I’ve been out of work since September. I may yet be reinstated (the decision-maker has been stalling since November), but supposing otherwise, I need advice.

My one known marketable skill is wordprocessing, which will eventually be obsolete as voice recognition improves (or more people do their own typing). It has been suggested that I try telephone tech support; but the suggestion did not come from someone with any idea how to seek such a job. Other ideas?

It seems not unlikely that the San Francisco Bay has an excess of people like me, while some other place (perhaps with cheaper housing) has a deficit. Where might that place be?

Some years ago I took a Unix admin course; insomnia and a series of colds (it was a chilly November) conspired to prevent my absorbing anything. I might try again. My One True Ex thinks I ought to learn accounting. What other skills might I acquire in less than a year?

We’re miffed that our favorite catfood, Fancy Feast, has apparently changed its formula: both Fluffie and Pillow, who formerly ate it eagerly, now turn up their noses. To our relief, they’re usually content with Trader Joe’s tuna.

Many people have worked on the problem of packing equal circles efficiently in various regular shapes. David Cantrell asks, what is the ellipse of least area that can enclose n unit circles? Sometimes it’s a circle (n=1,7,19), sometimes it’s highly eccentric (n=23). Several of the results are rather pretty.