- Messages
- 36,134
- Location
- ABQ NM
OK. Just to clear the air, I'm a criminal. I have been lawfully apprehended while performing an illegal U-turn, at a spot where it was clearly posted as being illegal. (I should note, however, with the exception of the lady motorcycle cop hiding in a parking lot behind some bushes, there were no vehicles within a quarter mile of visibility each way.) Anyway, I'm a scofflaw, and I'll probably break the law again one of these days. But I'm willing (sort of) to pay the price if I do get caught performing such illegal acts.
Which brings me to the point of this thread (what little there is). In order to keep this heinous crime off my driving record (and the associated insurance costs), the State of California requires me to attend an 8-hour traffic school course. But thanks to modern technology, I can attend one of these "schools" from the comfort of my own home, via the Intarwebs.
So today I finally signed up for an online traffic school...figured I should go ahead and get it over with, since the deadline is tomorrow. It's essentially a series of web pages that you read one at a time, each followed by short quiz to check that you read the material. It takes from 3 to 5 minutes to read each page. There is a timer at the bottom of each page, and you can't click to the next page until the timer runs out. I guess this is how they ensure you "attend" the course for the required length of time. When I started the course, I noticed that timer varied between 3 and 5 minutes per page. No problem...I figured this will move right along. Partway through the course though, I noticed the timer intervals were getting bigger, even though the page length has remained about the same. I'm now in section Five of the course (the last one), and the intervals are running 25 minutes per page. Still takes 3 to 5 minutes to read the page, but then I get to wait (surf the Internet or post mundane things on woodworking forums) for 20 minutes or so before I can go to the next page. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but tonight, I've got other things I needed to do, and I have an early morning job to do tomorrow so I can't stay up as late as I usually do.
Of course none of this would be a problem if I'd done the whole Traffic School thing a couple months ago when I got the ticket, but where's the fun in that?
Oh well, my timer's at 5 minutes...time to go read another page.
Which brings me to the point of this thread (what little there is). In order to keep this heinous crime off my driving record (and the associated insurance costs), the State of California requires me to attend an 8-hour traffic school course. But thanks to modern technology, I can attend one of these "schools" from the comfort of my own home, via the Intarwebs.
So today I finally signed up for an online traffic school...figured I should go ahead and get it over with, since the deadline is tomorrow. It's essentially a series of web pages that you read one at a time, each followed by short quiz to check that you read the material. It takes from 3 to 5 minutes to read each page. There is a timer at the bottom of each page, and you can't click to the next page until the timer runs out. I guess this is how they ensure you "attend" the course for the required length of time. When I started the course, I noticed that timer varied between 3 and 5 minutes per page. No problem...I figured this will move right along. Partway through the course though, I noticed the timer intervals were getting bigger, even though the page length has remained about the same. I'm now in section Five of the course (the last one), and the intervals are running 25 minutes per page. Still takes 3 to 5 minutes to read the page, but then I get to wait (surf the Internet or post mundane things on woodworking forums) for 20 minutes or so before I can go to the next page. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but tonight, I've got other things I needed to do, and I have an early morning job to do tomorrow so I can't stay up as late as I usually do.
Of course none of this would be a problem if I'd done the whole Traffic School thing a couple months ago when I got the ticket, but where's the fun in that?
Oh well, my timer's at 5 minutes...time to go read another page.