Definately off topic..

[Brewman]

My son took optional Driver's Ed through school ($250.00). I insisted on it and our insurance is reduced because of it. Another plus for insurance is a 3.0 average on a report card. I guess it shows responsibility, (I just don't buy that, but statistics say it makes a difference) Additionally, my 16 year old has been driving farm machinery and trucks on a farm since he was 14. But none of this can prepare a kid for all of the crazies that they will face on the road. They have grown up multi-tasking as a part of every day life.  I think they are more inclined to be distracted because they are not used to concentrating on just ONE thing.

When I see these kids (mostly young girls) yacking on the cell phone while driving, I get so angry. They are just inviting accidents.

Believe me, if the insurance industry offers a "discount" for good grades, it means they have mountains of evidence to back it up.  Pricing insurance is an incredibly complex science- the people who specialize in this (actuaries) make really good money, and are in very high demand.  They wouldn't offer a rate reduction unless there was evidence behind it- especially in the dreaded "student" driver category.

Cell phone useage is bad enough- text messaging behind the wheel should be a felony level offense.  How can you possibly drive and text message at the same time?

[Chad]

I agree 100% Brewman.
Get this. My uncle is a retnal surgeon, has his own practice, makes around $750K a year, married his high school sweetheart, has five kids, is a devoted Catholic, and beleive it or not [size=20]reads books when he drives[/size].

How can such a brilliant man be such an idiot at the same time?

[Bonibelle]

I guess my question with the good student discount is ..how can it differ so much between companies? My old company, Liberty Mutual, gave a $780.00 discount for 3.0 on the report card. My new company only discounts $146 for the same grades.( and I increased liability to $1,000,000.00).

As far as texting and talking, it is crazy..there should be a button on all cell phones that sends an instant message..I am driving, talk/text later. I think I will tell Verizon to do that.

I notice that kids tend to text much more than they talk now, so I imagine accidents from texting will increase substantially  

[ndabunka]

I agree 100% Brewman.
Get this. My uncle is a retnal surgeon, has his own practice, makes around $750K a year, married his high school sweetheart, has five kids, is a devoted Catholic, and beleive it or not [size=20]reads books when he drives[/size].

How can such a brilliant man be such an idiot at the same time?

I agree that reading while driving could be dangerous (for most people) but you have to realize that some people brains are wired a bit differently than others.  Menial tasks such as driving a car or calculating 3rd order derivatives are simply an "amusement" to a select set of individuals.  Kinda like listening to a radio would be for you and I.  As far as reading goes, I am one of the lucky ones that can read anywhere from 1 to 2 pages a minute.  I may not have great intellect, but with such an ability of reading comprehension so different from others I can read about 6 sentences while most can only read one (in about a quarter of a second).  In terms of driving, a quarter of a second may seem like a lot but in reality, it's less than a few feet so I think I could easily do it if I wanted too.  I wouldn't want to glance over at the car next to me and see him take his eyes off the road for that brief period of time but in reality most casual drivers pay FAR less attention to the road than I do.  In truth, it DRIVES ME NUTS to ride in a car with someone who is OBVIOUSLY not paying a lot of attention to what they are doing.  In about 90% of the cases, those people also turn out to have a lower level of intelligence.  Therefore, I never really rode around much with mentally challenged people.  It made dating a ditzy blond a very brief event for me in college (about a 1/2 mile ride in a car before I got out and walked to preserve my sanity).  I will NOT let ANYONE apply makeup while driving nor use anything other than a hands-free cell phone while driving a car.  However, I can admit that even I have been a bit um, er, ah "distracted" by the pretty pictures on the NAVI screen (in my case, the NAVI also has voice control so most things can be done without actually having to use the touch screen.  Thank god for technology)!

[Brewman]

I guess my question with the good student discount is ..how can it differ so much between companies? My old company, Liberty Mutual, gave a $780.00 discount for 3.0 on the report card. My new company only discounts $146 for the same grades.( and I increased liability to $1,000,000.00).

As far as texting and talking, it is crazy..there should be a button on all cell phones that sends an instant message..I am driving, talk/text later. I think I will tell Verizon to do that.

I notice that kids tend to text much more than they talk now, so I imagine accidents from texting will increase substantially  

You'll never find any logic in comparing auto insurance prices between companies.  It's even more complicated than trying to figure out airline ticket prices.
There are hundreds of factors that companies use to determine rates.  You pretty much have to get quotes till you get sick of it, then pick a company.
 I get excellent rates from Progressive, but others I know get high quotes from them.  It all boils down to what business they want and what they don't.

Text messaging takes too much concentration to do while driving.  You can't steer a car, and think thru traffic while staring at an itty bitty phone screen and try to compose messages with all the keying needed.  Especially young, inexperience drivers who should be paying full attention to the road.
Plus text messaging is dumbing down the population, I'm convinced.  Some of the writing samples I've seen are just terrible.  
It's really just a way for cell phone companies to make more money.  You get a zillion callin minutes to actually speak to someone, but you have to pay extra to send a few letters?  Makes no sense other than revenue generation.

[Bonibelle]

Brewman, I have to tell you, I got into texting because my sister is hearing impaired. You can not believe how tough it is to converse with someone who hears only a fraction of what you are saying. Even the best cell phones that are rated for hearing aids are not good enough to get a quick message to some people. I can access her when ever I need to and she can get quick messages to me if she needs anything. Verizon allows you to text through their website so her children's teachers can get her from their computers when they need to.

