GPS blog article... read it tongue-in-cheek

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JBloggs

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"Pull over you are making me sick!"
If you hear this from your GPS it may be time to consult a map.
If you hear this from your GPS it may be time to consult a map. Have you considered checking a map prior to your trip just to double check the route? Just to get an approximate idea of where the heck you are going? Or if the Innkeeper gives you basic directions and it takes you 8 hours to travel 60 miles, would it be map-worthy at that point?
I will be snide here in my comments, snide and yet somehow humorous as I portray the current GPS aficionado.
Early on when a GPS or SATNAV were used in marine applications, the owner basically had to understand how they worked and have a gist on how to use them. They were not simple machines, with street maps, they were coordinates. Yes, say that after me “Coe-orr-din-its.”
Then there was the GPS/SATNAV that came out for the consumer, so they were considered a high tech gadget, again, those technically minded folks (some might call Geeks) could work out how to use them, they were exciting new tools for their toolbox!
Now we have the AARP BIG SCREEN models with a sultry voice telling the driver who can barely hear to “Turn Left Baby.” Gone are the days of the naggagator, now there are no stops along the way, affirming the old saying “She with the smallest bladder does not, under any circumstances, call the stops.” So they drive on and on over field over dale with full bladders, hunger headaches …sure there is a highway with a simple route from point A to point B, but the sultry lady tells you to “Turn left in 100 feet big daddy” so the driver presses on if only to please his digital mama.
Meanwhile back at the farm, so to speak, the innkeepers were up at 6am preparing breakfast, and had a full day of continuous work around the inn. They clearly state check-in time is between 4 and 6PM. Guests driving 60 miles arrive at 10PM. They arrive to a self check-in note with their name on the door. “Sheesh the gall of some people!” they mutter as they enter the inn, slamming the door, banging their heavy luggage all the way up the stairs waking up all the other five rooms of guests.
Tomorrow is another day, sigh the innkeepers trying to sleep in their quarters…coffee will be ready at 6AM with a smile.
 
Not so tongue in cheek:
I was talking to a friend the other day about GPS units. She owns a B&B and she regularly has guests who call saying they are lost. She provides directions right to her parking area and can never figure out why guests are calling from towns miles away.
Well, in conversation it came to us...GPS units are making people stupid. Geographically inept. Yeah, yeah, I know we all said that about calculators and how kids can't do math in their heads anymore (well, they can't, can they?) but how they could do so much more advanced math now that they had calculators.
Give this some time to sink in. Kids who can't do math in their heads but can do advanced calculus because they have calculators. Could you do advanced calculus without a calculator? I bet you could in high school and college. With the calculator, you just plug in the right formula and away you go. Sure, you have to know the right formula but do you 'check your math' to be sure the answer is probable when you use a calculator?
So, if that analogy holds true, it means GPS users can find their way to the North Pole but they won't have a clue how they got there. And, if they totally rely on the GPS, they won't realize they are actually in the wrong location when an Emperor penguin sidles up to the car. Penguins MUST be at the North Pole because that's where the GPS says I am.
I'm an old school map gal myself. (Oh, you guessed that already, didn't you?) I like to see the lay of the land. Like to know my options. If I wander aimlessly off, I want to be able to wander aimlessly back again. It helps that I was born with the 'geographic' gene. The one that allows you to land pretty much anywhere and, with map in hand, find your way to pretty much anywhere else. And, once found, allows you to wander back to point A by a completely different route.
I'm a 'landmarker.' A person who studies landmarks. And not necessarily important ones. I look at houses, mailboxes, trees, garden gnomes, odd signs, shops, restaurants, etc. And I remember them. Sometimes, I even turn around to see what everything looks like from the other direction.
When your GPS unit is telling you, 'You have arrived at your destination,' and you're in the middle of a bridge when you wanted a movie theater, keep in mind that you probably drove right past the movie theater but you weren't paying attention. Because the GPS would get you there.
Construction traffic got a road blocked off and the GPS insists you turn into a crater in the road? Get out a map. Learn how to 'landmark.' You may think the GPS is helping you arrive unfrazzled at your destination, but you're missing the point. The point is to look around, get to know where you are. What's your position in space? If you remember passing a wonderful (fill in the blank) how will you find it again with a GPS if you don't know exactly where/what it is so you can tell the GPS where to take you?
Let's spend more time wandering aimlessly instead of just 'getting there.' We're all going to the same place in the end anyway, it's the journey there that's the adventure.
 
