Ryan and Debi Cragun’s Blog

Skinny Bitch

Author:

Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

Publisher:

Running Press

Date of Publication:

2005

ISBN:

0762424931

Rating:

0

Summary:

A friend of ours mentioned this book over dinner one night after she learned Debi and I are vegetarians. She had read it and thought we might find it interesting. When we first became vegetarians (almost 9 years ago) we were kind of evangelistic about it, but, over time, became much less so; now, we don’t really even talk about it unless someone brings it up (see note on vegetarianism at the end of this review). So, given the chance to read a popular book - popular enough to warrant a piss-poor NYTimes review - that advocates vegetarianism, I thought it might be worthwhile.

This is only the second book I’ve ever decided to not finish reading because it was so wildly inaccurate. Mind you, the book advocates eating healthy (mostly vegetables and fruits), exercising (moderate, not over the top), and not drinking excessively, smoking, or doing drugs. I’m for all of that. So, what’s the problem? The problem is in the arguments for why you should do what the authors say. I read the first 45 pages and found so many inaccuracies that I decided it wouldn’t be worth my time to continue reading this terrible, terrible book. Inaccuracies? How could advocating the above be in any way inaccurate? I found only 1 semi-accurate claim in the first 45 pages. This book is nothing but inaccuracies…

Take this quote from page 12 for instance, “Beer is for frat boys, not skinny bitches. It makes you fat, bloated, and farty. Why do you think when kids go away to college they gain the “freshman fifteen”? Beer, duh.” Now, those who know me know I’m no fan of beer. I don’t like the taste. But the argument against beer here is fallacious. Why? Because the “freshman fifteen” is a myth. Sure, beer has calories. And sure, drinking too much beer is bad for you. But if you watch your caloric intake and include some beer in that, there is no reason you will gain weight from drinking beer. Are there better sources of calories than beer? Absolutely. But why use myths to make your point?

Um, I think I have the answer to that… It may have something to do with the fact that the authors have no idea what they are talking about. According to the back cover: Rory Freedman is “a former agent for Ford Models,” and “is a self-taught know-it-all.” And Kim Barnouin “is a former model who holds a Masters of Science degree in Holistic Nutrition.” FYI, a Masters of Science in Holistic Nutrition is about the equivalent of saying, “I have a PhD from Never Never Land in fighting pirates.” The authors are not remotely qualified to write this book. The lack of qualifications is glaring as they make error after error. Let me point out a few more I found in those first 45 pages…

Here’s a claim from page 14, “Aspartame (an ingredient commonly found in diet sodas and other sugar-free foods) has been blamed for a slew of scary maladies, like arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes.” Thirty seconds on Pub Med resulted in this article (thanks Debi) that concludes, based on all of the existing literature, that aspartame “is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.” The authors are also misleading in their presentation of aspartame. They claim, “So many people have been sickened from this shit that there are aspartame victim support groups. Some of the ninety-two aspartame side effects listed by the FDA include memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, mental confusion, brain lesions, blindness, joint pain, Alzheimer’s, bloating, nervous system disorders, hair loss, food cravings, and weight gain” (p. 34). If you actually look up the reference they gave for this claim, the above list of “side effects” are actually “claimed side effects” from people who have complained to the FDA. None of these side effects are supported by the scientific evidence, and the very reference they give says as much. This is either a tell-tale sign of idiotic authors (we’re too stupid to tell the difference between “claimed side effects” and “actual side effects”) or a bias that translates into deception and mischaracterization. Either way, the authors are giving out erroneous information and doing a public disservice.

Here’s another claim based on a myth, “Unless you’re from Mars, you’ve heard about the “eight glasses of water a day” thing” (p. 14; note, that’s two from the same page!). Unless you’re from planet “ignoramus” you would realize that a quick Google search results in dozens of articles debunking that myth. You don’t need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. You should drink as many as you want or feel you need (advice from actual scientists, not holistic crackpots).

