I was promised 3-D

We went to see Harry Potter at the IMAX yesterday. That meant going to Chantilly, VA, which is really far away. And, as it turns out, amazingly sketchy - that not being the point. The battle at the Ministry was supposed to be in 3-D. But the screen at the Air & Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center (or the "auxilliary location" as most people consider it) doesn't have a realy IMAX screen. It's just really big. But it isn't the kind that starts wrapping aroung the walls, which is what allows them to project in 3-D. So it was really big, but the picture was still flat. For all the time it took to get out past Dulles airport, I was expecting more, and I am quite upset about it. Damn you, Smithsonian Institution.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

***SPOILER ALERT***

I've given you all a day to have read it. If you haven't finished reading, stop reading this now (you shouldn't be reading this now anyway, because you should be reading Harry Potter). I, as was predicted, read it on Saturday. Other people at the bar exam had also taken a study break on Saturday to read it, so I was not the only one. I haven't finished my reread to get the details that I missed on the first go round, but I am taking it slower this time.

Overall it was amazing. The fact that they were moving arond the whole time, rather than always being at Hogwarts added a whole new dimension to the story. But naturally, the big climax had to still be at the school. I cried when Harry saw his parents, Sirius, and Lupin in the Forest with the resurrection Stone, and during the epilogue when he and Ginny had their kids, James, Albus, and Lily. I also screamed out loud when Molly cursed at Bella, both because it was so out of character and because I couldn't believe the publishers let Jo get away with that. I had some other moments when I reacted out loud (like when Dumbledore told Snape that Harry was a horcrux and was going to have to die, even though I was totally prepared for Harry to die - but YAY! he didn't), but that was the only time that it was an actual shriek.

I appreciated when Neville got to have his "Gryffindor" moment and stand up to Voldemort, because he'd been working towards that for such a long time. Also the line when they turned into Harry with the Polyjuice potion at the Dursleys' house and they were changing their clothes, and Harry felt they were being a little free with his body and he wouldn't have done that - how not true is that statement?

I do have to say, though, that I was a little unfulfilled by the ending to the Dursleys' story. I kept waiting for them to come back and for there to be some sort of resolution. But none ever came. Hopefully when the encyclopedia gets written, we'll find out what happened to them.

And for those who want to know what the trio does for a living once they get to be adults - Harry and Ron are aurors (Harry is of course in charge of the auror office) and Hermione is a lawyer with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It had to be edited out of the epilogue to make it more readable.

Any discussion that anyone would like to start about the book, please feel free.

I'm ready to be done

My brain is full and it hurts because of that. I'm ready for the bar exam to be over so that I can forget all of it.

Good luck to everyone taking the exam. I know everyone will do well.

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

That's all I have to say about that.

And Dr Who (aka evil Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr.) found the end quite sad. No, it's not a spoiler. I don't read them and even if I did, like I would be that mean spirited as to give them to other people. I'm not the New York Times.

Model answers are excessively complete

Continuing on in the theme of getting annoyed with exam prep, the model answers for the essay questions are too complete without enough guidelines. I understand that they need to put everything into the model answer so that they can tell everyone whether what they thought of is right or not. But there should be astrixes or something to say which are the really important points. Clearly in a question that regards adverse possession, I would need to discuss the elements of adverse possession and how Ned Neighbor really did or did not fulfill all the requirements to adversely possess that three foot wide strip of land that his vegetable garden is planted on. But do I really need to have a complete discussion of whether he now has marketable title to that land. It's just a simple statement of law - "Maryland recognizes adversely possessed title as marketable." Why are they trying to make me think that I need a full discussion of that point when it seems to me that that one sentence covers what I need to say so I can move on in the 25 minutes I have to write each essay.

employment certification for the bar

The board of law examiners has decided to inform me that the certification that I had sent from Kaplan was insufficient. Even though it's all one company that I worked for from 2003 to 2007, it isn't good enough to just have one person say that. No, I need to have someone from each center where I worked say that I worked there (which includes more than one center in MD). Like the people in MD are even going to remember me 3 years later. And to make it even better, all the individual tutoring in the Baltimore-DC area is coordinated out of one office. When I worked there, it was actually in the District. But in the three years since, it has moved to VA. So now the bar people are going to have another thing to be upset about, because I'm going to say that I worked in DC, but the address is going to be in VA. Ironically, I never actually tutored any kids in DC, but did tutor at least one kid in VA.

The most super-fantastically amazing thing EVER (at least for the next week and a half)

S and I just got back from seeing Harry Potter. It was so good. It was a little disconcerting that the scenes jumped from one to another really fast, but that work with the movie, since they were working off of the theme of things spiralling out of control. And I think the way they did the legilimency scenes worked well with using footage from the older movies.

But the best part - by far - was the battle at the ministry. Lots of tension. The effects all worked. And I chewed the crap out of my straw getting into the scene. (As did S, so good thing she got two straws). And I didn't start crying when Sirius died, which was when I thought I would. I got a little choked up then, but the tears didn't start until the part where Voldemort possessed Harry. All I can say is OMG. That's going to be awesome in 3-D. (Unfortunately the 3-D viewing will have to wait until after the bar exam, since the closest imaxes where it's playing are in Chantilly and Harrisburg and that would make for a mighty long trip when I'm supposed to be studying) If you haven't gone to see it yet, you so need to. It will just blow you away.

encounters with the rich and famous

This is mostly for Fuzzy and Panda, but for any other fans of SportsNight, you'll appreciate this also. I was at Starbucks today studying, and as I was packing up to leave who can in? Josh Charles. Since my friendly neighborhood Starbucks is also his parents friendly neighborhood Starbucks, and he must be visiting them. I didn't feel the need to talk to him though, since I don't have much else to say to him other than "I've seen you on tv."

Words do have meanings, you know

I'm not entirely sure that the people at Blockbuster online speak English. I sent them an email about the fact that they sent me an extra movie. It came from the fact that they credited me with having returned a movie that is still sitting in my house. And I felt that I should be honest about the fact that I'm getting an extra movie. The automated response that I got back didn't quite respond to my missive, as I was just informing them of the situation. They commiserated with me about how frustrating this could be. Um, frustrating? Really? I would hardly say I'm frustrated about having an extra movie. Nor would I think that anyone else would be. I mean, it's not like they weren't sending me the movie that was #1 on my queue for 3 months or anything. If they're going to use automated responses, they should use ones that make sense.