Not so tongue in cheek:
I was talking to a friend the other day about GPS units. She owns a B&B and she regularly has guests who call saying they are lost. She provides directions right to her parking area and can never figure out why guests are calling from towns miles away.
Well, in conversation it came to us...GPS units are making people stupid. Geographically inept. Yeah, yeah, I know we all said that about calculators and how kids can't do math in their heads anymore (well, they can't, can they?) but how they could do so much more advanced math now that they had calculators.
Give this some time to sink in. Kids who can't do math in their heads but can do advanced calculus because they have calculators. Could you do advanced calculus without a calculator? I bet you could in high school and college. With the calculator, you just plug in the right formula and away you go. Sure, you have to know the right formula but do you 'check your math' to be sure the answer is probable when you use a calculator?
So, if that analogy holds true, it means GPS users can find their way to the North Pole but they won't have a clue how they got there. And, if they totally rely on the GPS, they won't realize they are actually in the wrong location when an Emperor penguin sidles up to the car. Penguins MUST be at the North Pole because that's where the GPS says I am.
I'm an old school map gal myself. (Oh, you guessed that already, didn't you?) I like to see the lay of the land. Like to know my options. If I wander aimlessly off, I want to be able to wander aimlessly back again. It helps that I was born with the 'geographic' gene. The one that allows you to land pretty much anywhere and, with map in hand, find your way to pretty much anywhere else. And, once found, allows you to wander back to point A by a completely different route.
I'm a 'landmarker.' A person who studies landmarks. And not necessarily important ones. I look at houses, mailboxes, trees, garden gnomes, odd signs, shops, restaurants, etc. And I remember them. Sometimes, I even turn around to see what everything looks like from the other direction.
When your GPS unit is telling you, 'You have arrived at your destination,' and you're in the middle of a bridge when you wanted a movie theater, keep in mind that you probably drove right past the movie theater but you weren't paying attention. Because the GPS would get you there.
Construction traffic got a road blocked off and the GPS insists you turn into a crater in the road? Get out a map. Learn how to 'landmark.' You may think the GPS is helping you arrive unfrazzled at your destination, but you're missing the point. The point is to look around, get to know where you are. What's your position in space? If you remember passing a wonderful (fill in the blank) how will you find it again with a GPS if you don't know exactly where/what it is so you can tell the GPS where to take you?
Let's spend more time wandering aimlessly instead of just 'getting there.' We're all going to the same place in the end anyway, it's the journey there that's the adventure..
Morticia said:
Well, in conversation it came to us...GPS units are making people stupid. Geographically inept.
Cell phones and speed dial, too. No one knows phone numbers any more - you just push the right button and it goes through. I couldn't tell you my sister's cell phone number if my life depended on it, since I only call it from my own cell phone. But I still remember my college boyfriend's fraternity's phone number.
 
Not so tongue in cheek:
I was talking to a friend the other day about GPS units. She owns a B&B and she regularly has guests who call saying they are lost. She provides directions right to her parking area and can never figure out why guests are calling from towns miles away.
Well, in conversation it came to us...GPS units are making people stupid. Geographically inept. Yeah, yeah, I know we all said that about calculators and how kids can't do math in their heads anymore (well, they can't, can they?) but how they could do so much more advanced math now that they had calculators.
Give this some time to sink in. Kids who can't do math in their heads but can do advanced calculus because they have calculators. Could you do advanced calculus without a calculator? I bet you could in high school and college. With the calculator, you just plug in the right formula and away you go. Sure, you have to know the right formula but do you 'check your math' to be sure the answer is probable when you use a calculator?
So, if that analogy holds true, it means GPS users can find their way to the North Pole but they won't have a clue how they got there. And, if they totally rely on the GPS, they won't realize they are actually in the wrong location when an Emperor penguin sidles up to the car. Penguins MUST be at the North Pole because that's where the GPS says I am.
I'm an old school map gal myself. (Oh, you guessed that already, didn't you?) I like to see the lay of the land. Like to know my options. If I wander aimlessly off, I want to be able to wander aimlessly back again. It helps that I was born with the 'geographic' gene. The one that allows you to land pretty much anywhere and, with map in hand, find your way to pretty much anywhere else. And, once found, allows you to wander back to point A by a completely different route.
I'm a 'landmarker.' A person who studies landmarks. And not necessarily important ones. I look at houses, mailboxes, trees, garden gnomes, odd signs, shops, restaurants, etc. And I remember them. Sometimes, I even turn around to see what everything looks like from the other direction.
When your GPS unit is telling you, 'You have arrived at your destination,' and you're in the middle of a bridge when you wanted a movie theater, keep in mind that you probably drove right past the movie theater but you weren't paying attention. Because the GPS would get you there.
Construction traffic got a road blocked off and the GPS insists you turn into a crater in the road? Get out a map. Learn how to 'landmark.' You may think the GPS is helping you arrive unfrazzled at your destination, but you're missing the point. The point is to look around, get to know where you are. What's your position in space? If you remember passing a wonderful (fill in the blank) how will you find it again with a GPS if you don't know exactly where/what it is so you can tell the GPS where to take you?
Let's spend more time wandering aimlessly instead of just 'getting there.' We're all going to the same place in the end anyway, it's the journey there that's the adventure..
Absolutely! I have a love-hate relationship with my own GPS. I love that it may tell me how to get somewhere, but I HATE that I can't easily have it give me good options for getting there. I too am a map person. I love knowing what's in the vicinity, and maybe I'll alter my route to find mid-points along my way. But I find that hard to do on a GPS. (I always suspect that I just don't understand how to use my gps to its ultimate).
On the other hand (there is always an other hand, right?) I love it when a guest calls me to say they're going to be a little bit late because the GPS says they're 40 minutes away. In my own situation, I can pretty much know if the GPS says 40 minutes, they'll be here within 45 unless they're complete ninnies.
 
