Jocular Josh

Chirp Chirp (of crickets in the distance..)

2010-05-06T17:10:00.005-05:00

Or is it that time of year yet? Hmm, I dunno.

Anyways, it's been quite a while since I put out any sort of update here. I was surprised when a random googling (yes, it's been a verb for quite some time now) of my name still brought up my blog relatively high on the results. The thing that caught my eye is that the post down below on about a certain actress looking for work.. just happened to be the highest single result... err.. oops!

Well I figure maybe if I start updating again on a regular or semi regular basis maybe, just maybe something else will catch the wandering eye of Google and as such maybe not everyone on the web will think I'm some sort of creep when I somehow end up in their search results. (Might be too late for that...)

Anyways I figure I could at least give a little bit of a preview as to what I'll be posting about.

Vacation to Belize - Simply put, the most beautiful place I've ever personally visited.

Got Scuba certified, which came in very handy for the above vacation

I'm an UNCLE!

One more semester and I'll be done with school! Again! I'll probably get bored and end up going back for another degree but there will definitely be a bit of a break before that happens.

So I guess you can look forward to reading about those, or not, it's really up to you. Or is it?

Wonderful Monday Surprise!

2009-09-14T18:09:00.003-05:00

So I got a wonderful surprise a little after lunch today. Wells Fargo's Fraud Prevention Center, or whatever they're called, left a voice mail for me to call them as soon as possible. Great. Just what I need. I normally watch my accounts like a hawk since I use my check card everywhere. I really probably shouldn't, but it's a habit that will take a bit of effort on my part to actually overcome..

OK, well I call them back and the kind lady on the phone starts asking her questions. After a few minutes of going over my payments and finding nothing out of the ordinary, I get put on hold for a few minutes. When she comes back she says something along the lines of: "one of the previous vendors in your payment history has had a security breach and your number was reported as one of those that was stolen, and your purchase at [some web vendor I actually bought from] triggered our investigation". Just. fucking. awesome.

So naturally I would love to find out who's to ultimately blame, and thus never buy from them again (that whole capitalistic voting with my wallet thing), but all she would say was that the number was reported stolen by Visa, and has now been deactivated. Oh and the new card will be out in 7-10 business days. Good thing I didn't try to use it for my lunch today..

I guess on the positive side, I'm actually kind of impressed with Wells Fargo and how they've handled the entire situation, even though they won't tell me the offending vendor (if they even know it) It is nice to know that had it actually been used fraudulently they would have been on top of the ball.

A True American Hero

2009-08-20T13:43:00.003-05:00

This guy has been serving tasty beveridges since prohibition was repealed! Here's to you, to me and one and all. The world's oldest bartender's 'bout to serve his very last call

Fast State Trooper

2009-08-17T23:52:00.001-05:00

Whitewater, Music, and Denver, Oh My!

2009-07-24T18:02:00.006-05:00

Last Friday Me, Micaila & Ryan a friend of Micaila's from Denver went whitewater rafting down the Royal Gorge stretch of the Arkansas River in near Canyon City, Colorado. It was Micaila's first time, and the first time for me in over 10 years. We went with American Adventure Expeditions Our guide, Bhoj (pronounced like boat, but replacing the t with a shh sound), was from Nepal. A little broken English aside, he was funny, encouraging, and an all together good guide.

I'd been rafting quite a bit when I was younger, mainly through various summer scouting trips. All of my previous trips had been down the same river, just upstream a bit down the Brown's Canyon run. I was a little concerned about the size of the rapids in the Gorge as depending on water levels they range from IV-V. All my previous experience topped out at III-IV. Luckily the water level was a meager 1200CFM or so, causing the Gorge to max out at IV. According to the lady we bought our pictures from, we apparently had one close call near the beginning of the trip where she thought we were sure to flip. Bhoj however betrayed no sense of alarm, or change of facial expression according to our pictures, and we made it through the rapid without any problems. Apparently AAE has nicknamed Bhoj "Little Buddha" since he's so calm and relaxed in just these types of situations, I would have to agree.

Anyways, I had a blast and would love to do it again next year if we can find the time for it.

The rest of our trip to Denver consisted of going to the Mile High Music Festival. This is the second year we've gone. It would be pretty hard to live up to last years lineup of Flogging Molly, Tom Petty & Dave Matthews, this year I was definitely excited to be seeing Tool, Incubus, Matisyahu, & 3OH!3 along with a myriad of other great acts.

