I am officially poor

Yesterday, I got some really good news. I got my financial aid report back and it said my expected family contribution was 00000. I've been unemployed since I left the Navy in Dec of 02 so I'm glad it finally caught up with me. Only took them two years... cute huh?

In other financial related news, I would like to report, for those of you who don't know, that Virginia is more then likely the Devil's country. They mailed me a bill for 550 dollars two days ago. They say I owe property tax on my car. Yes folks that is correct, Virginia, the bastion of Republican values, charges a tax on vehicles. God bless New York state. I have never, in fact, been a resident of Virginia. I was, in the military and I was stationed there and I did buy a car there.


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(my car doesn't have a sun roof or those neato little air injected hood thinga ma bobs)

It was the city of Hampton that sent me the letter. I bought my car in Bahrain and had it custom built. It was delivered on my return to some Pontiac dealer in Va Beach and I registered it there. They also sent me a rude letter many moons ago and I went to Oceana with some papers and all was dandy. I move to Hampton but I never actually told Virginia beach or Hampton that I moved there. Why would I? I vote in NY. I have a NY drivers license. I was active duty military. So, at any rate. I move away from Hampton and back to Virginia Beach for a few months and then I go out to the Persian Gulf again while my car is parked in Norfolk for 6 months. Now, here is the part they are going to screw me on, I can already see it.

These taxes go back to 2001 right up to present day. I got out of the Navy Dec second, 2002. I registered my car in Virginia and got it inspected just before I went on deployment. So... do you think I hurriedly wanted to spend another 150 dollars to do so in NY (I should add though, NY registration is always for two years, but in VA it can be for one, two or three years). Big negative. In fact, I let it lapse for a while. I had no real reason to drive my car where I was, so I let it sit. When it started getting cold again, I got my title from GMAC and registered it in NY. We are full way up to October. So, my prediction is the bastion of Republican values will want to tax me between Dec of 02 and Oct or so of 03.

So, what have we learned from this lesson?

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Think of the children people, think of the children

and in other not_so_melodramatic news.

I recently watched a few movies.

Reality Bites

Fun movie. It's had me thinking a lot actually... strange, because I should be thinking about the other movie I watched. Did I like it? Yeah of course. I am thinking about it, after all. I can empathize(spell checker tells me this word empathize is wrong and I think i'm right) with the male protagonist, except I have a better work ethic, but I don't think his work ethic is the real point anyway, or at least not literally.

Citizen Kane

I never saw this up until now. Really. Yeah, I'm a cultural slacker and I don't really care. I've been to France fucker so shove it! Seriously though, I need to watch it again. It's an incredibly simple film in it's construction but their is an amazing amount of stuff going on at the same time. Did I like it? Yes, of course.

That King Arthur movie

As my old man might say "This movie is about as useless as tits on a boar hog" I think that conveys it pretty well. For the sake of your own sanity, please, stay away. If you want to watch people throwing each on the battle field go watch Return of the King or Braveheart.

I, Robot

Mind fodor. If you want to be entertained, eat popcorn stupidly, and see things get blown up, this isn't that bad really. If you've ever read Asimov and you take his stuff at all seriously and might get upset you may want to skip this one. But, if you want to go some place air conditioned and see stuff get blown because you don't do it for a living anymore, this is a good alternative to backyard explosives.