My morning in federal court

Jury duty: its the obligation of every citizen in our democracy. When I got my summons to appear I knew I could find a way out of it, if that’s what I wanted. How could I consider myself a citizen, though, if I shirked this important responsibility?

After a few days of false starts the day finally came. The 8 AM start didn’t seem as early as I’d expected, though I did walk in a minute or two late. Parking for the jurors is anything but a prime spot. It was a good walk from my space to the entrance to the building. Once I got there it was relatively smooth going through security.
I put my label on my shirt, hit the button for the sixth floor, and wandered into the windowless juror assembly room, already full of jurors.
Continue reading →

Jury through-ty

I’ve been cut loose from jury duty. We finally marched into the courtroom around 10:15 and a group of jurors were called into the juror box for questioning. I watched from the audience as they were questioned, but that was about it.

The judge called a recess at 11:00 AM and I was free to go. I’m now excused for any jury duty for the next two years.

More details tonight. For now I’m heading into work.

Jerry duty

Jerry Seinfeld is coming to Raleigh Memorial Auditorium November 14th. While I’d love to see him, the high cost of tickets isn’t appealing. Also MT.Net does a better Seinfeld than Seinfeld.

Today I’m off to the federal courthouse. Looks like this jury duty is actually going to happen. I am a little disturbed that my reporting time is 8 AM, though. What kind of fool time is that to start anything?

Look for slim to none blogging during the days as no electronics of any kind are allowed. I think its because attorneys as a rule are deathly afraid of technology, but that’s a post for another day.

Stay classy, y’all. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say tonight.

9-9

This seemed appropriate today.

9-9
R.E.M.

Steady repetition is a compulsion mutually reenforced.
Now what does that mean?
Is there a just contradiction?
Nothing much.
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord, hesitate.

Had to punch
Right on target
Twisting tongues
Gotta stripe down his back
all nine yards down her back

Give me a cup of time,
Give me a couple of pointers,
Turn to lies and conversation fear
Continue reading →

Jury don’ty

My scheduled jury duty has been bumped once again, I just found out. The computerized voice tells me I don’t report until Wednesday. I wonder what the deal is. I’d like to go and get it over with but this constant rescheduling is getting annoying. I’m happy to serve as long as I know roughly what to expect.

Also, the instructions tell me to leave my books, phones, laptop, etc in the car. What the heck am I supposed to do while I’m waiting? I’m worried that waiting will be Death By A Thousand Infomercials and I’ll have no avenue of escape. Certainly it makes blogging challenging, though if I can snag a paper and pen I’ll be set.

Algae as a fuel source

Long-time MT.Net reader ‘Mom” sent me a link to a company that’s breeding algae that produces lipids for fuel. According to Valcent, the company, one acre of New Mexico land could produce 20,000 gallons of oil annually. Watch the video to learn more.

My engineering mindset loves finding novel uses for everyday things. I loved Lloyd Godson’s biosphere experiment where he breathed oxygen generated by an algae tank. Generating fuel from algae seems like another great step.

Citizenship as a privilege

So Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell aired his racist thoughts in Sunday’s N&O story on illegal immigrants, then had to issue an apology. The debate shows that racism is alive and well in the Old North State.

I’ve got this citizenship thing figured out. Since almost everyone calling to deport undocumented immigrants did nothing more to become citizens other than being born here, I propose we make everyone take a citizenship test to be considered a citizen.

Let’s make it mandatory at age 18, like signing up for the draft, and maybe even make it expire like a driver license. If you can’t pass the citizenship test you become undocumented and subject to immediate deportation.

I’ll bet that four out of five forum posters at the N&O and WRAL story sites above would be packing their bags.

(For the record, I took the MSNBC citizenship test and scored a perfect 100%. You kids get off of my country!)

Weekend? What weekend?

You know, when you spend part of your weekend with your kid in the ER, part of it in the office mucking with office network (and failing), part of it at home mucking with the office network (and failing again), and the time in-between desperately trying to sleep but largely failing, you begin to wonder if you had a weekend at all.

All this and I’ve got jury duty this week (and possibly the following two weeks), though I don’t report until Tuesday. Life just doesn’t slow down, does it?