The bar has ruined me for life.
Well, folks . . . I'm back! Back from the California bar! I actually got back into Houston last Saturday evening, but have been taking my time to recuperate and get back into the blogging swing of things. On Sunday, GPG and I had a very lazy day and went to see the Houston Zoo's baby elephant and Pixar's Ratatouille, which were both very fun, and yesterday I spent most of the afternoon reading the new Harry Potter book.
The bar was not a pleasant experience, but it was an okay one, I guess. I took it with a friend from school--we shared a hotel room, studied together, and went back and forth to the testing center together--and that definitely helped. I think I would have been completely stricken with nervousness otherwise, but having another person there to share the whole experience with me kept the tension to a manageable level. We even got to take the test sitting next to each other because we signed up for the exam together at school, at practically the same time, and it turns out that the test-takers were seated in the order in which they registered for the exam. In a room with over a thousand test-takers (it was a REALLY big room), it was nice to sit next to the one person you actually know.
(Seriously--the room was so huge that if you stood at the very back of the room, and looked up toward the front, the proctor standing at the front was teeny-tiny. In a not very good way. The room was enormous.)
I thought that the multiple choice exam we had on Wednesday was unexpectedly hard, but the essays were not so bad for me. But the entire experience itself was pretty draining. I arrived in Long Beach on Sunday evening, and my friend and I spent all of Monday studying and refreshing some subjects in our minds. We also followed up two full days of test-taking on Tuesday and Wednesday with some more studying in the evening to prepare ourselves for the next day of testing. I didn't ever feel particularly worn out at the time, but now that the adrenaline is out of my system, I'm feeling fairly tired and I'm trying to catch up on rest before I start working for the Judge next Monday.
So I've been knitting some and cooking some and reading Harry Potter some. It was so agonizing to have the Harry Potter book out in bookstores while the bar exam was going on that I went to the bookstore first thing on Monday, while GPG was at work, got myself a copy, and read the whole darn thing in one sitting.
***Warning: Harry Potter spoilers ahead!***
(I can't imagine that I'm really spoiling anyone, since I'm probably the last person on earth to read it by now, but I thought I'd just be safe. At the very least, there are probably other bar exam takers like me who had to forgo the whole Harry Potter experience for the bar. Curse you, bar exam!)
I really enjoyed the last Harry Potter. I thought it was very exciting to read; it definitely kept me turning pages to find out what happened, even though my resolve had weakened as the book got released and I read a few spoilers to find out what happened. I cried more than once at some of the deaths in the book, and I thought the ending was reasonably satisfying.
But, I tell you, the bar exam has ruined me for life. I will never be the same again.
I was trying to explain to GPG the (perhaps contrived, but still entertaining) cleverness with the Wand to End All Wands at the very end. You know--how Voldemort thinks that he'll win because he's got the extremely awesome WtEAW, but Harry gets to explain to him that Voldemort does not, in fact, have total power over the WtEAW because he didn't defeat the previous holder of the wand. And I realized that the whole point of the CHAIN OF CUSTODY (Evidence, anyone?) of the wand is that Voldemort doesn't have PRIVITY (Real Property, anyone?) with the previous rightful owner of the wand!
The reason why Voldemort can't wield the wand's full power is because there was no privity as to the wand between Dumbledore and Snape, and hence, no privity between Snape and Voldemort! It's so BRILLIANT!
I'm so pathetic.
Seriously--the bar has ruined me! I can't believe I've been reduced to seeing ridiculous bar concepts like privity in Harry Potter. What is WRONG with me?!?!
***End Harry Potter spoiler***
Anyway, it's awfully nice to be back, even if the Houston heat feels doubly sweltering after the nice weather I caught glimpses of in Long Beach. I have a week of break, and then I start working for the Judge next Monday. I'm using the week to catch up on all my favorite hobbies--the ones I didn't get to do so much over the past month--and to rest up a bit. I also plan to catch up on photos of the few things I've managed to knit this summer, plus a few random other things, and hopefully I'll blog a lot more. I've ended my yarn diet in a SERIOUS way, so there's lots of nice new yarn to post about, too!
I apologize for the long hiatus, but am glad to be back and done with the bar. (It's so funny to think that last week, there were literally thousands of test-takers filling convention halls and hotel ballrooms across the country with enough fear to black out the sun--and I may sound like I'm exaggerating about the fear, but if I am, it's only a little bit--and the rest of the entire nation had no idea. Incredible.) Hope everyone has been having a good summer!
