4/2/09

What's in a Name?

When deciding to create this blog, I wanted to come up with a smart, yet hip, catchy, yet pronounced name for my baby, I thought about it for weeks. I can't imagine what I'll ever do when I have a human children to name...yikes! I picked the title, "Slate and Stylish" as kind of a play off words. You see a Slate and Stylus is a method of writing braille for the blind. So I thought some of you might want to know, "What the heck's a slate and stylus?" Well...here's your answer (thank you wisegeek.com ):
Above Image: Slate and Stylus
A slate and stylus is a tool for writing braille, a tactile reading and writing system used by the blind. A slate and stylus could be considered the most basic, and also the oldest; like a pad and paper for sighted people.

Above Image: Young boy using a slate and stylus to write.

By punching out a specific pattern, the user can create a braille letter; although the use of a stylus to take down notes might seem time consuming, people get the hang of it very quickly. The hinged slate is designed to hold a piece of paper steady while the user punches it, with a bottom half to punch against and a guide on top to assist the user in creating braille characters.Ironically...this guy...
Louis Braille, who created the current Braille code, lost his vision when he was working in his dad's woodshop and poked his eye with an awl, a larger version of what he later used to write Braille called a stylus.

This is an Awl:
and this is a stylus:
So that's the LONG explanation for the name of this blog...
Slate and Stylish!

What do you think? Sheek or Geek?

2 comments:

Kayleen England said...

I LOVE IT!! How creative. I loved learning about a slate and stylus too. Very interesting.

Melanie Lutz said...

Loving it!! I read about these today. My daughter's just started taking Braille classes this week!! Thanks!!