August 2007 Archives

Ever since I started working in California, autumn has become my favourite season... not because of the weather, but because of the seasonal merchandise that is available. It's very cheesy, but I have a shopping addiction for maple-leaf-themed items.

I have bought:

1 pair of maple leaf earrings
1 maple leaf rubber stamp
5 maple leaf cookie cutters in different sizes and styles
7 maple leaf shaped paper hole punches in varying sizes and styles (seriously this is the collection that worries me... why on earth would anyone need 7 maple leaf shaped paper hole punches?)

That's not counting the full-sized Canadian flag and unabashedly Canadian T-shirts I own... and oh, that little flag that Rachel got for me in Toronto.

I'm in the market for a keyboard. The musical kind, so I can brush up on my sonatas and what not since my piano is about 2500 miles away. Unfortunately, there are too many choices and I some how got the idea that I should get a keytar as a quirky alternative since it would really narrow down my choices. Imagine rocking out to Mozart, 80's hair band style. That would be so tacky (seriously, was anything from the 80's not tacky?) yet awesome at the same time.

It turns out that the last mass market manufacturer of keytars discontinued the product line earlier this year. I'm a few months too late. You can still find keytars on ebay, but at 3x the original price, even for a used one. Boo, hiss.

So my search continued and I somehow ended up buying an electric guitar... even though I don't know how to play the guitar. It's not a regular guitar, though. Instead of strings, it has buttons where the frets are. Think Guitar Hero, but a real instrument that requires real chord fingering, sans the callouses. Yeah, I'm a wuss.

I'm still on the lookout for a keyboard, though. I would appreciate any suggestions at all, because I don't really know where to start looking.

Math Book Helps Girls Embrace Their Inner Mathematician

Making IT Work for Women - Four women tell how they've survived and flourished in the IT culture.

Ninjas command a higher salary than pirates... but a ninja pirate earns more than plain old pirates or plain old ninjas. A career change might be in order.