It has been awhile since I have attacked my favorite moving target, NCARB, partly because I have been very busy trying to beat NCARB at their own game, and also in part because I have been very busy at work. I have taken what will hopefully be my last ARE, and during this whole process I have run into many obstacles, which is nothing new for ARE candidates attempting to complete this ridiculous process of graduating from intern architect to licensed architect. The reason that I refer to the process as ridiculous is for reasons different than many of my peers. I agree that it is silly that one has to know what riprap is (something I saw on a practice exam somewhere) in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of the general public, but the best thing to do is accept it, learn it and hope that you know enough silliness to pass all of the AREs. I am not even going to touch on the topic of health, safety and welfare as it is related to the ARE, that will be left for a later post, but what I will touch on is the notion that the process of becoming an architect is ridiculous, and you may be surprised when you hear the reasons why.