Poor Cleaner Bot

Today after school, I found a cleaner bot choking on one of the left over basket wires  that I had accidentally left on the floor last night. I must have forgotten to pick it up this morning on my way to school.  This was strange because I almost never see the little things around, as they often do their cleaning out of sight and hide under couches and beds when humans are around.  When I was little, I used to always have fun trying to pull them out from their hiding spots as they frantically attempted to return to their dark refuges... Anyway, this poor thing had half of the length of the wire down its vacuum slot and was choking pitifully as it whirled around trying to get it’s vacuum propeller unstuck.  They are  usually able to un-jam themselves and get back to work, I let it whirl around for a while as I put down my book bag and woke up my computer.  Then as I was beginning to think about finding Gerard our Butler-Bot to see if he could help me take apart and unjam the poor cleaner bot, Gerard came floating in to investigate the noise the cleaner bot was making as it went to greater and greater lengths to try and become unstuck.  I exclaimed “Hey Gerard, I think the cleaner bot needs some help puking up the wire it tried to suck up”.  “Indeed young master”, the robot replied as he performed a laser scan of the cleaner bot, “the R42 Cleaning Unit’s suction system appears to have suffered serious damage.  I will open it and see if I can fix it immediately.”  With that statement, he swooped down upon the struggling cleaner bot and placed it under his arm like a package as he went out the door.  “Wait! Can I watch you fix that robot?” I exclaimed rushing after Gerard.  “Certainly sir, but compared to the cooker robot that you watched me and the engineer fixed last time, the internals of this cleaner robot are probably going to be quite boring... I would imagine you have homework and other more interesting things to do.”  Gerard replied. “Oh no Gerard, I really do want to see you try to fix the robot”, I replied.  So Gerard relented and let me accompany him down the stairs and into the robot docking area in the basement.  It was their central hub where all the robots came to, rest, recharge, reboot, be cleaned, and undergo necessary maintenance.  Gerard and I moved by the little queue of robots parked in stand by as they awaited orders to do routine cleaning and other tasks as specified by Gerard’s scheduling system or by special request of my family.

We then reached in the mini repair station where Gerard kept tools to fix simple problems with the house hold robots.  After shutting down the feebly struggling cleaner bot, Gerard opened its chassis and proceeded to take out it’s internal components.  When he finally took out the suction system, opened it up and extracted the wire which was tightly wrapped around one of propellers, and had broken the fins off of another fan.  Gerard gave a sigh, and intoned “Oh dear, this is not good we may need to replace this unit...”  “Replace?, what do you mean replaced?  We are not seriously going to throw the robot out just because it broke a propeller trying to do a task it was supposed to do right?”  Gerard blinked at me, and explained “Young sir, it is not only his propeller, but the driving mechanism that rotates the propeller was also over stressed, it can no longer provide adequate suction. Here I’ll show you”.  He re-assembled the cleaner robot turned it on, and then directed it to clean a little bit of dirt that had fallen off of my shoe as I had walked into the basement.  The scene was kind of pitiful...the little cleaning bot was initially over joyed to find itself free of the wire and immediately zoomed over to the clump of dirt attempting to whirl its faulty fans at full speed.  Normally it would have only taken one pass for the cleaner bot to vacuum up that clump of dirt, however 20 passes later, the clump of dirt was still sitting on the floor and the damaged cleaning bot was beeping hysterically next to it.  Gerard hovered over and gently shutdown the cleaner bot, recorded the incidence as a bug report and uploaded the cleaner bot’s logs to the company that manufactured the R42 Cleaning Unit as a bug report and dropped the machine into the recycling chute.  He then turned to me and said “I have just finished taking care of the damaged cleaning unit, and will be sending in a request to you father to order another one.  If that is all, I will escort you back to the main part of the house from which I must begin preparations for dinner and you will be free to do other things such as your homework.”  I wasn't feeling particularly hungry as I climbed those stairs, the guilt over leaving the wire on the floor for the cleaning bot to choke on was making my stomach tie itself into knots.

I Want Privacy!