And why, you might ask, do they reference the “eight glasses of water a day” myth? Because they believe the water is necessary to cleanse all of the “toxins” from your body, “Water is vital for keeping your body clean and detoxified. It literally flushes out all the shit and toxins your body stores from your horrendous diet” (p. 14; that’s 3 mistakes on one page). The second I read “toxins” I knew I was reading a book of complete and utter nonsense. Toxins are a legitimate concern – things like arsenic, lead, mold spores, or rayon can all harm you. But what are the alleged “toxins” the authors believe need to be flushed out of the body? Maybe it has to do with this absurd claim from page 37, “When food is digested, it leaves an acid or alkaline “ash” in the body, depending on the food’s mineral content.” Another PubMed search returned one search result for “alkaline base ash” from the mid 1980s that was inconclusive concerning the effects of foods on urine acidity. Apparently the whole “ash” idea is popular in holistic medicine. Oh, and nobody working in nutrition fields today think this is remotely important enough to study. So, the “toxins” you are flushing from your system are actually the foods you are eating. Huh, who knew that apple is going to kill you?

The authors are also anti-modern medicine. (What do you expect from a “holistic nutritionist”?) They actually say, “taking medicine will make you feel better for the moment, but will fuck up something else in your body” and “Do you think putting chemicals in your body is good for you?” (p. 19). They rail against the Food and Drug Administration, considering it a rubber stamp for the pharmaceutical and food industries but a gatekeeper that prevents holistic and – the most holy of buzzwords today - “organic” alternatives from getting into the market. Until one of the authors of this book can provide me a solution for my seasonal allergies that doesn’t include fluticasone propionate (a.k.a. Flonase), I think they should be forced to recall every copy of this book.

Oh, and they don’t just think medicine is bad. I said they recommend exercise, but not too much, because that is bad for you, too. Here’s what they say, “In fact, you shouldn’t, because too much exercise is bad for you. It can lead to dehydration, arthritis, osteoporosis, and injuries like strains, sprains, and fractures” (p. 20). Dehydration is easily prevented with proper hydration. So, too much exercise doesn’t lead to this unless you are an idiot. Perhaps highly repetitive exercises could lead to arthritis, but it would have to be highly repetitive. But the big faux pas here is osteoporosis. There are a few million medical doctors (and a fair number of scientists) who just fell off their chairs laughing as a result of reading this. Any guess what the recommended treatment is for osteoporosis? Exercise and chemicals a.k.a. medication (to increase bone density)! I’m going to be generous to the authors of this book and say that they aren’t killing you willfully, just negligently. They aren’t saying, “Let’s kill our readers.” What they are saying is, “We’re too fracking ignorant to know that our advice will kill our readers.”

I have another 10 or so examples I’d like to debunk here, but I’ll only give one more. I can’t help but include this one because it is just so telling of how ignorant the authors of this book are. They try to attack eating meat by attacking evolution, “Before you start spouting off information you’ve been brainwashed with about evolution and the food chain, read on. Yes, humans have a high level of intelligence. Yes, we created weapons for hunting and fire for cooking. Yes, we found a way to mass-produce animals for consumption. However, if you study animals in the wild, you will note that they do not rely on anything other than their natural hunting ability, speed, strength, claws, teeth, and jaws. They have no tools or weapons. Now look at yourself. Look at your flimsy fingernails in comparison to an eagle’s talons. Look at your flat, blunt teeth compared to a lion’s fangs. Compare your speed and agility to that of a tiger. Compare the strength of your jaw to a wolf’s. Imagine yourself trying to run after an animal, catch it, and kill it using your bare hands, fingernails, teeth, and jaws. Not only would you look ridiculous, but you’d probably get your ass kicked, too. And even if you were successful, envision yourself eating the kill without the aid of an oven and silverware. Yes, the human brain allows us to stay removed from the process of hunting. But does this mean we are “evolved” and “intelligent” and should be eating animal flesh just because we can? Man’s “intelligence” also created alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Should we drink, smoke, and use just because we can?” (pp. 41-42). In case you don’t see the problems here, let me spell them out. First, our large brains provide an evolutionary advantage over other animals that allows us to kill them, both to avoid being killed by them and to eat them. Many evolutionary biologists today also believe that the high energy requirements of our brain required a turn to a higher energy diet that is loaded with animal protein. Additionally, our closest living primate relatives, chimpanzees, do hunt and kill other animals and eat them – and they do so without huge fangs or claws. In no sense is their characterization of evolution accurate or informed. What’s more, they are committing a logical fallacy by comparing the consumption of meat to the consumption of cigarettes. Cigarettes are, quite literally, toxic. Meat is not. Cigarettes can’t keep you alive. Meat can. This is a false comparison.

