More scariness

My Google newsfeed about robots just lead me to

this story. The most interesting part:

"The nanny testified that the man (Helge Fossmo) sent text messages that he said were from God to her cell phone. She claimed she was a robot that had been 'programmed to kill.'"

I'm glad I don't get evil text messages. Like maybe they said "u r a robot. kill them now!" OR "god (me) says u r a killer." I mean, how does someone convey in a text message that it's coming from god? Wouldn't you see the sender's phone number?

Molar Manor

I spent this morning at a haunted house called

Molar Manor. It's all set up inside a big warehouse, so it can be very dark and scary even during the day. (Their website has a good photo gallery.) The explanation for the tooth-related name is that it's owned by a dentist, which I guess is sort of creepy in its own right if you're not into dentists.



Today they opened very briefly for some kids from a camp. My friend works there, painting scary walkways and such, so I got to help scare the kids. Basically, this meant I wore a very unscary purple robe and tried to make sure the kids walked through in the right direction. I only really freaked out one boy, who was walking the wrong way until I yelled "Go that way!" in a creepy voice. I don't think he expected a real person to start talking to him in the middle of all the fake murderers.



I took a bunch of pictures of the creepy stuff, but this one is my favorite:

	I am being pulled in too many directions

Stress bot

I haven't been putting up many little robots lately. That's one I painted before I left New York, when life was getting really crazy.

Giraffes and painted quilty things and a girl in a red jacket

My friend Ilana and I went to this art gallery called

sixspace today, and those are some of the things that we saw. Follow that link to check out some of the artists' work online, but it's much more exciting to see it all in person. I liked that everything is just almost in my price range, so if I weren't buying a cool, futuristic couch this week, I could maybe have bought a piece of art. And I really liked a lot of the stuff. As an added bonus I got to meet Caryn, the girl who writes art.blogging.la, and she seems really nice.

New links

I just added three new links over on the left side. Mostly they are for me, so I remember to check out these sites I like, but if you feel like it, you can use them, too:



art.blogging.la lists lots of arty stuff that's happening around L.A.



Rhizome makes you donate money to read their content (after a free trial) but they have lots of info about technology-based art.



Styleborg is a blog about wearable computing. I'm interested in reading a girly perspective on this type of thing, so I want to remember to check it on a regular basis.



So, yes. New links.

Mmm... evil!

I have been working hard and not leaving the house much so my big excitement this week is that I bought some fake chicken nuggets at Ralphs. They are so good I suspect they might be evil. They have a strange hold over me, and if they are in my apartment I can hear them calling me from the freezer until I eat them all up in a toaster oven frenzy. I decided to make a little painting about what it might be like if Chik'n Nuggets were trying to take over the world.



NOTE: If anyone from Morningstar Farms happens across my page, I don't really think your product is evil. In fact, I would happily make a painting of some friendly nuggets in exchange, for let's say... three free boxes.

Some links I don't think I've linked to yet



I'm mostly a PC girl, but this custom painted pink iBook is freakin' hot.



This girl does a new drawing every weekday, and some of them are really neat.



This woman made a coat out of Tickle Me Elmos.



This website has one-minute vacations, which let you listen to audio from somewhere else for sixty seconds. New ones are posted on Mondays.

California is crazy

Proof?  You have to be naked for your driver's license photo. It's the law, at least, that's what the DMV worker told me. What, you don't believe me? Here is proof:




I blurred out my personal info, but I *swear* this is the actual, unretouched photo on my new license.



Doesn't that light blue background look pretty with my pink hair?

Sci-fi reality

From a USATODAY article:

Security has reached the subcutaneous level for Mexico's attorney general and at least 160 people in his office — they have been implanted with microchips that get them access to secure areas of their headquarters.

In case you don't read the whole thing, the last paragraph is also fascinating:

In fact, in March, Mexican authorities broke up a ring of used-car salesmen turned kidnappers who were known as "Los Chips" because they searched their victims to detect whether they were carrying the chips to help them be located.

Note to self

The next time I'm in New York with $14 burning a hole in my pocket, I want to go to

MetroNaps and rest in one of their futuristic pods for a while. The first time I heard about this, I thought it sounded like a giant waste of time and money, but that was before I knew what the pod looked like.

