a basic Stats 101 course -- beyond mean, median, and mode, I have no knowledge of this discipline. As businesses move towards data-driven decision-making, this is becoming a significantly more critical skill. And, I would argue, broad competence with statistics will serve most people FAR better than the ability to calculate the rate of acceleration of a spaceship falling out of the atmosphere.

Thanks for thorough and sound advice, especially for the breakdown of different drill types. I think you're right that the $40 end of the spectrum with a corded drill is probably going to be my best bet for a starter. Thanks again!

Thanks for the detailed response, though I think much of what you're recommending is too heavy duty for my needs right now. I don't have a separate workspace and live in a small apartment. All good to know for when I move to a larger place!