Bride: Waltzing Matilda

As I’ve mentioned previously, FI and I are taking dance lessons. We’re doing an introductory package where you spend one week on a style of dance, and we’ve now learned the (very) basics of Cha Cha, Fox Trot, Nightclub 2-step, and Waltz. I love dancing, and FI seems to be getting much better and more confident. The past two times we haven’t switched partners, and I think that’s helping. The first time we went, we switched, and an old lady yelled at FI b/c he wasn’t doing very well. Poor thing, that made him not ever want to come back. I correct him too, but I do it nicely.

Our first dance song is Wonderful World, which is a Fox Trot. Since I think the introductory package ends next week, we’re going to have to get private lessons for the actual choreography. The first dance is really important to me, and FI has said we can take private lessons in September to get ready. The song is only about two minutes long, so I think we’ll be fine. But I’m really liking the classes—I don’t want to stop! I wonder if I’ll be able to convince FI we should make it a regular thing….

Bar: Good Work, ExamSoft

At about 4:18AM, approximately sixteen hours after I registered and downloaded ExamSoft, the emails arrived. So if you're planning on waiting until the last minute, I'd subtract twenty or so hours just so you know you'll get the confirming emails while you'd still have time to fix things. Especially if you use gmail.

Bar: ExamSoft--Hellooooo?

After my delightful trip to the ExamSoft website and subsequent downloading, I awaited the six (yes, six!) emails from ExamSoft telling me that everything had gone as planned. What would those six separate emails do?
Why they would:

• confirm my ExamSoft download
• confirm my download of Exam Docs 1-4 (that would be four emails)
  
• confirm my download of the MockExam

Where could these emails be? Stuck in my spam folder? No....not there! So I called ExamSoft's help line, and after navigating the "press 2 for ..." "press 3 for..." menus and being on hold for ten minutes, I got to speak to a Real Person. Real Person said that ExamSoft's emails reach gmail accounts vvveeerrryyy slowly, but that everything had gone as planned. He gave me the instructions for taking and uploading the Mock Exam, which I completed. A seventh email would arrive to confirm that the Mock Exam had been uploaded successfully.

Four hours later--still none of the seven (seven!!) emails have arrived.
This is annoying, but at least I'm fairly confident that everything is fine. Even if it didn't, I still have over a week to get in touch with ExamSoft and the State Bar people to fix things if it didn't proceed smoothly. Note to others who have been ignoring those frantic letters from the Bar about downloading ExamSoft--don't freak out if you don't get the confirming emails, especially if you use Gmail.

I'll post when (hopefully not if!!) my emails arrive. Did anyone else have this issue??

Bar: ExamSoft

I hate ExamSoft. I don't think that's a unique sentiment. We had to use ExamSoft for our in-class exams during my first three semesters of law school (after that we thankfully switched to just being able to type in Word). I never had a problem with it, but I certainly saw enough people who did. It causes major instability on lots of operating systems, it's incompatible with Macs entirely, and it's generally just a big pain in the ass. I think it was Honigsberg who shared with us that it was invented by someone from Hastings. ::sigh::

The State Bar has been sending weekly letters begging me to register my laptop for ExamSoft. The letters were getting pretty desperate--the deadline isn't until July 2, geez. But today, I just took a break to register FI's laptop for ExamSoft. FI's laptop is also a Dell Latitude, but his has been used a lot less than mine. Plus, my power cord also works on his (but his doesn't work on mine, for some reason), so now I have two working power cords. The rules say we can't register two laptops/have a back-up laptop, but I can't see that they'd prohibit bringing two power cords.

It was kind of scary seeing those files download--PT-A, PT-B, Questions 1-3, Questions 4-6. Those are the files, baby!

Now to protect FI's laptop from getting breathed on too heavily....

Bar: Barbri Lies

Okay, one more example of the ???? I'm experiencing as I read the explanations to the (too many) questions I got wrong from yesterday's simulated MBE:

#149: the ROFR specifically limits it to "any proposed sale or transfer of ownership by me." "Me" meaning Howard or Marty. The facts state that it is Charlene the daughter who is transferring the property. Charlene is not Howard or Marty, so the ROFR isn't supposed to apply to her, right? Even the explanation says "the right would not exist if a transfer were proposed by the heirs or successors of the grantor." Charlene is an heir or successor--how does it then follow that Howard wins when he has no rights against Charlene.

I hate this. But yes, it is the experience, and I can successfully sit and do 100 questions in a row without dying, so that's good to know.

Bar: Grrrrr

Okay, I hate the Barbri question writers.

For example:
#28; Ken and his 1957 Chevy. The facts state that Ken made an offer to George, and then Ken revoked it. The question asks what "best describes the agreement b/w Ken and George?" Well, there WAS an offer, but then it was REVOKED, so there is NO agreement whatsoever, now is there? And what is the answer? An offer for a unilateral contract. 'Fraid not--the facts state that that offer was revoked. Or is the question asking us to magically go back in time?

Bar: Ouch

Today was Simulated MBE day...ouch. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty, but I didn't know it was going to be THIS un-pretty. I have a lot of ground to makeup. Everyone says Barbri uses the hardest questions to freak people out during the simulated test to motivate them into studying harder, and I guess it's going to work in my case.

I do really wish that they had used real released questions though...I don't want to get so used to the Barbri style that the real MBEs look completely different.