My sister was going through some old papers left by my father, and came across this article from the local newspaper. I was invited by a local group for secretaries and administrative assistants to give a 30-minute presentation on the use of the World Wide Web. As was the norm back then, I suited up for my presentation, but I think I omitted the tie. My recollection of the evening is quite positive.

From Futility Closet: “Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before and wiser than the one that comes after it.” — George Orwell

For the last few years, my sister and I have been playing the daily New York Times puzzles. A few months ago, We started sharing our daily efforts playing Wordle and Connections - we both also play other NYT puzzle games, but stuck with the two main games to share. It’s a great, low-key way to stay connected. Often we just share the basic results, but if either of us has a particularly good or particularly bad day with our solutions, we’ll commiserate. We both agree the most annoying thing to happen in Wordle is to have 4 of the five letters correctly placed with either the first or second guess, and then need 3 or 4 chances to find the final letter.

Some memorable quotes from Lois McMaster Bujold “Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long they stand around chatting before they shoot you.” - Shards of Honor “My home is not a place, it is a person, sir.” - Barrayar “Geography is the mother of strategy.” - The Vor Game “Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.” - A Civil Campaign “The world is made by the people who show up for the job.” - Cryoburn “Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn’t going to supply it.” - Cordellia’s Honor “I wanted to give you a victory. But by their essential nature triumphs can’t be given.” - A Civil Campaign “Not all prisons are made of iron bars, some are made of feather beds.” - The Curse of Chalion

I have a nice pair of low-top Merrell shoes I like to wear for walking and hiking. From time to time the knot would come undone, which is somewhat annoying. I was getting ready to do my 3 mile walk around the neighborhood, and decided I wanted to learn a secure but easily tied replacement for the bunny-ears knot I learned in kindergarten. The solution was:     Ian’s Secure Shoelace Knot It’s easy enough to learn and then to tie, and results in a very secure shoelace that’s still easy to untie. Here’s a diagram of Step 6, which shows a view of the completion of the process.

“The true delight is in the finding out, rather than in the knowing.” — Isaac Asimov

Many people believe the idiom for someone getting what they deserve is “just desserts”, but in fact it’s “just deserts”. It’s a now defunct version of the word “deserts” meaning “that which one deserves” that only survives today in that one idiom. But is is pronounced just like “desserts”.

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” - John A. Shedd

Hello. Still in test.