The bar was not a pleasant experience, but it was an okay one, I guess. I took it with a friend from school--we shared a hotel room, studied together, and went back and forth to the testing center together--and that definitely helped. I think I would have been completely stricken with nervousness otherwise, but having another person there to share the whole experience with me kept the tension to a manageable level. We even got to take the test sitting next to each other because we signed up for the exam together at school, at practically the same time, and it turns out that the test-takers were seated in the order in which they registered for the exam. In a room with over a thousand test-takers (it was a REALLY big room), it was nice to sit next to the one person you actually know.
(Seriously--the room was so huge that if you stood at the very back of the room, and looked up toward the front, the proctor standing at the front was teeny-tiny. In a not very good way. The room was enormous.)
I thought that the multiple choice exam we had on Wednesday was unexpectedly hard, but the essays were not so bad for me. But the entire experience itself was pretty draining. I arrived in Long Beach on Sunday evening, and my friend and I spent all of Monday studying and refreshing some subjects in our minds. We also followed up two full days of test-taking on Tuesday and Wednesday with some more studying in the evening to prepare ourselves for the next day of testing. I didn't ever feel particularly worn out at the time, but now that the adrenaline is out of my system, I'm feeling fairly tired and I'm trying to catch up on rest before I start working for the Judge next Monday.
So I've been knitting some and cooking some and reading Harry Potter some. It was so agonizing to have the Harry Potter book out in bookstores while the bar exam was going on that I went to the bookstore first thing on Monday, while GPG was at work, got myself a copy, and read the whole darn thing in one sitting.
***Warning: Harry Potter spoilers ahead!***
(I can't imagine that I'm really spoiling anyone, since I'm probably the last person on earth to read it by now, but I thought I'd just be safe. At the very least, there are probably other bar exam takers like me who had to forgo the whole Harry Potter experience for the bar. Curse you, bar exam!)
I really enjoyed the last Harry Potter. I thought it was very exciting to read; it definitely kept me turning pages to find out what happened, even though my resolve had weakened as the book got released and I read a few spoilers to find out what happened. I cried more than once at some of the deaths in the book, and I thought the ending was reasonably satisfying.
But, I tell you, the bar exam has ruined me for life. I will never be the same again.
I was trying to explain to GPG the (perhaps contrived, but still entertaining) cleverness with the Wand to End All Wands at the very end. You know--how Voldemort thinks that he'll win because he's got the extremely awesome WtEAW, but Harry gets to explain to him that Voldemort does not, in fact, have total power over the WtEAW because he didn't defeat the previous holder of the wand. And I realized that the whole point of the CHAIN OF CUSTODY (Evidence, anyone?) of the wand is that Voldemort doesn't have PRIVITY (Real Property, anyone?) with the previous rightful owner of the wand!
The reason why Voldemort can't wield the wand's full power is because there was no privity as to the wand between Dumbledore and Snape, and hence, no privity between Snape and Voldemort! It's so BRILLIANT!
I'm so pathetic.
Seriously--the bar has ruined me! I can't believe I've been reduced to seeing ridiculous bar concepts like privity in Harry Potter. What is WRONG with me?!?!
***End Harry Potter spoiler***
Anyway, it's awfully nice to be back, even if the Houston heat feels doubly sweltering after the nice weather I caught glimpses of in Long Beach. I have a week of break, and then I start working for the Judge next Monday. I'm using the week to catch up on all my favorite hobbies--the ones I didn't get to do so much over the past month--and to rest up a bit. I also plan to catch up on photos of the few things I've managed to knit this summer, plus a few random other things, and hopefully I'll blog a lot more. I've ended my yarn diet in a SERIOUS way, so there's lots of nice new yarn to post about, too!
I apologize for the long hiatus, but am glad to be back and done with the bar. (It's so funny to think that last week, there were literally thousands of test-takers filling convention halls and hotel ballrooms across the country with enough fear to black out the sun--and I may sound like I'm exaggerating about the fear, but if I am, it's only a little bit--and the rest of the entire nation had no idea. Incredible.) Hope everyone has been having a good summer!
posted by seedless grape at 1:49 PM
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