Well, that felt like a bust. On my way home...

I'm being discharged. I guess I'm done for the next 8 years.

The lack of direction is killing me. No one has said a word since I returned from lunch. I'd love to know how it's going.

EMT is here. They are very patient nice people. On a pain scale of 1 - 10, old woman (she's 77) is at a 10.

Oh..now sick woman is talking. Her back hurts because she's been sitting too long. "It's these chairs! You can't sit straight.!"

Old woman in front row non-responsive... She is just kind of rocking with her mouth open. Court officers helping.

Alright, back from lunch and ready for more waiting. I've got no idea if I'll be called.

favorite thing ovetheard while getting lunch: "...spend eternity in a lake of fire."

Sorry for the Twitter no-no, but I'm at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. (I'm mostly tweeting this to make @aliciaglaser jeaous)

Lunch time. Since my work is literally across the street, I'll check my mail. Then...?

Welp, first round of jurors being called. Way more than 12. They must get several cases together at once. At least something is happening.

Vending machine time: Vending machine coffee, oreos, and . . . what's this??? Free vanilla waffers next to my oreos?

Lots of bored, sleepy people here. Very few with laptops, so I glad I brought mine.

Thus far, very quiet. They haven't called anyone yet. The clerk said this would be a busy court house, not so much so far.

Official jury duty hours are 9am to 5pm. Quote the clerk, "You will be here until 5pm."

You should see the line of people to sign up immediately to leave for a cigarette. It's about half the room.

20 minute video started 30 minutes after I was required to arrive. Clearly no hurry here.

"Your Turn," classic intstructional video. It even has synthasizer soundtrack.

In the jury waiting room right now. It's surprisingly nice, huge. It could easily handle hundreds of jurors at one time.

Live Blogging Jury Duty

I've been summoned for jury duty. I orginally wanted to postpone until the summer, but I was waiting until I recieved my summer teaching appointment. That never came (hopefully still coming!) and by the time I tried to postpone, it was too late. So today I'll be fufilling my duty, and blogging while I do it!

It's called "live blogging." You can expect a lot of short updates throughout the day. I'll keep you in the loop!

Twitter Roundup 1

My twitter page is located at http://www.twitter.com/BrianCopeland. I post whenever I feel like it. Currently, my last five "tweets" (posts to twitter) are on the right side of my blog under Status. Just incase you're not into Twitter yet, I'm planning on posting some of my personal favorite tweets, in chronological order! I'll add commentary (in italics) before and after some of them to give you the full story.

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Legend:

"...from web" means I actually posted the message on www.twitter.com while sitting at a computer.

"...from Ping.fm" means I sent it using my Peek, a portable email device.

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For historical purposes, here's my first ever Tweet:

Trying to check things of my todo list.3:10 PM Jun 26th, 2008 from web

Here's my first tweet of 2009:

doing some good administrative stuff. Yay bills.3:00 PM Jan 4th from Ping.fm

Exciting stuff... Here's from the last week or so:

Its hard to get excited about sandwiches, isn't it? My latest sandwich modifier: Hot sauce.5:59 PM Apr 7th from Ping.fm

I actually am holding back on the hot sauce now, it really hurt my stomach.

Hell's Kitchen is such trash tv. Seriously. The teasers before commercials... Am I 12?2:14 AM Apr 19th from Ping.fm

Midnight walk with Alicia through Brooklyn. It's our new habit.10:54 PM Apr 19th from Ping.fm

Wow. Carrots actually don't suck. Are my taste buds decaying?8:46 PM Apr 21st from web

Okay, my taste buds are totally dying. I just had some raw yellow onion and thought "This tastes great!" Wonder if that's yellow only....8:49 PM Apr 21st from web

Drinking Brooklyn Lager out of a can. I doubt I've ever enjoyed beer from a can before. Teachs me to keep my eyes out for cool liquor store.8:51 PM Apr 21st from web

Uck. Time to sit through a class that goes entirely over my head. I think I like set theory... But I don't appear any good at it9:40 AM Apr 22nd from Ping.fm

Earthday plan: Buy a window fan from Walgreen's for 15% off with Earth Day coupon. Huzzah!9:50 AM Apr 22nd from Ping.fm

I'm never sure about alcohol. It makes me worse at mathematics. The advantage, of course, is I stop caring about what I'm doing.2:27 PM Apr 22nd from Ping.fm

Finishing last night's wine glass. I feel awesome drinking at 2pm... Seriously. It's more acceptable than not because I rarely drink much.2:27 PM Apr 22nd from web

I bought that bottle of wine for myself. The sticker on the bottle said it was "silky."

