Mike has a terrible sense of direction. Even with GPS navigation, his talent for getting lost is astounding. To help him deal with this problem, he has been looking for a new app for his phone. He wants one that we can both install, so he can "find me" when we're separated and trying to find one another (as recently happened at Marymoor Park).
The first app Mike downloaded worked like an interactive map, and you could add friends to your circle and see where they were if they had their app running. It also showed you where registered sex offenders lived. You could touch their little house icons on the map, and it would pull up their photo with a description of what they had been convicted of. All of this creeped Mike out. Personally I found it useful. I like knowing where those bastards live, and knowing what they look like - so I can actively avoid them! Mike, though, was determined to find a different app.
Today Mike told me about a new app he had downloaded. So far he seems to love this one. He says it's like interactive GPS where it gets feedback from other users about how fast various routes actually are, you can post an alert when you notice a cop hiding out to catch speeders... and according to true Mike fashion, he told me all of this (and attempted to show me most of it) while driving. I reminded him several times that he shouldn't be playing with his phone while driving (you can get a traffic ticket for that in our state).
After a couple of minutes of quiet in the car, Mike suddenly tells me "There's a ninja coming up!" I gave him a look, and asked "a ninja?" ....at which point he held up his phone and showed me, saying "yes! a ninja! see!" (it was somebody's user icon, which happened to look like a ninja) - the "ninja" had a name - Steve, or something. I don't remember. Apparently Steve the Ninja was another driver who was also using the app, also driving on I-5. I asked him why on earth he needed to know who else was driving on the same road as him. He told me:
"In case you want to chat them up, like the old school ham radios. 'Breaker Breaker - hey buddy, what's up? Breaker Breaker Over'"
(I suspect that's not actually how one would speak on a ham radio?) ....but it seems that his new app does have a feature that would allow you to send a voice message to the other drivers.
so I asked him the obvious - "what is this? a new strategy for making friends?" - which he seemed to think was a good idea.
Personally I'd rather know where sex offenders live than try to befriend strangers on my morning commute.
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