Today was day One of jury duty….heres a breakdown of how it went:
1. Arrive at the court, wait in long line out in the cold until they herd us into the building and through the metal detectors.
2. Find a seat in a large room with a few hundred of my fellow Queens neighbors and wait.
3. Still sitting and waiting as snarky but cool court officers try and deal with the masses of people.
4. Watch as people get to go home because they: a. are full time students, b. can’t get time off work, c. have to care for a child or parent, d. (the most popular choice) are not able to speak or understand english. To which they are told “this is a list of english classes, you must attend and will be called for jury again in 2 years”
5. On account that I can speak and understand english I get picked to go up to a court room and sit on a jury panel.
6. Sit and wait.
7. Judge talks to us and gives up the low down on the case we are sitting on nothing good…some theft case involving a car or car parts or something.
8. They pick 14 people at random (12 jurors and 2 alternates) and start asking them some basic questions. A few get to leave for yet again not understanding english so well.
9. Start asking each of the 14 the list of questions: Everything from education to crime to employment.
10. Break for like and hour and a half for lunch.
11. Finish asking questions to the initial 14.
12. ADA and Defense get to ask questions including a funny one from the ADA about “the CSI effect” and some odd ones from the defense atty. to one girl who was teacher trying to relate jury service to putting bad kids in time out.
13. Make us all go outside for “5 minutes” to wait while they decide who of the first 14 they want.
14. 20 minutes later call us back in.
15. Keep 5 out of 14! (at this point I know this isn’t going to end well since it is already 4 p.m.
16. Get told since it is 4 p.m. to go home but that we have to come back tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. to continue selection.
Such is the American justice system…
Day 2 with the Justice Squad… »« Court one way or another…
First today is my 2 year anniversary at the lab! Just though I would share that.
So today I got notified that I was needed in court tomorrow in Queens to testify on a case I tested the evidence in. Ok fine…got all my paperwork and was all set to go to the lab tomorrow, change, and then go to court. Well that was until I called the Jury Duty hotline that I was still on stand by for. Seems that they too want me tomorrow (same court building even). What are the odds eh? No one was totally sure which one overrides the other so as of right now I am going to Jury Duty tomorrow unless I hear different. Yep the wackiness never ends with me! 
Day 1 with the Justice Squad… »« A horse is a horse…
So today I was walking down to the store and saw a truck with a horse trailer (complete with horse) parked on the side of the road. The two guys were moving around the truck, looked like they might of been having problems with the truck or trailer or something. Well less then 15 minutes later I am walking back home and see the truck and trailer is still there but now with no horse. I just though it a little odd is all I guess. I mean I am in the city here, where could they of taken/put the horse around here? Is it in someone’s garage or back yard? Did some little girl finally get the pony she has been asking for, for her birthday? I guess it is just another one of the those city mysteries.
Court one way or another… »« Back to work
Well today was back to work for me. After having a nice 4 day long weekend it was hard getting up early to go back to the lab!
I spent said long weekend in CT visiting friends and family. Friday I went up to Mass with my mom and hit the yankee candle store and did some random shopping in Northampton. I also got a 250GB external HD for my laptop so I could do data backups and make more room on my internal harddrive for some TV shows I have been wanting to DL off of bit torrent. Saturday I went to the The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk,CT with Valerie. There was a dinosaur exhibit with an IMAX movie, robotic dinos, and one of those 3D rides where you watch a video while the seats move, and they have fish there too. (Picts will be up shortly in the pictures section). Sunday just did some food shopping and stuff around then house. Monday I got to see Jenn for a little bit. Went to get Shady Glen Cheese burgers (mmmm…fried cheese) and went to the movies. Didn’t end up getting back here to NYC till like 8 thanks to Dad who drove me back. But my adventures weren’t over quite yet….oh no…that would be too easy. At 11 last night just as I was falling asleep my Dad calls my cellphone to let me know that some how my wallet with my ID, Bank and Credit Cards, and everything fell out of my pocket and was still in the car, now in CT! Doh! So right now that is in the mail on it’s way back to me. Luckily I have a few bucks stashed around the apartment for just such an emergency (or for when I decide I want chinese food but don’t want to walk all the way too the ATM too) heh.
So that was my exciting weekend. After that I really need another long weekend just to recover
A horse is a horse… »« Topical…
Kent Brockman: “The weather service has upgraded Springfield’s blizzard from winter wonderland to Class-3 kill storm.â€
Marge: “I don’t like the sound of that Class-3.â€
We are in the middle of our own “Class-3 kill storm” at the moment. (I am actually surprised that none of the news stations have used that as a graphic yet) Just for information purposes heres what it looked liked out this morning:
Good times….good times….
Lucky for me I did all my laundry and shopping yesterday and don’t have anywhere to go till work tomorrow morning. Yep…it’s just me and nippy hanging out watching the snow and taking it easy.
Speaking of work, I mentioned last post that I had to go to court this past Friday. It went fine, or I could say it did if it were actually over. So as a quick re-cap Thursday I got a case as a reanalysis because they needed it for court and the original chemist had retired. I tested what I had to test, did up the report and then on Friday took the longish trip up to the Bronx to testify. I got to the court, met with the ADA, waited, and then testified. Being done I went back to the lab for the rest of the afternoon. Well round about 540 I get a call that I have a notification for the same court for Tuesday. I figure it must be an error so I go and get the notice and they call the ADA. Well funny story…seems because of something going on at the trial they need the other items of evidence in the case tested (which I didn’t have to test before as per- our lab polices). So tomorrow I get to re-test the evidence I tested Thursday, write up the report, and then Tuesday go BACK to court to testify again in the same case. Really sort of funny in a say sort of way.
Bet you’ve never seen something like THAT on CSI!
Happy Valentines Day »« Court again…
Works been busy this last week. Lots of OT and lots of cases. Now to top it all off I have court again tomorrow. It’s a small case that I actually just analyzed today so at least it’s fresh in my mind.
Nothing much planed for this weekend, but next week I have a request for Friday off and with the Monday holiday I plan to make a nice 4 day weekend. Going to go back up to CT to visit family and friends so that should be nice. Do a little visiting and maybe a little shopping and basically just take it easy.
Class-3 kill storm! »« Stupid Supermarket…
Today was fun. My Friend Jen (from CT, not to be confused with Jenn from Kalamazoo) came down for a visit. We got some coffee, and went to the movies. Saw “The Matador”, sorta a hitman comedy with Pierce Brosnan. Looked weird from with previews and was a weird movie but also really good. Then we got some food at the Heartland Brewery (this time I tried the “Not Tonight Honey Porter” micro brew which was really good.) and finally ended up wandered around the Virgin store for a bit. It was nice to see her again and nice to get out for a bit today, even if the weather was dark and wet.
As for the title of this post it seems that the supermarket less then a block away from me is closing, there are signs in the windows for 30% off all grocery stuff and last time I was there they were out of a lot of stuff (I had though at the time they just hadn’t gotten their shipment in yet) but the signs sorta point in another direction. It really sucks, the place may of been small but it was close and some stuff was cheaper then stop and shop which is where I will have to go now, unless some other supermarket takes over the spot. I just doubt I will be that lucky.
Court again… »« Universe Today – The Smell of Moondust
