A Robot Named 'Twenty-One'

It was sometime before he slept, and when he did, he found himself walking on an endless path. At last he came to a place where the path divided, one fork seeming to lead downward into misty, shadowy depths which were somehow strangely, compellingly attractive by their very mystery, and the other branch led uphill into the sunshine. He decided after a moment to keep to the right and follow the upward path. But the climb was steep, and his strength was beginning to fail him when he saw approaching him "a Madonna'.
-Nial Kent
"The Divided Path"

I read this article back in February 2009 and had it saved to share on my BLOG for a future date. The future date has arrived (only about six months later). It’s still a major futuristic look as to what is to come.

Japanese scientists and engineers at Waseda University in Tokyo unveiled their latest humanoid robot named Twenty-One.

This new and improved humanoid robot is equipped with manual dexterity capable of picking up a drinking straw, placing it into a tumbler and handing off the drink to its human counter-part.

Twenty-One looks like a robotic version of Steven Spielberg's kind-eyed character ET. Japan is truly taking one giant step forward for mankind.

Read the in-depth article and watch the Robotic Housekeeper video by CLICKING on this link:
http://www.physorg.com/news153079697.html

Twenty-five years ago today:

September 30, 1984
Sunday

The last day of September and I ate breakfast with Frank Vasconcellos at NIKKO’s in Oakland at the foot of the Park Street, Alameda bridge. What a dive! It was my first time to have ever eaten at this place. It wasn’t so hot. I was a bit embarrassed to be seated with Frank with his jet-black, ugly hair color-to tell the truth. I hated it the more I looked at it. He knew it, too.

After breakfast I drove him to the Fruitvale BART station. I skedaddled over to moms’ house. It started to rain and I figured I would not be cycling at all today.

Sherri came by with Ashley because she had to work from 11:30AM to 6PM. Mom happily made arrangements to babysit. I bid farewell to Sherri and played with Ash for a while.

I decided to go for a bike ride anyway. It was only a slight sprinkle of rain. I saw my Colombian friend, Alfonse, on the beach again.
“Hey, yeah, I’m living in Vallejo now,” Alfonse said.
I thought to myself, “Yuck, Vallejo!” The area of Vallejo is not too hot—or so I’ve heard.
“Why don’t you ride by later and share a beer with me.”
I did actually see him later but he had no beers, so I said, “Later.”
I decided to ‘ditch him’.

It was rather windy but I still had a good ride. I decided to take a nap at mom’s house. Then I ended up having to babysit for Ashley for an hour. Mom and Dad decided to go out together for shopping and a visit to Longs Drugstore.

While babysitting Ashley I telephoned Paloma. We had a good talk while Ashley was playing with her toys.

When I was back at my place later I decided to telephone Michael Miller.
“Yeah, I’m feeling a lot better,” Michael said.
He suggested I bring my mini-chess set over so we could play. I didn’t feel like it.

Instead, I went to Walgreens to see if Rick was at Lucky’s Grocery store. I wanted to see if he knew of any potential roommates (including him). While at Walgreens I saw this poster of Ann Turkel that I never seen before. I loved it.

I went to a Book Store and found a few magazines with interesting photography. When I returned home to ‘hang out’ I got a call from mom who said, “Paloma called here a little while ago.”

And so, I returned Paloma's call. Again, we had a great chat. I actually told her about my being Donor number 151 at the Bay Area Sperm Bank. I gave her some of my true stories with regard to the CIA and Gladman. I confessed to my beginning to be in ‘serious like of her’ back in mid-March of this year.
“Then you blew the news of Jody,” I said. Jody is the guy she liked so much. She had met him around that time.

“I thought you had lost interest in me,” Paloma said.
I got the feeling she was just saying that and I was starting to feel that she was interested now.
“I never talk to anyone as long on the phone as I do you,” Paloma exclaimed in her usual French-English style.
“I’m flattered, you know.”
“I have a good time with you. We should go out more and maybe go to Great America…like you said.”

PHOTO: Great America Amusement Park
Santa Clara, California



We do have our Ice-Cream Dock date set for this coming Thursday. Paloma surprised me. I feel so comfortable talking to her. Maybe we needed that break from one another. She also questioned me about my plans for the end of October when I have vacation time.
“I may just stick around here. I’m not sure yet,” I replied.

I think I want to send Paloma that card with the airplane. She has this yearning to become a flight attendant. The card has this verse inscribed in it:
‘I know you’ll be up again soon.’

Paloma says she is depressed often. I can somewhat relate to her feelings. It will also give me a good chance to send her the photo of me with the Green Ferrari (taken in Carmel). She’ll laugh…I think.

I slept and released easily.