# 30 Jul 2008, 06:20PM: Group Dynamics Were Never My Strong Suit:
Bought today at the hardware store: new construction-grade earplugs (with baffles) and earmuffs. Together they should reduce incoming sound by 45 decibels. Will that keep me from hearing Adam Sandler movies and loud vulgar conversations so I can concentrate on my book? I'll find out tomorrow!
The loud, talkative juror's voice cuts clear through my old earplugs, and my attempt today to ask her to curb talk of sex a bit mightily failed to achieve its objectives (despite my carefully-laid groundwork). So, for several more working days, I'll be trapped in a jury room with a loud, verbose, repetitive person who has a bone to pick with me. Thus, new noise-reduction gear.
At times like this I remember the adage, Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
This work by Sumana Harihareswara is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.