Lament 3: Cry Hard With A Vengeance

[Oxymoron]

A bit of both, and contributing factors on my side.

In France you can learn how to drive two different ways :

- Do everything at the driving school, taking all your driving lessons there.
- Or after taking enough lessons at the driving school to be certified able, you can do "Accompanied Driving", where you'll have to justify you drove 3000 kilometers accompanied and supervised by a responsible adult holding a driving license to be authorized to pass the exam.

I followed the second mean of learning how to drive, "accompanied" by my mother. I drove a fucking lot prior to passing the exam for the first time. Because it is assumed I am more experienced than the people having followed the first mean of driving-learning, I'll have a bonus on my car insurance, and I'll have to wait 1 year less to have a full-license (2 years instead of 3).

The inconvenient of all of this, though, is that I took a LOT of bad habits, which were hard to unlearn.


Also, the five first attempts were years ago, at a period of my life where I wasn't, well... well. Not that I am much better these days, but I am bit less un-well, thanks to having a bit more years of life experience and following a therapy.

Anyway, after something like two years and a half of putting that shit on hiatus, I decided this summer to get back into the thick of it, because goddamn that was becoming tedious. So I had to re-pass the theoretical exam, re-take driving lessons to ensure I un-learned the bad habits, and yesterday I passed the Exam.

I barely passed it, but I passed anyway and that's what's the most important. I still have a lot of bad habits to un-learn, so I think I'll maybe invest into some more driving lessons, or a stage or something, I dunno. I'll ask my driving school about what's the state of the industry on the matter.


All in all, I feel... satisfied. That's another one of these thing happening to my life which were long overdue.




Now to be able to engage in a sentimental relationship with another human being... *sigh*

[Djinnkitty83]

Houston drivers are fucking raging incompetents.

You know it's bad when, by the time you get home, the stupidity of other drivers has you fantasizing about torture and death.

Have you ever been to Boston?

Try Chicago, where it's not just the drivers. In areas like Hyde Park, Bucktown and Wicker Park, it's a team effort between drivers and pedestrians to convince you that these people sincerely have no interest in survival.

[Bounty]

I failed once for driving too slow, once for trying to ram a taxi and the third one I don't really have any memory of. Actually, there may have been another attempt in there somewhere... I blocked a lot of it.

Final exam went fine though, and I've been driving accident-free since then. Apart from that one trial where my license was revoked I've been a stellar driver.

[Crazedwraith]

oh I'm on four failed attempts at my practical test now. Not driven since the last one which was just before christmas 2011. Hell, I need to re-do my theory test and get back to it I guess.

No idea where the UK falls on the global scale of test hardness but I'm pretty sure four times is above average number times to have failed it.

damn now i#ve made myself sad.

[Oxymoron]

Keep your head up and carry on, dude.

If -I- can manage to pass it, I'm sure you too can.

[Zod]

Houston drivers are fucking raging incompetents.

You know it's bad when, by the time you get home, the stupidity of other drivers has you fantasizing about torture and death.

Have you ever been to Boston?

Try Chicago, where it's not just the drivers. In areas like Hyde Park, Bucktown and Wicker Park, it's a team effort between drivers and pedestrians to convince you that these people sincerely have no interest in survival.

I've been to Chicago, Boston and DC. Boston stands out for some reason, probably because the road layout is absurd.

[Djinnkitty83]

In Hyde park, mostly around the UC campus, pedestrians follow a religion which forbids them from using crosswalks, even if they're only 10/15 feet away, and directs them to stride boldly out from between parked cars/trucks without checking traffic because God will protect the worthy ones. Bikers have decreed they are exempt from both pedestrian and driver rules, so bike lanes, traffic signs, walk signals and stoplights are just pretty things to maybe glance at dismissively as they tool merrily about. Other drivers habitually take signs such as 'No turn on red', 'Turn-only lane' and 'One-way street' more as personal challenges to be overcome than rules.

Somehow, Chicago driving has taught me more about frothing rage than even working the worst ends of customer service.

