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I was always impressed with people who could make life lessons out of things.

“Wow, that’s a really good way of looking at that.”
“How did they think of that?”
and so on.

But then I discovered that you can make anything a life lesson if you want. You can even make the same thing two opposite lessons. People just make them up.

This realization came to me last summer as I was figuring out how to keep our pool clean.

I read something about how you should stir the water and brush the sides so the gunk doesn’t settle and can get pulled into the filter. It won’t stay clean unless you keep things active. And I was reminded of relationship advice – not to let problems fester, but to get things out in the open. You can’t resolve any problems by ignoring them.

Then we went away on vacation, and the pool sat unattended for a week or two. And all the gunk settled and congealed into a mat at the bottom of the pool, and it was easily scraped up in large chunks. And I was reminded of relationship advice – not to keep bringing up disagreements and hurts, but to give things time to heal.

No, it’s not a perfect analogy, but I never was that good at making life lessons out of things. But the life lesson here is that you can get lessons out of anything. Like Ratatouille – not that everything can be a life lesson, but that a life lesson can come from anywhere.

With the daylight hours diminishing, I can’t spend all evening working outside on yard projects anymore. So I’m stuck inside after dinner.

I’ve found myself wondering if I should catch up on some of the movies I’ve been thinking about watching. But then I remember that it’s football season, so half the time the evening could be spent watching football.

I then got to comparing watching sports versus watching a movie. If I have to spend two hours of my evening, which is better?

With movies, they have different characters, but the plots are generally similar and the ending is about the same.

With sports, they have the same recurring characters and the plots are generally similar, but the ending is unknown.

I usually end up watching football because it’s live. I know the movies aren’t going anywhere, and it’s not very fun watching a game a week or two later after you know the outcome.

Yes, there are still plenty of projects inside the house to do, but it seems my motivation sets with the sun.

One of main complaints with the iPhone is the inconsistent interface for clock notifications. I use both the alarm (for waking up in the morning) and the timer (reminders during the day) just about every day. And I never know which button to press to get it to stop.

Here’s the alarm:

And here’s the timer:

My problem is that I want to press the larger, more colorful button. But Apple has made the decision that for the two parts of its clock app, the larger, more colorful button will have two different meanings.

So when my iPhone starts making clock noises, I have to look at it, figure out which button means “stop” and which button means “remind me again soon”, and press the one I want.

One of these days, I’ll change my alarm setting to turn off the snooze option…

This one is about 19 years late, but I didn’t see that anyone’s done this yet, so here it is.

If Gwen Stefani ever needs an idea for a store, she should open a Jewish bread store.

And, of course, all sales to females are final.

Because …

you can’t take that challah back, girl.

1. How do I win?
By having more chips showing your color than the opponents does of his color.

2. How do I get the chips to show my color?
Place your chip down at the end of a row. All the chips of the opponent’s color in a line between your newly-placed chip and an existing chip of your color, you get the flip them to your color.

Note that you must have a chip of your color in the line – if it’s a line of all the other color, then nothing happens.

Also note that you can convert only the chips in that line until the first of your color. If the line of the other color is interrupted by one of your color, then you must not flip any chips after that one, even if you have another chip later in the line.

3. How do I prevent the opponents from taking over my chips on the board?
The only way to truly prevent it is by getting to the corners. A corner is the end of all lines, so no one can place a chip after it to flip it.

The edge of the board is better than the middle, but the corner is the best.

4. How does the game end?
Keep taking turns until the board is full. Or, if you have an older game and lost some chips, until you’re out of chips.

5. How do we start the game?
Place 4 chips in the middle of the board, 2 of each color and alternating, like this:
XO
OX

Then the first player places a chip wherever he wants, and you take turns.

There, now go play Othello. Or Reversi, they’re similar.

With the spork being ubiquitous, I was wondering about the name “spork”. It is the easiest name if you’re combining “spoon” and “fork”, but there are other combinations too.

Spork
Fpoon
Foon
Forn

Not as popular, but you could also have a combination fork and knife.

Knirk
Knork
Fofe
Forfe

And least popular is spoon and knife.

Spofe
Spoofe
Spife
Knoon

In the past year, I have experienced three very useful inventions. They are of the type that made me wish I had gotten them sooner. So now I’m sharing them with you, so you can have a better life.

• Ratchet Belt

  

  I have worn out a number of belts because my waist is a consistent size. So I’m always putting the belt buckle on the same setting, and all that wear and tear in one spot causes the notch to wear out faster. The rest of the belt is fine, but it’s gnarly-looking at best or worn through at worst.

  I tried the web-type belts with the clamping claw, but that has two problems. 1: the claw is slightly destructive, so the more I use the belt the worse it looks. I can see scratches and runs in the fabric webbing. And 2: the buckle releases way too easily. It occasionally catches on something when I turn and it pops open, rendering the belt temporarily useless.

  But at Christmas I got a ratchet belt, the kind with the ratchet on the underside. These belts are awesome. The design keeps any wear and tear to the inside of the belt, so no one sees it. It’s not infinitely-adjustable, but the sizing is a lot finer resolution than traditional notches. I highly recommend them.

• Clicky Paper Towel Holder
  That’s a clicky holder of paper towels, not a holder of clicky paper towels.

  

  My sister got one of these and we tried it and then had to buy our own.

  You can look up “click paper towel holder” or “one hand paper towel holder” or something like that.

  The point is that you can pull the end gently and it unrolls, but if you tear it then it doesn’t unroll. There’s a resistance mechanism built into it. Now I don’t have the weekly chore of winding the paper towels back onto the roll.

• Stepped Car Ramps

  

  I saw a Youtube video about someone who made these, and I was inspired to make my own. Sometimes the Youtube feed algorithm works.

  In this case, it’s useful for me because I work on my cars and I have a stick shift. I’ve had a set of ramps for years, and they’ve been helpful, but I never liked trying to get the manual car up them.

  Also in my case, I’m a little gun shy because I did overshoot the end of a ramp once, and ended up having to jack up the side of the car to free the ramp that it had crashed on. So now I am cautious if I think I’m nearing the end of the ramp.

  With the stick, it’s a pain trying to be cautious on a ramp, because that’s not good for the clutch. Also, my parking brake is not that good so if I stop before the end of the old-style ramp, I have to go back down to the beginning.

  The stepped car ramp is nice because I can count to know when I’m on the last level. 1, 2, 3, stop. And if something goes wrong and I have to stop before the end, each section is level so the car never rolls back. I can stop on level 2 and the car stays there. Note that I built my car ramps longer than this set, so each level has plenty of room for a tire.

  It’s also probably better for the automatic transmissions too – don’t want to use the parking pawl to hold you in place on a ramp while you get out to check if you’re at the top yet.