In preparing for some of my end-of-the-year review from my card index, I thought it would be interesting to choose the "Best Note of the Year". Then it thought it might be worth choosing a "Best Insight", "Most Surprising Note", and a "Best Folgezettel" as well.  And if you're going to give out an award, it should involve a trophy of some sort, right?!? So naturally I went out and picked up a "4 x 6 inch index card" made out of India Black Granite that I plan on engraving with the Note of the Year. At 3/8ths of an inch thick, it is by a large stretch the thickest index card I have in my zettelkasten. A thick black granite 4x6" slab nestled into a card index drawer with hundreds of other index cards As it may be an interesting end-of-year review practice, I thought I would open up the "competition" to others who'd like to participate. Are there other categories one should enter cards for consideration?  What is your "Best Note of the Year"? A black granite "index card" sits on a desk in front of a two drawer Shaw-Walker card index.  
#Note taking #year in review #zettel of the year
The first section is on the rules of alphabetization and indexing to standardize the space of ordering cards for both people's names and company names. The second section covers some history on basic filing techniques and then goes into alphabetic, geographic, numeric, and subject indexing methods. The final sections cover the L.B Automatic (Library Bureau), the triple check method, and various other special filing methods as well as maintaining and transferring files for long term storage. Illustrations of these various methods help to visualize how they worked in practice. This text isn't as interesting or as comprehensive as the works of J. Kaiser from earlier in the century. Read on 2025-11-16.
#Note taking #Read #Social Stream #card index as database #card index for business #filing practices #Laura H. Cadwallader #S. Ada Rice
Watching people online chat, ask questions, and generally get excited about their planners for 2026, I thought I would spend a few minutes to set up my Memindex-inspired planner version using 4 x 6" index cards and tabbed dividers. It's amazing how useful a $2.50 block of 500 index cards can be for planning out your coming year. A Steelcase file index drawer open showing a four inch chunk of cards separated by tabbed cards featuring the names of the 12 months of the year and one divider in the back labeled 2026. On the front card is a calendar for the month of December 2025. In the blurry foreground is a label for the drawer of cards that reads "Memindex". Interestingly, I've recently come across versions of this same sort of tickler file recommended in mid-20th century textbooks for filing and indexing in business contexts: Portion of a book page featuring an image of a card catalog tray full of index cards. In the front is a tab for November followed by 1/5 cut tabs numbered 1-31 followed by tabs for the months December - October. Cadwallader, Laura Hanes, and Sarah Ada Rice. 1932. Principles of Indexing and Filing. Baltimore; Chicago: H.M. Rowe Company. page 134: https://archive.org/details/principlesofinde0000laur/page/134/mode/2up   Portion of a book page featuring an image of a card catalog tray full of index cards. In the front is a tab for November followed by 1/5 cut tabs numbered 1-31 followed by tabs for the months December - October. At the top is the heading "A Tickler for Follow-up File" with numbered details pointing at portions of the card index. Kahn, Gilbert, Theo Yerian, and Jeffrey R. Stewart, Jr. 1962. Progressive Filing and Records Management. 1st ed. New York: Gregg Publishing Division, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. page 190: https://archive.org/details/progressivefilin0000gilb/page/190/mode/2up  The careful observer will notice that both of the photos in texts by different authors nearly 30 years apart are the same! I would suspect that they're from a manufacturer's catalog (Remington Rand) earlier in the century. It's even more interesting that one can still quickly create such a set up with commercially available analog office supplies now.
#Note taking #analog office #card index as diary #card index as productivity system #getting things done #hipster PDA #indexing practices #Memindex #planners #stationery #tickler files
#Acquisition #Note taking #Social Stream
Acquired via thrift on 2026-02-06. This machine continues my typewriter collection theme for 2026: hunting for great machines with less common typefaces. Gothic was an older word meaning san-serif. The "double" portion means that it's two sets of capital letter forms. (Sorry James...) A brown crinkle painted 1954 Royal HH typewriter with green keys sits on an oak library card catalog file. [caption id="attachment_55834655" align="aligncenter" width="660"]Capital white gothic letters typed onto a platen read: "CHRIS WAS HERE" The white correction tape message typed (assuredly not by me!!) onto the platen was a sure sign this thrifted typewriter was destined for my collection.[/caption] View through the hood of a Royal HH typewriter onto the entirety of the segment featuring all the slugs on of a san-serif Royal Pica Double Gothic typefaceTypesample on a yellow 3x5" index card for a 1954 Royal HHS standard typewriter with a Royal Pica Double Gothic typeface.
#Acquisition #Social Stream #Typewriters #pica double gothic typeface #Royal HH #Royal typewriters #typewriter collection

I ordered a dirty chai and I complimented the barista on his handwriting as he wrote out this “Chai.” As he drew the “X”, he explained he used to write “Chai XXX” since, ya know, dirty chai. Then he figured, “Why not Chai XCX?”. Much appreciated handwriting and wordplay.

🗓️ Bizzo! & Friends

If you’re struggling to get AI agents past enterprise security reviews, join me tomorrow for a session on how Cross App Access (XAA) brings managed authorization to MCP!

I'll be joined by Sohail Pathan to show off our Cross App Access playground and give a live demo of how the protocol works!

Tomorrow - February 18, 2026 (8 AM PT)

👉 https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/14899/661521?utm_source=apk_social&utm_medium=brighttalk&utm_campaign=661521
#okta #oktadev #xaa #mcp #oauth #enterprisesecurity

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Still, I persist

#mental health #chronic pain #cars #corolla

A San Diego mutual aid organizer I’m connected with needs some urgent jaw surgery and treatment after the last surgery didn’t go so well. gofund.me/3fa8dcf45

Any amount helps and boosting is much appreciated. 💛

Previously

May you be cozy and safe this Caturday.

Inspired by some #indieweb folks creating /caw pages on their websites, I made one of my own! Here you can listen to the most recent crow recorded from my house:

https://aaronparecki.com/caw/
Today was a lot... shades got installed, dumbwaiter guy was here and almost finished, electrician was here running wires for the water heater, hopefully we'll be over the drama this week
long day of teaching a workshop followed by meetings so here's a cat
that was cool
Part 2 of the last bit of this wall
Turns out these tankless water heaters are just not up to the task. We failed the plumbing inspection today because they can't supply hot water to all the fixtures at the same time. More details on that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KnENLf-AQ
The last of the back wall is getting done the slow way, hand-mixing concrete. The conduits are not going anywhere now.