After about the second erroneous claim, I checked the list of references in the back of the book. The book does, amazingly, have references. But, here’s the catch, not a single one of the references is to a peer-reviewed academic/scientific publication. There are a couple references that are to news articles that discuss peer-reviewed publications, but that’s as close as they get. Most of the references are to conspiracy theory type, pro-vegan publications. So what, you say? Well, the peer-reviewed publications are the currency of factual information. If the authors of this book can’t bother themselves to dig through any of that literature, can they be trusted to tell you anything accurate? Should you trust them?

In case you didn’t notice in the quotes, the authors are also keen to swear and make rude, disparaging comments. They insult their readers and speak down to them. If Nobel Laureates are humble enough not to speak down to other scientists, the authors certainly have no justification for doing so. I don’t want to harp on this point as I really don’t care that much about it, but it’s just one more reason why you shouldn’t read this book. In summary: If you like being insulted, misled, and lied to by people who are less informed than you are, then, by all means, buy this book. If, however, you are like me and prefer to LEARN when you read something, this is not the book for you.

(Note on Vegetarianism: Humans really have evolved to be omnivores. Reputable nutritionists and doctors recommend a diet that is mostly grains, vegetables, and fruits, with small amounts of lean meats, dairy, and sweets. We are less evangelistic of vegetarianism precisely because we can no longer argue health benefits from eating this way. There are, however, a few studies that indicate vegetarians tend to be more intelligent than non-vegetarians; probably a correlation, and not causation. There are also studies indicating vegetarians are less likely to be obese; again, probably correlation and not causation, though there is more evidence for cause on this one. The single best argument for vegetarianism today is really environmental: meat production adds more CO2 to the atmosphere every year in the US than does driving cars. Plus, you can feed more people on a vegetarian diet than a protein rich, meat-based diet, which is a concern if you are a neo-Malthusian. So, we are vegetarians primarily for environmental reasons. References available on request.)

(Second Note: If you’re a credentialed nutritionist and would like to write a book debunking the claims of this book, please email me or comment below.  My wife and I have worked out an outline for such a book and would be willing to contribute a substantial amount, but lack the credentials to write such a book.)

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The Outstretched Shadow: The Obsidian Trilogy, Book 1

Author:

Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

Publisher:

Tor

Date of Publication:

2003

ISBN:

978-0765341419

Rating:

9

Summary:

(Warning: Spoilers) Kellen Tavadon is the son of the most powerful mage in the mage-controlled city of Armatheliah, Lycaelon Tavadon. Kellen is training to be a mage, but isn’t sure if that is the future he wants for himself. What’s more, he isn’t sure he wants to be the son and successor of his father, Archmage Tavadon. Kellen doesn’t like his father nor the near-perfect city of Armatheliah at all. Armatheliah just feels too restricting; Kellen doesn’t feel like he has any personal freedom and no choice in what he is to become. Ironically, he’s privileged, he knows it, and doesn’t like it.

When the magical winds of fate finally intervene, Kellen reluctantly accepts the call. The winds carry a call to embrace wild magery, an alternative to the high magery practiced by his father and the ruling mages of Armatheliah. High magery follows strict forms, but also draws the power for the spells from the people of Armatheliah (without their knowledge) whereas wild magery requires the person casting the spell to negotiate a price with the gods that control the wild magic (though that price can be shared with others) and how the magic is carried out isn’t always certain. High magery is not subject to the dictates of anyone but the mage casting the spell, which means it can readily be used for ill, unlike wild magery which requires practitioners to pay the price subject to the dictates of the gods that provide the magic and, if one decides not to pay the price they have to do so willfully, rejecting the wildmage gods in the process.

The ruling mages of Armatheliah have outlawed wild magery in their great, all-human city and will banish or kill anyone caught practicing it. Thus it comes as a great surprise to Lycaelon when he discovers his son in possession of the books of wild magery and realizes his son has turned away from his path. Kellen is banished from Armatheliah, but quickly realizes that banishment really means death, as he has 24 hours to leave the land claimed by Armatheliah or die at the stone paws of a magically animated pack of scouring hounds (stone sculptures in the shape of dogs that can be magically animated to do the bidding of a mage). Kellen calls on the powers of wildmagery to save him and they send him a unicorn named Shalkan to help him. His mage price: remain a virgin for one year (if a non-virgin touches a unicorn they die). Shalkan tries his best to carry Kellen out of the lands claimed by Armatheliah, but they don’t quite make it within the allotted 24 hours and are forced to make a stand. Together they are able to destroy the scouring hunt, though they nearly die in the process.

