I just had to take a quick break from re-writing the movie Red Dawn (it’s a rush job to shoot it before Patrick Swayze passes away and before everyone has jumped on the Cold War resurgence bandwagon) to talk about my Twitter heroes, the truckers.
Early adoption of GPS was mandatory for truckers given their destination-driven vocation. So they have taken to the location awareness services like Brightkite that we 3G iPhone users are just getting into. The iPhone can pinpoint your exact location and, using Brightkite you can check in at that location.
I will admit to a life-long affinity for truckers. My best friend’s dad was a milk truck driver. Nothing stopped his forward roll. In fact, once he fell asleep at the wheel and drove through an old house built in a median and never even woke up! After I was told that story, I looked up and my eyes brimmed with teary admiration. He had integrated his vocation of perpetual movement into every fibre of his being. His unflappable drive and relaxed determination is something I’ve always strived for.
I was never really a trucker. But I’ve made some attempts.
When I was tiny my dad and I roamed the whole country in a truck. Fifteen years later I did it again with a girlfriend. We were like purposeless truckers, drafting behind them, carrying no cargo except our insatiable curiosity for the road. The truckers had even given us a handle: Blue Bunny (we travelled in a baby-blue VW Rabbit). They’d wave us ahead of slow-moving convoys on downgrades and signal when they detected radar. We ate buffet breakfasts and showered at Flying J’s, and dried our feet on fragile paper bathmats emblazoned with Best Western and Denny’s offers. But, like the real truckers, we scoffed at the hospitality coupons and slept in our Rabbit rig, stretched out over the road even in sleep.
My cousin—a truck driver of the towing set—alerted me to the Britekite/Twitter truckers. They are by far my favorite GPS users. That’s what this stuff is for. If I turn on my GPS it will dully trace a circuit around Toronto with occasional tangents. You might call me paranoid but I don’t leave it on anyways because, besides being boring, it could be interpreted as some sort of rape beacon. Brightkite becomes more of a Rapekite when a woman decides to broadcast her exact location.
“World Class Trashy Ass” TruckingRooster, currently on route to Kennesaw, Georgia is my favourite. LordofSleep is a close second. These guys deploy Web 2.0 like Scoble and Cashmore only wish they could: Truckers combine old and new technologies—trucking material goods and GPS—effortlessly and gracefully, like they’ve been doing for decades. As easy as driving through a house. They don’t have time to blather on about predictions and startups—they’re too busy living it.
Legong: I know I am replying to this pathetic, racist statement a little late and the whole ignorant rant probably doesn’t even deserve a reply. Wanhenglo, if we were all to generalise about...
Legong: I know I am replying to this pathetic, racist statement a little late and the whole ignorant rant probably doesn’t even deserve a reply. Wanhenglo, if we were all to generalise about...
Sky Goodden: This is startling, refreshing, overdue, and damn good. Thank you, Shary.
Mark: It’s not just in Canada, it seems all over artists don’t get the local recogtnition they should. I was in Malaga where Picasso was born and it is much different, but then he is...
Seenloitering: The “gender analysis” in this article is upside down. Marie Calloway is a threat to the status quo because she threatens the myth that women are morally superior, above...
Jefry: I do not really like to read a story like a novel or a real story but I think this is very interesting and need to be read
Guest: I didn’t want babies or a period any more. I KNEW without a doubt I did not want children so I had been asking for a hysterectomy since I was 19. I finally got it at 39. My...
Djzklj: Pretty interesting article, despite that I don’t wanna make a voyage there
Sanyo Seiki: I love this game! Very addicted! Sanyo Seiki
Anonymous: People are so disconnected from reality these days, it seems like the only thing that matters to them is materialism and celebrity gossip, disgusting! http://poemti.me