Aquafinale

ORDER!

Back in December I got a lovely letter from the office of the Sheriff of Johnston County informing me that I had to go serve some jury duty. Well, Dad pulled some strings and got me deferred because I had to head back to school. I was deferred to May of this year and my second letter came letting me know that I hadn't gotten off that easily.

I went in expecting to get thrown into the heat of some saucy case of ex-lover vs. ex-lover: a battle for control of the above ground outdoor pool that both of us claim to have exclusivly won from that radio station givaway. Rather than a dramatic dispute over who was responsible for the correct answer of "REO Speedwagon," however, I simply got oathed in and watched a short film about the honor of being a juror.

This film made me pine for a couple of house of QVC or Telemundo in its stead. I'd like to let the director know that incorperating moving camera in almost every shot, does not = profesionally produced film. Rather it equals, wow, I can see how horrid this film is from 45-50 obnoxiously different angles.

It didn't last too long, and I was on my merry way home with instructions to call a number later on that would tell me if I had to come back. What do you know?! I did. The next day I walked into the jury pool room, a windoless box about the size of your high school English classroom. Only, this time, there were about 60 people in there. Fighting for air I took a seat inbetween two older gentlemen that looked strikingly similar. One of them had gray facial hair, the other, obviously colored brown. The man on my right was apparenly not discouraged from missing work as he brought it with him. The room was utterly silent as he powered up his laptop and and went all typety away on a spredsheet. I didn't know people actually used Microsoft Excel. Learn something new every day. The man on my left was reading what appeared to be a political novel by an aspiring Tom Clancy wannabe. What I really remember about him, though, is his heavy mouth-breating through gum chewing. It's a very distinctive sound. When I here it I think of doctors or people like that.

Now, while I'm on the subject of this room I have to go off on a bit of a side rant. What the crap is wrong with cell phone companies? I can think of two main instances when one might want to turn off there cell phone.
1) To save power while recharging.
2) To avoid calling attention to oneself in a quiet setting.
Now, neither of these scenarios calls for the cell phone to spontaniously burst into dramatic fanfare. "BLEEPITY BLEEEEEP BLEEEP BLEEEEEEEEP!" Yet, every time I turn my phone off to avoid being a distraction in a quiet place, I forget that it wants to blast a little salsa or a jazz solo just before powering down. ARGH!

After waiting next to Mr. Excel and Darth Minty for about an hour the baliff came in and led us into the old courtroom in Smithfield. Wow, what a beautiful building. I didn't know Johnston county could have such elegance. I must admit, I was ginuinly looking forward to getting assigned to a case and doing my civic duty, but when the Judge read out the names of the plantiff and defendant, I was in for a surprise. I knew the defendant...oh well. When the plantiff's lawyer asked me if I knew him and I told him, yep, pretty much all my life, I was politly excused from the courtroom. Oh well, can win 'em all I suppose. Good luck person I know that I can't reveal!

And that was my adventure in Jury land. I'm safe for two years but who knows if I get called back. If I had to say one thing that I learned, it's that most trials do not last an afternoon, which is what I thought after watching several episodes of Law and Order.

Today is National Marinate Your Pet Day. DON'T FORGET!!!

Ben Gibbard at Cat's Cradle

I love The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie so when I heard the frontman for both of those bands was doing a solo tour and coming to The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, I snatched up a ticket quickly.

This is the third time I've seen Ben live (the other two being when he was on tour with Death Cab in 05-06). I walked in and found a spot on the floor. MUCH smaller venue than either of the other two and I'm pretty sure I got closer to the stage than I was at Disco Rodeo. A lot of excitment - and three hours of standing followed.

At times I was left to wonder if Cat's Cradle was actually up to code. If you've ever been there you know what I'm talking about. This is the first venue I've ever seen that is, literally, part of a strip mall. It's situated next to a video rental store at the very end. The big red tour bus took up 3/4 of the parking log. Ok, not really, but it looked very out of place.

The coolest thing about this concert was the interactivity between the artists and the audience. Both times that I saw Death Cab there was a large crowd and no one really said much. This time each artist talked and had little conversations with the audience. Had I said "I like your shirt Ben," he probably would have said "Why, thank you." I didn't speak up but Ben chatted with other audience members, told some funny stories about a guy who had stalked him since he arrived, and paused for a poleroid photo-op between songs. Each of the opening acts was up for about 30 minutes and Ben played for a little over an hour. Everyone was fun, energetic, and in a great mood. Well worth the $22.50 I paid to get in.

Below is a video of his opening song, a cover of some sort that he then used to transition into "Brand New Colony," a Postal Service piece. I love Death Cab but seeing Ben perform 3 Postal Service songs was the highlight for me since he so rarely gets the chance to perform them. I was a fan of Postal Service before I had ever listened to any of his other stuff. In addition to this video I took a short clip from his performance of "Carolina," a song from his solo ep which he said he had never played live before. Pretty obvious why he picked it. I missed this part, but right after the clip finishes he changed the last chorus to "North Carolina waits for me." Woot.

