Callistonian.net

I don’t know if it’s the same where you live, but in the States we do this thing where the cost of items isn’t the same as the price tag on them. An over sized cup of Chai, priced $2.50, is probably going to cost $2.72.

This insanity has two effects: First, people rarely know how much money they’re going to spend, before getting to the register. Second, it makes paying with exact change difficult. Prettily, evenly, priced things are corrupted by the sale’s tax.

Most Americans have given up on paying with exact change, but I like it… because I’m not fond of pennies. I want to get rid of them, not accumulate them. One cannot buy anything for a penny. :(

Do you pay with exact change?

In other news, I’ve been toying about with my abacus. I can only add and subtract, but I already pwn the calculator dependent. :)

Anyway, updates are coming to Callistonian.net. But I’m unsure of what to add first… Suggest something. In my queue are blog entries better than this one, photos (baby bunny photos, random place photos, &c.), a photo blog, foreign movie reviews, and books reviews.

For your information, (and in the US, at least) tomorrow is Mother’s Day. If you haven’t prepared something for your mum just yet, you may want to get to it.

I’m a Grade A* procrastinator. Procrastinating is something that I shouldn’t do. But as it is something that I do very well, I can’t help but indulge in it every once in awhile. Anyway, I bought my mother something today. I’ve still yet to put together a card and things… I will.

I bought my mother a tea pitcher and dainty tea cups/saucers. She likes tea. I like pretty things. Tea + pretty things = pretty tea things. Thus, that is what I bought her. :D

The pitcher was originally way overpriced, but because I was oh so lucky, I got the pitcher + cups + saucers + a coin purse for myself for less than the original price of the pitcher. I win! Seriously, I feel like I accomplished something amazing in the world of retail. :) Have you ever gotten a good deal on an item you really wanted?

Do you have any plans for Mother’s Day?

Have you ever had a moment in which you discover something, then think, “I must tell (someone specific) about this right now!”? I did at about 2:30 am yesterday. Did I let the time faze me? Absolutely not. I called my friend’s cell immediately.

Did she answer? Of course, she did. What’d she say? “OMG WTF!?!? It’s 2:30 am?” Nope… She said, “I’m on the bus. Call me back in 30 minutes.”¹ XD

When is it unacceptable to call you? I have a slight problem with 8 am phone calls. If I’m awake at that horrible time, I’m busy.

After an hour long phone call and some fiddling around, I went up to bed… because staying up all night for no reason isn’t particularly good for your health. While I was falling asleep, something shook. The house? The boat outside? My bed? Everything?—I don’t know exactly, but I reacted with, “Was that an earthquake?!? *blink* No way? I hear an airplane, maybe it was an airplane… Maybe that was thunder? It’s starting to storm again?” My intuition, my initial reaction, was correct (woo!) : it was an earthquake, my first one. We rarely (i.e. never) have earthquakes here.

Random: Ring tones annoy some, but today one made my day! I was in the mall—I went to get those shoes, but they weren’t there—A classy lady with the cutest baby had Wonder Girls’ Tell Me as her ring tone! Tell Me! Tell Me! T-t-t-Tell Me! Like 99.999999999… percent of the people in my city, you’ve probably never heard of it before. :( It’s not an English song… So when the lady’s cell sung, “T-t-t-t-tell me!”, I paused in shock. It was a miracle! XD If you believe in rounding, in my city the chance of encountering someone with that song as a ring tone is 0%.

If there’s anything you’d like me to blog about, comment with the suggestion. Thanks! ♥

¹It wasn’t 2:30 am her time. She lives on the other side of the planet, 13 or thereabouts hours in the future.

How do you spend money? Aside from saving, hording, buying necessities &c., the money I spend tends to fall into two categories: things that are good for my brain and things that are pretty.

My most recent purchase: a Japanese abacus, a soroban. It’s being shipped from Japan now. It’s supposed to help me with my “calculator-dependency.” What’s 21+213+2434+-1232-45+867? I don’t know. I can figure it out, but problems like that make me want a calculator! After I get my magical brain-enhancer (a soroban), I’ll be able to multiply six digit numbers in my head in 3 seconds (like those in this soroban video). Perhaps I won’t become that badass (or close), but I’ll still become better with mental math than I am …

Now that I have you safely impressed by my intellectual ambitions and mad math skillz (more mad math skills here), I’m going to take a risk. I’m going to expose a darker side of my personality. This side of me indulges in Gossip Girl, wears large sunglasses, drinks overly-priced and fancifully titled concoctions from coffee chains, and adventures around in skirts—scared, yet? This silly side of me is also fed up with my intellectual pursuits and has decided that my next random-wth-purchase is going to be impractical, but who cares? What matters here is looks. It has decided that these shoes are pretty. I want them. If they’re at J.Crew when I get there, I’ll be walking out with a new pair of shoes!!1!1! ♥

Anyway, how do you spend your money?

How do you procrastinate? What do you do when bored? I, apparently, write down paradoxes.

Why is it so girly? Am I a girly girl? Perhaps—anyway, some tend to associate math with boys. I’m not a boy. I wanted to make that clear in case anyone decided to lift this image from my blog… ♥

Click on the picture for a larger version.