Robots-R-Us

I hadn't realized how many "robots" we have around here until I started counting. There's the mini Lost In Space robot (left), the LEGO Mindstorms robot, the Dirt Dog in the garage, I suppose the iDog counts (marginally), assorted R2D2s, many Star Wars LEGO bots, and the one I just tried out for the first time today and which prompted me to write about robots, the Looj gutter-cleaning robot.
The Looj has some issues. First, it's not really a robot. Unlike iRobot's other products, the Looj is merely a remote control toy, having no internal logic whatsoever. It's kind of a long, skinny tank (the Sherman kind, not the gas kind) with a big rotating auger/flapper at one end that's supposed to flip all the gutter debris out of the gutter and onto the ground where it can be safely ignored. The videos on the website are pretty convincing. It did emit one giant rooster-tail of pitch and pine needles - for about two seconds; just long enough to give me a nice gutter-crud shower before flipping on its side and refusing to go forward or back. I climbed the ladder and righted it, getting another brief muck bath, at which point it ejected one of its treads and leaped from the roof, falling to its death on the rocks below. As this was our first robot suicide, I'm not sure how to react. (Our other iRobot robot, the Dirt Dog, has gone about its business faithfully. Well, there was that one time that it inexplicably darted in front of the car...) What Looji didn't realize is that it will be resurrected tomorrow. We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Better. Stronger. Faster...

Pessimism

It's Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd write a few words about how bad everything sucks. Just kidding!
OK, here's the thing: In the past year or two, I've come to realize that I have a talent, if you can call it that, for finding flaws in things. I have had this since childhood - maybe since birth. I'm great at those tests where you have to figure out what's different in picture B, or what's wrong with X. This ability/habit/curse is so dominant and pervasive that my world view is, and has always been, a sort of negative image of reality, like how a photographic negative shows you where the light isn't. This comes in handy at work for things like debugging code, or figuring out where some internal (computer) process ran amuck and crashed. It's not so handy for things like making friends or maintaining personal relationships. It seems that some people don't like having their flaws pointed out regularly, even when I'm just trying to be helpful. Weird. In elementary school, I was on a first name basis with every principal I had (and there were many). This was mostly because my teachers had low self-esteem and couldn't deal with a 7-year-old pointing out things that were probably obvious to everyone, but which, for some reason, no one else actually said. Things like, "I don't think it's fair to be held accountable for missing words on our spelling test that you can't even pronounce correctly due to your speech impediment." Or - I remember this one clearly - when my teacher said, "You got a smart mouth!" I replied, matter of factly, "The word is sarcasm." (Then rolled my eyes slightly as if to silently add, "Duh!") I swear I could actually see steam rise from her forehead in the brief moment before being whisked off to the office. Unfortunately, in the intervening 30-plus years, I have not grown significantly more emotionally intelligent. If I had a dollar, well maybe a hundred dollars, for every person I've royally pissed off in my life so far due to my big mouth and chronic lack of empathy, I'd probably never have to work again. (Hmmm... could being a jerk be lucrative somehow? I could get a radio show where people call in and I tell them how stupid they are. Oh wait, that's been done.)
OK, now that I've had this revelation, what to do? I figure that if I can somehow turn this ship around and be hopelessly optimistic for the second 40 years of my life, then by the time I'm dead I'll be basically even. Is such a thing even possible? Comments? Suggestions?
Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving!

Charter School Conundrum

I went to Austin's school today for the fall parent-teacher conference. His teacher is nice enough and the school isn't terrible, but I can't help but wonder if he might be better served somewhere else. We live in a typical (if there is such a thing) urban neighborhood and the student population reflects this demographic diversity. Hypothetically, cultural diversity in a school is a good thing, exposing kids to other cultures, languages, and points of view. In reality, finite resources are expended disproportionately on bringing everyone up to a common but low standard and there's not much left for those who would excel.
Before I became a parent, the idea of charter schools enraged me. That some group would siphon money from the public school system to set up their own flavor of school, following whatever agenda they may have, seemed outrageous. I thought those people should put their efforts into making public schools better rather than withdrawing what little support they have, effectively sending public school into a downward spiral of reducing revenue and diminishing value.
Now that I'm a parent, I realize that good parents will do whatever they need to do to provide the best possible education and experiences for their kids. If this means starting or joining a charter school, homeschooling, or moving to a better public school district, then so be it. Plus, charter schools are public schools, and what could be more democratic than communities organizing into groups where their children's needs can be best served. Interesting what a little perspective does for one, huh? Friends of ours put their son in a charter school this year and are quite happy with the results. I would not have believed it, but I must say we're leaning in that direction too.

Outliers

So, I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers about why successful people are successful. (I could write a book about how to be unsuccessful, but that's another story.) The premise is that while we all grow up believing that with a little intelligence, perseverance, and lots of hard work, any among us can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and rise to super-stardom, the reality is that by far the prime ingredient in success is just dumb luck. Depending on how you look at it, this news can either be seriously depressing or wonderfully liberating; explaining both why some people work themselves to death and just can't seem to catch a break, and also how George W. could be president of the United States - twice! (thought I'd just get the political thing over with in my first blog!) Anyway, I'm only halfway through the book but I'm not sure I quite buy it. Cynic that I am, I think Mr. Gladwell's primary intent is to make money by selling a lot of books, and not many people would be interested in pure facts if they were not sensationalized somehow. Hmmm... somehow this turned into a book review. Oh well.
Tune in tomorrow when Uncle Wiggily gets cream cheese on his ear and Skeezicks goes in search of fresh bagels...