Brick

I was having trouble with LibreOffice Writer constantly pausing. It gave me a message that said “LibreOffice Writer is not responding. Do you want to Wait or Stop the program?” I always waited until it came back, but it would take a few seconds, and it was happening all the time. I decided to update and upgrade the operating system. Then, I had to do a restart. But after the restart, I got a message saying “Oops, something went wrong”. Then I couldn't do anything. I tried restarting several times and always got the same message. I thought I had Bricked my computer. I looked it up on my phone, and they showed me how to get around the startup and into the computer and what I needed to change to get it working again. Now, it is working great, but I was pretty scared.

Keyboard

 Occasionally, Barb finds that the keyboard on her Linux computer doesn't work. I looked up a YouTube video on how to fix it. The guy showed how you just have to open a LibreOffice Writer document like a Microsoft Word document and start typing. Then the keyboard works. Why?

Prize

 

Barb went out with her friends to a game of Family Feud at one of the recreation centers. Her team came third. They won a prize. But there was a table of prizes and the first place team got the first choice. Then, the second team got the second choice. Then, Barb's team chose, and Barb made the last choice. The last prize was a jigsaw puzzle. Barb didn't have her glasses, so it just looked blurry. When she got home and found her glasses, she saw she had picked a jigsaw puzzle with a picture of a quilting room. How apropos?

Metal Straw

 I drink my Diet Coke with a metal straw. I usually get three drinks before working: a large glass of ice water, a large cup of coffee, and a Diet Coke. Since I only have two hands, I put the Coke can and my straw in my pockets. I usually put them in my pants pockets, but this time, I put them in my sweater pockets. I went into my office and couldn't find my straw. I searched the house and asked Barb if she had seen my straw. I was finally going to get my backup metal straw when I said to Barb, "You know what?" She looked at me and said, "NOOOO," and I pulled the straw out of my sweater pocket.

Steak

 Talking about looking all over the house, one time, Barb was starting to make dinner, and she took a steak out of the freezer. Later, when the steak had thawed, Barb looked around the kitchen and didn't see the steak. She searched the house and couldn't find the steak. She was fit to be tied. Somehow, she finally found the steak on her ironing board. She must have walked around with the steak and started doing something in the sewing room.

Pyjamas

We have garbage collection here twice a week. We often only put out garbage once a week. Barb was up before the garbage men came, and she gathered some trash to throw out. She removed her pyjamas, put on her house coat, and went outside to put out the garbage. That night she couldn't find her pyjamas. She usually puts them on her pillow. She looked all over the house. She thought she might have thrown them out in the garbage. Finally, she found them in the drawer beside the bed under her winter pyjamas. She was confused about whether she had her summer pyjamas on this morning or her winter pyjamas. She was actually wearing her winter pyjamas that morning.

Co-author

 My paper was accepted for the INCOSE International Symposium in July in Ottawa. I was happy about that. I posted an announcement on LinkedIn and thanked my co-authors, Ken Cureton and Al Thibeault. I used the @ function before their name, but Al's LinkedIn name has about four credentials behind it, and I wanted to delete the credentials. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted his last name. So, the announcement thanked my co-authors, Ken Cureton and Al. But I didn't see that until Al reposted it. When I saw it, it looked like I had said my co-authors were Ken Cureton and AI. That is artificial intelligence. I quickly edited the post and put in Al's last name. But it was a Freudian slip because I had used ChatGPT to help me write the paper.