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masterpkf
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Name: Preston
Country: United States
State: California
Birthday: 3/27/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: shopping....
Expertise: being a good little boy
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/5/2004
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| MissionsIn a few hours, I'll be on my way to Macau for missions. I am feeling excited and nervous... and as I was frantically packing and gathering the rest of my stuff my hands were shaking. Please continue to pray for my team and I. If you would like updates please email me at masterpkf@yahoo.com. See everyone in about 2 1/2 weeks.
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| GradWOHOO! Finally done with undergrad. Chose not to walk because the ceremony was early and my parents said it was alright. So now I am just hanging out at home relaxing. Last Saturday went to see Wicked and thought it was good. Also, I have started running at Walnut High School. Wish I could play more basketball and start playing ultimate frisbee. Until next time.
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| Last Quarter of Undergrad and Maybe SchoolIt does not seem that long ago that I was a 1st year and was working my way towards graduating college. Struggling to find the right classes, getting messed up by the UC system, and wondering if I would graduate on time. Finally, I have come to the final stretch of my undergrad career. This quarter I am just taking electives to finish the rest of my unit requirements. I am signed up for business 10, ethnic studies 1, education 100a and dance 5. I am very grateful that my last quarter will be pretty chill with Mondays and Fridays off and not having to wake up until 10. Since my first year my outlook of Riverside has changed from disliking to whatever to almost good. While I am disapointed that the campus environment and surrounding community is not as lively or as nice as say UCLA or UCSD, Riverside made it convenient for me to return home every weekend (which is a big plus in my book since I am such a home-body). Something thing that I regret is taking advantage of the work out facilities that are available. Ever since rolling my ankle pretty badly during my first year I have not gone back to the gym until winter quarter 06. But now because of my light schedule I can enjoy my last few weeks at college and take everything in before I join the business world. Of course there are a few other things that I wish I could've redone which would be trying harder in a few classes there is not much else that I would want to change.
While my distant future is uncertain, my immediate future, this summer, is filled with things that I may not be able to do after I start working. I have planned to go on missions to Macau this summer and hopefully will be able to serve as a counselor if schedule permits. During this time I will be going to interviews so that I will have something to do in my year off. After the summer I should be working somewhere and will be taking the CBEST and CSET and all that stuff I need just in case I return to school to get my masters of Ed. Even though I am looking forward to getting a job and finally getting away from school I can't help but think that by that time I will be wishing that I was in school. O BOY, AM I EXCITED FOR THE FUTURE
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| Disappointing Spring Break It has been about 2 weeks since my spring break ended. It was such an uneventful one at that. While many other UC students enjoyed their time partying and hanging out with friends, I was stuck serving jury duty. Since the Monday of spring break, I spent my days at the Norwalk Courthouse. The first day started at 8:00am and ended at 4:00pm. At the start of the day there were many people waiting to be called. Slowly that number was withered down and I was left in the room with 20 or so people waiting for the day to end. An hour or 2 before the day was over, a voice over the the intercom called the remaining people and I to head over to the courtroom. Once in the courtroom, the judge introduced himself, gave a brief introduction, and then a lady swore us in. After the introduction, the judge then started calling people to be the temporary jury. As the names were being called, I waited their anxiously not knowing whether I wanted to be called or not. The first name was called, then a second, next name called... "Preston Fong". Somewhat quickly, I rose out of my seat. In my head, it felt as if I won something on the "Price is Right". Bells were going off and the background played as i walked up to a seat. I could not help but grin. Not knowingly, this turned out to be something that I should not have been to glad about.
