Michelle and I went down to the Dallas Arboretum over Chocolate Rabbit Day for their recent Dallas Blooms event. During the event (which runs March 8 – April 13 this year), the Arboretum plants a whole heapful of flowers:

Dallas Blooms will feature more than 400,000 spring-blooming bulbs, over 3,000 azaleas and thousands of another annuals and perennials spread throughout the 66-acre garden. The 2008 festival is a fun-filled five-week, six-weekend event and is the largest outdoor floral festival in the Southwest.

I had a hard time getting shots, in part because the only lens I had at the time was Canon’s 50mm f/1.4. (I now also have Canon’s 85mm f/1.8, but as it would happen, that isn’t exactly great for landscapes either.) It’s a great lens in general, don’t get me wrong, but with the 40D’s 1.6x crop factor, that 50mm lens had an equivalent focal length of an 80mm lens on a traditional full-frame SLR.

So, while it may have been a normal lens on a full-frame camera (that is, a lens with a magnification roughly equal to that of the human eye), I was dealing with a somewhat telephoto lens. And, for landscape photography (where wide-angle lenses are often the lens of choice), it felt a bit like trying to hit balls into the outfield with a Wiffle bat. All things considered, I’m pleased with how these shots came out.

The Dallas Camera Club holds a photo scavenger hunt each year — sometimes it’s in downtown Dallas while other times it’s elsewhere in the metroplex. (It’s confined to a general geographic area each year to help level the playing field.) Indeed, this year’s scavenger hunt was held downtown on a Sunday morning a few weeks ago. Here’s what was on this year’s list:

• Reflections — it hadn’t rained recently, so street-reflections weren’t really in the cards, but there were other reflective things to find.
• Geometric or Repeating Patterns — this was pretty tough, but I think I found a shot for this.
• Looking Up — we just had to find a shot that looked upward, which might seem easy, but doing so artistically took some figuring.
• Humanity — this one covered people, which might seem like a slam-dunk, but was actually tough since downtown Dallas is a bit deserted on a Sunday morning.
• Texas or US Icons — I guess this primarily encompassed Texas or US flags, though I would imagine that other Texas- or US-themed items would qualify as well.

Anyhow, I’ve posted my scavenger hunt photos. I was pleased to be able to get a shot in each category, but that doesn't mean that I've “won” — the club hands out awards for the scavenger hunt based on the number of categories completed and the quality of those shots. The awards haven’t been announced yet, so I’m looking forward to seeing how those turn out.

I’ve been friends with Connie for about four years and as of this weekend she’s my girlfriend as well. I’m really happy about this.

(And for any coworkers reading along, yes, this is the girl with whom I baked chocolate cake a couple weeks back. Oh, and we also baked chocolate chip cookies on Saturday — don't worry, I’ll be bringing in some of those to work too ;). )

So, last night I went to the Trip Planner on DART’s site and typed in both my address and the address of the courthouse. The trip-planning software worked fine; it told me a valid route which would get me from my apartment to the courthouse in time for jury duty. Unfortunately, that trip would have taken just over an hour (yikes). I then checked MapQuest to see how long that would take to drive — and that reported about ”11 minutes”. Since I really didn’t feel like getting up in the middle of the night just to make it to court by 8:30am, I opted to drive.

I did leave a little early, knowing that rush hour would probably add to that “11 minutes”. But, I found the garage easily and got there in plenty of time. I went in through the main doors and, after passing through the metal detectors — which involved taking off my watch and emptying my pockets of my iPod, my Palm and my car keys — I headed to the central court room (or some room with a similar name). I handed in my information slip to someone at the door and walked in to the auditorium-like room. There were rows of movie theater-style collapsing seats and I sat down as they lowered a screen to play an informational video.

After the video, an official stepped up to the podium at the front of the room and explained the basic process for the day: they'd call out groups of numbers, corresponding to our juror numbers, and they'd send each group to a courtroom elsewhere in the building. Within the first few minutes, the group containing my number was called and we were sent to one of the courtrooms on the third floor. Once my group got there, a bailiff called role to make sure that we were all there; and, after that, we were asked to wait outside the courtroom. I deduced later that we were waiting for the lawyers to arrive and prepare.

After about half an hour of waiting, the bailiff took role again and called us into the courtroom by name (to ensure that we’d have a specific seating order). Once we filed in, the judge explained that we were here for a DWI case. He introduced the prosecuting and defense lawyers and explained that both the prosecution and the defense would each have a set of time to ask us questions.

