My graduation plans were an intricate Jenga game of prerequisites. Graduating next summer would have required several things to break my way, most notably having the required courses available, and of course, money is always an issue. Of course the whole pile of blocks could have been knocked over by an illness, loss of employment......

....or Jury Duty.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:53 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Sounds like a grand jury summons.

Take a look at the paperwork they gave you. A -lot- of jury summons include an exemption or at least an offer of postponement for students. See what hoop they need you to jump through for that, then do it; that takes care of it for a while, at which point they'll usually have forgotten about it.

Then just go to Japan if you like. One of the requirements of compulsory juror service is residence in the area, right? If you're moving out of the country, well, you won't be a resident and can't be compelled to do jury duty (in that jurisdiction, anyway, and it's not like you're moving TO any other US jurisdiction, at least until you get back!)

Do you have the paperwork they sent you? It should mention student exemptions.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Thu Sep 22 23:55:35 2011 (pWQz4)

2 Yes, check for exemptions.  I'm not sure exactly how it works in the US, but they can't possibly expect you to put your life on hold for two years.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Fri Sep 23 04:24:28 2011 (PiXy!)

3 Echoed.  I know in Texas (considering I'm looking at MY OWN jury summons right now) active students are automatically exempt.  You just check the box and mail the form back.
Of course, this is Texas, where "justice" is a very loosely defined concept.
As far as non-Texans know.
Which is how we like it.

Posted by: Ben at Fri Sep 23 19:41:33 2011 (RalIr)

4 You really can be summoned for service on a grand jury - there aren't many of them so most people won't ever see it, but the reason there aren't so many of them is that they get a lot of service out of the guys that they do pick.

It's not the same courtroom stuff as a regular jury. You're generally just checking prosecutors' work, making sure that they've got enough of a case put together before they actually charge someone. Specifically, you can be absent from it occasionally without inconveniencing everyone; so long as 16 people out of the two dozen or so are there, they can still do business. So if you've got a vacation or a week at work you just can't miss, you can deal. And there's no such thing as being "called up for a trial" - totally different kind of jury service, so you're not going to be waiting around to see if there's a trial.

But check for the student exemption first. I know it's not consistent state to state, for all that it's a federal grand jury; the districts run their stuff differently. And even if there's not an exemption, you can ask for a deferral until you've completed your studies.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sat Sep 24 22:57:09 2011 (GJQTS)

5 The first time I was summoned to jury duty, I was scheduled to show up at the courthouse at the exact same time I was to board a plane for Seattle.  I called them and explained my situation; they were happy to reschedule me.

Of course, they sent me another summons to report three months later... for the second week of December.  This time, they were a less happy to reschedule me.  I explained that I was working retail in the biggest mall in the area and we were somewhat busy at that time.  No dice, they still weren't willing to do it.  Fortunately, I had just sold a computer to one of the sitting judges a couple of weeks earlier.  I mentioned his name and asked them to talk to him for proof of my bona fides.  An hour later, they called back and said that they'd reschedule me for some time in January.

I think they put a black mark in my logbook, though, because I've been summoned for jury duty five times since then.  I'm assuming that I'll get another one in a few months.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Sep 25 01:17:52 2011 (o45Mg)

6 I've been told at school that It is not likely to get a waiver for students. Still, I'm going to try. I wouldn't mind jury duty if it weren't for the very tight school schedule.

If its a grand jury, I ought to be able to work around it,  do my civic duty and not suffer academically. However, the summons mentions both federal grand and petit juries. If it's the latter I'm screwed. OTOH...I'm not at all petite.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Sep 25 11:16:16 2011 (EJaOX)

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So this girl asked me...
Where did things go wrong?
And thus a history of banal failure is posted below the fold.

For those uninterested in such matters, here is Kyo-Ani's take on the Sailor Scouts.

^{Actually it's by someone who goes by the handles of Tom and Attopez}

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Today was spent running around getting the last few items secured in the yard and adding to our stockpile of petrol for the generator. This last was a minor adventure as there was no longer any gas to be had in our part of Portsmouth. I went to Newport News and on the way back saw a Hawk on I-164 get thwacked by a car and knocked into the service lane.

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The ground is not supposed to DO that!

