Political Anime

tanks lug across the sand
tugging boys and girls in camo
bait for bombs and fire devices

newly defined evil hoards
the screen, deciders politicize
a stateside campus loss

remotes in casual hands
click the scene, surf to ugly betty
nodding heads return to sand

Monologue vs Dialogue

Free speech demands that each of us can spout any amount of rancor, pith and ugliness but it doesn't preclude that a price can be extracted at some point.

It's hard to believe the uproar that followed a shock jock's bomb tossed at a femme basketball team. Suddenly that sort of stupid attack registers as surprise or racist. It's also a little more than sexist. This was no rare occurrence and unless humanity changes, it will continue.

There's an us vs. them mentality that disguises itself as dialogue. Listening carefully, at least as long as the stomach can stand it, reveals that dialogue is no more than a shouting match. TV, music, comedy chambers, blogs and street corners are full of hate and righteous opinion. The loudest voice calls attention and even when it's temporarily silenced, the rage continues.

I wish that hot air and accusation could be turned into something more positive - into something that might help us see that inside each of us is a nice person trying to find his way.

We've come a long way but unless we get a grip, that journey may have brought us near the end of the road.

iRobot and Friendly Robotics

Reluctant to count myself as a lazy femme, the initial decision to purchase iRobot’s RoomBa to vacuum seemed hedonistic but when it vacuums under the couch, treadmill and bed, it’s worth its weight in gold and earns the badge of necessity. I watch and lift my feet off the floor (I learned that from others in an earlier life) when it passes by.

The low pile of the carpet in my home renders the robot so efficient, I can’t resist shouting ‘good job’ as it trundles about earning its keep. When I grudgingly haul the upright vacuum out of the closet to do a ‘deep cleaning’, there aren’t enough leftovers to dust a bag.

DirtDog, the newest addition to my iRobot’s product line, is a garage-cleaning yellow machine which doubles as a patio vacuum while promising not to fall in the pool or suck up sleeping bodies. iRobot has a Scooba for kitchen floors but its twelve-inch diameter is too large for my wee kitchen.

Friendly Robotics makes a lawn mower. I’m trying to justify this for my lawn which is about two times larger than my kid-size kitchen. While I’m waiting for this justification to take place, I dream of the day when iRobot invents iDustBa, iPaintBa, iCookBa, iMassageBa, iLaunderBa.

Maybe I’ll live long enough to become a smiling lay-about.

In a more serious vein, I’d like to add that iRobot also makes robots for military uses to help ours in other parts of the world which is something I’d love to do, but can’t. Check their site - it’s incredibly enlightening.



iHeart*iRobot - mangled fractal

The first year of Tumblewords Blog is available in e-book format at Lulu