Can't afford it.

bugger. I guess you could always keep your eyes open for some cheap end of line stuff though. sometimes you can get a pretty good deal that way. Particularly if you're not incredibly fussy.

Thanatos, have you got a tv card in your computer? Maybe watch tv online when your stepdad's about, that way you can use headphones ?

@ Ibby, aww honey, that sucks. When's your endoscopy?

well it was SUPPOSED to be yesterday but i was running a fever of 101... so the anesthesiologist wouldnt do it. its rescheduled for friday now.
I'm actually feeling a little better this evening, after getting a little bit of food in me.

Hope you feel better soon Ibby, fevers and the like arent fun.

Glad you're feeling a bit better. Here's hoping you have your procedure on Friday instead.

Than, what aboout those amplyfying headphone stes they advertise? So you can overhear other people's conversations and shit? Or are there wireless headphoners these days? Can you have the TV moved further away from your stepdad's study wall?

Couldn't you ask your mom if she would pay for some better insulation on that wall? Take her with you and repeat the experiment you did.

Ibby, ouch :(

True, but if you use a short wide candle that cannot fall over ( a tea-light on a stand will do), in the middle of a dish of water wider than the height of the candle, in a non-flammable plate, in the middle of the room ... it's gonna take some McGyver-like magic to start a fire. Also, you can use it in the evening before you go to bed.

As for the LED idea, I don't think it is the light so much as the warmth that attracts the fleas, so the trick might be to get a pen-torch with an incandescent bulb and a removable head, and stand that in the dish. Voila!

Thanatos
If carpet is too expensive, there are plenty of cheap and tacky options you could consider lining the wall with:
old mattresses (as used by garage bands around the world)
bubble-wrap
egg cartons (absorb sound wonderfully - often used in kindergartens)
corrugated cardboard (cut up old fridge boxes)
foam rubber (probably the most effective from this list)
priceless medieval tapestries
old blankets
cork board (as used in pin-boards)
pictures of naked women (so when your step dad comes in to complain, he gets distracted)

The problem with most of these is that you'll need some way of keeping them attached, and I don't know if you're folks would be too keen on having old blankets nailed to the wall. Also many of these could be a fire hazard. And they're likely to be ugly, although a stylish blanket could be passed off as a wall hanging.

High tech solution: get you step-dad some anti-noise headphones. When they detect a sound wave, the speakers produce an opposite wave (as in, the same wavelength but 180 degrees out of phase) which cancels out the original wave. I have a friend who has headphones that do this, I think such speakers are available. Put them in your S-dad's study.

Hey Dana! Isn't today the big day?!? What is up?!?
:D

*grins* oh yeah. Today was the big day. I just attended the most difficult meeting I've ever been to. It was absolutely awful. The secretary was unable to attend.....which left me (acting secretary) taking the minutes. When the chair read out my letter, sent to the secretary in accordance with the rules (rule 6b, in case you're interested :P) all hell broke loose. The vice-chair, the treasurer and the vice-chair's wife left the meeting half way through, with the vice-chair pausing at the door to issue a declaration of war. From now on, he says, every officer post will be contested, and there will be votes of no confidence in the chair at every clp meeting. People made threats and accusations and it was very heated. My people turned up, they voted the right way and the motion has been referred to the general committee.....now i just have to make sure none of my people cry off on Friday (general committee meeting) when the vote for whether to set up an investigating panel takes place.

For the next few months we have all out war

Get well soon, Ibbie. You're a nicer kid than you know.

Aw UG, you big lummox... that's not true.



...It'd be pretty hard to have a higher opinion of me than i have of myself.

Oh yes it is. Some of us actually care, even if we've never met. you need treatment dude.