this was my jury experience. it really opened my eyes to the fact that the legal system rests on jurors - untrained and very biased people. there really should be some training or some rules in the jury deliberation room. everything is allowed in the jury deliberation room, including coercion, which i refused to submit to. a friend reminded me of a story in the michael jackson case where a juror didn't like the way the mother of the victim shook her finger, and thus, threw out her entire testimony. it's based on whim, not logic, at all. i saw more reaction to emotion and whim than anything else. I think the people in the jury deliberation room are people who either: 1) are not smart enough to have avoided jury duty, or 2) people who really have nothing better to do but enjoy being there. it was a real eye opening experience. i guess i learned a lot, but still fairly traumatizing.

on a good note, after two days of jury duty, i got to see joshua bell play in a recital. amazing! i was so thrilled with his sound more than his technique (like arpeggios on harmonics)- his sound was very controlled yet full. in some of his recordings, i thought his sound sounded thin and even whiny (like Mendelssohn, which i used to really enjoy), but none of that came through live. the recital setting was also very intimate, allowed him to fully explore sound and technique without all the flashy orchestral background of a concerto. the recital was so sweet, and even better was meeting him and talking to him about his experiences working with kids and his appearance on the isaac mizrahi show. ;)

i've been attending more cultural experiences lately, which has been tons of fun - meeting cute performers is always fun. :) michael arden last week, joshua bell this week, hopefully sf ballet this week and the spelling bee musical next week. also been keeping up with my skating - started learning a new jump, the loop. school really gets in the way of the things that i really want to do... ^^