Exams, HOT Weather, and The Lakers

Sorry for the extended break, but I'm sure you can understand the circumstances...

So, as of today, my exams are halfway over. I'm trying to look at it from the glass half full perspective, er, I guess it would be half empty in this sense? Because I'm trying... Never mind. The point is, I've finished three and have three to go.

It's a three week exam period, with exams randomly falling anytime last week, this week and next week. So some people had all 6 the first week, and are already bored of summer, and most people have finished at some point this week. I of course, finish on the last possible day. To make things worse, the weather has been amazing these past few days, especially today- perfect for summer- less so for being cooped up in the library.

As I write this, sitting in my dorm room, I'm looking outside at the slow moving, small, puffy white clouds, in the pale blues skies. I've thrown open both of my windows, something I don't do often, in hopes of catching the elusive cool breeze. I'm literally wiping sweat off my brow, weather.com says it is 72 degrees. Today is easily the warmest it's been in six months! I can see lots of people soaking up the rare sun on the lawn, and in the distance I hear the bouncing of a football. Exactly one week from now, I'll be done with my exams finally, and able to join in the summer activities. I can't wait.

As for the exams, like I said, I've had three so far. My first one, a week ago, was Geography. I was relatively worried for that one. It was likely to be my hardest exam, and also the class in which I need to do well on the exam most. Not a good combination, obviously. But it went fine, I think. I was surprised at how formal the setting was, it felt much more like the SAT or an AP test than a normal college final. The exams are very strict, very formal, and have lots of rules. We can't even put our real names on the exam papers we hand in, for example. We must instead write some secret code number. The format for most of my exams is such: 2 hours, around 10 questions, you must choose two of them to write essays on. These two essays end up being worth well over half of the grade for the entire year long courses. Kind of crazy, but kind of fun.

Earlier this week I had my US History (1946-present) exam, and I was pleased with how that went. This morning I had my Theology (Study of World Religions) exam. I was feeling pretty good about it last week, but started panicking earlier this week, when I realized I was potentially (perhaps 'likely' is a better term) quite under prepared. Normally that wouldn't be panic-inducing for me, but this exam happens to be worth 100% of my grade... Yes, that's not a typo- one hundred percent of my grade. For the year long course. No, I swear that's not a typo! You could quite literally do nothing the entire year, show up and pass the one exam, and pass the class! (Not that that's what I did or anything...) Likewise, you could work hard all year, have a bad day for one exam, and fail the entire year. Seems a bit ridiculous, but that's just me. Anyway, I think it went okay. When you're actually sat in the exam room, in the middle of the test, you're not exactly thinking "Oh no, this is worth 100% of my grade! I'm going to fail! Aghhh!", you're just focused on answering the questions and doing your best.

Enough about exams for now, I'm feeling burnt out just talking about them. I'll let you know how next week goes though.

One of the thing that's been keeping me sane through these past few weeks has been the Lakers. Obviously, those of you who know me well know that the Lakers are passion, or perhaps an 'obession' for me. Easily one of the hardest things about the time difference out here, has been how it has affected my ability to watch games. While I've only been able to see 4 or 5 of the playoff games live this year, I'm sure I've been following the Lakers much closer than half the celebrity 'fans' who sit courtside. A few times during the playoffs, the Lakers have played in the early afternoon California time, meaning the games tip off around 8:00pm for me- perfect. However, most of the games are literally in the middle of the night, tipping off between 2:00am and sometimes as late as 3:30am. I've stayed up for a few of the late ones, and obviously watched all the early ones. When I watch a game live, I use my slingbox- which is a device that allows me to stream the feed from a TV in our house in Pasadena to my computer. The quality isn't amazing, but it's reliable and pretty cool.

More often than not though, I don't get the chance to watch the games live. I just can't be staying up till 5:00am 3 or 4 times a week, especially during exams. I found a really great website that shows HD highlights of every single Laker game however, and does not reveal the score until the end. I've been using it all season. My days (on the morning after games) begin with me opening up the website and watching the 5 minute highlights from last night, first thing in the morning. In close games, it's really exciting, and I feel like I'm watching the actual game. After this I normally spend about 30 minutes (less after losses obviously) watching more highlights, reading columns and articles about the game, pouring over the box scores and reading sportswriter analysis.

Around last weekend (Saturday through Tuesday) the internet was out in my entire dorm building. I missed two games that I was planning on watching, and worse, couldn't even watch the highlights the next morning. Instead I had to bring my laptop down the library, and watch the highlights there. Now you have to understand, during finals month, the library is unbelievably packed, and basically a horrible place to be. I can't study in there; there's something extremely stressful and unnerving about seeing hundreds of students studying silently and furiously for exams. It was pretty surreal to be watching the highlights in that setting. Obviously I was wearing headphones, and I tried to hide my computer screen, but it was all I could do not to jump up and down, swear or cheer during the tense Game 3.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well wherever you are, and hopefully you have your own great weather. I'll probably post again next weekend, to write about the end of exams, and my plans for summer. Wish me luck, I might need it! And I'll be staying up for Game 6 tonight (2:00am-5:00am), even though I didn't get very much sleep last night before my big theology exam. I'll be really tired, but if the Lakers win and advance to the NBA Finals it will all have been worth it. If they lose... Well... If you're watching, and the Lakers lose, spare a thought for me- sitting in my dark room, watching on a tiny and choppy screen, struggling to stay awake at 5:00am.

Until next time.

Gabe


Also here's a bonus video for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge8EqcwG3TM

Good thing I wasn't watching that in the library, or I would have surely been kicked out with that noise that would ensue.


And finally, if you're interested in reading more of my thoughts about the Lakers, check out my blog from last year- HERE (I won't... I'm too scared to read my predictions and see what my writing was like last year, but you're more than welcome too). I started it in October, and it featured about 40 posts up to the middle of playoffs in May, when I got too busy to continue. It is in reverse order, showing the most recent post first. You can click on the dates in the top right, to go back in time and see the older posts.