A commute to live by

It's a map season (if you spotted the blog on remote maps last week).

Actually, I'm writing about commuting today. I'm not a commuter anymore but sometimes there is regular driving to a client's site. When that involves Dallas traffic, the strategy is to start early, tune the radio to Weather & Traffic on the 8s, and prepare to abandon the freeway.

I have a particular route across the DFW Metroplex that is actually 3 routes. Depending on clogs on the freeway, I have pathways "mapped" in my mind and on the car's GPS uint, too, so that I can adjust between the extreme 35 minute trip (granted that happened only once, on a Saturday morning) and the horrendous 2-hour trip (which has happened several times). On a good day, the drive takes 55 minutes. On an average day it takes 65 to 70 minutes.

And then there's the industrial route. It's very relaxing. I start with only 12 minutes on my neighborhood highway and then I exit for the little-known airport cut-across, to the north industrial neighborhood, which leads to a southward stretch of about 4 miles with stoplights, and then turns into a relaxing boulevard drive across a couple of towns' industrial warehouses with few cars on the road. Speed is 45 mph (the hybrid loves it) but with areas of stoplights that slow the trip. But the longest stoplight line I have ever been in is 10 cars and trucks. That's no exaggeration. The typical line is 2. Or 3. Did I mention there is no stress whatsoever?

What price do I pay for my industrial commute? Drive time is always at least 75 minutes. It can stretch to 80 minutes. Did I mention there is no stress whatsoever....

© 2009 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Personal Technology: InstaMapper-ing

Katy Bold gets the credit for discovering this tool (free from the web) although I think she was taken aback by the intensity of my reaction and my insistence that "I want it all—web and mobile—and I want it on Tom's phone, too!"

InstaMapper permits tracking a cooperative trackee with a GPS-enabled cell phone, producing an informational screen for the tracker viewing on the web (with option for mobile version for viewing on an Internet-equipped cell phone). The information includes map, coordinates, altitude, and speed of movement.

The system requires cooperation. The trackee must make an update click, and the tracker must refresh the web page display. Does it work? Exceedingly well. (The tracking can also be embedded on a web page or blog with nearly-constant updating.)

Did we use it? We did. As Katy drove halfway across the country she occasionally updated (her click) and I obsessively refreshed (my click). On that day, I was on site working for a client and I showed the display to colleagues. They happened to be women with offspring ranging from teenage to adulthood. Most of them wrote down the name of the application. I breezily commented that I like the system because it operates on cooperation: my grown daughter was voluntarily sharing information with me and I could read a lot into speed of 70 versus speed of 0.

A colleague stopped me, "You can tell how fast she's driving?" Well, yes, that's one of the results. And I repeated that I don't feel as though I'm invading my daughter's privacy. And this colleague said, "My daughter is 16. I don't care about privacy." Another colleague formed a plan: "My husband. You have no idea how often he gets lost and calls me to read a map to him."

© 2009 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Virtual Birthday

Virtual events come by many names. A young friend recently reminded me of when the virtual becomes F2F, however. That's when you have a LAN party at your house and your friends bring their computers for F2F interaction in addition to simultaneous online gaming.

I once planned a political non-dinner because some events prevented the real thing. I printed up a whole menu (featuring baked chicken, of course) with the usual payment stub. The campaign raised some thousands of dollars, remarkably as this was back in the early '70s.

In the years since I've seen similar technique but the Internet and cell phone photography really bring the whole exercise to everyone. So, the photo here is fried ice cream at the local Cristina's. Virtual for the birthday celebrant in California. Very real for the family members in Texas.

Should have saved this for Personal Technology on Friday, of course.

© 2009 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Cozumel Ruins

The pre-Columbian Mayan ruins at the center of Cozumel island (Mexico) are not large. Pretty, but not large. The grander sort are gone. They were bulldozed in WW2 to create an airstrip.

The ruins we visited are protected in a park. We spent about an hour walking around the 18 monuments. That was our excursion on the one day in port for our practice cruise.

We traveled from Galveston to Cozumel (and back) on the Carnival Ecstasy. We were not much suited to the party atmosphere but we learned what we needed to learn before planning longer trips. (I napped and slept very well. Tom Bold was bored. I need cheaper Internet access.)

A reader asked if Sherman had practiced something, too, because of this trip. It was his first time without either me or Tom at the house. He became attached to his dog-sitter over the 5 days. Had we given him a full practice experience it would have been at a kennel. We are actually scouting out the local options for that experiment.

© 2009 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.