My So-Called Proxy Life

30 years old. A major turning point, or at least I think so. Age is probably just a meaningless number, but whatever. I don't have plans to celebrate my birthday because planning for such an event requires time and effort. Plus, I'd rather not have to make my friends come up with excuses for why they won't be able to attend. Maybe I'll go to Brewvies if they are showing anything I want to see. When your birthday is in the middle of a work week, it makes it difficult to do anything. My family won't be celebrating until this weekend, so I could draw this out for at least three or four days. My 30 th birthday will forever be marked by the theft of my catalytic converter and O2 sensor from my Jeep. Apparently theft of these, particularly on high-profile vehicles such as mine, are a quick sell to parts facilities. I've always wondered what type of business accepts an auto part with no proof of ownership. I mean, this obviously isn't a one-time occurrence for the...

About two weeks ago, I was pulled over while driving home from school. It was the first time I'd ever been pulled over by a cop, which made me a bit nervous. I wasn't speeding, didn't run a red light, and wasn't quite sure what I was being pulled over for. The cop walks up to my window and asks for my license and my insurance card. Shit . I handed him my license and told him that I did not have insurance, not yet anyway. I had been planning to get insurance with my tax return, which I had yet received. The cop was polite enough to give me a ticket and allowed me to go on home. Apparently the Department of Motor Vehicles had revoked my car's registration a day earlier. There was no way for me to know this, which is why the officer let me go without impounding my vehicle. In fact, I did not receive notification from the DMV until a couple days later, as they held onto the letter informing me of the revoked registration before finally mailing it (the date on the letter...

This is going to be a rather long-winded rant, but I need to get it out. Salt Lake Community College is fucking with me. Last semester (Fall 2008), I took 6 credit hours, the bare minimum to be considered part-time and subsequently eligible for financial aid. It was easy enough, and I expected two 'A's for the classes I had taken. But instead, I received one 'A' and one 'E', which is the collegiate equivalent of a "fail". Naturally I was annoyed by this, but little did I know what sort of shit I would have to wallow through to get it fixed. I e-mailed my professor right away to find out what happened. He explained that he had not seen any of my programs run in class. I couldn't understand this, as I had shown all but one of my programs run in class. I did not show him my final project because it was not completed. I talked to him about this, and he said to just upload the file to the website within a day and he would accept it. So I did just that. ...