becoming dependent on technology...

[dianec42]

I've come to depend on my car's satellite navigation thingy a lot more than I had thought. I learned this today when I had to take the car to the dealer for its regular maintenance and got a loaner... without sat nav. This led to some interesting discoveries.

(1) I *do* remember how to get to the freeway from that bit of Santa Monica.
(2) The freeway is, amazingly, not horrible right there at 8:30 in the morning.
(3) NONE of the internet mapping thingies I tried (Yahoo, Google, Mapquest) has an option for getting directions that AVOID FREEWAYS. I *KNOW* Yahoo and Mapquest used to have this. What am I, crazy enough to take the 405 to the 10 in rush hour?!

Luckily, I came up with an ingenious way to cheat. This morning, on the way to the dealership, I got the sat nav to show me a useful route along surface streets... so this afternoon, when it came time to go back to the dealer, I just got off the 405 as if I were going home, and then took the same route to the dealership as I did this morning. (-:

Oh, and (re)discovery (4): It's always SO NICE to get your own car back after a day of driving around something strange.

Bonus discovery (5): 93.1 "Jack FM" plays the greatest hits of my misspent youth. Wow. (Thomas Dolby, Wang Chung, slightly too much Doobie Brothers, Falco... wow, just wow.)

I also hate getting up at 6:30 in the morning, but I already knew that.

Comments

[merde.livejournal.com]

Bonus discovery (5): 93.1 "Jack FM" plays the greatest hits of my misspent youth. Wow. (Thomas Dolby, Wang Chung, slightly too much Doobie Brothers, Falco... wow, just wow.)

this is because we are now the generation that "oldies" stations cater to.

try not to think about it. if you stare into the abyss too long, your eyes start to water.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Actually, "Jack" was created in Toronto, and has since spread. In Boston, the former "Star 93.7" (a.k.a. "Gay Radio") turned into "Mike FM".

The secret is ginormous play-lists. You can listen to such a station for two weeks before hearing a repeat. It seems to be one of the few radio formats that isn't losing listenership to satellite radio.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains it ... I was about to mention that we seem to have recently gotten a radio station called "Jack" here in B'more and that it advertised such a mix.

OT1H: my big beef with oldies and "classic rock" stations in the past is that with decades of music to choose from, I shouldn't hear the same songs every shift, and this format addresses that.

OTOH: the local "alternative" station does a better job of mixing good old and new music, and one of the local college radio stations does an even better job still. Though I may wind up tuning in "Jack" once in a while for the *mumble*yeahIlikedthat*mumble* parts of the repertoire that, well, bring back memories even if I can see why they're not played much on the better stations. And because (*grumble*) of the three I've mentioned, it's the only one easy to tune in in my bedroom. (Fortunately I can now get the college radio station in the kitchen.)

OTGH: regardless of how well they do it, the generification of radio bugs me at a whole 'nuther level.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Bonus discovery (5): 93.1 "Jack FM" plays the greatest hits of my misspent youth. Wow. (Thomas Dolby, Wang Chung, slightly too much Doobie Brothers, Falco... wow, just wow.)

I'm mildly annoyed that the "jack" format (a mix of old and new hits) is now the "in" thing for radio stations. Most of the stations I've liked listening to for the past 20 years or so, have been doing long before it was popular (I remember determining that I found WRSI on the radio in a friend's car when the music transitioned from Bach to the Beatles to Thomas Dolby (or something like that).

One of the ads WRSI aired had clips from various songs as the announcer said "Hits from the 60s, 70s, and 80s" (this was in the 80s). After that ad was played for a while, the station did a parody of it for their Sunday classical music program with a variety of music and the announcer saying "Hits from the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s".

One year, they had listeners submit lists of their five favorite albums of all times (with the person who first submitted the list that matched the top five of the submitted lists wins all 100 albums). The station then did a count down, where they played part of each album. It was a popular contest but they had a problem. Somewhere in the mid 50s on the list was a Michael Jackson album. The station never played a MJ song, so they had to go out and buy the MJ album.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

NONE of the internet mapping thingies I tried (Yahoo, Google, Mapquest) has an option for getting directions that AVOID FREEWAYS. I *KNOW* Yahoo and Mapquest used to have this.

Yah, I can't imagine why they stopped. Then again, the mapping programs are remarkably lame in many ways.

What am I, crazy enough to take the 405 to the 10 in rush hour?!

Evidently not. :)