USCIS (formerly INS) does this thing now that they call biometrics, where they take a digital photo and fingerprints for any of your immigration related things. Problem is not all of their offices can do the biometrics thing.
So yesterday, I had an appointment at the Charlotte NC ASC (Application Support Center) which was the closest place I could go for the biometrics thing for my EAD application. Charlotte NC is a 3 hour trip (200 miles). Here’s how the day went.
0830: Drop the wife off at school and head out on the road to Charlotte.
1130: Arrive in Charlotte. The ASC wasn’t too far off I-77, so it was pretty easy to find. Get in line, person says I need to come back closer to my appointment time. :P. Head off to find a place for lunch.
1230: Back at the ASC. Hand the person at the desk my paperwork and passport. She stamps it, paperclips them together and hands me a number. Go sit down and wait for staff to come back from lunch.
1330: My number finally comes up. Head over to the computer, right index finger gets smushed onto the fingerprint capturing thingy, then I sit down to get my picture taken.
1345: All done, processing person stamps my paperwork again, then tells me my card will be mailed.
1350: Fill up the car and head back home.
1700: Arrive back home.
Argh. Could have had all this done the old fashioned way in Charleston and had my EAD card right then and there. Instead, it was a 6 hour round trip for something that took 15 minutes to do. And I didn’t even get my new card!
sigh
The fact that they can do all this stuff digitally is great though. I just wish it was available at their local offices so I don’t have to spend the whole day travelling just get something that takes 15 minutes to do.
Talk about your big bathtubs
There’s a neat photo in the January issue of Physics Today that shows just how big the Super Kamiokande neutrino detector is. I’d heard that it was big, and even when I saw the pictures from the shattered PMTs incident, I never realized just how big it was.
There are more pictures that also show just how big SK is. Those are some guys in a raft at the far right of the this image. They’re cleaning the huge PMTs that make up the light detecting system of SK.
The first decisions of 2005
Our first decision of 2005 is to buy a house. After much discussion and consideration we decided that if we have to spend $182k, then it’s going to be on a house rather than a condo.
So for the past few days we’ve been browsing through the online MLS and the real estate section of the paper checking things out and seeing what’s out there and the kinds of prices we can expect. Mostly small and expensive or not-so-small and really expensive in the areas we want to live. If we want big and cheap, that means living farther away and a longer commute than we want to deal with. We did find a few places that look interesting enough to check out later this week. The wife’s parents are also planning on making a trip down on the weekend to have a look around with us too.
We’ve also been working on a list of items and features that we want in a house and ranking them by importance to us. I’m sure this will be an interesting process.
Big fat couch potato
I did absolutely nothing today except watch over 11 hours of Lord of The Rings: Extended Special Edition. All three of them. Back to back. Short pauses for bathroom breaks and food.
It was fantastic. Can’t wait to do it again.