Tuesday, October 27, 2015

California Jury Duty - Pulling a "Now-Show" is NOT the end of the world - My story

It was that time again when I grabbed my mail from the mailbox and there it was, "JURY SUMMONS."

 
 You can guess my reaction. I did not want to go. Who does? Unless you are like my Mom who would tell me she liked jury duty, saying she thought it would be fun if she were ever chosen. She told me one time that she would go to jury duty, and actually tell them that she wanted to be chosen, but they never did. I told her she should probably try NOT bringing her kids with her, as this is could be part of the reason they deemed her unqualified. LOL

Anyway, at first, the day I got the summons in the mail, I geared myself up accepting the fact that I would have to go to jury duty the following Monday and didn't think more about it. Until the day before, I was really not wanting to spend the day at a place that represented the government system that I do not believe in, so I call the number to see if I have to show up the next morning and sure enough, I was not excused.

 
So, not wanting to go, for many reasons, I did a little research. I read lots of different stories from different forums and bloggers, saying go or you'll be arrested, you have to go it's the law, while others said they didn't go and nothing happened, etc. The one that stood out to me as most realistic to what would happen if I didn't go, was one person's story in particular. He didn't show up for jury duty, didn't have a reason other than that he just didn't want to go and about a month later, he said he got another summons in the mail. Nothing negative, just another jury summons.

I wake up in the morning, and frankly, I truly felt it was against my personal convictions to adhere to the commands of an authority that practices in a deceptive way, so for personal reasons, I didn't go. Alert the media, call in the jury duty police, this woman did not show up for jury duty. 


Now, ironically enough, it has been now almost exactly one month after playing hooky from jury duty, and low and behold, what was in my mailbox? A letter from the Jury Commissioner's Office. So I'm thinking either I'm in big trouble, or this is another summons just like that guy said happened to him.

It was neither. I snapped a quick pic of what it says:
 First of all, I noticed the first word of the second paragraph. "Please." I felt as though it was like an apology for summoning me to show up inconveniently for something that I did not agree to participate in.

So, then tell me to choose ANY Monday within the next 90 days excluding holidays that is convenient for me to report for duty. The words "report for duty" was unsettling, making me feel like I was a soldier in the military and I wasn't informed of ever being enlisted. Didn't like that one bit.

So as I read the rest of the letter, it goes on to say that if I meet one of the standards under the "Disqualification" section, or to request dismissal from duty, I just need to fill out the form on the back and mail it to the courthouse. 

Pretty simple and by doing this, the ball in their court (no pun intended, but recognized) ;) because they will have to contact me if they deny my request or in the case that I do not qualify for jury duty. From what I see as a trend in our the higher up authorities and also in people who go to work every day, in general, no one wants to have to do any extra work, nor do they want to have to call someone who will most likely be pissed because of what I would be calling to tell them.

So, as of this very moment, I think I am going to research the California "Disqualification" standards and all that before filling out this paper, and then once I know more about it, I'll probably fill it out accordingly, and leave it up to them to have to contact me and get me to participate in the game...

 
Don't take my word for it, nor base any of your future decisions based solely on my experience alone, decide for yourself, research this stuff on your own. Take from my story what resonates with you, if any of it does, and dump the rest. 
Trust your gut, not someone else's.

to be continued....

“figure things out for yourself, especially when you are told something has already been figured out. Don't trust the accepted facts as true, until you do your research on it, and validate it on your own."

 
 

Saturday, October 24, 2015

List of Bases/Stations in Antarctica - Antarctic Stations on Map, too.


Labeled and Detailed Antarctic  Map of Stations/Bases

(View full-size image here http://postimg.org/gallery/35vugzhm8/)

I was looking for a list of ALL the stations or bases in Antarctica and found it difficult to find a simple list that was not in a chart. I just wanted a list that I could highlight the names and paste the list into a notepad document for my project, but couldn't find such a thing. So, in case someone else is trying to find the same kind of list to copy & paste without all the extra details, you can find that here. I had to copy & paste the chart lists and clean them up, taking out all the extra stuff and leaving just the stations names. So here you go! Hope this helps somebody :)

Stations in Antarctica

1. Aboa
2. Almirante Brown Antarctic Base 
3. Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station
4. Artigas Base
5. Asuka Station
6. Belgrano II
7. Bellingshausen Station
8. Bernardo O'Higgins Station
9. Bharati
10. (Captain) Arturo Prat Base
11. Casey Station
12. Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station
13. Concordia Station
14. Dakshin Gangotri
15. Davis Station
16. Dome Fuji Station
17. Druzhnaya 4
18. Dumont d'Urville Station
19. Villa Las Estrellas
20. Esperanza Base
21. Gabriel de Castilla Station
22. Gonzalez Videla Station
23. Great Wall Station
24. Halley Research Station
25. Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station
26. Jang Bogo Station
27. Jinnah Antarctic Station
28. Juan Carlos I Station
29. Jubany
30. King Sejong Station
31. Kohnen Station
32. Kunlun Station
33. Law-Racovi/Law Racovitață Station
34. Leningradskaya Station
35. Machu Picchu Research Station
36. Maitri Station
37. Maldonado Base
38. Marambio Base
39. Mario Zucchelli Station
40. Mawson Station
41. McMurdo Station
42. Mendel Polar Station
43. Mirny Station
44. Mizuho Station
45. Molodezhnaya/Molodyozhnaya Station
46. Neumayer-Station III
47. Novolazarevskaya Station
48. Orcadas Base
49. Palmer Station
50. Princess Elisabeth Base
51. Professor Julio Escudero Base
52. Progress Station
53. Rothera Research Station
54. Russkaya Station
55. San Martín Base
56. SANAE IV (South African National Antarctic Expedition)
57. St. Kliment Ohridski Base
58. Scott Base
59. Showa Station
60. Signy Research Station
61. Svea Research Station
62. Taishan Station
63. Tor Station
64. Troll Station
65. WAIS Divide Camp
66. Wasa Research Station   
67. Vernadsky Research Base
68. Vostok Station
69. Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) Station

Below are several stations that were NOT included in the list provided by Wikipedia. These stations were  in the list from coolantarctica.com:
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Community/antarctic_bases.htm


1. Arctowski
2. Arturo Parodi
3. Browning Pass
4. D10 skiway
5. D85 skiway
6. Enigma Lake
7. Escudero
8. Fossil Bluff
9. Frei
10. Mid Point
11. Odell Glacier
12. Ohridiski
13. Progress 2
14. Refugio Ecuador
15. S17
16. Sitry
17. Sky Blu