Abacus

So I was surfing the net last night, and I came across some abacus stuff. I had learned how to use an abacus back in high school, but only stayed with it for a few months. Mainly because the class was going way too slow for me. I mean, it's a fairly simple system, it just requires practice.

Since I'm not in school anymore, I'm constantly looking for things to challenge my mind. The Rubick's Cube was a good start, but it's gotten to the point where I've hit a wall. Sure, I can memorize more algorithms and increase my time, but it's not really worth it at this point.

I've been doing word of the day off and on now and slowly increasing my vocabulary. But I need something to tempur the decline of my math skills. I find it difficult to do even simple arithmetic.

In this vain, I started looking for abacii to practice on. I found a few Java versions, but they're all pretty lame and sucky. I need a real life abacus to practice on. Of course, the first place I look is Ebay.

Most of the abacii on Ebay are going for one or two dollars. You would think that it would be pretty good deal then. But no, the shipping is usually around 25-70$. 70$! A CRT costs 70$ to ship. This is only a piece of wood and some beads.

So my search for an abacus continues. It should be around 9"x5". I need to be able to carry it around so I can practice.