When we went to Florida in September, the text package was a real blessing. She was babysitting my dog and my son was thrilled to have a picture of Maggy every morning and every night. It assured him that she was safe and happy!  So, I think texting has it's place, just not in the car and not to totally replace conversation.

I was thinking the other day about the initial reason that I posted this (my son's  first date)...A few years ago, I probably would have at least had the opportunity to hear this first date's voice. With caller ID, I probably would know her last name and by her phone exchange, I could get a general idea of where she lives. Since everything is done by cell phones between kids, no one needs to call "the house" anymore..  This really limits my snooping  

[leaky]

Here in sunny So Cal, it's a full year before you can drive with anyone other than an adult or family member; plus there's curfew restricitons as well.

My son is driving my in-law's old Geo Prizm, with the specific intent of quelling any desire to pull anything stupid on the street.  

He asked about driving friends, to which I gave him a speech regarding liability, lawsuits, legality, etc.........to which he promptly ignored four days later, only to get caught by his mom who came home early from work.  Six weeks later, he finally has some freedom in the car again, but it is frequently futile.  In order to see his girlfriend, we either have to take him and pick him up, or go get her and bring her back due to curfew and ride restricitions.  Also, it's kind of comical to see all the kids his age "caravaning" for a mile to go to 7-11 or Burger King.  Five or six cars all leaving the same street just to get some lunch....

[brewski]

Vinny,

Your story about teaching parallel parking at the school parking lot reminded me of the time I was trying to work with my daughter on the same subject. It was on a weekend and I had borrowed some traffic cones from my employer to use for this teaching and like you we headed to a nearby school. Daughter is having problems initially, hitting the cones more than once when about 15 minutes into the training a woman, about 30-35 pulls nearby and takes up two parking spaces. She waits in the car and about 5-10 minutes later a man about similar age pulls up and parks next to her. Well this is getting a little too close for comfort as daughter was not catching on to this parallel parking too well. I go over to ask the two people if they would mind moving their cars, explaining what we were doing and why I thought it best for them to do so. I also pointed out to them that there was a reason darling daughter was driving a 15 year old vehicle with a few "love bumps" on the fender and would hate to see their vehicles acquire any love bumps of their own. "No problem", says the guy, "but is there somewhere here at the school that would be better to park so her husband doesn't see us?" With that we picked up the cones, drove off and found another school to continue practicing!!

[Bonibelle]

 

[96SC]

Vinny,

"but is there somewhere here at the school that would be better to park so her husband doesn't see us?"

I remember 'back in the day' when two hot blooded younguns' wanted to 'be alone' we went 'parking', where better than a parking lot?  Reminds me of Paradise by the Dashboard Lights....(Meatloaf)

[Brewman]

Brewman, I have to tell you, I got into texting because my sister is hearing impaired. You can not believe how tough it is to converse with someone who hears only a fraction of what you are saying. Even the best cell phones that are rated for hearing aids are not good enough to get a quick message to some people. I can access her when ever I need to and she can get quick messages to me if she needs anything. Verizon allows you to text through their website so her children's teachers can get her from their computers when they need to.

When we went to Florida in September, the text package was a real blessing. She was babysitting my dog and my son was thrilled to have a picture of Maggy every morning and every night. It assured him that she was safe and happy!  So, I think texting has it's place, just not in the car and not to totally replace conversation.

I was thinking the other day about the initial reason that I posted this (my son's  first date)...A few years ago, I probably would have at least had the opportunity to hear this first date's voice. With caller ID, I probably would know her last name and by her phone exchange, I could get a general idea of where she lives. Since everything is done by cell phones between kids, no one needs to call "the house" anymore..  This really limits my snooping  

I suppose for the hearing issues, texting is a blessing.  I was more going after what I consider useless text messaging.  I see it all the time.  People sitting right next to each other sending texts!  I am convinced that used like it is by many, it's dumbing down the population.   And why does it have to cost additional to the phone minutes we already pay for?  And it costs both to send and to recieve.  That just isn't right to me.

[leaky]

Orange cones in a parking lot....

Cue the Brady Bunch song, with an egg on top of the cone, and the great Greg/Marcia rivalry.....

[Spatech_tuo]

Orange cones in a parking lot....

Cue the Brady Bunch song, with an egg on top of the cone, and the great Greg/Marcia rivalry.....

LOL, when my son got his permit 2 weeks ago we chuckled about that episode. I still think Greg should have won!!

[Brewman]

Greg didn't win the great drive off, but he did prevail on who got the room in the attic.

Anyone else notice that there is a staircase inside the Brady house going up to the second floor, where all the bedrooms were, and from there another staircase that led to Greg's attic room, but on the opening credits of the show, the Brady house exterior view is clearly of a one story house?  

I don't think that one dawned on me till I'd seen a few thousand re-runs.

[Spatech_tuo]

Greg didn't win the great drive off, but he did prevail on who got the room in the attic.

Anyone else notice that there is a staircase inside the Brady house going up to the second floor, where all the bedrooms were, and from there another staircase that led to Greg's attic room, but on the opening credits of the show, the Brady house show from across the street is clearly a one story house?  

I don't think that one dawned on me till I'd seen a few thousand re-runs.

Aha, my wife and I know the show pretty well and this has come up before. There was a reference in an early show making it impossible for a livable attic to be there in the first place. Sure enough I found a site on line from someone who apprarently has even less of a life than we do has this covered:

See 5.8

http://www.davidbrady.com/eb/bbfaq.html