As I sat there, I looked around the courtroom to take everything in and to get an idea of how jurists in the past have felt as they sat in the box. While I looked around the room I took note of the people in the courtroom: the lawyers, judge, bailiff, typing lady and the other positions that I do not know the names of. Something that caught my eye was the DA. As the people came to the box, he carefully observed the jurists. Occasionally, the DA would look at a jurists for a longer a period of time and smile at them. I found this a little awkward and thought that he was trying to win over the jurists by smiling at them. After the juror's box was filled, the judge then gave a brief description and some rules regarding the case. Next, the defendant lawyers stepped to the podium and asked the new jurors questions about our previous experiences that are related to the case and whether or not those experiences would affect us from being unbiased.
Most of the jurors had no problem with the questions and were not affected by their previous experiences. The judge and lawyers constantly reminded us that they were not asking us to forget our past experiences but to listen to everything that is presented and be fair to their clients. 30 minutes into the selection process, another college student, who was in the jury box raised his hand and told the court that he was unable to be fair and unbias towards the defendants. It was obvious that the guy was trying to skip out of jury duty and I am sure everyone else thought so as well. For sure the judge and lawyers knew what he was doing and called him out on it. They kept questioning him and asked him why he didn't bring this up 30 minutes earlier when they first raised the question. It did cross my mind to make up an excuse but I figured that the case shouldn't take much time and that if I am not supposed to serve God would have the lawyers dismiss me. As a result, I answered all the answers truthfully and awaited their decision. At the conclusion of the selection process, they dismissed the college guy that was trying to get out and another girl who got emotional over one of the questions. I think the court dismissed the guy at the last moment just to keep him there for the longest period of time to spite him for his actions. Once the 12 jurors were selected, the court then got another 7 people and chose 2 of them as reserves. This whole process took a day and a half.
After we were done selecting everyone, the judge dismissed the rest of the jurors and then began the trial. I was a little disheartened, when I was not dismissed from the case since it was my birthday and spring break after all. So we went straight into the trial. The trial was a murder case, which charged two guys with 4 counts. The first count was the murder of this one guy. The next was the attempted murder of two guys which accounts for 2 of the counts. The last count was for shooting into an occupied vehicle. We did not get very far into the case before we had to go home. We were only able to finish the opening statement. That night, I went out with friends to go bowling.
For the next few days we listened to the evidence and their questioning. The DA had many poster boards with pictures on it. Each evidence he used he had to label it "peoples #". It was kind of funny because by the end of the case we had people's 34. On a side note most of those were poster boards. The case had all types of evidence: pictures, items, video clips, audio clips expert witnesses and witnesses. While I was there, I couldn't help but envy the church guys being able to play basketball. As the case got farther and farther into the week, I became worried that the case would go into the following week. It was told to us earlier, that the last day we would get things to start deliberating was Monday. For the UCs we started school on Monday but luckily I had no class on Monday but if the case took any longer than that I would be in trouble. Then on Thursday the judge told us that Friday was a court holiday and it wasn't until later that I found out that it was Cesar Chavez Day. I was kind of mad that the court had the day off while schools and other jobs did not have that day off. That day could of allowed us to at least end a day earlier than we were supposed to. The weekend came and it did not seem that we were any closer to ending the case.
After jury duty on Thursday, Flo took me out for my birthday dinner and we went to C&O. We didn't really do much else since I had jury duty and she has research. It was delicious and I had a good time not thinking about the case and just spending some time with her.
On Monday I continued jury duty. The lawyers gave their concluding statements and then we were given instructions by the judge. The instructions took a long time and printed on a sheet that would be given to us later on to use as reference. Everything was finished at lunch time and we were told that when we came back from lunch everything should be ready for us to start deliberating. When we came back from lunch we waited in the juror room and waited for them to give us everything. We ended up receiving everything with 30 minutes left before we had to leave. For the last 30 minutes we started deliberating on one of the defendants but we came to a halt because one of the jurors thought that he was innocent. Before we left we gave the juror our thoughts and told her that she could think about it that night and we can try again Tuesday. Throughout this day I was very anxious because I had class the next day and did not want the case to drag on any further. I was hoping that the judge would dismiss me from the case so I wouldn't be dropped from the classes but he would not let me go. During the weekend I emailed and called the professors and most of them said it was alright while the others did not even respond. So when the day concluded without us having completing deliberation, I told myself that whatever happens happens and hoped that my profs that didn't respond to me would not be butts about my situation.
