Something mentioned by the Jury Guy, for those who claim they can't speak English and therefore need to be excused - he said that at the end of the citizenship test, they ask you if you can read/write English and that in order to become a citizen, you have to swear that you do.
Thus, if you swore that you do, then you do, and so you have to serve.
As I mentioned - 2 potential jurors were dismissed (1 quite clearly) for being able to understand English.
I can think of two good reasons why a citizen may not understand English:
1. If you are a naturalized citizen, they assume you took the citizenship test. However, if you were a minor when your parents took the citizenship test, I think you automatically become a citizen. Thus, you may or may not be able to understand English - and you never swore that you did.
2. If you were born in the US, but did not grow up here - you are a natural-born citizen (thus, no citizenship test).
Now, of course, there are probably few people who fall into these two categories, but nonetheless - it is possible.
I was on jury duty last Friday and today. And now that I am done, I can talk about it!
First off, let me say that I didn't utter a single word in the courtroom, so for all those people who give you suggestions on what to say to NOT get picked - that only works if they actually get around to questioning you.
I didn't keep a log of everything that happened (I did when I went in last year - but never got called into a courtroom so it was pretty mundane) but here's the basic timeline:
FRIDAY
7:35am - stood in line to go through security to get into the courthouse. The courthouse opens at 7:30 and the lines were already long.
7:45am - finally got to the jury room. The jury guy (hereafter: JG) already started the orientation, explains everything, we watch the video abt jury service, etc. We turn in our summons and get a break from about 9:20 to 10am.
10:15am - JG takes roll. Names off a bunch of people to report to a courtroom. After a couple of minutes, he tells us for this next trial, the lawyers have asked to automatically excuse jurors who have financial hardships - that is, jurors whose employers don't pay for more than 10 days of service wouldn't be called for that trial because the trial length was going to be 11 days or more. Of course, my name is on the list for that trial and because my employer pays unlimited days, guess where I get to go?
10:45am - waiting outside jury room. Apparently this is a serious case - 38 jurors had reported on Thursday and had to return Friday, along with us 20 new jurors. The 38 were asked to report at 9:45 but have been waiting outside the courtroom for 1 hour.
10:59am - baliff takes roll, gives some instructions and we enter in the courtroom. One of the 38 did not show up and the judge says that he'll send someone to find him. There is only 1 person for the DA's office (a young-ish guy) and 1 defense attorney (a young-ish girl). The judge goes over the charges, introduces the key characters, goes over the witness list, etc. I think they called 18 jurors up and started questioning them (either that or that happened right after lunch).
12pm- 1:30pm - lunch. I went back to the jury room to use the wi-fi.
1:35pm - Roll call outside the courtroom. We go back inside. More questioning by the judge and attorneys. They excuse some people and when the jury box is down to 11, they call 7 more people up. And start the questioning again. This goes on until a little after 4pm - 7 more are called up and some of them are questioned. Then the judge excuses us for the day and we're asked to report back Monday at 10am. Joy.
TODAY
8:50am - Arrived at courthouse.
9am- got through security (lines are still long, but I heard that's how it is on Mondays) and went to jury room for wi-fi. JG is going over the orientation with the new group of jurors. He pretty much says the same schtick.
9:20am - went up to the courtroom. Elevators are crowded. They have like 9 of them, but they're always packed. They should allow people to take stairs - esp from the jury room to the 1st floor.
10:05am - Court clerk takes roll of the 12 in the jury box, 3 times. At least 5 of them are missing - the court clerk (an older guy; Friday's was a young-ish girl) jokes about swine flu. Says he'll be back in 5 minutes to take roll again.
10:10am - Court clerk comes back to take roll, twice. 11 are present, the guy in seat 1 is not. The court clerk goes back into courtroom. Seat 1 guy arrives and goes into courtroom to let him know he's here. Court clerk lets us all inside.