UPDATE 17:33: Did a quick check of the house and boat. Damage in Churchland and West Norfolk is almost nil. There may have been some settling. Given Irene's anticipated festivities this weekend,  I hope the flood gates in the tunnels and sea walls aren't out of alignment now. Cell phone service has been very sketchy. After that distraction, I finished getting my grandmother packed and on her way to Raleigh with my uncle to ride out the storm.

UPDATE 17:52:  Chimneys fell and windows broke north of here.

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Been Distracted.
The mosquitoes are abominable this year.
One of the dozens of bites my mom received over the last few days got infected, so she went into the hospital.
She's out now, the arm looks better and she's on antibiotics.

Oh, and my sister just informed me, I'm gonna have a niece.

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Pulpjunkie, a friend of nearly 20 years has been 'downsized'.  Fortunately he was able to get 're-purposed' by his company, however his new purpose is not in Northern Virginia, but the impenetrable jungles of deepest, darkest Pennsylvania. Shorter version, I won't be able to see him for a vary long while after this week.

I've been trying to get up there for weeks but family obligations, school or work have stymied me. As I was finally free, I decided to brave the horror that is I-95 on Memorial Day Weekend. Naturally, the Cressida chose that moment to have a coolant casualty and I pulled into the repair shop with the radiator boiling over,  The repair was minor, but the parts could not be delivered until after the holiday.  Dreading the un-air-conditioned and rickety Pickup of Peril, I decided to check how much an Amtrack ticket was.

$41 dollars each way is not bad and about what I'd spend to fuel the car (but about twice what I'd spend in the truck). I haven't been on a US passenger train in 30 years so  I figured  this would at least be interesting. After confirming that the Alexandria Station is close to a Metro station and coordinating with Pulpjunkie to pick me up, I purchased the tickets online and was at the Newport News station bright and early Saturday morning. The station has very limited long term parking but if fortuitously close to Worlds Best Comics (about a block).

I was interested in how Amtrack compared to Japanese rail, and was pleasantly surprised in all areas....except speed and punctuality.  The line from Newport News to Richmond is not high speed rated and while the tracks from Richmond to DC are,  heavy freight traffic and a lack of parallel rails frequently preclude really high speeds. The US train is thus theoretically comparable to Japanese non-Shinkasnsen long haul trains.  In contrast  to those, ( and even the bullet trains) the internal appointments compare favorably. Every seat, (even in coach!) has electrical sockets unlike the Japanese models, and in one other area the comparison is decidedly in the US trains favor.

^Compare.

The snack car is not a vending machine in the vestibule but a small kitchen staffed that serves a variety of fast food. There are dining cars on either side.

For a good distance east of Richmond the rail line runs next to its predecessor, one of the canals designed, surveyed and built by George Washington ( who was an accomplished civil engineer).

Before government regulation and competition with autos devastated the US passenger rail industry, small towns were built around the rail lines. Today many of these farming communities still have stations for freight and in Virginia the 'main street' is often parallel or perpendicular to the rail line. The train runs right up through several towns.

Ashland, now a suburb of Richmond, is one of the few that still has passenger rail service. Between Ashland and Fredricksburg there is mostly farmland, recent development has followed the interstates and most of the train stations like this one are no longer in service.

There are a few freight stations though.

 ^{This is a very bad picture of one}.

Rail freight is still a hugely lucrative and highly developed business in the USA, a fact that seems lost on many. Only marine transport is more efficient at transporting large quantities of goods. It also means that all these rail lines are filled with slow freight cars, which stymie most attempts to re-introduce passenger rail.  Danny Taggart ought to go into freight.

Because most actual real estate development gravitates to the roads, the areas around the rail line are often picturesque.

^{A beaver lodge!}

We proceeded on time until just short of Alexandria when the train stopped for 20 minutes because a CSX train was blocking the way.  Amtrack in Virginia  is using CSX rail lines but not actually paying to build parallel lines, so.....

20 minutes late, I arrived in Alexandria Station I helped an old lady maneuver her bags onto the train and met Pulpjunkie across from  the Washington Monument.

^{Wait. What!?}

I shortly thereafter discovered my wallet was missing. [expletive] [/expletive]. A good bit of drama ensued as I called the station got in touch with the next station and confirmed that the conductor had found it. It turns out the lady I helped turned it in, it had fallen out when I helped her load her bags. The wallet arrived on the next train and, astonished at my good fortune, we began our bumble through DC.

