Getting Around in L.A. with the TomTom GO 930

I don't usually don't write any kind of product endorsement, but I have fallen in love with GPS. For Father's Day, my wife and son gave me the new TomTom GO 930. Which has already proven incredibly useful, and of all things, relaxing.

For one, the Bluetooth phone hands-free feature is great, given that California has a no-talking-while-holding-phone law that went into effect on July 1st. I can't figure out how to get the Blackberry Curve voice-dial to work through the TomTom, though, so I'm trying to dial on the TomTom's touch-screen while driving, which has already left me drifting wildly across lanes.

It was especially useful on my recent trip home to Raleigh, when I drove in the city I'm not too familiar with, and back and forth to New Bern, and I have used it to figure out where to find specific businesses, like a Starbucks. Those, I suppose, are the sort of things you should take for granted in a GPS navigation unit, but I'll just add that the user interface is pretty good, too.

I think my favorite thing about the unit, in Los Angeles where I already know my way around, is that the TomTom calculates the arrival time. And the result of that isn't so much time management for me, as it is the realization that speeding, aggravation and stress while driving in L.A. are all pointless, because the TomTom does not lie. You can lane change, speed, honk, run red lights; whatever. After only a few trips, you'll notice that at the most, the TomTom grants you a minute or two in time shaved off the trip. Road rage is stress, and stress kills. So, I consider the biggest value of the GO 930 to be its zen-like technology, constantly reassuring me of my arrival time, and the stress-free, laid back listening to tunes on the radio driving experience I get, knowing that I don't have to freak out in traffic to try to get where I'm going. I'll get there safer.

If I'm not trying to dial the phone, that is.

Metro Bus Chronicles #2

Just finished a book, Then We Came To The End, and am starting another, X Saves the World. What commitment to future-gas and carbon karma is this, this riding the bus exercise? Damned if I know - I don't think it is saving me any money, I don't think I'm using up $2.50 worth of gas driving 14 miles round trip to Venice in my VW Jetta. The guy next to me smells like weed and the lady in front like Arial laundry soap, which reminds me of Paris, not Tijuana. There are those of us with iPods and those without, I notice. I can't help telling people at work that I've taken a bus. Its like leaking a dirty secret. There's just more to see at street level. The sun in the window feels good.

Ad Crap on My Daily Commute

Here's some tear-off poster outdoor advertising I saw while parked at a stop light at Palms and Centinela. The Powerade ad tears off so if you are into whatever is in the ad, you can tear it off and slap it up in your room. I'm guessing the target is either young guys who still live at home, or homeless guys who live in storage units and need some decorating (you're more likely to find the latter at this particular ad location). Interesting outdoor idea, though.