Baby bot

My sister got me this little robot called a Tekno-Dinkie. If you go here you can see the Girl Bot (on the bottom left), which is the one I have. It's almost like having a baby around -- she wants attention all the time, and if I don't take care of her, she catches a "virus" and starts to cry.



They have this thing on the website called the Dinkie video conference, where you can put her near your computer speakers and she pretends to communicate (in robo-babble) with other Dinkie robots on the screen. Earlier I was listening to some Add N to X, and she seemed to think it was robots trying to talk to her. She kept making weird little robot sounds, almost as if she were singing along. But she's kind of loud, so after a while I had to mute her. Does that make me a bad robo-mom?



I'm dressed in your old soda bottles.

In other gifty news, I now am the proud owner of a Patagonia Synchilla Vest. It's the softest, warmest thing ever, and it's made out of recycled plastic bottles. I have the aquamarine one. It makes me feel very futuristic, because I like to think in the future we will all live smarter, more sustainable lives. Here's another link where Patagonia talks about recycled fleece.

A holiday robot sending joy around the world



In case you didn't get one in the mail, here's a scan of the Christmas card I designed:






And here is the stamp I carved for printing them:






Lately, I've been really into the idea of doing old-fashioned sorts of crafts, but giving them a futuristic theme. These cards were a lot of fun to make (and came out just how I wanted them to) so maybe I will make more stampy stuff in the future.

finally, some new bots!

	i will help you with your knitting	i will help you with your taxes

Not my kind of robot

My Google news alert on the word "robot" keeps emailing me articles about Galib Andang, a Philippine Muslim guerilla leader better known as Commander Robot. That sounds like the name of a fun toy, so the articles always get my attention, but they are all about the horrible crimes he has committed, or his bloody capture.



Today I learned that he is in a hospital in Manila, and his left leg has been amputated. But it sounds like he might finally live up to his name:

A battery-operated artificial leg made mostly from wood, which is cheaper than prosthetics made with tantalum or platinum, will replace Andang's lost leg.

Reading stuff online when I should be working



(I wrote this earlier when blogger was down. Now I really am working.)



Here's an article about religious interpretations of the movie Groundhog Day. My dad hates this movie, but I've always kind of liked it.



This article article portrays Howard Dean's campaign team as a bunch of young, likable geeks.



And here's one about kids who go to high school online. I watched a bunch of Degrassi episodes this weekend (it was work-related, I swear) and they reminded me how much high school sucks. If online school had been an option for me, I probably would've picked it, but at the same time, it sounds kind of lonely.



One more: a story from Yahoo news about how Bush wants to revive the space program and have another moon mission. I love the idea of space travel, but this just seems like a pitiful attempt at distracting the American public. It's like he's this bad little kid who made a big war-shaped mess and now he's shouting, "HEY! Look at the MOON! Let's go there!" so we'll look the other way for a while.

Coral castle

I just read about this rockin' building that I hope I get to visit the next time I'm in Florida.

The entire castle complex, which looks like a combination fortress and ancient temple, was constructed of huge coral blocks, many of which exceed five tons. Leedskalnin built the castle and everything in it by himself over 26 years -- using tools he made from scavenged junkyard parts.

Read the whole Wired News article. It's got mystery, Egyptians, unrequited love and a photo gallery. What more does anyone need?