Traffic School

So today I finished paying my debt to society for speeding in the mountains of California. Yes I went to traffic school, online traffic school to be more specific, drivinguniversity.com to be exact. For a mere $19.95 and three hours of my time, I was able to have my moving violation tansmogrified into something that won't go on my record. It required more time and attention than I expected. They even embedded non-driving information in the text in order to quiz me to make sure I was reading everything and not just skimming. For instance:

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com was originally going to name his web venture Cadabra.

Probably my favorite part was the rhetorical question:

How far does your car travel and how much do you miss when you take your eyes off the road [to]:

Dip a French fry in ketchup?
Dial the phone?
Look at a map?
Hand the baby a bottle?
Read a billboard?
Put cream in your coffee?
Glance at the accident scene across the street?

I don't know how long it takes for each of these things, but I'm sure if I was timing such events it would distract me from driving even longer.

At any rate, it is done. I have only to confirm that my certificate of completion is sent to the courthouse and then go at least 18 months without getting pulled over in California, which means my upcoming trip to San Jose will probably take at least half an hour longer than it usually does.