The Tool set was going to be the second time I'd seen them, and I was hoping that it would be a better experience than the last time they were at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. Sadly, I was disappointed yet again. It was the exact same set of songs as at MAC, meaning short and lacking a bunch of the songs I really wanted to hear. The volume was too low, low enough that we were able to have conversations without shouting and we were standing 30-40 yards away from the speakers. The lasers & video appeared to be the same from the last show I'd seen. The one difference was Maynard at one point stripped down to a speedo??! and did the rest of the set that way?? I dunno, Tool is one of my favorite bands, but they became a favorite through their older songs that they seem hesitant to play live, which makes me a sad panda ( ' _ ' ) At this point I'm done giving them chances to redeem themselves, fool me once... yada yada.

The rest of the acts however did not disappoint, they all lived up to and in some cases exceeded my expectations. One standout that I really took note of was John Butler, whom I had never heard of until Ryan said we should try to check him out. It was mostly just the guy and his guitar, but through creative playing and looping he was able to make a full sound as if 3-4 others were playing with him. At one point he was joined by a friend on the drums but for the most part it was just him. Finding musicians like Butler are why I love going to these huge music festivals.

A slightly humorous side note is apparently I need to stay in better contact with my friends here in Omaha as I found out last night that my good friend Sasha was down at Mile High as well with some of her other friends. We never ran in to each other while down there but it would have been cool to be in a group bigger than 3 people.

Wow this got long. But yeah, there is the account of our 2nd trip to Denver for Mile High Music Festival. Does it become tradition at 2 or 3 years in a row? I'm not quite sure. I'm willing to work on making it one, who's with me?!

Keyboard Cat.

2009-07-05T23:39:00.002-05:00

Because it's fun to jump on a meme that's been around for a while...

Too True

2009-07-03T09:47:00.002-05:00

Jessica Biel: I've got a job for you!

2009-05-20T17:23:00.002-05:00

You could be my personal maid if you walked around like this all the time!
You'd never have to worry about finding work again!

Netflix = Greedy Bastards??

2009-03-30T15:11:00.001-05:00

I got an email from Netflix today about how they are raising their Blue-ray Prices from $1 extra to $4 extra per month. Netflix just doesn't get it... In these economic times, how smart is it to increase your prices? I would say Netflix dropped the ball on this one...

This has caused me to re-asses my Netflix usage and in turn I've changed my plan from the 3-at-a-time Unlimited to 1-at-a-time Unlimited. I've found that I rarely watch more than one Netflix movie in a night. I also only watch them once or twice a week, which gives ample time for the next movie to arrive. It doesn't make sense to be paying 20.99 a month when 10.99 will fulfill my needs.

Thanks Netflix, for saving me 10 bucks a month!

Mosquito Laser, I Wants One

2009-03-16T11:35:00.001-05:00

Is it too much to ask for one of these for the summer??

Mobile blogging Test!

2009-02-20T13:05:00.002-06:00

hello there!

We'll Make it I Swear!

2009-02-13T18:39:00.003-06:00

Edit: Switched to the Youtube version since the Fandome one wasn't playing for some...

6 More Weeks of This?!

2009-02-09T11:48:00.000-06:00

So even though last week the groundhog (or tiger!) predicted 6 more weeks of winter, you wouldn't know it if you stepped outside this weekend. The weather was just awesome. I got to make another trip to the zoo, we got to air out the house a little bit, and today it's been raining off & on though I don't care since the rain will do a great job of washing all the salt off the streets.

If this is what the next 6 weeks are supposed to be like, I say bring it on!

Projector!

2009-02-02T20:32:00.003-06:00

So watching the super bowl on this was sweet. Halo was just as funtastically awesome as you would imagine. I'm pretty sure I'll be buying something like it in the near future...

Bad Tiger!

2009-02-02T14:09:00.004-06:00

Stupid tiger.....

Khuntami, a 400-pound Siberian tiger at the Henry Doorly Zoo, predicted this morning that the Midlands will have six more weeks of winter.

Khuntami predicted this morning that the Midlands will have six more weeks of winter.
Dr. Lee Simmons, the zoo's director, said that the forecast is appropriate since Khuntami is a winter tiger.

The tiger made his prediction based on appetite. Zoo workers had set out two containers of meat for him -- one green to represent spring and one white to represent winter.

Goodbye!

