Notes From Andy

Maybe I'm the last to know this, but the town motto for Springfield, home of The Simpsons, is "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."

May we all learn to embiggen those around us.

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. – Dr. Howard Thurman

I'd love to know where and when these words were spoken or written. Google turns up a lot of references to the quote but I haven't seen whether Dr. Thurman wrote it in an essay or said it in a speech or what.

I have short legs. When I'm sitting and I put a laptop on my lap, it tends to slide off.

To address this, I got a Silpat baking mat to put on my lap, under the laptop. I've only used it a few minutes, but so far it's quite comfortable with excellent grip, and my MacBook Pro hasn't budged.

I don't think the mat is intended as an insulator — indeed, I assume it's supposed to transfer heat from your baking pan to your cookies — but it does protect my legs a little from the heat of the laptop's aluminum bottom.

As an extra bonus, this helps me keep my wrists at a good angle by having the keyboard very low.

I wonder if I'm the first to think of this.