TI-83 Plus graphing calculator

I remember getting my first graphing calculator, I think my sophomore year of high school.
It was a requirement for Algebra 2. At the time, the teachers seemed amazed by these devices, while at the same time not always having the best idea about how to use them. They were generally pretty good with them, but they seemed more excited by what they could do, then the time and effort they put into being skilled at using them.

Some students were fortunate enough that they received a USB/transfer cable, which I'm sure was quite a bit more expensive, but maybe 2 or 3 students had them. Probably only one of those that had a cable decided to find games for the calculator from the Internet. Now, at that time, finding games for a calculator on the Internet wasn't as simple as it would be now, but still they had games!

A very simple side scrolling game, think Mario, supposedly a Tetris style game which was too processor intensive to run on the TI-83 Plus, and honestly nothing else too memorable. Regardless, if someone was nice enough to bring their transfer cable, you could get a small set of simple games. They were more fun than paying attention, but that's about it.

I eventually got bored with them, and started doing some basic animation/programming on the calculator. I also had a BASIC/C++ programming course my sophomore year, and the TI-83 provided a simple interface for creating small programs.

By my senior year, I had managed to program a tic-tac-toe game that would allow each player to pick their square, and the game would check the results at the end. A few kids had TI-86s or TI-89s, which had faster processors, but were obviously more expensive, and not at all necessary for the basic graphs that we were displaying.

By college we were being asked to solve long equations. They would sometimes involve a series of tedious formulas, and I quickly realized they were generally a simple matter of plugging in given values/variables in a very programmatic order. I was able to buy a used TI-89 for $25 which could solve equations much quicker. I ended up writing a simple program to solve most of the equations so I didn't have to type out the formulas for each and every question/problem, plus if you mistyped or forgot something you might have to start over from scratch. The equation solver fixed all of that.

By then I was quite proud of my accomplishments, and after college I never used the calculators again. I've turned them both on a few years after college, and honestly struggled to carry out the most basic of mathematical equations or functions. :) It's amazing how quickly those skills escape you after not using them for a few years.I haven't ridden a bike in years, but I would like to think I could get right back on, pop a wheelie, jump up on a curb, no problems...

Learning to drive a stick shift

I remember learning to drive a stick shift truck with Josh Holloway. He drove the truck around when I was 15, gave me the basics, then parked on a hill, and put me in the driver's seat.

It took me a few tries, but I figured it out slowly. As with most things, the more I practiced, the better I got.

Then when I was about 19 or so, my dad's 1992 Toyota Tercel was misfiring or only had 3/4 pistons working (I have no idea, I'm not a car guy). He wasn't driving it, and was looking to sell it, so I took it out driving around town to brush up on my stick shift skills.

I haven't driven a stick shift vehicle for years now, so I would be rusty at best...

Self censoring his bad language

I remember when I first starting going to youth group when I was about 14 I would automatically censor my language, but I would still use the same words and phrases, just pause/skip saying words that most people would frown upon.

I think I was already doing this since it was generally unacceptable to use bad language in school or at home.