Useless Conversation

[WayAbvPar]

Jury Duty sucks. I'm feeling contempt and disdain for the whole system already, and it was only day 1.

Woohoo, $13 a day nearly covers parking and a cup of coffee!

As long as A) your company pays you to  be there,  B) you don't get too far behind at work, and C) you have a Kindle stocked full of good books, jury duty is actually a nice change of pace. At least the part before you have to actually hear how fucking vile and evil some of your fellow citizens are. When I went a couple of years ago I was the only person who did my job, so I ended up working nights and weekends to catch up. Made a shitton of overtime, plus got a nice cash award bonus for going above and beyond the call of duty.

On the downside, they let us go early one afternoon from court and I made the dubious decision to go see Thor. Can't win them all.

[IainC]

He needs a place to crash for a few days someone to post bail for him. 

So close, but not quite.

[ghost]

I don't know how it is at other places, but in San Antonio it was recommended to postpone your jury duty date.  If possible, try and get a Friday before a long weekend.  The judges never want to take anything to trial on those days and so you might get lucky and get out easy.

[Lantyssa]

Yeah, it depends.  I had jury duty two Fridays ago.  Only two panels were selected, but I was still in the assembly room until 3:00.  I'd have been better off getting selected then dismissed in Voir Dire.

[ghost]

Last time I did it I was out by 2:00, which isn't great but it could have been worse. 

[rattran]

I'm self-employed, so no moneys, and this is my nominal vacation time. Also, I got to be on the jury for 5 minutes this morning, the prosecutor asked about my military experience, my current job, then booted me.

So now I'm free, having done my civil duty of being bored. I think i got booted for not being over age 65. Seemed to be the prosecutors main goal.

[Lantyssa]

That and any non-conservative (little c) job makes for a quick elimination with prosecutors.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Ah, Lunch and Learn meetings.  Nothing like being an optional attendee for a meeting that's providing lunch.  Of course, I can attend!

(I did take part and answered questions because it was something I'd already gone through this time last year)

[WayAbvPar]

We have 'brown bag' optional meetings- bring your own lunch and listen to a co-worker lecture about one subject or another. Shockingly I have never attended one. You get me for 8 hours. Lunch is my time.

[Sky]

They get me with pizza once in a while. My fiancee is very hardcore, I don't think she's ever eaten lunch in the building. She'll go drive her car into another parking lot and eat there. It's bizarre.

[HaemishM]

I play video games at my desk at lunch and eat at my desk too. I will only go to a lunch meeting if forced or they provide some fucking food.

[rattran]

The last job I had with a lunch hour, I learned to leave and be unavailable for the entire time, or I'd get suckered into something that just HAD to get done.

[Rasix]

We have a brown bag coming up.  I think some guy is doing it to justify his band.  Guy is a band 8 and does less leadership related activities than most 6s I know.

It's on the day I normally go to the Thai restaurant.

[Paelos]

The last job I had with a lunch hour, I learned to leave and be unavailable for the entire time, or I'd get suckered into something that just HAD to get done.

That's what I do. I'm in my car in the parking lot listening to the radio some days.

[HaemishM]

The last job I had with a lunch hour, I learned to leave and be unavailable for the entire time, or I'd get suckered into something that just HAD to get done.

I have trained my account managers pretty well. I don't answer my phone to work calls (caller ID YO!) If someone brings something by, I tell them "yep, I'll get that done after lunch." That works about 90% of the time.

[Rasix]

I mostly eat offsite, but in the case that I don't: I just close the door to my office.  I've told my team that I don't like people watching me eat.  Part true, part bullshit.  Most consider me anti-social enough not to question those sort of oddities.

[Merusk]

Ah, Lunch and Learn meetings.  Nothing like being an optional attendee for a meeting that's providing lunch.  Of course, I can attend!

(I did take part and answered questions because it was something I'd already gone through this time last year)

I love these.  Always done by a vendor, always cover something interesting or that gives me Continuing Education credits so I don't have to attend seminars after hours and 99% of the time has awesome food.

The 3form reps brought us a taco bar.   The LED lighting guys we just had brought in kabobs & hummus. Fantastic!

