i have to drive myself 27 miles this morning to the cook county courthouse in the ghetto-ass south side of chicago during the morning rush hour traffic.. i need some advice... should i wear my pokemon shirt or the red one with the silhouette of the monkey scratching his butt and then sniffing his hand (captioned 'scratch and sniff' below). I figure if i just be myself they'll send me home within the first hour. during the interview i will be sure to mention how i prepared for this day by watching the pauly shore movie 5 additional times.

That's a tough commute, man.  I've had to serve twice now; the first was a civil case, of which I was informed could last two to three months.  And that happened to be in the summer, right when I was due for a family vacation that was planned many months before.  I played the FIJA card to get out of it, which I have Hitori/Brandon to thank for; after some one-on-one face time with the lawyers, where I firmly but politely argued my right to vote by my conscience, they yanked me out of the selection fast.  The second was a criminal case, of which I stood in as an alternate juror, which lasted about four days.

As for your decision in wardrobe, I would've gone with the scratch and sniff.

Pokemon, all the way. Don't shower before, put tape on the bridge that connects your glasses (if you wear them) and make constant references to Evangelion, ignoring any other form of conversation. If that doesn't get you out of that shit, I don't know what will.

I had to go to jury duty in Cambridge. I actually thought it was exciting. Well, to be honest, I wasn't selected and just sent home after a few hours, but I was happy to do by civic duty
Yeah, there are LOTS of other things we could be doing, but I enjoyed it. Let us know if you've been selected...

cheers,

-avatar!

That's better than my planned excuse: "I hate ___ people."

I've had to go twice, though I wasn't selected either time. It's probably for the best, too, because I wouldn't have been able to resist replicating Homer's jury duty glasses, which surely would've gotten my fined or thrown in jail for contempt.

I was going to go on a rant about how European countries don't have this nonsense, until I bothered to check my facts first and it turns out it's just the Netherlands and Germany that don't, apparently.

Japan started using the jury system only this year I think, but as a foreigner I probably won't be bothered by it here either, which suits me fine.
So there you have it, you people should all emigrate to Holland/Germany/Japan!

If given the option of facing a jury of my peers or some wig-wearing high-brow, I would certainly choose the jury. Granted, nothing is infallible, and there are pluses and minuses to everything, but I do think it's a fair and just system. I've only been called to jury duty once, and it was fine. It's not like you can be called over and over again... I know that in MA you can be called once every 3 years at most. Also they pay you... a whole $10 per day! Yeah, not so much. However, by law it is impossible to fire an employee who is on jury duty. Furthermore, that employee must be paid for the time he/she misses from work. Therefore you technically get your salary+$10 per day. Anyway, most people that I know of that have done have enjoyed it.

cheers,

-avatar!

$40 per day for us here in NY.  And I believe they've extended ours to once every six years.  Go New York!

Which means I'm due again in..... 2013, if I'm not mistaken.

I've never been called for jury duty. If I do, I'll make sure to tell them I act like a kid when I'm supposed to sit still. They'd better be prepared for spitwads, farting noises, or maybe real ones, irritating foot shuffling noises, unconsciousness, random laughing if someone looks retarded, paper-clip bending, ripping the entire piece of metal out of spiral notebooks and twisting it into strange shapes, drawing people dying in horrible ways, etc.

I've been in a courtroom once and I remember being purposely obnoxious. It was a field trip in 6th grade. When we got back to class, the teacher commented that I was the only one that misbehaved. But it's ok for other people to be boring and not make any sense?