Yesterday evening I finished up nearly a week of jury duty during which I served as Juror #3 on a DC Courts trial. I have to admit I was not only dreading the interruption in my routine and my work, but I think I must have developed a bit of a phobia about the whole thing at some point since the closer I got to my one-day or one-trial service the more anxious I got. As it turned out, I was selected for the jury, I got over my phobia, and the whole thing was utterly fascinating. The hardest part of service was being forbidden from talking about anything related to the case while it was ongoing -- leaving me with a head full of thoughts and observations and no way to discuss them. But the gag order is off so now I'm overwhelming my friends with my pent up conversation (sorry about that!).

The trial I was on was a fairly serious one with a total of 9 criminal charges against the defendant, the most serious being First Degree Sexual Assault (rape) and First Degree Assault with Intent to Kill. I think I was probably the juror most sympathetic to the government's case which put me in an awkward mental position as I had to confront my preconceptions about what a woman's claims of violence and rape mean. I was really leaning strongly toward guilty on most counts but the rest of the jury's opinions reminded me that the burden of proof is with the government and that her word, in the absence of real physical evidence, is open to serious doubt. That is the way things should work -- innocent until proven guilty -- but years of reading about violence against women, the difficulty of getting rape convictions, and the dynamics of abusive relationships actually prejudiced me in a way I didn't expect. In the end, we voted "not guilty" on 7 of the 9 charges with the only guilty ones being ridiculously obvious ones related to Contempt of Court and Obstruction of Justice. For my part, I am undecided as to whether or not a rape took place, but I do think she was battered... just not in any way that could be proven with the evidence we had. Does it bother me that he will likely be let off with time served? Not really: this was a horribly messed up relationship with both people doing horrible things to each other, the jury followed the law precisely and fairly (and we worked very hard in our deliberations), and he has been in jail for nearly a year waiting for the trial. I honestly believe he won't do this again just so long as he stays away from that particularly destructive relationship... and his letter from jail (part of the evidence in a different matter) suggests that might finally be the case. I wish both of them and the poor kids caught in the middle the best of luck.

Just a couple of observations: a) the jury system really works; if any one of us was asked to make a determination alone, he or she would have done a horrible job, but as a group, I think it somehow all sorts itself out and totally appropriate decisions are made. b) There are lots and lots of people in law enforcement who work really hard under trying circumstances.

One specific thing I learned about DC is that Howard University Hospital has the only sexual assault center in the whole city and all cases have to go there. That is horrible, but even worse is that their equipment is terrible and the government's case was actually hurt by the bad quality of the photos taken. I think we got the right verdict anyway, but I can imagine this lack of proper investigative tools easily leading to a miscarriage of justice.

I just got back on Saturday evening from a very nice visit with my parents in Asheville, NC. The trip had several noteworthy events (doing a 540 spin on the GW Parkway in the cab on the way to the airport being one of them) but none more impressive than Thursday's wildlife sightings. In the late morning we saw a black bear crashing off into the woods when we were walking up to the ridge on the extra land my parents just bought, and that evening during dinner a total of 4 bears wandered through the yard not more than 30 feet away! In this photo the mother bear can be seen walking behind an adolescent. The whole thing was just amazing... and a little scary too. Black bears are supposed to be largely vegetarian, but these are really big animals (weighing more than me) with very impressive claws and teeth. I think I spent most of that night dreaming about bears just outside the windows.

Something I've been working on occasionally this past week, but mostly last Sunday and this afternoon, is a tiny but important pro bono website for a family in DC that has been hit with an outrageous lawsuit by a local judge. The details on the story can be found at the Washington Post. Well, after much editing, negotiating, and legal wrangling (about which I prefer to stay ignorant), the site went up this evening in time for coverage on ABC's World News Tonight. I'm very pleased to have my company's logo sitting there at the bottom of the page; I hope it helps out The Chungs and brings a few new clients my way.

Dear Trees,

Whatever I did to you, I'm sorry and I will do my utmost to make amends. Just please, please stop dropping an entire season's worth of pollen all at once. I really miss breathing; it was a pleasant experience from what I remember on Friday.

My heart- and lung-felt apologies for any arboreal offense I caused.

Jonathan

Suffering only a slightly cut thumb, some random scrapes and bruises on my arms, and some odd sticky goop in my hair, I managed to install a new kitchen faucet today. Of course there was the obligatory run to the hardware store for another part (this time a feed line for the dishwasher) and an unexpected discovery (I don't think my condo has a master water shut-off valve), but it all got done in the end. Now, after 3 years, I can finally fill the Brita pitcher without contortions! I wasn't able to replace the stop valves as I intended because of the lack of a way to turn off the water to the whole place, but they are still functional if a little corroded. I'll get to them eventually. Anyway, now I can enjoy a leak free (so far!) kitchen.