From there, the prosecuting lawyer stood up and started by explaining the conditions which define DWI within the state of Texas. And, after that, she went around the room and asked us questions such as whether we trusted Breathalyzers and on what level we trusted police officers (on a 1-5 scale).

She finished her questions and the defense attorney began. Not surprisingly, he asked questions about whether we would feel comfortable finding someone guilty based on a single person’s testimony (which Texas law allows and, in this case, would most likely refer to the police officer). He also asked if any of us had been personally affected by a drunk driver in the past which would prevent an impartial perspective if we were to serve on the jury. He finished his questions within maybe 20 minutes and the judge dismissed us for a short break while the lawyers made their strike list. (A “strike list”, I presume, is the process where each side crossed of jurors which they would not like to appear on the jury.)

After our fifteen minute break, we found our seats again and, as it turns out, the lawyers were still making up their lists. But, within a few minutes, the bailiff (I think) read off the names of those chosen to serve on the jury; I wasn’t one of those names. Those of us not selected were dismissed and allowed to go home. So, that was my adventure with jury duty — I was expecting government’s usual red tape and bureaucracy but it actually went fairly smoothly.

Sure, there was some waiting involved — I got through a third of The Tipping Point — but we were always treated respectfully by the officials and they made sure to let us know how long each waiting period would be. I don’t know if I’d say it was a ton of fun, but it went a lot better than I expected.

Fortunately, my flight back is only on Sunday — the wedding is on Saturday — and so I have at least a few days to get acclimated to the time change. On the other hand, I get back Sunday evening and (surprise, surprise), I have work on Monday. But, I’m not going to look forward to spilled milk (or something). I'm just determined to relax and have a fun time. My whole family will be there and I’m looking forward to seeing all of them and spending some time with my extended family as well.

Then, on Tuesday, I have jury duty. I received notice for this a couple weeks ago and I counted my lucky stars that it didn’t coincide with this wedding. For any Dallasites reading, it’s at the Frank Crowley Courts Building which I believe is kinda in the West End. And while I'd normally reserve such trite commentary for its title attribute, that page for the Frank Crowley Courts Building has some truly hideous web design. What, are we still living in 1995?

I’ve never been to jury duty, so I don’t have much of an idea about what to expect. Interestingly enough, the jury summons includes a tear-off form asking for various information about me. Much of it is ordinary and expected — “name”, “date of birth” and so on — but why do they care about my “religious preference”? And, for that matter, my race? The form does appear mandatory, but it does make me a bit uneasy that they’d have any use for some of those tidbits.

From what I gather, there’ll be a lot of waiting around, so I’ll be sure to bring a book (perhaps my copy of The Tipping Point, unless I bring it on my trip to England and finish reading it there). And, I was about ask about whether I’d be allowed to bring my iPod (filled with NPR, natch) but I just ran across this D Magazine blog entry on jury duty which says that it’s apparently ok. And besides what I should or shouldn’t bring along, I’m also curious about how long it lasts — assuming for a moment that I’m not selected for the jury, I’m guessing this would this be an all-day thing? Anyway, if you’ve already been to jury duty, I’m open to any suggestions on what to expect or other tips.

1. Starting from work, go east on Hall St
2. Go through a few traffic lights and then turn left (north) on McKinney
3. At the next traffic light, turn right (east) on Lemmon
4. Turn left to go north on 75
5. Exit Northwest Hwy — East
6. Take the turn-off for Skillman North
7. End at the Bally's at Skillman and Abrams

I don’t see much room for improvement, for the most part, but I’m wondering about that Lemmon-to-75 stretch. Of course, Lemmon connects with 75, but it really just goes onto the service road; then, you actually have to go north on the service road to Blackburn which then has a proper on-ramp to 75. Would it be faster to drive further while I’m on McKinney and only turn right once I reach Blackburn?

I had planned to set aside the day for work — I had some freelance work that I wanted to get a head-start on before next week. But, without power, there wasn’t much I could do there. I waited around a few minutes in case the power came right back on, but it didn’t. So, what next?

• Plan B: The gym. I’ve had a lot of work over the past few days and I hadn’t been to the gym recently. So, I figured that would be a healthy option. I packed up my gym bag and headed off to Bally’s. As I drove into the parking lot, I noticed that the gym didn't have power either (bummer). So much for that idea.

