Hiring Boom

 I saw this at the top of the requirements section on a job description:

"...willing to design stuff that blows up other stuff and people"

Thank you for the candor, but no.

Small Wins -- What Can You Do In Five Minutes?

During a networking presentation, the speaker spoke about Small Wins. I liked the idea of filling in spare time by engaging in partial tasks that can lead to a big goal. The idea is to make a list of tasks you can do in five minutes. That way you can be ready for those spare moments that popup.

While the tasks are “supposed to be” in support of a goal, I prefer to figure out what I can do in five or fifteen minutes. For real. I might think I can shave my face in fifteen minutes. But in reality I can achieve that only if I don’t bother to:

• wait for the water to heat up
• foam up the shaving soap with the brush
• thoroughly clean up after myself

I need 20 minutes for my complete shaving process.

I‘ve included below my list of five-minute “wins.” In some cases I’ll need to have materials or supplies nearby to achieve them. For example, in order to water plants, I keep bottles of water near a few of my thirstier plants.

Items at the bottom of the list in square brackets are for 15 minute gaps.

• Water a plant
• Drink a glass of water
• Splash cold water on my face
• Make tea
• Do a breathing exercise
• Do pushups
• Chill out
• Compare my online calendar with my weekly planner
• Play Wordle or Connections [occasionally I’ll need 15 minutes for this]
• Wipe down a counter top or table top
• [Load / unload dishwasher]
• [Make coffee]
• [Brush the cat]
• [Do crunches]
• [Take a quick walk around the yard]
• [Weed the garden]

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Here are some links to review:

• https://aldohappy.com/small-wins
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/possibilitizing/202410/why-we-should-cheer-for-lifes-wobbles
• https://realitypathing.com/best-ways-to-recognize-and-celebrate-small-wins-with-appreciation/
• https://www.lifehack.org/396379/how-celebrate-small-wins-achieve-big-goals

It Starts With a Small Favor

One time the boss asked me to sketch a new product concept in our CAD program.  After an hour or so, I'd print out a paper drawing and hand it to him.

After a few weeks he stops by and asks, "How's the project going?"  "What project?"  Apparently the little favor I did, the sketch I provided, was supposed to be /my/ new project.  I was supposed to test it and get it working and make imporvements on it (in between all the other products that customers were paying for).  This wasn't the first time I was expected to be a mind reader, but it was the most egregious example.

My job, as it was explained to me when I started, was to design and order photomasks for a new IC.  I'd also provide notes on the fabrication requirements, both backend and frontend.  After that, it was somebody else's problem.  This was easy work, and I was able to fit in with only a little training.  I had time to devote to professional development, which was lacking.

At one weekly status meeting someone reported a problem with one of the chips I designed.  Suddenly everyone was looking at me.  They expected me to know what was going on and hoped I had devised a solution, Apparently, again, I was supposed to be responsible for all aspects of its manufacturing and testing.  But I wasn't even aware that it started production.  My only response was "I don't know" sung to the tune of "How the hell should I know?"  Again I was faulted for my lack of mind reading skills.

This is how things go in a small company that lacks a mentorship program.  If someone had provided a little guidance and explicit expectations, on day one, I might've developed into the ideal engineer.

Unfortunately, this happens at home, too.  "I want to paint the window sill on the porch.  Can you buy paint for me?" my wife asked last week.  Now she's saying that it's a big job and that she might have to hire someone to help.  So the todo list that she wrote today included, "Help me paint the window sill."  I'm assuming I'll have to do it myself.  But this bothers me because you're always paint the trim last, and the entire porch needs painting.  Not only is she manipulating me into doing the job, she's manipulating me into doing it wrong.

Does this happen to anyone else?  What are your experiences?

Some Monospace Fonts Available in Blogger

While editing my most recent post, I've been disappointed with the lone monospace font that's available in Blogger by default.  I'm referring to Courier.  The biggest problem with it is that it's very difficult (for me) to discern between l and 1.^*  Here's what they look like in Courier: l and 1.

Fortunately, Google has made it easy for a user to add alternate fonts.  I listed below some of the monospace fonts you can choose.  

Based on the discernment between l/1, I like these the best (ranking in alphabetical order):

Font Name	lower L vs. One
Fragment Mono	l and 1
Google Sans Code	l and 1
JetBrains Mono	l and 1
Oxygen Mono	l and 1
Reddit Mono	l and 1
Source Code Pro	l and 1
Ubuntu Mono	l and 1
Ubuntu Sans Mono	l and 1

The discernment is greatest with Reddit Mono; there's no way I'd mistake the lowercase L for the number 1.  However, I like Ubuntu Mono the best.  Not only is the discernment good, the character height is comparable to the height of the default font for this Blogger theme.  So I'll use this font for code listings from now on.

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^*That's lowercase L and the digit one in case you thought I pressed the same key twice. In fact I thought I pressed the same key twice, so I re-entered the characters very deliberately.

Courier the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Cousine the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Datatype the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Fragment Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Google Sans Code the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

IBM Plex Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Inconsolata the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

JetBrains Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Overpass Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Oxygen Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Reddit Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Roboto Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Share Tech Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Source Code Pro the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Ubuntu Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

Ubuntu Sans Mono the quick, red fox jumped over the brown, lazy dog. THE QUICK, RED FOX JUMPED OVER THE BROWN, LAZY DOG. 0123456789

No File Name Completion With org-insert-link? Try This

If you invoke org-insert-link (typically C-c C-l) in order to link to a local file, you might expect that pressing TAB will complete a partial path or file name.  Instead you’ll get the frustrating message “[No match].”

