Real Life

I just got my results from the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) I took in December.

I got a 158.

That’s a good score.

A very good score.

The highest you can score on the LSAT is a 180 and that is really, REALLY difficult to pull off.

I got a 158.

I’m happy with that. 🙂

And now, back to work!

My family and I just got back to my home state yesterday and I have been working to try to get work. I spent most of the day doing scenario overviews for a guy I’m hoping can get me a job up in North Carolina. Hopefully I’ll hear back from him tomorrow with some tips on how to tweak my CV and the scenarios so I can land the job he has in mind for me. I’m really hoping I can get it because I don’t like being unemployed. Of course, if this doesn’t work out, I can always rely on the Conspiracy.

I’m putting the final touches on Twilight of Lanar’ya and getting things coordinated for the cover art, internal maps, and looking into getting it published in the first quarter of 2012. If I get the job I’m trying for and can get settled in my new location for it, then the extra income that I can get from publishing will be a nice addition to my “real” income.

Anyhow, time to get back to work on Alayne’s Story so I can spend the rest of the week working on other scenarios or on Midnight of Lanar’ya!

Well, it’s over. Yesterday I went and took the LSAT. I feel fairly confident about my answers and I feel like I couldn’t have done much better. That means that I either did really well or I bombed the crap out of it. I’ll know for certain in a few weeks and, once I know, I’ll share the results with the rest of you.

A lot of people were nervous and anxious about taking the LSAT. I wasn’t. Perhaps it’s because I’m several years older than the average LSAT test-taker (I’m 31. Most of them were in their 20s) and I’ve had bigger things to worry about in life than a silly test. Perhaps it’s because law school is just one of several options I have in mind and I’m not going to be upset if I don’t go. Or, perhaps it’s because I’ve never really sweated the small stuff. This was just another test. I’ve taken standardized tests before. They’re not that difficult for me and I’m not intimidated or impressed by them.

I’ve known a lot of different people in my life as well. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, carpenters, soldiers, blue-collar, white-collar — they all have had their strengths and their weaknesses. Doctors are the ones who impressed me the most because it’s just not a field I could go into. I couldn’t deal with the gore and the grossness that comes from the human body when it’s not functioning at peak condition. I also can’t deal with being unable to affect a situation, regardless of my skill or knowledge. Doctors have to be able to do both and, for that, they have my respect. That is something I know I could never do. But for everyone else, just about, I could see myself doing what they do if I had to. Some of it I wouldn’t necessarily want to do (I would get really bored working in most entry-level blue-collar positions) but I could do it. I consider myself fairly average so I figure that if I can do it, most people can do it. That (some would say) blase attitude makes it really difficult for me to be either impressed or intimidated by someone just because of their job.

That’s not to say I don’t respect people because I can see myself doing what they do. I generally respect everyone unless they do something that causes me to lose respect for them. It’s just that, if I can see myself doing what you do, then that’s one less way you have to try to impress me. Instead of relying on the mystique or status of your profession, you have to amaze or impress me by relying on yourself and your actions. That’s sometimes difficult for people who think they deserve some kind of respect just for having a certain job.

So, lawyers, while I respect most of them, just don’t make me think “oh, you have to be super brilliantly smart” to be a lawyer. I’ve known some lawyers who were complete idiots. I’ve known some lawyers that a dog could out-smart. I’ve also known some lawyers who really impressed me with their actions, the cases they chose to take, the arguments they made, and the way they view the legal process. But, as a whole, the profession doesn’t intimidate me.

That’s probably a big part of why something like the LSAT, which is supposed to be this huge, life-altering test, just makes me shrug and go “I gave it my best and I can live with that.”

But, now, it’s over. And I’m glad it’s done with. Now my day has four more hours that I can use for writing or relaxing or packing. And so, I’m going to get back to doing one of those things right now. 🙂

So, I’m a little over a week away from the date for my LSAT. I’ve been preparing a bit here and there and feel fairly confident about four out of the five sections. Reading Comprehension? No problem. I’ve only been reading since I was three years old. Logical Reasoning? No problem. I like debates and I’m one of the few people I know who memorized most of the Fallacies’ List and can call it up at will. Analytical Writing? What, are you kidding me? That’s easy.

But the Analytical Reasoning? Kills me. Every. Single. Time.

Oh, I can generally get more correct answers than I get incorrect. And, on single axis questions, I do fine. But if you give me something with multiple dimensions, that’s it. Game Over. I’ll do better by eliminating the obvious answers and just freaking guessing than I will by trying to hone in on the one correct answer.

So, since knowledge of your weakness is a strength, guess what I’m going to be spending most of my free time doing this next week?

If you guessed “working on mastering Analytical Reasoning for the LSAT” then give yourself a cookie. And save one for me. I’ll need it after I get home on December 3 from taking this test. I’ll need that cookie, a healthy dose of Jack Daniels, and a dark, quiet, cool place to hide where I never have to see another three-level matrix for a question again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more work to do. ><

I’ve just spent the past six hours playing with the Dragon Age Toolkit, Blender, and MakeHuman.

3D modeling is fun but it is killing my eyes. ><
Why am I playing with these applications, you ask? Well, I decided that I really wanted a few short action scenes for a promotional ad I’m doing for my novel. So, I started with the DA Toolkit until my roommate pointed out that I probably couldn’t use it to make a commercial. So, I loaded up Blender, ran through a few tutorials, loaded up MakeHuman, made several models, then realized I need to get the damned add-on to Blender to open the MakeHuman files. The MakeHuman site is not exactly clear in navigation, my eyes were hurting, so I sang “Tomorrow, tomorrow, there’s always tomorrow” and closed the applications.

I’m fairly confident that I’ll have something interesting for the promo. And, I’m learning how to use these tools and new skills are always a good thing, right?

At any rate, I’m going to go look at something other than a computer screen for a bit and then sack out.

This past week, I’ve been taking an LPI 1 certification course and getting a better grounding in the fundamentals of Linux systems. In a previous life, I was a very junior sysadmin for a friend’s webhosting firm. I’m already learning stuff that I wish I had known then (such as how to do a major backup without crashing the whole system). Back then, I pretty much taught myself all the tricks I know by reading the man and info pages on the commands I was running and by hanging around /. So, my education was definitely spotty and lacking in the basics.

For instance, I never really understood what the chmod command did properly. Sure, I knew that if I said “chmod -R 777” it would make the directory readable, writable, and executable by everyone on Earth. I knew that most directories should be set to 755 or 775 but I didn’t really understand what it meant until my instructor broke down the binary for me. When the lightbulb lit up, I was staggered. When he turned around and showed us a MUCH easier way to do the exact same thing without having to memorize binary number sequences and do the math, I wanted to hunt down and shoot the guys who started trying to teach me Linux for not showing me the non-mathematical method.

What am I hoping to do with this training? Well, if all else fails, I’ll come out of this LPI 1 and 2 certified and that opens up access to a wider range of jobs for me. I may also come out of this with a degree in law which opens up even more jobs. My mid-future plans will open up yet even more jobs. By the time I’m done with this, I think the only things I won’t qualify for will be things like practicing medicine, building physical structures, and being Pope.

The economy sucks right now so I’m hoping that the more diverse my skillsets are, the better chance I’ll have of landing a decently paying job if my current plans go to /dev/null.

And now, back to finishing up the update to Alayne’s Story and the next chapter on Midnight of Lanar’ya.