Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Life is Magical and Full of Joy

I'm in a good mood. Turned in my final project last night. I'm currently on track to finishing my masters degree in the next year or so (depends on availability of a summer class, so lets cross our fingers on that one). Work is busy but manageable, with the future looking somewhat interesting. I've been reading quite a bit more recently (3 books in 10 days? pff, no problem, I'm aiming for all 5 in 20). To top it all off we're well into the Christmas season. And after Christmas & New Years we can finally say goodbye to G.W.Bush.

Overall, things seem to be on the up and up, so yes, Life is Magical & Full of Joy.

(ps. Apologies to GRRM for stealing his line)

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Remember, Remember the 5th of November


Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!


Tonight will be the annual viewing of V for Vendetta at my place for anyone interested

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I laughed.

As I was browsing around the channel guide after the debate last night. There were more than a few new HD channels available for our perusal. One that I found particularly funny was WGN. I say funny because WGN is the channel the Cubs play on, and when I remarked "Hey, when did we get WGN on HD?" My roommate, a die hard Cubs fan, began to swear profusely. It took me a moment to realize why and I began to laugh. It was a bit ironic, don't ya think? Just think about where the Cubs are at with regards to their season right now. That is correct, a little over a week and a half after the Cubs implode and their season ends, we finally get the channel their home games are televised on in High-Def. And so I laughed.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Hockey Hockey Hockey!

It is that time of year again! Drunk rednecks skating around trying to smash a puck into the other teams goal! Yeah! Ok well it's not always like that but I digress..

I'll be trying my best to make it to all the UNO games again this year. Unfortunately I'll be missing the exhibition game tonight vs. Manitoba because I'll be studying for a test, but every other home series I'll make it to one or both of the games. It's pretty much how I roll.


Hopefully the refs won't suck again, but that's pretty much unlikely....

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Abstract of Reason

So I've decided to stop posting anything here except personal stuff, jokes, or funny things that happen to be on my mind. I wasn't exactly expecting to spout out on so many non-personal and non-humorous issues when I started this thing.

So I present to you: Abstract of Reason

This will be the new home for any posts of mine that do not happen to fit within the personal nature of this blog. This includes all politics, society and anything else I deem worth of writing about that does not involve me personally. There might be a little overlap here and there, but I'm going to give this a shot and hopefully it will work out better than this blog alone has. At least I'll be able to stay on topic more often...

-Josh

Friday, September 19, 2008

Pirate Jokes!

Shamelessly stolen Pirate Jokes in honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day!


They say, "Once a pirate, always a pirate!" So why is it that these scurvy dogs never return to the straight and narrow?

Once you lose your first hand, yer HOOKED!

Why did the pirate wear a paper towel for a bandanna?
He heard that all good pirates have a bounty on their head!

Where would they send a Pirate Ship with a broken rib?
To the dock, in the sick bay.

Why couldn't the pirates play cards?
The captain was standing on the deck!

How do pirates know that they are pirates?
They know, because they ARRRR!!!!!

What does a bleached blonde and a pirate have in common?
A little black patch.

Did you hear about the pirate who took up boxing?
He had a killer left hook!

What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?
A nervous wreck!

What's really a pirate's favorite letter?
P! Because it's an R, but it's missing a leg!

What's a horny pirate's worst nightmare?
A sunken chest with no booty!

What be a pirate's favorite vegetable?
ARRRRtichokes!

Have you heard about the new pirate movie?
It's rated AARRRRGGH! And you know why? Because of all the booty!

what do you call a pirate that skips class?
captain hooky!

What has 12 hands, 12 feet and 12 eyes?
A dozen Pirates!

What was Bluebeard's wife's name? Peg.

How does a pirate greet a prostitute? Yo Ho

What's a pirate's least favorite animal? Beaver.

Question: What did Captain Hook die from?
Answer: Jock Itch.

How did the pirate stop smoking?
He used the patch!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Would it change your mind about McCain if you knew he called his wife a ...?

