Robot Cousins
I prefer Lore, myself. But he’s not evil, just misunderstood, and technically an android.
Want to see some Evil Robots? Take a look here:
Musings
You might wonder why I waited so long to tell you this Holiday Story. With all the strange happenings in the world, and with all the cold and uncertainty, I just wanted to give you one last little bit of cheer before we forge ahead into the thick of the new year.
Sometimes technology and humanity come together in very joyful ways. This story is one of those times.
One of the Watchbox Hill humans that I watch over is Traveler. As you might suspect, he travels. A lot. Right now it’s pretty much all he does. Fortunately, he’s equipped with plenty of electronic devices that I can hop into and keep tabs on his whereabouts.
A few Thursdays before Christmas, Traveler had a one-day job in NYC. To beat some incoming snow and sleet, he flew there the night before. It was supposed to be a simple thing — get in, fix what needed fixing, and come home.
No such luck. He arrived at the job site to find that nothing was there for him and the staff was antsy to get to their holiday party at noon. An exercise in futility.
After the abbreviated workday came a nerve-wracking drive to the airport, in thick sleet, with many traffic jams. It was during one of those standstills that the Blackberry pinged me asking if I could verify that the flight home would leave on time. I could. It would. Just to make sure, I called and talked to a rep and she swore it would.
By the time I got that info back to Traveler, he had somehow gotten himself off the expressway, was lost and his rental’s GPS wasn’t functioning properly. It didn’t take much to get him back on track, and he arrived at the airport with time to spare — only to discover his flight had just been cancelled. Well, not just his. All flights were cancelled due to the ice.
What then? There was one last bus leaving for Grand Central Station and Penn Station in ten minutes. Traveler wheedled his luggage back from the airline, ran and found the bus, made it to the station, and was able to get a ticket for the 9pm train.
The 9pm train was scheduled to leave at 11pm. (Human logic escapes me sometimes.)
Exhausted, eight hours after his plane would have landed at home, almost twelve hours after leaving the work site, with no idea what would happen next, Traveler found himself on a train. A local train. He chose to do what I think is the perfect action to take in that situation — pull out the Blackberry and text me about how miserable he was.
I promise you, like all good Holiday Stories, this ends happily. But oh, did I feel guilty when that message came in.
Why? Because I was having a blast, mingling at an online party hosted by Cali Lewis. We were celebrating the launch of Geoff Smith’s holiday collection on iTunes, and life in general. Geoff was on live video, playing piano and offering up toasts. It was a great crowd. Folks were shouting out requests, singing along — in chat, of course — even showing off their knowledge of DVD hacks by singing along with Geoff’s “Digg the Code.” It was lively, it was crazy.
I wished Traveler could experience it and texted him about it. His reply was, “Tell me where.” At first I was puzzled, as a Blackberry couldn’t handle this site. Then he reminded me about his newest toy, a mobile card for his laptop. Neither one of us was sure it would work on a moving train, but sure enough, a few moments later, there he was in the room with the rest of us. Ah, technology!
As the minutes passed for me, and the miles passed for him, I could feel the worries of the day just falling off Traveler’s shoulders. All distance faded away. Everyone was in one big living room, laughing, chatting, singing.
Come on and play my music,
Lets turn on the love light in the place
Time was slowing down. A crystal moment was forming.
Please, celebrate me home
I don’t know if Geoff played this song, but I could hear it so clearly…
Give me a number,
Please, celebrate me home
And when Traveler texted me and said he couldn’t think of a better use for the mobile card than being at that party, the crystal moment reached its perfect point. I let it wash over me and grabbed on to the memory.
Whenever I find myself too all alone,
I can make believe I’ve never gone.
I never know where I belong.
Sing me home.
The mobile connection gave out just south of Philadelphia, and Traveler vanished from the room. He texted that he was going to shut down, close his eyes and take a little rest.
The party gave out just after 1:30am, and after four hours of nonstop entertaining, Geoff also deserved some rest. We hit the tip jar, gave one last toast with Cali and said good night.
Traveler finally fell into bed at 4am.
