The other day I sold back most of my books. I wound up selling most of them to a girl in one of my friend’s classes and she gave me $76 for them, which is not bad at all.  However, she was only going to give me $3 for my $200 French text book (the funny thing is she gave me $6 for the workbook that came with it, even though a bunch of pages were ripped out), so I decided to just sell that one back to the school.

The school was going to give me a grand total of $0 for a book that I spent $200 on!  Why?  Because the stupid thing went to new edition.  I really hate how text book companies have books go to new edition every other year.  It’s not like the French actually changes.  Schools and professors get part of the blame, too, because they insist that students get the newest edition, thereby making the old editions worth nothing.  My first college actually decided to stop using new editions of the calculus book they use so that students can keep selling back their old editions and then new students can always get used ones.  Unfortunately I’ve never had another class that’s done that.

So, I went to sell the book back to a local independently owned book store and they were also going to give me $0.  I am so mad about that.  A $200 book and I’m not going to be able to sell it.  I think I’m going to try selling it on Amazon because maybe somewhere out there there’s a professor who won’t insist on students getting a new edition.

After a few weeks of not having much to blog about, I all of a sudden have quite a few things to blog about.  I’m just going to put them in one entry to make my life easier.

I woke up today to the lovely sound of my phone making a crackling noise that sounded somewhat like my alarm clock tone.  I hit snooze to see if it would do it again and it did.  Then I messed around with the ring tones and now my phone seems incapable of making any sort of ringing noise, choosing only to vibrate when someone calls me.  This really wouldn’t be the end of the world if it chose to happen while I was home and not while I was at school.  I’m long since due to a free upgrade and just kept this phone due to its excellent battery life.  However, since I’m not home I can’t get a new phone right away.  The phone’s in my dad’s name and I can’t just go into the AT&T store and get a new one without him.  So, he’s going to email me a list of phones that I can get for free and I’ll choose one.

I’m also sick, which doesn’t help matters.  Just a cough/sore throat, no fever, so that’s a plus.

The one good thing that happened today is that I discovered that I do not have to take anymore French classes in order to graduate!  Turns out only incoming freshmen needed to take two semesters worth of foreign language, not transfer students, so I’m in the clear after taking that one class over the summer.

Then I had to get my story critiqued in fiction workshop today.  The actual critique wasn’t bad.  My class seemed to like my story and had constructive things to say about it.  But then I got my grade.  C+.  Mostly due to mechanics!  It’s a fiction class, not a mechanics class!  He liked my story, just not the mechanics.  I don’t think mechanics should lower your grade that much.  I’m so pissed off about it.  It’s going to kill my overall grade which will then kill my overall GPA.

I’m so ready for this week to be over.  I wish mid semester break was this weekend instead of next.  I need a break.

The other day I was zoning out in my Literary Analysis class, idling doodling on my notes like I usually do.  There were fifteen minutes left in class and I was counting down.  It was the last day we were talking about Sent For You Yesterday, which is a very confusing and boring book.  The author neglected to use quotation marks throughout the entire novel.  I may be new to my English Minor, but I could’ve sworn quotation marks were a standard convention in the English language.

Anyway, the teacher had connected that book with one we will be reading in a few weeks, Anna Karenina.  I have actually been looking forward to reading that one since I’ve heard it’s good.  I looked up and started paying attention.  Then, he told us exactly what’s going to happen in Anna Karenina!  He spoiled the whole thing!  I was just staring at him, trying to comprehend what he had just done.  I immediately grabbed my iPod and hid it under my desk while I texted my friend who was sitting next to me (gotta love the new way of passing notes).  I could not believe he’d actually done that.

I hate spoilers.  I am completely anti-spoiler.  I flat out refuse to spoil any book to anyone, no matter how much they want me to.  I am so incredibly mad that my teacher spoiled Anna Karenina.  Seriously, what kind of teacher does that?

I woke up today to the lovely sound of the fire alarm going off.  Last semester I configured my schedule so that the earliest I would ever have to be in class is 11:30 am.  What is the point of that if they’re going to do fire drills at 10?

When the alarm went off I was half-asleep and thought that the alarm had gone off from the steam in the shower (yes, this does happen, the RAs warned us about it, happens at my house, too).  So I spent a good few minutes standing on my bed trying to figure out how to turn the damn thing off, only to realize that there was no button on it.

So, next I got my computer and went out into the living room to try and find out how to turn it off by looking online.  Then I realized that the sound was even louder in the living room than in my bedroom and looked out the open windows.  There was a whole crowd of people standing around.

Oops.  Everyone’s alarm had gone off.  Then it clicked.  Fire drill!  All my roommates were in class, so I grabbed my keys and left the building.  The alarm stopped two minutes later.

Better than last year’s fire drill, but still not fun.

You all knew it was coming.  You know school is coming when I rant about textbook prices.  But you know what?  I nearly had to not have a rant this year.

I am only taking three classes that require me to purchase textbooks.  My other credits consist of my senior thesis and working in a research lab.  Two of those three classes are English classes.  I have discovered a great way to save money in college.  Take a lot of English classes.  Paperback novels are significantly cheapter than hardcover math and science textbooks.  The five novels I need for one of the classes don’t even add up to the cost of one math or science book.