I know I have been very bad about updating this blog lately, but once I fall behind, catching up seems so difficult I just keep putting it off. I'm jumping in now to mention my latest home improvement exploit. Yesterday I managed to successfully install a new garbage disposal, something that would have been much easier if I didn't come face to face with the work of the Incompetent Plumber again. Whoever it was who did the work in my condo when it was modernized about 15 years ago didn't understand some basic things: like gravity or the fact that duct-taping the ends of 2 pipes together is not sufficient. This time he used a very odd-sized drainage pipe and his patented tape-method of connection. Of course, that explains the leak I've been bothered by since I moved in. And now there is no more leak (thanks to the efforts of 2 different local hardware stores and some creative use of adapters)! Grinding a banana peel this morning was quite a thrill.

I put in a fancy Insinkerator disposal from their new Evolution line. I'm sort of disappointed that it has to hide under the sink since it looks so nice. I considered installing it upside down so it would stick up out of the drain and people could admire it. Oh, and it really is incredibly quiet! Next up: the new faucet that arrived this evening after I finally got the hang of eBay over the weekend and managed to get a pretty good deal on a nice stainless steel model. Once I have both projects complete, I will have taken care of all the leaks around my kitchen sink. At last.

So a few minutes ago I got a call from the front door intercom and it was a package from DHL. I rushed down and accepted a small box from Adobe. My only thought was that, since I had been participating in a beta program for some new software, maybe they had sent me a cheap thank-you item... I was really hoping for a mug (those of you who know me know I am the only person in the world to have never accumulated dozens of mugs). So I open the box and inside -- with no note or anything -- is a new 4GB iPod Nano. Huh??!!?? I am dumbfounded and thoroughly confused. I honestly can think of no reason I should be receiving this item other than that perhaps I filled out a survey at some point and actually won the prize they offered. I have no contact information, no email, no note, nothing. Just a brand new silvery iPod.

I just finished up a special master class with Simon Park -- a visiting expert yoga trainer -- that was a full 2 1/2 hours of non-stop vinyasa yoga. I think all of my cells are now both extremely flexible and extremely tired. It was a great class, but I wish I could have watched Simon demonstrate a few more poses. He is just so skilled it is amazing to watch. I didn't learn very many new poses, but I did see several new ways of connecting poses I was already familiar with. Simon works with a very flowing style so these transitions are key to his practice. The whole thing made me seriously consider undertaking a 6-month teacher training program (an idea already rattling around in my head). Luckily I have until September to decide.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon, but I am beat!

I think the mouse toy and catnip were a big success, but I'll let you be the judge:



He is one tired kitty right now.

Persimmon, orange cat of exceptional quality, turns 10 years old today! Double-digits! His birthday is approximate, given that I found him in a garbage can in Charlottesville, VA, but Groundhog Day always seemed an appropriate date to pick and it should be pretty close to the real thing. While he doesn't get sun to sleep in today (his favorite thing), he does have a new toy mouse and some organic catnip coming up later today. Shhh, don't spoil the surprise.

I've been horrible about updating this blog lately, and I apologize. I seem to alternate between being very busy and being very bored -- neither of which are conducive to posting. Here are a few brief points, each of which deserves a full post of its own, but sadly won't receive one.

• A couple months ago I took advantage of a day of free walking tours in DC; I chose one on Embassy Row near my condo and one in SW showing the first large-scale effort at urban renewal in this country. Both were fascinating and tremendous fun. The woman who owned the Hope Diamond lived 3 blocks up my street.
• I wrote an article on running MySQL on a Mac and had it published by TidBITS weekly newsletter. It has been posted online here.
  
• I saw Dave Eggers give a lecture at George Mason University. He was great.
• I finally made it through the entire reopened American Art Museum. To my surprise, the 3rd floor has stacks (the art equivalent of library storage)!
• When cheering on the Marine Corps Marathon I got to watch a runner propose to his girlfriend about 10 feet down the road from me. Very funny.
• The Hold Steady put on one of the best shows I've seen in a long time a few weeks ago at the Black Cat. Perhaps one of the top 10 shows I've ever seen.
• I've been working a lot lately which means I haven't spent too much time outside enjoying the unseasonable weather. Hitting 74 yesterday was almost too extreme, however.
• I'm off to North Carolina for a week to visit my parents and grandmother for the holidays. It should be a nice change of pace.
  

Well, I just voted. While I have to admit I still get a thrill from voting, it was diminished this year by 2 major factors: 1) as a resident of DC I have no federal representation, and 2) I no longer have any faith in the accuracy of the voting process in this country.

With regards to the first matter, I and a half million other people have to deal with the reality of taxation without representation even as we shoulder a heavier tax burden than the rest of the country (and deplete our city resources to pay for security for other states' elected representatives). I wonder what would happen if the US proposed that residents of Baghdad not be allowed to have a voice in Iraq's parliament? Additionally, since DC is a largely Democratic place, the mayoral election is effectively decided in the primary and not in today's election. Because I don't wish to participate in the non-constitutional 2-party system we have adopted, and since independents are not allowed to vote in primaries, I have no vote for the executive branch of this city's government.

