One of the strangest things about taking the Texas bar exam this summer was that we couldn’t have any liquid whatsoever in the exam room. This was fine for the first half-day, but felt like a strangely cruel rule during the following 8-hour days of the exam.
No coffee?
Not even water?
Wasn’t this bad enough?
On the second day of the exam, a test-taker sitting next to me explained the lore around the “no beverages” rule: apparently one year someone spilled a drink on their neighbor’s computer, frying it, and condemning that student to hand-writing the rest of the exam. I was mortified but quickly forgot about that anecdote when we restarted the test.
Cut to me earlier this week staring at my coffee cup tipping — in slow motion — onto my keyboard as I am about to start one of my last tax finals at home. I quickly attempt to dry my computer and then email my notes to myself before turning it off.
I attempt to turn my computer back on after an hour, and it was dead. Reality eventually set in and I ended up at Big Box (and super-grateful that I bought the extended warranty and managed to keep my receipt somehow.)
The Geek Squad technician tells me that turning on the computer is precisely the wrong thing to do, and would actually cause the most damage to the computer.
He estimated that it would take “2 to 4 weeks” to fix my computer, so there’s no chance that I’ll see it for the remainder of 2017.
Michael graciously let me use his personal laptop for the rest of my finals and I managed to stumble out of finals without missing any tests.
2018 may start with a new laptop and a new phone.
Coincidentally, my HTC cellphone has also apparently hit the end of its lifespan — it’s routinely having glitches and periodically refuses to charge. I’m tempted to turn it in for the Google Pixel 2 if this continues.
I’m notorious for going through phones — either because I lose or break them — however, the older I get, the more likely I am to get rid of a phone due to software meltdowns (most famously, the exploding Samsung Note.)
My current HTC replaced the exploding Samsung, but the HTC was wonky from the beginning. Specifically, the “home” button stopped working almost immediately after I bought it, but the service at the Sprint store was so bad that I did not want to exchange my phone or get it serviced. Dallas is apparently heavy on third-party Sprint stores that can’t do exchanges like regular Sprint stores.
The power button on my HTC is now malfunctioning. Combined with the charging failures, I think it’s time to test out a phone from a different company.
The random Norwegian Christmas Tree at Union Station.
A birthday brunch at Oz Restaurant in Clarendon for our friend Krystal.
The non-break
I managed take a day off during finals for brunch (and Krystal’s birthday!) Although there are not any brunches planned for the rest of December because I have a full docket of tax law articles to finish before classes and job interviews start in early January.
This is an exciting time to be studying tax law — I am getting my LL.M. at Georgetown, one of the nation’s top tax law programs, in Washington D.C. while once-in-a-generation tax reform is being negotiated literally within eyesight of campus.
Imminent tax reforms also make it extremely difficult to draft tax articles for publications and competitions on a two-month publishing delay. I’ve taken a deep-dive into the first bill released by the House and it was obvious to me that many sections had no chance of passage.
I just hope that I pick paper topics that won’t be completely irrelevant before they are published. I guess the worst-case scenario is that I’ll have plenty of writing samples for interview season — that’s worth the missed brunches. 🍾
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