=D

Merry Late Christmas, everyone! I always miss holiday posts or manage to post something silly, don't I? Of course, I'm sure you read about my mom's and my extremely exciting Christmas Day here (and if you didn't, you should, hint hint). My mom gives me waaaaaay too much credit. I'm just glad I could help and that we made it to Texas safely.

We finally got around to opening presents on the 26th, since my mom and I were too exhausted from flying. It was fun, as opening presents always is. I also got to show my grandparents the tablet Virginia Tech's Engineering department requires me to use. It is a laptop computer, but one can write on the screen using a special stylus. To make that easier, the display of the laptop turns around and flips down so one can use it as a clipboard or make writing while at a desk easier.

After I showed them my tablet and told them about the amazing opportunities they had, my granddad left for a moment. Us girls kept talking, and my mom told me to pull up RoMeLa's website so I could show them what I was getting involved with. Just as I was returning from the computer room, my granddad was back, carrying a long rectangular leather case. Since my mom had mentioned that my granddad was planning to show me his slide rules at some point, I had an idea of what was in that case. My face lit up, and he showed me a little of how to work it. He unfortunately can't remember all of it, but he's worked hard. He deserves a break.

So, while everyone was watching the news that night, I dug around on the interwebs to learn how to use my newly-inherited Pickett N4-ES. It was apparently the TI-89 of slide rules back in his day (for those not familiar with Texas Instruments' lineup, it's a crazy-awesome calculator that can do a lot of stuff). I'm still learning how to use the N4-ES, but I plan to keep going. I can multiply, divide, and do exponents now. I still plan to use my TI-89 for my math classes, especially since I think my professors would not appreciate me using a non-calculator during tests, but I am still just blown away that I get to now learn how to use a slide rule. Especially one I inherited from an engineer I admire very much. Thank you so much, Granddad! I love it!