10:15am - More questioning. Family members (of the victim or the defendant? I don't know) are sitting on the right side of the audience. I feel a bit intimiated with the family members there, even though I don't know who (exactly) they are.
Some jurors are excused. The funny thing is that the same seat gets excused. The DA would accept the jury, then the defense would excuse seat 8. Then the DA would excuse whoever filled seat 8, and the defense would excuse the new juror in seat 8. And then the DA would excuse seat 8 and the defense would accept the jury. And back and forth. The judge joked that there was a pattern. I still wasn't sure if I thought the judge was nice or not - he seemed like he kind of was, but still not certain.
11:45am - Finally the jury gets accepted. Hurrah! I thought we in the audience should clap or something. Oh, but wait - alternates. *Sigh*. They call up 6 of the remaining 9 of us in the audience. Not me. The judge asks the jury people to step outside for 5 minutes. I'm looking at the clock, wondering if we have to wait until after lunch.
11:50am - we file back in. They question the 6 potential alternates - they just need 2. The attys talk with the judge, he tells us that they are trying to reach a consensus on the alternates so that the rest of us can go. At this point, I decided that the judge was nice enough. After they finish their sidebar, the judge announces the 2 alternates (and asks that the attys confirm).
So we're done. Yippee! I feel awkward listening to everyone's stories - what they do, what their spouse and kids do, where they live, etc. Some people (esp older folk) would get into these long-winded stories. The 1st time I went to jury duty, the judge started off by telling us the length of the trial and asked if anyone had a reason for not being able to serve for the length. This time, the judge didn't - otherwise, I would have explained about my business trip next week.
They don't tell you why jurors are being excused, but you can kind of tell. Two jurors were basically excused because of their poor English - the judge said that the JG should have already screened them. (But they don't because JG says that when you take your citizenship test, you essentially agree that you understand English).
One girl, whose brother was roughed up by police in a case of mistaken identity, had a chip on her shoulder (her words) about police. They asked if she could be fair and she said she would try but it was clear that she wouldn't be. Another lady said something that caused the judge to ask that if it came down to following the law and common sense (as she saw it, since she was opinionated), she would go with common sense and disregard the law. She said yes, she'd go w/ common sense. No surprise that she was let go by the judge.
One guy let go was an FBI special agent (I always think of Criminal Minds, NCIS, etc when I hear "special agent"). Another worked for a video game company. Some people that I thought would be excused - weren't, and the vice versa. I also thought they were letting go of most of the guys but I think the final make up of the jury was maybe 5 guys to 7 girls. A mixed group of races/ethnicities too, but no Asians (as far as I could tell). Then again, there were only maybe 2 Asians in the 58 potential jurors anyway.
Obivously, I'm glad I was excused! Aside from my business trip coming up, I can't make decisions! This was something that they asked - aside from directly asking "is everyone comfortable making decisions?", they asked a couple if they had bought cars, how they bought them - if they felt that the salesman was trying to lead them in a certain direction, etc. What they would do if, during deliberations, they were the sole holdout - would they feel pressured into changing their vote? I'd like to say that I would be able to, but I don't think so - not while facing 11 people who disagree with you.
8:32am complaining session by upstairs coworker...
8:39am searching for sr member ref form. you know, if they email it to you, could you just forward it to me? instead of making me go look it up?
8:45am ugh, Depot, what do you mean that the acct says we have to enter in cc info. we've always paid on acct!
9:17am In this failing economy, you'd think companies would want people to purchase from them. but they are making it more difficult to do so.
9:45am i spent like 1 hr trying to figure out this stupid depot thing. i'm going to order from cdw now.
9:58am Love CDW. So simple to place orders. None of that run-around stuff.
10:08am state govt rate - oh, you mean TX state gov't? What about non-TX state govt?
10:23am I really like pepperridge farm chessboard cookies.
10:48am coffee, check.
11:10am I've eaten 5 chessboard cookies already. they're not even that good - they're just like asian coconut crackers.
