(no subject)

[camwyn]

The New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles has been claiming for some time now that I apparently changed my name in some nefarious way back in 2003 or 2004 or something like that. Which is bollocks, 'cos if I changed anything it would be either my address or the use/lack of use of my middle initial, but enh. My license expires next week and the DMV here in Jersey City is open until noon today. I'm packing eight points' worth1 of identification, some knitting, and a copy of the Shah-Nahmah2 and heading for Summit Street.


1New Jersey has rules about how many forms of ID you can use and how valid they are. It's part of verifying identity for the sake of a digital driver's license. Four points for an existing digital driver's license, a birth certificate or certified copy (hospital copies/baptismal certificates not okay- government issue only), current valid military photo ID, adoption papers, naturalization/citizenship papers, refugee travel document, green card, or foreign passport with INS/USCIS verification and valid record of arrival and departure. THree points for a civil marriage certificate, divorce decree, court name change order, military dependent card, military photo retiree card, or NJ firearm purchaser card. Two points for your school or college photo ID if and only if accompanied by your transcript; also for state/federal/local photo identification, discharge papers, or a pilot's license. One point for any one of a bunch of other things, but you can only use up to two one-pointers, and you have to show at least one of the four-pointers. Long, messy, etc., but it does mean that at some point in his or her life, a licensed New Jersey driver had to pay attention to something.

2The Shah-Nahmah, or however you spell it, is the Persian national epic, the Book of the Kings. It's huge. It's something I've read one or two stories from in the past in a collection of horse stories, because one of the legendary heroes had a legendary horse - Roustam's horse Rakush. It is simultaneously the equivalent of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Shakespeare canon; the first two in terms of cultural significance, the latter in terms of how much influence it had on the language in which it was written. It's also part of my penance for having watched and enjoyed 300. If I can go to the length of reading real Greek historians' accounts of the time, I can certainly do the Persian side the same favour.

Comments

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

I'm presuming that a US passport is also up in the four point category, even if you didn't list it. I think California requires two forms of ID, one of which must be on your four point list. At least last I checked. I should really check again since I need to go renew my license. Though I think if you have a current license and still look like you and are just renewing that license, and have the renewal notice, they're generally fine with that. On the other hand, they now have a longer list of tests you have to pass to make sure that you're still competent and can see well enough to drive.

[camwyn]

Yeah, the US passport is a four-pointer. My bad for not mentioning it.

[kelathefinn.livejournal.com]

You don't get any points for a valid USA passport? only a 'foreign' passport? Weird.
There are only 5 million of us, we get a number when we become a citizen, at birth or upon naturalization,and go through life with that number. They left out the name I am called by on my next to last passport, and I had to go get my driver's liscense to prove to them it is my name so I could get it back on my new passport. I've got too many names to fit into the digital format.

[camwyn]

No, you do, I just somehow left the American passport off the list. My mistake. Four points for one of those.

[kelathefinn.livejournal.com]

I thought Shah-Nahmah was the name of a new rock group and you had their music on your ipod to listen to while you waited...

[camwyn]

While it's entirely possible that a group exists with that name, this is a one-volume translation and abridgement of the original, which apparently comes out to roughly nine volumes of the same size. Knowing what I do of the writing habits of the Greeks when they're in an epic mood, I fear the Persians can only be worse- which is to say, I'm betting on those nine volumes being only marginally less repetitive than the Gospel of John.

[kelathefinn.livejournal.com]

Actually, I suppose I should read that, too. After all, I've plowed through the Illiad, the Odyssey, Ramayana (should read the Sri Lankan side of that one, always good to read the other side's version), the Tale of Gengi, and the Three Kingdoms, another war epic should be a breeze - especially if it *is* as repetitive as John or the begats in Genesis.
Happy reading! (You actually sat through 300 and *liked* it?? I think it was just a ripoff of Troy, because that did so well at the box office. Maybe Hollywood will realise that 'men in little bronze and less leather' is even better than 'men in tights' - and that the females now deserve eye candy after generations of 'women in sarongs' and 'women in fur bikins' and 'women in strategically placed potted plants'...)

[camwyn]

It was fun in a comic book sort of way. Especially with my inner Civilization III player and Herodotus/Larry Gonick reader shouting "I know Xerxes, I grew up with Xerxes, that is not Xerxes, XERXES WEARS CLOTHES," so I was sort of free to start assuming it was actually something in a Frank Herbert novel with an unfortunate coincidence of names.