So one of the latest stories to hit the intertubes is a report that there is a company out there push-polling Jewish voters that are linking Obama with Palestinian Terrorist groups. If you aren't familiar with the idea of a push poll, it's the act of asking a question in such a way that implants ideas into the answerer's mind, even if they are not true. The questions in a push poll often start with "Would it change your mind about if" and then follows with a fabrication that is designed to leave a negative feeling. By the way, the headline for this post is no fabrication and based on a true story. Just google the last five words and leave McCains name out to find all the evidence you need.

However, this is the exact same kind of tactic that Karl Rove used against McCain in 2000 where the legitimacy of McCain's adopted black daughter was called into question. It was used at a point that could have had McCain prevailing over Bush in the South Carolina primary and possibly going on to take the Republican nomination that year. If McCain had won, the last 8 years would have been quite a bit different. Instead the tactic worked, he lost, and it changed him, but not for the better. Almost everything I've read about John McCain prior to the 2000 SC primary has made me admire him, but everything he's done since then has made me despise him. If it comes out that the Republican party is behind the push poll story I linked to above it will be a sad day indeed.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Labor Day Weekend

So this last weekend was a blast.

Technically my weekend began Thursday evening with the Gaelic Storm show at the Slowdown. This was the 2nd time they've been through this year and I must say the performance was phenomenal! I've got a good slew of my videos up on Youtube that shows just how close we were to the stage. Needless to say there was a fair amount of drinking involved (completely according to plan I might add!) so I took a day of vacation on Friday and got to sleep in.

Friday I went to the zoo with Angie for a few hours since she hasn't been there in quite a while and my zoo membership gets 2 in free. So I spent that afternoon taking pictures of the various animals and such. Sometimes I feel like I take our zoo for granted because I can just up and go whenever I want, it's hard to remember that it's actually a world class zoo with some of the largest exhibits in the world. Anyone who's watched a CWS game has most likely seen a shot of Rosenblatt stadium from atop the Desert Dome (Worlds Largest Indoor Desert). The walk-through aquarium is also must to experience, and these are only two of the big exhibits they have to offer

Saturday was the Husker game, which went quite a bit better than I had expected. Our running defense appeared to do very well while the passing d could still use a bit more work. Offense looked like it was on the right track as well, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the coming season...

Sunday was relatively quiet, didn't do much other than catch Tropic Thunder that evening, it was a lot funnier than I had expected it to be. I went in expecting "meh" and ended up laughing my ass off on more than one occasion.

After resting up and relaxing on Sunday we had a full day of... resting and relaxing at the lake! It was most likely going to be my last outing to the lake this year as the weather will unfortunately be taking a turn to the colder side soon (and that's already started today as it's 62F and rainy outside as I type). Luckily we had temps in the mid 90's, and just a little wind to contest with.

So all in all it was a good time, my sunburn is already more than tolerable (and here I was dreading it would be worse, hah! Take that sun!) Had a good time with the friends and now looking forward to more football, a few more concerts, and maybe some not so muggy weather, though I think the snow should definitely stay away for a good 3 months (or more!)

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Beer Olympics - 8/16/2008

Hey there, it's time for 2008's Beer Olympics!

The festivities will begin around 2:30PM on August 16th (8/13) at my house and then continue on through late that night. If you need directions let me know. We will have burgers & hot dogs on the grill, though if you want to bring something else to cook up that's cool too. Feel free to invite whomever, standard rules on shady characters apply (nothing better get stolen this year!)

Games to be played (but not limited to):
Polish Horseshoes
Hill-Billy Horseshoes (Shitball)
Bags (Cornhole)
Beer Die
Beer Pong
Quarters
Tippy Cup
Caps
The Long Pour

Keg(s) will be available, $5/cup.
B.Y.O.L. (This is the BEER olympics!)

Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

ml_ipod & Last.FM are happy again!

