for every rulage, there is a suckage

so, new zealand is pretty awesome. the people are friendly, it's a beautiful country, and the whole place is run with common fucking sense, which is more than we can say for most other countries in the world.

except sometimes the common sense kind of flies out the window. consider this: open roads have a 100kph speed limit (~65mph). when they pass through a town, the limit drops to 50kph, which makes sense. think of the children! as you leave the town, the limit jumps up to 100km/h again. so, in once such place, as i exited town i sped back up to 100. unfortunately, it turns out the 100kpmh zone was still some yards ahead, and i thought i'd entered it already. i was clocked at 88kph in a 50 zone, which carries a $400 fine. ouch!

so, as is the case with any ticket, you go through maybe an hour or so of righteous anger, then you get over it, pay up, and chalk it up to the general, harmless grievances people simply go through. i walked in to the bank, plunked down the cash, shared some exasperated jokes with the teller, and that was the end of it. right?

no! new zealand takes this particular issue very seriously. so they decided to send me a letter, which i just got today. it was partially a threat: do that again, and we'll suspend your license. but mostly it was a letter telling me what an asshole i am. i submit to you the exact contents of this letter (with interpretation in square braces):

[on the left, a photograph. a woman sits in the center of frame, staring disapprovingly at me, holding a picture of her dead sister. hate fills her eyes, because apparently i killed her.]

"Dear Francisco,
Just like you, the driver of the car that killed the young woman in the photograph was speeding. [...you asshole]

Her name was Tanya.

She was training to be a nurse - to save lives. [...you murdering asshole]

She never made it.

It's changed her family's life forever.

At her funeral service in the chapel, to remember her 23 years, there were 20 candles burning. Her sister, mother, and father lit the final three.

Think about it. Your points go in a couple of year's time, her family will never get her back.

If you're prepared to speed, be prepared to kill. [...you asshole]"


what the fuck is that about? i apologized to the officer for the misunderstanding, and i paid my ticket. why is this necessary? this is some serious "if you smoke pot you may as well be financing terrorism" crap.

shit like this really makes me miss san francisco even more. at least they're condescending dicks to your face when you get a ticket, and then they're done with it.

oh hell that reminds me, i have 2 SF parking tickets to pay.