Laptop lives, bus no-show

After getting a Dell person to troubleshoot my problem (even though my warranty is expired), it was determined that my laptop either had a bad graphics card or a motherboard. I tried the graphics card first since it was cheaper. I found a used one online and VOILA...my laptop lives again.

This morning the bus I catch to the metro station didn't arrive. Sometimes it varies by five or maybe ten minutes. The bus goes by every 30 minutes. So I stood there for about 35 minutes when the next bus comes by. Of course, everyone else that was waiting for the bus that didn't show was on this one too and I had to stand. How annoying.

I think my old laptop died

So I have this Dell laptop that I bought right at the start of law school in 2003. It hasn't been perfect, but with my at-home super warranty, any problem I had was taken care of by an email or chat with Dell and then a guy that showed up at my house to replace the bad part(s). I bought an extra year on the warranty and that finally ended two months ago.
My laptop worked fine yesterday afternoon. Now today I went to fire it up and saw all kinds of weird characters. Even though I am out of warranty, I chatted with a Dell person in who-knows-where and they narrowed it down to the video card or motherboard. Bleh.
This laptop has been through the ringer. All of my law school notes were typed on it. I took every exam that I could on it (using Secure Exam). I typed the essays to my first bar exam on it (ran like a champ, no crashing or problems). Sure, it isn't pretty or flashing like newer laptops but it is worn and trusty like your favorite old t-shirt.

July 2008 DC Bar Exam - MEE subjects tested

In case someone comes across this while searching for information on the DC bar exam, I figured I would bump a comment up that was left in my "Thoughts on the DC Bar Exam" post.

The MEE subjects tested were (per an anon comment):

"Epilogue:

Took the DC essays yesterday. Two MPTs, as predicted they like memo to partner format (they were both memos to partners).

Essay subjects tested:

ConLaw (this was to be expected)
Agency & Partnership
Trusts
Property
Fed Civ
Contracts (was more like remedies)

No neg instruments or sec trans, refreshingly enough! You can see they like MBE subjects, though. Thanks for the help."

Right now those taking the MBE are approaching lunch and (hopefully) the last 100 questions of their bar life. Good luck to all.

The coldness of life

I heard yesterday that a friend/old college roommate passed away. Cancer. He was my same age, which is obviously waaaay too young. He has a young daughter with his wife. What a sobering deal. The buddy that called me also let it slip that his dad passed away a couple of months ago. Cancer. Six months after he found out. He was dad age, but still should have had another decade plus in him. Damn.
Here's to you, M.P. and R.N., until we meet again for a couple of cold ones on the other side.

Oh, and I got stung by something last night. I think it was a wasp. It flew near my ear (I heard the omnious mmmmmmmmmm of the wings) and it dinged me right on the shoulder at the neckline of my t-shirt. Ouch. I don't think I've been stung before. Ever. At least, I can't recall ever being stung. Good thing I'm not allergic to anything.

It's Official

I was sworn in this past Monday at the D.C. Court of Appeals. There were at least three ceremonies that day that I heard about and I saw a fair number of people I recognized from BarBri. Nice!
I must say that the actual ceremony was a little anticlimactic-almost like an afterthought.
A guy (the monotone bar exam instruction reader guy) checked to see who was there. Then another guy (I think he was from the committee of law examiners) stood in front of the three judges (I didn't even get their names) and read his motion to admit us. The judges looked at the list and approved the motion. Then the head judge read each name and we had to stand. After all the names were read we did the old "raise your right hand and repeat after me...". Fewer lines than I thought, but good enough. After listening to the head judge's "mini graduation speech" about practicing law and doing some pro bono work, we were on our way to sign a card outside the court room.
Now I just need to wait three to four weeks to get my bar number. Woohoo!

Unloading bar books feels great

So I've been selling a bunch of my bar study books and it feels like I throwing dead bodies of the ship (none of them killed by me of course...it was the bar examiners!)

I unloaded my midwestern state set on eBay (man, that guy got a great deal!) and my DC books on Craigslist (man, that guy got a great deal!). I sold my Strategies & Tactics and a couple of others on Amazon (they charge a lot of commission). I feels so good to be rid of these shackles and maybe help some other repeater convert to the side of licensed attorney. (Not to mention earning a few bucks back on all the extra money I spent on round two). Of course, it was all worth it now that I am done with bar exams forever!

I still have my outlines/flashcards waiting in the wings....waiting for a bonfire so I can have my outline/flashcard buring party. I think they will look great going up in smoke.

MBE raw score

I just looked at the CA MBE conversion chart here and saw that my raw score was a 136 (which was scaled to a 150.7).

Wow!

Last July, my raw score was a 106 which scaled to a 126.7. Thirty (30) points higher!
I am amazed (and happy)!