Tag Archive for 'california'

DMV-Brand Glue

Published
by
Brendon J. Wilson
on September 29, 2004
in Personal and Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

I thought the previous experience with the DMV was the most aggravating experience I’d ever have to endure. I was wrong. Why? Because I got a letter today from the DMV today requesting more information to support my previous car registration application. For the third time. Since January.

When I first arrived in California, I dutifully attempted to register my car at the California DMV. California requires you to register your car within 20 days of arrival - something that is impossible to do given the DMV’s totally inconvenient hours of operations. Nevertheless, Ashley and I trudged into the DMV, armed with our vehicle, proof of vehicle ownership, smog certificate, proof of identity, proof of compliance with US safety standards, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. After filling out the paperwork and letting a DMV employee verify the car’s VIN (vehicle identification number), we got our new California plates and were done. A few days later we got our temporary registration sticker in the mail. Easy, right? A little too easy…

A few weeks later, it started.

We got a letter in the mail from the DMV stating that we had failed to provide proof that the car was compliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and US EPA emission regulations. Despite the fact that we had provided them with the requisite letter from Toyota, as instructed. Oh, and we also forgot to provide a smog certificate - except that we had provided it to them in person, as instructed. Oh, and that we needed to provide a Customs form that showed that the car had passed Customs inspection - despite the fact that we drove into California, and had been told by a US Customs officer no such declaration would be necessary.

Fine. We gathered up the paperwork required. I even went out the SFO to get US Customs to provide the required Customs declaration - even though they didn’t know what form was required, why the DMV would require that form, and lost our application for that form. But we got it all together and sent it in.

A few weeks later, we got another letter. This time, the DMV required our VIN to be verified by a peace officer - despite the fact that they already had the VIN in their computer, and that it had been put there by a DMV employee. I took a quick trip to the Mountain View Police Department, interrupted a police officer from doing real work, got the form filled out, and sent the paperwork back to the DMV. Again.

Then today, we got another letter from the DMV. This time, the DMV wants the original application for vehicle registration. The original registration that we handed to the DMV employee, and that got returned to us with our temporary registration sticker? The same.

This is ridiculous. California is struggling to recover from crippling debt, debt that has required a $15 billion bond offering to keep the state afloat. I think I now understand the source of the problem - then again, it’s the same problem everywhere. Extremely Stupid Bureaucracy™: the glue that holds together the gears of our economy.

Life In The Bubble

Published
by
Brendon J. Wilson
on May 25, 2004
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

My father once got lost in an IKEA, though he’d probably vehemently deny it if you asked him. Round and round he went, somehow skipping the stairs down into the Marketplace and looping instead through the restaurant to end up back where he started. You know what I’m talking about - every IKEA is the same. In fact, the IKEA in East Palo Alto is a disturbingly exact replica of the IKEA in Coquitlam, perhaps to prevent the kind of panic attacks that a sealed biosphere populated by particle board furniture and umlauts wreaks on the average male. You need the equivalent of a video game walkthrough guide to escape IKEA intact and financially solvent.

I had a bubble moment of my own last Friday while attending Shrek 2. In the stolen moments (stolen by the movie execs, not me, you can be sure) between the lights dimming and the start of the main feature, something struck me. I realized that every movie being advertised had been produced within the state of California. Pixar had an ad for its new movie - they’re in Emeryville, about an hour away. Disney and a few other Hollywood studios had their latest offerings on display - a mere five-hour drive away.

And, of course, the main feature itself was a cultural ouroboros, with numerous allusions to popular culture, most of which originated in some form or another in either LA or Hollywood. Weird.

Everywhere you look, there’s a reference to California in one form or another - it’s all-encompassing, but until you’re here you don’t really realize the origin of just about everything is Californian in one sense or another. When we first arrived, people asked how I was adjusting to life in the valley - I responded it hadn’t been much of a transition at all. After all, which magazines do I read? Which websites do I monitor regularly? Which inventors had I grown up admiring? A lot of them were located here in Silicon Valley. Not much of a cultural shock, when you think about it.

However, it’s not all 3D-animated ogres and pre-pubescent Internet multi-millionaires. While the importance and creativity of California can not be questioned (especially given it’s the eighth largest economy in the world), there are downsides to being in the Center Of The Universe. For one thing, the TV news is decidedly inward focused - I’d be hard-pressed to remember seeing an international story (beyond Iraq, which doesn’t count) since I arrived. I can’t blame California - when you’re the center of the universe, why do you care about what’s going in the outside world?

Well, I care. And that’s something I need to keep reminding myself about so I don’t get star-struck and forget about the rest of the world.