Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Perplex City
March 23, 2006

I have been mulling over how to re-introduce everyone to Perplex City, a game about which I blogged briefly before. I stumbled upon a “quickstart guide” which has more specific information than even I was going to provide.

Essentially, Perplex City is a sort of puzzle game where you collect puzzle cards (no, not virtual cards but actual hold-in-your-hand cards) and solve the puzzles contained thereon. Each puzzle is generally self-contained, but several require you to visit some web site of another to get the information required to solve the puzzle.

When you have solved the puzzle, you scratch off the silver area at the top of the card, revealing a 12-digit code. Entering this code into the Perplex City web site, you can attempt to answer the puzzle. If correct, you will be awarded points. You gain a set number of points for a single card, and if you solve all of the puzzles in a group of four cards (every group of four cards is assigned a different name, like “maze”, “circles”, or “ivy”) then you get additional points for solving the whole group. Red cards are the easiest to solve, followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and silver.

The silver cards seem very difficult and offer the most points. The rarity of the card is directly related to its color, so red cards are quite common in the random pack assortments, whereas silver cards are quite scarce.

On top of all of that, there is a grand prize for finding an artifact called “The Receda Cube” of $200,000.

Trial Part 2
March 22, 2006

This is the last post about this trial, I promise. Instead of starting directly in with trial details, let me write a bit about jury duty itself, which should expose a few details that might be of general interest.

When I arrived on Monday morning, there was a line for the metal detectors at one of the two public entrances to the courthouse. You would think that after learning of the metal detectors - which they should know are set far too sensitively when they pick up candy foil wrappers - that people would leave their hunting knives at home. But no. Maybe they think it’s amusing when they have to check their foot-long knives with the sherrif at the detector. Whatever.

Also on the hitlist at the detector were cell phones with cameras. I guess you’re not allowed to take photos inside the courthouse. I’m not sure whether this prohibition extends to regular cameras or other devices with cameras embedded, or if it’s just with phones. In any case, you can avoid holding up the line by simply leaving the thing at home. But how irritating!

Enough with these annoyances, though. What can you expect as a juror ar Chester County Courthouse?

The Trial
March 21, 2006

I was thinking that I would put off writing this because it would give me more time to collect my thoughts about it, but realistically if I was chosen as an actual juror, I would have had to decide all this already. Let’s start with some of the details of the case.

Before I do that, I should mention that this is my recounting of the events as told to me as I was a member of the jury in this case. I wasn’t there for any of the actual events that happened, it’s been more than a week since I heard the first witness, and I don’t have my notes from court since they are destroyed when the case is concluded. As such, it’s probably the case that most of what I’m about to relay has some errors in it, and any conclusions that I draw are - as would be obvious to any sensible reader - my own personal opinion and not an accounting of fact. That said…

The plaintiff, Craig Kobus, had some problems that required shoulder surgery. Craig is a healthy guy and he plays a lot of sports, which seems to be how he has injured his shoulder. With the intention of being able to carry his daughter (from a previous marriage - more on this later) around during a summer trip to Disney World, he elected to have the surgery performed at Chester County Hospital.

In a generally well state and - according to the testimony of all of his family who were present beforehand - relaxed and looking forward to having the operation, he came to meet Dr. Boxer, his anesthesiologist Here is where things start to go awry.

All For Naught
March 19, 2006

After a tiny bit of research, it seems that being an alternate juror is the lowest appointment one can have. Not only are you selected and forced to sit for the duration of your trial and are expected to pay attention to the entire case, but you don’t get to sit in on the deliberations, and your voice isn’t heard on the case at hand.

So I still have to sit for the remainder of the case on Monday, and possibly for some more instructions from the judge, but those instructions will probably include for me to go home.