Wow, I can't believe I'm already about to enjoy a short Friday. For those unfamiliar folks, the university gives us half the day off with pay on Fridays, and we're free to do whatever we want! It's great for errand-running, movie-watching, and food-eating. Summer is officially here, and it's amazing to me that time has gone by so quickly.

So, Jury Duty ended Wednesday afternoon. It was a frustrating experience because, as jurors, we are bound to assume innocence unless the evidence proves otherwise. In this case, the jury was unanimous in believing that the defendant actually did the crime, and unanimous that the evidence could not prove it sufficiently enough to call him guilty.

It was a theft case, two guys stealing CDs and a cigarette case from a car. The owners returned to their car while the guys were in it, and the two guys ran out and took off in their own car. The owners saw that they were missing CDs and decided to count it as a loss. Well, the guys left too quickly, because they got pulled over for speeding, and it just so happened that the victims were driving in the same direction, recognized the getaway car, and stopped to tell the police about the theft. The cops already had one guy in the police car for driving on a suspended license, and the other was on the curb. That's our defendant. The guy was extremely stupid in this case: he had already served for a prior theft case and was on probation, and when the victims stopped at the scene, he got up and ran... but he had left his driver's license with the deputy. Doh! Anyway, it all boiled down to testimonies. The defendant's friend claimed he did it all on his own. The witnesses said they saw two guys, but their stories were inconsistent and vague (because it all happened two years ago) and they couldn't identify which guy actually took their stuff, not to mention that two of the witnesses had records of their own and one was fresh out of prison for a felony. It was too foggy for us to make the call, although several factors in the case were so shady that I really think he did it.

Anyway, the guy was outside the courthouse as we left, thanking the jurors. I didn't want anywhere near him because I was mad that we couldn't convict. He was exclaiming, "I'll never be in the system again," so I turned around and yelled back, "You'd better not be!" because if I ever see him again, I'm shouting "Guilty!"

Well, that's that. The guy got lucky and his woman, who was bawling when we came back in half an hour with a verdict, got extremely lucky. One thing that made me laugh hanging around the courthouse was how many women are willing to stand by their men, no matter how bad/stupid the crime/criminal.

The Norwalk Courthouse ended up being a good place to serve, though. The hours are short, the staff are nice and professional, and the places to eat are full of variety - not that I took advantage of that. Actually, one of my new favorite places is Tropical Smoothie, at which I ate lunch every day. I tried a different smoothie each day for lunch, and sat out in the sun reading my book. It was too much sitting for my back to be comfortable, but lunch was always good, and I got tons of reading done!

But it's definitely nice to be back at work. It takes being in a place with hardly any laughter or community to realize how much of it I have at work. It's great to see everyone again, and catch up. I'm so blessed to work in this university, in this department, with these people.

Newgrounds Rumble is a pretty freaking awesome game. It's like Smash Bros. but with characters from the mother of all Flash game sites, Newgrounds. There's tons of play modes and unlockable content. Speaking of awesome Flash game sites, I've recently become addicted to Kongregate. Once you've registered, you can rate games and then get personalized game recommendations. There are also weekly challenges. Kongregate will also keep track of your scores and will show you how you're doing against your friends. If you sign up, be sure to add brendoman as a friend. Fair warning, this site will definitely suck you in.