Standardized Tests...

...blow. I hate them. Loathe them. Bomb them.

I registered for the GRE last month, which was $160. I bought two practice books (one math, one verbal), and devoted some time to studying, although I'll admit that I lost steam rather quickly and decided not to try anymore. Oops. People said, "It's not that bad!"

It was that bad. I guessed on so. Many. Questions. Both in the math and verbal sections. Which is pathetic. I'm supposed to be smart. All these people think I'm smart. And I blew it.

I'm not going to post my scores here. I'm not particularly happy with them. Suffice to say, I scored well below average on the quantitative section, and above average, but not as high as I would have liked, on the verbal. I cried afterward. Yes. I felt that defeated.

Not only did the test itself suck, but I spent all that time and money on it, and I really just don't feel like a standardized test is a good measure of everyone's intelligence. I don't do well on objective tests like that, where there's one correct answer. I like a good essay question, where I can explain my logic.

Plus, I felt like I was applying to be a spy or something. They actually used metal detectors (ha, freudian slip...I just typed mental detectors -- no brains allowed!). I had to turn my pockets inside out. Etc. Overkill, maybe? No?

I'm applying to MFA programs. From what I've read, they don't care much about the GRE scores. Let's hope that's true.

Another technology tirade.

I'm having a crappy day. It's been almost a month since my last post, and apparently my only inspiration these days comes from stupid technology.

This is just my public service announcement telling you that HP sucks, and you should not give them your business. I won't anymore.

In early 2007, I spent quite a bit on an HP Pavilion. I chose what I did because it had a built-in webcam, a feature that my family would use a lot, and at the time, it was the cheapest laptop I could find with that feature. I so regret my decision. The laptop is literally falling apart -- we've lost a key for no known reason. But worse than that, it won't boot up anymore. It started having problems a long time ago. It would only boot up sometimes. It would crash a lot. Et cetera. We figured we had a virus or something. My tech-savvy brother-in-law tried to fix it for us, to no avail. We gave up on it.

This January, we bought a Macbook. We like it a lot so far. We had completely retired the HP. Then today I discovered that my department at school has changed its graduation requirements, and I'm now supposed to present a portfolio of work from three classes, two of which I took back when we had this laptop, meaning all of my essays are saved there. I never thought I'd need them, so I didn't back them up. Now I can't access them. I googled it just to see if there was some way to get them, and in that process, I found that HP had recalled this series of computers (tons of people had the exact same problem we were having) and was repairing them for free. Awesome, I thought. I called to get in on the action. I talked to a TOTAL DOUCHEBAG, who spoke to me as if I were a complete moron, and said that yes, these computers had this problem, and yes, they were fixing them for free, but if the problem happened after the warranty had expired, then it was the computer owner's fault. HA.

I wasn't exactly surprised to get that answer. I was really, really irritated with his condescending attitude. I have ZERO tolerance for condescension. Zero. Am I wrong to think that they should fix the problem if they have acknowledged that it is THEIR DEFECTIVE PRODUCT, not some user error, no matter when the warranty expired??? It's not like this laptop is fifteen years old. It's three years old, and we started having problems over a year ago, probably a year and a half or more.

There. Vent over. Don't buy HP.