11:45am I know it says "to be filled out by such and such" but if I have access to the database, and it confirms such and such, it's good enough.
12:07pm mmm, sometimes I wish I had a blackberry. But I don't think I need 24/7 access to email.
1:22pm going to get my lunch now (cereal and milk again).
2:06pm I should really stop stopping by 2nd tier's office when I come back from getting my lunch. I end up having to wait to eat!
2:44pm Yes, I have a Wii, and Wii Fit. But no xbox, ps3, ps2, psp, ds2. I do have a ds lite.
So this morning, my upstairs coworker called me to complain about her work. And then after a couple of minutes, she got cut off... I considered calling her back, but I really did not care to hear her complain, esp not on my cellphone.
I'll be out of town for about 6 days in early May - being so attached to my email, I decided to add the unlimited data plan to my cell phone. I'm bringing my laptop and my iPod Touch, but this would ensure that I get my emails even without wi-fi.
I did the same thing when I went to Pittsburgh two years ago - but with a Motorola v300 on T-Mobile. Now, I have a Sony Ericsson (non-smartphone) on AT&T.
So I added the data plan today, the first day of the billing cycle. The first thing I noticed was that it was slow. I'm used to fast email on the iPod touch. Granted, that is wi-fi, this is not, but going from a wi-fi connection on a 3" screen, compared to the tiny sony screen.
And java - ugh. I don't like using java apps much. The email app on the sony only works with yahoo, hotmail and AIM. I use gmail, so that's not helpful. I did try to access my yahoo mail, but it wouldn't load. Switching to gmail - I installed gmail's mobile app. It worked okay, but when I went back to open the app, it disappeared. I then went back to gmail's website and tried downloading the app when I was informed that it was already installed. Then why can't I find it?!
So the only thing that I could use to check email was gmail's site directly. It was okay, but nothing great.
After some thought (like 10 minutes?), I decided that the slow connection wasn't worth it. I'd rather increase my text messaging plan to unlimited, and use gmail to send copies of my emails to my phone. Sort of like 'push" email, but since it's done through sms, there's no data charge. Of course, there are caveats - mostly the 160-character limit and not being able to send email out (unless I don't mind it being from my phone number@att).
But it would be low maintenance - I don't have to log in to get new messages, I don't have to start java, and I'm pretty sure it takes up less battery. I used to do this when I had t-mobile's unlimited family messaging plan (at just $10 for all the phones on the plan. It's now $20 on T-mobile, which is still cheaper than att's $30).
Anyway, yeah, I called customer care and told them that I wanted to remove the data plan and add the messaging (unlimited) plan. I also asked if my usage today would be pro-rated (so like $15/1 month = 50 cents per day, so just 50 cents) or if somehow I would be charged pay per use for today's usage. I think it's the first method - I tried explaining my question to customer care and I think that's what she answered.
I hope so... we'll see on the next bill...
8:54am my trash can hasn't been emptied for 2 days (and over weekend). What's up with that?!
9:08am T-bird crash?
9:10am ok, no t-bird crash. but is slow on searching mail. oh well.
9:12am Yes, vm indicator, I see you. I just have other things to do than check what you have to say.
9:38am
SW Boss - going to dentist for chipped tooth. He thinks he'll die, and
no one will come to his memorial. I told him that I would.
11:04am is it poss to hotsync palm remotely?
11:57am
ugh, vm from Depot (yeah, I finally checked my vm). credit card info
missing from po. yeah, it's a po, why would it have cc info?\
1:06pm T-bird sending mail is also kind of slow.
1:15pm that's not how you abbreviate wednesday.
1:32pm how come this week's reh sched hasn't been emailed yet?
1:53pm students who turn their timesheets in late are idiots. you don't get paid unless you turn it in.
2:46pm 2nd class and you're already giving them a quiz? Poor students!