I've been going to the biosphere a lot over the past few weeks.  Pretty much whenever I can, especially when my parents ask me to run errands and after school.  I go with Sissy quite a bit.  However, apparently I have been a little too obvious about my "secret" whereabouts. Today my dad grabbed a hold of me and started drilling me with questions, like where I had been going and why I am always late getting back home.  He also said he's seen Sissy in my car and thinks we might be doing things we shouldn't be doing.  He says its improper for a young girl and me to be alone driving around like we are before we've even established any kind of relationship.  I cant believe him!  He should know his own son is responsible enough and not stupid enough to do anything with a girl that would get us in trouble.  Its like the only time he interjects into my life is to criticize how I'm living my life, as if everything I do is wrong!
It also scares me to think that he wants to know where I've been going.  If he finds out about the biosphere I might never be allowed to see it again.  I may also never see Sissy again.  I don't know what infuriates me more, the fact that he's intruding on my privacy or the fact that he's close to finding out about the biosphere.

Woven Basket

I am making a basket!  While I was exploring around the biosphere Sissy mentioned that it would be great if we could have something dedicated to carrying around stuff in kind of like those baskets people use in the grocery stores.  Since were keeping our trips to the biosphere secret we can’t just put the plants and rocks we find into our back packs unless we want to clean them out thoroughly before we go home.

After browsing around in the library I found a historical anthropology book on how the Native American’s lived long ago.  In it I found a diagram of a woven wood basket that was used to gather herbs and other things.  While I don’t have strips of bark ready for weaving, I did see a recycling dumpster full of wires and rubber strips on my home from school, as trash day is not till next Monday, I think I’ll go by and salvage some on the way home from school tomorrow.

A Day in the Park

So as I had promised, I took Sissy to one of the biospheres. After picking her up from her house, we followed the map’s winding route through the maze of the city tunnels to one of the smaller biospheres near her home. When we finally got out of that dark tunnel and drove into to the sunlit garden, I saw her face break into that smile she is always wearing when we watch movies about the jungle in Biology class.

Anyway, we spent most of the day wandering around the biosphere as I showed her the many interesting plants that I had found, and the mini-fort/tree house that I had started building near the bench.

Later we ended up eating our lunch picnic style in the clearing between the bench and the fort. It was fun pretending we were picnickers from the year 2011, sitting in the middle of the long gone Piedmont park eating, chatting, and watching other people fish, play frisbee, and run.

After getting done with the make believe we ended up discussing politics the state of land management, and how we both felt our parents and the rest of society were constraining us in an unnatural mold. Jupe seems to really love this place, I am pretty sure I’ll be seeing her around here a lot more. I’m excited.

Awesome News!

Exciting news! Today I met a cute girl in my biology class named Cecilia Jupe, although she told me to call her Sissy. We got to talking and we found we had a lot in common. We both are fascinated by biology and even though it is forbidden we can’t help but imagine a world full of life other than humans and sewer rats. Our teacher informed us that plants and wildlife are dangerous, that they cause illness, rashes, itchiness, and can even be poisonous. Sissy and I both agreed that even if this is true there is something intriguing about the thought of green freshness rather than the dingy cement and colorless brick surroundings of the city, not to mention I personally haven’t seen any dangerous plants out in the biosphere, at least not like the ones made out in biology class.

Anyway I was so intrigued by this girl, I got on the Internet to blog, but before I began, some sense was telling me to look her up on blogger. It turns out she has a blog. Someone else in this mechanized city has a blog. I figured I was the only one considering blogging like this is considered strange and even disrespectful, since society sees it as being imaginative and not only considering the facts. My dad would kill me if he knew I had this blog.

She has been blogging about the same things I have as far as the city getting more and more stuffy and claustrophobic and how we are kept form expressing our creativity and imagination. I am now a follower of her blog and can’t wait to read what she posts next. Biology just got even better. Think I should show her the biosphere?

Sneaking Around

I ended up sneaking back to the biosphere today after school and did a little more exploring in the area near the bench I saw earlier. Behind the clearing, there is a wall with a tree growing up it’s face like a salamander gripping the wall.

I also came across what looked like an old school house,  take a look at this picture I took.  This is so exciting!

Secret Biosphere!

