Karin's Adventures

Tomorrow I will have a chance to vote again. It's just primary elections, but still - I'll go vote. Primaries may seem a bit confusing, because you don't really vote anybody into any office - yet. You just help one party to decide whom they will put up for their candidate(s) in the next general elections, November 4th this year. 

The technicalities of primary elections vary slightly from one state to another.

According to Ind. Code §§ 3-10- 1-6, 1-9, Indiana holds so called "open primaries". That means voters do not have to declare a party affiliation upon registration. You may choose to vote on either party's ballot during primaries. You have to choose one single ballot for one distinct party, though.

Some other states have what is called "closed primaries". In those states you must declare yourself as affiliated with a specific party when you register to vote, and then consequently can only vote for that party in the primaries.

Whether your state holds open or closed primaries, and whether or not you participate, or what party's ballot you vote on, has no bearing on the next general elections. On general elections' ballots you will get to see all candidates, from all parties, who were pre-selected during primary elections.

Maybe that's why participation in primaries is usually low.

Enough already! Level 149 of this silly time-waster was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I got rid of it. Deleted and uninstalled it. Now I am surprised that it took me over 9 months to realize this game is a huge waste of my time, the world's resources, developers' talent, and even some people's money.

Here's what's wrong with this game:

• King stole it from Albert Ransom, developer of the original Candy Swipe
   
• the only purpose of the game is to get you to spend money on extra moves, extra levels, extra "boosters", extra tries, extra....
  
  
• you don't learn any new skills, you don't practice any old skills
  
  
• you don't gain anything, there is no measureable "progress"
  
  
• after playing for roughly 70 hours, I find the game increasingly boring

Even though we're getting better at this, it doesn't seem to get any easier. Over two hours spent, using specialized software to produce a book over 50 pages thick for federal, and another booklet with 15 pages for the state tax return - just to find out what we already knew - we owe.

Why does this have to be so much work?

I used to complain about the "complexity" of income tax preparation in Germany - now I wish tax preparation in the US was that easy.

Officially, this was a business trip. I was assigned as a chaperon for the four female students in our tour group. The focus of the trip was on renewable energy in Germany and Switzerland, and the students were participating for credit applied to their degree in energy engineering.

I was lucky to be considered useful, translating language and culture. Even though I was being paid to work, it didn't feel like work at all. I learned things about my native country that were new to me. I got to visit places that I hadn't been to before.

Back home after only ten days, which seemed like a month or more, I felt invigorated and exhausted at the same time. Filled with joy and pain, knowing that I will always be split and torn between two worlds.

Being a US-citizen earns you two important rights that nobody else living here has: you can vote, and you can be called upon for jury duty. I have voted twice already since becoming a citizen, and that was quick and easy to do. Jury duty, however, is something that not everybody gets to participate in. You have to be summoned and selected out of a pool of people.

When I received notice to fill out a form, and then later got my summons to show up today, I was excited!

Some people had given me advice about what to say to avoid being selected, but I wanted to be selected. I checked in at the courthouse on time. About 30 people were there, waiting. We watched a brief movie about what to expect as a juror in Indiana. Then we all went upstairs into the Circuit Court on the third floor of the Allen County courthouse in downtown Fort Wayne. The place is stunningly beautiful! 

After initial instructions from the judge both parties to the case had the opportunity to ask questions, and try to find out what the jurors' opinions would be. About half of the initial twelve jurors were excused, based on their answers to those questions. After another two rounds of questions and answers and replacing individual jurors, I was lucky to make it onto the panel.

The trial was about a criminal case; a class C felony of operating a vehicle while on a lifetime suspension of the driver's license. The defendant actually defended himself. I thought, that was not a good idea. He should have taken the professional help, that was offered to him. After listening to two policemen's testimony and examining the defendant's eight page long driving record with over 40 violations on there, the jury came to a unanimous verdict quickly: guilty!

We were dismissed after that and not allowed to hear the sentence. One of the jurors said, he knew about a similar case where the defendant had been sentenced to three years in jail.