I, Robot! (Experiences of an Outsider)

Do you know what No.3 is? Do you know what a Robot is?

When I go to order my food (No. 3: chicken and vegetables with rice; you can opt for either salad or kimchi.) at the Korean Eatery near my workplace, the three questions I eventually face are: 1) Which number?, 2) For here or to go?, and 3) Salad or kimchi?....and rest assured, I face the same questions, though I always reply with, "3 please" to Q1, "here" for Q2, and "neither" for Q3, and although I've been going to the same place at least two times a week for over eleven months now. I cannot decide if I would ever meet another, better example of a human robot.

The same applies when the girl at the liquor shop looks at my face to decide if I'm older than the stipulated 21, and satisfied decides to give me the beers or the wine and I say jokingly, "Maybe I'm younger." at which point she replies, "Then I have to see your ID." And mind you, I played the same joke with her about half a dozen times over less than a dozen months!

And then the other day my friend in Texas told me about his plight when he went to the nearby fast food joint and was asked, "for here or to go?" after he ordered 11 burgers! Thank heavens, I never get 11 friends home at a time.

(Not to mention the way I feel when I mention that I like a particular child actress very much, to be encountered with the exclamatory, "But she's just a small girl!!". What they imply perhaps is that I'm a paedophile!)

Everyone working in a shop programmed to ask certain questions, interpret things in a certain way!!

I, Robot? Or, We, Robots!
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