Responsibility Schmonsibility

This week I face potential jury duty. Today I got lucky and didn't have to report, but every day for the rest of the week, I have to call to check they still need me. To prepare, I Yahooed for tips on how I can get out of jury duty.

There is so much desperation, deceit, and defiance shared in these jury duty tips and stories. It's enough to make up an episode of This American Life.

Lucky for the Santa Clara County Courts, I am a bad liar. But if I have real biases related to the case, I'll express them. I'm rooting for a medical malpractice case, because I can say that my brother and several other cousins and relatives are doctors.

I hope I'll get dismissed because I don't need another obstacle to keep me from meeting work deadlines!

One of my peeves (which doesn't happen so much anymore b/c I sit in a corner cube) is when a visitor stops by and lingers too long to chat. I don't mind a polite short visit, but any longer than 5 minutes of a non-work-related visit during the workday (especially when I am obviously in the middle of something at my computer) outside of a lunch or late-afternoon coffeebreak is an over-stay. Toward 10 minutes, I start to get antsy. At the 15-minute mark, I become cranky and am screaming in my head, "Don't you have WORK to do??"

At the very least, an unplanned visitor should have the decency to ask upon arrival (or prior to arrival) if the visitee has a moment.

So today I was delighted to stumble upon some amusing tips on how to end an over-stay. (note the odd text ads on the left of this blog.)

I don't think I'm mean enough to ever execute one of these tips, because it sounds like something right out of David Brent's character from The Office. Speaking of which, I wonder if the American version will actually be as funny. I am hoping Steve Carell will make it work, because I need subtitles to watch the original British version.