Diving, rollerblading, book collecting.. I was ticking off my hobbies with my fingers and toes to Wenjie, who was keeping me company despite the 6 hours time difference and triple visions of the monitor. All for a starbucks coffee.
“Have you heard about Mindstorms?”
Thinking that it was another of those rpg computer thingy, “Mindstorms? I have not heard about it yet. WHat is it about?”
“It is not a computer game, it is something from Lego.”
Oh, Lego. The joys of my childhood and my parents. Images of colourful blocks flashed across my mind. I vaguely remembered my father carrying a large box, wrapped in bits of colourful paper. “Your birthday present!” “Mine mine!” My eyes were as large as saucers and I stretched out my arms for it. Anything that was wrapped up, I would be interested in it. I spent the next few minutes, thrashing the carefully wrapped box, mutated bits of paper all around me. At the end of the project, a large white box with colourful pictures of blocky figures sat among the mountain of torn paper. Different blocks of colourful plastic pieces could be seen where parts of the box were plastic. “Oooh!” I reached for the blocks and promptly poked a hole through the cover. My father reached for my little hand and placed it at the box opening. Prompted by the action, I pulled the top of the box apart. Rows and rows of shiny blocks sat uniformly in the plastic dishes. Father pulled out a little booklet from the bottom of the case and pointed to a little car. Within a few seconds, a spiffy little car sat in front of me. I hate people doing things for me. In the next minute, the car was back in its elements. Flipping the little booklet, I peered at the little figures. By the way, I was a bookworm and still am. Anything that is found in a book, catches my attention. I decided to embark on the most difficult project – a neat little bungalow. As usual, I liked the most provocative task, and still do. I embarked on the mission immediately, that took a few days, sitting among the little blocks. My parents were relieved for the next few days, as I had been the biggest challenge in their marriage. I was kept quiet by lego. I completed the little house, for throughout that time, I could only think lego, sleep lego, eat lego. Within the next week, I finished every single item in the booklet and embarked upon other challenging projects. Lego kept me quiet for one whole month, the most successful toy ever.
“Ah yes, what about lego?”
“You can make robots from this set and even program it to do some simple tasks. Have you ever heard of the Aibo?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course!!”
“Well, a guy managed to make a robot, even more intelligent than Aibo all from lego blocks.”
“SERIOUS! I love legos!! And a lego robot?! THat sounds absolutely cool!!”
“Yep, I just splurged 400 bucks on one.”
“So what can your robot do now?”
“Erm… just making a few turns.”
“I thought you said, it can be more intelligent than the Aibo, why is yours only making a few turns!”
“Give me some time! I just bought the thing and am still learning how to intelligentise it!”
“Is there such a word! Oh great! I think I will get one when I get back to SIngapore. I don’t think I want to buy it here, not too interested in a German robot. Ok, when I get mine, let us compete on whose lego robot is smarter!” (Arh! My competitive streak again! )
“Ok, that is, if you get back! You still owe me a Starbucks coffee!”
” Hey! Good idea! Why not, let’s go to Starbucks and you bring your robot along and let me play with it, while you drink your coffee!”
In a pained voice, “We shall see…….”
“=p”
Took out my hobbies list, scratched another hobby at number 100.
