3,000,582,139,904 ...

I don't believe I have had a Trillion of anything before ...

... but now I do!

Actually I have 3 trillion internal bytes and 3 trillion external bytes - so lots of bytes. It should hold me for a little while ...

Ryan did very well this year in suggesting presents. I am beginning to think that he actually gave it some thought. Actually this year and last year.

Last year we did the 'let's limit our present price to $25.00' and Gary and Ryan pooled their resources and got me a Kindle - yes, I can do the math ... they CHEATED. And I SO got them presents they would like for under $25. But I didn't complain much and started right in on playing with my gadget.

This year Ryan suggested to Gary that if I wanted a surprise - he could get me a PC Tablet. They are very cool and work with Photoshop. It doubles as a mouse pad so here it is to the LEFT of my keyboard:

Yes, I am left handed, and unlike many I know - cannot drive a mouse with my right - so all that is working out well for me now. The PC Tablet has a mouse - and a mouse pad, and a pen. It has controls you use with your non-dominant hand - thus mine are on the right side:

This actually involved turning the tablet upside down. The steering got freaky - you would move left and the arrow on the screen would, predictably, go right. Not an easy task and the install asked if you were using it as a lefty or righty and I answered 'left' and it fixed the mouse steering. But the really cool thing about having a tablet is the pen:

I discovered later - that it comes with a variety of tips - I will have to figure out that part later:

The install software did not fix the pen and it was driving me crazy. I had an e-mail sent off to the company - but Saturday to Monday is a very long time to not play with my new gadget. At 2:00am Sunday morning, Ryan and I were playing around and he suggested doing something in the control panel. We found the tablet and the pen properties and were able to swap them - so even though it was not working when I wrote my 'Some Assembly Required' post - it was fixed soon after that.

The really fun thing to use this with is Photoshop. There are times when the precision of the mouse is not good enough and it is hard to steer. The pen works way better in these instances. I skipped all the parts in my Photoshop books that discussed using a tablet ... now I need to go back.


Here is what looks like scribble using the pen - but is a very good likeness of part of my signature:

So - Ryan did well for a gadget for me! I will get hours discovery and fun from it. Unlike what he suggested to me that I get Gary so he would have a surprise - a universal remote. COULD OF been hours of discovery and fun for Gary - but Ryan just programmed it for him. He is busy out the the garage for some reason ...