Report from Juror No. 2005

I must have been a very bad girl, or y'all failed me with the finger crossing, because I ended up on a jury and have to go back tomorrow. I guess it's better than it could have been since the big trial starting today was for an extreme (and highly publicized) case of animal cruelty (some lowlife scumsucker set a dog on fire) and I didn't end up on that panel (it would have been nice to get to hang the lowlife scumsucker, but I suspect the trial would have been very traumatic for me). Plus, the people on my jury all seem pretty cool and quite intelligent, so deliberations may not suck. That's about all we have left to do, so I may not be stuck there for long. I may even have got more work done by doing the jury duty thing than if I'd been at home because there was a lot of sitting around and waiting. I've already made it through reviewing the copy edits on the whole manuscript. All I need to do now is fix the things that require a little more writing than I could do in the manuscript margins.

It's entirely possible that I might even meet the original deadline, and then the record will have to show that I am awesome. I learned well from Scotty: Talk a lot about how difficult it will be to do something, how long it will take to do, and how much you'll have to sacrifice to get it done, and then when it takes you half as long as you estimated, you look like a genius and they assume you killed yourself to get it done that quickly.

In other news, FenCon was a blast. I don't have a lot to report, but I did get some ideas for future posts based on panels I was on, where I came up with the brilliant thing I should have said several hours later. I can say those things here. I didn't get a chance to interview Connie Willis, but the answer about her next book was "don't ask." And that was said up front in the opening ceremonies, so I take it she gets asked pretty often. Serenity Found is now out and you may start to find copies in bookstores. Nathan Fillion's essay is awesome. Some of the others aren't too bad, if I say so myself. For those at Television Without Pity who've enjoyed Jacob's recaps of Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who and Serenity (the movie), he has an essay in there, too.

I'll be posting late again tomorrow, whenever I get home, but then I'll be allowed to talk about my case (and there is definitely a rant brewing there). Right now, we're not supposed to talk about it, and the judge even asked us not to watch law or trial type shows on TV tonight (Law and Order, and the like). I was thinking, "Dude, tonight's the season premiere of Heroes, and then BBC America should have the new Torchwood up at OnDemand, so that's totally not a problem." Considering the fact that this judge's jury deliberation room is decorated with Star Wars posters and those maps of planets from National Geographic, I have a feeling he's right there with me.