They're Not Cool Yet

I saw the guy at school who rides around on a Segway today. I think he is officially known as "The Guy At School Who Rides Around On A Segway." What's worse, that is probably exactly how he wants to be known. Those things, cloaked in secrecy during development and currently costing $5,000 are, at the moment, only owned by rich people and very few at that. I realize that in order for Segways to enter the mainstream, somebody has to buy them. Ok, a lot of people actually, but I still think that the people that do are, for now, just showing off. It's the ultimate status symbol because as it turns out, humans can walk. It's not that hard, it is a skill possessed by most 1 year-olds worldwide. But people would rather pay exorbitant amounts of money to show that they are no longer constrained by inferior human capability. People complain constantly about the growing obesity of the American population and somebody then decided that standing still on a "human transporter" would greatly improve our lives. I could be wrong, but wouldn't exercise even more greatly improve our lives? We already go from home to a car to work to car to home, seated most of the way. Are they going to take the act of walking away from us too? At least for now, it will only be the rich people faced with this problem, and the show-off ones at that.

Speaking of show-offs and Segways, I saw a car dealership commercial the other day with both owners of the dealership filming the commercial on Segways. Were they trying to be cool? I don't understand how that would help increase car sales (I'm assuming that was the motivation behind making the commercial, it seems to be that motivation which lies behind ALL OTHER commercials) The only message that was getting across to me is that these guys must charge WAAAAY too much for their cars to have enough money to buy TWO (count 'em two) Segways (yes kids, that's $10,000) to zip around on. Either that or their life of car selling has led them to drive so many cars that they have lost the ability to put one leg in front of the other. Oh, and that they are lame show-offs. Especially because I SUPPOSE there is a slight advantage to using a Segway every once in awhile since they are faster than walking but there is no excuse for being on one in a car commercial. There is no walking required in those. Have they lost the ability to stand up without their hands on handlebars as well? Not to mention, if you have a Segway, doesn't that slightly reduce your need for a car? It only goes as fast as 12.5 miles/hour but if you live close to work you could commute on one of those.... ok maybe not in California, but still. So my conclusion is that it was purely a way of saying, "Hey we're cool cause not only are we on TV, but we're on Segways on TV." Grrr to them.