Oh my goodness. You’ll never believe what I found today! I was just driving around in my new hovercraft, my mother had asked me to pick up some groceries for her. I kind of took my time on the way back home, I was in no hurry to get back to the dungeon. I pulled out my new map and explored a little bit more. I flew past the power plant I found the other day, and I went even went a few miles further. Something green caught my eye. It was strange, I was not quite sure where I was, but it looked to be something like another abandoned power plant, yet, much, much larger. There were green plants everywhere! I had never seen anything like it. I was not sure how to approach the area. I was scared, but my curiosity took over, and I lost control. I had to explore.

I was engulfed by the lush green forest surrounding me. The verdant greenery blew me away, I had never seen anything like it! There were flowers, trees, and weeds, all the sorts of organisms that we studied in biology. Apparently they are very dangerous and hazardous, but the plants did not seem very threatening. I was careful not to touch anything, but the environment was so incredibly intriguing. Like I said, I had never seen anything like it. There was something about the area that was just different that Choketown. I could see off into the distance, there were not smoke stacks obstructing my view. The air was more crisp than I had ever imagined air could be, I wonder what kind of filters were being used! This place that I discovered was truly incredible.

I am afraid that if I tell anyone about my finding, especially my parents, they will never let me go back! It was so pretty there, and unlike anything I have ever seen. I can not even imagine not being able to go back now that I have found this place.

Exploring

Today I went out and explored some of the outskirts of Choketown. My adventure was very interesting. That map that I received for my birthday makes it really easy to get around and I love this new found freedom. I am discovering places that I never knew existed! I found an abandoned power plant just 15 minutes away from my house. It was creepy, but in an awesome way. I wonder who used to work there. Maybe it is closed because it blew up! Who knows? I hope that I can go discover new places tomorrow after school. I am so excited!

As I have been exploring, I've noticed somethings about the city I've never really noticed or thought about before.  As you leave the section of the city my family lives in, you come across a  much gloomier and dirty part of town.  The people that live here don't wear the same clothes as my family and neighbors do, theirs are dirty and torn.  They also all live very close to each other, almost on top of each other.  I don't like going around this part of town much because it scares me, but at the same time the new learning experience is intriguing.  Would you believe that none of these people have computers, or cars, or even phones.  In fact their homes look like they could fall in at any moment, not that it would matter because their roofs let the rain in anyway.   I have never known the vast differences between the rich and the poor here in Choketown.

My Hovercraft

Hi again. I’ve had my new hovercraft for about a week now, and it’s still AWESOME. I’ve gotten really good at driving around. It goes so fast! My parents have been making me run some errands for them. The errands are tedious, but I guess that’s part of the responsibility of having my own vehicle. Even though they’re taking advantage of me and my resource, I’m grateful they got it for me. This is so awesome!

Another Year in Choketown..

Today was my 16th birthday.  I got a bunch of presents some interesting some not as much.  The most notable one was my NEW HOVERCRAFT!!! Its nothing special just an old school junky Land-rover that gets up to 60 mph max, but never the less,  I am very excited.  Not only for the car but for the freedom.  I will finally be able to explore the world I’m forced to live in and feel the freedom of the wind in my hair.  Which sparks an idea, with another gift I received today.

The other gift that I was intrigued by was the strange (and frankly, kind of creepy) map from my uncle. I am not quite sure what it means, or what it is for. It certainly does not look anything like Choketown. What is stranger was the way that he gave it to me. My uncle took me off to the side and gave it to me while no one was watching. He told me not to show anyone nor tell anyone anything about it. I am so curious! Maybe it leads to some secret underground society! Or a really awesome hovercraft racetrack! (My uncle knows my parents would never let me go to a racetrack). I can not wait to check out what it leads to. If only I could figure out how to read it..

Wow, two great gifts in one day.  I am really worn out, I have not been this happy with my family in a while.  Knowing them, I was expecting a whole ton of clothes.  Or text books.. Ugh. I can’t wait to start driving around in my Landrover and figure out what that map is for. Hopefully it will get me somewhere outside the city of Choketown.

This place is horrible! If my father wasn’t the a city official, I would be out of here in a heartbeat. Although the air is filtered and cleansed of biological diseases, the city is full of smoke from all of the industrial processes.

But enough of that, today is my birthday and even though I despise this place I’m going to try to make today at least a little happier.

Oh, what a beautiful city! :(
The only thing that seems to change is the height of the buildings.
 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/New_York_City_at_night_HDR.jpg/800px-New_York_City_at_night_HDR.jpg