I held a yard sale earlier this year that brought in a lot of low income shoppers. I ended up giving away a lot of stuff, but in exchange, I met a bunch of really cool people. One guy kept saying, "What else you got? What else you got?"
What else I got was enough extra cash (about $200) to buy a handy little personal navigation device (PND), the Garmin Nuvi 205 GPS (Global Positioning System).
Plugged into my car's lighter socket or running on battery power alone, this little bugger has changed how I move about in the world -- every bit as much as the cellphone / mobile phone. It has also broadened my personal horizons every bit as much as my laptop, the internet and the World Wide Web.
It's handy for finding places on the fly. Or on the road. Or just about anywhere in the US or Canada. To boot, there are multiple ways and varying degrees of detail in which to read it. I can also listen to a soothing woman's voice tell me how to get where I want to go or might want to go. In all those senses, it's revolutionary in its expansiveness of possibility.
I doubt I'll ever quite look at the world in quite the same way.
If you haven't tried one, why not give it a whirl? And if you have, what else you got?
Today's Rune: Protection.
13 comments:
I stubbornly refuse to own one. I use a compass and topo map when I'm camping or canoeing, and a road atlas and printed google map when I'm driving. For some reason I just really can't get with these. Maybe it's because I'm afraid they'll be used to track me.
I hope your promotion of this technological wonder doesn't have an effect on our local printing presses - they do print maps you know. Also, two hundred bucks seems a bit steep. I think I'll pass on it, like I did satellite radio.
I have a natural navigational instinct.--JLCGULL
Lana uses maps and I use Lana.
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Man, I'm still a Luddite in the onboard navigation system department. That does look cool. I guess Google maps is not the dopest any more. :-)
Actually I have a GPS that maps all of North America. It was quite handy in giving me direction and maps until I went off the main highways. Ever try to maneuver a motor home over a mountain's curvy dirt road?
it was fun for me the driver and a veritable nail biter for the old lady ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
like bubs said, i really have refused to get one. then again, i said that about getting a cell phone. it's interesting to me how we're moving further and further away from anything printed in this century. newspapers are more and more online, cell phones and the internet have made phone books more and more obsolete, and now the good old glove box road atlas is becoming a relic also. it's star trek's world more and more, and we're just living in it...
Yard sale : AWESOME. So much fun.
You made a few hundred and have a gadgizzle to show for it? Even sweeter.
I like "Lana uses maps and I use Lana." Beautiful.
My Canadian trucker friend found his way right into out driveway using one of those. I can see how a GPS would help truckers & other, general travelers. It certainly would've helped me when I first moved to Toronto, or when I first moved to New Orleans. These days I just prefer to stay home, mostly. It's where the heart is, & all...
(BTW, Lana makes Charles navigate when she's driving, so Lana makes Charles use maps, too. ;)
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