Currently serving jury duty.  Thank God they have internet here at the central jury room.  This would be incredibly boring otherwise.  Now it's just moderately boring.

Apparently, the lady sitting next to me (who is quite nice by the way) is reading over my shoulder.  That's ok though.  This is a public blog afterall.  She asked to copy the first four sentences of this entry.  I guess she found the words to be poignant.

Yesterday, I was a jury duty virgin.  Yup, this is my first time serving.  My JD cherry has officially been popped.  I don't think it's actually serving on a jury that's so terrible.  It's the waiting.  You sit around, waiting for them to call your name.  Then, if you're not picked, you go back and sit around some more.  In my case, I thought my name was called (albeit mispronounced, which has been known to happen from time to time), and I accidentally went with the wrong group of jurors.  Well, they found me out and I got a few laughs as I muttered "God dammit" while leaving the court room.  Didn't sound like too bad a case either - it was 2 counts of criminal weapons possession.

Ironically, while I was away with the wrong jury pool, my name was called for a different jury pool - which is how they found me out.  So here I am blogging away.

During my brief stint with jury pool K6, this one lady made a feeble, yet successful attempt at getting out of jury duty.  Of all the possible excuses she could have made, she told the judge she was "not capable of being fair."  Come on lady, you can do better than that.  Tell him you're a Nazi, tell him you don't like black people, tell him you're an octopus trapped in a woman's body!  Tell him SOMETHING, but for God's sake you couldn't think of anything better than "I can't be fair"?  Well, she got her wish.  The judge called her on her brazen display of bullshit, gave her a 20 minute lecture on the importance and function of the jury system, then after the 19th time he caught her rolling her eyes at him, he told this woman to get out of his courtroom.  There were much less time consuming and much more subtle ways she could have escaped jury duty.  And to my surprise, she actually spent a good 10 minutes or so actually arguing with the judge.  People like her make me a little sad.  To be honest, I don't even know her and I was already beginning to hate her simply by virtue of the fact that she was making me sit through this judge's 20 minute lecture. 

I'm really hoping I get called today.  If I have to come back tomorrow, I just might bring in my poker chip set and see if I can get a cash game of Texas Hold 'em going.  There's a table here that might just do the trick and there do seem to be enough chairs.  I wonder if they'd allow that?  Probably not, considering gambling is illegal in New York.

Speaking of poker, I've been on a major Holdem kick lately.  Due in no small part to the 10 days or so I spent in Vegas.  I played a ridiculous amount of poker there.  Anybody willing to host a cash game?  I'm always looking for cash games of 6-10 players with a $20-40 buy-in.  My affinity for poker has become a borderline addiction.  It's not gambling in general I like, it's just poker.  The strategy, the interpersonal interaction, the excitement and test of wills, the subtle intricacies - are all some of the things that make holdem my favorite game.  Only with live bodies though - I find online poker terribly boring and even a little crude in its lack of skill and somewhat mechanical nature.

Moving onto World Cup soccer.  Did anyone see the Korea/France game?  OMG it was so intense!  I'm normally not into soccer, but this year, it's definitely got me excited.  During the first half, France was dominating against the Koreans - they were faster and much more aggressive.  The fact that France scored the first goal (Their first world cup goal since they won the championship in 1998) gave them a heavy advantage.  Most of the time, the first team to score, winds up winning the match.  I think France was also a heavy favorite to win.  But lo and behold!  Korea tied it up with 9 minutes left in the match!  I have to hand it to Korean fans - they are probably so of the most unified and enthusiastic I have ever seen.  The French fans paled in comparison.  There was also the issue of Korean players constantly being carried off the field on stretchers.  France was crazy aggressive with the tackles.  While France was faster and more aggressive, the Koreans definitely get credit for finesse.  I saw same pretty damn amazing footwork displayed by the Korean team.  They're also very organized and hard-working.  If they could dial up their aggression a couple of notches and move up and down the field with the same frenetic pace they had during the last 30 minutes of the match, they could potentially dominate.  As I saw it, the Korean team spent too much time holding onto the ball and not getting the ball into the box often enough.  They need to create more scoring opportunities.

The Italy/US game was pure garbage.  The ref was making incredibly bad calls - pulling cards on some late tackles and not on others.  He also made up a couple of calls out of thin air.  Pure fiction.  He also gave one guy a red card, totally skipping the yellow card.  Pure bullshit ruined what would have otherwise been a great match between Italy and the United States.

Also, I might be helping a friend organize a charity poker tournament to raise money for leukemia/lymphoma research.  The buy-in will probably be $100+ since it is for charity and all.  Anyone interested?