I have reduced my stress level, extended my life, prolonged my marriage and fallen in love and all in one day. By now you might have guessed that I bought a GPS. The Tom Tom One to be exact. Sure there was some controversy over which brand to get but my brother George steered me right. He said the Garmin’s were cool and all user-friendly but the update ease might not be totally there. With the Tom Tom you get the update capability but it takes a little more to manure around in the guts of the machine. But really there is one feature I wanted. My mom. To be accurate, what I wanted was my mom’s voice. I guess my brother was able to get her voice onto some server somewhere and I should be able to upload it to my Tom Tom. I haven’t done this yet but I am definitely going to try soon.
Now I wasn’t a big believer in these devices. My brother’s “Mr. T” talking GPS had given me some bad directions before (“Left turn, fool!” “Don’t give me no jibber jabber!”) and I didn’t like the idea of relying solely on the machine. But I am truly sold now. “Victoria” (our name for the machine because of the stock English woman’s voice) has removed the need for the navigator to poor over maps and iphones and printed Mapquest readouts. She guides us through the tough road transitions with style, panache’ and without EVER raising her voice. Elizabeth says she is the only woman from whom I will willingly take direction. Maybe so. She may the only person from whom I will take direction.
Elizabeth says, "I might be slightly jealous..."There is a draw-back, for sure. When you rely on the GPS you actually have no idea where you are. Yes you reach your destination without worry or concern. You even know when you will arrive. But you have no idea how you got there. It is like constantly being driven around by a friend in a strange town. You always get where you need to go but could never get back there again.
I recommend a little analog reference every now and then but I am sticking with my new love: Victoria.
A portrait of my love
Random Cute picture of my daughter
3 comments:
I truly enjoy your blog. Here's a request: Can you include Vicotoria's voice then your mom's voice so we can compare? Thanks for considering this request.
Drive safely.
Here's the "Blossom" voice for your TomTom:
http://www.fatmanandcircuitgirl.com/groups/fmandcg/wiki/0d953/Our_Show_and_Projects.html
Just go to "and here's my mom's voice" and follow instructions.
It's as easy as downloading a photo. So do it.
I am giving my traveling 'rents a break by not saying how GPS is turning humans into stupid people who can't find their way out of their own neighborhoods. Raising up a young one is hard enough without fussing about which exit to take in a strange city. And you guys hit some strange parts of the US, so GPS away!!! I had a weird experience in NYC with GPS trying to get to a show in Brooklyn and we ended up after following their directions on a dead end street in "da ghetto" and needed to go with a conventional map to get to our destination. So don't throw away those Rand McNallys yet!!
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