ohh good grief.

Today, I got home early and mentally prepared myself before heading off to the saddest place on earth (essentially the anti-disneyland). I sat in my room, said a little prayer, picked up my papers, and trudged the 4 blocks over to the Davis DMV. You see, I received a letter in the mail saying that my license was going to expire on my birthday this year. Since I had opted to mail in my renewal last time, I have no choice but to go and face the sheer circus-side-show that is the DMV line (apparently you can only opt out once).

Did you ever grow up watching Charlie Brown? Charlie would always try to kick the football, and Lucy would always persuade him that she would hold it for him, only to pull it away at the last minute when he winds up to kick so he’ll fall flat on his butt. Then, the next time he’ll go kick the football, Lucy will do the same thing. And the next, and the next. Each time, she manages to persuade him that this time it’ll be different.

Every time I go to the DMV, I keep telling myself that this time will be better. This time I’ll make an appointment and that will make the wait much less awful and I’ll be in and out in a jiffy. I keep telling myself that I’ll be able to submit my form and not have to pull a number and wait in one of those orange plastic chairs that only 145,626,345 butts have been on previously (I don’t imagine the happy people at the DMV are wiping these down with purell daily). And so with semi-confidence…I make an appointment using their online system, trying to assuage that lump in my throat that, hey, I made an appointment this time so everything’s gravy.

This time was no different. Of course they couldn’t find my appointment. Of course I had my confirmation number and of course they said oops they must’ve not synced with their system. Of course I had to pull a ticket. Of course I had to sit on the diseased orange seat. Of course the change of address needs to be in blue pen. Of course it ended up taking an hour and a half.


To get a new driver’s license.


Even though I look the same as I did the last time.


And my eye color is still the same.


And my ethnicity didn’t change since the last time.


**sigh**


I believe the words I’m looking for are: oohh good grief.

the quantifiable burden of being single

I suppose you can say being single isn't easy. I think from many different aspects it's hard to specify exactly what's so difficult about it...after all it is a person's natural state for most of growing up. But i think a person always wants to have someone else to share in life's joys and struggles. There seems to be a certain burden of being single. But I will be the first to admit...I'm absolutely horrible at talking about the feelings and all that stuff. I'm more of a numbers person, so I like things I can quantify. For the feelings stuff, maybe check out someone else's blog. Instead, we're going to look at singleness from a societal point of view. So today's topic isn't going to be matters of the heart, where feelings and stuff rule. We're going to look at quantifiable aspects, and see where society's bias is pitted against the single person.

Recently I came across an article in the atlantic that detailed the costs of being single in this country. The point of the article was to spell out the bias that is generally given toward married couples. The numbers did not look pretty for a single guy in his latter-twenties. Essentially, the point of the article was to say that society in general is geared in favor of married couples, which I can understand. After all, I believe that God created marriage as something special, and I believe that marriage is sacred and something society should do to protect. I don’t know if I can agree with apportioning societal benefits toward married folks that single people like me are blocked from receiving. We’ll call this the single tax.

The single tax is levied across the board. It’s a well-documented fact that there are certain income tax benefits to being married. A married person filing jointly will pay less than a single person. But it’s not just income tax related. Hotel rooms are cheaper when it’s for couples than for individuals in a single room. Vacation packages are cheaper for two, healthcare is cheaper for dependents, even Costco memberships come in twos (btw they specify that it’s for couples or family). So what’s a single guy to do? We pay more for that vacation, we dole out more for health insurance, and we get that Costco membership for two (even though it’s for one). And of course, we file individually on our tax return and pay more than our married counterparts. Yes, this is the single tax that society levies on regular hardworking single folks like me.

Now, we get to the fun part. I remember blogging about the veil of ignorance a while back. The implication is that we must block out our own socio-economic standing when designing any kind of social structure. Basically, John Rawls says that in order to get social equality, one must don a veil of ignorance. So let’s apply that principle here: imagine you are not yet born – you have no idea whether you will be married, or if you are destined to be single for life – now, design a social structure based on that view.

Now let’s look at it from a different point of view. Let’s look at the downstream impacts of societal benefits given to married individuals. Instead of calling it a single tax, let’s view the societal benefits of marriage as marriage incentives. Should society be in a position to dole out marriage incentives? Marriage should be a sacred thing, one created by God between a man and a woman who love each other. Does incentivizing marriage achieve that? I would think no. I think getting married for the wrong reasons is destructive, and we shouldn’t do anything to encourage marrying for wrong reasons. As a single person, I think I will be ready to marry when the time is right, and there shouldn’t be any outside factors even remotely coming into play. I certainly shouldn’t be penalized for taking longer to marry than another person.

Having societal benefits for married couples and a corresponding penalty for being single can be viewed as downright discriminatory. Granted many people will marry, but they don’t all do it at the same age and some don’t marry at all. Are they destined to pay more for their singleness? I know I may not be persuading many people with this argument, but I leave you with this parting observation. I am 5’10”, and according to studies, the average American male stands at 5’9½”. Suppose we are feeling a bit generous and offer a tax break to all males that are 5’8” and over. You may eventually get to 5’8”, and at that point you will get the tax break. If you never reach 5’8”, well, that sucks i suppose. Doesn't seem fair does it?