• Plan C: Groceries. Since Super Target is on the way home from the gym, I thought that I could at least get some grocery shopping done. I drove up to Target and, sure enough, I could see the lights on inside (so far, so good). But, I then realized that it wouldn’t make much sense to buy groceries (eggs, cheese, et al) since I didn’t have a running refrigerator at home in which to put them. Foiled again!

• Plan D: Movies. Well, without any productive things left on my list, I reasoned that I may as well make an enjoyable afternoon out of it. Still in the Target parking lot, I accessed MovieFone via WAP on my mobile to check for movies playing nearby. I had wanted to see Super Size Me for some time and, sure enough, it was still in theaters. But, there weren’t any showtimes until around 5:00, which wouldn’t have allowed me to get back in time for Leia’s birthday celebration at The Elbow Room later that evening.

• Plan E: Ice Cream. Isn’t Plan E always “ice cream”? ;) With no further options, I decided that ice cream would work well. I hadn’t been to Braum’s in a while, so I headed off in that direction. I was a bit concerned that their power might be out as well, but they did have power. I walked in and ordered one of my favorite sundaes, their Peanut Butter Hot Fudge Sundae. And, in an attempt to counteract the full-sugar hot-fudge & peanut butter sauces, I ordered the sundae with low carb ice cream (yeah, Braum’s has low carb ice cream these days).

When the power first went out, I was a bit cheesed off since it prevented me from getting any work done; but, I became less annoyed as my adventure progressed. And, really, who can be mad while eating ice cream? So, yesterday turned out to be all right after all.

• It’s a two-bedroom townhome in The Village (around 75 & Northwest Hwy).
• Rent is about $504/month plus around $120 for utilities.
• The floorplan is online.
• I’ve already setup the cable modem including WiFi via a Linksys router :).

If you know someone that might be interested, please have him/her get in touch with me. (And be sure to check out the Craigslist posting for the rest of the details.)

So, on Friday afternoon, I decided to go warwalking. You may have already heard of wardriving — driving around with a laptop looking for WiFi access points — but I needed more granularity than that. So, I made sure my battery was charged and I loaded MacStumbler onto my laptop (MacStumbler is an app which continuously scans for access points).

I had to carry my PowerBook open as it would just go to sleep if I closed it, but I found a comfortable position where I could support it with my left forearm as I rested it against my chest. From there, I just started walking around my apartment complex.

I didn’t really want much road noise as part of my hypothetical spring afternoon, so that actually made my search a bit easier. Heading away from the major roads, I walked towards the trees & paths near the Village clubhouse. I had a good feeling about this area since it was wooded enough to be quiet and peaceful yet there were apartment buildings not far away (hopefully with WiFi emanating from them).

Sure enough, I found a few good spots there. As I don’t yet have a GPS receiver for my PowerBook (still looking for recommendations, if you have any), I just had to record each hotspot’s info the old-fashioned way — with TextEdit. I made notes to myself primarily on how to find each spot (in some ways, like a squirrel trying to remember where he buried his nuts).

I also ensured that each spot had a shady tree nearby :). Then, just to be sure tree was still in range of the signal, I sat down under each tree and tested the signal there (usually by browsing a couple pages from Slashdot). Of course, as long as I had signal-bars, the test-pages would usually load fine. Occasionally, however, I couldn’t connect through some of them :-/.

I also didn’t want to have to walk that far to my WiFi Tree(tm), so I limited my search to about a 15-minute radius from my apartment. I ended up with about half a dozen prospective hotspots and I narrowed it down to two likely candidates. One in particular is a hotspot that’s reachable from one of the benches overlooking the small lake in that area. I figure that a bench would be comfortable and I could also bring along a flat object (like a book) for use as a mousepad next to me.

So, the next time a sunny day comes along, I’m ready. I'm guessing that my one-page list of findings wouldn’t be useful to many people but if you live in The Village, I’d be happy to pass them along.

It didn’t help that Comcast Phone offered no means of auto-payment each month nor any means of online payment (sure, Comcast Internet Access has both of those, but it seems that two subdivisions may as well be separate companies). I mean, if they had auto-payment that billed my credit card for the $24 each month, I probably could have put up with that. Compared to paying online, I’d rather not have to go through the effort of writing a check and licking a stamp each month.

The final straw was their recent form letter about an upcoming 19% price increase on residential service (up two dollars). Well, forget that. Of course, DirecTV would be a bit of tougher option now ;). But, my primary interest there was just for HBO (since it’s not available in my area without moving to digital cable). And, Mike has a Netflix subscription so we can probably get most of the good shows (Sopranos et al) on DVD through there.