Well, that was pointless!

So, funny story.  Or is it an angry story?  You decide:

About eight years ago, while I was at Austin College, my driver's license was about to expire.  Rather than search the town of Sherman for the driver's license office, I decided, why not just renew this online?  True, this meant keeping my out of date photo (from when I was seventeen), but it was such a convenience that I could not pass it up.

Fast forward eight years.  It is the future, the year 2010.  My driver's license is again about to expire.  I want to renew online, but by now, my photo is eleven years out of date.  Since I look a bit different than when I was 17, the license is an increasingly poor photo ID.  Gritting my teeth, I decide to venture to the driver's license office to get a new photo taken.

I use my lunch break to do this.  I wait in line for nearly 45 minutes along with everyone else in Austin who came to DPS on their lunch break.  I grimace in agony as person after person in the line goes up to the desk with a stupid, lengthy complaint or request (e.g., "I need an expedited CDL," or, "My driver's license was suspended.").  Finally, it is my turn.  I am quick and efficient.  I fill out my forms, have my check made out, and am ready to go.  At this point, I know I can still make it back to work in time.  It is going to be a victory!  Then the time comes for my new photo.  I check my hair, practice my smile, and step up to the white line.

"Take off your glasses," the guy says.

"What?"

"Take your glasses off."

"But, I always wear my glasses.  Not just to drive."

"We don't take pictures with glasses."

So I take them off.  And we do the picture.  And it comes out looking weird.  Much worse, in fact, than my seventeen year-old version.  In fact, it looks much less like me than the old one.  Which is because I AM NEVER WITHOUT MY GLASSES.  I FRAKKING WEAR GLASSES!  True, if you came by my house at, say, 5 in the morning, and I was asleep, there is a good chance that, at that point, I would be without my glasses.  At any other point, however, I have them on.  Because, you know, I NEED THEM TO SEE. 

So, let me ask you this, Texas DPS: what is the point of a photo identification that, by its very nature, FAILS TO IDENTIFY THE WAY I LOOK?!?!?