The second matter is even more serious than disenfranchising half a million people since it can potentially mean the dissolution of what's left of our democracy. Even if you don't think you have the time, you should watch the recent HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy" on the crippling of our voting system by a few incompetent and/or unethical companies. I applaud HBO's lawyers for not yet having the film removed from Google Video (if it is a conscious decision they have made) but best to watch it soon regardless. Really, you need to watch this entire movie; it is an hour and twenty minutes well spent. Also check out Black Box Voting for more information on this crisis and updates throughout the election.

During my voting today I got to watch the voting volunteers celebrate as they finally got their one touch screen voting booth working at 11:30 am while a Spanish-language film crew interviewed an election official and people who were voting about the trustworthiness of the machines.

As for the actual content of the election, I have to quote Wonkette here: "The opposition opposes little more than being out of power."

So as not to be too depressing on this election day, I will say that my new green tea is quite good. Yaay, green tea!

I've been held up twice in two days by the presidential or vice presidential motorcade -- this is getting annoying. Yesterday Connecticut Avenue was blocked off at Woodly Park as I was finishing up lunch with a friend (it took us over 45 minutes to get back down to Dupont Circle); today P Street between 17th and 18th was totally closed off as I was walking back from getting coffee. Not even pedestrians were being let through. I'm not sure which member of the executive branch has caused these disruptions but there are certain vehicles you can generally use to identify the status of the motorcade-ee: only the president and vice president seem to travel with their own ambulance at the ready (for Cheney the defibrillators are probably already charged) and a large black vehicle devoted to high-tech communications equipment -- the thing bristles with antennas. So now, besides all their crimes against humanity, this administration in inconveniencing me. Intolerable.

It really is remarkable how many police it takes to shepherd one of these guys through the city. In addition to the maybe 20-car motorcade, ambulance, communications vehicles, and multitude of heavily armed secret service, city police are brought in to block off every possible access point to the travel route. That means a minimum of 5 to 10 police at every intersection, alley, or sidewalk for at least a half-hour before the cars come through. Just to stop access to one residential block this afternoon, I saw at least dozen police cars, 10 motorcycles, a number of bicycle cops, and a horse. Add it up over several miles of a travel route and the numbers are staggering. I once saw the presidential motorcade go by on Rock Creek Parkway while I was running and there was this enormous rotating collection of black SUVs that would pull across every entrance or exit route to the road (even after police had cleared all traffic and blocked the streets), jump out with automatic weapons, wait for the main motorcade to pass, hop back in the car and zoom off to get in front again and block the next entrance ramp.

I don't have a point to this post, just that I'm tired of these guys ruining the world and causing delays in my city.

Normally I love my yoga classes. I like how challenging they are, how I get to be around other people, how tired I sometimes feel by the end. Thursday was a good example of why I enjoy going: it was probably the single hardest class I've ever taken (Mike is starting to give Alise a run for the title of toughest teacher!) and by the end just moving into child's pose was an effort. But Wednesday was a totally different story. That class, jivamukti, is longer than other classes and can be very hard. I've only gone 3 weeks -- I wanted something more difficult than the open flow classes on Wednesday -- and the quality has been a little erratic and occasionally too new-agey for my taste. Nevertheless, I was there on Wednesday when the teacher announced that she was going to try something new: play a yoga CD she likes. Huh? Sure enough, rather than the usual personal iPod mixes we get from teachers, she put in a commercial yoga CD and we all started to follow along. Now I know that I do not like that. Apparently, one of the things I enjoy about yoga is the human element and part-way through I started feeling very resentful about the voice telling me what to do. I work with computers and machines all day long and yoga gives me that human break. After 15 minutes I was thinking the whole thing was Orwellian: 24 of us were in neat rows in a darkened room, all trying to move in unison to a disembodied voice giving instructions. I was also reminded of those scenes of factory workers in China doing calisthenics to loud-speakers blaring bits of philosophy and propaganda intermixed with commands to touch ones toes. Exactly. It is a pretty funny scene, in retrospect, but if a teacher decides not to teach and gives it over to a CD again, I'm leaving.

I haven't been very good about posting things lately, so I wanted to put something short up here to catch people up on August in DC. In general, I really enjoy this month since the tourists are fewer, the city empties out of those people who can afford to go to the beach, and the pace of everything slows down. There is a laziness about the month that I really enjoy.

A couple of weeks ago I visited the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. The old Patent Office houses these joined museums and it has been closed for renovation the whole time I've lived in DC. They did a really good job with the place and it is a lot of fun to wander around. It will be even better when the courtyard opens under a spectacular Norman Foster glass roof.

One standout exhibition on right now is the 2006 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition on the northwest corner of the second floor. I was starting to run out of energy by the time I hit this unexpected display but it certainly perked me right up. It is a remarkable, surprising, and refreshing collection of portraits from all across the country. Established artists and newcomers are represented and the quality is uniformly wonderful. I highly recommend seeing this exhibit before it closes in February.