Odyssey

Just got the call- I am excused and don’t need to report for jury selection on Monday. I’m curious about the case now, so will be paying attention to what happens with it. Selection was for State of New Jersey vs. George Jenewicz, what I now know (because I can look it up) is a new trial after the State Supreme Court overturned a conviction from 2002. The alleged murder happened in 1998. I wasn’t the only person in the room wondering about the 10 years that have passed… some voiced their question out loud. I did hear 2 women behind me talking, one telling the other that there is no death penalty in NJ, so she didn’t need to worry about that. I guess that’s a new thing because in the information I’ve seen since, capital punishment was an option at the time of the original trial. So apparently this man was originally convicted, but the conviction was (in January this year) overturned due to trial errors.

From the charges as the judge read them and the inferrences from the questionnaire, this sounded like a case that could have been on CSI or Bones (what with the dismemberment part and all).

For anyone interested, here’s some articles on the case. Would be interesting to be part of the process, but glad I don’t have to listen to stories or look at pictures of this crime scene.

Article on January Supreme Court Overturn
An article linked from the first
Another article linked from the first
Some NJ Court opinions (search page) on or referring to the Jenewicz trials

I got my first summons for jury duty about a month ago and had to report today. Coincidentally, just before receiving the summons I was part of a conversation about the jury rooms in several nearby counties. After seeing the one I get to sit in… I’m a bit jealous of those in other counties. I heard that Somerset’s recently renovated jury room is in an old church. There’s a TV in one corner, plenty of reading material, coffee/refreshments, and comfy chairs. My memory of this may be a bit skewed as I think of what would be really nice for a jury room.. that was not present in ours.

I was in a white walled room with several square pillars and one big round one. The chairs were at least comfortable, but similar to those in airports. Four vending machines were available (do they let you go out for lunch?? I don’t know, no one explained that). And I didn’t have time to eat breakfast. Swell.

Once we sat around for an hour and a half, the judge came in to talk to us. Finally it started getting interesting. I figured if nothing else there would be a ‘Welcome, this is how the day is going to work’ message within the first 20-30 minutes, but no.

Today we all were there for jury selection for a specific trial (rather than the 1 day or 1 trial verbage). We listened to the charges, then filled out a (long) questionnaire. The involved parties, attorneys and who-not, will use those questionnaires to excuse some people. Those who are excused will get a phone call telling them so. Everyone else has to go back on Monday when they will call us in to question us in person about our views, backgrounds, experiences.

From the information we were given, I can’t see any reason I’d be excused based on my questionnaire. We’ll see if I get a call. If not, then Monday they narrow down to 16 (12 + 4 alternates) to serve for the estimated 2.5 week trial.

Of course I can’t discuss the case itself, but the charges sounded like the synopsis for an evening drama.

After many months it has now passed: the Probe is gone. As J pointed out, a lot of the things I was willing to put up with, someone purchasing a car wouldn’t be– the falling ceiling fabric, the broken seatbelt (just manual now instead of automatic), the hatch that wouldn’t stay up, the crackly speakers, etc., etc. (unfortunately I could go on for a while here). The final catch was the exhaust: after having the exhaust from the muffler back replaced, they said I had a crack in the exhaust manifold. I’m not so sure that it was there before I took the car in, as they hadn’t mentioned it before, but either way, they said I could be getting CO into the cab of the car. I didn’t get a second opinion. I didn’t get a CO test (although maybe putting a detector in there would have done the trick). It just put us over the nickel-and-diming edge and got me to get rid of it.

I donated to Habitat for Humanity (not that they’ll get much for it, I’m afraid), and the nice guy who picked it up in the pouring rain Friday afternoon said that it was really nice for a donation. (?) Yeah– apparently most of the cars he picks up as donations may look ok on the outside, but their motors are completely shot and they don’t even run. So mine may not be so pretty, but at least it runs! If they have a mechanic donating time to fix it up, I doubt the materials would cost too much to fix it. So maybe it will be OK. I told the guy that it was my first car; I’d gotten it in college. He said it will go to a good home.

I hope so.

Even if it is sold for scrap with the money going to Habitat: that’s still a great home.

