AllExperts.com

Have a question... about anything? Ask it here and an expert will answer you. From the website: "Allexperts, created in early 1998, was the very first large-scale question and answer service on the net! We have thousands of volunteers, including top lawyers, doctors, engineers, and scientists, waiting to answer your questions. All answers are free and most come within a day!"

They've neatly categorized information-questions-answers to make what you seek easier to find. Maybe someone's already asked your question. Maybe there's a question YOU can answer.

And you can always start up with a new question and see what happens next.

Some of their categories are: Arts/Humanities, Home/Garden , Autos , Homework Help , Computing/Technology , Sports , Games , Health/Fitness , People/Relationships and more.

Here are some sample questions from this website:

Is Thomas a Hebrew name, or is there an equivalent?

My little brother is 10 will be 11 he always picks fights with me and i just go to my room crying. What should i do?

How do cities get picked to host the olympics?

Why isn't Drew Pearson in the hall of fame?

Food Safety Issues - Do jars always have to "pop?" Should jars always make a vacuum sound as you open them?

Can disposable cameras produce good prints after months of using the camera like say 5 months?

I just replaced the rear end on my 98 blazer.when I tried to bleed the brakes no fluid comes out.Is there another bleeder on the system that needs to be bled first?

How would a foreclosure on my house effect my credit and what can the bank do to me?

How did the Jim Crow laws affect African Americans?

My aunt who entered the country legally by getting married to Us citizen but things didn't work out between them and she divorced him before the NIS interview and got married to another US citizen again and had a child with him now. She has been here for 10 years. She is afraid that she will be separated from her family and does not let her husband file I-30. What could be happening to her?

I understand that Africa's Wild dogs are on the edge of extinction, What is being done to save them?

I suspect I may have fibromyalgia as I recognise many of the signs and symptoms from online information, however, the front bit of my tongue feels sore, a mild burning sensation, and it appears red. Is this also a sign of FM?

I am sickened to discover my photos of my children growing up have become moldy in their albums where they were stored. I think I can salvage them and put them in another album, but how do I stop the mold from growing and ruining the pictures? HELP!!!!!!! Dire straights!

What is a paternal family tree?My understanding of a paternal family tree is it is the father's side of the family- the entire father's side.I ask because some people are confusing it with a patrilineage. Or are they the same?

I just bought a brand new tent. Should I water proof it before I use it?

I was just wanting to know if you ever see any good skateboarders around in O.C. I was also wondering if the gas prices are high or not. Thanks!

My friend has an IBM laptop that won't boot up, you can't even get into the BIOS. There are options as it starts to boot to hit the "blue IBM Access button" or hit F12 to enter bootup options. However, when you choose any of those, it takes you to a black DOS-type screen and there is a picture of a computer and a lock and it is looking for a password that he doesn't know. Do you know if there is any way to get past this?

...and lots more. VISIT THE WEBSITE

Roof Help

See, this is what it is... I was 17 years old when my Mom bought this house and moved us here the day after I graduated from high school. I was 100% sympathetic to her reasons for wanting to move so I didn't begrudge her the move per se, but the day after my graduation? She actually was going to yank me out of school in the middle of my senior year, moving into the new house and me into a new school after a lifetime of me forming friendships with the same kids at the same schools, all of us growing up together, and I was supposed to dump all that to start over at a new school in the middle of my senior year?

Not going to happen. No way. So the day after graduation was the compromise. And here we are and now I am fifty-seven years old and now my Mom is bedridden, on oxygen, on a tube feeding, and I am her sole caregiver.

We've had folks in and out of here, including my younger brother when he was still alive and my sister and her new husband early on in their marriage (their daughter is now in her 30's and her son is a teenager in high school).

We had an extended Mexican family living here for a year and a half. At one count, we had fourteen Mexicans living here and they were a G-d sent miracle because the lessons on living we learned from them forever altered the course of our lives and have probably saved our lives more than once since then.

Then there was the nasty El Niño wind and rain monsoon season that ripped shingles off our roof and allowed the pounding rain to collapse our ceilings all along one side of our house - dining room, living room, and two bedrooms. Big chunks of ceiling missing, carpeting and furniture ruined.

Hey, at least we could enjoy the rain from inside our house. That was different.

So... our Mexican family got up on our house and installed a new roof on that half of the house. And everything's been fine for a few years.

Now, the front half of the roof is going. We're in trouble.

I think we must have the last wood shake roof in existence in Southern California. They are against the law now because of the danger from brush fires and we do live most extremely close to the Malibu hills.

The front of our house looks like a shanty from the wrong side of the tracks because the roof is so old, so dried out, missing shingles, and it's just plain ugly anymore. It makes me feel bad every time I have to see it.

Nobody should have to feel that way about their own home. But, that is the way I feel. If the neighbors only knew that I want to see a new roof up there even more than they do, maybe they wouldn't hate me so much.

I am poor. I am disabled. Even if I didn't have to be here inside the house 24/7 to take care of my Mother, I am not able to work. And Social Security Disability is not enough money to pay for a new roof.

So, here we sit. Meanwhile, I can dream, can't I? I can pretend what a new roof might look like. I can dig up information on roofing and pretend somehow it's all going to mean something to us here one day.

When I go "pack rat" on collecting data, I gather the online links together in a folder in my Favorites. And I thought they just might qualify as "useful" so here they are...

[THE USUAL DISCLAIMER STUFF: I cannot personally recommend ANY of these links or verify any of the information contained in these links because I don't know crap about roofing. These links should be considered a mere starting point for a quest for information. That is all.]

Google Web Services

PLEASE NOTE: Internet Explorer may not automatically display the contents of Google Gadgets and IE users might have to click on the blank space (inside an iframe) and hit "Refresh" before you can enjoy the gadget.

TinyUrl.com

TinyUrl.com--ever tried to post an extremely long url into a messageboard posting or have it broken-up and unclickable in an email? Go to this place, input your long url, and they'll give you back a short one that will redirect to the first url.

Saving bookmarks (favorites) online

MyBookmarks.com -- You can organize all your favorites here in as many categories and subcategories that you need. They even have software you can download that will transfer all the favorites on your computer into your new online bookmark hidey-hole with them. You have the option of sharing your bookmarks by making them "public." Don't wait for your next computer crash to start building up your list of bookmarks again. Keep them safe and online and accessible from any computer anywhere. You can also use a system like del.icio.us to store and share your favorites.

The First Post

Well, I've always been a cyber pack rat, collecting all kinds of useful links and as I got involved online with my fellow writers, it was a real pleasure to be able to provide them with all sorts of helpful useful information on all things writing.

However, along the way, I managed to collect a lot of other "stuff" not directly related to writing. The funny, weird, and strange have ended up on my Brain Farts Blog. But... what to do about the useful stuff?

And here we are. Hope something here works for you.