Rabbit, Rabbit.

Matt called last night and asked how he can get PowerPoint. He needs to do a presentation on Richard Nixon by next week. We don't have it on our home computer, either. PowerPoint is pricey for the occasional user and the OpenOffice tools aren't quite ready for civilian use. Fortunately, the library has a copy of PowerPoint that he can use. Matt's in the seventh grade. You can almost hear one more little blood vessel pop on Dr. Tufte's forehead.

I brought my work laptop home with me. I have an appointment for some lab work at 8:30 and need to finish up a couple of things this morning. As has been said, why do they call it fasting when it goes so slowly? At day's end yesterday, I was tripped up by a problem that could be a big deal. This is not the time to find such problems.

Some people have noted, and this even goes back to my time at IBM, that I've not been getting things done as I normally would. Tasks, many of them small and requiring just a few minutes of work, will lie about incomplete for weeks. Sometimes, a task may be blocked, waiting for another person to complete a related task, but, in many cases, I've not been able to get those things unstuck. I've wondered if it's the result of changes in some medication - too much or too little, it's not clear. That it's been going on for a year and half or more suggests something else. While I try to sort that out, there are some basics that can help me move forward. There are plenty of resources for help. Sandra is very good at acting on the principle of handling a piece of paper once - act on it, file it, or throw it away.

While I work on technical documentation for networked attached storage, other people write documentation (PDF) for products that are more essential to the well-being of the republic.