Feed me

By the way, Keith pointed out that I didn't have my site feed turned on. So if you know about RSS or Atom or whatever it is (I haven't done any of that stuff on my own yet), you might want to do something with this:

http://electricgirl.blogspot.com/atom.xml



It looks like the feed doesn't pick up images, though, so if you read my site that way you will miss out on the charming illustrations. And really, aren't they the best part?



Oh, btw I meant to mention in the other post that the keyboard I bought seems to be Microsoft's very basic ergonomic one. It's called the Natural Keyboard Elite. I'm going to tell people that I joined the Natural Keyboard Elite the day I bought one (doesn't it sound like a fancypants members only club?) Here is a link, in case you want to join, too. (I paid $10 more than that at Office Depot. Aargh.)

New keyboard




I got a new keyboard today, mostly because I've been doing crazy amounts of work lately and I started having weird little tingles in my thumb and forefinger. I figured it might be something carpal-tunnel-ish, which would be very bad because my leisurely freelance lifestyle doesn't come with health insurance. But then I talked to my friend and he said when the same thing happened to him, he got one of these ergonomic keyboards and the problem went away.



I've always been a little skeptical that a weird-shaped keyboard would make a difference, but I walked up to Office Depot this afternoon and bought one just in case. After setting it up, I noticed it kind of looks like it's smiling at me. And if I watch my fingers when I type, it looks like it's talking whenever I press the space bar. In reality, the keyboard is much better designed (and has more buttons) than it looks in my little painting, but I think you get the idea.



What's that, keyboard? I should stop typing now and go in the pool? I think you're right.

Mr. Silver

Something I saw on Google News mentioned Mr. Silver, a guy who covers himself in silver makeup and performs as a robot from the future. I checked out his website and found the scrapbook section, where he has photos of himself posing with various celebrities (including David Hasselhoff). I love robots, and I love pretending I'm from the future, but something about this guy just feels a little strange to me.



Maybe it's the whole silver makeup thing. In my view of the future, robots will either look human OR be silver-colored, but probably not both. I think if you want a robot to look human, you should give it human-colored skin. And if you're not trying to make the robot look human, it doesn't need to be human shaped at all. It can be short and boxy, or whatever shape is the most efficient for its purpose. In his skin-tight bodysuit, this guy reminds me more of Slim Goodbody. Maybe Mr. Silver should tell people he's from a 1970's version of the future. If that was how he marketed himself, I'd probably think he was cool, and way less creepy.

pink hair and potato salad

On trying to look futuristic



So for a while now I've had pink hair. I like it because it makes me feel like I'm from the future. Except for the time I spend every few weeks bleaching my hair (so the pink shows up) and then adding the temporary dye, I like to pretend that it just sort of grows this color. Like maybe I'm genetically enhanced.



When I lived in Brooklyn, tough-looking guys in my neighborhood would give me puzzled looks and ask "Is that natural?" But I think they realized it wasn't even before they asked. With little kids though, it's different. Walking through Times Square, kids would point at my head as if I were a bright colored tourist attraction. Even in the Village, where you'd think kids would be used to wacky hair colors, children would see me and get distracted. Once I was waiting for the subway and I heard a little girl nearby asking her dad, "Can hair grow that color?" I explained that I use dye to make it pink, and her dad looked seriously annoyed that I (a pink-haired freak) was talking to his child.



Today in Target, for the first time, my hair color got a little girl in trouble. I was looking at the discount bathing suits when I heard a woman yelling at her child, "Why did you leave my side? I told you to stay right here!" I looked over and saw that the little girl was staring at me as if she were under a spell, and pointing at my head. She had a look of complete confusion, and wasn't listening to her mother at all. Her mother didn't notice me; she never looked where the girl was pointing. She grabbed the girl's hand, still berating her about not paying attention, and headed for another section of the store. Meanwhile, the girl was half turned around, not wanting to take her eyes off my hair, and pointing at me with the other hand. The look in her eyes is what got to me. It was like I didn't make sense in her reality, and her brain didn't know how to process it. Maybe I should've run up and said "It's just hair dye! Don't look so confused!" Or maybe I should've said "Don't be scared. I'm from the future. I just came back in time to pick up some Target-brand dish soap and a $4.99 bottle of wine."

Phone cams

If I had a camera phone, maybe I could participate in cool stuff like SENT: America's first phonecam art show. But for now I'm happy with my old phone, because I have a new toy: a Canon Digital Elph. Soon, I'll put a photo gallery online so I can share a bit of California fun with those of you living in less sunshiny places.