Friendly Robots. Everyday-ish.

My life with robots: exploring their world and meeting the occasional cat.

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It was a dusk that seemed to extend well past the expiration of light in the sliver of sky above the narrow street. Visitors emerged from and disappeared into the abyss at the end of the street, diving for the unknowable depths of the city. This little pool of light remained bright and vital.

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Heyyy you bots!! The robots love exploring (despite perils) and the idea of following a trail of evidence through subterranean passages to a treasure trove has an almost irresistible appeal. I worry that I may have inspired them to seek out similar in their world.

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#robotoftheday #mylifewithrobots #heyyouguys #goonies #thegoonies #gooniesweekend #robot #robotart #robotartist #art #illustration #markerart #ink #landscape #astoriaoregon #beach #haystackrock #oregoncoast

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Evening field sketching patrons at a local réchargé. Straight to ink in fading light without my corrective optics— please don’t judge the quality of the work.

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A moment revealed as the crowd parted in a fleeting instance of synchronicity. They were burned into my shirt-term memory. I don’t know what they might have been talking about; what transpired. The bubble burst and the waves of patrons crash together again. When I approached the bar the dynamic between the tender and customer had changed, leaving me unsure of what I had glimpsed.

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#robotoftheday #mylifewithrobots #robot #robots #robotlife #art #illustration #sketch #sketchbook #markerart #copiccolors #ink #citylife #cafe #cafelife #nightlife #urban #urbanenvironment #urbanlife #hangout #bar

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Traffic jam. Cats and robots get along so well that sometimes not much is accomplished. Or maybe: things are accomplished at a very casual, agreeable pace?

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I’ve learned that most robots will actually turn up their internal heating element (which is normally for keeping internal components at optimal temps during cold weather) for the benefit of their feline companions. There you go! Quality companionship equals radiant heat?

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We’ve missed regular visits with the robots and they’ve missed us. 2024 was…challenging. We hope to return to visit the robots more frequently in 2025 but we’ve got a lot of other stuff to take care of too. See you soon!

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Field notes entry—It was a dumb question: “Why not just run a heating element to keep internal components warm?” Insulating garments are a much more practical solution. Why waste additional energy when one can just wear a coat and preserve what waste heat is generated? Indeed!

@olomarker and @platinum.pen Preppy.

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I was exploring the city outskirts by bike one afternoon when these two passed me going the other way, the plant’s leaves making quite a racket in the breeze. A while later I passed the plant nursery they must have been shopping at; the place was a hive of activity with robots moving between the rows of plants, stooping to inspect this one or that and others pushing carts laden with plants of various sizes.

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“Check your seals!” Beyond its use in the obvious context, I’ve heard this phrase used in a more general sense of “take care” or as a reminder to be sure of oneself; which can have other meanings depending on the personal relationship and setting.

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Under the stars. I discovered that the robots perceive the stars in a rather interesting way. Rather than organize them into arbitrary patterns with spatial relationships, they assign a numerical value to each one based on its relative brightness and color temperature. Then they map these to a variety of output configurations: sound scapes, topographic maps, and even haptic maps.

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This robot’s favorite space was their greenhouse. I long ago learned to stop thinking of robot society (and its citizens) as monolithic. I’m wrong to make assumptions about their likes and dislikes. For a robot to enjoy the company of plants and cats is equally as valid as anything else in this universe! This robot’s preference for the slow practice of observation seems to be well suited to tending plants.

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In the robots’ society, cats seems to possess a great deal of autonomy. At least no robot I’ve ever spoken with on the subject has ever made the claim to “own” a cat. Typically the relationship is described as “the cat lives with me…” or “the cat also lives here…” I suppose the cats adopt robots rather than the other way around.

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Memory of trees. The robots have compared trees to a network and they’re not wrong. What must it be like to attempt to address a node only to find it missing?

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Bad sector. My interpretation of a story a robot once shared with me about experiencing data corruption. I imagined them transiting a landscape of data and then feeling like parts of themself were disappearing as they lost resolution. It sounds unsettling.

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I didn’t have a crowd watching me this time. This drawing was inspired by a robot I talked with a few days ago. They sat on the floor of their store, leaning up against the checkout counter. “I’ll be with you at some indeterminate point in the near future. I have a cat with me.” Indeed, the robot cradled in their lap a cat on a pillow. I could hear the cat purring from across the room. Robots are cat people, too.

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After the first ink mess captured the attention of a couple near me I quickly had the rest of the réchargé crowd around me. Despite drawing in public for years, I’ve never drawn this level of attention. I suppose it’s the somewhat unconventional methods of smearing the ink around? After I removed the first drawing from my board a robot stepped back and struck a pose. “May I ask you to draw me in that same style?” How could I say no? This whole experience was unprecedented!