I moved out of Saugus, and Massachusetts in mid February. When I moved out, I also sold my car. I told the post office I moved, and I cancelled my registration with the RMV

Then Saugus decides I still live there, and send me an excise tax bill on a car I don’t own, from a town I don’t live in for $86.

Since I am lazy about everything, I put it off a bit, then eventually sent a letter to Saugus saying I don’t live there and to go screw. Meanwhile I get a letter from some place called PKS Associates. They claim to be the Deputy Collector of Taxes, and they sent me a little pink piece of paper with the word DEMAND in big letters at the top. Since pink paper is real expensive, they also charged me an extra $5.00, on top of the $86 I owe on a car I don’t own.

Meanwhile Saugus sends me a letter saying they want all kinds of proof I moved, so I send them every bill I had, and they eventually mail me back with some tax abatement thing. They did me the kind favor of lowering the tax I owe to only $22.00, but since Saugus can’t afford computers or typewriters, hand written on a piece of paper was a note saying “you still owe other fees, talk to the tax collector” and they enclosed directions in maybe size 40 font saying how to get to the Deputy Tax Collector from Saugus. Apparantly Saugus doesn’t have phones either. Maybe with my $22.00 they can buy one of those new fangled cordless phones.

Then, shortly after that, I get a yellow piece of paper from PKS Associates. This one says “WARRANT” in big bold letters. Yellow pieces of paper cost more that pink ones, and they charged me $10.00, and the writing on the piece of paper costs $12.00.

So I wrote a letter telling them to screw, but never sent it to them. Apparantly I really am lazy.

Now over the weekend they sent me a big piece of paper. It was a full 8.5×11 page! this one was a nice greenish blue, and it was hand delivered to my parents house (where I don’t live) yet again. This one says “FINAL WARRANT” and they threatened me saying that if I don’t send them $133.45, they are going to break my legs, and tell the registry not let me renew my license or renew my car registration. You know, on the car I don’t own, and on the license in the state I don’t live in.

I called them today, and some nice spanish speaking american tried telling me that the service charges are “state law” and there is no way he can reverse them, even though they had incorrect records, and also that Saugus spent over a month refusing to accept the fact that I moved away, or even that the car doesn’t exist. I asked him to tell me where in the Massachusetts law it says he can’t reverse the service charges, and he puts me on hold for a minute, then comes back and says “50″ thats it. Just the number 50. I tell him that isn’t the law, there has to be another number, he puts me on hold, comes back and says “oh sorry, it was actually 5,0″ the asshole made it up.

The funny part is that section 50 of Mass. General Law is all about taxes, so I read the whole section, especially the various parts on excise tax yet not once did it say that fine or services charges were required. The only mention even of a fee was for if you don’t pay the final warrant, and how after they submit the fee to the RMV, it will cost me another $20 to reinstate my license.

So I am debating this in my head now:
1) I don’t have a MA license, or a car registered in MA
2) My license is inches away from being suspended anyway. Maybe I should tell them to wait in line.

So all the cameras and “radar” stations along the highway might actually be just that.

First, off of www.route3construction.com

I found this:

3. What are the spools of colored tubing being installed in the ground for?
–The spools are the backbone of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) being installed as part of the Route 3 Project. These cables are fiber optic cables being installed to provide complete surveillance of the highway. They will also be linked to message boards on the highway, similar to the ones seen on Route 128.

Last week, while driving home from work (and to work the next day), I used my handy little GPS receiver and marked the locations of all the towers. It’s not like I had anything better to do while driving.

Here is a little map. Click on it to get the full size version:

I couldn’t zoom in any closer or the map would be massive.

