Yak Shaving -- [MIT AI Lab, after 2000: orig. probably from a Ren & Stimpy episode.] Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on.

#690 -- Too cheap to pay for Cliff Notes? Try LitSum, a free site full of literature study guides. Each guide has full chapter summaries and analysis, topics for discussion, quotes, style, themes and character analysis. (HT: Lifehacker)

#691 Power Point Hack -- Florida Gulf Coast University has an excellent printable list of Power Point keyboard shortcuts.

#692 GMail School -- GMail has a number of hidden labels taht you can use to search your mail: * label:inbox - search only your Inbox; * label:star (label:starred) - search only your starred messages; * label:sent (or label:sentmail, label:sent-mail, label:sent mail ) - search only sent mail. It may be useful to restrict your search only to messages you've sent, or only to messages you've received if you add a minus. (HT: Google Operating System)

#693 HowTo -- Set up and host a blog on your home computer

#694 Download of the Week -- Turn your computer monitor into a canvass with ArtRage. The free version of the painting package lets you "paint" with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle glitter, gold leaf, silver foil, and more. You can even load in your photos as Tracing Images to help you recreate them as paintings.

See also: The Yak Shaving Razor Archives

Have a useful recommendation for making life more pleasant? Send them to me at jpcarter[at]evangelicaloutpost.com.