Shalkan carries the battered, semi-conscious Kellen to the Wildwood and delivers him to a wild mage, Idalia, who heals Kellen and puts him up in her home while he recuperates. It doesn’t take long for Idalia and Kellen to realize that they are in fact sister and brother: both are the offspring of Lycaelon Tavadon. And, both were banished from the city for embracing wild magery. Kellen, however, had the memories of his sister erased (by the magic of his father), so it is a shock to him to learn that he has a sibling. Idalia was also banished from the city and used the wild magic to evade the scouring hunt.

Idalia quickly draws Kellen under her metaphorical wing and begins teaching him how to live in the Wildwood, surviving mostly on their own and trading their magical abilities for goods and money as needed with people in nearby villages and the surrounding area. She also teaches him more about the wild magic they both have embraced. They are outlaws to Armatheliah and their father, but Idalia has built a decent life for herself and seems happy… Until they find out, via magical scrying, that their father has convinced the other mages of Armatheliah to expand the city’s borders to include the Wildwood so they can hunt down Kellen and kill him once and for all. With forewarning, they tell all of the inhabitants of the Wildwood (including all of the non-human creatures – nymphs, fairies, centaurs, etc.) what is coming and pack up shop themselves, deciding they will go live with the elves in Sentarshadeen as they figure out what to do with their future.

They pack up and head out uneventfully enough, but upon arriving in Sentarshadeen they find their services as wild mages are desperately needed: Something has changed the weather patterns in Sentarshadeen, and the elves are experiencing a severe drought, severe enough that their farms, orchards, and even forests are beginning to die. Idalia, the much more experienced and much better wild mage, is enlisted in trying to figure out the cause. She eventually does, and it indicates serious trouble: The ancient enemy of the elves and all creatures that love the light has reawakened and is preparing for battle – the Endarkened Demons of Shadow Mountain have returned and are preparing for war. They have used their powerful magic to block the rain from the elven lands, and only a costly wild mage counter spell can break their spell. Idalia weaves the spell, drawing on the energy of all the elves of Sentarshadeen in the process. The power of the spell is channeled into a keystone, which is then entrusted to Kellen to take to the source to enact the counter spell and return the weather patterns to normal. Idalia would go, but the resulting torrential weather would cause too much damage if it isn’t controlled after the demonic spell is broken, so she must remain in Sentarshadeen to guide the weather back to normal.

It is, therefore, up to Kellen to travel to the base of Shadow Mountain, into hostile lands, to deliver the counter spell and save the elves. He is given one elven companion, an elven knight named Jermayan, who also happens to be the scorned lover of his sister. Kellen rides Shalkan, his unicorn companion (who speaks, as all good unicorns do) and heads out toward the source of evil. Along the way, Jermayan begins training Kellen in the fighting arts, only to find during their first training session that Kellen, who has never trained with a sword before, is not an ordinary fighter. Kellen, who has been struggling with his magical abilities from day one, has never felt like he fit into any world: He wasn’t a particularly good wild mage and he wasn’t very good at much of anything else. But once he starts fighting, Jermayan realizes what he actually is: a knight-mage. Kellen’s magical ability is channeled into his fighting ability. Yes, he can cast the spells of wild mages, but his real gift lies in fighting, and he learns quickly to use it under the very capable training of Jermayan.

His training quickly comes into play as they fend off several attacks on their journey to enact the counter spell. Along the way they end up finding a strange human/demon hybrid, Vestakia, who leads them to the exact source of the demonic spell, a giant obelisk emanating evil energy and holding back the much needed moisture from elven lands. Vestakia’s mixed “heritage” gives her the ability to detect the presence of demons or even their taint, which helps guide them to the obelisk. Kellen then has to face the arduous task of climbing the obelisk and placing the keystone on it to break the spell. But the obelisk is protected with various enchantments. One triggers an army of goblins that attack his companions. Jermayan, Vestakia, and Shalkan are able to hold them off while Kellen deals with his own challenges, including facing down the queen of the demons, Zavilla, who tempts him to join the demons. Kellen eventually succeeds in triggering the keystone and enacting the counter spell, breaking the demon magic. Idalia senses the success of the spell and guides the weather safely back to normal, saving Sentarshadeen.