For the last few months I've had problems with syncing my Ipod up with my Last.FM account. Last.FM is a social networking site similar in concept to myspace, but it is primarily for sharing and exploring new music. Now you don't share the actual songs with anyone, just the fact that you listened to it. It's a fun, easy way to see what your friends are listening to and many of the bands listed have samples of their songs for you to check out.

Also, I refuse to use Itunes in Windows because it's a bloated piece of crap and lacks many of the features I think should be standard in a media player (why oh why can't it just rescan my library?!?), as such it's only installed to get the iPod up and running and then I never run it again if I can help it.

What I do use is the ml_ipod plugin for Winamp. This allows me to use my favorite desktop mp3 player and have it manage all my ipod songs/playlists/etc. One of the cool extras that comes with the last couple versions is the Last.FM/Audioscrobbler support. This allows you to have whatever you play on the iPod automatically sync with your Last.FM account so people can see what you listen to throughout the day while out and about.

Now I mentioned that for a few months I was having problems, and it appeared to be quite sporadic. Last.FM was ignoring the tracks that I'd listened to throughout the day, though was not giving any errors so as to indicate what might be the problem. However, if I played a track straight from Winamp, it properly showed up on Last.FM. Nothing played on the iPod while it was undocked would ever make it to the site. This didn't use to happen and I can't exactly pinpoint when it started, I'd just lived with the problem for a while now.

I finally got fed up and began some serious troubleshooting. After uninstalling/reinstalling Winamp and the ml_ipod plugin (after manually deleting gen_audioscrobbler.dll and making sure I was getting the right one) various iPod database cleanup tools, changing settings in both Winamp and ml_ipod all to no avail. I came across this page that detailed some of the workings of the Last.FM plugin.

More precisely, these criteria for when submitting a track.

  1. Any submissions caught by the spam filter will be silently dropped (you will receive an OK response). In such cases, an error message is usually placed on the user page for a few hours.
  2. Chronological Order Rule - Songs must be submitted in chronological order. This means that if you were listening offline, and the plugin has cached some tracks waiting to submit when you reconnect to the internet, the plugin needs to send the cached tracks in the order they were played BEFORE it sends the track you are now listening to. Once you submit a track, anything with an earlier date is rejected.
  3. UTC Only Rule - Your plugin must submit the time in UTC. Any submissions with a date too far ahead or behind UTC will be rejected.
  4. Realtime Listening Rule - The server will ignore subsequent submissions if you claim to have played more tracks in one time period that you could fit in, if you listened to all of them most of the way through.


After working my way through this list and checking things off it became quite obvious what was happening. At some point my iPod's date/time was reset and when I went to check it, it was something like Apr 4, 2000. Now since this date was in the past, it conflicted with item #2 up there. A quick changing of the date on the iPod, and viola! It started working beautifully again.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Heads Up: Roger Clyne at the Waiting Room!

For those of you not aware, Roger Clyne and the
Peacemakers
(formerly The Refreshments) will be at the Waiting
Room
this Thursday at 9PM. Tickets are $15 in advance/$17 day of show.

If you've never heard them before they would best be described by "Southwestern Rock". It's the perfect music for a bar environment because of the many references to alcohol consumption and time well pent with friends. It's the kind of music that gets stuck in your head and you don't really care. Then when you put their album on to "scratch the itch" a different song of theirs gets pleasantly stuck instead.

I've been a fan of RCPM going on 7 years so far. Some friends of mine convinced me to go to one of their shows back at the Ranch Bowl. Before the show the only songs I knew were Banditos & Down Together from their days as the Refreshments. After the show I went out and got as many of their albums that I could find. I was hooked. I still am.

Since then I've seen them 6 (maybe 7) more times throughout the years and have only missed one show when they were in the Omaha/Lincoln area. Last time I saw them was at the Waiting Room last fall and it was definitely one of the best I've been to yet. I was told that the one show I missed back in March was even better and am looking forward to this weeks topping even that.