Set up the Disney Grooves ddr game this afternoon and right off the bat, I could tell something was wrong (with the console, most likely). It took forever to go from screen to screen and there would be a delay/drag. At one point, an error message popped up and I had to restart the system. After that, it worked much better (no delay) until I got to the workout mode.
After selecting letters for my name, skipping past selecting a password, I tried entering my weight. No luck - using the d-pad or nunchuck, I could move from one number to another, but when I tried pushing "A" to select a particular number, it would beep and not let me select the number. What the heck. I tried pushing just about every button on the wii mote and nunchuck. Still nothing.
I'm not too impressed with the Wii right now. The Lego Indiana Jones was a bust - even though most reviews online are very good. Mario Party is fun, but with all the random rules and setup, it reminds me of "Bamboozled", from that Friends episode (Joey was trying out to be a game show host and chandler & Ross were the contestants). None of the rules made any sense. That's how I feel sometimes with Mario Party.
And with the ddr too. A double stomp? What's that?
Even the bowling game on Mario Party - why didn't they make the game use the same controls as the bowling in Wii Sports? Instead, they changed the controls and who knows how to bowl "correctly" any more? I got strikes on the first few turns and then got gutter balls on the rest.
The only recent game that I'm having fun with is the Mario Kart, although playing two player is a bit difficult because you only get half the screen. I can't even imagine playing 4 player.
Anyway, long story short - I don't know. The Wii Sports was pretty impressive. Wii Play was ok. Wii Fit is ok. Super Mario Galaxy is ok - though I'm stuck at 8 stars. I was talking to someone yesterday about how unlike other mario games (like Super Mario Bros on Super NES) which are linear (you can't move on in the game until you pass each level), SM Galaxy is not. Like where I am (with 8 stars), I have 3 planets that I can go to. Unfortunately for me, I've tried all three and can't get past any, so I'm still stuck.
With the way the Wii has been acting lately, I kind of wonder if we should have gotten the extended warranty...
Watching the episode of Friday Night Lights with the state championship game - I had read (accidentally on purpose) a recap from the DirectTv broadcast so I knew how the game ended up. But I still hoped, beyond hope, that maybe, just maybe NBC changed the episode's ending.
Of course, they didn't. FNL is not a fairy-tale. I so wanted Matt (who had been relegated to backup this season) to win - it's his senior year and everything. But that's how real life goes. And FNL is much more realistic than other shows (like Gossip Girl, 90210, One Tree Hill, etc).
Anyway, I was watching them (the opposing team) set up for their field goal and thinking how mad I would be to be in that situation. As the team not attempting the field goal - you can't do a single thing. No defense whatsoever. Is there any other sport (mainstream sport) that has a situation like that? Even penalty kicks in soccer - there's still the goalie!
I thought it was a really good choice to end the game - everyone, from the Panthers to the spectators to the viewers at home - everyone just stood there and watched as the inevitable (aka life) passed by.
And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
I've been tweeting on a private account for the past 2 days. A lot of the time, I would tweet about doing something (such as typing up a flyer) in the middle of typing up the flyer - this is because most of the time, I'd forget to tweet when I was starting the task. Or I'd tweet that I was about to start something, and then get distracted by something else.
Perhaps I should learn to focus on whatever task it is, rather than multi-tasking? This constant switching between tasks is not because of Twitter - that's just how I am.
Anyway, some more interesting (I think) tweets from the past two days:
Thursday, April 2nd
09:45AM Was going to start on the travel reimbs but have to check printer price for boss first.
09:50AM Braniac - supergirl. Of course they couldn't find the product - you gave the Office Depot # to Office Max!
10:03AM
Called Max back and then Depot. Both have same price online, but Max
rep told me $100 more ovr phone. Looks like we're going with Depot.
10:11AM Anyone ever notice that CapitalOne looks like capit alone when typed in lower case? I find that funny :)
11:45AM The clock on my desk phone is off by like 7 minutes. you're supposed to be able to change it, but it won't stick.
