I'm An Architect Series: Part 2

As previously mentioned, my professional ranking in the world moved up a notch. Now, of course I could walk around handing out business cards, but in this day and age of technology it only makes sense to embrace it and let it do the work for you. Well, that's the theory at least.

James Stamp from Life Without Buildings came up with a brilliant set of cards that gives advice on how to work "I'm an architect" into casual conversations (as displayed in the image above this entry). For six weeks I will do a weekly piece that explains how I relate to each situation displayed in the cards.

Second up: Fender Benders

In the world there are two types of people when it comes to auto wrecks: Good People and Scumbags. Based on my past, I have only encountered the Scumbag variety. I also have strong feelings that playing the architect card would have not given different results.

Going back to the middle 1990's, I found my car being hit twice. The first time I was in the car and a bit shaken up by the experience. The Scumbag who hit me gave me false insurance info. Yep, I was duped and this was back in the day when privacy information was also not what it is today. I had his license plate and went to the DMV and asked for info on the person. The clerk said they couldn't print anything out for me, but I could look at the computer monitor and write down any info I wanted. I dare you to try that today.

I had the Scumbags address. I drove by his place and my hopes of getting much any sort of positive recourse dropped when I saw the run-down-single-wide trailer and trash littered yard. The police were helpful in letting me know the Scumbag had a parole officer as well. If there was any sort of person you wanted to hit your car, this was not that person.

Lesson learned: call the police on the spot. Of course this was the pre-everyone having a cell phone decade.

My second experience came living in Eugene. The apartment complex I lived in was located in the hilly part of Eugene. One Winter we had freezing rain and my car was parked on a corner, on a hill, and in about the worse place it could have possibly been. My car was hit, not once, but twice. Wonderful huh? Well, when I went out the next morning and saw the damage and the note on the car I was relieved.

Of course the note from the Good Person was the one who bumped into the back on my car causing no damage. The Scumbag who destroyed my door panel and mirror left nothing besides evidence behind. I walked the complex and found a pickup that had some damage to it as well and the broken pieces of turn-light covers that found next to my beaten-up car and they matched the truck. I called the police and they came out. Of course the truck was now gone.

Despite the fact that I called the police multiple times and even spoke to a supervisor, I had ZERO results. The Scumbag who owned the truck never attempted to contact me, which basically showed me that Scumbags have no intention of doing the right thing.

Lesson learned: If you suspect the person who hit you is a Scumbag, mention something like seeing meth, handguns or Osama Bin Laden in the vehicle that hit you. You might get better results.

I can't see how either of those situations could have been improved by my employment status. So, with fender benders, I'm on the fence on how dropping "I'm an architect" into the situation would benefit me in any future automobile mishaps.