Woke up to see 17 hot air balloons out over my not-so-spectacular horizon view. It’s a lot cooler now

Should we do Covered Wagons again? Let’s do Covered Wagons again!

ABQ: my green Holiday Inn

Being Neighborly: helping push a truck out of the snow… on the beach… with the frozen-over lake in the background (see the bobhouses?)!

The only place in Gilford where I was able to get a phone signal: out ON Lake Winnisquam

Relaxing, originally uploaded by katatak.

Nice day

Yesterday I was back on the road for another 12 hour journey (Yes- 24 hours round trip) back to my hometown. I had not reported here previously (mainly because I don’t update often enough) that my dad is sick with a number of different ailments. My intent is to help out where I can at home, kaizen the organization there, and sometimes just hang out and be there.
So on the road: my last trip out had me listening to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. This time around I’ve got two books to ‘read’: Beowulf, which I see is coming out as a movie, and Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton. Beowulf looks to be only 2.5 hours in length, so it will be interesting to see whether how the movie will compare since the book can be finished in about the same amount of time. Unfortunately after about 5 minutes of listening to it, I had to turn it off for fear of falling asleep. I’ve never been a great listener; I’m much more of a visual person. So listening to an epic poem wasn’t working too well for me. I think this may be one where I’ll just see the movie and then read it later if the movie appeals to me enough.
Just a Geek is one I’ve been meaning to read for several years. I’ve been a lurker on Wil’s blog for about 5 years– ever since I found it while at my first real-world job out of college. I can’t recommend his blog enough, especially to geeks at heart. Or anyone with a family. Or who likes hearing well-composed stories about family… with a splash of celebrity every once-in-a-while. So far I’ve listened to the first 6 chapters and am pleased to see I have plenty left to listen to on my drive home. That is if I can manage not to listen to it the rest of this week while I’m home.

Incidentally, if you’re looking for something to listen to to kill some time, I pulled both Northanger Abbey and Beowulf free from iTunes U. Many universities are set up there and offer educational lectures and courses– as well as some novels such as these. These were from Lit2Go, from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (grades 12 and 11, respectively).

This was written last month as I flew out to Reno for the USBC Open…

In trying to keep the glass half full (per my purposefully-worn T today), I allowed a smile when I realized I had reached a triplicate.
I was listening to 35000 feet at about 35000 feet (Ok, probably 38000 ft) while watching somewhere around 35000 happy little penguin feet dance on the in-flight movie. How fun! (And now I’ve just reminded myself of all the lotto commercials that say “Fun for some… ” and have the guy dancing around with the turkey. Well, this is my kind of fun. Welcome to my world.)

The nagging empty portion of my glass is the effort it’s taken to get here. Although it was beautiful weather out east yesterday, a weather delay kept me so long in Philadelphia that I missed my connection in Houston. I ended up spending waaay too much money on a hotel (weather related delay, so no free room from the airline), but then woke up often throughout the night as I do when I am worried about missing an alarm (I never actually have missed one). All that time in the airport yesterday, then back and forth to the hotel, and once I get to Reno has put a lot of stress on my shoulders. I keep thinking maybe I’d like to get a nice rolling carry on (J and I both should) but only ever see the reason when we’re in the middle of the pain associated with not having said bags.

The Latest from The Maggios:
Work:
J’s job has finally changed to the field position that has been talked about for over a year.
I got a promotion (no big change in duties).
Both of us came out of our annual performance reviews with ‘Above Target’ ratings (Did you expect anything less?)

Play:
Chemtrail has another show in NYC coming up in May, this time at Club Midway.
I’m in Reno this weekend for the USBC Open with the regular group. Hopefully after this week’s performance in NJ, something awesome will come of it.
We’re finally getting on with the planning for our honeymoon/anniversary vacation (it’ll be our anniversary before we get there at this rate).

