that is all.

I finally make it back to the bigs and almost immediately land on the DL for 90 days. Life sucks sometimes.

It seems as though my time here at SG is drawing to a close. I don't exactly want to leave, but I find myself spending less and less time here as days go by. I still think it's a great place. A good portion of my friends here have moved on, and for those that haven't I'm in touch with them elsewhere. Sure, I could try to make new friends here, but as time goes by it seems I have less in common with the average member. I think that has as much to do with age as with anything else. I never thought I'd say it, but I think I'm too old for SG.

I'm sure I'll check in from time to time, and poke around in some of the groups, at least until my membership expires. If there is anyone here I'm not in contact with outside SG, search for Daniel Simpson Day on facebook. If I'm not likely to recognize you there, be sure to send me a message telling me who you are.

Goodbye SG, it's been fun.

I never know what to write anymore. I used to use this space for all sorts of stuff. It was rare for me to have less than an update a week. Looking at it now, this is my third update in three months. Impressive, no?

I had a scare yesterday. Someone driving a company vehicle triggered one of those red light cameras. The photo was very blurry, and resembled me. As it turns out, it was a vehicle that I do not drive, and it happened at a time when I am not at work, so it could not have been me. But, it did get me to thinking, what should I do should I receive one of these tickets? For that matter, what should friends do if they receive one. As it turns out, they seem rather easy to beat.

First thing to ask yourself, is it a real ticket?

As it turns out, many of the red light tickets issued from these cameras are not tickets at all. They are, rather, a fishing expedition, trying to get you to tell on yourself, or on someone else. Usually it happens in a case where the photo is not clear, or obviously is not the registered owner of the vehicle. How can you tell if it's a real ticket or not? Well, if it says anywhere on it "do not contact the court" then it is not real ticket and can safely be ignored. Also, if it is a real ticket, it will say somewhere on it "NOTICE TO APPEAR."

Second, is it you in the photograph?

If it is not, then it will be rather easy to get a dismissal. Often though, the police, or even the judge, will tell you that you are required to tell them who was driving your vehicle. This is 100% false. You cannot be made to divulge the identity of the driver.

If you are the driver pictured, don't give up hope. You can still sow doubt in the judge's mind and get it dismissed. Unless it is a crystal clear photograph, you can often win a dismissal.

Also, there are many more ways to beat these tickets. Of course, the information I gave above is just a general overview, and not at all rock solid proof. Do some research, and get all the facts before trying to beat one of these tickets. I've found this site to be most helpful: http://www.highwayrobbery.net/ I suggest that anyone living in California read and bookmark this site, especially with money as hard to come by as it is right now.

Seems every time I want to update that I have nothing to say.

Random update of randomness:

Crashes I've witnessed:

When I was a child, I was with my mother. We were at a red light. There was a car stopped next to us. The woman driving the car was eating some sort of popsicle type thing. For some reason, she started moving. I don't mean slowly rolling, I mean she stomped on the gas and took off. Needless to say, she got hit, hard. The most vivid memory I have of that is still the half eaten popsicle on the pavement.

On the way to work in heavy traffic one morning, some asshat decided it would be a good idea to pull in front of a big rig that was coming to a stop. It was a low speed crash so there were no injuries, but the car was beat up pretty badly. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving person.

I was driving along on a three lane road. All three lanes merged into one. The guy that ended up behind me didn't like that I was only doing 5 over the speed limit, and he let me know by tailgating me. On the next block a second lane was introduced. I moved over into it. Now, the new lane is forced to merge or turn right at the next light. I knew this when I got in it, and I was planning on turning right. The guy that had been behind me thought it would be a good idea to speed up so that I couldn't get back in front of him. The problem is, he was paying attention to me, instead of the cars that had come to a stop at the light in front of him. I feel badly for the pesrson he hit. People that inatentive should not be allowed to drive.

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Things I'm doing:

This years tobacco seeds are sprouting. Have about fifty seedlings so far. I a week or two it will be like 200.

Tomato seeds got planted yesterday. Probably should have started them a wee bit earlier, but they'll be fine.

Trying to put together a new resume today. I've been referred to a job that has far fewer responsibilities, more hours, and better pay than what I'm doing now. There's another company hiring, but for the same position I already have. It's more money and more hours so I'm applying there too. Hopefully I can get out of this shithole of a job I have right now.

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Went to the ruins of the St. Francis dam a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting. I took lots of pictures, but haven't had a chance for any editing yet. When I do get around to it, there will be pics.

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And that's really about all that's going on lately. I wish I had more to say.

I bought a guitar a few years ago, as a Christmas gift to myself. It cost me $1600 brand new. Apparently it's still being sold, only now it goes for $2250.

Well, with many hours of frustration finally behind me, I am again able to use my computer. That was insane.

Also, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I'm sorry that I'm too lazy to thank each of you personally.

Some time between yesterday and today, my computer picked up a nasty virus. Everytime I try to click a link from a google search, it takes me someplace completely different. Then, when I don't like what happened and try to close my browser, I get a little pop up window that says my computer is infected etc. From there, I hit alt+f4, and some sort of program starts scanning my computer. Alt+f4 one more time and everything finally closes. I've been trying to kill it with no luck. It all seems to be linked to a file named TUKIDEKA.DLL. I've found lots of nasty info on it. Man, this going to be fun. I hope I don't have to reimage.