Archive for September 2006

I guess Microsoft’s acronym obsession is getting to me.

Squeenix has been on a Final Fantasy sequel kick of late, with titles like Final Fantasy X-2 confusing many, wondering if it should be 12, or 11, when it is in fact read “10, 2.” The FF7 sequel came out recently, and since I had such fond memories of playing FF7 back in high school, I figured the sequel would be worth a purchase.

Boy was I wrong. Aside from all of the legitimate arguments mentioned in that review, my number one complaint is that this “First-Person Shooter with RPG elements” has no RPG elements to speak of, aside from the presence of character levels and the ability to purchase things at a shop – elements that RPGs share with many other genres. Essentially, the FF7 sequel is a bad shooting game with a semi-familiar storyline (I say semi-familiar because the town that I’m currently “exploring” has a name that wasn’t used in the original FF7).

In short, don’t buy it. Not worth the $50 that I dropped. Instead, pay me $25 for it, and then we can both feel less idiotic since we only paid half price.

The Kirkland licensing office is unique in its operation. Instead of everyone picking a number from the same pot, there are four different pots: One for new WA licenses (300s), one for renewals (0 - 100), one for the driving test (500s), and one for “other” (900s). I got number 352, but apparently, for the first hour I was there, they didn’t like the 300s – while about 25 renewals, 15 driving tests, and one “other” was called (only one that showed up, after me I might add), only around 3 new licenses were called.

The worst was when one of the workers was on a roll (due to no shows)… “348… 349… 350… 351… 058?”

058 was present. What the hell. So a few of the 300s aren’t there, we give up on them entirely? One more and you would have had a very eager 300 ready to step up!!!

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You’re supposed to get a new Driver’s License within 30 days of establishing residency in Washington State. Acts of establishing residency include, but are not limited to, starting a full time job within the state (which I did 52 days ago) and signing a lease or purchasing property (I did the former 63 days ago). Whoops. In fairness, though, I had every good intention of getting my license for the past 35 days. Honest.

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When I got my Washington license plates, the guy at the counter gave me a warning as he handed me the new plates:

“Now, be sure you check on the return policy for Pennsylvania plates. They’re pretty strict. I think they put a warrant out for your arrest if you don’t return them promptly.”

I called to verify – indeed, you are supposed to return them. (I didn’t verify the warrant part… I didn’t want to sound shady). They’re picky about having all plates returned to them. Any refund for the unused part of the year of PA registration? No.

It turns out that I also still had my Nebraska plates (because the Nebraska DMV isn’t psychotic about their plates), so I took it to a local licensing branch to recycle the plate. As I sat and waited for a free attendant to give my plate to, the young child next to me was eyeing my license plate.

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