So I was talking to my mom on the phone today. My mom, the superbusy accountant who finally got a break now that April 16th has passed, had her computer crash yesterday, but reinstalled Windows just in time for her appointment to take Traffic School on the web.

Basically, they give you 10 pages of material to read and study (on a web page, of course), then they give you a test on it. Note that you don't have to put up with the 8 hours of instruction, banal instructor (or, if you're at comedy traffic school, a sublimely banal instructor), or, of course, the other 15 drivers in the class who are actually bad drivers, unlike you, who are perfectly safe, though perhaps not always within the law, and just got unlucky enough to get caught this time. (side story: Last time I was in traffic school (about 4 years ago) we all went around the room, saying what we were 'in' for. Speeding 35 in a 20 zone, speeding 50 in a 35, blah blah, one making a right hand turn from the center lane, me for doing 90 in a 65 zone (talked the judge down from reckless driving), and the girl who drove every day for a year in the carpool lane then got caught with the infamous $271 ticket. I was laughing inside, then she went on to say since she'd finally been caught, she was even more surprised when she got caught again two days later, and it was traffic school or losing her license. Then I laughed out loud. Couldn't help it. She didn't understand why.)

Anyhow, they give you the test on the net, and even give you the relevant passage in the text to help you out with your question. I'm just wondering how long it'll be before parents just pay their kids to take the test for them... Okay, yeah, bad idea. Just make sure you only pay them 10% up front and the rest upon successful completion.

My turn: I got called up for Jury Duty. I get to serve with pride, starting May First, aka May Day, aka Beltane. Now as often as not, my notable homage to the pagan holiday of the flowering of life is to bear witness to one of the several Dancing Up the Sun rituals performed by the many Morris Dance groups in the Bay Area. Basically, a crowd of a couple hundred people (I've been to the ones in Tilden Park and Mountain View) gathering well before sunrise, and watching the Morris dancers dance until dawn breaks.

This is just the thing to do before going into a courtroom and judging guilt and innocence. Not to mention on only a little sleep.

So can I take jury duty on my powerbook? I have a DSL line for streaming video. I could stay in front of my computer all day, with just some short breaks for lunch and so forth, then come back and press either the big green 'innocent' button or the big red 'guilty' button. Heck, if they gave me the spec I could write a WAP front end so I could adjudicate by cellphone.

Grr. Well, I do have a Womens Studies paper due that same day, which means a busy weekend, especially if I hope to get some sleep Monday night. Everything's getting so busy so quickly... Only two more weeks of classes, and only another after that before I graduate! Let's hope I don't get stuck on a long trial...

If they let me take my digital elph in I'll webjournal the experience for y'all. I've never actually been on a jury before. I'm sure it's not as exciting as it sounds.