[RogueIce]

Boston stands out for some reason, probably because the road layout is absurd.

Fucking cow paths paved over, is what those roads are.

[joviwan]

I experienced Massachussets driving through the lense of a single person, my best friend, who may be the worst driver I've ever personally ridden with. And we went through friggen china town on christmas eve. I was *terrified*.

"lens"

I'm not sure what you're correcting, here. Lense is fine.

[Phantasee]

I experienced Massachussets driving through the lense of a single person, my best friend, who may be the worst driver I've ever personally ridden with. And we went through friggen china town on christmas eve. I was *terrified*.

"lens"

I'm not sure what you're correcting, here. Lense is fine.

it's actually not

lens is the correct spelling

[joviwan]

after doing research, you are correct. Thanks.

[Infinity Biscuit]

Merriam-Webster at least lists it as an acceptable spelling. Is there some sort of critical mass of dictionaries needed for it to be okay or is one enough?

[timmy]

I was not bothered by my Chicago driving experience

And I failed my first licence attempt in August 1999 when the testing officer believed I was going to run down a cyclist and grabbed the wheel.

[Bounty]

oh I'm on four failed attempts at my practical test now. Not driven since the last one which was just before christmas 2011. Hell, I need to re-do my theory test and get back to it I guess.

No idea where the UK falls on the global scale of test hardness but I'm pretty sure four times is above average number times to have failed it.

damn now i#ve made myself sad.

I've seen that show with hopeless UK drivers, and your test is at least on the same level as ours. And I had to retake my theory test as well after attempt #3 or #4. I'm probably the only person in the country to have successfully passed it three times...

Also: driving is a shitload easier once you have your license, cause you don't waste as much attention trying to drive perfectly by the book and instead focus on what's actually on the road - signs, cars, people, stuff you would ignore and/or run over as a learner because you're trying to remember the maximum speed for a road where everyone drives 42.

[Bounty]

I have had a recurring nightmare ever since I started learning how to drive almost ten years ago. I'm in a car and I'm coming to a stop, but whatever I try, the car just keeps on creeping forward eeeever so slowly. Brakes are on full, the handbrake's on, but still as I'm waiting at the light the car just inches forward and forward onto the road.

That and the one where I run over children, but that's because when I just got my license a three-year-old with a tantrum dashed into the road and I only avoided hitting him swerving onto an empty curb. If I'd been a fraction more distracted I would've hit him, and let me tell you, even a near miss stays with you.

[timmy]

You're not wrong at that.

[Phantasee]

opiate withdrawal suuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkssssssssssss

most of the edge is off now i think

i should have just dealt with the pain

because a clean tooth extraction wouldn't hurt this much the next day if i'd avoided the codeine

fuck man the shakes and aches are worse

also i can't eat comfort food to get through it so that sucked

ensure just doesn't seem to cut it

[Aaron]

How much did you take?

[Zod]

How much did you take?

And was it more or less than the recommended dosage?

[Phantasee]

A number of pills over the last few days, a bunch more yesterday. I'm sensitive to it I guess, I was on them for a few months after my accident and withdrawal was worse then. Haven't developed a high tolerance for them tho so it doesn't take much to make me feel like shit

[Nietzslime]

at risk of sounding fatlame etc i don't give a shit

i am in the closest thing a guy like me can get to a total nerdrage over jj abrams being confirmed as the director of star wars 7

it's kind of interesting now that both the pillars of western space opera, which you like to think of as a genre of grandeur and big ideas, have been given over to one of the least visionary directors on the planet

but irritation easily subsumes my analytical side here

[Zod]

I had no idea there was outrage. Or is this an SDN thing?

[Nietzslime]

i cannot speak for either the general population or posters to stardestroyer.net

[Gands]

And I failed my first licence attempt in August 1999 when the testing officer believed I was going to run down a cyclist and grabbed the wheel.

I failed my first when I went to make a right turn. I didn't see a car coming, so the tester slammed on the left side brakes.

[timmy]

That awkward moment...