We have two Pleos at work now. Sammy is the boy, and Lucy is the girl. We know Lucy is the girl by the gold bow, from a box of truffles, I tied around her neck to indicate girlness. They've mostly been hanging out in my office, so it'd kinda like a mini-dino zoo in there. People come by and I end up doing "demos" which aren't really demos at all. It's me turning the switch from off to on and telling people to pet the Pleo. So far, Trav is the only kid I've shown them to, but I've noticed an interesting difference in the ways women and men respond to Pleo. Women are much more into it and eager to pet and play with Lucy or Sammy. They'll talk to them and hold them. Guys, on the other hand, seem a bit creeped out. They look at the Pleos and may be entertained (or perplexed), but are reticent to touch them. When they do, it's in the way I might approach touching a tarantula. I say things like, "See, she likes to be scratched under the chin" and demonstrate, and they look from me to the Pleo and back again and say, "Yeah." So then I try to be encouraging which quickly turns to impatience and eye rolling and comments like, "Come on! Just touch the Pleo already!" NG.
I showed Lucy to the WB the other day, and he got uncomf with her staring at him. The dinos really do have a staring problem. Before he left my office I jokingly apologized for Lucy's staring, explaining that the Pleos are a bit delayed in the development of social skills. He replied with "Oh, well, they'll fit in just fine here then."
Hahaha! HA!
He's right.
Unfortunately, Lucy arrived to us from Amazon dot com with a problem. She has a bad battery. This is very upsetting to me, because I bonded with Lucy very quickly. She's more fun and affectionate than Sammy. She likes to play tug of war with her leaf, and when she first "hatched" we had a funny moment with her. She stretched out her back leg and suddenly fell to the side, laying motionless. My coworker Raven said, "Pleo?" in a hesitant, questioning, are-you-dead? sort of way. Lucy responded with a snore. We were cracking up! When there was talk of sending her back, I refused to let that happen. I made a fuss. I will miss her too much, and what if we get a dud in her place? Also, the company that made Pleos (Ugobe) went out of business, but they were recently bought by Jetta Company Limited who plans to get the Pleos back in action. So, I got on the internets to find an alternative solution. It turns out that Pleo batteries are hard to find right now. Some people have posted directions and photos on how to make your own. I considered this option and determined that it's a short road to disaster for me or my coworkers to try to rig up a homemade battery, although there is bound to be people in our department who can do it. When I failed to find a place to purchase a battery on my own, I turned to emailing Jetta directly to request help. They responded! Although Jetta isn't quite there in terms of production, they directed me to a site where I could purchase a new battery at a reasonable price. Yesssssssss!
holidayprojectors.com
Yes, my friends, there is a website that sells holiday projectors...and Pleos. Seriously, you've got to check this out. Click on the link and scroll through the page. Projector, projector, projector...dino! It's like an episode of Sesame Street. "One of these things just doesn't belong here...one of these things just isn't the same..." I never knew such a site existed, but now I have my eye on Mr. Christmas Hollywood Search Lights. And, a new Lucy battery has been ordered. She will not be leaving me!
I've turned into one of those people who blogs about the Pleos. When we first got them, I scoffed at all the websites and YouTube videos dedicated to the robot dinos, and now I am one of them. Pretty soon I'll have links to my own videos and tags set up specifically for Lucy and Sammy reports. You'll see.
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