The best benefit of having Billy work at the theater: free movie tickets! They are so prohibitively expensive now that we rarely went to the movies. Today we went to see I, Robot. Isaac Asimov wrote a story with the same title. I'm not sure the movie followed the same story or not but the 3 rules of robotics was the same in both.
1. The robot is not allowed to hurt or kill a human.
2. The robot has to follow orders unless it violates the first law
3. The robot can defend itself except if it violates the first or second law
It sounds ideal at first ... but then when you think of the ramifications it gets a little scary. In this case, one super robot (computer) was able to override the commands to follow the laws. The robots under her command began guarding humans ... for their own good, of course. Humans make stupid mistakes that are detrimental to their health (like pollution) so obviously we need these robots to protect us.
Will Smith is terrific and he was great in this movie. It's well worth the ticket money.
What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.
-- Benjamin Disraeli
This is like planning for a wedding. You spend all this time carefully planning the ceremony and the reception. Nothing goes as planned without some kind of hitch somewhere. The groom?s car breaks down on the way to the church. The heel of the bride?s shoe breaks. The photographer can?t take outdoor pictures because it starts to rain.
The same thing tends to happen around holidays and it?s why some people become depressed. They have certain high expectations of the event. They hope that the dinner will go off well and that everyone will be happy. No fighting. Everyone will be happy with their gifts. No one is going to complain or fuss about something or pick at someone.
People, we?ve all got to learn to roll with the punches!
saturday-8 :: vacation
my kids are out of the country on vacation with my parents, and i get to join them this coming weekend. it will be my first vacation since 1/03, and i'm terribly excited.
1. when was the last vacation you had ... and i mean truly leaving your home, and not just taking a few days off of work?
That would be in 1998, four nights and five days at the Poconos. Oh, it was so wonderful!
2. when you were younger, did you take vacations as a child with your family/extended family?
It was more like when I was a teenager/young adult. We would go to Ocean City every summer and share a place with our relatives, my Aunt Betty, Uncle Bob and cousins Anne and Edith.
3. tell us about your best/favourite vacation ever. what made it so special, who were you with, where did you go?
I went with Rich to the Poconos in 1998. It was special because it was the first vacation the two of us had since our honeymoon. Back then, we went to Washington DC for a few days because we couldn?t afford anything else. During that vacation in 1998, we did something we hadn?t before: splurged and pampered ourselves. The nicest part is that it was just the two of us.
4. tell us about your WORST vacation ever. what made it horrible?
I?ve been racking my brains and I can?t think of a worst vacation ever!
5. who is your favourite person to go on vacation with? parents? children? spouse? bf/gf? best friend? cousin or sibling? or maybe just yourself?
My Teddy Bear, we just haven?t been able to get away for more than a night. It?ll happen!
6. if you could have 2 weeks in ANY locale, no expenses spared, free of charge, tell us about your dream vacation... where? what time of year? with whom? what would you eat? why would you go there?
My dream vacation would be to the Hawaiian islands with TB. I?d like to go during the most seasonable time of the year. I?d like to try Polynesian food. I haven?t had too much of that. I want to go to Hawaii because it?s beautiful and exotic and surrounded by the ocean.
7. how long have you gone without an actual vacation?
What?s considered a vacation? Away, away? If it?s that, then it?s probably been 2 years ? went to Orlando, Florida with the kids
8. if you leave on vacation, who usually watches your home/apartment/pets/plants/mail for you?
Neighbors
Friday Five:
1. What color ink pen do you like best?
Blue
2. Do you prefer plain paper or paper with lines (notebook paper)?
Lined paper
3. What's better: books from the library, or reading online?
Books from the library. Reading online hurts my eyes!
4. Which would you rather get, e-mail or snail mail?
Either is fine with me as long as I get some!
5. Do you have a paper weight on your desk?
Yes, but it?s more for decoration
Friday Fiver:
1. Choose one person on your friends list to switch locations with for one month. Who is the friend, where do they live and why did you chose that location?
That would be Robin who lives on Long Island and I would choose that location because I miss it
2. Provide two bits of trivia about your town.
I have been trying to find bits of trivia about Browns Mills. I?ll have to ask TB. He wracked his brains too. Browns Mills just isn?t big enough to be very interesting. Anyway, TB reminded me that Browns Mills used to be like blueberry and cranberry bogs. If you take a close look at the sand in our backyard, you?ll see it?s sort of blue. Blueberries were first cultivated here.
The other bit of trivia is just fun. We have a lot of man-made lakes around here. In one of them, there is a log that is fastened to the bottom of the water. Turtles climb up there to sun themselves and so the road over it came to be called Turtle Log Bridge.
3. I come to your town for a visit -- what three places do you take me to during my visit?
I would take you to Whitesbog Village, which is close to where I live. It has an interesting history to it. We have a beach close to our house so we could go there and maybe go swimming in Spring Lake. Then there is a water festival at Mirror Lake every year. They have floats on the water, entertainment ? including fireworks --, and some good food.
4. You are handed a camera, what are four places you take pictures of in your town?
The new Korean war veteran memorial in the center of town, Mirror Lake, and either Whitesbog Village or Brendan Byrne State Forest
5. Revisit question #1 - what are five places you visit while you're in your switched location?
Jones Beach, Robert Moses Beach, Sunken Meadow beach, Montauk Point, and the aquarium.
FQ TOPIC: Stupidity.
FQ1: Admit it, sometimes you are not the sharpest tool in the shed. What's something stupid you've done recently? (The FridayQ doesn't count!)
Probably left my keys or my pocketbook in the car and then forgotten about it. :P
FQ2: Children do idiotic things all the time because they just can't seem to help it. What's something stupid you did as a kid?
We had an electric range and I was curious about what would happen if I touched a burner with a napkin. Well, it started a fire that scared me half to death. I managed to put it out.
FQ3: Sometimes, being a bit of an idiot is required (or fun!). What's something stupid you will be doing in the future?
I am inspired to idiocy and it has to be spontaneous, not planned. So I don?t know.
FQ OBSERVER: People are morons. Without naming names, what's something stupid you've seen somebody else do?
Put salt in the coffee. Hee hee hee hee hee!