Random adventures in robotics, photography, bicycling, and just enjoying life: What's Up

They Aren't Just Toys, And They're Not Just For Kids!

For once I’m not going to talk about robots, I’m going to talk about Legos and to some extent about Lego Mindstorms, and about some adults having a great deal of fun with objects that most people think of as a child’s toy, because I think this definitely deserves to be shared.

A Parallel Universe, or Lassie Goes Down Under?

One of my favorite television programs as a kid was "Lassie." Every week someone on the farm would manage to do something stupid and get themselves into trouble. And, predictably, Lassie would sense that they needed help, and somehow manage to save them. It was formula stuff, repeated over and over again, but I never seemed to get tired of it.

I never caught on to the fact that Lassie wasn't just one dog. 'She' was actually a whole series of dogs spanning several generations, many of them male, not female. Eventually, I stopped watching "Lassie", and she must have passed on into the great dog heaven in the sky. But never fear, her spirit is alive and well, and has been reincarnated in the body of an Austrailan kangaroo!

Hero kangaroo saves hurt farmer
September 22, 2003

A KANGAROO has been hailed a hero after he helped rescue a farmer knocked unconscious by a tree branch during weekend storms in north-eastern Victoria.

Hero kangaroo saves hurt farmer (September 22, 2003)

Hello Kitty Mania!!

Well, I wasn't too surprised when I ran across the article about the 'Hello Kitty' taxi. And I wasn't surprised to see the local stores full of Hanshin Tigers theme goods when the Tigers got closer and closer to cinching the Japanese Central League pennant. But, I have too admit that I was totally blown away this evening at our local department store when I ran across a sale for Hanshin Tigers Hello Kitty toilet paper. The catch phrase is 'Hello Kitty Pretty League.' And, before you ask, yes the Hello Kitty image is imprinted on the paper itself. It seems like Sanrio is determined to put a Hello Kitty image on everything that isn't nailed down.

There's Always A Way!

After work most evenings I walk back to the station. It's about a ten minute walk along an elevated walkway with lots of plants, and some times flowers in bloom - if I'm lucky. I pass a small park, built on the top of a parking structure, and then walk through the Techno Garden Office Complex. This particular week Tuesday was a holiday here in Japan - Vernal Equinox Day. The company gave us the day off, but we had to work this Saturday to make up the time.

I left the office as usual this evening and headed towards the station, only to find that the Techno Garden entrance was locked! I didn't want to hike all the way around the building, but there didn't seem to be any reasonable alternative. While I pondered my options for a moment, several other people came up to the same locked entrance. One of them actually walked right into the closed, usually automatic door, because he was deeply absorbed in playing some game on his keitai (cellphone.)

About half the people just shrugged their shoulders and retraced their path to walk around the building. But the other half paused for a moment, then proceeded to enter the door to the bank cash corner (ATM) right next to the entrance. It didn't take me long to figure out that they weren't going in there to get cash. I followed them, and sure enough, inside there was another doorway leading to the inside of the building!

There's always a way. So much for the guards locking the building entrance....

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog....

A tip of the hat to the famous New Yorker cartoon with the same caption.

Spelling Chequer

Spell Chequer

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee four two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Hello Kitty!

CNN.com - Hello Kitty taxis now in Tokyo - Sep. 17, 2003

"How's this for a relaxing cab ride: slide into the back seat of a pink and baby blue sedan with two Hello Kitty characters painted on the side, sit on a Hello Kitty blanket and listen to Hello Kitty music piped in through the sound system"

Most people don't realize it, but Hello Kitty is an amazingly large licensing business. Sanrio does over USD$1 billion in licensing the Hello Kitty character in the US market alone. Not bad for a business where you license and promote the character and your licensees take all the product, manufacturing, distribution, and inventory risks.

You know you've been surfing the net too long when...

Late at night, when your eyes are tired, your chin is nodding, you're just on the edge of dozing off in front of the computer, and you happen to run into this website (Try it - it really works!)-

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