Yesterday I published an article about a bomb-disposal robot that 'died' in an explosion in Iraq. Among the commenters was fellow (albeit very intermittent) blogger 'Raven Prometheus', writing at Ruminations Of The Raven-Wolf. He said:
I, personally, have lost 4 bots like that. 4 times that my wife wasn't a widow and my kids weren't orphans. As far as anthropomorphizing them, we named them, noticed and recorded their "personalities", and kept track of their service numbers after we passed them on to replacing teams. One time my team member and I married two of them together (it's a long story), and were caught during the ceremony. It did end up getting us both a 4 day pass to Qatar...
That sounds like a heck of a story! I want to hear more - particularly about that robot honeymoon!
Intrigued by his comment, I wandered over to his blog and read through his archives. I thoroughly enjoyed his tale of the deodorant grenade. Here's an excerpt.
This was just an idea that a friend of mine (the clerk in the story) and I came up with one night at a Magic tournament when she, a few others that believe strongly in personal hygene, and I had taken a fresh air break outside. She asked if I was capable of making something like that, and I said "Sure!" and got an evil look in my eye, the one I call my "Bomb Techs Gone Wild Look". I think I scared her. Anyways, it would be a handy piece of ordnance. Just like Shower-In-A-Can (patent pending), another invention idea of mine. I think it would have to be considered a WND, though, Weapon of Nastiness Destruction...
There's more at the link.
Raven Prometheus, we want more! How about it? You write 'em, we'll read 'em! I invite those of my readers who share my interest to let Raven Prometheus know in Comments to this post, and/or add a comment over at his blog.
Peter
I'll give him a call. He's been my best friend since we were kids. And yes, he has stories. Sad part is, they're far, FAR funnier when he's telling them in person. He makes funny faces and voices and everything. He truly has a gift as a storyteller, even moreso than as a writer.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me. Raven, bro, you need to at least serialize some of the fiction you've written and sent me. They're too good to just die on the vine like that.