Time for a New Poll

Merely for archival purposes, and to clear the way for a new poll:


I must admit the slightest bit of surprise that yellow didn't get a single vote, and also that red received so few. I didn't realize green was so popular. But at least blue was a close second.

A Tale of Two Tickets

Once upon a time it was 26 February 2009. I was running quite late to a group meeting at school (I feel bad being late to these meetings, even though this last semester required soooo many of them, and my group understood I had the commute, but I still wanted to be on time). Just heading down the road in Pleasant Grove on the way to the freeway entrance, when I noticed a cop car right there on the side of the road. I hadn't realized I was speeding, but immediately slowed down, but not soon enough, since the lights came on, the siren sounded and I was pulled over. Cop-in-Training and her illustrious trainer wrote me up the ticket and hopefully met their quota for that day. I'm a grown-up, I can accept that I was speeding and deal with the consequences (even though if there hadn't been training going on, and if either of them actually knew what they were doing, I might have been let off with a warning, since the roads were deserted and it was still quite early). They offered me the option of traffic school, which I was glad to take, but there's a catch, and evidently only here in Pleasant Grove, which I will outline shortly... I moved on, I drove cautiously, I watched my speed, etc. etc.

Flash forward four weeks (there was no way I was going to traffic school on the day they had available while Julie was in town), when I was yet again heading to school, just the tiniest bit late. As I was slowly passing the junction where I had been previously pulled over, I said to myself, with a grim chuckle, "Wouldn't it be so funny if I were pulled over on the very day I have to go to traffic school?" Of course, such a thing wouldn't have been funny at all, and, as I found out not five minutes later, it certainly was NOT funny. On the road leading right up to the onramp, I saw an obstruction in the road. A cop had parked his car in the right lane with his lights on, and standing in the left lane, letting some cars pass and waving others to park on the curb of the road off to the right. I was among these (along with two others), and he proceeded to write us each and all a speeding ticket...

Allow me to rant a minute here. Like I said, I had been driving quite cautiously after my most recent incident, carefully observing the speed limits. Why didn't I "learn my lesson" the first time, some have asked me? I did. On this most bright and sunny morning when I and two others were singled out for no apparent reason by a cop picking us out of the crowd like a raptor, I was easily following the flow of traffic. One of his cohorts must have been a mile or two back on the road and calling in license plate numbers, it's the only solution I can think of, how he would know who to pull over, even though the entire selection process, as I said, seems to have been arbitrary. I guess I was made an example of on this day. I explained to him very nicely how I've been so careful lately because of my recent incident and asked him please for a warning this one time, but he explained oh so eloquently that he had already written tickets for the other two people parked behind me, so if he took mine off he would have to take theirs off. This is the weakest explanation ever, man. Just tell me I earned my ticket and hand it over if you're going to, don't make up some lamesauce reason.

So that night, I left school early to make it back to the Pleasant Grove library for the most thrilling two hours of my entire life--traffic school. Now, although I haven't been ticketed for a moving violation in probably five years, there was a time when I attended a session or two of traffic school, and as I said, there is something certainly different about PG's way of doing things in this department. Originally you could either just pay the ticket and take the ding on your record and/or insurance, or you could pay the traffic school enrollment fee and forego having any ramifications on your record. The city still gets their money, and you have a few options with which to be served your consequences. Gone are these days. You pay your way to traffic school, sure enough, but now you have to pay the traffic school fee and the ticket. (The fact that no other cities in the surrounding areas have this system was brought up in the class, to no satisfactory explanation.) We suspect the PGPD is looking to up their income or something, and this theory was confirmed to me when I walked into the basement theater of that library and found a SRO situation with over 120 people. As I said, I've been to traffic school before--there area a handful, maybe even a dozen people there, hating their life temporarily, sitting through the guilt-trip and boring statistics, and looking to get on with their life. This time the class was largely the same, but the class size was vastly different. I tried to calculate just how much they made from that one session of traffic school, but I decided I didn't want to fuel my anger on this day any more than it already was. To make matters worse, the class was much longer than it needed to be due to certain individuals asking question after inane, unnecessary question. *sigh*

Then, not even two weeks later I went to sign up for traffic school yet again, since, after all, it had been offered to me as an option to keep my record clear. Imagine my surprise when my ticket had been processed prematurely, and not only that, but when they pulled it out, it had been marked with a great big "Ineligible" across the top. Apparently (though no one in that office seemed to know for sure... seriously, get it together, people) you can only attend traffic school every six months (or something). I personally think that whether or not the cop knew that I was planning on attending traffic school that night, if he offered me traffic school, I should be afforded the opportunity (wouldn't it have shown up on my record when he took a million hours looking me up in his car?). As it was, I guess I had no option but to take the hit this time and grumble about my fate. I hate to complain, but I seriously feel I was misinformed and singled out this time. I can take my medicine, but I usually prefer to do so when I'm actually sick.

Not only that, but when I paid the first time they told me they don't take the perfectly valid American Express card I had with me!!! WTH kind of establishment is this anyway?