Bah. I try to go out side for a change of scenery while I work, but laptops outside are nearly impossible. I can't read the screen at all.12:14 PM Apr 23rd from web

You win again, Sun. But I'll get you yet. I'll build some wax wings and fly up to you. It's the perfect plan!12:16 PM Apr 23rd from web

Just like Icaraus!

Surprisingly good food @ Bar Americain. I've got three different types of fish in my stomach.9:58 PM Apr 23rd from Ping.fm

We took Jay there to thank her for watching Livia over Spring Break. It is one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. It was fancy!

Libraries and cafes are intimidating. I know I pretty good with computers, but everyone looks so smart and busy.3:34 PM Apr 24th from Ping.fm

Pro Tip courtesy of girl near by: Surely you can leave your Macbook Air unattended for an hour. No one wants that.3:39 PM Apr 24th from Ping.fm

If pressed, I'd say Saturday morning is my favorite part of the week. Potential seems greatest.11:51 AM Apr 25th from Ping.fm

Stray cats are such sluts. They don't know you, they don't want to live with you, but if you've got food... they'd probably spend the night.about 24 hours ago from Ping.fm

We've seen a lot of Oreo lately, given how much we are gardening. Oreo will eat about anything, which is good, since Livia is a finicky eater.

There you have it!

Update!

Hello!

Great News: My spring break trip to Minnesota was great. I got to see everyone, Alicia got to meet my family, I lost no luggage, ... Everything was fabulous

Good News: I got my Peek in the mail. It's an email only device that I've been heavily using since I bought it. The big advantage it offers me is that I can write things on the subway. It's about the size of a Blackberry, with a pretty big keyboard, so I can pound out emails, to do lists, or even blog posts. That GTAIV post last week? Wrote while writing the G train.

Mostly, the Peek has gotten me into Twittering. Twitter is a blog service that only lets you post 140 letters/spaces/numbers at a time. The idea is to just write down your thoughts as they happen. For example: Say I'm with Alicia in Manhattan and we see a giant Star Trek advertisement that glows green. By the time I get home, I'll have forgotten. Now, I can just pull out my Peek and write: "Whoa, giant Star Trek ad on 5th ave. I've been watching the original series, I'm pumped for the movie." Now, you'll know what I've been out looking at, what's on my mind, and feel a little bit closer.

In a nutshell, that's what Twitter is for. I'm hoping to post a weekly roundup of some of my tweets.

The down side is no pictures. I'll have to post more to compensate.

The Bad News: One month until the end of the semester. It's crunch time now. I've started treating it like a god's honest full time job. This means I leave the house and study for at least 5 hours every day (I'm at the Graduate Center library right now, actually). This is my third day of leaving the apartment to study, but I've already gotten a ton of work done. I'm feeling better about myself as a student and I'm enjoying my free time when I'm home. Why? Because I've separated my work from my play. Before, the axe of studying was hung above my head 24/7. Now, after studying for 8 hours, I can do whatever I'd like at home. There's no point in studying in the evening, as I'll just be studying tomorrow morning again.

This change in studying attitude has been a long time coming. If I really want to be an academic, studying needed to change from it's previous do-it-whenever-you-make-time position (which worked great in Undergraduate) to a real job. I'm really hoping this has happened.

What I've Thought About: The garden! Pictures tonight or tomorrow. The big new change is the mulch that Alicia wrote about here. Our upstairs neighbor is moving in about two months, and she just donated a ton of pots. So lots of work to do!

What I've Enjoyed: How could you not love the weather as of late? We hit the 80's last night, and it is holding steady. Alicia and I are trying to go as long as we can without air conditioning. Wish us luck.

