A LOW PROFILE: RB activities

Showing posts with label RB activities. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Post #2: RB's New Adventure

Yo, what is 3 plus 3 cube 3?

So easy to do it on a paper. So damn tough to do it on a TI 84 Calculator. For $130, you get to see RB struggling with his new toy, trying to learn how to use a fancy-schmancy calculator. It comes with a 90 page instruction manual and I think, if not for the cost, the thing would have been hitting the wall several times already.

I'm not calculator-smart. I've always used paper and mind myself, and my calculators tend do be the cheap Walmart kind because I only need the plus and multiply functions for long-ass additions. However, RB is the ONLY person in his class who doesn't use a calculator and it's time to own one for the really tough calculus math he will be doing this semester.

So the poor dude is sitting in the restaurant trying to understand it by doing simple calculations for now. I'm helping him, in my limited way. Limited, because my patience with instruction manuals is equal to the thickness of silk thread. Plus, I'm no good when it comes to looking at calculus formulae and even duplicating the sum into a calculator looks harder than putting a roof on. It took me twenty minutes to get the answer for the above question (3 plus 3 cube 3), a problem that I can do in a few seconds, and that's with a lot of guessing at button pressing.

Poor RB. Which is harder? Running with the bulls or learning how to use a TI 84? ;-)

Bear with me while I learn. The first button likes the POST. The second button likes the BLOG site. Please help me by "liking" me. Thanks!
NO NEED TO CLICK TILL I TELL YA: RESERVED FOR NOT SAFE FOR WORK STUFF

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Just Call Me Bull Dodger

Yes, RB is back! Safe and sound, with nary a bruise, perhaps a scratch, and fantastic stories of close brushes with giant animals to tell. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with another injury ;-). Needless to say, the restaurant and all his friends were very relieved to see him and asked 1001 questions about everything Pamplona when he strolled in dressed in that all-white get-up minus the red sash. I have a feeling he'll be donning that white top a few more times.

The travel agent booked his stay at some huge hotel in the financial district, so he was stood out, being casually-dressed among three-thousand dollar suits at a conference. Of course the suits were interviewing him whenever they bumped into him at the elevator, all wanting to go out and participate, but not quite getting the courage to face the dirty masses (and bulls). RB thought it was funny because here were these men with a gazillion dollars, living right there where the festival was, and they were just doing business conferencing instead. Then he met a couple of Marines from the States and of course they became buddies. The craziest, he said, were the Australians, who came in groups just to run with the bulls and party-hearty in between.

No one--young and old--slept during the night. There were firework competitions and bands playing all night long. The bull runs were in the morning. Then everyone sort of danced on the streets because it was so crowded no one actually could move anywhere else. It was insane.

I'm glad RB had fun. Workaholic that he is, he doesn't get out much, so this trip is good for him, I think. Who knows? If he takes another English class, he can now give a whole new powerpoint presentation about Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises without too much research! ;-)