Benjamin's two weeks of Robot Camp have come to an end. It served as a great introduction to robotics for Benjamin, and has fired him to continue pursuing his dreams. He spent the time on a campus he loves, Georgia Tech, and it gave him two weeks to bond with his big brother, Doug.
Doug got his master's degree at Georgia Tech, and is a successful environmental scientist. He opened up his home to both Benjamin and me, and I really thinK it did as much or more good for Benjamin as the camp itself. I am very grateful for all the help he gave, and all the time he spent with Benjamin.
Benjamin was always at the forefront of his class, the robots he was making doing more sophisticated tasks than the other students. He led in the use of soft coding, getting the robot to think for itself. At the end, his robots didn't win the obstacle course, but they did do amazing things, approaching objects and sensing them, backing up to get out of the way, and being the only robot to use rear sensors as well as front.
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I spent the first week in Atlanta with them, and spent the days of his camp in a room nearby, writing on the Crowley Stories. I discovered that I could do it. I could spend hours writing, and the ideas did not dry but flowed stronger and better. I could do it. I could spend my day writing.....and I loved it.
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We watched the movie Ant-Man, an unexpected pleasure. I thought it was going to be the Marvel movie too far, the one that breaks their string of successes. The trailer for the movie had left me unimpressed. The actual movie, however, was a different story. It was fun and entertaining from start to finish. I normally hate "heist" movies, but this one was a grand exception. The lead character, Scott Lang, had the kind of self-humor that they have tried to use with Spider-Man, but only periodically connect with. At any rate, with Spider-Man, you soon need to get ready for version 3.0. Oy.
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Facebook is starting to rear its nasty side more and more. The confederate flag supporters, those who want to dismiss police violence against minorities, those who deny climate change, people who are anti-gay and anti-progressive Christianity are getting louder and louder. And those who look at Donald Trump and are posting stuff about how the more the hear about him, the more they like him, are shaking my very faith in humanity. Even in a field and party that has included such low-lights as Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle, Ted Cruz, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump stands alone in his level of brutish incompetence and unfitness for American office. The fact that he leads the polls of Republican voters says a lot more about those Republican voters than it does about Trump. If you are even remotely considering this mindless blowhard for President, I urge you to reacquaint yourself with American Civics and reality. The scariest power in American is the power of the uninformed voter.
Until next time,
T. m. Strait
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