I couldn’t stand having an entire column in the nifty yearsheet I added go without a link (even if it has been nearly 2 months since my last insubstantial post) and thought I might just have to put some other filler in the space… until I drove home from work last night.
Being in the most densely populated state in the Union, you wouldn’t think it would be much for the wildlife, but I’ve found that’s not the case. Several weeks ago there were news stories of a black bear wandering people’s backyards (sadly, the bear didn’t make it through the end of the ordeal). And J and I are always commenting on how we see loads more deer here than we ever did in Illinois (and the various reasons for this- yes, we know). I was pretty excited to find out that there are indeed groundhogs that pop up around here (and they will charge if you get too close!). Getting closer to the point, we have also seen wild turkeys and a few pheasants (those were pretty cool). But yesterday topped all when on my way home from work, in the middle of a small section of state park that I drive through every day (twice a day, really), there was a rooster. Red comb, black, white, and brown feathers… everything but the roost.
Today just complemented yesterday’s vision as on the way home a tractor pulling 2 flatbeds piled high with hay bales pulled out 2 cars in front of me. Being in New Jersey, the car in front of me had passed that thing so quickly that I couldn’t get my camera phone up and ready quick enough to get a shot, but then, anyone who has lived in Illinois (or any other midwestern state) knows what the back of a hay wagon looks like. Ah, well.
I leave you with a charging groundhog:

On our recent trip to Tampa, J entertained my desire to go out and see the manatees who congregate at the nearby power plant during the cool winter months. It was quite an overcast and slightly drizzly day, which didn’t make for nice viewing: the reflections off the water made it near impossible to spot them and I still don’t have even a basic set of filters (polarizing being my most desired one and the one that would have been useful in this situation) for my digital camera.
There is a nice setup for viewing, both platforms up above a certain bay area, and a dock that goes out into a channel where they often congregate. There is also a visitor information center, but we didn’t stop in there.
I’m not sure where it popped into my head from, but I started to wonder about the origin of the name ‘manatees’ and its possible relationship with the word ‘humanity’. Manatees are always noted as such calm, peaceful creatures who are, unfortunately, usually told apart by the scars inflicted upon them by the propellers of motor boats. Most likely there is no actual connection between the words, but it could be construed from the calm, peaceful nature that is the ideal of humanity. Oddly enough we stray so often from this ideal, we cause deep scarring to each other for generations.

sonofabitch. We’re still here. Complements of Tampa International Airport, we have free WiFi. Complements of a Noreaster (sp?) we have severe delays. The best of all, though, is….. because of JetBlue, we (soon will) have passenger rights– it wasn’t until our plane finally arrived here so it could take us back to Newark that there were issues with the crew’s legallity (my guess is due to sleep requirements). While I have no problem with that, believe me, I would much rather have a safe trip than a pilot taking No-Doz, was there really no one that thought of this issue sooner?? We had a hotel and car extended until tomorow at least, but the airline insisted the flight would go on, although delayed. So we released the hotel, returned the car, and sit (we think, as our asses have no feeling) going on 4 hours here on the floor (only option near an outlet for the gadgets) and listen for updates that won’t come because bullish passengers are all crowding around the desk as if there is some little piece of information to be learned that will change everything. If they were going to cancel the flight (or even just delay it until the morning), that’s fine with me– I just wish they would have done it about 12 hours ago. Or at least 6, since that’s for when the flight was scheduled.

Many more things to blog about that I need to catch up on. But so I don’t forget..
nano
Grandma
Dates
huManatees
and I can’t think of the others just now because I’m so tired.

Ahhh, the Windy City… er… Suburbs! How I’ve missed you!
I’m back in town here for a friend’s wedding and today was spent shopping around, going to a great rib place out in Hickory Hills (The Pit) for lunch, then just hanging out a while at my friends’ house. I realize that I always try to perk up Jersey whenever people ask me about it– and it’s really not all that bad– but there is definitely a sense of home here that is not present there.

It’s interesting how vacations and holidays are treated nowadays. First, US workers receive some of the least amounts of vacation time in the world. I’m sure the arguements will come up about our being a superpower and that’s how we got here… well, sure, maybe. It depends on what kind of superpower one wants to be, though. If it’s in quality of life, I’m quite doubtful that we’re there. More on that some other time, though.
For now, the point is this: Americans in general get such little vacation time that even when there is a desire to relax, I usually feel that I have to make the most of it and cram in as much as possible. I’ve tried to slow down, but still fight this urge to always be doing something. Hence, we arrived home at 3am on Sunday with plans to go to work on Monday morning.
It’s a good thing I’m headed to Boston this weekend to recover from my vacation… but then, there’s the 5 hour drive each way…