10/30/2012

1. Here are Brigham and Joseph playing their Halloween recital song.  They were good sports and resurrected it a full TEN DAYS after they played it in their recital.  :-)


2.  It was a good school day.  Thank goodness, because yesterday was not stellar.  Actually, yesterday was kind of a downer for me.  Brigham and Joseph got in a scuffle, there was some extreme unhappiness over a particular assignment from a particular boy, and then on the way to orchestra there was awful traffic and we were 20 minutes late.  It took almost an hour to get there!  Ugh.  But, today was better.  The boys all got along, I believe everyone finished every single assignment, and everyone got two jewels for good attitude schoolwork.

3.  I am a total failure this Halloween.  Not only did we not get any decorations put up, but we're not even going to have any PUMPKINS.  I knew we were cutting it close, but I thought, surely, somewhere there would still be some pumpkins for sale the day before Halloween.  But nope.  We went to three different HEB's and Walmart, and there were no carving pumpkins at all.  Bummer.  Instead we got watermelon and pineapple, which we always do every year anyway.  No pumpkins!  Carving jack-o-lanterns is one of my favorite Halloween traditions!  And that means no roasted pumpkin seeds.  So sad.  But my boys are really good sports.  Brigham said, "Don't feel bad mom, you got us really awesome costumes!"  And we did get candy at Walmart, so all was not lost.  Still-- you can buy Christmas trees the day before Christmas, so why in the world can you not buy pumpkins the day before Halloween?  Phooey.

4.  Ben had his actuary exam this morning.  He wasn't super-hopeful coming out of it, because he ran out of time.  He knew everything on the exam, just didn't have enough time to execute everything.  This is very typical of CAS exams, and it is so annoying.  Actually, everything about the CAS (Casualty Actuarial Society) is pretty dumb these days.  They are a dinosaur organization that is slowly getting sidelined because they can't keep up with the times.  Ben may jump ship and take the SOA exam next year if he doesn't pass this time.  I feel so bad for him-- he's been studying so much.  I've never studied for any exam anywhere near as intensely as Ben studies for these actuary exams, and I've forgotten how many he's sat for.  A lot.  It's so aggravating to be thwarted on an exam not for lack of knowledge, but instead for lack of time.  It makes little sense for an actuary's professional credentials to be determined by exams that do not actually evaluate the candidate's abilities to solve realistic problems using realistic methods.  Instead the exams test how well you have memorized equations in articles and how closely you can regurgitate methods used in those articles.  Ben has failed questions he got RIGHT because he used his own methods and not the method used in one of the articles in the exam material-- a method that wasn't even specified on the exam.  But there is no appeals process with the CAS, and nothing ever seems to change.  Stupid.  AND, the CAS postponed the exam for everyone in the northeast because of the hurricane.  How convenient for them to have extra time to study, AND the very convenient convenience of being able to know ahead of time what is on the exam.  It won't take a lot of searching to find various internet bulletin boards where the exam is being discussed.  It's not fair.
Well, I think I'm more riled up about it than Ben is.  It's just absurd that some geek out there who has spent the past year memorizing articles and taking practice exams and yet has only a shallow understanding of the concepts will pass, and Ben, who is smarter and more capable than almost anyone in his field, won't.
But, maybe he will pass it, we'll see.