Oh yeah...the Washington Monument....It looks different up close doesn't it?
Actually that is the MASONIC Washington Memorial which is the Masons own monument to George Washington. Each level has a little museum dedicated to the various branches of Masonry, the Jewish or Christian orders that support each and what charities each are involved in with a bit of Masonic history as well as a limited talk on their arcane ceremonies...but no pictures are allowed...'cause the Masons are supr sekrit...except for their brochures and websites and stuff.

The Alexandria Amtrack Station is across the street from the King Street Metro Station. This allowed quick and easy access to La'Enfant Plaza, which was being used by Native American Navy veterans who were commemorating Memorial Day with a dance and concert. 

^{La'Enfant Plaza..Note the curious lack of Super Mutants.}

After taking that in we visited the Naval History Museum, where we learned that the first US Navy Ship was named after Alfred The Great.

This is a reminder that the revolution did not actually start as a secession, but as someone once said, English subjects fighting for the rights of Englishmen...against a German king.  Flash photography was not allowed but I did get a pic of this flight jacket with unit art.

None of the other pics really took.
We headed out and towards the Mall but were temporarily distracted by an infestation of modern art which has taken root off Constitution avenue.

We wandered down the Mall museum hopping.  Little has changed since the last time I was there. I note that the National Triceratops was removed some years ago depriving kids of the experience of climbing all over it...feh.

At the graveyard of tomorrows the only new exhibit was Spaceship 1 which was in a glare that defied photography. Most of the new exhibits are at a huge new facility out in Virginia.

 Of course we stocked up on provisions...(well I did: Pulpjunkie broke morale over the dehydrated ice cream).

^{SPACE FOOD!}

The newest Museum is the Museum of the American Indian and it is an architectural marvel and very nicely appointed. Pulpjunkie informs me that it has the best museum restaurant in the Smithsonian but we arrived too late to partake.

I had wanted to hit Chinatown again but Pulpjunkie suggested dinner in Annandale. As he is leaving it was his last opportunity to hit  his favorite Chinese Restaurant...

 

Like many of the best restaurants in the South, Duck Changs advertising is handled by Quisling food animals selling out their compatriots. I ordered the Mongolian Beef which was superb. Pulpjunkie had something else...but out of respect to my readers I shan't mention it.

Sunday was spent helping load furniture, measure the condo, which is to be rented out, and doing various other things. That evening we watched various shows on crunchy roll and talked until after midnight. Pulpjunkie the suggested Korean Barbeque. It seems that Annandale has several 24 hour Korean Barbecue joints.

^{Late night meat FTW!}

This brings us to another thing about Annandale...
This is a fairly typical strip mall.

^{Will NOT be trying the Il Mee restaurant.}

..as is this

 
^{A German Restaurant run by Koreans}

I'm not sure why Annandale became such a huge immigrant community but it has done wonders for the areas food options. To Wit:

Lunch Monday where I ate ENTIRELY too much chicken.

We arrived in Alexandria early Monday as we feared delays die to the holiday. There were none so we had a couple of hours to kill in Olde Town.

As a child I had thought that Alexandria was in Egypt, and that Alexander the Great had never even gotten to northern Virginia. Well, you live and learn.

Actually it is named for a plantation owner who donated land to the then port. 

People no doubt pay a premium in rent for authentic crappy road surfaces.

Of course there is the inevitable urban blight.

The old Torpedo Factory is now an art gallery and the waterfront is quite lively.

We arrived at the station with ample time to spare and said our goodbyes. The station is quite old and has been restored nicely.

This is the tunnel connecting to the other side of the station:I gather that its rarely used.

I was surprised to learn that the commuter lines now extend as far as Fredricksburg and Broad Run. Assuming there is parking, this could make trips to DC much less obnoxious.

The return trip was uneventful till just East of Richmond when the train stopped....and then proceeded along at 15mph. It seems that the computer systems for Amtrack, CSX and Norfolk Southern all went down, and no one knew precisely where the trains were. 15 mph was considered slow enough that the train could stop if an oncoming train was seen. This put the train over 2 hours late. I'm a little suspicious of all 3 systems going down at once. It certainly bears scrutiny. In any event Amtrack blew it on the scheduling this trip. However, the customer service was beyond excellent.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Exams are over. Bin Laden's still dead. I got a B average for the semester. I'm taking no classes this summer. I will put in my graduation application (for next year) in November. I've lost 15 pounds over the winter. I've hired a Japanese tutor. I'm filling in for vacations at work this summer.