2009-01-20T11:43:00.001-06:00

...and good riddance.

Life is Magical and Full of Joy

2008-12-10T09:22:00.000-06:00

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)

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

2008-11-05T11:26:00.000-06:00


        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

I laughed.

2008-10-16T09:29:00.001-05:00

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.

Hockey Hockey Hockey!

2008-10-13T13:37:00.001-05:00

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....

Abstract of Reason

2008-09-23T12:26:00.000-05:00

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

Pirate Jokes!

2008-09-19T14:31:00.002-05:00

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!

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

2008-09-16T17:58:00.000-05:00

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.

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-02T13:13:00.001-05:00

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!)

Beer Olympics - 8/16/2008

2008-08-06T08:44:00.000-05:00

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!

ml_ipod & Last.FM are happy again!

2008-07-23T17:26:00.003-05:00

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.

Heads Up: Roger Clyne at the Waiting Room!

2008-07-07T15:05:00.006-05:00

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!

Directions to the Lake

2008-07-04T10:43:00.001-05:00

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

Respect is Earned

2008-07-01T01:40:00.002-05:00

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

The Blonde at Subway

2008-06-25T11:15:00.001-05:00

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...

AutoHotkey: Keyboard Automation at its finest

2008-05-16T10:15:00.003-05:00

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.

Summer To Do List

2008-05-14T10:47:00.006-05:00

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.

Home sweet. home?

2008-04-13T20:03:00.002-05:00

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.

i. hate. snow.

2008-04-10T13:17:00.001-05:00

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

Ugh

2008-04-09T00:55:00.000-05:00

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

Ready for Vacation

2008-04-07T12:15:00.002-05:00

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...

Slow Motion Slap

2008-03-28T16:27:00.001-05:00

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

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

The End of the Cold Streak?

2008-01-25T07:43:00.000-06:00

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

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

2008-01-10T16:52:00.000-06:00

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...

Captain Joe's Open Letter to America

2007-12-28T11:00:00.000-06:00

Joe, a 26 year old from Colorado has a very inspirational letter that I think everyone should read.

My name is Joe. I am currently serving in my second deployment to Iraq as an Army officer. The biggest differences between this deployment and my last one are:

-The location (within Iraq)
-The Job (much busier : less free time/sleep)
-The duration (last deployment was 12 months, this one is 15)

I am sure you are wondering why some random soldier in Iraq would write you a letter… there are several reasons, but the primary one will be obvious by the end. First I’ll tell you a little about myself.

I’m 26 years old, I’ve been married for almost 7 years, and I have a son and a daughter in elementary school. I grew up in Georgia, but I live in Colorado Springs now. I come from a long line of military officers, so I was sort of “destined” to serve. Although I only have 3 ½ years in the Army, I’ve been wearing the uniform for 12 years (JROTC & ROTC). I have a degree in computer science and I’m a music & movie enthusiast.

Now that you know a little about me, I’d like to inform you on what Iraq is really like.
...

Check out Joe's Open Letter To Americans to read it all.

On The Issues

2007-11-19T11:51:00.000-06:00

I just came across an awesome resource to help figure out where you and your candidate of choice compare on various issues. The site is www.ontheissues.org. They have a quiz (Look for the link "Click for our new PresidentMatch 2008 quiz" on their mainpage) that compares your choices against a wide area of candidates both for senate and for the presidency. They take the various actions that the person has done (voting for/against issues, statements, news reports) and compile where each one stands and compares it to your own set of answers. What ended up being my closest match wasn't quite what I expected and now I have someone new to look into.

I definitely recommend taking 5-10 minutes to go through, answer the questions and see if who you are supporting adds up to all you thought they would.

Trent Reznor Gets It Right

2007-10-31T10:27:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here's an interview with Trent Reznor & Saul Williams about talking about their new album, but what most caught my eye was the following:

What do you think about OiNK being shut down?
Trent: I'll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world's greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn't the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don't feel cool when I go there. I'm tired of seeing John Mayer's face pop up. I feel like I'm being hustled when I visit there, and I don't think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that's what's such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they're grateful for the person that uploaded it — they're the hero. They're not stealing it because they're going to make money off of it; they're stealing it because they love the band. I'm not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.

I think this is the best explanation I've ever read about a file sharing site/program and the motivation of people behind it..

