Good Xorning, 2008!

[Dunefar]

After two weeks I'm finally over the flu+pneumonia combo. While not fully well, as a case of bronchitis followed due to all the coughing, I'm about ready to go back to work. What a miserable bug, I was incoherent for large swaths of the holiday season.

[Veryslightlymad]

Glad to hear it. That's too many illnesses to have at once.

[Hunter Sopko]

As if it needed to be said, but Dune is officially the sickest man in America,

[superaielman]

After two weeks I'm finally over the flu+pneumonia combo. While not fully well, as a case of bronchitis followed due to all the coughing, I'm about ready to go back to work. What a miserable bug, I was incoherent for large swaths of the holiday season.

As compared to being incoherent for no reason the rest of the time?

[Meeplelard]

Good to know you're ok Dune!

...wait, that's probably a bad thing isn't it, since it means his terror in the chat is back?

...I don't know where I'm going with this anymore...

[Dark Holy Elf]

So every day since I've been home so far, it has snowed in the morning and then it has melted. Like it already has numerous times so far this year.

This is getting freakish. We have to be on track to set a "days of snow" record, if not a total snowfall one, this year.

[superaielman]

I hate you. ;_; I want snow!


Speaking of hate, the Biology book was 165 dollars. AWWWWWWWWWWWW HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL NOOOOOOOOOO.

[Xeroma]

Damn, and I thought $60 for a Japanese book + workbook was outrageous.

[Talaysen]

I've had math books that cost almost $200.  You people are spoiled.

(Actually I usually don't buy the books that cost a lot.  They tend to never be needed here.  Strange, huh.)

[superaielman]

I'm seriously considering saying fuck it and doing without the book. I should be okay for Biology if I do that, just have to study more.

[AAA]

You might be able to rent it from a library sometimes too. Or you can find somebody to mooch off of.

[PsySlaver]

I got a new job. They delegated too much responsibility to me (just an intern), but the money is good and I doubt I could get a better place to get experience before graduation.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Damn, and I thought $60 for a Japanese book + workbook was outrageous.

You haven't seen anything yet. In my experience, you're generally pretty lucky if your math/science textbooks cost less than $100. Arts isn't so bad, though. Though sometimes you may need a lot of books for one arts course.

Anyway, only had to buy one textbook this term (the prof in the other course actively discouraged us buying the textbook), which cost $105. Not tooo bad, but the insulting part is that it's one I owned four years ago and then sold assuming I wouldn't need it again. *psyduck*

Also,

I hate you. ;_; I want snow!

No, you don't.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I generally circumvented the textbook costs by spending essentially years inside the college library, but that may not be the best course of action for many. I had an easy major and I have a frightening memory for academia, which helped me there. If I spent money on books, I'd probably be even more boned than I am regarding college debts. =P

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yeah, if you have the patience to do that, I definitely recommend it. I just hate not being able to study at home. Of course, traditionally I took really minimal/shitty class notes, which didn't help matters.

[Strago]

Yeah, my theater/english books have always been individually cheap (with a handful of exceptions), but there's always a ton of them for any given class. Still seems to end up being cheaper than the sciences, though.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Yeah, if you have the patience to do that, I definitely recommend it. I just hate not being able to study at home. Of course, traditionally I took really minimal/shitty class notes, which didn't help matters.

Eh, class notes are overrated. I never took them at all since I got into college and pulled through fine (although liberal arts/communication majors generally have it easy in that regard, I find).  And, as a general note, the library was a far better study environment than my house back then (it was a really good library, in hindsight). When I needed the books for -essays-, though, I inevitably ended up loaning them, since you can't go by memory in that case.

I also loaned them for a long as hell time when it came to literature.

[superaielman]

Yeah, if you have the patience to do that, I definitely recommend it. I just hate not being able to study at home. Of course, traditionally I took really minimal/shitty class notes, which didn't help matters.

I don't have the patience for that myself. Even if I did, I don't have the time to do it and I'd rather just suffer through. OK said he had a book for Anatomy if he could find it, and that will be a boon. Christ, textbooks hurt. HURT.

[Cmdr_King]

Bah, whiner, I have all of three freaking classes and spent $300 today >.>

*has spent more on fewer books, also doesn't really get the worst of that*

[BaconForTheSoul]

I was walking down the street with a friend and his dog today discussing some semi-recent research about smoking helping to give you Alzheimer's Disease on top of everything else it does to you.  (Roughly doubles your chances.)

Anyway, some lady from across the street that I've never seen before starts screaming at us about being arrogant kids who think we know it all.  I'm surprised that she even heard us talking, but she did, and then went into the whole "I've been smoking 20 years, I'm sick of people saying it's bad, blah, blah, blah, AND that we should mind our own business."

I tried to remind her that she wasn't minding her own business by deciding to jump into our conversation from across the street, to which she just said that it was a public street.  She started to rant some more so we just gave her the ol' fuck you, middle finger, and left. 

I will say it made a normally dull dog walk a bit more fun, and it also gave me a house to harass when I'm drunk at 2AM.  (Yes, drinking is also bad for you, but comparing drinking twice a month to smoking even 1 cig. a day is ridiculous.)

[AAA]

Since bitching about textbook costs is what the cool kids do, I had to get textbooks for two classes along with a lab manual and it cost me 300 bucks. So there.

Then again I did get a 4,000 dollar grant from the government so I can't really complain. Have I mentioned I'm looking into getting a car?

Edit-AND it would have cost me even more if I had to buy books for the other two classes I'm taking, but I already had them.

[Cotigo]

*Totals up the cost of his textbooks, roughly.*

Just a little over 100 dollars.  Haha, suckers.

[Lance]

Total cost of textbooks this semester: Zero dollars.  I have a voucher.

Life is good.

[Grefter]

I rarely bought text books, rarely referred to them when I did and almost never went to the library that specifically had sets of them set aside for students who don't buy them.

I do not reccomend this.

I started a new job, nearly 2 months worth of training or something.  2 weeks basic stuff, almost a week through that.

Pay is much better.  Did I already say this?  I can't remember.  It is kind of boring being stuff I already know for the theory and at this point in my career, learning a new database that is all full of drop boxes and pure text input doesn't bother me nor am I put off by Unix Terminals anymore.

[Cotigo]

Oh, well, when you put it like that, my textbooks cost zip thanks to scholarship. 

And really, if you can, start buying books on Amazon or Ebay.  It saves you assloads of money more often than not.  If your bookstore is anything like mine (fuck that place those agents of SO fans) they mark up the price 50% to make a profit and then lie to both the customers' and the student employees' faces and say it's the publisher's fault the books are so expensive.  Which makes no sense since I've bought books at less than half price from retailers off of Amazon.  New. 

Fuck university bookstores.