Automating Sibling Rivalry
October 3, 2012
In my house growing up, automation took sibling rivalry to a whole new level - from an all-out immature brawl, to an intelligent, though probably still immature, battle of strategy and wits. I don't remember how the fight started (who does?) but the bottom line was we were fighting and we were going to make each other miserable as a result.
My opening move was to turn the TV off on my brother, so I went to the touch screen in my room, and turned off the TV in the family room where he was watching. He at first assumed it was just a power outage or something and turned the TV back on, and I promptly turned it off. After two or three go-rounds, he figured out my game and began his own attack. He turned the lights off in my room, child's play really, so I turned on the home shopping network for him. He then blasted Backstreet Boys in my room at 80% of the volume. Every time I turned the TV off or changed the channel on him, the volume in my room went up. I turned the volume on the TV up to max and he ramped the music in my room to 100% - at that point everyone else in the house came charging towards us yelling and furious.
We were banished to our rooms and sent to bed - no music, no TV, couldn't even turn on our lights due to some adjustments my dad made to our system. Unfortunately that was not the last time the "isolation scene" was used.
My opening move was to turn the TV off on my brother, so I went to the touch screen in my room, and turned off the TV in the family room where he was watching. He at first assumed it was just a power outage or something and turned the TV back on, and I promptly turned it off. After two or three go-rounds, he figured out my game and began his own attack. He turned the lights off in my room, child's play really, so I turned on the home shopping network for him. He then blasted Backstreet Boys in my room at 80% of the volume. Every time I turned the TV off or changed the channel on him, the volume in my room went up. I turned the volume on the TV up to max and he ramped the music in my room to 100% - at that point everyone else in the house came charging towards us yelling and furious.
We were banished to our rooms and sent to bed - no music, no TV, couldn't even turn on our lights due to some adjustments my dad made to our system. Unfortunately that was not the last time the "isolation scene" was used.