I don’t need to be a clothing designer to know this is dumb…

The other day I was at Costco picking up some random stuff, and I walked by the clothing section to check out some of their sock/undershirt selection (the white Kirkland shirts are really comfy). Anyways, I noticed they had these new v-neck 4-packs for a decent price, and since I was in a need of undershirts, I thought I’d give them a shot.

Even though it didn’t say tagless on the packaging, a quick peek through the clear plastic packaging confirmed that the salient details of the shirt (size, material, wash directions) were printed on the inside back of the neck area. Sweet. I picked up one white pack and went on my merry way. Yesterday I decide to give one of the shirts a try. I put it on, and it wasn’t bad…a little thinner than the Kirkland ones, but all in all pretty comfy. I threw on the rest of my clothes and headed out the door, ready to tackle the day.

Around noon, my shoulder felt a little weird. You know that feeling after a haircut when you have all those little hairs from the back of the neck that gets cut and fall down the back of your shirt and just gets kinda irritating? Well, it was that feeling. The odd thing was, this the undershirt was new, so how did little hairs get down to where my shoulders were?? So I step inside the bathroom and had a quick look… and guess what I found?!

Apparently this shirt isn’t tagless!!

it would've been better had the tag carried something useful...
or at least info that wasn't redundant...

As it turns out, even though the care instructions of the shirt were printed on the back of the neck, for some odd reason the manufacturer of this shirt decided to put another tag in, and just for kicks, they put it on the inside seam of the left shoulder. Now, if you will all join me in a collective group building “what the heck?!” In this day and age of tagless shirts and undies, who in their right mind chooses to design a shirt that goes tagless in the back of the neck, only to put another one in at the shoulder??

We can probably add this to the collection of things that make you go “huh?”

the worst week in davis

The best week in davis was two weeks ago…all the students had cleared out (presumably to terrorize the bay area and parts of socal), some of the locals were on vacation, and Davis was a quiet little ghost town where restaurant lines were manageable and driving through downtown didn’t include much risk of running over pedestrians (stopping for pedestrians is a good thing OF COURSE).

Well…that was two weeks ago. This week, well, it’s the end of everything good in davis. The students return en masse to wreak havoc on the town, flooding downtown davis cafés once again with their rowdy behavior and macbook totin’ presence. Parking at trader joe’s has once again become non-existent. The line at chipotle is now permanently out the door, and good luck trying to get a haircut at supercuts. Oh…did I mention the pool hall closes this week for winter-quarter book sales??

Wooosahhhh…

I suppose there is an unseen side to all of this…more students in town means more sales-tax revenue, which means the city can finally pay the landscaper to trim the grass at the local park so we can play ultimate frisbee and not worry about being tripped up by overgrown grass, which means less $ spent on pain-killers, which means lower profits for the pharmaceutical companies that make painkillers, which means layoffs at said pharm companies, which means the guy who was gonna send his son to Stanford or UOP will now be sending him to a public school like UC Davis, which means…yep you guessed it…more students (I love my logic sometimes…).

Post hoc ergo propter hoc…it’s a vicious cycle.

how does something like this happen??

Ok...I tried to hold it in for all of 20 minutes, but I can't anymore...strap yourselves in, we're going on a rant...

I honestly don't understand our helpdesk people these days. I understand that some of the helpdesk work has been offshored to india to save money...that's cool i guess. But I also expect that the ones who stay state-side should be better people (or at least the more experienced ones). So how exactly does this following conversation be allowed to happen??


Helpdesk Lady: Hi, how can I help you today?

Me: Hi, i'm calling on behalf of one of my accountants. She just got her system ID setup, and needs to call in to the HD to get her password for the first time. The thing is, she's hearing-impaired so I'm calling on her bahalf.

HDL: Ok, I'm sorry, but she will need to call in.

Me: She can't, she's hearing impaired. Can you tell me the password and I can relay it to her?

HDL: I'm sorry I can't do that.

Me: Ok, can you use office communicator to chat with her and give her the password over chat?

HDL: I'm sorry I can't do that. She's going to have to call in.

Me: She's hearing-impaired, she can't call in. So at this point, what happens now? She needs the ID, and can't call in. Is there any other way to do this? Can you email it to her?

HDL: I'm sorry, but we can't do that either. Does she speak english? Can you put her on the phone?

Me: (at this point my patience starts to run thin) Uhm, sure, we can put her on. I do have to note that I've read somewhere online that sign language doesn't always carry well over the phone.

HDL: I'm sorry, but unless she comes on the phone I can't help you.


OHH MY GOODNESS!! Even after me stating in no uncertain terms that she is hearing-impaired...how the heck did this conversation progress to the way it is now?? *sigh* ok rant's over. Have a good day.