Kellen eventually returns to Sentarshadeen with Jermayan, Vestakia, and Shalkan, where they are greeted as heroes and reunited with Idalia. The book ends at this point, foreshadowing a coming war with both the mages of Armatheliah and the Endarkened of Shadow Mountain.

Review:

TOR books is currently giving away a digital book per week if you sign up for their emails. They send them in mobipocket format, which works great on my PDA/cellphone. Since I do occasionally find myself with a few minutes waiting for this or that, I put the book on my cellphone and pulled it out every so often over the last 4 months or so to read this book. If it wasn’t for the digital format and the convenience of always having it with me on my cellphone, I never would have found the time to read this.

As far as fantasy books go, this was a fun one. It’s very well-written and engaging. It certainly kept my attention and drew me into the story. There are a couple of minor issues I noticed. There isn’t much down time between major events. It’s only about 3 or 4 months between when Kellen leaves Armatheliah (at age 17 mind you) and when he releases Idalia’s counter spell at the base of Shadow Mountain. Without magical healing this would be absurd, of course, but even with all of the magic, it makes for a rather frantic pace.

Additionally, some aspects of the world deviated from the magical/fantasy worlds I’m familiar with. Not having read any fantasy books for fun for, well, years, I could be out of touch with changes in the fantasy realm, but it seemed odd to divide the magic up into three forms: high magic, wild magic, and dark magic. Traditionally there are only two types: light and dark. Additionally, in most of the fantasy I’ve read, elves can have as much magical ability as humans, but that isn’t the case in this book (they do offer an intriguing explanation for why that is the case, though, which is nice).

Finally, the similarity to and comments on religion are kind of intriguing. I could be missing some of the symbolism and similarities here, but it seems pretty obvious to me that Kellen is representative of Gautama Siddhartha (a.k.a. the Buddha). Kellen lives a life of luxury and is kept from the travails of the ordinary person by his noble father. He eventually escapes and finds a better path than the rigid religious caste system of his father. What’s more, the mages of Armatheliah have developed a religion akin to Roman Catholicism (and Hinduism) in which all of the people are, by default, members and required to make monthly pilgrimages to the main chapel to exchange the symbols of their allegiance (which also steal their power so it can be used by the mages of Armatheliah). I saw that as a criticism of what is often called “high religion,” or highly organized state churches with overly-developed bureaucracies and extensive rituals. Some other aspects of Buddhism come out as the story plays out as well, like the balancing of nature through the wild magic (similar to Shinto as well) and Kellen becoming “one” with his sword and allowing his magic to course through him. I’m not sure just what the religious agenda is here, but it’s kind of fun to guess at it.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a digital copy of the second and third books in the trilogy for the mobipocket reader. Amazon.com has a digital copy of the 3rd book for the Kindle, but I can’t find anything about putting that on my PDA and I’m not interested in forking out $400 for a Kindle just so I can read one book. If I want to finish the series I’ll probably have to borrow the books from the library. Maybe I’ll take them to Lake Powell with me over the summer and read them while I’m on vacation. I don’t have time for that, but why not?

Overall, good book. It’s entertaining and engrossing and gets your mind off work, which is what any good fantasy novel should do. Recommended.

The last couple of weeks of school were packed with grading and other activities. We are now finished with those responsibilities and have started our “summer of research” (some people get “summers of love” or “travel summers;” we get “research summers”!). We have enough research projects to keep us busy for two summers, but we’re going to do our best to get as much research done as possible.

But life isn’t all about doing research… Okay, the tenure clock is ticking, so it is all about doing research! But all research and no play makes me… go… insane! So, I insisted that we schedule a few fun activities amidst the 12 hour research days (literally, we wrote them into our calendars). Yesterday was our first fun activity. We biked the Gandy Bridge that connects Tampa and St. Pete. The walkway/bike path is actually called Friendship Trail Bridge (sounds so inviting, doesn’t it?). The bridge is about 2.6 miles and is the old Gandy Bridge for vehicular traffic. It was converted from car traffic in 1999 and is now open only to walkers, runners, bicyclists, rollerbladers, skateboarders, etc. Having crossed the Gandy Bridge via car a number of times, I’ve seen the Friendship Trail Bridge and thought it would be fun to bike across it. I mapped out some of the key points in Google Maps. Here are a couple of helpful pictures. First, here’s the Gandy Bridge (the thin strip at the top is the Friendship Trail Bridge:

Here’s a close-up of the parking area:

And here area a few pictures of us there. First, here’s Debi on the west side of the bridge, advertising water bottles:

Here’s Ryan sporting his summer hair-do:

If you look close in the above picture you can see some buildings in the background; that’s downtown Tampa.

