do you hate your drivers license photo?

If you're like me, you would rather stick a pen in your eye than to show anyone your drivers license photo. I don't know a single person who's ever said, "I actually like the picture on my drivers license. It really brings out my best features."

A colleague of mine has a spouse who works at the DMV. I asked her to ask him why the photo always looks so lousy. Here's what he said:

Don't forget that the photo is meant to identify, not to flatter a person.

At our local DMV office, the single lamp they have to light my face is to the left, and slightly above my line of sight.

Pretty much at the same angle as the flashlight the cop would be using were he to pull me over at night.
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gay brains like women's

New reports suggest that the brains of gay men show similarities to those of women.

I can hear it now on the playground:

"Hey, Johnny! You think like a girl!"
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just go get a better car

In Sept of 2005, I wrote, (sarcastically, of course,) "So, gas is three dollars a gallon in the US. Of course, Europeans have been paying the equivalent of over five dollars a gallon for years, but everything's closer together in Europe, so it really doesn't matter."

Today, gas is over $4 a gallon in the US, and climbing. I read that gas is about $8.67 in France.

Also in Sept, 2005, I wrote, more seriously, "When today's cars become prohibitively expensive to repair in ten years, what will people of 'lesser means' drive?"

Today I'm hearing more and more stories about people not being able to afford the gas to drive to work and back. Let's say your car gets 30 MPG and you live 30 miles from work. In Sept '05, when gas was $3 a gallon, it cost you about $120 a month to commute to work. Today it would cost you about $160 a month, or $40 more. Are you getting at least $40 per month more than you did in '05?

Now consider a single mom who also drives 30 miles to work, but she drives an old clunker that gets 15 MPG. In '05 it cost her $240 a month, and now it costs her $320 - eighty dollars a month more. Let's just hope her boss gave her a big raise recently to help her cover her transportation costs. (By the way, in Sept '04 it cost her about $86.50 a month for gas.)

So what's the mom to do? Well, she can find a job closer to home. Or she can move her family closer to her work. Or she can trade her old clunker in for a more cost-effective hybrid car that gets 50 MPG.

Or CAN she?
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low credit score? bring a book

Did you hear that now they'll be checking your credit score as you walk into the emergency room to determine your ability to pay for services?

"Yes, Mrs Johnson! Please have a seat in the waiting room on the left! The doctor will be with you shortly!"

"OK, Mr Lewis. Take a seat in the waiting room on your right. We'll call your name as soon as a doctor becomes available."
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remember the drive-in movies?

Over the Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I went to the drive-in movies.

Check out our experience here.

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jessie's girl

So I'm listening to Rick Springfield's song, Jessie's Girl, and I come across these lyrics:

Where can I find a woman like that
And I'm lookin' in the mirror all the time,
Wondering what she don't see in me

Then it occurs to me, "Rick, maybe she might see more in you if you weren't always lookin' in the mirror all the time."
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