Well done, Pleasant Grove, you managed to procure some cash out of this pocket. I hope you use it to look for some people actually endangering the lives of the fair city's citizens. I don't know if your purpose is to make drivers cautious or just paranoid, but if it's the latter, congratulations, I'm certainly driving most uncomfortably these days.

An Unexpected Bit of Encouraging News

I promise, updates on life are coming up...

As much as it pains me to even mention this subject again on here so soon, this story just begged for a good blogging.

While I have my issues with Deseret Book and some of the products they insist on carrying (as well as some of the products they have historically refused to carry, for inexplicable or ridiculous reasoning), it seems, at least in my view, they've finally done something right: According to this article in the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret Book has pulled all Twilight books off the shelves (and even their website!), indicating that these books will only be available by special order. Rumors naturally abound, including some that intimate that SM stole the idea from a former roommate years ago and that she's facing a lawsuit, but she debunks the suing rumor on her blog. Personally, I think DB just finally realized the books have adult content aimed at a teeny-bopper demographic and that they're peddling smutty, alluring, mediocre romance novels. I think it's a little shameful if any of them are hiding behind a ruse of legalities. Just stick up for the standards which your institution is supposed to espouse in the first place and call a spade a spade!

Now and then the universe seems to make sense.

I can't help but feel my opinion has been just the slightest bit validated.

UPDATE: The SL Trib website seems not to be featuring this as a main article anymore, so I decided to post the blurb just in case any further deletions from the website are made... Oh, the politics:

Deseret Book demotes 'Twilight'

Posted:04/22/2009 11:57 AM

By Ben Fulton

The Salt Lake Tribune

Twlight series author Stephenie Meyer broke with horror-novel tradition when she created vampire characters impervious to the sun.

Deseret Book, however, has decided that Meyer's best-selling vampire romance books will no longer see the light of day -- at least on the shelves of its chain stores. Customers may instead request Meyer's 2005 novel Twilight -- or its three companion volumes, New Moon , Eclipse and Breaking Dawn -- by special order for either store pick-up or delivery by mail.

"We're never really given a reason for these things," said Steve Hartvigsen, manager of the Deseret Book store at Valley Fair Mall. "We just get a return sheet and send books back."

Owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the bulk of Deseret Book's business comes from the sale of religious titles. Meyer, who graduated from Brigham Young University after earning a bachelor's degree in English, is a member of the church.

The Tyranny is Over!

I guess I may be exaggerating a bit with the title of this blogpost. All I really mean is that finals are at last at an end, and perhaps this last seemingly eternal semester will fade into oblivion and will ever remain a deep, dark memory. Of course, the equally seemingly eternal runaround regarding my tuition still hasn't been resolved, and it is NOT my bad. (Sometimes I wonder if the Financial Aid office is run by students or children.) Anyway, I do have so much to blog about, and I really have wanted to keep people more apprised of what's been happening, but time has not been on my side. I don't think any semester in my seven (yes, seven) years at BYU has kept me as busy, or seemed as long. Honestly, I'm pretty sure February was the longest month of my entire life (never again will I underestimate the shortness of this strange month). These last three weeks I was pretty much useless in classes, especially after I didn't get into my grad program, which had been a significant driving factor to perform well. But I persevered, even though it took everything in me to stay motivated until the end, which I did. My finals even turned out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself (I even scored a "Great job!" on the scores screen at the end of my Psychological Testing final, a thing which I do believe I never had accomplished yet).

Anyway, don't give up on me, and I promise this blog will be chock-full of drama aplenty, just like we're all used to, in no time at all.

Drawing Closer

The title of this post could mean a great many things at this point in my life, but even though I've been rather busy and have a lot of things to post about, this one simply could not wait:



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough said!!!

And coming up: Life after finals.

Snow in April

... And I have no complaints.

Happy birthday, Gred and Forge!

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

So the first couple weeks of March were pretty cold, The Girl comes for her Spring Break and it warms right up, and the day she leaves (and nearly every day thereafter), we get dumped with snow and icy winds. Coincidence? You be the judge.

So yes, the time has come for my report of Ntsuj Hli's visit to Utah. First of all, I've never before wanted so badly to have an actual Spring Break. It is nice that BYU gets out for summer earlier than most other colleges, but at the same time, this semester especially, I really could have used a few days off. Still, I had planned carefully and done some reading and homework in order to be a little bit ahead so I wouldn't have to worry about as much while Julie was here, which ended up working out pretty well.

Julie's visit to Utah was so well-timed and turned out to be just what I needed, so I certainly must give a report here on the blog. People have been asking about how we met and etc. etc., and I'll report on that at a later date, since I project this blogpost will be long enough as it is! Julie did a great blogpost about her visit (borrowing the Top 10 idea I used for my visit to Rolla), so feel free to visit that, but for my purposes, I'm going to go day by day and point out a couple highlights. (There are a lot more pictures on facebook, if anyone has desires to see more.)

