GPS Gives You 4 Days of Your Life Back

Study: GPS gives you four days of your life back – Source Dvice.com

This is a very interesting article about how a GPS can give you back 4 days of your life per year.  How can they make such a claim?  Because when you use a GPS to get around it can help you to avoid getting lost as well as avoiding traffic jams.  So basically you get to your destination faster, you use less gas, you waste less time and spew less carbon dioxide into the air.

I personally think that this is a true claim.  Just yesterday I printed directions from google maps to drive to a customers house to deliver some packages for Darrin, he works at a lighting store and he had to make 2 deliveries.  I went with him so we took his SUV instead of his work van because he really can’t have anyone in the van with him.  So anyway, I was telling him where to go according to the printout and we almost got lost because of the street names.  There is Stine and New Stine, we were supposed to turn left on New Stine and stay on Stine when it changes but I had him turn on Stine instead lol.  It’s very confusing.  We got all the way to the dead end and were like where the heck are we?

We ended up getting there but we could’ve gotten there sooner if Darrin had a GPS instead.

Having a GPS not only saves time, gas and the environment but it also saves money on paper and printer ink.

Everyone Deserves A Roof

I was browsing this website which features a concept design for building a little trailer home for a bicycle and one of the commenters linked this.

Everyone Deserves A Roof aka EDAR

This is meant specifically for the homeless in Los Angeles who cannot or will not go to one of the homeless shelters.  Cannot because they don’t have enough cots or will not because they are too proud or whatever reason they might have.

It’s a cart during the day that you can roll around to collect your cans and bottles for recycling or maybe even perhaps to store your belongings in then at night it’s a tent to sleep in.  If you do decide to go to the shelter you can sleep in your EDAR and have privacy instead of sleeping on a cot with everyone else.

When I was kicked out of the house by my mother when I was 17 I was homeless.  I was living place to place for short periods of time until the person I was staying with no longer wanted me there.  Eventually I had to go to a shelter in Simi Valley and stayed there for many months until the program ended for the summer.  By then I was back on my feet and renting a room in the home of a Vietnamese family.

So when I hear about something like this it makes me happy that there is something to help the homeless during the time they cannot go to the shelters.  But the issue is, where can you set it up and sleep in it without the cops opening the flap up and telling you to move somewhere else?

This is a good thing for homeless people in my opinion.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCtn_F4JCig

http://www.thenewsroom.com/mash/swf/cube.swf?a=V3571840&m=905116

Doctor Visit

I went to my regular doctor today and told him that I’m still having shoulder pain despite the steroids and muscle relaxers the RN from the Neurologist gave me.  I told him that she was going to give me a referral for another specialist but that could take weeks, months even and I just can’t suffer like this for months.  She said that I would have to see a specialist before I could get a cortisone shot.

Well, my regular doctor said if they had those x-rays they could just give me the shots there.  I called the neurologist office and asked them to send the x-rays to my doctor’s office because I’m tired of messing around.  This has been going on for too long now, 5 weeks in excruciating pain.

In the meantime he gave me a prescription for Vicodin (SWEET) and that should be ready soon.  The thing is, I’ve taken that for this pain and it doesn’t help.  Well, then again, that prescription expired on 2/09 so maybe that has something to do with it lol.

When my toenails were taken off I was in a lot more pain than this and the vicodin numbed the pain so if it works for that then it should work for this.

Sad news about my doctor though, today was his last day.  He’s moving back east and he said something about making more money so that’s good I guess.  It’s not easy working for the city in a clinic I guess, you just don’t make as much as you would’ve thought you would when you went to Medical school.  I’ll miss him and have to get used to yet another doctor.

Free Adult Buffet Meal

Today is my 1 year anniversary since I signed up with Hometown Buffet through their website.  When I signed up I got a free adult buffet meal and then I got another coupon via email on my birthday and now today I just got another coupon for a free adult buffet meal on my 1 year anniversary.

I just thought I would pass along the savings by giving you this link to sign up with the Hometown Buffet eclub.  That link was given to me in my coupon to email to people but I thought I would do better by posting the link here in my blog for you all instead.  I’m not sure what happens by allowing people to sign up with me as a reference but who knows, I might get more free coupons lol.

Tiny Bicycle-Towed House is Self Sufficient

Tiny bicycle-towed house is self-sufficient – from Dvice.com

This is awesome!  I couldn’t think of anything better for a person who is homeless.  Besides it being so claustrophobic I think I could live in this if I absolutely had to.

Of course this isn’t an ideal living space but as long as you are happy with it then that’s fine.

This guy made it “just in case Swine Flu resulted in an apocalypse that required him to be entirely self-sufficient” lol.  It was only meant for him to have shelter during Burning Man but I can see using it some other times.  For example you could go camping with this and you can move around and never have to worry about setting camp up again.

My concern is, where do you store all of your food?  I mean, food is going to make this thing too heavy to pull.  It’s still cool and I wish I had one lol.

Hypospray Is Reality

Needle-free injection systems takes a cue from air bags – from Dvice.com

This is awesome.  They finally have the Star Trek hypospray.  I don’t know what took them so long.  This will be great for diabetics who don’t really like sticking themselves everyday to get their insulin injections.

The days of sharing needles for drug users will be over too, that is if they can get one of these.  I’m not promoting it, just saying that there won’t be the risk of contamination of needles and exposing people to the AIDS virus.

