Can Profiling be Harassment?

Maybe I have the wrong definition of profiling and harassment, but here is my theory! I'm driving home from work, it is late, and I see police lights behind me. Both of my parents are retired police officers, so I have respect for them. At least I did until this night. I realize that it's late, but I work at a sports bar and restaurant, not exactly an 8-5 job. I pull over, roll down my driver side window, and hand the officer my license. I'm wearing my uniform shirt, black with the logo in bright yellow, and my name tag. It is obvious I have just come from work. The officer asks from my insurance card, which takes time to find because my mother had my car detailed yesterday. Once the officer completes his interrogation, yes, interrogation, he returns my license and insurance card and asks, "Do you know why I stopped you?" By this time I am irritated and answer, "No, do you?"

Before I tell you what he said, let me give you a few more details. I'm a white chic, driving a black SUV with subs, and I have LSU in pink across the rear window. I don't know, maybe he's not an LSU fan. This is Flower Mound, Texas--one of the top ten towns to live in this country, according to some survey--maybe he's a Longhorn fan. Anyway, did I mention it is late?

 Okay, this is what he said. "You have a defective light on your license plate." I swear that's what he said! He pulled me over, wasted twenty minutes of MY time, because I have a 'defective' light on my license plate. Really, dude, you can't think of anything better than that?  "What kind of defect?" I ask. He replied, "Just defective. Maybe it has mud on it." Remember me saying my mother had my car detailed yesterday? Yeah! So what do you think?

Have You Ever..?

Have you ever lost a document you were working on? It sucks! I was in Moodle and was working on a post in a forum for my criminal justice class. I spent six hours working on that post. My butt was sore, my legs were cramped, and my stomach was growling; as a matter of fact, so was I. My sister came into my room to borrow a pair of jeans and I snapped at her. My mom brought me food and... let's just say, if I wasn't twenty years old I would be grounded. After hours of writing, rewriting, moving, deleting--you know what I'm talking about--I finally had a completed work of art. I was proud of it. I knew I was going to get an A. Then it happened. I clicked on 'Post to Forum.'  What did I see on the computer screen? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The screen was blank. No smiley face. Nothing! After another hour of trying to recover my work of art, I called my uncle--he is a computer wizard--and do you know what he said? I was SOL. Apparently, if you are logged in to a site that will time you out, you will lose all your data if not saved before getting 'timed out.' Six hours on a Friday, wasted. If you have ever had this happen to you, you can relate. If not, I sure hope this post will save you the heartache.

Star Gazing

I look up in the night sky and wonder what's out there. Are there other planets with life? Are the stars planets? I suppose I will learn this next semester as I plan on taking Astronomy. What I do know is that a star shines, is magnificent to look at, and seems to give me some comfort as I gaze. For this reason I took the plunge and bought a star today for my boyfriend. His birthday is September 26 and I intend on surprising him with a framed certificate of the star. Deciding to purchase a star was easy, deciding on a name, not so much. After tormenting my mom, my boyfriend's sister, and my dog, Toto, I finally named our star 'yia navta mazi' which is Greek for 'forever together.' From this day forward, when I look up into the night sky, I will think of him.