We are FAMOUS!!!

Imagine my suprise this morning when I was in line after Sean and I ran the Gasparilla 5k, and I saw an old friend, who said," NO WAY, SUSAN, YOU ARE THE SUPERSTAR!!!" I was like, HUH? What are you talking about?"
She said, "Figures, you would make the front page, of all people. "

WE made the FRONT PAGE OF THE TAMPA TRIBUNE newspaper today. :)
I am still cracking up we made the front page. WE ARE SO COOL AND FAMOUS!

wow, the front page, how cool is that.
The actual story in the paper was cooler, but here is an online version for you. :)
What is cool in the paper version, is that it's actually a differnet picture of us (better, i think) but the caption reads: The Serra Family, Susan, Sean, and Joe -have come to rely on their GPS navigator so much they've given it a name..Kazia.
BABY KAZ,THAT WAS FOR YOU DARLIN!

Would you like my autograph?
I wasn't sure if they would run the story or not, because you never know, and we get the St Pete Times, NOT the Tampa Trib, but I asked the reporter to let me know when it was going to hit. He didn't, but, hey, my friends saw it. Baby Kaz even got a blurb in there, as Sean named our GPS after his future sister.

Here is the article. :)
http://www.tampatribune.com/

Satellite Guided Family: Sales of global positioning system devices are doubling this year to potentially 15 million units.

The Serras, Joe, Susan and son Sean, enjoy the convenience and portability of their Garmin Personal GPS, which Susan keeps in her car.

By RICHARD MULLINS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

Updated: 12:15 am

Susan Serra used to get lost - a lot - driving around Tampa, and would call her husband, Joe, for directions. Now she has a replacement of sorts for her husband.

He bought her a Garmin GPS navigator for Christmas, and it has become part of the family.

"I have no sense of direction," Serra said. "It's such a drag to be lost, especially if you're in a hurry to get a kid somewhere, and you get stressed out, start speeding and freak out. But with my Garmin, there's a calm voice telling you where to go."

The Serra family has become so attached to their GPS gadget and its directional wisdom that they end up debating which tone of computerized voice it should speak, and their son Sean named it "Kazia," because the family will soon adopt a girl from Kazakhstan.
That kind of intimate dependence is quickly becoming a lot more common.

With retail prices falling below $200, sales of personal global positioning system devices are doubling this year to potentially 15 million units. At that growth pace, it's possible that the generation now in elementary school will grow up without ever being lost - just as their parents left behind pay phones for cell phones.

As people become accustomed to using them, more are finding GPS just as indispensable as a cell phone. With customizable voices - even celebrities' - and its day-in, day-out use, the devices are setting up an oddly intimate relationship within the household.

Midway through a family cross-country RV trip, for example, Andy Hafer of Tampa pulled into a campground near the Grand Canyon and the family prepared for dinner. His 5-year-old daughter Alexis started setting an extra place at the table for "Mandy."

"Mandy" is the family GPS navigator.

"We started calling it Mandy because that's the name of the voice we picked from the menu that gives directions," Hafer said. "Mandy became part of the family. We'd joke driving around that 'Mandy says go this way,' and 'Mandy will get us there.' But that thing saved our skins several times when we got lost."

Sales Grew As Prices Fell

Until last year, GPS navigators were mainly tools used by campers, hikers or pilots willing to pay $500 to $1,000 for the gadgets, which were often difficult to use and weren't meant for urban areas.

Then last holiday season, the market for GPS exploded.

Prices for some models fell below $200, a key tipping point for many consumers. Shipments rose from 2 million in 2006, to 9 million in 2007 amid a blitz of marketing.

Manufacturers like Garmin, Magellan, Mio and TomTom introduced more intuitive touch-screen models that were easier to use and had computerized voices to speak out turn-by-turn directions. In the Tampa Bay area, just type "Publix" onto a GPS screen and most models will automatically find the nearest grocery store and offer the fastest route to it.

Amid millions spent on GPS advertising, "They became one of the most hyped products in the U.S. leading up to the holidays in 2007," said Dominique Bonte, an analyst at ABI Research. "They went absolutely mainstream."

GPS sales now stand at the same point that smart phones such as BlackBerries did two years ago.

At the same time, cellular phone companies are quickly adding GPS navigation as an add-on feature to their phones, opening up a market for hundreds of millions of devices to give directions.

"It's amazing - the feeling of getting lost will disappear when everyone has a phone or a GPS," Bonte said.

Voice Talent Made GPS Relatable

A big part of GPS's market success came from work in the more human side of the product - the voices the gadgets used to speak out directions. The first speaking models came out in 2001 and used synthetic computerized voices. They worked, but were not natural and too often seemed mechanically abrasive to consumers.

So companies such as Garmin scoured the globe for voice talent that would lend a human touch in male and female versions.

"There are definitely people who prefer taking directions from a female voice, or a male voice," said Jessica Myers, a spokeswoman for Garmin. The company recruited male and female actors with voices that sounded American, British, Australian, etc.

That included Karen Jacobsen, an Australian singer and voice actress.

"I was doing telephone voice mail systems, Movietone, TV ads for car companies, hotels, fast food, almost anything in Australia," Jacobsen said. For Garmin, she spent three weeks in a New York recording studio speaking numbers, words and phrases like "Turn right," "Bear left," and "You have reached your destination." Once plugged into a final product, a computer would stitch her voice snippets together into coherent directions.

She took extra care speaking one word - "Recalculating." That word pops up when a driver does not follow the prescribed route, either through confusion or rebellion. The devices typically take a second to come up with a new route to the destination and say "recalculating" during the gap.

Jacobsen said she likes to think she prevents arguments between couples over which way to go. "I will always stay calm when you are frustrated and make a wrong turn. When I say 'recalculating' in that very matter of fact voice, you know it's all being taken care of. I will get you where you are going, and I know all the back roads."

That human element is no small matter.

When consumers listen to that voice, day in/day out, it becomes highly personal, even for people who don't expect it.

"At first I had selected a voice on the phone called 'Michele,'" said Suri Surinder, Verizon's senior vice president and general manager for the Southeast region. "It's funny, but when she would say 'recalculating,' there was almost a note of reproach. I switched to a voice called 'Emily.'"

For those still unhappy with their device's built-in voice selection, some companies provide downloadable files so celebrities such as John Cleese, Curt Schilling or Mr. T can tell you where to go.

It Can Take Faith To Follow

On a more practical level, Surinder said his GPS has brought one invaluable thing: liberation. He moved here in September from New Jersey and is getting used to the road layout.

"Tampa has so many roads that change names," Surinder said. "At one Hillsborough intersection Sheldon goes one way, Memorial goes another. But I'm never getting lost going anywhere - that's priceless."

Sometimes that sense of liberation only comes after taking a leap of faith - to trust a piece of electronics more than one's own sense of direction.

It happened for Keith Ferstl of Tampa on a dark road in Tennessee.

"I had a really early flight, and it was 2:30 in the morning when I left my hotel," Ferstl said. He typed "Knoxville airport" into his GPS, which started routing him on dark, country, two-lane roads. "I'm thinking 'Man, I sure hope this thing knows where it's going, because I don't have a clue where I am,'" he recalls. "Then, all the sudden, there were the airport lights and the tower. I was sold after that. ... I just don't worry anymore, I follow directions."