Lingering Doubts - Creature Comforts

As I continue to struggle with this whole "moving back home" concept, having recently been home, I'm more aware of some of the things I'd be giving up, like affordable yet fast and reliable internet, paved roads, electronic road info signs.......and Strokers (of course).

Shipping
Yeah I have a skybox here in the States but it's known by another name: "mailbox." Maybe you've heard the phrase before? Call me spoiled but I am so used to $3.99 overnight shipping with my Amazon Prime, I'm not sure I can give that up. You order it today, it's here tomorrow, no extra freight charges to calculate, no duty fees to worry about.

Technology
Jesus, why is this file so big?! Four gigs to download?! This shit will take all week. Oh wait, no it won't; at least not with Comcast pumping 22mbps of blazing fast internet into the apartment.One night I caught up on 6 months worth of PSN (that's Playstation Network for some of you) content, downloading upwards of 20 Gbs in one night. Not even a burp from Comcast, not with their 250 Gb per month download limit. There isn't enough porn in this world to bring me close to that limit each month.


And when I'm on the road and need to connect, Comcast (via Sprint I believe) 3G mobile mifi device. 4G is it now but I couldn't justify the extra cost, not when my phone turns into a 4G hotspot  for free (thank you T-mobile). With the ability to connect up to 5 devices per mifi, the car often becomes a rolling hotspot. Basically anybody riding with me, with a laptop, tablet, iPad, PSP, Nook, Kindle Fire, etc, can get a connection from me (maybe I should start charging). Road trips with uncle Dwayne become fun all of a sudden with Netflix streaming direct to the car. No more watching Finding Nemo 10 times on a Miami run.

and speaking of roadtrips............
I'm still waiting on the powers that be to invent a GPS device that will find Sauce doubles in Curepe Junction, the Original Souse King in El Soccoro, then plot me a course from Las Cuevas to the Pitch Lake, detouring through Penal, all while showing me live traffic along the route. Exactly......doesn't exist. We all know somebody driving a foreign used (abused?) car with a "GPS" unit in the dash. The car typically has no clue as to where it is; driving along the foreshore, a quick glance of the screen and you'd swear you were in Okinawa, Japan. It's almost like T&T exists geographically in one hell of a satellite blind spot.

What do I rely on when lost? Nothing fancy......only my Garmin Nuvi 1690 with NuLink!. NuLink!, I suspect, is just Garmin-speak for Google: Frankly I don't understand why Garmin just doesn't put this shit on everything they make (shoot, we put Lil' Wayne on practically everything, why not NuLunk!?). There are a few features available which frankly, I never really use (flight times, gas prices, movie times, etc)

But the real draw is the glorious 3G cellular chip in the 1690 that allows me to do Google local search by tapping into AT&T's mobile network.I self guided myself through Pittsburgh, Tallahassee and many other cities as though I was from there. Which would you rely on? Your 4 year old "never been updated since you bought it" GPS? Or would you rather a GPS with up to the minute information thanks to Google?

And if all else fails, I still have Google Maps on my phone to guide me when in a pinch.

I'm not trying to make T&T out to be this backwater, caveman society. To be fair, many of these things I enjoy are quickly creeping into the country............but not not nearly quickly enough. Another problem I have is that when advanced products and services do make it home, they're sometimes sub-par, low quality yet ridiculously overpriced.

Trinidad and Tobago is my land, the land of my birth, the land of my ancestors (give or take a generation or two), and arguably speaking, it's where I belong..........but not without my hi speed internet connection.

Fawk Dat

I have a few more but check back with me next week for those.

D.T.J