I have been called by my great country (and county) to serve. Since I have a federal job I guess technically I serve everyday I go into work (I am a civil servant ya' know). But this is different. A large part of someone's life may hang in the balance. I went to my first ever Jury Duty this morning. Mostly it involves lots of sitting so far. I sat for over an hour and then they called my name. Then I followed a group of similarly called people up to a courtroom where we all sat some more. We went to lunch. Then upon our return my name was called again. I had to answer some generic questions, to which my answers were apparently suffiicient. Now I am a juror. Well, to be honest, I am an alternate juror, which means that I will only have to do the actual deciding if something happens to someone else. I really hope that doesn't happen. By law, I can't go into details, but suffice it to say that the case involves the usual suspect comitting a (relatively) low level crime. We are not allowed to look into the case further than the law. If the law says it is a crime, that's it. We are not to decide if we think what the accused did was wrong. We were repeatedly told not to sympathize and also not to think of any eventual punishment that might follow a guilty verdict. So hopefully I won't have to worry about it, and I'll collect my paycheck (in full thanks to the sweetness of the Homeland) and watch the trial roll by. Wish me luck. Or rather, wish all the other jurors luck.

so i always need to have a scrolling meeage across my screen warning me of the ultra-hazardous pollen danger?

[size=m]Pollen count high in area!!!![/size]

My god, what next? Fungi spores? Extra-acidic soil indicators! Trees blowing dangerously to the left today!! Slight chance of mud on your shoes if you traverse the lawn!!!

Today we are all free to get us some big guns. The ban on assault weapons has officially sunset leaving Americans the opportunity to blow one another up all in the name of good sport. I am thinking of purchasing a Fabrique Nationale FN/FAL which is gas-operated and fires from the closed-bolt position in both the semi- and full-auto modes.



Can't wait to go at it with those deers in the fully automatic mode, I'm hoping to take an entire herd in under 3.5 minutes.

On a better note. I am shouting out my thanks to:

[size=l]Elaine M. Urban[/size]

She found my ID and bank cards where I left them at the beach. She then drove to my house and put them through the mail slot. Isn't that just the kind of good samaritanism that you think doesn't exist anymore? She is apparently a piano teacher so if you need any lessons please give her a call @ (716) 877-9531.

(e:soyeon) it has happened to me too. [inlink]soyeon,95[/inlink] Just about two months ago I went to look at one of my credit cards online and it said Access Denied and gave me a number to call. I called and they told me there was a freeze on my account. They asked me if I had spent $538.00 at Payless Shoe Store and $635.00 at a hotel. I hadn't been on any cheap shoe shopping sprees out of town and told them that. It really freaked me out. But, they cancelled the card and sent me some stuff to sign and about two weeks later it was all good as new. So don't worry it should turn out OK.

(e:robin) I thought you were a jackass last night honking at jaywalkers for no reason. I think I even called you a nasty name. Sorry, I guess. Next time maybe throw some kind of party favor at us instead. We didn't end up doing anything that night at all. We passed the party you might have gone too. Seemed jammin'. Saw (e:trisha) and (e:paulnotpaul) (though I'm not sure he still deserves hi (e:) since he hasn't written in months) and they said they were gonna tear the attic down around themselves. The walls were already listing. Hope you had a good time if you went.

Lastly, (e:floppydonkey) go spend some quality time with your girlfriend (e:maidencateyes) in the sun. You could always record the game and watch it this evening.

this has got to be short, I'm talking from atop a flailing seabeast. it's a blast. I hope my ass last. peace out mo-fo's.

I just finished training at work and will begin actually using my new skills today. I am not very confident in these skills, but my job is primarily bullshit, which I am very good at. We shall see. This weekend need to be wonderful. I am hoping to hop on someone's boat and go for a final last-call type swim. And there's Trisha's bachelorette which of course shall be blastastic.

Here are two websites I got from some magazine (either the Nation or Wired) about environmental issues. The first is the Environmental Working Group a Public Interest Watchdog which keeps an eye on environmental issues around the country. There latest cover-story regards Dupont's settlement of upwards of $300 million for Teflon pollution of water supplies.

The second is this really neat site for the European Pollutant Emission Register. You can click on a map of the entire EU (plus Norway and Hungary) or a list of pollutants and fine the amounts and locations of polluters. I tried it out and found all of the polluters (down to street address) for the city I lived in in Germary. It would be great to have one for the US. Anyone know if we do?

Russia has declared that it is ready to begin preemptive war against terrorists wherever they may be. "We will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world. But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes," said Russia's Chief of Staff General Yuri Baluyeveski. I guess that little clause about nuclear weapons should make us feel better. It was only a matter of time before the other countries followed our lead (and Putin said definitively that his decision was modeled after George Bush's war on terror), and it won't be surprising when China, Pakistan, and whoever else jumps on board the worldwide terror war. This should make us all a little more shaky. Bad enough that we can declare war on anyone anywhere, now the rest of the world is free to do so as well. Fun.

Finally someone in this administration is officially being sanctioned for duping the country. Ex-Medicare chief, Tom Scully, is being asked to repay 7 months of his $145,000 annual salary after he was found guilty of threatening to fire Medicare's top actuary, Rick Foster,if he gave congressional staff information about his cost estimates of the controversial legislation strongly backed by President Bush. His estimates ended up being $134 billion higher than the $400 billion 10-year price tag from the Congressional Budget Office. If only some of this blame (add to that failure to find WMDs, prison abuse, failure to find Osama...) could ever "trickle-up" to those really in control.

Any weekend where you get to go swimming twice is just wonderful. This one here was just that. A beach party at a mega-fantastic crazy ass rambling mansion. Played tennis (well, we hit the ball a couple times usually far from the court), danced around a bonfire (where I learned that I have an entire fan club that has been documenting my dancing style), ended up naked in the water with about ten other folks (where I somehow lost my glasses not once, twice, but thrice-amazingly for pitch black underwaterness they were recovered each time). No talking without my pants on for hours, but I did walk around the party in my soggy underpants, much to the chagrin of our host (as I later discovered). Good time. And we made it back across the border, no problema (thanks (e:holly) for the ride).

The next day was at (e:Matthew) 's family cabin out by Westfield. It was a nice little spot nestled in a patch of forestland. The night was a little insane. This was my first time meeting most of his family, and they were just about all there. Everyone got super wasted (including a couple 15 year olds?), but I might've taken the cake. I ended up in the forest on hands and knees for goodness knows how long. From what I've heard of the night after I wandered off it was probably just as well. Many honors were besmirched, though apparently all forgiven in the morning sun.

And then... Another day at the beach!! Went to Bennett beach on Erie (as you've probably read/seen from (e:paul) and (e:matthew) documenting fools that they are). It was very nice. The blow-up mattress was very fun in the water, though the wind made it a bit ungainly. I did sommersaults down a sand dune (almost killing some poor guy). We collected little shells and beach-washed glass that will hopefully become some sort of accessory (though perhaps more likely end up in a pile or drawer for the rest of eternity). All 'n all great weekend spent with great friends. Heralding summer's end? We shall see. Perhaps nature has more surprises waiting?

Just Awesome! Who standeth in the way of nature in all her righteous fury?