On Punctuation

I walk by a sign every morning outside a financial planning place that reads:

LIFE TOO TAXING FOR PLANS THAT WORK CALL 123-1234

This drives me insane each and every day. This is at 8 am when I am still cranky from the people who insist on talking on the bus ("like, oh my GOD, I can't believe she did that! I was, like, totally wanting to tell her blah blah blah like blah I like this boy blah...like"). I always think to myself: Why would I want to entrust my finances to people who can't even make use of a simple question mark to MAKE THEIR BLOODY SIGN MAKE SENSE? See how easy using a question mark is? I just did it twice in a row. Unless they are trying to say that life is indeed to taxing for plans that work. Meaning that those poor hard-working plans can't possibly handle how taxing life is. That might be what they mean. Rod Burgundy?

Another random comment on punctuation: We all understand that a string of exclamation marks conveys a certain amount of excitement in proportion to the number of exclamation marks in said string. Not that I am endorsing such strings (don't worry Amp). But the degree of excitement conveyed can be multiplied by 10 if the string is immediately followed by a 1 indicating that you were so excited while typing that you took your finger off shift too early in an attempt to get to the next word faster.

I have to go catch the bus in the rain now and I get to walk past the questionmarkless sign!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Wither the Arts?

A couple things have come to my attention lately that make me sad:

1. Stephen Harper cares not a whit for the arts. (not that I'm surprised)
2. A world famous violinist can play some of the most beautiful music on earth on a Stradivarius (got that? Joshua Bell + Strad + Bach) and over 1 000 people will walk by and NOT EVEN NOTICE.

These parts make me happy though:

1. Yann Martel is challenging S. Diddy to read a recommended book every two weeks. You can read about this effort here.
2. A world famous violinist agreed to masquerade as a street musician for an experiment.

Lessons Learned:

1. If you ever become Prime Minister please Read Stuff. And appreciate it. Or else.
2. If you happen to see any world famous musicians (or, frankly, ANY talented musician) playing on the street, stop and listen. It's for your own good.

ETA: ha! I spelt "whither" wrong by accident and I was about to change it when I realized that it is kind of punny!

Travelling Vicariously

The past few days have been very busy! I just got back from Rhode Island on Saturday, and left immediately for Botswana. The Rhode Islanders were all pretty crazy. I think they must put something in the water there. Or maybe it was just the people I was staying with. Dorcas was closer to sane than the rest, but Conrad and Abigail, not to mention the DeVilbisses, definitely tipped the scales to Decidedly Insane.

Mma Ramotswe and Mr J.L.B Matekoni are much easier to live with. I'm glad I decided to spend the rest of my Easter holiday in Botswana. It is the perfect combination of excitement (with the mysteries to solve), and slow paced relaxation. I highly recommend it!

I think I might move on to India next...

Books and Book Blogs

I've been checking out book blogs lately and found one that I quickly became addicted to. It's called 50 Books and you should definitely check it out. I got inspired and decided to post pictures of what I'm reading, just in case anyone cares.