And here’s Debi on our way back over (headed east),

We were biking the trail for exercise, but we were also chatting about our research as we went and didn’t push ourselves. At our pace, it was about 20 minutes from one side to the other. The great thing about the bridge is that there is no concern of cars; your biggest concern is hitting other people. But the bridge was not busy at all and everyone there was friendly. There is one hill towards the east side where the bridge rises up to allow boats underneath, but otherwise it is flat and perfectly straight.

If you’re looking for a great place for a jog or to get a little exercise during a trip to Tampa/St. Pete, this is a very scenic place to do it.

Aside from our biking adventure (we’ve got another one penciled in for next Wednesday), two of my aunts (with their husbands) came to visit us this last Saturday. One aunt and uncle, Al and Norma Liston, were serving an LDS Mission on the LDS ranch in Florida (Deseret Ranch, of course). We kept talking about going over to visit them, but with how busy we were, we never did get over there. But, as loving relatives, they decided to come visit us. Another aunt and uncle, Helen and Ray Johnson, were in town to visit them and drive home with them. So, they came over to Tampa (the ranch is near the east coast of Florida) on Saturday, arriving at 1:00, just after our commencement finished. It was great to see them and spend the afternoon with them. We took them to Fort de Soto’s North Beach, the same place we took my dad when he came. We now have quite a collection of beach chairs, beach towels, and beach umbrellas (hint, hint) - enough for all six of us to sit comfortably in the shade and enjoy the beach while we caught up. We had a great time.

After the beach we headed to Rouen Thai for dinner. There was an unfortunate, relatively minor accident on the way into the restaurant (one of my aunt’s skinned her arm when she tripped on a parking block - I still feel bad about that as I almost caught her), but we had a great dinner (Rouen Thai is awesome and they were very accommodating). We then drove up Bayshore Boulevard and stopped at the University of Tampa to show them our campus, which is very beautiful. By that time it was getting late and they had to get back across Florida and home. Which leads me to my funny story…

My aunts and uncles are super nice and very knowledgeable in their respective areas of expertise (one is an electrician, the other builds homes). But they aren’t particularly tech savvy. They bought a brand new GPS unit for their trip home driving across the U.S. to Utah. It’s a Mio unit and it’s very nice. But, they weren’t exactly sure how to work it. They plugged it in and figured out how to put in an address and used it to get from their place, literally just miles from the east coast of Florida, to mine, just miles from the west coast. They called about 10 minutes before they arrived and told me that they were on Martin Luther King Blvd. and about 22nd street. That wouldn’t be unusual except I-4, the freeway that runs east/west from one coast to the other would have taken them right passed that area. It sounded to me like they got off the freeway early, but I didn’t really think much of it.

Having only been to Fort de Soto once, I wasn’t 100% positive of how to get there, but I was positive that we could take I-275 most of the way. So, I directed my uncle who was driving to get on I-275 then pulled out their GPS unit and plugged in the address for Fort de Soto. It took me a minute to get used to the new unit, but I figured it out and told it to plot us a course to the beach. Right away it told us to get off the freeway. That seemed really odd to me as I knew the fastest way to get there was on the freeway - my GPS unit (a Garmin) told me so last time. I figured maybe it was trying to route me a different way, but I wasn’t convinced, so I ignored the unit and told them where to go. Even so, I left the unit on and it continued to tell us to get off the freeway at every possible exit. After about 15 prompts to get off the freeway it dawned on me that maybe there was something wrong with the settings of the GPS. I started flipping through the screens and eventually found the setting that I was looking for. Apparently the Mio allows you to choose your method of travel: taxi, car, big rig… and walking! The default setting on their GPS was “pedestrian.” The reason it was telling us to get off the freeway was because pedestrians are not allowed on the freeway and it thought we were pedestrians. Apparently it’s pretty common for pedestrians to do 65 mph (come on, Mio, how hard can it be to figure out when someone is a pedestrian and when they are not?). I was glad I figured it out, but then it dawned on me what had happened earlier: My relatives had driven all the way across the state of Florida on back roads because their GPS thought they were pedestrians. That’s why they were not on the freeway when they called. I felt kind of bad telling them, but they were cool about it and we all had a good laugh!