For anyone that's interested we will be hanging out at my house before/after the show. I live just down the street from the venue so we'll gather and grill, drink & play some yard games (weather permitting) and just generally have a good time with some great music. Here's to Life!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Directions to the Lake

Take the 2nd Gretna Exit which should be Highway 63

After the exit (about 1000 ft) will be a stop light, turn LEFT to stay on HWY 63

Turn RIGHT on CR-4 (Still HWY 63)

Go straight for a mile or two, when it curves to the left instead you want to go straight and take the next RIGHT CR-C (right after the curve)

Follow CR-C to Wann Road then take a LEFT

Stay on Wann until you take a RIGHT onto Rivierside road

Go straight until there is a small road off to the left where the gated entrance will be (the gate straight ahead is not the correct one)

Give me a call for the code to the gate

Google Maps to the place

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Respect is Earned

I recently got an email from a family member that angered me. My response is below. The email they forwarded has been included at the bottom...

I have nothing but respect for our soldiers. They put their lives on the line to protect our freedom and our way of life. I grew up wanting to be one and came very close to doing so. I have friends that have spent multiple tours over in Iraq and have luckily returned without any injuries. I have also had friends that returned with mental problems stemming from the fact that they did exactly what was asked of them and the price those actions exacted on their minds was horrific.

These kind of email forwards do nothing to remove the horrible leadership that is commanding them. If my life had taken me into the armed forces I would be absolutely disgusted with the state of things today and would likely no longer still be a part of whichever branch I might have joined.

Naked prisoners that are humiliated by American soldiers do not instill patriotic feelings of our "great" nation in me.

Change Koran to Bible in the text below and see how it changes what you feel in what you forwarded. Then think about why we are actually over there.

Change terrorist to citizen and see if it reads the same. In America it's innocent until proven guilty. Apparently in Iraq it's terrorist until proven otherwise. Do the ideals we hold ourselves to suddenly not apply when we cross an ocean? Would you like to read the stories of American soldiers opening fire on unarmed Iraqi civilians? Oh wait, they *might* be terrorists, so it's all ok right?!

If you want to take the entirely religious road, remember that Jesus was essentially crucified for practicing a religion that the popular ones around him did not agree with. They despised it. Then remember that he also taught tolerance and forgiveness (what happened to turn the other cheek?). I am not myself a pious person, I however would like to think that I am kind and tolerant and of the understanding that not all people are raised under the same belief system. And just because they believe differently than I they do not deserve to be treated as such.

When you stoop to their level, you are no better than they are. We as American's should conduct ourselves with the strength, humility, respect, and kindness that we used to be known for.


*forwarded email follows*


Couldn't have said it better...how about you!
Here is a real woman who should run for president!


Written by a Marine housewife in New Jersey to the New York Times, this is one ticked off lady.


"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?


Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania ? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they? And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?...Well, I don't. I don't care at all.

I'll start caring when Osama Bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia .

I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in Iraq and Afghanistan come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.



When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been
"humiliated" in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured:
I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank:
I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled "Koran" and
other times "Quran." Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and, you guessed it,
I don't care!!

If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your friends
Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!

If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem." -- Ronald Reagan

"If we ever forget that we're One Nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

Also by... Ronald Reagan

One last thought for the day:

In case we find ourselves starting to believe all the Anti-American sentiment and negativity, we should remember England 's Prime Minister Tony Blair's words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America , he said:
"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in... And how many want out."

Only four defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I.
3. The British Soldier and
4. The Canadian Soldier

One died for your soul, the other 3 for your freedom.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET ALL OF THEM

AMEN


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Blonde at Subway

So I'm on my way over to Micaila's house to watch the rest of last nights CWS game and check out her new entertainment setup, and stopped at Subway to get a couple sandwiches. So the girl behind the counter makes the footlong Spicy Italian for me, and a 6" Chicken Bacon Ranch for Micaila. I then ask to get a medium soda as well and proceed to hand her my check card to pay. At this point, someone in the back room distracted her with a question and she was pulled away from the register for a minute or so. When she came back she looked at the screen and then opened the cash register and pulled out $11.27 and tried handing it to me.

