EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY # 1: PERSONAL PLATES!!!

This is the way the world works
I decided it's time that I knew more about how the world works, starting with the really important things. Kinda like Mr. Rogers did with his neighborhood! Come with me, on a fun trip to the wacky world of customizable license plates!!!!!

Time to earn some real character with seven characters!
In the state of California, turning your car into a personality-machine is a relatively simple process.

STEP 1: Travel to this state-of-the-art webpage.

STEP 2: Tell 'em what you're gonna put the plate on (you can have a personalized TRAILER plate!)

STEP 3: Choose one of seven thrilling designs. My personal favorite is confusingly titled: "ENVIRONMENTAL" and has absolutely no background at all. Just a plain white plate. Or get the one called "KIDS" and replace one character with a heart, a hand, a plus sign (?), or a nifty star.
***Note: These designs range from a sneer-generating 49 to a demonic 98 dollars! And that's just the initial cost. Then there's a yearly renewal fee of 80 more bucks. So it's not quite "adoptin' a baby" costs, but it's still a serious investment for some serious sex appeal.

STEP 4: The moment of truth: now it's time to provide the name that's motivated you to come this far in the first place!! There are a couple of conditions... first off, the number '69' is reserved for 1969 year model vehicles (hehe) and the DMV has the final say about whether the personalized plate is "appropriate." The end. Now you're on your way to earning a real reputation on the streets.

But what is considered appropriate, anyhows???
Well, I really need to work on my programming homework, so I'm just posting this link to a 10-year old L.A. Times article (I'm pretty sure the system's the same now as before).
Article highlights:
- The people in charge of giving the approval are called a "Decoder squad!"
- "...the man who said he was a foreign caterer and wanted a plate that read 4NIC8ER..."