Not so tongue in cheek:
I was talking to a friend the other day about GPS units. She owns a B&B and she regularly has guests who call saying they are lost. She provides directions right to her parking area and can never figure out why guests are calling from towns miles away.
Well, in conversation it came to us...GPS units are making people stupid. Geographically inept. Yeah, yeah, I know we all said that about calculators and how kids can't do math in their heads anymore (well, they can't, can they?) but how they could do so much more advanced math now that they had calculators.
Give this some time to sink in. Kids who can't do math in their heads but can do advanced calculus because they have calculators. Could you do advanced calculus without a calculator? I bet you could in high school and college. With the calculator, you just plug in the right formula and away you go. Sure, you have to know the right formula but do you 'check your math' to be sure the answer is probable when you use a calculator?
So, if that analogy holds true, it means GPS users can find their way to the North Pole but they won't have a clue how they got there. And, if they totally rely on the GPS, they won't realize they are actually in the wrong location when an Emperor penguin sidles up to the car. Penguins MUST be at the North Pole because that's where the GPS says I am.
I'm an old school map gal myself. (Oh, you guessed that already, didn't you?) I like to see the lay of the land. Like to know my options. If I wander aimlessly off, I want to be able to wander aimlessly back again. It helps that I was born with the 'geographic' gene. The one that allows you to land pretty much anywhere and, with map in hand, find your way to pretty much anywhere else. And, once found, allows you to wander back to point A by a completely different route.
I'm a 'landmarker.' A person who studies landmarks. And not necessarily important ones. I look at houses, mailboxes, trees, garden gnomes, odd signs, shops, restaurants, etc. And I remember them. Sometimes, I even turn around to see what everything looks like from the other direction.
When your GPS unit is telling you, 'You have arrived at your destination,' and you're in the middle of a bridge when you wanted a movie theater, keep in mind that you probably drove right past the movie theater but you weren't paying attention. Because the GPS would get you there.
Construction traffic got a road blocked off and the GPS insists you turn into a crater in the road? Get out a map. Learn how to 'landmark.' You may think the GPS is helping you arrive unfrazzled at your destination, but you're missing the point. The point is to look around, get to know where you are. What's your position in space? If you remember passing a wonderful (fill in the blank) how will you find it again with a GPS if you don't know exactly where/what it is so you can tell the GPS where to take you?
Let's spend more time wandering aimlessly instead of just 'getting there.' We're all going to the same place in the end anyway, it's the journey there that's the adventure..
Morticia said:
Well, in conversation it came to us...GPS units are making people stupid. Geographically inept.
Cell phones and speed dial, too. No one knows phone numbers any more - you just push the right button and it goes through. I couldn't tell you my sister's cell phone number if my life depended on it, since I only call it from my own cell phone. But I still remember my college boyfriend's fraternity's phone number.
.
I had the cellphone with me the past couple of days...I still dialed every number I knew. Some numbers I don't have memorized because I don't usually call them, which left me in a pickle when I realized the number for my daughter that was programmed into the phone was not the correct number. No one had her correct number in any of the 3 phones we had in the car with us. I had to call her brother and he only had her home number which was disconnected after they moved.
Emailing her worked, tho, so I guess I'm glad she has the new iPhone.
 
A 6pm check in arrived at 1130PM last night.
poke.gif

"COMPLETE NINNIES" YES! THERE YA GO! 40 minutes is not 40 minutes...Should be, yes, it never is. Used to be, I liked that they knew, now these "new breed" being the "old breed" of GPS User don't have a clue.
 
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