[Strazos]

I suppose I'm technically paid for my lunch time.

I probably eat for about 7 minutes before getting back to work. 

[Hammond]

The last job I had with a lunch hour, I learned to leave and be unavailable for the entire time, or I'd get suckered into something that just HAD to get done.

Yep same situation for me, and at least for me I live 10 min from work so I frequently go home for lunch on most days.

[ghost]

I'm the boss, so I'm kindof fucked when it comes to lunch.  I do try to make sure my staff gets a full lunch hour in which they are unmolested, however. 

[Furiously]

I'm the boss, so I'm kindof fucked when it comes to lunch.  I do try to make sure my staff gets a full lunch hour in which they are unmolested, however. 

That's some endurance to molest your staff the rest of the day.

[Evildrider]

Viagra.

[ghost]

No, nobody would want to molest my office staff.   

[Sky]

The thing about humans is, you're wrong. Somewhere, someone wants to molest pretty much anyone.

I live 3 minutes from work, so I usually go home and enjoy some guitar during lunch.

[ghost]

Yeah, but do you molest it?   

[Hammond]

Sigh, retiring a old backup system and having to restore then backup 10 year old computer tapes is not exactly what I had in mind this week. Only 20 more to go then this server / tapes can go bye bye.

[Paelos]

Apparently a snowflake is going to fall in Georgia, in theory. As such the town has made a run on milk and bread, and in a general state of  .

[Yegolev]

Contrarily, I'm heading up to the mountains this weekend to celebrate the life and lessons of Dr. King.  Also work on my taxes.

About lunch meetings, those are crappy.  If it's a "lunch-and-learn" this is not terribly bad since I can be expected to eat during it.  If they want to secure my attendance, it needs to both provide lunch and give me a real reason to be there.  Case in point, today is the monthly free-cake-and-pie day at the client offices but I'm staying home.

The interesting thing is that when someone is scheduling a meeting with me, generally the only open time is noon-to-one.  A decent person would try to find another day, and often they do, but sometimes it just happens.

I was in an Operational Excellence session for the past three days, and on the second day people began asking about a provided lunch.  We got one on the third day.  I think that since some people had to fly into Atlanta for the session, some sandwiches and pickles were only reasonable.  Me, it took me two hours to get into the office on two of those days, so I ate two sandwiches.

[HaemishM]

WE HAS SNOW!!!!!

[Signe]

oooo, pretty!  What is that yellow thingy in the background?

[Khaldun]

That and any non-conservative (little c) job makes for a quick elimination with prosecutors.

I was surprised to have been selected for a jury as a college professor, but they seemed to just want to get a panel set and the thing over with. It was an idiotic civil case that I think was being used as practice by two ambulance-chasing firms for newly minted attorneys, much to the very clear irritation of the judge (after we returned our verdict, he thanked us and apologized that we had had our time wasted by something that should have been settled or never been brought to court in the first place.) Basically a guy had rear-ended another guy getting off of the highway, and the driver of the car that was hit was claiming neck pain and muscle injuries from the uninsured guy who hit him. Plaintiff's attorney tried to get stuff about the insurance status of the defendant entered into record, other attorney objected, judge upheld the objection, etc.--it really did have the feeling of a practice session. It was game over though when the defendant's attorney introduced evidence that the plaintiff had gone whitewater rafting for a week at the time when he was supposedly in so much pain that he could barely walk, and then introduced evidence that the osteopath who certified the plaintiff's injuries more or less had an exclusive business of certifying neck pain for people who had been in minor traffic accidents. We deliberated about fifteen minutes after about a four-hour trial.

[RhyssaFireheart]

WE HAS SNOW!!!!!

Nice!  You're already beating Chicagoland in the total seasonal snow count, judging by the pic.

Signe - I think that's just the porch light shining there.

[ghost]

oooo, pretty!  What is that yellow thingy in the background?

Pee angel?

[Lantyssa]

Why did someone spray insulation foam over everything?

[HaemishM]

That yellow thingy is the porch light. And yes, we got something like 3-4 inches in Jackson, MS today which is 2-3 more inches than Chicagoland has gotten all winter.

WE PKED YOUR SNOW!