Tonal Shift

I'm headed into a period of time where the number of things I must accomplish and the amount of time I have to accomplish them are not commensurate. There's been a definite shift in tone for my grand adventure; whereas the early, salad days of the endeavor had the promise of an eternal spring break, we're now settling into a definite back-to-school rush. Some brief updates:

• Outlining my new writing project (Lobsters vs. Butterflies). It's coming along slowly but surely; a little too slowly, for my tastes. I've been plowing through every movie that is remotely related to the project, and the Los Angeles Public Library is dutifully delivering new research materials to my local branch on a weekly basis.


• Serving as a frequent demontration model in yoga class. For some reason, I am called to serve ever more frequently by my instructor; this would not be so worrisome were it not for the fact that she often calls upon me to demonstrate poses I've never done before. I know I'm getting good at this because the adjustments my instructors are making to my stance are becoming downright nitpicky - we're talking millimeters here.


• Upgrading to the six-out-at-a-time on Netflix. Between the daily red envelopes in my mailbox and the yoga classes, it's hard to declare a bigger indulgence. The problem I had with the four-out plan was that I was watching movies faster than Netflix could send them to me. I have at least twenty more movies to watch in the name of researching LvB, so I consider this a temporary upgrade.


• Optimizing my daily schedule. Back in the salad days of my tenure on Pillow Crisis, I engaged in ad hoc scheduling of my day. It worked back then, but without a writing partner cracking the whip, productivity and focus have flagged a bit. I have at least one post coming up about schedule optimization for the self-employed.


• Cleaning the apartment AGAIN. This is really a process that never ends, but I need to reach and maintain a certain threshold of cleanliness within the next two weeks. My roommate is off on a jaunt to Taiwan and Thailand, which provides me with a slight advantage: whatever I can clean, will stay clean. (For now.) I am devoting an hour each day to housekeeping, because that's the only way my humble adobe will ever be presentable.


• Thinking quite a bit about travel. After all, the blog's description mentions travel as a unique selling point, and to date I've only visited cities on the North American contienent, none of which have been new destinations for me. I've been thinking a great deal about Italy lately; I'd like to see Florence and Venice (before it goes under).

Jury Duty: Day Seven - The Verdict

The pulse races when you read a guilty verdict to a defendant. You are very much aware that you are defining a significant portion of a life's trajectory. And the court reminds you of this act, by asking each juror to verbally confirm the verdict.

Last Friday, I voted guilty to convict a defendant accused of two counts: driving under the influence, and driving with a blood alcohol level of .08% or above. Until I voted guilty, the jury was hung, with myself voting against the rest.

I wasn't convinced that the prosecution's case was strong enough, as the field sobriety tests were inconclusive, the field breathalyzer was unreliable, and the defendant's reading at the station breathalyzer was well within the stated margin of error.

What changed my mind was actually looking at the prosecution's exhibits. Buried within a stack of papers were the calibration records for both the field and station breathalyzers. Looking at the numbers yielded some telling findings. First of all, the field brethalyzer's deviation from normal was about .013 grams per 1000ml - for the sake of discussion, we could suppose that the unit was overstating the defendant's blood alcohol content by .013 on a reading of .099. Which places the defendant well above legal limit.

But what if you throw out the field breathalyzer (as you should, since the unit died with two weeks of the field test)? Well, it turns out that the prosecution wildly overstated the margin of error for the station breathalyzer, much to the detriment of its case. The prosecution stated that the margin of error for the station breathalyzer was + or - .01. But a quick perusal of the station's calibration logs reveals that the machine never deviated from a test sample by more than .001. In other words, the machine was a whole order of magnitude more accurate than the prosecution claimed. The defendant's reading of .08 was almost certainly a .08.

The practically infallible accuracy of the station breathalyer established (for myself) the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So I changed my vote. And we ended jury deliberations after an hour.

We almost made minimum wage that day.

Jury Duty: Day Six - Deliberations

After a couple short days of testimony, today we had our first day of actual deliberation. I'm playing the contrarian, cracking a lot of jokes, and annoying the FUCK out of some of my fellow jurors, many of whom just want to go home. They have full-time jobs, after all. Guess what? I don't. So let's deliberate, motherfuckers!

The justice system in the United States appears to be quite wobbly, but still servicable. Generally speaking, I'm apalled by widespread lack of understanding of "presumption of innocence", as well as "margin of error". But on the other hand, I'm encouraged by the feeling that most people seem to want to do the right thing, if given a proper chance. And enough cookies.

As with our surfeit of sugary confections, there is no shortage of distractions in the jury room. Today, we discussed a wide range of topics, ranging from Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys to stoplight avoidance strategies. And one of my fellow (and older) jurors had the gall to hit on me while we were in the jury room. And this is not some ambiguous flirtiness I'm citing to boost my ego - we're talking full-on forearm touching, which in my experience, is beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ladies, please - I'm trying to administer some justice here.

Fiscal Report: August & September 2006

I'd like to issue some forward guidance, and warn our investors that this month most likely marks the end of large budget surpluses. We foresee substantial increases in leisure spending across the board, and the increases are, at this time, not within our capacity for projection. However, it is a testament to our sound financial planning that a large percentage of surpluses was earmarked for a budget category named "Utter Frivolity", an as-yet untapped source of supplemental leisure funds.


UNDER BUDGET SPENDING CATEGORIES: AUGUST

Groceries: $98.79
Dining Out: $79.25
Auto Fuel: $42.91
Unallocated: $157.89

Total: $378.84 under budget


UNDER BUDGET SPENDING CATEGORIES: SEPTEMBER

Groceries: $119.10
Dining Out: $40.05
Entertainment: $81.94
Auto Fuel: $97.91
Unallocated: $155.91

Total: $494.91 under budget