Yep. Pretty much all is well.

..well...except for one thing. I'm really enjoying this show about grade school girls cockfighting with little robot Tamagotchis, and that worries me a bit. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:22 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Which show is that?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thu May 5 23:50:59 2011 (+rSRq)

2 I'm dumb. You're talking about "Angelic Layer".

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Fri May 6 09:53:19 2011 (+rSRq)

3

I'm dumb.

Nope. You figured it out!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri May 6 12:07:25 2011 (EJaOX)

4 Does it worry you more than or less than watching Midori no Hibi?

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Fri May 6 13:53:35 2011 (9KseV)

5 Oh, less, definitely. Midori no Hibi is a show you just feel creepy trying to describe. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri May 6 20:48:25 2011 (EJaOX)

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UPDATE: The post title was sent via my Blackberry when I was out at the drugstore picking up prescriptions for my grandmother. I'm at their house now and the sky looks far less spectacular...more like an old Dr Who episode.(Oh noes! Ice Warriors!)

Tornado watch is in effect.

I'm looking at the news. The reports coming in from elsewhere in the country are grim indeed.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:25 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The last paper of the semester, the one that went away when the laptop was stolen, the one that I subsequently lost due to a "save" glitch at the ODU library and again due to a power failure at home...is completed, AND printed out....on a robust data storage medium...paper.

The paper is in the hands of the professor and I have a backup copy.

Electrons are no longer involved in sustaining the existence of this project in any way above the chemical and atomic level and if those break down the assignment is no longer a concern.

The paper from hell is done.

I don't pretend to understand women but right now I can relate fully to the sentiments this young lady is expressing.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've been down with a rather spectacular stomach bug that resulted in running, then walking, the hobbling to the bathroom every 20 minutes for 9 hours. By the end I had emptied the contents of my stomach and seemed to be regurgitating the contents of regions rather below that. I ended up in the hospital and received 2 and a half bags of IV fluid. I gathered that there is something of an outbreak going on in S.E. Virginia. This contradicts my earlier theory that it had to do with the fact I was watching Sekerei. A big heaping thanks to my friend Allan Rowe, in whose bathroom I spent New Years 2010/11 and who ran me to the hospital.

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Christmas afternoon, with snow reported to be on the way, I asked my folks if they needed me to pick them up anything.

They said no.

Somewhere out west Pete is no doubt laughing a loud, mocking Slavic laugh at the pandemonium this 6-8 inches of whiteness has caused us silly non-Russians.

However, this area simply has not had to deal with this on a regular basis since the 80's. This really is the most snow we've seen in nearly 20 years and by far the earliest meaningful accumulation on the south-side in that time. The last few winters only snowstorm of note occurred in February of this year and was somewhat less severe. Until this weekend, it had been the worst snowstorm we'd for a long time. (Though an ice storm in 1999 did cause some major problems)

Although I was supposed to be off today, a pleading text from my supervisor convinced me to head in this morning. UPS is on the peninsula in Newport News.  That area, on the northern side of the roads, gets snow much more frequently, but even there this storm had overwhelmed the road crews. It took me over an hour to make what is normally a 30 minute commute.  Only about 10 percent of our workforce made it in and worked our butts off trying to get the brown trucks loaded. However, we ended up well past driver start time with virtually everything in our delivery area closed and the roads quite treacherous. Thus UPS shut down without unloading all trailers for only the second time in the 19 years I've worked there. (The only other time was for a hurricane). A few trucks are running very abbreviated routes but that is all.

Tomorrow will be one busy day as we catch up. We'll be starting 2 hours early, which for me means getting up at 2AM...Its almost like.... Christmas....again.

^{I guess the only thing to do is read Yotsuba&!}

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^{Elf by Simosi}

I got the best Christmas present evah.
14 1/2 hours of sleep!

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After the flu and associated hospitalization,  missing two to three weeks worth of classes and Christmas hours at UPS, I had exams last week. I was a bit concerned due to the large amount of class I missed just prior to exams, which resulted in this answer I gave to one of the 15 short answer questions on the Asian History Exam.

The May Fourth Movement was a political movement that began on May Fourth in a certain Asian country. Regrettably, as I have been absent for three weeks I cannot be more specific than this technically correct definition. This is the third sentence as required by the instructions.

As an added bonus, as per a request from Ubu, here is another picture of Saber...dancing...in a bunny suit.