What you need to do instead is to invoke the command with a prefix argument like this: C-u C-c C-l. Then you’ll get the expected completion behavior with TAB.

But why is a prefix argument necessary?  It turns out that org-insert-link expects a link type at the "Insert link" prompt.  Some link types are file, bbdb, info, etc.  (To see a full list of link types, press TAB right after invoking the command, without entering anything.)

This is a powerful command.  You can, for example, enter bbd and press TAB to complete the bbdb: link type.  Then enter the first few characters of someone’s name or a business in your bbdb list of contacts, such as arth.  Upon pressing TAB, you should see completion fill in arthur.  Press again, you’ll get Arthur Dent and perhaps his email address.  Clicking on either will complete the entry.  Press ENTER to put the link into your buffer.¹

Completion isn’t available for all link types.  A link to an info node, for example, has to be entered manually, although usually it’s created with org-store-link (C-c l) while point is in the info node of interest.

I encourage you to read the help for org-insert-link and org-store-link.  The two hyperlinks immediately below will take you to the online manual on gnus.org.  But if you copy the link text and yank into an org file, Emacs will open the Org manual at the page for handling links.

[[help:org-insert-link][Emacs help for org-insert-link]]

[[help:org-store-link][Emacs help for org-store-link]]

I dislike getting frustrated.  But when I’m frustrated with Emacs, I expect to learn something if I dig deep enough.  It hasn’t let me down yet.

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¹ This depends on whether bbdb has been loaded.  If you use bbdb and you’re not getting completion, invoke M-x bbdb and try again.

The Perpetual Calendar -- All You Really Need, Perhaps

The first day of the year can fall on only one of the seven days of the week. This year, 2026, started on a Thursday. Last year, 2025, started on a Wednesday; 2027 will start on a Friday. 2025, Wednesday; 2026, Thursday; 2027 Friday. So why bother buying a new calendar every year? Some people don’t; they use a Perpetual Calendar ¹ instead.

If there were only 364 days in a year, we could keep using the same calendar each year. The number 364 is evenly divisible by 7; there are exactly 52 weeks in that hypothetical year. But that one extra day in our year forces us to have a calendar for each day of the week.

What about leap years? They occur once every four years and have 366 days. We have to “skip over” a calendar every four years. For example, the calendar for 2028 (a leap year) will start on a Saturday. The following year will start not on Sunday but on a Monday.

Thus we need fourteen unique calendars; seven have 365 days; seven have 366, owing to the addition of February 29. This is what some refer to as “The Perpetual Calendar.”

Unfortunately, if you want to keep track of religious holidays, you’ll have to pencil in all those holidays whose schedules follow the lunar calendar ². And this involves more than figuring out the date of the Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year). Dates of holidays in the Abrahamic religions ³ (sometimes referred to as Judeo-Christian religions ⁴) also are based on the lunar calendar. This includes Christianity ⁵.

So is the Perpetual Calendar the only calendar you’ll ever need? That’s for you to decide.

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¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_calendar
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_calendar
³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions
⁴ The term “Judeo-Christian” ignores Islam, so I looked for a more appropriate term. See https://www.draslamabdullah.com/post/the-judeo-christian-tradition-history-paradox-and-political-construction
⁵ Yes even Easter requires reference to the lunar calendar. It falls on the date of the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox, roughly speaking. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_of_Easter

Emacs Lisp Function to Determine the Start of Engineers Week

This year, Engineers Week started on Sunday (February 22, 2026).  It always begins on Sunday of the week of George Washington's birthday. ¹

Here's an Emacs Lisp function to calculate the date that Engineers Week will begin for a given year:

(defun eweek (year)
  "Returns the date on which Engineers Week begins for the year given in
YEAR.  Returns the date in the standard format for a (Gregorian)
calendar date in calendar.el, a list of integers (MONTH DAY YEAR)"
  (calendar-gregorian-from-absolute
   (calendar-dayname-on-or-before
    0 (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian (list 2 22 year))))) 

Invoking (eweek 2025) should return (2 16 2025), which was the start of Engineers Week last year.

¹ https://calendar-holidays.com/engineers-week/

Amaze Your Friends – Send a Letter Without a Written Address!

You can have an unaddressed envelope arrive at someone’s address or Post Office Box.

I discovered this from my annual, end-of-year deluge of cards to friends and family.  I had printed all the recipient’s addresses on plain paper, and then cut them into address labels.  (My printer doesn’t accept labels as printed media.)  Then I affixed them to the envelopes with a glue stick.

The glue stick was left over from previous years.  So the first time I used it, the end of the stick was a bit dried out; the adhesion probably was poor as a result.  Thus the first label I had attached eventually fell off, but it stayed on long enough for the local post office to see it and generate the address at the very bottom in barcode form.

Apparently, once the originating post office prints that barcode, the mail item goes where it was intended.

If one could determine just how much adhesion is necessary to make this work repeatedly, a whole new product – Gag Labels – could be launched!  If I were to guess, the stickiness might’ve have compared well to a Post-It note that had been reused a few times.  Another approach would be to develop a temperature-sensitive glue that would irreversibly release after, say, 8 hours exposure at a temperature at or below, say, 10°C (50°F).  Perhaps this is the environment in which most mail finds itself during storage and transit.

This wouldn’t work for all geographic locations at all times of year.  But for a Luddite Geek located in the Northeastern part of USA, it would work from November to April, allowing him to send Season’s Greetings, Valentine’s wishes, and tax returns, not to mention write about himself in the third person.