Among its other fun remote-controlled features, it can see and react to people. AWESOME. I want one SO badly, but it’s way too expensive for me to justify. A pleo would probably be a better investment. Cute, but in a different way (and a much more powerful robot platform):
This is one place where Terminator got it wrong: when the revolution comes, the evil robots will make cute baby noises as they grind us beneath their wheels.
The movers came Tuesday morning and took my stuff:
I loaded my remaining things into my car:
And I’m off to Emeryville!
As is my custom, I took time-lapse photos from a dashboard cam of the trip:
I did the entire 380 mile trip on one tank of gas which was pretty neat.
To move, you first have to pack. Having moved 18 times in the past 15 years I’m very used to packing, but it gets harder each time as I accumulate more junk. Here’s what (most) of my stuff looked like this time:
More than 30 boxes densely packed, not to even mention the furniture. After spending a couple of weeks figuring out *what* I had, it took me three solid days to package everything.
10 of these boxes are books I’m unlikely too need again in the near future (or EVER). There’s also a bunch of marginally useful things that I rarely, if ever, need.
It’s not that I’m against having stuff, per se. I’m against having stuff that takes up space instead of being useful, per se. I mean, I’ve got a box containing a dozen old touchscreen notebook computers, but since there are plans for them (more on that later), I’m just fine with that. It’s the hundreds of pounds of paper that really piss me off.
I don’t want to just throw it out, since I spent a lot of money (or, for gifts, other people spend a lot of money) acquiring it all. I figure I can sell much of the books and media on amazon, and some of the obsolete electronics on ebay. That, however, requires me to continue to lug it around.
I managed to get rid of almost all of my loose paper records (receipts, old leases, high school report cards, etc.) by scanning them into the computer. I want to do that to *all* my stuff, scan it in and just keep a small cache of things I’m actually using.
Coincidentally, I just learned that Marginally Insane Sci-Fi author Bruce Sterling has been advocating this sort of thinking for a while. Well, he rambles around a bit, but he eventually says things like this:
It’s not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.
Yeah.
Thursday was my second-to-last day at work, and the crew was nice enough to take me out to lunch. It was awesome!
Thanks to everyone who came (or couldn’t come)! Bye! *sob*
More campus photos.
A bobcat visited the housecats last evening:
They had a spirited conversation, with meows and caterwauling shared all around.