11:45AM Thunderbird crashes at least once a day.
12:49PM Still trying to file. Student, go away. Maybe you don't have that software version like you thought.
02:45PM Went to break room to get my lunch (milk for my cereal) and
then spent forever helping 2nd tier manager w/ travel reimbs.
02:48PM I'm so hungry!
Friday, April 3rd
8:18 am Just settling in to work this morning. Guess which braniac forgot to turn off the space heater? It is hot in here!
8:19 am And already, 2nd tier mgr needs help.
9:24 am Thunderbird's directory/address book is finicky. Eudora's is much better.
11:30 am Thunderbird crash as I'm trying to look up addresses on directory. per usual.
12:03 pm I have to help you check vm? Sigh. 31 vms since Jan.
12:05 pm Hmmm, Thunderbird seems like it's going to crash again.
12:19 pm Calling Depot to check price on a cable...
12:20 pm Contemplating switching to outlook... reading a blog abt the diffs while on the phone w/ depot.
12:22 pm price is 6 cents more over the phone. whatevs.
12:24 pm Importing mail from thunderbird to outlook is too complicated... should have stayed w/ eudora.
12:44 pm almost took a french fry from kitty-corner-neighbor but decided against it.
1:13 pm ran upstairs to get my lunch (yogurt). stopped by to steal a fry.
1:14 pm i guess it's a bit lecture-y to say "pls req mtg room in advance, in the future", but I don't care.
2:00 pm finally getting around to eating lunch. hmmm, should i make coffee for the seminar?
I wish Tweetake, or any other service (if there is one, let me know) would allow you to back up a certain set of tweets. I don't need to re-save all my tweets each day, just the new ones.
Some of my tweets are "what am I doing" type tweets. Others are "what am I thinking". I wonder if other people have this sort of constant dialogue going on inside their heads? Again, this (constant dialogue) is not something Twitter-related - that's just how I am :) This is one reason why I don't mind "mundane" tweets about what people are doing (particularly work-related). I wonder how others arrange their work day, how they progress through their inbox, do they think about the stuff they are processing, or do they just plow through it?
So I twittered (or tweeted - both words sound odd) my work day today. It was actually pretty worthwhile. It's nice to have documentation of all the stuff I accomplished. One of my biggest problems is that I'm fickle and I keep switching stuff up. Like for a while, I wrote down a to do list and marked off each task. Then I decided to keep a "did do" list instead, so I would write down everything that I finished. When I got my laptop, I started keeping a (notepad file) electronic to do list. But I didn't like having Notepad or Word open, so I tried using the Tasks list on Thunderbird (that lasted like 2 tasks). I've tried Remember The Milk, ReQall, emailing myself a to do list the night before, adding events to Google Calendar to remember to do stuff, etc.
Anyway, what I like best about using Twitter is the minimal footprint and low maintenance/effort. I use QckTwit which is a small program (I think - I'm not positive) that you just download. No installation required - you just double-click on it to open and then it stays in your taskbar (by your clock). Simple keystrokes to open the window (to tweet) and to post. Fantabulous. Also, you can only tweet - you can't receive messages. This works out perfectly, though, because then you can't get distracted by other people's Twitter feeds.
Since Twitter timestamps tweets, I don't have to write down times (because I will invariably forget). I don't like the relative timestamps, though, so I used TweetTake which allows you to save your tweets to an excel file with a real timestamp. The timestamp was 9 hours off but the minutes were right (I fixed the timestamps below).
I think I will continue to twitter my work days, though not on my Twitter account. Can I set up a private account just for this? I guess I could use direct messages (to myself) but I tried that yesterday and some of the messages were lost...
Anyway, here's my day at work (it was a typical day - everything is really schizophrenic - I usually get interrupted multiple times during the day and most of the time I switch back and forth between tasks. I can't batch my tasks because I get distracted, like I'll be processing a reimbursement and then decide to check on something else.).
