| 16 apr 2002 well, so much for my worries about jury duty. i didn't even get picked. the crazy thing is that they summoned SIXTY people to fill 13 spots (12 + 1 alternate), but they did go through 24 people before finishing. i actually kind of wanted to be on the jury because i'm curious to see how the legal system works. i've seen so much _ally_ and movies like _a few good men_ that glorify the courtroom drama, and i just think i'd like to have that mystique shattered. i did get to see a few objections, though. i got excited! but anyways, i consulted three lawyer friends of mine, and asked them how to behave to discourage my selection. advice ranged from acting biased, acting racist, and other stuff like that. sadly enough, according to some of my friends, the best thing you can do is come across as really smart. yup. i guess lawyers like dumb gullible people. i was planning on coming up with some crazy lie, but after we were sworn in, i just couldn't do it. i take oaths pretty seriously, and after i raised my right hand, heard the oath and said, "yes," fabricating an alibi was no longer an option. so the excuse i was planning to give was that i had tourette's. yup. the ultimate cop-out. i think that if i had used it, and i had gotten off jury duty because of that excuse, i would have felt guilty. luckily it didn't come down to that. one guy did get off easily. all he said was, "i don't believe in judging people." and poof! out the door he went. during the lunch break, i walked up to the prosecuting attorney and tried to talk to him. i wanted to ask him a question about how long he had been practicing law or something, and the moment he found out i was a prospective juror, he totally freaked out and told me he wasn't allowed to talk to me. it was kind of an extreme reaction that took me by surprise. but if those are the rules, then that's that. so. not much to report. the case was actually nothing special; the only thing that was potentially interesting was that it will pretty much hinge on the cop's testimony, and from that, the jury will have to make its decision. no hard scientific facts. oh, by the way, don't drink and drive. it's not worth the risk, you know? i mean, even if you have ONE drink, it's still better not to drive. who knows if the breathalyzer will have some anomaly and measure more alcohol than you really have in your system. during the questioning of the jurors, i got really annoyed. i mean, it was a long, arduous process whereby the judge asked each of the 18 prospective jurors on the panel a series of question. and sometimes the people just wouldn't get to the fucking point. i mean, i'm not against elderly people, but this one old lady got asked how old her kids were at a certain time, and she just went off on some slow, rambling, semi-related tangent. but a tangent nevertheless. i mean, don't these people understand that time is precious? this isn't the time to start up a conversation or some anecdote of the past. arrgh. plus, there was this greek dude or something who kept raising his hand saying he wasn't familiar with the legal definitions, and he just kept fucking doing it over and over again, to the point where the rest of us in the audience started groaning and rustling. i guess i probably sound elitist or something. maybe i am. but part of it was that i am a big advocate of efficiency and expediency, and i wanted the process to get done as fast as possible. i think my pace of doing things may be a lot faster than a lot of people. *shrug* anyways, i got out at around 2:30pm. the sweetest words were spoken when the lawyers finally announced that they were satisfied with the jury. man, i wanted to jump up and let out a whoop. i was watching the notetaker (or scribe or whatever, you know, the person who types the transcript). damn, what a job. first of all, how do they keep up with all the words flying about? i must find out more about shorthand. but anyways, the point is that i think being the scribe must be a tough tough job. i mean, you can't lose focus for one second. sometimes the woman would close her eyes and just concentrate on what was being said while she typed furiously at her keyboard. it's definitely not a job where you can coast or goof off for even one minute. ok. enough about the court. ----- so i was watching the two-hour _ally_ last night. it was really good. the show reminded me why it's probably my favorite program on tv next to _sportscenter_. and i still think it's got the best dialogue on tv. they had christina ricci and matthew perry guest star. i was disappointed by how little matthew was on screen. and even though i kind of throught christina was cute in those addam's family movies, she just looks really freakish, with her big buggy eyes and her hujangous forehead. for whatever reason, when she was on the screen for extended periods of time, i felt like kicking her. but anyways, there was this drama about ally and her love interest, victor. basically, ally kept on saying that she has always been in "combative" relationships, and that she thought she always needed someone who challenged her, someone who argued with her. victor (played by jon bon jovi), is just the opposite; he's totally groovy easy-going taoist-type, never gets mad and just goes with the flow. that got me thinking. you see, the whole reason why i thought k1 and i were a perfect couple in the beginning was that we were both crazy. both neurotic and quirky and moody and just plain basketcases. i had this illusion that we *got* each other. and the biggest thing is that i thought i wanted to be with someone like me, and we could just go nuts together. i mean, it sort of makes sense. what person wouldn't want to be with someone who understands them? who shares the same strange qualities? i think one of our greatest needs is to be understood, to have someone who can identify and sympathize with us. but here's the thing... when we were together, i was always petrified of the time when both k1 and i would get at a low point. i remember telling her once, "if you are down, and i'm down, who's going to pull us out?" neither of us could be a rock for the other person to hold onto. so there's an alternative. sometimes i think that maybe the best person for me is someone who is rather different... someone who is easygoing, steady, perpetually unruffled. that way i could count on the person for support, and ultimate goal would to be to learn from her and use our differences to synthesize a happy medium of existence. is that a better solution? i really don't know. but anyways, that's what i was thinking about after watching the show. i'm bummed. _sportscenter_ these days is nothing but baseball and hockey highlights, neither of which amount to a pile of shit to me. once the nba season ends, the sporting news will be completely bleak until football season starts in september. yuck. all right. ciao. |