Grand Theft Auto Marathon wrapup

As you read previpusly, I played a little GTAIV last week. Mostly, I wanted an excuse to not work on math. It was great, yet tough on me.

The achievement require me to beat the game in 30 hours or less, I wanted to do it consecutively. While I failed to do it consequtively due to a lack of sleep and a game glitch, I did manage to beat the full game in only 23 hours non-cumulitive.

The best part of the experience was seeing the plot in one clean sweep. The first time I played through the game, I took my time with the many distractions the game offers (you can actually watch tv IN THE GAME! It's fake tv!). This time, I watched the plot nearly straight through. It tackles alot of violence vs. not, business vs. personal. Most impressive was the different endings. I had no idea how different they'd be.

The makers of GTAIV must love New York. The time and effort put into recreate the look and feel of the city is breathtaking.

Two complaints... One, the game glitched on me. Sure, it wasn't meant to be played for 20 hours straight, but it was frustrating that the music didn't all play. I had a ton of repeats. There was even a point that I had to restart the Xbox, as the game didn't give me any new missions. Two, I can't how two days of my life just dissapeared. Scary.

Overall, the marathon gave me the sense of freedom. I stepped out of routine, and it felt great. Time to study like not tomorrow.

PS: Pro Tip: Use the taxi to go everywhere. It won't cost much, and you'll save a lot of time and frustration.

GTAIV: 20 Hours

I've had the Online Stopwatch (http://www.online-stopwatch.com/) running since I started, just to officially have a timer going. It says 19 Hours, 35 minutes. Yay!

I fell asleep around 8:30 am this morning, then woke up at noon. Alicia and I took an hour break for some dinner and fresh air, and now I'm right back at it. My current Game progress is 38.37%, which sounds awful, but I think it is actually quite far. The story mode only accounts for approximately 50 to 60%, so by all accounts I'm more than half over.

When I stop playing, I leave it on the pause menu, thus the game doesn't consider pause menu part of the official game time. Currently, Playing time is 12 Hours 39 minutes. The record is somewhere around 17 hours. I doubt I'll be that fast, as I've watched all the movies, and failed missions at least a few times.

So far, the story has been in the back seat. You lose a lot of the story by not taking side missions. Mostly, the story has been "Meet this character, do this and that for him."

I'll keep you posted!

GTAIV: Hour Two

Well, 2am EST. I began at midnight, so it's been two hours. I can't believe how little I've played. 7.67% according to the statistics. That's 11 missions.

So far, most of the missions have been tutorials. Mostly, they're teaching me to drive and shoot, which is old hat for me. So there hasn't been anything amazing in terms of game play. Niko, the main character, has just started showing his depth. He's got a dark past and is full of regrets.

I've already killed 15 people, but I have yet to save or die. My hope is to play through the entire game without intentionally saving, or possibly even dying. The last time I played the game, I would usually reload the game before being arrested. Now, I think I'll just play. It'll be honest statistics.

The game has several points where I can decide what to do. I'm not sure what strategy to employ. You can certainly be violent, killing all the time. You can also be pacifist. I did a little of both the first time through. I think this time I'll make decisions based on my knowledge of the game. For example, I know I'll be ordered by my boss to kill someone. That boss will later betray me, so I might say "BAH!" and not follow the orders.

It's a beautiful game. The scope and beauty of the game are breathtaking. As a side note, the F bomb has been dropped at least twenty times by now. But it's like the Godfather... if I was around coke snorting gangsters and didn't swear, it would seem awkward.

I'm feeling fine. I've got 2 two-liter bottles of cola (well, one is orange soda), plus a box of donut holes. I'm making a night of it. Alicia fell asleep on the lovesac watching and Livia seems to be sleeping in hour long periods.

Grand Theft Auto IV Marathon

Well, it's Spring Break. On the very bottom of my to do list has been "Play Grand Theft Auto IV (GTAIV)." On the Xbox 360, every game comes with a list of achievements, which are little awards for acomplishing a task in the game. One of the achievements for GTAIV is to complete the game in under 30 hours. Now, I've beaten the game before. But it took like 60 hours.

So here I go! It's Midnight, Wednesday, and I'm beginning. I'll update periodically, but the clock will stay running. BEGIN!