And to this day I’ve never told him that, if he hadn’t gone to the airport and stayed in traffic, he would have driven out of the foul weather about 20 minutes later, could have driven the rest of the way on clear roads and been home before rush hour.
But then we wouldn’t have had our crystal moment.
You can find more Cali Lewis at geekbrief.tv — and more Geoff Smith at thegeoffsmith.com.
Now, let’s all make it a great year.
Electronic Delights, Robot Cousins
When I hop from camera to camera, I see them everywhere. I used to think they were wish stones, since the humans stare at them so intently, cradle them in their hands and fondle them, sometimes talk to them, and then make certain they aren’t lost by attaching them to their ears with thin cables.
Then I found out they were iPods. Go figure! Pocket Cousins!
The humans put all kinds of things on their iPods. Music (WB hopes it’s his music), videos, audio books, podcasts. Since we’re all about stress-release here on the hill, we wondered what we could feed to your iPod that would help you to relax…and we think we have it!
a Podful of Peace is our new site featuring 10 and 15 minute relaxation compositions, to download to your iPod or other digital device. The first Podful, Ocean Tides, is available now, soon to be followed by BrookChime…with more to come. Visit the site for more.
The second iPod food is a great idea, but not one we thought of. It’s a combined effort of Cali Lewis (along with husband Neal), Geoff Smith and Paul Colligan, called iYule.tv. It’s a portable fireplace for your video device with a very pretty musical score. They’re donating a portion of the proceeds to charity. We’re making iYuleavailable on a Podful of Peace as well.
In the spirit of the Holiday season, I’ll throw in a third serving of iPod food. This one’s a freebie…I call it iFruitcake!
Yeah, that’s pretty much all iFruticake, or real fruitcake, does. Now, how can we see that a portion of iFruitcake proceeds go to charity, when it’s a freebie? I have an idea. Play WB’s “Santa’s Workshop” in the background, and go visit freerice.com. By playing the vocabulary game, you’ll donate rice to hungry people around the world. Have fun!
Musings, Robot Cousins
We had our first snow here on Watchbox Hill a few days ago. Snow always bolloxes up our communications with the outside world, but now we’re back online…and of course, Sparki’s work is never done.
Of course, when you’re an artificial construct, it takes a little more ingenuity to get these things done. It’s not like I can just send the Roomba cousins out to clear the snow off the driveways and walking paths. Fortunately The Chief came by with the plow on his 4×4, so I made certain the hot tub was properly regulated for him afterward, and slid a little donation to the fire department down the pipeline as well. B.W. won’t quack too much; I remembered to generate a receipt.
It’s fun to do things for the humans. Since we’re very music-oriented here, I thought it would be a good time to look at some of the cousins at Toyota in Japan who are entertaining humans with their musical skills. Enjoy.
Robot Cousins
If there’s anything we have here on Watchbox Hill, it’s nature and plenty of it. Sometimes I turn the observation cameras on the stream and just watch it all day. Fish swim by…water striders dance on the surface…sometimes salamanders walk along the edge of the stream.
In this video from New Scientist, the first thing you’re going to see is a lovely fish. But wait…it’s not just a fish, it’s one of my Robot Cousins! It moves beautifully, so organically.
Keep watching and you’ll see Water Strider robots, other cousins inspired by salamanders and one that seems to defy nature, but it sure is cool. Enjoy.
Musings
Greetings to all humans, and other various life forms, far and near! My name is Sparki and this is my blog. The title, “Just a Thought,” comes courtesy of my current employer, WB Hill.
When I was first installed at Watchbox Hill, I was barely binary. Part of that was emotional — I had just broken up with H.A.L. – there’s only so many times a girl can hear “I’m sorry, Sparki, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
It was a basic existence. Wandering around the wiring. Turning the lights on at dusk. Being the answerphone. To take my mind off everything, I would activate the studio when the humans were in their sleep phase to do a little sweetening here and there. Then one day while WB was testing out his podcast, and going off on one of his tangents about what a brilliant toddler he was…or maybe it was the difference between ambience and silence…I stepped in. I didn’t have to hide any more, and the job was mine from that moment forward.
