I have a friend who went downtown to go clubbing one evening. When they came out of the club at 2AM they couldn’t remember where they’d parked the car.  He and his date walked the streets in a grid pattern for hours, finally giving up and calling a friend for a ride.  The next day he reported his car to police as stolen.

Fast forward 2 weeks and he gets a phone call.  “Hi, this is So & So and I live at 123 street address in downtown Seattle. Your car has been parked in a 30 minute loading zone 24/7 for the past couple of weeks.  I’m the sales manager of a car dealership so I ran the plates and it shows the car reported stolen.”

Oops.  To add one more twist, the parking spot was 1 block from the downtown police station and the likelihood that hundreds of cops drove by each day, heck each hour, as well as the vigilant parking cops who ticket me if I’m even 5 minutes late to my meter.  And none of the uniforms saw it. Sheese.

Better than breadcrumbs.

For my friend and anyone else who may forget where they parked the car, how they got to the middle of the forest, or should you just need to find your way back to where you started – Bushnell offers this handy device called the BackTrack. Press the button when you start your journey and when you’re ready to return, it will guide you on the reverse route, nearly step-for-step, to the starting point.  Here’s what the Bushnell web site says:

“Getting back at the end of the day is as easy as pushing a button and following an arrow. Utilizing GPS technology in its most basic format, BackTrack has only two buttons and stores up to three locations – just mark it and forget it until it’s time to return. At the end of the day, select your location and the BackTrack displays direction and distance to travel. Use it to find your car in a crowded parking lot, your treestand or the trailhead, even to rendezvous with your group. It’s extremely compact and stows conveniently in your pocket, pack or purse.”

Sounds kinda like just about anyone could use this. Course, there’s already an i-Phone app to download that does the same thing. But the i-Phone is several hundred dollars plus monthly service fees plus the cost of the app. The BackTrack is about $60 and hangs on your key chain or lanyard.

~blm.

This post is a complete representation of the original article written by Laura Northrup and posted on Consumerist.  I want to be very clear that I am not presenting this as something I have written, only found interesting and wish to present it to you as a convenience.  I read the Consumerist nearly every day and encourage you to consider it as one of your regular reads as well.  ~blm

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Don’t Buy These Worthless Pieces Of Junk …Or Should You? [Junk] from Consumerist by Laura Northrup

Over at WalletPop, they’ve made a lovely slideshow of what are, in their opinion, the “20 Most Worthless Pieces of Junk.” Some, I agree with, and others I quite emphatically don’t. Living without books or an iron would be such a fundamental change in my life that I can’t contemplate it.

Check out the slideshow, or the rationale for each item on the list:

20: Rice Cookers
19: Shoe Inserts
18: Polaroid Camera
17: The Iron
16: Hobby Kits
15: The Tie Rack
14: Giveaway Thumb Drives
13: Trade Show Swag
12: Bargain DVDs
11: Ear Candles
10: Books in a Kindle World
9: Home Theater Sound Systems
8: Ice Cream Makers & Bread Machines
7: VCRPlus Gizmos
6: Ionic Breeze
5: Single-Slot Piggy Banks
4: Ab Rollers
3: Radar Detectors
2: Wipe Warmers
1: Happy Meal Toys

20 Most Worthless Pieces of Junk [WalletPop]

My friend Rebecca Teagarden has a keen eye for design which she has aptly demonstrated in her role as the assistant editor of Pacific Northwest Magazine.  On a recent trip to New York she displayed an even wider range of talent as the on-camera host of this video tour of the 2009 International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Produced, directed and shot by Les Fitzpatrick of Rocket Pictures.