 
^{At Brickmuppet Blog we do aim to please}.

Now back to unlimited cardboard box works...

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Due to this virus, I'm missing my last Chinese Politics class...the big exam review-everything-on-the-exam-will-be-covered-here class.

Ghaa!!

OTOH I do have a letter from the hospital so I should be able to get something in an office visit.  As to the bug itself, I slept for 13 hours. I don't hurt as much. My fever is down around 100 and I am much less weak.

 I hope to be able to return to work/school tomorrow.

Picture is unrelated:

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Been laid up in bed pretty much since Friday after work with a worse than average head cold. Today the coughing started. About 7 hours ago I noted that my temperature was 103. About 6 hours ago I noted that the coughing was excruciatingly painful and there was just a touch of blood involved. Given that I was getting weaker, not better and given that I had to be to work at 2AM and, given that my job is at UPS, and the fact that especially around December 5th one really needs a medical justification for not showing up, I got a much needed shower and went out, only to realize that the only place still open was the hospital.

Although I was indeed dragging it's really gauche to be going to the ER for a damned cold. 

To my astonishment, I was out in under 90 minutes. I must say that Harborview Medical Center is a really professional outfit and now 3 out of the 3 times I've been there in the last  year it's been about as pleasant non-horrific as is possible when one feels like a buffalo chip being used as a Voodoo doll.

 There was no Pneumonia on the X-Ray and I was diagnosed with an acute viral infection.


Other than that, my only concern was my second chest X-ray in about a month, but that was unavoidable.

My only prescription was a codeine based cough syrup which tastes like ass, yet is effective...and is juust niice.

Things don't hurt as much anymore and there's this  thread on /d/ that looks really fascinating now...but I'd best not blog about that at all 'cause if I did no one would ever talk to me again...

Oh wait.

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Things are busy this fall in Brickmuppetburg.
...so here is a picture of Saber in autumn.

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I'm currently carrying A's and B's in all my classes. As I type this, I've got on my plate: 2 term papers, a couple of hundred pages of readings, two tests and a makeup quiz next week, exams in 21 days and my work schedule has suddenly become quite hectic (which is actually a bit of a relief). I'm working my butt off and have been for years....

....which is why I pretty much collapsed and sucked my toes for a while upon reading this.

I work at an online company that generates tens of thousands of dollars a month by creating original essays based on specific instructions provided by cheating students. I've worked there full time since 2004. On any day of the academic year, I am working on upward of 20 assignments.

"did u get the sorce I send

please where you are now?

Desprit to pass spring projict"

^{The staff of the College of Bullshit counseling a student}

Still, as infuriating as some of these things have been, I've stuck with it and am now about one year from graduation.

I have never cheated.

Which makes this thing all he more demoralizing, much more so than any of the above FUBAR events have been.

What
is
the
fucking
point?

There seems to be remarkably little recognition amongst my fellow students of the gravity of the situation. One girl felt that paper writing services were bad 'because it was hard to find any for free and in order to compete one would have to pay for them'.

Yes the worst thing about cheating is that in some cases it requires one to pay for something one gets on the internet.

My head hurts.

This semester, my exams, at least are largely immune to this as most of them are essay heavy.
However, the papers I have to do are not cakewalks.
...and all the while I can be pretty sure that several of my fellow students are contracting theirs out while I travel about looking for references while working at UPS in November/December.

Given the widespread nature of the problem, I have to wonder what my degree, that I've already spent >$40,000 on, will be worth when I finally have it.

As I said it's just demoralizing.

Damn.

Update:
Not academic but quite related...Colleen Doran has been "Griggsed".

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In the past I've had to rely on used cars, discarded computers and furniture out of dumpsters.
However, this week, when I managed to acquire a case of monia  it wasn't used it was pneu!

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Two term papers and scads of homework are keeping me from the pile of Anime in the "TO WATCH" que.
The heating pipe broke in the car, and did so in a completely inaccessible place so I had to call a tow truck. Do to the fact that I was actually way early ( I planed to use the gym at school) I didn't miss but 10 minutes of class.

That night however, I blew all my monies on the slot machines...Well, OK that last thing actually happened in game...

Third season...I'm gonna get that job at the pizza joint, when I'm not defeating obscure cultural references with various flavors of Ninja-Fu.

Click on the above image...you know you want to. First hit is free..(actually all hits are free). 

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