Why I reread.

As explained by Jo Walton:

Even when I have plenty of books, and access to libraries, that doesn’t mean that I’ll be able to put my hand on the kind of thing I want to read this minute.
[. . .]
My ideal relationship with a book is that I will read it and love it and re-read it regularly forever. Sometimes I will know ahead of time that I’ll love it, other times it’ll be a surprise. Some books lay around for years waiting for me to get to them became favourites. More often I’ll pick up something because it looks interesting and then immediately read all of that new-to-me author’s backlist as fast as I can find it.

Jo wrote a wonderful poem about how in heaven there's a bookshop full of *more* books by her favorite authors, books presumably written and published after their deaths. That's the heaven I want to enter.

Making my way around

How to send a floral arrangement to a guy.

TMI greeting cards.

Real programmers use *nix.

Somebody stole plants from my garden AGAIN. Wish I had one of these.

Why are we having so many earthquakes?

Chess, Morals

Amazing chess set (including hand-carved table) after the illustrations in Through the Looking Glass.

Jane Austen and ethics.

Austen's value system can be thought of as a sphere with layers. The innermost core might be called "morals," the next layer we could call "sentiments," and finally the surface "manners." Morals are the fundamental principles: self-knowledge, generosity, humility, tenderest compassion, upright integrity.