Your Today in Pictures...

[Steve Klare]

Antoine,

I like that lagoon! I've only ever seen water like that in the Caribbean!
M
-and just for the record: that barrel isn't full of beer, but it might be full of the Beered-Up!
M

(You can take the top off and add tiny plastic drunks!)
M

[Lee Mannering]

The test launch of the new rack system went well at the weekend where we had a great evening of nostalgia also showing Raise the Titanic...as you do. I've left enough room to fit a Eumig on top or my Pathe Vox. Audio power is supplied by the Denon which will also play files and accommodate the Digital sound inputs from the Elmo, sound desk and Blu-Ray. Really happy to see the end of lifting the 14Kilo beasty up high and this is now my permanent set up.
The stereo amp is connected to a couple of studio monitor speakers which I've had for a bit now and deliver.

[Steve Klare]

Meet Marty!

-A couple of weeks ago...

There we were, just trying to buy some groceries, when this thing that looked like some infernal mobile fence post came rolling through, beeping and flashing LEDs at us. ("What the hell???!") "His" name is Marty: the supermarket Robot!

Marty rolls up and down the aisles of our local supermarket "protecting our safety". He's not carrying a fire extinguisher and he can't do CPR, he won't stop a robbery and he can't go out in the parking lot and direct traffic: no, the imminent threat only he can protect us from is floor-based debris. Marty finds some spill or fallen merchandise, and immediately he stops, starts flashing his lights and announces "WARNING! HAZARDOUS CONDITION DETECTED!" This is actually ALL he can do!

At the same time an announcement goes over the PA: "Cleanup, Aisle 9!"

He has a problem with the human element. The people that work in the store don't like him because when he detects a "hazardous" condition, he won't shut up until it's fixed. You can have 5 people standing around for 10 minutes looking for a gum wrapper he saw under a display. As a labor saving device, he's a bust! The reaction from customers runs somewhere between mild amusement and just plain freaked out! There have been more than a few reports of people assaulting their local Marty. Others have had some fun at his expense: someone on YouTube managed to box him in with four bottles of soda! Personally, I was quietly browsing the pasta aisle, turned around and suddenly found myself face to "face" with him! (-so glad I did well on my EKG! Remember: he can't do CPR!)

Sometimes for 15 minutes at a time you hear: "Cleanup, Aisle 4......Cleanup, Aisle 4......Cleanup, Aisle 4......Cleanup, Aisle 4......": They are ignoring him! Then all of a sudden it stops and you find him banished to his charging station!

Marty is a rare example of an "individual" who is both threatening and pathetic! Yes, he is creepy, but he's also so useless! At least if the store bought a Roomba, it could vacuum the floors: Marty can do nothing but stand and complain!

The people that designed Marty recognized this creepiness: they decided to soften his image and give him a "face".

Those big, goofy eyes and decal smile are kind of like: "Let's play with PUPPIES!" The problem is Marty's "face" is actually glued to the side of his "head", and when he rolls down the aisles, this is what you see:

-there are no Puppies here! This 'face" is all about "SURRENDER OR BE VAPORIZED"!

I doubt we will be seeing Marty for very long: he's silly, and he's creepy. Scuttlebutt is he costs what a pretty decent, mid-sized new car does too! I have the feeling in five years his kids and grand-kids will be giving us the Supermarket Willies, but by then they will have arms!

[Graham Ritchie]

Steve this is what your supermarket really needs..

[Steve Klare]

-at least he could bag groceries!

[Graham Ritchie]

Robby would be right at home at our local supermarket "swinging baseball bat included" with some of the clowns that go there.

[Leonard Goss]

Steve this is what your supermarket really needs..

That looks like the robot from the Columbo episode "Mind over Mayhem" from 1974

[Graham Ritchie]

Yes Robby did appear in the Columbo episode. The above still I think is of Robby in the 1957 MGM film "The Invisible Boy" which can be watched also on the 50th anniversary two-disc special edition DVD of "Forbidden Planet". For me Robby appearance in "War Of The Robots" is one of my favorite episodes from the TV 1960s Lost In Space.

[Paul Adsett]

And I thought it was a projector lamp........................................

[Steve Klare]

Update!

We went to the Supermarket today, just to round up a few last bits and pieces of the Christmas Spread...

The place was just berserk! There were five lined up for every parking place and people were wandering around with expressions like there was only one lifeboat left and it was filling fast!

There WAS something missing though. You would think among all the chaos there would be spills galore, yet the Public Address was silent...

Where was Marty?

As a concerned friend, I did what was right! What if he was hurt? What if he was sick? I sought him out.

I found him almost hidden behind two displays: not only banished, but exiled!
E

-Maybe it's just me, but he looks a little torqued off!

[Graham Ritchie]

That's sad ....however he might get his own back later on

Grandson Connor has been playing around with my old Canon Ftb not my good Ftb, he found the timer on the old camera hence set, press the button, run to take a selfie, there is no film in the camera by the way.

[Steve Klare]

Well,

He'll get past this!

You know Marty! -he always has a smile! (-of course he does: it's a decal!)


Here's hoping Connor gets to expose some film! (My son is 17 now, he shouldn't stay the youngest!)

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Steve.....I was thinking that one day he can take some actual film. Using a digital camera first and getting the hang of composing and framing a shot would be good practice before using film. Hoping in time a school project through school would be a good start...time will tell

[Joe Taffis]

My grandson ice fishing at Locust Lake State Park...

[Steve Klare]

Nice!