I just find this interesting

For some reason over the last couple days I have started paying attention to the sides of the road on Route 3. And I noticed a strange object mounted on one of the telephone polls, so yesterday on the way home from work, I decided to really look around, and low behold, It seems like at a fairly evenly spaced interval there is what appears to be a radar gun, and what appears to be a 360 degree security camera going along the entire span of route 3 from I-95 to exit 1 in New Hampshire. I plan on using my GPS to make a map of where they all are, but the odd thing is that the radar guns arn’t on. My radar detector has not once gone off while passing one of them (I probably passed 20 of them) and they are also on both sides of the highway.

Look for yourself. Click on the image to see it blown up to full size.

The radar gun:
Radar gun on Rt 3

The Security Camera:
Security Camera on Rt 3

I am wondering if the state is planning a massive automated speed trap system. If so, that would
suck monsterous monkey balls.

Or….maybe I am just paranoid

So tonight Aimee and I are supposed to meet up with John/Janelle/Cheryl and the gang to see her brothers band play.

The show is at the Paradise Rock Club in boston. Alchemilla plays at 9:30, and it will be a nice change of pace.

What is really said is my whole new “outlook” on money. I must say that it has changed drastically for the better over the last couple months, but it continues to amaze me how easily I can waste money.

For example, just today I was in walgreens waiting for the assholes at the pharmacy counter to stop downing oxycontin long enough to fill my prescription, and every aisle I went down had some stupid worthless piece of crap that I would pick up….look at, seriously consider buying…to the point where I would even walk around with it, then come to my senses and put it back.

Those late night infomercials were made for impulsive people like myself. I can’t even count the number of times I was watched Ron Popeil dazzle me with his rotissery cooker, or that guy/lady that sell the vacuum sealed storage bags. I still want that package, I could condense everything in my bedroom down into like a 3 foot pile. Infomercials are like some kind of drug fix, I actually think they might hide subliminal messages in them, because when you first come accross one, your like eh…this isn’t too interesting, then all of a sudden, its an hour later and your still watching.

I can’t help but look back at some of the past purchases I have made, and wonder how much differant things would be if I just wasnt such a dumbass.

I get upset for a couple minutes almost every day when I get home and remember I have a room full of drums that I have now managed to touch a total of 2 times since I moved. 2 times! at one point I was practicing for hours every day. You couldn’t even get a hold of me until 7:30pm or so on a friday because of my drum lessons. I can only wonder how things are going to be after I finally pass the real estate exam, which better be on May 5th, because them I am going to have to work my ass off to prove I can do this. Due to the stupid rules, I am probably going to start being a sales agent at least $1,000 in the hole, but I think there is a good chance I can get this to work.

It’s just really wierd trying to go from a “i am going to blow every penny I make as soon as possible” mentality to trying to save every penny I make.

damn I am a tool

As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I decided I want to try selling real estate part time.

I signed up and took the class, finished it, then had to make up a class because the teacher was a tool.

This brings me to my big rant of the day. It seems more often than not teachers have little interest in their job. They are not passionate about it, and because of that they essentially fail as teachers. I am not saying all teachers suck, in fact during the class I made up, the teacher for that one I thought did an excellant job.

So in this real estate class example, I paid $180 to take a mandatory real estate course. You need to take the course to take the exam, and the course is supposed to teach you everything you need to know in order to pass. Now, part of that $180 fee is the cost of the book they give you. The teacher that taught the class was depending mostly on you going home and reading/learning on your own.

Does that seem to make much sense? If I wanted to just read the whole thing at my house, why take the class? The teacher droned on for house each twice a week just rattling off vocabulary words verbatim from the book.

That is not teaching. Why take the job of being a teacher if you don’t actually want to do it? On top of that, he cared so little about the course, that he didn’t even bother to read the syllabus that everyone got at the beginning of the class. It clearly said that if Salem State cancels its classes due to inclement weather, so do they.

So one day it snows, Salem State cancels class, and I don’t go to this class. About half the class did, the half that did where the teacher, and a bunch of foreigners that hadnt read the syllabus. In fact, they were the ones that thought that “6-10″ meant that the class started at 6:10 instead of what it really means, that the class runs from 6 to 10.

