For this Valentine’s Day I do not have a valentine. This blog entry isn’t going to be a love story. I certainly don’t want to kiss and tell. So I’m not going to write about any old flames. I’ll write about a crush, which I can safely assume all of us have had.
In high school I was in a data processing class typing at a console. From next to me came a strange sound that I can only describe as a whooshing sound that folks make when with their mouths when they’re bored. I turned to find the source was Jadwiga, our French foreign exchange student. I laughed because it was completely unexpected. She looked up and smiled.
When we finished our work, we started talking. Back at our desks she talked about a physics class she took. She produced a copy of a test she had taken before coming to America. The pages were filled with mathematics that were as foreign as the French in which it was written. I wouldn’t understand that math until my freshman year in college. She was a beautiful oracle showing me my future in a language I couldn’t comprehend.
I realized that she was at least a couple years older than me and definitely smarter than me. Of course I developed a crush on her. Thanks Jadwiga for the friendship and for inspiring me to expand my knowledge of math and science. I hope you have found happiness in your life. And, I wish all of you have a Happy Valentine’s Day!
Thanks friends for the birthday wishes! For 38 years I have gained friends and influenced people. Now you’re the group I have to show for my gravitas. If only you wouldn’t cancel out my vote in a few weeks.
Next month will be the tenth year anniversary of this website. Once again I have changes planned for the site. I have been investigating switching it to Wordpress. Unfortunately, that would mean that the blog URLs would change. Any links to previous blog entries would be broken. I experimented with some workarounds on my Linux laptop, but didn’t find any that I liked. I may just make the change and let a 410 Gone page display for old links.
In high school I bought a calculator to use in Physics class. Not just any calculator, but a Sharp EL-506A Scientific calculator. I fell in love with it. In fact I so much did not want to be without it that I bought two of them. I’d have a backup in case one of them broke.
I remember seeing the beauty and the purity of math and science. Math contained a few axioms but opened up a world of truth. With logic and deduction I could find the answers. What else, I pondered, is out there in our big beautiful world? All we needed, I presumed, are the right answers.
Sadly, I have misplaced the backup EL-506A. But I dug out the original the other night. After a quick trip to the local Walmart, I replaced the batteries and it worked like a champ.
Notice in the photo that my name is scratched into the back of the calculator. Oh my, it’s showing pi to 10 digits!
For this Valentine’s Day I do not have a valentine. This blog entry isn’t going to be a love story. I certainly don’t want to kiss and tell. So I’m not going to write about any old flames. I’ll write about a crush, which I can safely assume all of us have had.