-----------------------------------------------------
8:20am Happy April's Fools Day! Going to live-blog my work day... just for fun :)
8:22am Emailed a to-do list to myself last night, right before going to sleep - but didn't go through. Ugh.
8:25am Taking univ community service survey...
8:33am Sent email quering abt grade point averages.
8:42am Working on submitting travel reimb...
8:44am Traveler added incorrectly - my calc is 50 cents less...
8:51am @having #sbux T N XCR CM (tall nonfat extra caramel sauce caramel macchiato).
8:58am Taking a trip to the other fax machine. Hope that one works.
9:04am Kind of sassed the (rotating) head honcho. But hey, he asked for my opinion.
9:09am Answered questions abt student reimbs... well, not yet students.
9:15am Don't like the layout of the new mailboxes - before, I could just glance in as I walked by. Now I have to walk into the room, and turn.
9:16am Answered question abt hiring students not associated w/ univ.
9:19am Trying to figure out where I put that attendee list for the luncheon.
9:36am Ordering office supplies... need anything?
9:44am Helped helpless student find whiteboard markers.
9:45am NewGuy is back to chat w/ manager - but, oh, she's on her break. Better luck next time!
9:49am $6.75 per dz blue pens vs $0.79 per dz blue pens... or $1.99 for 2 refills of the more expensive pen?
9:56am I think I'll go w/ the $0.79 per dz pens. They're the best pens ever anyway.
9:57am Oh, drat - forgot about the tax increase...
10:05am Done w/ office supplies order.
10:07am Off to do some filing.
10:12am I had a dream abt my bosses last night - had to remind one of them abt to-do items, but could only remember 2 out of 3.
10:23am Deciphering phone msg for boss - not so much fun.
10:29am Made phone call abt proposal...
10:33am I think the chairs I ordered yesterday arrived.
10:34am Compiling proposal... shouldn't be too difficult - it's just a redux of something we did last year.
10:44am ... except that I have to type out some technical stuff because I only have the pdf.
10:45am Would have been good to have my laptop - less switching between screens.
10:47am Btw, boss, you may not care what the vm leaver's name is, but if we can figure out his name, we may be able 2 fig out what co.'s he's from.
10:50am I think I have carpal tunnel syndrome... possibly from all this typing. Or video games.
10:55am Heineken, really? You want us to reimb you for drinking?
11:27am This is taking longer than I expected...
11:54am Going to lunch w/ a 2nd tier manager.
11:58am I guess not yet (for lunch).
12:04pm Ordering business cards for boss.
12:15pm Hmmm, have you thought about using paragraph breaks? It makes emails so much more read-able.
12:17pm Should I change my withholdings? Don't want to pay come next April 15th just because of Obama's tax plan... The withholdings were fine.
12:24pm Done w/ the biz cards. I'm hungry.
12:25pm Patent income - $18.75. Administrative cost to manage that acct? Probably more.
12:28pm Me: I don't turn down food. (Events, yes, food, no).
12:33pm Checking payroll stub - wait, I'm getting $20 less?
1:21pm Back from lunch.
1:23pm Oh, I guess the diff is actually around $100 from pre-Obama tax, and post-Obama tax...
1:31pm Updating lunch guest list. Couldn't you list them in a list, rather than bury it in a sea of words?
1:49pm Emailed info on new email acct.
2:06pm Travel reimb time - two to process.
2:31pm Explained abt cover sheet and travel reimbs. I don't think I'm going to get around to posting those reimbs today.
2:51pm Geez, it's shockingly bright in that office, with the blinds open and lights at 100%.
2:55pm On my way out.
3:48pm Some guy on the bus had his hand on my leg and i didnt notice. it was intentional - when i moved my leg away, he pulled his hand away fa ...
5:30pm Checked work email, sent out some feelers for Friday's visitor's sched.
