Someone else mentioned it too, but one of the best ways to improve writing is to read a lot. Read different kinds of things, even if they’re not initially as interesting. I actually had to stop reading the local daily newspaper after regularly reading the New Yorker because the errors and typos were driving me nuts in…

Thank you for putting together this list. I’m sure it was a lot of fussy editing and dozens of open tabs to compile this information.

The matching is pretty simple really. They take your DNA from the test and compare it to DNA from other living people who have lived in one place for a few generations. If you’re a 60% match to an Irish reference person, therefore maybe 60% Irish?

The ethnicity estimates are just that, estimates. It all depends on each service’s reference populations which are living people in a certain place for I think 4 generations. They all should be accurate in their own way, but not exactly the same results. Actual matches through male (Y-DNA) or female (mtDNA) lines are…

I can report it’s interesting! I’m in both AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA. One has me as 85% of my most common country of origin, while the other has 64%, showing a difference in their respective reference populations (which are DNA of living people who have been in a place for I think 4 generations).

The DNA for family history can’t be used for identification. The tests at Family Tree DNA and AncestryDNA are “autosomal” or basically matching small parts of the DNA with cousins. AncestryDNA doesn’t even offer direct male or female lines type tests, and only 23 and Me includes any information on health markers.

Nope, not at all. Ancestry.com started in Utah, that’s all. And because LDS-owned Family Search and Ancestry often went after the same records, they eventually figured out that partnerships are good, like signed contracts kind of thing. Most of the Ancestry board is apparently Jewish and more subscribers are not…

Plus there was already a pretty decent adaptation of the books into a miniseries a few years ago (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt040603…) if you’re looking for visuals.

Agree. And as per the origin website, the point of these rules is a life of minimalism, which is not a specific goal of mine.

You’ll need the extended editions with “appendices” for the content mentioned, DVD or Blu-ray. I bought them basically for this and less for the movies themselves. Just watching the first got me to know and distinguish the dwarves easily!

I’m not sure how to calculate mine. I have a pension (I know, amazing!) so what numbers may I enter for that? I can access a calculator for expected benefits, but the only other thing I know is the employer contribution, is that = to monthly savings?

I love Roman Britain history, an interest that was sparked by the novels of Rosemary Sutcliff starting with Eagle of the Ninth. I unexpectedly fell further for Roman history with college Latin (well, except for the Aeneid which still triggers translation trauma). The international nature and diversity of Roman…

I actually get to still see Paige Davis as she’s a longtime spokeswoman for a regional furniture store. And her husband Patrick Page is something of a hometown hero as he was very popular in the Shakespeare Festival before going onto Broadway (they met on the national tour for Beauty and the Beast I believe). I saw…

When I bought my house I was so excited to graduate from a real estate obsession on HGTV to renovation and decorating, only to find out there weren’t really any on the air anymore. And this was almost 6 years ago.

Not sure if the woman on the right (being trained to operate buses and taxis) is just bored or what.

It gives me great pleasure to delete messages I’m never going to need again. I couldn’t do Inbox Zero, more around “try to get to 20ish” left.

As we are subject to public records law (not so much for me personally) we align practices to the that law. One of the best concepts I’ve adopted ever is Transitory records. SO…

Having just seen King Lear again, I applaud this as the Fools in Shakespeare are usually the wisest and sassiest peeps on stage.

Thank you so much. I’ve been most likely to feel too warm my entire life, from skinny kid to now more stout adult woman. I remember putting my hands on the metal parts of school desks because they’re always so hot! And I’m also hypothyroid, which seems to have almost made it worse.

I work in an office where the…

I think it’s satire to bait people who assume (as I’m seeing people in these comments doing) that the only meaning of “cracker” is a slur. Because crackers you eat used to actually come in actual barrels so that’s the source of the restaurants name and brand.

Yep, I just experienced this at work as an explanation for why a rather immature coworker is being so incivil to me lately—because we happen to each be only children.