Catching Up

I have to admit that while I was in the midst of composing my 101 goals I had already scratched a couple off the list. Some may call this cheating, but given the difficulty I had with finishing the list in the first place, I say bugger off, I'm keeping my completed goals!

The first goal to fall was #26 "Fix the name on my driver's license." I mentally prepared myself for what I thought would be a long, hard slog through the bureaucratic seventh circle of hell ruled by its overlord, the terrible Commissioner David J. Swarts (DMV for short). Imagine my surprise when the whole process of changing my name and address took all of 20 minutes! Sure I had to wait on two different lines, and sure I had to fake smile at the second teller's sour puss as she sucked her teeth (my favorite) and complained (as if I had anything to do with it) that the gentleman whom I dealt with prior to intruding on her workspace didn't take care of both my name and address changes, but if that was going to be the worst of it, then it was a small price to pay. A small price to pay, indeed.

As a side note, it seems to me that government employees often take on the attitude that they are doing you an enormous favor, which they will do, although begrudgingly, by performing their job (poorly, usually). You can't help but feel like you've ruined their day by simply asking them to provide the service or perform the task for which they were provided employment. But I digress.

The next goal to be scratched off was "#25 Get that noise that the car tire makes taken care of." This unnerving noise was the bane of my driving existence. It only made itself apparent as I cruised at low speed or made slow, right-hand turns. The sound was reminiscent of a piece of machinery that is slowly coming to the end of its life with a sad, metallic whimper.

Lucky for me I banged my car into an iffy spot on the road (that's as much as I will divulge) and damaged a good portion of my right, front-end thereby incurring over $1000 worth of damage. All the work that was done on my car had miraculously "fixed" the noise. Lucky me. Lucky, lucky me.

Finally (I left the most exciting for last) goal "#70 Get a famous person to reply to my on Twitter" got a big fat check mark next to it on 12:49 PM on July 30th. The super-famous, and super-Canadian Pat Kiernan (@patkiernan) of NY1 replied to me. He thanked me for suggesting he check out the very insightful blog TechDirt for its great coverage of the collapse of print news.

The trojan virus that this site has installed on your computer, unbeknownst to you, with its novel algorithm for determining skepticism by detecting changes in your typing speed and mouse acceleration, will no doubt transmit to my host system your virtual eye rolling as you scoff: "Pat Kiernan is not a celebrity!" Well to you, sir or madam, I submit the following: Pat Kiernan has appeared in no less that 5 TV shows and/or movies. That's only 2 less than Mariah Carey. Nuff said. Check. Done. Next please.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some crunches to do.