RIAA - 1, Single Mother - 0

2007-10-09T11:48:00.000-05:00

Well, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has successfully won in court against a single mother for file sharing. For those who don't know the RIAA is, they are comprised of many companies, the big four of which are EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, & Warner Music Group. These companies hide behind the RIAA so they won't be associated with all the bad PR that surrounds suing their customers.

I personally have only bought a few CD's in the last 7-8 years (the few I have were after/before a concert, and I'm 98% certain unassociated with the RIAA). The companies in the RIAA have alienated me as a customer. I refuse to support them. I encourage as many other to quit supporting them as well.

Here are a few sites that I've found to be quite useful:
http://riaaradar.com/

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

Full List of RIAA Members

Two major bands have shown they are fed up with the recording industry's antics. Trent Reznor , aka. Nine Inch Nails - has recently split from his contract with his label, probably because of all the bad press he's generated for them recently, they were probably glad to let him go..

Also Radiohead's latest album will be released tomorrow and they will allow the customer to set the price at what the customer thought the album is worth to download. They also will offer a boxed set for a set price, but the key here is they are doing it without the record companies.

These two examples are just the beginning of what I think will be a massive exodus of bands from being tied to the useless labels trying to promote them.

Huskers, Boo!!

2007-10-08T12:07:00.000-05:00

What. The. Hell.

Did we even show up to the game on Saturday? Because I didn't see any football players from Nebraska on TV. There were some college kids dressed up in pads and jersey's, but they certainly didn't act like football players.

The offense seemed like it was going to get going a few times only to sputter and eek out a few field goals. The Blackshirts were no where to be found. Turn those shirts in boys, because you don't deserve them. Why were we only blitzing three men all the way up until the point where it no longer mattered?! (Hey, i know, lets give them a 35 pt lead, THEN put some pressue on their QB). And then when the announcers said that Cosgrove said they were going to make some "USC like" changes to the defense, uhhh Hello? did those changes seem to work then? I didn't think so...

I sincerely hope that Cosgrove is fired, then tar and feathered and ran out of town. That's all I have to say about him. Calahan seems to be doing a good job with the offense and if only the defense could keep the games close enough that the offense doesn't start loosing heart, we will begin winning football games again.

That game was painful to watch, is painful to think and talk about, and hopefully will be the last painful thing we have to endure this year.

On a lighter note, I will actually be making it to two of the next three games, Oklahoma St for homecoming this Saturday, Oct 13th, and then will be making a road trip down to enemy territory for the Texas game on Oct 27th. Tickets are in hand for the Texas game, and still on the lookout for a few more tickets to ensure there is enough for the entire family. I can't wait...

Birthday Results

2007-10-01T10:14:00.000-05:00

Welp, the birthday weekend is finally over and I feel fresh and relaxed.

I went out Friday night and ended up staying out a bit later than expected (3AM, oops) because of this and a lack of planning, I put off the paintball adventure on Saturday morning until a later date when I can get a hold of more than a few people. Saturday I spent lounging around doing a whole lot of nothing until about 9 when we went out for dinner at Granite City, followed by drinking at the My Way, and ending with an after hour party at my place. Many thanks to Andy, Chris, Micaila, Angie, Kalinda, Mikey for the shots and drinks and making the time enjoyable with your presences.

I crashed somewhere around 3AM again Saturday night and slept in until almost 11, it was awesome. I then spent the next 3 hours playing Halo 3, took a break for some lunch, then played about 8 more hours before calling it a night. That's right, something like 11 hours of Halo, this was also awesome, no I'm not an addict, really. I swear.

Next on the agenda is getting the basement painted, steam cleaning the living room and having an electrician investigate some issue M.U.D. found while replacing my Gas/Water meters, hopefully this doesn't end up costing *too* much...

Saturday Morning: Paintball!

2007-09-27T08:24:00.000-05:00

Since the Husker game isn't on TV this weekend and it's my birthday Sunday, I'm thinking about going out finally getting out and playing some paintball for the first time in a couple years this Saturday. I've narrowed it down to two places, neither of which I've ever been to so if you have any input on either that would be great.

The first is Kersplatt:
at 90th & Maple, Rental's start at $30, Indoors, not as many fields to choose from (from what I can tell online anyways)

The other is Mad Cow Paintball: near Louisville, NE (about a 30-45 min drive from Omaha), Rentals are $35, Outdoors, more field options (means better game selection), a bit of a drive to get there.