Friday:

• We picked her up at the airport at 10 pm! It was glorious! We kissed! She loved the roses! Her bags arrived in a timely fashion!
  
• We drove with Mom and Dad up to Logan.

Saturday:

• We ran the Shamrock Shuffle in Logan with Mom and Grandma. I had a new PR and Julie won a prize for having come the furthest distance!

• We had a nice visit and lunch with Grandma and Grandpa (despite a momentary health crisis that resolved later that day).
• We stopped at a friend of Julie's reception in Salt Lake on the way home. It was the best wedding cake I have had in quite some time. We also inadvertently kind of convinced this random guest that Julie made each and every one of the desserts available (including mint brownies, e'claires and lemon bars).
• We rolled some killer egg rolls with Cami, Jake and Mom in eager anticipation of the next day's family festivities.
• I introduced Julie to The Hudsucker Proxy, one of my favorite-ever movies.

Sunday:

• Family festivities! We had a great Asian spread to celebrate my and Jonny's birthdays. Those egg rolls were fantastic, I tell you! Once you've had Hmong egg rolls, you do't go back!!!

Monday:

• Julie came with me to school. She found ways to occupy the couple hours of class that I attended. It was relatively painless, and while it was really painful to know that she and I were apart for the 50-minute-at-a-time sessions, it was also really nice to know that she would be waiting for me when I walked out. It has ruined me for the rest of the semester.
• 'Twas my birthday of all days! She gave me the DVD of Enchanted, which I insisted we watch immediately (for those who know much about her, you know this particular gift is fairly significant).

Any noticed similarity in appearance between Giselle and Julie has been duly noted.

Tuesday:

• Julie managed to get a little bit of a sunburn while reading on the grass outside of class. Like I said, there was sunshine when she was here.
  
• After class I took Julie to have her first serving of pho (or fawm, more specifically). It's good to know that a good bowl of fawm can be found in Provo, though it's nothing compared to home-made.

• I tried to take my Hmong quiz and was refused admittance for not having shaved... I mean, refused. Considering I have taken a quiz in this wanna-be mini-testing center with much more scruff than that, this inspired an experiment.
  

Wednesday:

• We took a nice trip to the Bean Museum! It was full of lovely rooms of death! We took many gooey pictures there! She photo-documented me reacting in turn to a hilarious voice note from Jared and an incredible phone call from Emily telling me amazing news!

She really loves dioramas. What's not to love, really?

What the heck? Ligers are bred for their skills in magic.

Julie volunteered as a subject in a psychological activity for my group. She was shaped to perform a behavior quite nicely.

• I took my Hmong quiz at a different time and the girl said nary a word about my scruff, though I brought my razor just in case.

I actually do love a Jamba Juice in the afternoon.

• We had a nice visit to the gym where Julie dropped a few pick-up lines when I showed up on the treadmill next to her. Also she exaggerated greatly to the steam room and insisted she could not breathe.
• At long last, Julie joined us for the gathering of The LOST Club! It was such an incredible episode, but the experience was enhanced further by the company.

• We watched Mamma Mia! and I was slightly surprised that Julie enjoyed it as much as she did.

Thursday:

• Skipped school! I'm so hardcore. We helped move some of Cami's stuff into their new (temporary) place in Lehi.

*pines*

Oh, the emo.

No need to pine or emo! We're just a couple of living emoticons out on the town.

• We visited the new Cedar Hills Wal-Mart on its opening day of all days. It's... a Wal-Mart.

The greeter at the new Wal-Mart was the strong, silent type.

• We had a really nice dinner at Olive Garden with Liza and Kent, dear friends from many years ago. Olive Garden... It is amazing.

Friday:

• Skipped school again! It was awesome. We spent all day watching North & South.

• We played laser tag with two dozen friends and family! It was kind of a belated birthday celebration, and so well-attended! I placed so low! But I have an idea about why my score was so low, and I have a lot of ideas about strategy improvement. Next time, beware, one and all!

Fierce! And ready for action.

• We had Bajio with Mom and Dad. It was really delish.

• We watched Hairspray, which Julie didn't like as much as Mamma Mia! but still didn't hate as much as I expected her to. I wanted to make it a sort of musical marathon, but she put her foot down about Dreamgirls. Another day... soon...

Saturday:

• We had a really great lunch at Tucano's with Elise, Jeff and Mike. I ate more than I remember eating in one sitting in my life. But it was so nice-tasting. How do they have such great meat and such a nice salad bar?

• We had to crash on the grass at the Riverwoods for a while, so we took that opportunity to do a little photo shoot. We are attractive indeed.

• We watched the hideous monstrosity that I just recently blogged about, so I won't even mention its accursed name.
• We dreaded the next morning.

Sunday:

• All good things must come to an end. Temporarily.

Look! She's in my house!

It was a great, great ten days. And, like I said, the next morning brought snow. I really don't mind snow, it was just kind of amazing timing. And I am ruined for the next three weeks of school. May, why don't you hurry it up and get over here??