Making Fast Work of Jury Duty

I got called into jury duty today. They were kind enough to let me travel cross town to Newport Beach and make me be there by 8:15.

Thanks guys, not only do I have to travel far but now I have to drag the kid out of bed an hour early. Needless to say, I got there late. I arrived at 8:30 and was done at 9:30.

If you ever get called to jury duty service, here's a few hints. If they need to Pre-screen you for a potential juror, they will ask you to line up so that they an scan your badge. Make sure that you're the last in line. They will always fill up the needed spaces long before your turn in line.

Another thing I learned is that if you make it on a jury and the prosecutor asks a question, "do you think driving above the speed limit is legal because it's the speed of the flow of traffic?" Answer "yes." they kick you off.

An hours worth of work is not bad for jury duty. I've done my time as a juror once and I no longer thinks its interesting to participate in a trial.

Back to Blogging - What Have I Been Up To?

Like many of my past blog posts, I've stated that I want to get back to blogging more. I won't make that promise because I'll probably wait another year be blogging again.

Let me take a moment and update you on where I'm at with my life. One year ago, my cousin and I have been working solid trying to start an improv comedy theater. In that time we have actually been able to do that.

Quick plug, if you find yourself in North Orange County, stop by the Secret City Comics Society in Downtown Fullerton for what OC Weekly has dubbed the Best Improv Group of 2011. www.secretcitycomedy.com

As humbling as that is, this little project of ours has sucked up a lot of my time. Now that things are rolling along, I have come to the realization that I need to get a real job next year. The question is doing what? I have no freakin' idea.

I'm not excited about getting behind a desk again. I like doing free lance work, but I'm a horrible sales person. I like teaching. I like public speaking. I've thought about working in ministry again, but my support of gay marriage and the homosexual community has pretty much killed any chance of working for God.

I'm content at the moment. So check back and let's see where I am.

My Disappointment with Justice League no.1

OK. I'll admit it. I'm a Marvel guy. I read comics books when I was Junior High and stopped reading in the late 80's when I went away to college.

Now that I'm older, I decided to get back into comics. When it comes to DC Comics, I only read Teen Titans in the 80's.

So now that DC has decided to relaunch with the New 52, I figure its a good time to see if it's worth jumping into the new DC Universe.

Sadly, I'm a little disappointed with Justice League #1. Why? High expectations and unmet expectations.

From a business standpoint, DC has to bring in new readers. They need Marvel readers like me and they need the general public to give comics books a chance. In my opinion, they failed with the release of Justice League. Here's why...

If I'm going to jump into the DC Universe, I need to be wowed when I read the first issue. The cover of Justice League is great, you entice me with a star studded cover and only produce Batman and Green Lantern. I will say I like the story, but because I only saw two main characters, the end of the first issue left me wanting. I mean, how many issues will I have to buy in order to see all of the League? How much money will I have to invest to get my payoff?

Here's what I might have done. Start this issue a year into the relaunch. Show me all the characters doing what they do and then use the individual comic lines of each character fill in the gaps of the first year. I hate the fact that I have to buy 4 to 5 issues before I can decide whether it's worth following.

I'll try a few of the other titles, but DC had a chance to put their best foot forward. They did not with Justice League.

I'm not going to say DC failed with the relaunch, but I will say they squandered an opportunity.

Sharing the Gospel with the Kid

At some point in my child's life, I would love her to accept Christ into her heart. Well, I think I'm almost there.

Me: Who lives in your heart?

The Kid: Jesus!

Me: Who lives in mommy's heart?

The Kid: Mary.

Me: Who lives in my heart?

The Kid: Jesus' friend.

Me: Who lives in Lexy's (the dog) heart?

The Kid: The donkey.

I think we're pretty close.

Unions - The New Double Standard

Please tell me where I'm wrong in this whole Wisconsin union battle.

Union's sole source of income is membership dues. They take member
dues and spend millions supporting Democratic candidates. These
candidate then win the election and in return negotiate worker
contacts that the state can't afford. Democrats agree to these deals
because they received contributions from the unions.

Is it me, or do you not see a conflict of interest? It's almost as bad
as starting a fake war so that Halliburton can receive millions in
defense contracts.

-----------

Second point. Unions are talking about it's members being stripped of
rights. That's funny. What rights are they talking about? I don't
remember ever having the right to collective bargaining when I had a
job. I should be so lucky.

Sent from my iPad

Things To Do On Long Car Trips

Today I took the kid to my Grandmother's house for Chinese New Year. The trip is about an hour long and I decided to bring my wife's iTouch with us. Why? Because I can load it with Caillou and she can watch a few episodes on the way. Worked like a charm. She watches movies and I can listen to Howard Stern without her hearing anything inappropriate.

It got me thinking about how I handled long trips in the car when I was a kid. I'll tell you we did a lot of long trips. Every Sunday, we'd be at my grandparents for dinner. That's one hour. After dinner, we'd drive my aunt to her dorm room at UCLA, then home, that's a good 90 minutes. Then twice a year, we'd travel 6 hours to San Francisco.

There's was nothing to do in the car. The radio was alway set to the news or classical music. BORING! Reading made us car sick and with six people in the car, it was alway cramped and uncomfortable.

I remember only one thing that made the time pass quickly. It was a device that we called the "Tape Recorder." Good old tape recorder. It was one of those small handhelds. I used the tape recorder three ways:

1. Bootlegging music. Long ago KFI was a top 40 station. In the morning was the comedy duo, Lohmen and Barkley. I'd just record the show and music onto the tape. I could edit out songs that I didn't like and have 60 or 90 minutes of musical pleasure. Illegal yes, but it provided monoral bliss.

2. Bootlegging movies. Junior high was the only time in my life that we had cable television. There was this movie channel called Showtime. I decided to tape record the sound from movies on Showtime. My ambitious plan only allowed me to record only one movie. Only one? Yes, most movies where rated R and I never had the time to sit for 90 minutes and record uninterrupted. My parents usually wanted to watch something else. What was that movie?

The World's Greatest Lover

Starred Gene Wilder as a wannabe Rudy Valentino. I can still remember bits of audio from that movie. Part of me still wishes, I had recorded The Bad News Bears.

3. My Own Radio Show. One day, I discovered that if I plugged our headphones into the microphone input of our stereo, I had a fully functional microphone. This began my first foray into radio broadcasting. I'd grab my parents 70's music albums and spin the hits. I must have made at least 10 broadcasts.

With the handheld recorder, I would also record shows on those long trips. It annoyed my family. They hated to hear me make them and worse, they hated hearing it over again in the same trip.

Thank God for portable DVD players and Satellite radio. But at the same time, this passive viewing of entertainment really does nothing to stimulate creativity in my child, like it did for me 35 years ago.

Union Hypocrisy

Here's a fascinating segment from the Daily Show. It exposes Union Hypocrisy against Walmart. Essentially, Unions hire temporary workers to walk picket lines for them. They are paid minimum wage without benefits and when the job ends, they no longer can ear a wage.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Working Stiffed
www.thedailyshow.com
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