I just sort of stared at her for a few seconds and then said "uh... could I get my check card instead?"

"oh, sorry just had a kind of blonde moment there" at which point she put the money back, I got my debit card then filled my drink and left.

If she really wanted to pay me $11.27 for taking the two sandwiches I just ordered off her hands, I would have no problem doing so, but my good nature got the better of me and I had to pass on the opportunity...

Friday, May 16, 2008

AutoHotkey: Keyboard Automation at its finest

I work at a keyboard all day and find myself entering the same text over and over again. I write code/sql queries and sometimes would think to myself "You know, it would be nice if the computer could just read my thoughts and put what I'm thinking down to paper..er screen"

So I came across a program that lets me get close to what I desire. It drastically helps the entering of repeated text over and over again and can be configured to do way much more then that.

The program, is AutoHotkey.

This is a program that can take various keystrokes, or keystroke combinations to preform various tasks on the computer. You're most likely familiar with CTRL-C, CTRL-V, or maybe even the windows shortcuts WIN-M (minimize all), WIN-L (Lock computer), WIN-E (Open Explorer). The program above can be setup in such a way that you can either change or add to the default hotkeys on your computer.

Another of it's features is the ability to replace text as you type. As I said before I type a lot of SQL code so after setting up the program above, I setup the following "replacements" that definitely help as I manually enter SQL statements.
sf : SELECT * FROM
df : DELETE FROM
wc : WHERE cState = 'NE'
ami : AND nMajInt =
So if I happen to want all the records from table sUsers where cState = 'NE' and nMajInt = 1234. This is what I would type:
sf sUsers wc ami 1234
The resulting text into the editor would be:
SELECT * FROM sUsers WHERE cState = 'NE' AND nMajInt = 1234
Now if you can't see the time savings in that, your either blind, or don't have to type that much in your day to day activities.

I also use it to do various table manipulations that I often encounter, so I entered the following replacements as well:
atj : ALTER TABLE jlw_x DROP COLUMN nRowID
GO

dtj : DROP TABLE jlw_x
GO
iej : IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.sysobjects where id = object_id(N'[jlw_x]') and OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N'IsUserTable') = 1)
DROP TABLE [jlw_x]
GO
For each, all I type is the three letters and a space, the program then automatically replaces them with their associated values. (Keep in mind my examples here are not AutoHotkey scripts, just a way for me to present the functionality)

AutoHotkey is not just limited to replacing text. Like I mentioned before it can be configured to run pretty much anything on the computer, or to simulate almost any input device. I have a few programs that I almost always want to run when I start the computer (but not always!) So I setup a special Windows hotkey (WIN-Q) that when activated will launch the 7 different programs I need. Or I find that I always open a new notepad session to jot down quick notes either while on the phone or if someones standing nearby and I need to take down info quickly. Therefore I setup CTRL-ALT-N to launch a new notepad session.

I definitely recommend at least trying it out to see if you find it usefull. If you're not very technically inclined there is a very well written guide on its website that details all the various features and how to use them.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Summer To Do List

So I figured I'd throw together a list of things I want to do this summer. This will range from various concerts I plan on attending, to projects around the house (both little and big)

Date Specific:
  • Sister Hazel - June 21st
  • Red, White & Boom (311, Snoop, POD, Kottonmouth Kings) - July 2nd
  • Mile High Music Fesitval - July 19-20th
  • Kansas City (Worlds/Oceans of Fun, Baseball Game)- Weekend of August 1st
  • The Faint - August 23rd
Non-date Specific:
  • Finish Etching Living Room Mirror
  • Paintball
  • Camping
  • Tubing down the Niobrara
  • Mini Putt-putt golf
  • Fontenelle Forest
  • Jet Skiing/Lake Activities
If any friends who read this are interested in any of those activities, let me know and we'll setup a date(s) to go out and do it.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Home sweet. home?

Made it back safely a bit ago, nothing like a 9.5 hour ride to er' refresh? relax? reminisce? er ok, maybe it wasn't that fun of drive/ride. I didn't have to actually drive any of it, just sit in the back and read/listen to my ipod. Still that long in a vehicle isn't what I'd say is an enjoyable time.

