The Jury System

The Jury SystemWhat part of this seems like a good idea? You’ve got a panel of not random people who are not your peers who are selected by the opposing lawyers and then pulled from their respective jobs in the real world to go hang out in this farcical made-up world where varying viewpoints and parlor tricks are conjured in order to either curry sympathy or to appeal to moralistic senses of justice. God forbid if there’s a mis-trial or a Hung Jury; you might actually hang yourself in either scenario.

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People Who Rate Everything Either 10 Stars or 1 Star

People Who Rate Everything Either 10 Stars or 1 StarOkay. You’ve got a whole slider of selections on the Internet Movie Database, YouTube, Goodreads.com, Gamespot, Amazon, and others…. Why do some people choose to continuously blast or harp on mediocre products? I envision scenarios where a person becomes absolutely enthralled with a movie/game/book whatever, maybe being introduced to a genre they didn’t know existed, maybe connecting on a personal level with main characters’ victories and defeats, maybe a specific movie dredging the memory of an ex they just can’t seem to shake; these people then saying to themselves, “HEY, I gotta tell the world the specific numeral I believe to be associated with the quality of this experience. And it happens to be the absolute lowest score possible, like, on the same par with other absolutely horrendous and depressing pieces of work that I’ve seen. And gosh, this happens to me a lot!” Who are these inexperienced whiners consistently bemoaning the total failures or epic wins of just your average action movie or shallow book, one that is more deserving of 4’s and 6’s than the root canal (1) of the media or even the lottery winning (10) experience?

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No Guilt to Spare

No Guilt to Spare

 

“Hi. I’m not going to hurt you. I didn’t mean to startle you. My wife is 3 months pregnant and we wanted to know if you can spare anything. Anything at all.”

 

What am I expected to say to that? Being approached as I step into my vehicle at night in front of a Half Price Books (notorious for big spenders) is jarring to say the least. But how am I supposed to respond? I respond in the negative, that I don’t carry cash.

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