Robotics Workshop Day 1

Thanks to a tip from a friend Southern Man got a little grant to attend a robotics workshop in Atlanta, GA. So far it has been a lot of fun. We all have little Scribbler robots which are programmed in Python, a language Southern Man has not yet used but is sufficiently C-like to be an easy study. Today we got our robots connected (they talk to the PC via Bluetooth) and named and performing and tonight's homework was "teach your robot to dance." Southern Man's does the Hokey Pokey, and plays the music too.

Getting here was a strange combination of ease and inconvenience. They say block out seventy-five minutes for security - Southern Man breezed through in as many seconds. No invasive groping, no imaging scanners, just the usual walk-through metal detector and x-ray for the carry-on and shoes and such. But then we sat on the runway for three hours while the crew repaired minor mechanical problems with the jet. After finally arriving at ATL (supposedly the busiest airport on the planet) it was a short walk and $2.50 train ticket to reach the conference hotel, which is downtown right by Georgia Tech. As it turned out Southern Man arrived just in time to check in and then walk across the street to lunch and registration, so no harm done.

After the session Southern Man did a little geocaching (his first finds in GA; a couple on Tech's campus, others near the hotel) and ate chicken and ribs and drank a local pale ale at 5th Street Ribs-n-Blues and worked out in the fitness room and swam some laps and soaked in the hot tub before completing his homework. A good day. It doesn't even bother him anymore that there's no one with which to share it.