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Click To Play

I saw Ben Gibbard on his solo tour May 11th at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC. Finally, I got to hear some postal service songs! Forgive the HORRID sound quality.

Sorry for the crappy sound quality. It's a Kodak still camera.

Tootsie Roll...

I like those little birds that run away from the waves at the ocean. Every time I see them I imagine them saying "CRAP CRAP CRAP, HERE COMES ANOTHER ONE, CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!

It makes me laugh.

I love the Squirrels on this campus, too. They act so parinoid. You'll see a couple playing around a tree and then they'll spot you and stick their heads out from the other side, as if to say, "W..w...what's he doing, Eddie? What's up? Is he, CRAP, he just made eye contact...I think we're screwed, Eddie!"

It makes me laugh.

Semi-Silly Morsels

I'm tired.

Physically my butt is aching like no one's business, something that happened due to bowling the other night (I'm still trying to understand how), but it stems further than that. I'm tired of a lot of things. For instance, I have very little to do the rest of this semester. I woke up at 12:30, shuffled around for four hours, went out with friends, ate dinner, watched a movie, ate again, and then got ready for bed. I could have easily done all of my work and I did none. I'm lazy and I'm sick of it.

Part of me wants to remedy this with something like a skill, or trade. I'm studying Film and English, so why not write about film on this blog? If I think hard enough I'm sure I can amalgamate the nonsensical humor that is at the very core of this blog with some deep, observational commentary on film or life or, better yet, God. Then again, is that really the change I need? I don't think so. I think the change I need is a change that a lot of people need. Right there in front of every 20-something semi-adult is an incredible opportunity to better the world and impact everything around us forever. Making a big impact with your life is really just consistantly making small impacts when you get right down to it. All I have to do is wake up and say, "Im'll do it." I want to do it and I have a God that I think will show me what I should do, no matter how mundane or futile it may seem at the time. I'm going to extend the helping hand to my fellow man, pray continuously, build God's kingdom and give Him the Glory. I'll seize the moment before it's too late, studying everything I need to know and getting experience where I'm lacking. When I wake up I will make a difference - the difference that we all have it within us to make if we would just abandon the comfort of the ordinary and embrace the hardship of the extraordinary. I am going to do it.

Or will I?

I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

The Secret to Good Drug Trafficking

Study is a hard thing. The library is a hard thing. Being done, is an easy thing.

The other day I was in the library when one of my study buddies (doing a great job of avoiding actual work) commented that the proper name for a group of ferrets was a "business of ferrets." I began laughing...then paused. The following story is what followed.

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20 ferrets are bounding around an upper floor in an almost to scale board room. They all have on little business suits and are tossing around a multi-colored ball. Imagine, if you will, a chirping of glee arising from the group as they play. Suddenly the double door at the back of the room swings open with force and a ferret in a feather-gray suit walks in, standing upright. The other ferrets drop what they are doing and scramble next to their seats.

"Good morning gentleferrets," says the Boss ferret in the gray suit, "I'm keen to get this meeting started. Let us begin."

They all sit down.

"Mr. Boots, if you would, please inform the others of our fiscal standings this quarter," says the boss.

"Certainly sir!" says Mr. Boots, "As you can see, earnings on cedar chips have declined by 5% in the last three months. Also, earnings in rolly balls have gone down ..."

"That'll be enough, Mr. Boots. Please, have a seat."

He takes a hard look around the room. The other ferrets pull at their fur and stare at the table.

"Well, it looks like we're heading in the wrong direction, doesn't it gentleferrets? Mr. Tinker, what is your take on this trend?"

Tinker’s fur stands on end.

"Err, uhh, sir, well, you see sir, err." says Mr. Tinker, his eyes dart around the room - desperately seeking help, 'Err, perhaps, err, we could consolidate shipping expenses, err, uhh, cut some costs in..."

"You have no idea do you, Mr. Tinker?"

"Err, not exactly sir, no, sir, but I'm looking into it and.."

"You're fired Mr. Tinker. If you would please have your office cleared by this afternoon. Thank you," says the boss.

They wait for Mr. Tinker to scurry out of the room, then the boss addresses them again.

"This is a business of FERRETS, for the love of Pete! Let's start TREATING it as such!" he says, "Now, how about you, Mr. Biskitt?"

"Well, sir, to be honest I think the fall is due to the new hypo-allergenic brands of cedar chips now available through our competitors at Hedgehog," says Mr. Biskitt, "Standard cedar is losing revenue to the new stuff at a steady rate of .15% every week. If you ask me, I think we need to reorganize the cedar department and develop a special chemical coating of our own."

"Yes...yes, you're absolutely right, Mr. Biskitt! Why don't all of you take a few notes when Mr. Biskitt is talking, he could teach you a thing or two about thinking on your feet," says the boss, "Mr. Snugglesby, I want you to get a write up of this down to the cedar department by 3 O'clock. This meeting is adjourned!"

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And so goes another evening at the library.

Danger is a four-letter word - well, probably in some language...