001

Die

I hate limited edition bullshit. Don't ever tell me anything is sold out. I'll kill you.

Fine art

Sometimes all I want to do is retreat to some hippie mountains and throw some pottery all day.. and fire it in some crazy underground kiln I made. It always fluctuates between that scenario and the one where I'm a TA at the printmaking studio and I just file down zinc plates all day and make perfect aquatints.

The colors you use to ink plates are the consistency of lipstick and you mix it on a glass table top with a spatula that is almost as stiff as a razor blade. Its really satisfying to scrape around cause of the blade on glass feeling. You can almost do it all day in a trance-like state.

Also there are some crazy firing techniques in ceramics where the glaze actually has glass shards in it and when you fire your piece in the kiln the glass pieces explode and melt, creating a gradient glazing effect.

Basically I hate work right now if you can't tell.

K-Stars

Fancypants

{Day 2 and Day 3}

Yesterday I noticed something peculiar about Juror #6 who I sit next to in the courtroom. Being that we sit right next to each other I don't really have much to look at but the color of his pants and his shoes.

Having observed him surreptitiously, when we're in the hallway I've written him off as your average mild mannered, unremarkable dork. But then yesterday I noticed his shoes and did a double take.

This man clearly has an affinity for fine Italian shoes. The pair he was wearing yesterday was so elegant, and beautiful that I have to admit I stared at them at every opportunity I could. It was just really wierd cause from the feet up he wasn't very fashionable... so it was a bit incongruous. Anyway it got my attention all right.

I noticed him observing my shoes too so for kicks today I decided to wear my Guissepe Zanotti boots to touch a nerve. He didn't disappoint, today's pair of shoes were even better than the ones he wore yesterday. Checkmate.

My only regret is not taking note of his shoes on Day 1. Now I will never know what that 3rd pair looked like.

Jury duty

{My very important notes regarding the case.}

For the most part jury duty is pretty tedious with vaguely interesting moments mixed in every now and then. I spend most of my time people watching. The downtown courtroom is full of a wide variety of people since jury selection is randomized, kind of like the cross section of wierdos you'd see at the DMV. Lots of different ages, ethnicities, hairstyles, outfit choices...

The past two days I've learned a lot of little things. Most people are lame and full of excuses as to why they can't be a juror. Its no different from watching a kid make far fetched, lame excuses about the whereabouts of their homework. Conclusion: just because you're an adult doesn't mean you magically transform into a person of integrity. I'm still struggling with this fact. Its mind blowing to me that I will still have the same personality make 20 years from now.

Lets talk about the downright hostile types; haters of life. Such as the woman who threw a shit fit in the courtroom when my armrest bumped into hers. When people get really nasty in public my initial reaction is of open mouthed stupor. In the end angry people keep me in check. I don't ever want to be that way. I'm still working on my list of calm but infuriating comebacks to throw in situations like this.

People are social creatures for the most part. It was interesting to observe the interaction of strangers with one another. Complete strangers after a few days with one another will start to reach out and make little bonds here and there. This concept is not that hard for me to grasp. Despite the fact that most my friends consider me to be an unforgiving elitist, I can find something to like in most anyone and as long as I have that I can be civil and get along. Its something I've learned at work.

Its Day 3 of the trial tomorrow and probably the last but I know after two days of keeping to myself its inevitable tomorrow I'll have to muster up a smile of recognition towards the other twelve jurors because we are now a little family trying to decide whether to award the plaintiff one million dollars or three. Geezus.

Michi and Wally 2005