It took us a full Tuesday to complete our deliberation. When we completed deliberation we waited for the court to call all the family members and get everyone that was involved with the case to come to the court. Once everyone arrived we went back into the court and the judge read the verdict. We found that the two defendants were both guilty of all 4 counts. After that was completed we went back into the juror room and waited for the bailiff to escort us out. All of the women jurors broke down once we got into the room because they felt for the families of the defendants. They imagined themselves in their situation and how they would feel if their sons were in the same situation. When the bailiff was ready we walked out through the secret corridor the judge and other court officials used. As I walked to the parking lot I felt much joy that the case was finally over and that I could return to my regular routine and life.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience and am somewhat glad that I got selected to be a juror. It would have been better if it wasn't during my last spring break and birthday but it's already over. I'm also glad that I won't have to do it for at least another year. Some of the other jurors said that they haven't been called for 15years which is something i look forward to. It's a good thing that the case only made me miss a day of class.
You thought that that was the end but think again. It was a pretty good ending but then the day took a turn for the worst. As I walked to the parking lot in search for my car, for some reason I could not find it. I held my key to my mouth, pushed the button and listened for the horn but nothing. Thoughts were swirling in my head and I thought the family/friends of the defendant stole my car! I quickly ran back and caught the bailiff as he was walking back to the building. I told him what I thought happened and told him to hold my belongings so I could run back and make sure that my car was really missing. As I ran through the parking lot in search of my care, fear was running through my head. I had an insurance card in the car that had my address and was thinking that if they found that they could attack my house and family. My second attempt was unsuccessful and I ran back to the bailiff's office for assistance. When I got to their office they sent me to the sheriff's department, so I grabbed my belongings and headed for the station. As I walked in search for the station I was pointed to the wrong direction a few times. While I was walking I made calls to my parents and to the sheriff's department. I eventually found out from the sheriff that my car was towed. In my head I got angry because I know for sure I did not park somewhere I wasn't supposed to and that there was no reason that I should have been towed. When I got to the department I asked them why my car was towed and they said that it was blocking the driveway. I have no idea why my car ended up there and I'm pretty sure that I had my parking break on but there's always the possibility that it rolled backwards since I usually don't put it in first gear. Anyways, I had to pay the sheriff a release fee before I could go get my car and I had to pay them $100 cash! I was like WTH, who carries that much cash on them, so I quickly asked them where the nearest ATM was and the said it was at TOGO's. The ATM there was whack; the maximum I could withdraw at once was $30 and each time I withdrew I had to pay a 2 dollar fee. I quickly got the money and went back to the station and paid them and got my release form. Then I asked them where the car was and they tell me it's at some towing place. I ask them where it was and whether or not it was walking distance. The place was kind of far, but before I left I called the place and asked them how much I needed to pay them and they tell me that they were closed. OMG now i'm stranded in Norwalk without a ride home and a mode of transportation to school the next day. I'm getting tired of writing so to cut a long story short, I missed another day of school for the car. Luckily, Flo had jury duty that Tuesday and was able to drop me off at the tow place. Then the place tells me that the person the vehicle is registered under needs to pick it up.  So I called my dad thinking it was at home telecommuting but it turns out that he was at work in El Segundo. The plan was to walk back to the courthouse, borrow Flo's car, pickup my dad and then come back to pick up my car. A positive that came from this was that I saw where the Laker's practice facility was. But that's not much of a bright spot. So everything worked out in the very end and nothing else bad happened. And now I am back at school starting my last quarter of undergrad  .
Yes, I know it's a long entry. But I had a lot of time today since I did not have any instructions regarding the homework due next week. I should get an extra unit for this essay
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