Math class might not be your favorite pastime, but it can be a great place to make friends. One of the benefits to being a teen is that you go to school with hundreds of potential friends. The people in your classes are going to be close to your age, and if nothing else, you'll have that class in common. Start looking around the room to see if anyone in the class seems interesting or friendly. You could create a study group for a class. While you're studying and sharing notes, you might find that you have more in common with people in the group. Outside of school, you can look for people your age out in the community. Go out to places where teens often hang out (e.g. pool) or volunteer in the community. You could also get a job at popular hang out spots. For example, if you decide to work at the movie theater, you will probably meet quite a few people coming in and out to watch movies. An even better option might be to work as a lifeguard at a pool. Most schools provide a host of extracurricular activities for students. Take advantage of this friend making opportunity by choosing an activity that most interests you. Chances are that other teens in the same activity will have things in common with you. If you are interested in music, you might want to join a band or choir. If you like to run, try joining a track team. These groups will give you opportunities to make new friends. Outside of school, communities often have their own groups and events for teens. Take advantage of these gatherings to give yourself the opportunity to make friends that live near you. This is a particularly good way to make friends in the summer or during other school breaks. For example, if your neighborhood has something like community garden club, consider joining to make new friends.
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One-sentence summary -- Notice people in your classes. Look for other teens in your neighborhood. Join extracurricular activities at school. Go to clubs and public events in your area.

Whether your teen is learning to drive a stick shift or automatic car, it's important that they get the hang of driving one specific car. This way, there will be no surprises the day of the test. Return to the parking lot for a few more sessions. This will help your teen's confidence and skills grow before they surrender to the call of the open road. You can practice for up to an hour if you're so inclined. Make sure to take a break or cut the lesson short if one of you needs it. A parking lot has the advantage of pre-marked parking spaces, so take advantage of them! Tell your teen to pull up to line their passenger side mirror up with the boundary line of a space. Then, have them turn their wheel all the way to the side, and begin to enter the space. Once they're about halfway in, they can straighten the wheel and finish pulling in. Also called 3-point turns, K turns are useful for reversing directions in areas of heavy traffic. They're also tricky to get right, which is why it's great to do them in an empty parking lot. Tell your teen to signal right, then pull all the way right. Next, encourage them to turn on their left-hand signal, then drive left a bit. Now tell them to signal right, then reverse. They should be near where they started, but facing the opposite direction. You can use the curbs in the parking lot to practice parallel parking, even if that isn't their intended function. This maneuver can require a lot of repetition, so don't let it psych your teen (or you) out. Tell your teen to come to a stop, then check their mirrors. Have them turn on their turn signal on the right. Then encourage them to turn the steering wheel all the way to the right, towards the curb. Now, they should begin to reverse. Remind them going extremely slowly is okay, and encouraged--even experienced drivers find parallel parking difficult. Then, have them switch the wheel to the left and back up a bit more. Finally, your teen should straighten out their wheels completely and inch forward a bit. Get out of the car and look at how close the curb is. If it's nearly touching the wheels, or a couple of feet away from them, have your teen try again! Your teen may not be a perfect driver yet, but that's why they're practicing with you. You may need to correct them, but make sure your comments are useful and constructive (e.g. "Pump the brakes," not "slow down, we're going to die!"). It's easy to figure out where to correct (it will often happen when your teen doesn't seem to be paying attention), but we often take good driving for granted and forget to reinforce it. Here are some actions worthy of praise: Correcting a mistake without being prompted. Considering right of way. Taking weather or light conditions into account.
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One-sentence summary -- Always practice in the same car. Build up to longer, trickier lessons. Ask your child to park perpendicularly. Practice K turns. Instruct your child to parallel park. Offer constructive criticism. Praise good driving.

An HDMI port resembles a thin, wide slot with a slightly tapered base. If you have a receiver with enough HDMI input ports, and your TV has at least one HDMI input, you should be able to connect all of your devices to get the best possible quality from your home theater. Most new receivers will have multiple HDMI inputs that allow you to connect all of your HDMI-capable devices, as well as an HDMI output for connecting to your TV. You can buy an HDMI splitter for a one-port receiver. Check that your TV supports HDMI 1.4 ARC (Audio Return Channel). This allows the TV to send audio back to the receiver, which routes your TV sound through your home theater speakers. Most TVs made after 2009 support HDMI 1.4 and newer. If your TV does not support HDMI 1.4, you will need to use a separate audio cable to connect the TV to the receiver (e.g., digital optical). If you are watching TV through a cable box via your receiver, you don't need to worry about ARC since the sound is coming from the cable box into the receiver. These could include DVD/Blu-ray players, game consoles, and more. If you have limited HDMI inputs, use HDMI cables for the most recent devices first, as they will benefit the most. For example, if your receiver only has two HDMI inputs and you have a Roku, a PlayStation 4, and a DVD changer, plug the Roku and the PS4 in with HDMI, and use a component connection for the DVD player. The Roku and PS4 will benefit much more from the HDMI connections. HDMI plugs only go in one way, so don't force any connections. Plug one end of an HDMI cable into the receiver's HDMI slot, then plug the other end into the TV. This allows the image from all the devices connected to your receiver appear on your TV. Since your devices are now routed through the receiver, the TV can be set to the HDMI input that you plugged in from the receiver, allowing you to switch between inputs using your receiver remote. Since everything has been connected via HDMI, all the sound from your devices should go through your receiver's speaker setup. Most devices should configure automatically when they detect the HDMI connection, though you may need to tweak some settings for certain devices. If you aren't setting up a home theater system, you can still plug your HDMI devices directly into your TV and then control the inputs using your TV remote. Most modern TVs have at least two HDMI inputs. If you have more HDMI-capable devices than you do input ports on your TV, you can purchase an HDMI switch that will expand the number of available HDMI ports. HDMI-CEC allows you to use your TV remote to control your other HDMI devices. To enable HDMI-CEC, you'll have to access each device's settings menu. HDMI-CEC is called different things by different companies, including Anynet+ (Samsung), Aquo Link (Sharp), Regza Link (Toshiba), SimpLink (LG), and more. Refer to your TV's manual for more information.
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One-sentence summary --
Locate the HDMI ports on all of the devices. Check what version of HDMI your TV supports. Connect your devices to your receiver inputs via HDMI. Connect the receiver to the TV. Use the receiver to switch between inputs. Connect your devices directly to your TV. Enable HDMI-CEC if you like.