You need to attend each class to get the certificate to take the test, so I had to make up the one I “missed”. Since it was the 6th out of 7 classes, I had to make up the 6th class of the next course when it started 2 weeks later.

Now this is where this guys lack of teaching skills and irresponsibility came into full affect. I wanted to take the test as soon as I possibily could. This way all the useless crap they make you learn is fresh in my brain. So now, I can’t take the test until I make up the class. The next course starts 2 weeks after mine finished, and then the class I had to make up was 3 weeks after that (2 classes a week). The almost 5 weeks go by, I go to make up the class, and some other dude was running the show this time. I actually learned stuff in that class because he actually cared about his job. The next day I get my stupid certificate, and I call the testing center to schedule an appointment to take the test, which I wanted to take on the coming saturday (it was wednesday). They had no openings until 2 weeks later, on a wednesday. So now, I am up to being forced to wait a total of 7 weeks to take the test.

So for the next 2 weeks off and on I study parts of the book, and then 2 days before the test date I study like crazy. I get all stressed out because I feel like I forgot so much, and then go to take the test.

Now as for the test, its a total of 120 questions.
80 are “general questions”
40 are “state specific questions”

Each section is graded seperately, so if you fail one, you only have to retake one section.

I made the mistake of dedicating the majority of my time to studying the general section, since it covers a vastly larger amount of information, when I really should have problem split up my time better, especially since the shithead that taught the course I took barely covered the state specific stuff.

You get 4 hours to take the test, its all computerized, and I finished maybe 2 hourse in. I pass the general section without much of a problem, and then fail the state section by ONE QUESTION.

Thats right….just one.

Now I get to takethat shitfest again. At least its only 40 question and should be a lot easier to remember now.

What really sucks is that obviously after I pass it, its going to take some time to find a broker I want to work for (and wants me to work for them)..get situated, trained, and maybe actually sell something. I was really counting on getting this started because I could really use the extra money.

Sure I could have studied more, but I still think I would have been in a better position of the “teacher” running the course actually liked his job, instead he bitched about politics and other things that were completely irrelevant to the course.

I have been tossing back and forth in my head the idea of selling my truck the past couple months. Its a really tough decision in my mind, and I am not quite sure what I should actually do.

I can’t help but think of the episode of Home Improvement (yes I used to watch that show all the time) where Tim and the oldest son…the one with the mullet had finally finished the roadster they had spent years working on, and Tim made the mistake of selling it to Jay Leno. If you never saw that episode, the you wont understand what i am talking about.

In any event, this is my thinking:

Why sell it?
1) I am really trying to finally put myself in a better financial position in my life. I am real sick of oweing the Devlin Mafia money, and this could potentially help pay a decent sized chunk
2) I never have time to work on it anymore. Forget about the fact that it is cold and/or raining all the time, lately I havent even had time to watch TV.
3) Every time I see the truck I get stressed out at the fact I cant work on it
4) I have no garage….hence my working conditions suck

Why not sell it?
1) I have put a good 4 years hundreds if not thousands of hours into that truck.
2) Finishing the truck represents a huge accomplishment in my life.
3) Not finishing it represents a huge failure. It would prove many people right that I have tried very hard over the past 6 years or so to prove wrong about many things. It would be yet another thing that I started and never finished.
4) Money. I will never get back what I put into that truck. I didn’t keep track of how much I spent on it because in the end I knew I really wouldn’t want to know, but it is at least $15,000, maybe even $20,000.

What that number means represents the massive battle I have had…well made myself fight against my family and most of the world. What you think of that money invested in the truck directly reflects on what type of person you are, and how differant most likely we are from each other. Very few understand.

I decided to make a little pictoral story of the truck. If I decide to sell it, it might help me get somewhat of a better selling price, but at the very least maybe it will help some understand why people work get into projects like this.