by Matt | Aug 23, 2004 | Personal
Well, Saturday was my day in court for me speeding ticket. I couldn’t sleep the night before so I had gotten up in plenty of time to be extra early. I was able to see the roll call for the 8am docket and was able to see exactly how everything was going to work. Going early is something I’d suggest that everyone do the next time you get a ticket. It’ll give you a good idea about how lenient the judge is being, how not to talk to the judge when you’re up there, that sort of thing. I was glad I went because apparently traffic court in Texas is different than New Hampshire. Here, it’s a 3 step process if you’d like to say “not guilty”. In New Hampshire it was handled all at once. Let me explain. Here in Texas, if you get a ticket, for anything, you have to go to your arraignment trial, as if you’d committed a murder or something. At the arraignment you enter your plea: Guilty, Not Guilty or No Contest. That’s it. You don’t get to present evidence, you don’t get to ask the judge anything, you’re simply there to enter a plea. I found this out by watching a girl who was there for an expired registration try to explain to the judge why she didn’t have her car registered and the judge just kept saying “Mame, all I need is a guilty or not guilty from you.” Now, if you’re going to say “not guilty” the judge asks you if you want a trial by jury or by judge and then sets a court date for a “pre-trial”. This is what I had been to in New Hampshire. At the pre-trial, the cops are there to defend themselves, you get to ask questions, you get to present evidence. Then, if there’s enough stuff to go forward the judge will set yet another court date for your actual trial.
Since I had no plans on coming back to court a 2nd and 3rd time I figured the best course of action was to plead “no contest” and ask for leniency and defensive driving. It worked. For my speeding ticket all I had to pay is the court fee, which I’ll get to in a minute. As for my license plate, when the judge asked “guilty or not guilty” I said “I don’t know, I don’t believe it’s obstructed and I’ve taken the plate cover off but I don’t want to have a trial over it”. The judge kind of looked at me funny and said “ok… so you’ve taken it off, and its not obstructed anymore right?” “Yes your Honor” I said. “Well, since it’s a state fine I can’t dismiss it, but I can lower it to the court minimum of $5…. *slams gavel*… next case”.
So, $5 and defensive driving (which I can take over the internet). Not bad. I was pretty pleased at that point. The next step was to see the clerk at the end of the room and get my papers and be dismissed. Here I found out how much my “court fees” would be. $146. Ouch. $146 for myself to appear. How nice of them to charge me for using my civil rights to come to court. Then again, it’s cheaper than the tickets and I don’t get any points on my license in the end, so it all worked out I guess. I might even take the DD course today, since it is my day off and I’m just sitting here in front of the computer anyway.
That’s about it guys, that was my drama for the weekend.
Oh, and I just want to say a little “good luck” to Nagle, who’ll be heading back to SCAD in a little bit. He survived the hurricane last week and now goes back to try and survive the freshmen hurricane that is the Savannah College of Art and Design. What’cha figure SCAD is, a category 5? I’d say that’s about right. Anyway, good luck to you sir.
Now, wheres my Doom 3 disk….?
by Matt | Aug 21, 2004 | Imported Entry
Can someone tell me what on earth this means?
Have I already asked this before?
by Matt | Aug 17, 2004 | Imported Entry
A group of us had gone out west of the city to a place called the Alamo Draft House on Sunday. It’s the dinner AND movie sort of place. It’s a good concept when it works and since we weren’t really interested in the movie anyway we figured it would be a good combo. We’ve been there several times and never had any sort of problem. Until Sunday that is.
After buying tickets for Lauren and I we went into the lobby and waited for our other friends to follow. After a minute we realized Sherzan wasn’t with us. So we went back outside. Apparently they had carded him and he didn’t have his drivers license on him. He did have a student ID but it didn’t have his birthday on it. So, after not getting a strait answer from the ticket counter as to WHY they weren’t selling him a ticket we asked for the manager. When he come out he seems annoyed and very non-helpful. He said, as bluntly as possible, “We’re a bar, if he doesn’t have an ID we can’t let him in.” At this point I got really pissed. This wasn’t a bar, its a movie theater that happens to have beer on it’s menu. I spoke up and asked that since he wasn’t drinking could I buy his ticket. That didn’t go over well either. After going back and forth with the manager for a few minutes I finally said “fine, then we’re all returning our tickets, you just lost $60.” I couldn’t really believe it. First, we were going to see AvP, which is PG13, which shouldn’t require an ID anyway. Second, plenty of places that are considered “bars” don’t card unless you order something with alcohol in it. Applebee’s for example. The full name of that restaurant is “Applebee’s BAR and Grill”. Do they card you at the door? No. So, then I thought that maybe the state is making them uphold rules for a 21+ club or something. But wait, there’s no on at the door checking IDs. Also, they let children in by the score, and children don’t have IDs. So, they’re not a “club” and don’t have an age limit and their not a bar and apparently their not much of a movie theater either. I guess they’re making up their own rules or something. What if I wanted to take my imaginary 12 year old brother to see a kids movie? Would they card my brother? No of course not. They can’t have it both ways. They can’t be a “bar” and not let people in but yet let people in and be a “theater”. They have to pick one. Or, I guess they don’t. They can be ass-holes all they want and they just won’t get my money. Ever again. And you know what, I’ve never been carded there before. Never.
So, instead, we went 10 minutes down the road, had some tasty Mexican food instead and then went to the other nearby theater and used our student IDs to get in for $5. So there, suck that Alamo Draft House.
Monday was less eventful. Lauren and I watched the original Manchurian Candidate and The Apartment. I was supposed to play in a match last night as well but I was put on Stand-By/Reserve so I didn’t end up having to.
Oh, and a big thank you to Jason for mentioning the Streetlight Manifesto album a little while back. It’s fantastic.
by Matt | Aug 11, 2004 | Imported Entry
Before I get to my trip I wanted to run an idea by you guys… what would you think about me adding a stripped down version of phpBB instead of using MTs comment system. I think the customization options would be very usable, I could have admin control and maintain a user-base without upgrading to MT3.0 and you guys could have more control over your posts (in terms of avatars, text options, that sort of thing). It’s a super simple installation and I could probably be up and running over a weekend. I would still use MT for posting but have a link to a forum thread below the post for comments. So… whatcha think?
Now, on to the meat and potatoes. Lauren and I will be coming in at about 10pm on Thursday the 30th. Obviously I’ll be a bit tired and will probably just go right to bed. The next 4 days are up for grabs. I’d obviously like to visit both Chip and Chris, my grandparents, Newbury Comics, the New Balance outlet, the North End and Polly Pancake Parlor. Anyone up for any of those excursions is obviously welcome. Since my folks have moved a bit north it’ll probably be easier to mill-around in Manchester or Concord. I also probably won’t have a car. I haven’t decided about renting one yet but more than likely I won’t. Also, any requests for Texas-ish things should be mentioned in the near future and I’ll do my best to bring’em to you guys. I don’t think a WhataBurger will make it though. Sorry. Also, if you guys can think up anything else that might be cool to do, please, by all means, let me know. We’ll be flying out Tuesday afternoon. I wish it wasn’t such a short visit but it’s the best I could manage. I can’t wait to be back home and visit you guys. It’ll be good to see hills and mountains 😉
Ok. At work, gotta run.
by Matt | Aug 10, 2004 | Travel
Get ready boys and girls. MATTS COMIN’ HOME.
Yours truly will descend upon New England on the 1st of October. Clear your calendars folks.
More later. I promise.
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