Jury Service

I'm doing Jury Duty this week. It has been both interesting and sometimes boring. There is lots of sitting around waiting for things to happen, but it's interesting to get this view of our legal processes and justice system.

We are chosen (by number) into a group of 50, then taken to a court room where another ballot occurs to choose the 12 (or more) people for the jury. Challenged people are replaced by another number being read out. The jury is sworn in. The people who haven't been chosen for that jury are then either released for the day, or (as we were) then taken to yet another court room and the entire process runs again to choose a jury for that trial. Those of us who were then remaining 'unchosen' were released for the day. One trial was about grevious bodily harm, the other was aggravated burglary.

Today I was chosen for a jury after someone else was challenged. I can't really say much more about the case at present as it is continuing tomorrow ( I'll post more once we have delivered our verdict).

Something that is rather different to all the TV courtroom things we see are the objections. They don't actually say the word 'objection', basically they just say why the don't think the other lawyer should be saying what he is saying. Most of the times the Judge didn't say whether the objection was sustained. At one point though one lawyer was objecting to the line of questioning the other was taking ... what surprised me was that we, the jurors, had to leave the court whilst they sorted out that issue, and were allowed back in when they had done so. I guess this is so we don't get confused/sidetracked by legal argument and can just concentrate on the evidence provided. Still, it was a surprise to me as that's not how it is portrayed in neither books, movies, tv etc.

What also surprises me is that we are not allowed to take notes at all. I'm very glad I didn't get chosed for the 4 - 6 week trial that commenced this week!

Queer as Folk
I'm was anxious to watch Queer as Folk last night (season 4 began), to see how I would react. I was mostly looking forward to it. Sure enough there was a scene during which I very nearly had to leave the room because of the pain it was causing me.
It wasn't a sex scene ... and I've thought about that, I guess what they say about sex is true - the more you get the more you want. Since I'm not getting any I don't have a want for it I get Mr Purple out about once every two months and use it for a couple of nights, then kinda feel like, well what's the point of that, and stop for another couple of months. I don't have the *urge* to have sex.

The scene that caused me grief was immediately after they finished having sex ... it was the intimacy, the closeness that killed me :( I guess, in part, it was also the fact of people having been separated (for whatever reason) coming back together again - like the scene in L Word that affected me a while ago.

I will keep watching, I just hope there's not too much more of that kind of thing in store :( Next time I'll probably be alone (a friend came to watch with me last night) and I don't know whether I'll be able to not cry .. then again why the hell shouldn't I cry, it's good for you - chemically (releases hormones).

After watching QaF and being affected by that scene I think I should probably keep away from the movies/cinemas for some time yet.

Yeah, still fucked up :(