Life's so rad

Dear Diary

2008-03-26T13:48:00.008-06:00

Likely excerpts from the journal of any unlucky kid who might have me for a dad.

July 12
Hey, I was supposed to go to the Angels game with my friends, but dad said I couldn't. I guess I have to sit in my room and do nothing instead. My dad is totally yelling at me through the door, he says it's going to be a long time before I can come out, but he doesn't really sound that mad. I think he thinks it's funny. Yeah, he's talking to mom, I can hear them laughing about something.

July 13
Hey again, my dad still won't let me go anywhere. He's being lame, he can't prove that I did anything bad. He says that it's "justice," and "I'm getting what I deserve." When I told him that it wasn't fair, he just kept saying that his case is "airtight." Then he told me I could get a lawyer if I wanted to. I don't know why he thinks this is so funny, he's just being a jerk.

July 14
Today dad brought a big box that said "evidence" into my room to show me. He pulled out a few photo albums and an old dvd player and a dvd with my name on it and a camera. The video was me when I was three years old. He kept showing the part where I was running around without any pants and mom running after me yelling "he peed all over it, it's ruined! it's ruined!" The photos showed this smeared painting that I guess I messed up. Dad told me it was a gift someone gave us, and since it was a painting of a tree, I thought it would be alright to pee on it. Then he showed me a picture of an old couch with permanent marker scribbled all over it. He said "that was white leather, there was no way to get the Sharpie off of it." There were a few more pictures of broken dishes and more scribbling. then he pulled out the camera, "you used a nail to scratch the lens, then you got the lens off and poked the shutter about a hundred times," he said. Then he told me that it is pointless to yell at a three-year-old, they just cry and you end up feeling sorry for them. I guess he was saving the punishment until I was old enough to appreciate it. He left the box in my room and told me I could go over to my friend's house, after I apologized to mom for the couch.

July 15
Wow, I have been writing in here a lot, oh well. Today I found a box in the garage that has my name on it and says "evidence, four years old." I tried to look in it, but it has a lock. I hid it under my bed.

No Comment

2008-03-26T13:41:00.000-06:00

The not so distant future

2008-03-17T20:15:00.006-06:00

Gary 2.0

Gary is a high-school senior, class of 2058, living in suburban northern California with his parents. Gary is an above-average student with a gift for mathematical theory and musical composition, as well as a four-year letterman with the ballroom dance team. Gary is a likable guy with several close friends, but has become a little withdrawn in the passing months. Seeming to always have deadline to meet, he often opts-out of social events with lines like,"I have so much studying to do, or "if I don't get this assignment done my tutor will kill me." These platitudes are often accepted and dismissed without question, as many of Gary's peers have also been consumed by the ever-increasing competitiveness of getting into college. But something is different about Gary, something that he has been aware of for most of his life and is just beginning to explore openly.

int. small, modest living room- early evening.

Seated on the couch and facing recliner are the SMITH family, husband and wife, GARY Sr and DANIELLE, in their mid-50s, and GARY SMITH Jr, 18-year-old high-school senior, respectively.

GARY JR
(Nervous, but feigning confidence)
Mom, Dad, I'm a robo.

There is a long pause, both parties shift uncomfortably in their seats

GARY SR

(has been expecting this, but is not prepared for the shock of hearing the words come out of his son's mouth)

Junior, you know we will always love you, but you will have to give us some time to come to terms with this.

DANIELLE
(tears in eyes, but holding back emotion)
We love you gar-bear.

Gary is among a growing number of Americans who are known as "Robos," or, "Robosexuals;" a person who is sexually attracted to robots. With the evolution of artificial-intelligence at the beginning of the 21st century, computers, software, and robots have stepped into roles as functioning members of society rather than remedial task aides.

Gary, at a young age, found his mind wandering to the events of his beginning piano lessons, not to the material, but to his instructor. Ivory.PI, a piano-teaching robot, was hired by his parents when Gary was only five years old. He was mesmerized by the precise efficiency of Ivory.PI, and would find himself seeking out the company of robots like this one. In middle-school, Gary was befriended by DeepBlu2, the software design teacher and chess club supervisor. His parents had worried that the time Gary spent with DeepBlu2 was more extensive than needed by the young chess prodigy. But it wasn't until high school, when Gary had started working with iFox.trt, the ballroom-dance team coach, that Gary realized that he preferred the company of these micro-processing companions. He was drawn to the unfettered precision and goal-oriented personalities, the, literally, programmable interests, and the download-and-printable agendas of these mechanical (sometimes human-like) partners.

The story follows Gary as he copes with the prejudice of living such a lifestyle; a lifestyle wrought with attacks both verbal and, in some cases, physical. Gary patiently endures the usual taunts of "USB port," "server," or the most widely used (the prediction of this euphemism prompted Steve Jobs to distance his company from this term:), "firewire." But is only a passive member of the robosexual society until his love interest, iFox.trt, is dismantled as punishment for "inappropriate software-student relations."
Gary must fight to prove that iFox.trt was more than a program, and searches for the, now recluse, programmer of the robot.
It is a coming-of-age love story; a science (but too close to home) fiction thriller with a moral twist so shocking, you will forget whose side you are on.

All which leads nicely to the natural sequel:

Bridgette 3.1.6

Bridgette, a high-school senior class of 2108, is about to say the bravest thing she has ever said:

BRIDGETTE
Mom, RobotDad, I'm in love with a boy.

Sebastien

2008-01-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.sebastiengrainger.net/MUSIC/americannames.mp3
http://www.sebastiengrainger.net/MUSIC/imallrage
http://www.sebastiengrainger.net/MUSIC/lovecanbesomean.mp3
http://www.sebastiengrainger.net/MUSIC/whenyougoout.mp3
http://www.sebastiengrainger.net/MUSIC/whenyougooutremix.mp3