Video Advertising Comes To Print Media

A Los Angeles company creates a video player that can be installed in the pages of a magazine.

This has to be the coolest thing to happen to magazines since well, the magazine.  But unfortunately the only people who are going to get this will be those who have subscribed and only New York and Los Angeles.  This will be the beginning of a new era for magazines.  It sorta reminds me of Harry Potter except that in Harry Potter the images don’t speak and it’s all over the newspaper not just in 1 page.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr8F5wWuKFs

Fresh Air Fund

Awhile back I posted a message about the Fresh Air Fund – Half Marathon.  I am happy to announce that they have raised $80,000 this summer with their NYC half marathon.

I think that’s wonderful that they were able to raise that much money to help pay for summer camp for the children.

Hey if you want to check out all the pictures you can find them online:

www.facebook.com/freshairfund
www.twitter.com/FreshAirFund
www.freshair.org/the-fresh-air-fund.aspx

Amazon Wireless

amazonwirelessAmazon has added a new service to their website called Amazon Wireless.  This is kind of neat because you can choose your wireless company, which by the way they only have 2 so far which are AT&T and Verizon Wireless, then choose a phone then choose whether you want a new individual account or if you are already part of an existing individual account or family account.

Most of the phones are only a penny and so you basically get a free phone but when you click that you already have an existing account the price may go up to about $50-$75 or more depending on the phone.  I found that certain phones you still get for just a penny with an already existing plan.

I think that’s great that they will give you a free phone if you are upgrading your cell phone but not your plan because it just makes it easier to get a new phone.  I’m sure people don’t want to upgrade because they just can’t afford to so this makes it easier.

I didn’t see any iPhones listed but I did see Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Bold.  They also have some other well known companies like Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony to name a few.

Now here is my question and I hope someone will find this via google blog search so they can answer.  I have a pre-paid cell phone with T-Mobile.  Of course they don’t offer T-Mobile yet but it says coming soon.  But when they do get T-Mobile I wonder if I can buy a new phone for my pre-paid plan with GPS and Mp3 capability.  I wonder if it would work.  I don’t need internet, I just want to be able to have the GPS and Mp3 along with being able to call people.

I currently have a Nokia 3390 cell phone pre-paid plan with T-Mobile that I’ve had since 2002.  The reason I got a pre-paid plan is for 2 reasons.  #1 being that a friend of ours in Hollywood was always driving to Malibu to visit her mom (this was 1997-1999, she passed away in 2000) and she couldn’t get reception and she was having nothing but problems but to be fair she knows that she didn’t have reception due to the mountains that she was driving through but she blamed it on the cell phone company anyway.  She insisted on getting out of her contract to go with another company and she had to pay big bucks to get out of it which was dumb because she had the same issue with another company lol.  So it’s for this very reason that Darrin forbade me, yes, I said forbade, from getting a contract.

Reason number 2 is that I have a little to no credit score since I never really established credit in my late teens.  No credit cards means bad credit score which means the cell phone companies will only give me a cell phone with the highest paid plan which makes absolutely no sense to me.  They should offer me their cheapest plan so they know they get their money every month.  Also, I’m on disability so I can’t really afford a monthly plan fee.  All I really can afford is the pre-paid because I only pay for minutes when I need them and I don’t use it that much to warrant buying a lot of minutes.

Darrin has taken over the phone though because he needs a phone at work so when he’s driving if he needs to make a call to AAA for a tow or whatever then he has a phone.  Also if he has to call 911 then he has a phone.  He usually uses it to call me at the house on his way home.  But he’s always asking me to go to map quest and tell him the directions that he writes down and I think it would be much easier if he had a GPS on the phone.

Sorry I rambled on but you have to know the full story of why I’m asking lol.  Thanks for your response in advance.

Bright House Cable Upgrade

A week ago I got in the mail a letter from our cable company “Bright House Cable” saying they are going to be making some changes to the system and to keep an eye out or something.  I don’t have it anymore and I don’t remember what it said.

Yesterday a 1-800 number called and I let the machine pick it up and it was Bright House calling.  It was a recording and I let the machine record it but before it hung up I picked up the phone to hear the rest of the message.  It said that it was going to be upgrading 1 of our cable boxes.  It didn’t say which one, just that 1 of our boxes is going to get the upgrade and the other one will get it in a few weeks.

It was the one in the living room and I am so glad that it was that one and not the one in my bedroom because Darrin would never let me live that down lol.  I have an HD box in my room even though I don’t have an HD tv set.  The cable company gave me the wrong one but I insisted that I’m going to be upgrading my tv anyway (which was a lie) so let me keep it lol.  I said that because some of the HD channels are eastern time zone and I like being able to see the shows 3 hours earlier so that I can watch my network shows when they come on at 8 and 9pm.

One of the reasons why I couldn’t watch Ghost Hunters many years ago was because the new episode always came on at the same time as one of my shows at 9pm but I didn’t know then that they repeat it at 11 lol.  Duh!  But that’s ok, I like to watch the new episode at 6pm even though I don’t have any other Wednesday night shows.  I get to watch the new episodes 4 times, 6pm and 8pm on SyFyHD and 9pm and 11pm on regular SyFy lol.

So I still have to wait a week to 3 weeks for my upgrade.  I was just looking at it and it’s not all that different.  Ok yes it’s really different but it’s not better.  It’s just eye candy is all.  I will record on my dvd recorder what it looks like normal then when I get the upgrade record it with the upgrade and put it on YouTube lol.