I used to have one long .org tasks file. That was great when I was working, because I saw it every day when I logged on my laptop and did org-agenda. But now that I'm retired I don't do that any more. So what I have now is a sheaf of A5 slips (cut from scrap A4) stapled together at one corner. I scribble one-liners to note tasks and score through the lines when completed. When a whole page is complete I rip it off, screw it up, and into the waste basket. Works great!
Plus Apple Reminders for deadlines. The Org file still exists, but for recording history rather than a scheduler.
I struggled with this too. The best understanding I've been able to come to is this:
1. Every month's item number can be calculated from the preceding month's item number by the method given. I.e. add the number of days in the preceding month to the preceding month's item number then take mod 7.
2. For January we take it that there is no preceding month. Therefore the numbers in such a calculation are all zero, so we end up with zero.
3. For later months you don't need to start at January and go month by month to the month you want; you can start at a month with a start- or end-vowel and use the shortcut that such a month's item number is ten minus the month number.
4. For the purposes of 3, 'y' does not count as a vowel.
An (unfortunate) human could be at the epicenter of an earthquake. But not at the epicenter of a social circle unless that (unfortunate) social circle was deep below the surface of the earth.
Second sentence contains one of my pet bugbears, 'epicenter' instead of, well, 'center'. If Capote really was at the epicenter of his social circle, then the social circle itself must have been many kilometres below him. Do people think that an epicenter is somehow much more of a center than the center is?
The latest iteration is actually called 'ActianX', and it's a continuation of Ingres plus support for column-based tables from the 'Vector' product acquired by Actian.
QUEL is still there, but its functionality has been frozen for years and, in terms of bells and whistles, is way behind modern SQL.
If you do want to try it, I had no trouble installing it on my home Ubuntu system a couple of years ago. Ingres is pretty easy to use in some ways. If you want to make a database, you just type "createdb mydatabase" at the command line.
I've read it twice and I'd read it again. Many years ago there was a dramatisation of it at the Edinburgh Festival, very powerful.
One bit that sticks in my memory is when Riddley stumbles on the overgrown ruins of what must be the M25 motorway that encircled London. And he cries: "O what we ben wonce! And what we come to now!"
Plus Apple Reminders for deadlines. The Org file still exists, but for recording history rather than a scheduler.