Deadwood was fun. The first night we were there two of our group had pretty good luck at the 3-card poker table (one of them getting as much as 350+ up) This excitement inevitably pulled me in and I tried myself at a few hands. Needless to say it did not work out so well for me. The entire trip, I didn't loose much more than I had planned on spending (I just expected it to be on food/drink related stuffs) anyways, but it definitely drove home the point that gambling is not for me.

Now that I'm back home I'm ready to relax a little before tearing into a demon of a term paper that I've got to present in a little over a week.

In the spare time that I have over the next few days I'll be sorting the pictures I took and be making appropriate posts on flickr/youtube, so be on the lookout for those.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

i. hate. snow.




so a 2.5 hour drive turned into 4 (so far) and my hate for snow is unrelenting

Posted by ShoZu



Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Ugh

Ok, so now they're saying blizzard like conditions... great news.. just great..

Monday, April 7, 2008

Ready for Vacation

So ready for vacation it's not even funny.

On Wednesday, we will be going up to Deadwood, SD to eat, drink, (maybe gamble) and be merry. I'll be taking various forms of image capturing; moving and still; along for the ride so look forward to either flickr or youtube postings about the trip. This will be my first time in Deadwood and I'm told that it's a blast, definitely looking forward to it.

We will actually be stopping in NP Wednesday night to visit family & friends and will resume the trek Thursday morning. Spend Thursday through Sunday morning and then make the long 9 hour drive home.

Here's hoping it doesn't snow. God I hate snow...

Friday, March 28, 2008

Slow Motion Slap

If you think Hilary is not a crazy lying crackpot, you deserve the following...

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Friday, January 25, 2008

The End of the Cold Streak?

You know it's been a couple of cold weeks when you wake up in the morning thinking 19F is actually pretty warm...

Thursday, January 10, 2008

A farewell to the era of anonymous drinking? - Not in Nebraska

So I was brought attention to the following article. In which they describe how some bars are using machines to scan the bar codes on drivers licenses, and then the information is stored and later sold to filthy marketing types who like to send out extremely targeted advertising to the unsuspecting patrons. ("Any big plans for your birthday next week!?" etc)

Anyways, I was interested in what the laws of Nebraska said on the issue (and more importantly whether I would get in trouble if I were to take a sharpie to the back of mine..) and am proud to report that we Nebraskans have nothing to worry about. The website www.privacyprotectionlevel.org got a response from Noelie Sherdon, Legal Counsel NE DMV on the issue and it is as follows:

Just a clarification of NE law on information on a driver license - While there is no way to restrict anyone writing down or photo copying the information that appears on the front of our driver's license if a person allows someone to do that to their license or ID card, that is also not very convenient in an electronic age. NE does have a statute that makes it a felony criminal offense to record and store the information that is electronically encoded in the machine readable zone on the license. I have pasted a copy of that statute below. You may also want to review our DMV privacy law which is found at Neb.Rev.Stat. 60-2901 and following. The statutes are available free on the Nebraska Legislature website. Our privacy law restricts release of data contained in our DMV records, but does not specifically apply to information on the actual driver license or id card.

Section 60-4,111.01 Storage or compilation of information; violation; penalty.
  • (1) The Department of Motor Vehicles, the courts, or law enforcement agencies may store or compile information acquired from an operator's

  • (2) No person having use of or access to machine-readable information encoded on an operator's license or a state identification card shall compile, store, preserve, trade, or sell such information. Violation of this subsection shall be a Class IV felony.

Source: Laws 2001, LB 574, § 30
Noelie Sherdon Legal Counsel DMV, State of Nebraska (402) 471-9593

So there you have it, you are safe to allow them to scan your ID and anonymously drink in Nebraska, which is all great and awesome for 80% of the state. However as a resident of Omaha I'll just have to be careful if I ever decide to cross the river into Iowa...