Once again I have to praise the California DMV. In working to expedite everything over the past few years, they've built a comprehensive website, and created an appointment system, usable either online or on the phone. Renewing my car registration which expired today, I was in and out of the building in 15 minutes--and most of that time was being confused because the women hadn't heard me say I had an appointment, and gave me a non-appointment waiting number. When I went back to tell her, she gave me an appointment number which got called before I had a chance to sit down again.

Today's Housing Crash Blog has this SFGate story about the effects of long commutes on families. I'm amazed it takes these idiots a few years of damage to realize that kids need to have parental types around; but I'm not one to accuse the average person of being terribly bright. For reference, this is the commute of the folks in the article. As one of my friends says, "there is no universe where that's a normal commute".

I know everyone tries too hard to be hip sometimes, but the fact that it's the pro-abstinence monkeys this time makes this perfect.