There's also Husker Paintball, which their website no longer exists so I don't know if they're still around, this was the only field I've ever been to and it was a great time, if anyone knows that they are still operational please let me know.

However it works out, It would definitely be a great time to get out and shoot a couple of you ;)

It's amazing what a $10 filing cabinet can do..

2007-09-23T23:45:00.000-05:00

+

=

Cat Spa

2007-09-20T08:15:00.001-05:00

I think every cat should get to try this... at least once!

Huskers! Wooo!

2007-09-11T23:34:00.000-05:00

So I found out that one of the guys I work with today has an extra ticket to the USC game on Saturday. Guess who gets to go now?! That's right, me baby. It should be a great time of tailgating all day hopefully followed by a good football game. I'll most likely stay in Omaha Friday night since my friend Scott is supposed to be flying in rather late in the evening, then going to head up to Lincoln early the next day to start the party. Depending on inebriation levels I may be back in Omaha after the game, but I kinda doubt that's going to happen.

This past weekend was pretty fun, after a shaky start on Friday I got to spend the rest of the afternoon with my sister and her husband at the zoo. Sean watched the Husker game here with me and the roommates Saturday afternoon, then that night my brother and I took Cassie and Sean on a small tour of downtown Omaha since they had never been there. I think/hope they had a good time...

After a relatively uneventful Sunday it was back to the grind at work. Mondays and Wednesdays have became even more arduous as I have to get in an hour earlier than usual, work through lunch and then leave work early since I have class at 4PM. The class itself is pretty easy (Database Management, like I haven't been working with databases for over 3 years now every day or anything) but it's just getting back into the groove of the whole school thing after taking a break from classes for the summer. Anyways, I should really be getting to sleep, 6:45AM just comes too early these days..

Extreme Slip n Slide

2007-09-05T20:58:00.001-05:00

Angie sent me this link, I think I might have to round up a few friends and attempt it...

Stardust

2007-09-04T14:49:00.000-05:00

On a whim I went and saw Stardust last night. I'd been wanting to see this for quite a while and figured I better get to it before it leaves theaters.

I tried to explain the plot to a friend based on what I remembered from a few previews but failed miserably other than to say "uh, its a fantasy story about a star who falls to earth and transforms into a girl, and its got witches, magic and other fantasy stuff in it".

Anyways, any description I gave would probably have been pretty misleading as I didn't know that the movie had planned to be so tongue-in-cheek, or rather over the top with certain elements. It never really takes itself too seriously and is all the better for it. Brett said it was very similar to A Princess Bride and I would definitely have to agree. The humor was very familiar, but this movie had a bit more of a dark side, a bit more gore, and just overall felt to be aimed at an older audience. There is a lot of witty banter between the various characters and it feels more like a comedy than a fantasy epic about a lowly shop boy trying to win his true love.

Oh yeah, and watching Robert De Niro dance around in a dress was pretty funny too.

Post Labor Day Ruminations

2007-09-04T14:43:00.000-05:00

So I was totally not ready for the weekend to be over. Even with the extra day off yesterday for Labor Day today has still felt very much like a Monday.with.too.much.work.ahead.that.makes.you.want.to.go.crazy or something.

The weekend was fun though, watched the Husker Football team walk all over Nevada on Saturday, then the Husker Volleyball team throughly trounce on Penn State on Sunday. We then barbecued over at Chris's Sunday night, followed by a long day of lawn work and laundry on Monday. Needless to say I wasn't ever really bored and an extra day to just sit and do nothing would have been awesome.

10 Quarters at once!

2007-08-29T10:13:00.000-05:00

holy hell, i shall have to attempt this some night...

Hi, I'm Josh

2007-08-28T15:39:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Josh.

I work in a button factory.

One day, my boss came to me and said, "Josh, are you busy?" I said no.

He said, "Turn this button with your left hand." *turnslefthandbackandforth*

Cameraphone (web enabled) + Imageshack.us + fotoflexer.com = Insta "on the go" photo manipulation.

The picture I took with my phone was a bit dark, so I uploaded it to Imageshack, then used fotoflexer to do some basic resizing/coloring touch ups. Then uploaded to here, huzzah! Isn't technology grand?

It's begun.

2007-08-27T09:49:00.000-05:00

Hrmm, figured it was about time to make something to share with family/friends that's outside the typical social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook. Look forward to posts about the various things in my life that I feel like keeping you all up to date on (but don't expect anything too exciting, at least not till I win the lottery...)