Spirulina Icing

I know, sounds horrible, but I wanted to make naturally coloured icing, and it worked well (no change in flavour)

I just crushed up a couple of spirulina tablets and added it to the icing mixture.  So not only did it go green, but also good for you 🙂

So… does this make me very cool… or very nerdy?

(That’s a rhetorical question by the way)

Can’t decide. Though I suppose if I don’t know the answer to that question then the answer probably is “nerdy”. But I don’t care 😛

Not that type a lot… but I’ve managed to WEAR OUT MY KEYS! Not talking about the buttons not clicking anymore or something… I mean I’ve worn off the letters on the keys! My “T” has completely gone, the “A” is holding on by a thread… and “U”, “S” and “E” are on their last gasps. (so I wonder what words I type most often?).

That’s not camera flash…. it’s actually worn off!

So… I started looking for a new keyboard. Not that I actually have to look at what is written on the keys to be able to type. ok, sometimes I do – I don’t touch type, but I do a sort of faster “hunt and peck”, using the first three fingers on my right hand and my index finger of the left…. but I’m so used to typing, my hands pretty much know where to go without me looking most of the time, even though my hands fly all over the keyboard and don’t stay in contact with the keyboard. I just checked my wpm (http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php?), which was 42 (including some big words I had to type slower)… which I think is probably not too bad for a “hunt and peck” type of typing.

anyway…. so just from a looking nice point of view, I wanted to have keys with the letter on them… so I went looking for a keyboard – preferably purple.. and cheap. No luck. I already have one of those silicone fold up jobbies, but they don’t feel right to type on (no satisfying clack of keys). So then I saw an ebay listing for keyboard stickers! I didn’t know you could get stickers to jazz up the keyboard, but yes you can.

http://www.funkeyboards.com

Which I think is funny, since not only does the keyboard then look “funky”, but you also have a “fun” “keyboard” hahahahaha

So, after much deliberation (do I go the cool jewel look keys, or the purplish “wet” ones?), I decided on the jewel ones…..

So… boring old keyboard before. Can you believe I spent over half an hour cleaning my keyboard. I’m ashamed to admit it took so long, but man it was festy! Not only had my poor keyboard drunk almost as much coffee as I have (The cat likes to steal my coffee off the computer desk, and drip coffee into the keyboard), plus I eat most meals at the computer, so there are crumbs….. I also sew here, so there were a few needles that got lost into the dim depths of the keyboard (plus a whole lot of dust and fluff). But I wiped it all down, trying to make sure each key was cleaned, and vacuummed up what I could (with visions that movie, Gattaca). Wishing I’d bought the cool Hello Kitty Witch keyboard brush I was on ebay a couple of weeks ago. So… with an (almost) clean keyboard (you can see some coffee in there still, and I can’t be assed pulling out the keys to give it a good cleaning) I set about the beautification process.

before…. Boring and beige

Yes, the observant of you may wonder what the hell I have done to my “insert” key. Well…. me and the insert key do not a happy couple make. It took me a few years to work out what it did – why every now and then if I went back to edit something, my text would get “eaten” for some inexplicable reason. Then I somehow found out what the “insert” key does…. yes, it eats text. The problem is, I normally have long fingernails…. and I often have them hit a key on their own, because they feel like it. And my original keyboard was very small. So my nails hit a lot of wrong keys. Now hitting a “delete” or “home” key has an obvious result. Not so the insert key….until you go back to edit something, and find it’s not working as planned. So I ripped that little bugger out.

On that old keyboard I also had an abomination of a key – the “power” key. WTF were they thinking! That one was more annoying than the “insert” key. For it would, without warning (not even an “are you sure”), shut down the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have no idea how annoying that is, if you’re chatting away, or doing some work, and you’re in a finger-flying, key slapping, typing tornado…. and all of a sudden, the computer shuts down. So I ripped that bastard out too. Actually that was the first key to go. The second time it shut down the computer, I pressed the power button to turn it back on, stomped into the kitchen, grabbed a knife and pried off the offending key before windows had even finished loading (ok, that was only coz it took a long time to load on that old computer). The “insert” followed once I’d figured out it’s annoying function. And they were blu-tacked to the side of the keyboard as a warning to any other key that pissed me off 🙂

So…. even though now I know what the “insert” key does, and I know if my text starts disappearing, I could just press that and all will be ok… but since I never use it on purpose, I find it easier (lazier) to just rip it out. And I’ve popped one of those flat marble things on to cover the gaping wound. (I used to have a cool crystal pyramid for that job, but it’s gone walkabout)

So… back onto my keyboard beautifying….

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Look, they look like the buttons are raised and glass-like….. How bloody cool is that!

(now if only they were purple not blue!)

Speaking of purple….. wanna see my mouse?

its unfortunately on its last gasps I think, the buttons sometimes like to stay pressed… but it’s been a great mouse.  Clear (frosted) and translucent purple – very cool!  And they were only $20 at officeworks!.  I bought 2, wish I’d bought more because they haven’t had them for years 😦  and this is my last one (the other died)  It’s hard to find a nice purple mouse actually.  I do have a replacement on standby, but it’s not as nice as this one.  I love my mousepad too…. Not only purple but it’s got a smooshy silicone wrist rest, so it’s comfy.  At the time I thought $30 was a lot of pay for a mousepad, when I could pick one up for $3 at the market… but it’s been going strong for about 10 years now… and unlike those cheap $3 ones that come apart and look crap, this has lasted, so I guess it was good value.

but, back to keyboards…

All done!

Be still my beating heart!!

I’m still getting used to it…. the colours do make it a little harder to see the letters on the keys, not that I need to look a lot of the time. So far it’s made no difference to typing. It will be interesting to see how long they last, before the stickers get worn, or they start lifting a the sides (I’d have to take them off, nothing irritates me more than peeling sticker – ok… lots of things irritate me more, but it’s still pretty irritating). But it’s so pretty!

And now my flat marble thing matches in with the theme! I contemplated sticking the “insert” sticker to it for fun, but I decided against it. I’m sure I’ll find a witty use for that somewhere 😉

Me = Belly Dancer

We have a friend who throws these fairly elaborate costume parties each year, and this year’s theme was dancing (so you had to come dressed in something related to dancing)… and unfortunately it was also on the same night as a belly dancing concert thing some of my friends were going to…. but since the friend’s party is one where people just arrive whenever, we decided to go to both – particularly since I’d be going as a belly dancer anyway