posted
Now, I have a driver's license. A perfectly good one issued by the sovereign Kingdom of Norway, which is hardly a banana republic even if 35% of our exports are petroleum products. It is valid to 2079, and I've been driving for 7 years with only one minor bumper-bender accident. So I'm a little annoyed by having to take another test. But I could live with that.
What really annoys me is when I can't get an appointment to take the damn test! I've been calling six different counties to try to set up a time, and every last one of them is giving me the busy signal, five times in a row now. You would think, if their traffic is that high, they might set up a waiting list or something; being told you are number 1337 in the queue and they thank you for your patience is bad enough, but that cursed busy beep is even worse.
Most states (in the US) have a website where you can get information on driver licensing requirements and times. They all have walk-in testing and most (but not all) have appointments as well.
My advice is to find out what you'll need in terms of identification in order to obtain a license. If you think you're frustrated now, just wait until you've gone and waited only to find that they don't consider your papers sufficient proof of identity.
Things are a lot tighter (here in the US) than ever before.
BTW, the reason they want to test your skills is that there is no way for them to verify the truth of your statements about having a valid license in your home country, let alone a clean driving record. So...they reserve the right to test you before you can have a valid license in their state.
But complaints about DMV waiting times and processes are legendary. If you are having problems, let me know what state it's in and I'll see if I can get you some better information.
If it's outside the US, I can't advise you at all. Don't know their systems.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I'm in Ohio. Now, the clean driving record is one thing, but I've got the actual, physical driving license on my person. And yes, I know about the weird ID requirements, but I've gotten used to carrying passport with entry visa, state ID card, form I-20, and the two forms they give you when you first apply for the license, whenever I go to the testing station. As for their website, it is a very fine one, with even an automated procedure for setting up appointments. Alas, they ask for something called and "EDP number" which for the life of me I cannot find on any of the papers I've been given; nor, indeed, do I recognise the form they show in the 'where to find' picture.
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Yay! I finally got through to someone! And not only that, he actually had an appointment time for me before the end of the month! Yay for Clermont County! Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I tried without the EDP, yes, it doesn't work. And I wasn't asked for one last time I was actually at the testing station (damn that maneuvrability test anyway, who ever needed to pass through traffic cones in real life) so I'm happy without it. And I didn't get anything approaching a number for my written, just the score and a signature. But thanks for trying. Are you bored too? Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
You had to drive through traffic cones? I thought that was just in TV shows and movies. In Connecticut we take our test by driving on the street.
Posts: 1547 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
I had to parallel park between traffic cones and run a short "course" inside a fenced area before they took me out on the road.
The short course included making a stop, turning left, that sort of thing. You just had to show proper technique before they'd get you out of the parking lot.
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posted
Wait a second. KoM actually lives in the terrible, terrible, terrible U.S.? Lol. That's rich. What, you couldn't do what you needed to do in one of your European worker's paradises? Haw.
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posted
The DMV probably found out he's from Norway and is scrutinizing him extra carefully. Eventually he'll probably get a full cavity search for, you know, hidden copies of Das Kapital and The Anarchist's Cookbook.
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posted
Well, y'know, observing the backwards natives is actually a bit difficult if you don't go where the backwards natives live. Similarly, to foment revolution among the downtrodden peasants, you have to go to the downtrodden peasants; if they had sufficient class consciousness to come to you, they wouldn't be downtrodden peasants.
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quote:Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz: I had to parallel park between traffic cones and run a short "course" inside a fenced area before they took me out on the road.
The short course included making a stop, turning left, that sort of thing. You just had to show proper technique before they'd get you out of the parking lot.
I took my test at a driving school, so the testing people know that the instructors survived 8 hours in a car with us. I think the test is a little harder at the DMV, if only because we have an idea of what routes they usually take people on.
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King of Men Man. I'm sorry. Old man, What knight lives in that castle over there?
DENNIS I'm thirty-seven.
King of Men What?
DENNIS I'm thirty-seven ... I'm not old.
King of Men Well - I can't just say: "Hey, Man!'
DENNIS Well you could say: "Dennis"
King of Men I didn't know you were called Dennis.
DENNIS You didn't bother to find out, did you?
King of Men I've said I'm sorry about the old woman, but from the behind you looked ...
DENNIS What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior ...
King of Men Well ... I AM king.
DENNIS Oh, very nice. King, eh! I expect you've got a palace and fine clothes and courtiers and plenty of food. And how d'you get that? By exploiting the workers! By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the social and economic differences in our society! If there's EVER going to be any progress ...
An OLD WOMAN appears.
OLD WOMAN Dennis! There's some lovely filth down here ... Oh! how d'you do?
King of Men How d'you do, good lady ...I am King of Men, King of the Idiots ... can you tell me who lives in that castle?
OLD WOMAN King of the WHO?
King of Men The Idiots.
OLD WOMAN Who are the Idiots?
King of Men All of you are ... you are all Idiots.
DENNIS winks at the OLD WOMAN.
... and I am your king ....
OLD WOMAN Ooooh! I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective ...
DENNIS You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship, a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes ...
OLD WOMAN There you are, bringing class into it again ...
DENNIS That's what it's all about ... If only -
King of Men Please, please good people. I am in haste. What knight lives in that castle?
OLD WOMAN No one lives there.
King of Men Well, who is your lord?
OLD WOMAN We don't have a lord.
King of Men What?
DENNIS I told you, we're an anarcho-syndicalist commune, we take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.
King of Men Yes.
DENNIS ... But all the decision of that officer ...
King of Men Yes, I see.
DENNIS ... must be approved at a bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs.
King of Men Be quiet!
DENNIS ... but a two-thirds majority ...
King of Men Be quiet! I order you to shut up.
OLD WOMAN Order, eh -- who does he think he is?
King of Men I am your king!
OLD WOMAN Well, I didn't vote for you.
King of Men You don't vote for kings.
OLD WOMAN Well, how did you become king, then?
King of Men The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held Excalibur aloft from the bosom of the water to signify by Divine Providence ... that I, King of Men, was to carry Excalibur ... That is why I am your king!
OLD WOMAN Is Frank in? He'd be able to deal with this one.
DENNIS Look, strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out swords ... that's no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
King of Men Be quiet!
DENNIS You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
King of Men Shut up!
DENNIS I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, people would put me away!
King of Men (Grabbing him by the collar) Shut up, will you. Shut up!
DENNIS Ah! NOW ... we see the violence inherent in the system.
King of Men Shut up!
PEOPLE (i.e. other PEASANTS) are appearing and watching.
DENNIS (calling) Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help, help, I'm being repressed!
King of Men (aware that people are now coming out and watching) Bloody peasant! (pushes DENNIS over into mud and prepares to ride off)
DENNIS Oh, Did you hear that! What a give-away.
King of Men Come on, Tom.
They ride off.
DENNIS (in the background as we PULL OUT) did you see him repressing me, then? That's what I've been on about ...
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