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.

House Hack -- Share expenses with a roommate? iOweYou is a free online expense sharing program that lets you log all the items you buy that you share with your group (bills, food shopping, etc.). iOweYou then tells you how much you all owe each other.

Firefox Extension -- The GLG (Grocery List Generator) is a helpful little tool to store your recipe-ingredients and other groceries you need regularly. It creates a well-organized grocery list to help make your grocery shopping as easy as possible.

HowTo -- Design the Perfect Nap

Google School -- Google Translate has added dictionary translations, making it possible to translate single words. For instance, say you're looking for ways to say "drive" en Francais; you can plug it into Google Translate and figure out that there are different ways to use drive, depending on the context. (HT: Lifehacker)

Download of the Week -- Freeware application ClipCase formats the text in your clipboard in a number of very useful ways—from line break removal to different capitalization schemes—designed to help you clean up text before you paste it elsewhere. Two of the most useful features are the "Remove returns" functionality and the "Remove >" (handy for copying email quotes). (HT: Lifehacker)

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.