I found all of my books really cheap on Barnes & Noble’s website, but shipping was $30.  They were all coming from different places.  Then I decided to just get my one psychology book from B&N and get all the novels from the school’s bookstore since there wasn’t a huge price difference and the school’s store had no shipping cost.

However, my school cannot guarantee you used books.  You have to give them your credit card number and they give you a total of what it would cost if all the books were new.  But you won’t know for sure what your total will actually be until you pick them up.

Cue the rant.  It would be fine if I wound up getting used books, but what if I don’t?  Then I’m stuck buying all these new books.  Why can’t the school tell you whether you’ll get used or not?  Shouldn’t they know how many used copies of each book they have?  I am not ordering any books from them.

I’m going to get my psychology book from Barnes & Noble and all the English books from Powell’s.  I have not totaled it out, but it will probably be around $130 or so.  Might I add that this is less than the French book I had to purchase over the summer, which was $200.  I’d say I did pretty good this semester.

I was recruited to run games at my church’s vacation Bible school last night.  That in itself was an interesting experience.  Some of the kids had endless amounts of energy.

After it was over, one of the little girls from my mom’s group wasn’t picked up yet.  Her mom was late.  We were sitting outside waiting for her to be picked up and the mosquitos descended.  They were everywhere.  I had to put my hair in front of my face to keep them out of my eyes.

This morning I counted no less than twelve mosquito bites on my body.  And they’re all itchy.  I even got a few through my clothes.

Well, it’s not really new since it’s been around since Leopard came out, but it’s new to me.  I hate iPhoto on Leopard.  Yes, it has some cool features like face recognition and stuff, but it’s not cool enough to make me like it.  I was not expecting it to be that different from Tiger’s iPhoto.  So I ‘upgraded’ my iPhoto library when I got my MacBook so the pictures would be compatible with the new iPhoto.

Big mistake.  Huge mistake.  Wish I hadn’t done it.  The photos are no longer in nice little folders that I can organize with a file manager.  Nope, the only thing I can do with the photos is open them on iPhoto or Preview.  I can’t even get them on the Gimp.  I was going to make a new blog banner yesterday and then realized that I can’t open my photos in the Gimp.  Well, I can open them but they are really small.  Less than 200×200 pixels.  They’re no longer full size.  I am not impressed.

I have no idea if I can put Tiger’s iPhoto on Leopard, but I don’t think I’m even going to bother.  The only thing I used iPhoto for was to transfer pictures and videos from my camera to my computer.  I use the Gimp for retouching, resizing, and anything like that.

Since I ‘upgraded’ all my pictures, I now have to get them from my iBook again and put them on my MacBook again without ‘upgrading’ them.  That’ll be kind of a pain since it takes forever to put pictures on a flash drive with my iBook.  I’m just glad I decided to let my sisters use it instead of selling it.  Otherwise two and a half years of my pictures would be lost.

My brother of course finds this whole thing rather funny since he doesn’t really like Macs.  He keeps telling me how this wouldn’t have happened on Linux.  Maybe it wouldn’t have, but at least my headphone jack works on my computer.  He’s had his laptop for six months and his headphone jack still doesn’t work with his Linux.

I saw My Sister’s Keeper last night.  I was quite excited about this movie for a variety of reasons.  First, I absolutely love Jodi Picoult’s novels and My Sister’s Keeper is my favorite of hers.  It’s actually one of my favorite books in general, right up there with Harry Potter and that’s saying something.  Second, it inspired me to write In Moonlight’s Shadow.  If you read both My Sister’s Keeper and In Moonlight’s Shadow, you’ll probably be able to see the similarities.

However, I was incredibly disappointed in the movie.  They absolutely killed it.  I wasn’t expecting it to live up to the book, but I also was not expecting them to completley change the plot and message.  *CAUTION SPOILERS BELOW*

The first thing I noticed was that they pretty much cut the Jesse plot line.  In the book, Jesse (the older brother) starts setting fires as he’s dealing with Kate’s cancer.  That was cut.  Honestly, I can understand why they cut that part.  Movies do have to cut stuff.  But then they haphazardly threw in this made-up plot about Jesse having dyslexia.  Then at the end of the movie, they mentioned how he went back to school.  Kind of confusing since it was never mentioned that he dropped out.  I think they shouldn’t have bothered with the dyslexia plot line.

Second, the movie focused mostly on Kate’s cancer.  Now, at first glance that would make sense because the book is about a girl with cancer.  But it’s really so much more.  The book focused so much on the family dynamics and Anna’s relationship with her mother and how she was suing her parents.  It really showed how Kate’s cancer was tearing her family apart.  Most of that was cut.

I could have dealt with all that.  I really could have.  But then they had to go and change the entire ending!!!!  In the book, Anna dies and Kate gets her kidney and lives.  In the movie, Kate dies.  Completely different.  They took a book that has one of the best twist endings I have ever read in my life and turned it into a tear-jerker Hallmark movie.  I cried more at the book, actually, because of that twist ending.  I did cry at the movie, but I didn’t cry much at the end because I was too preoccupied with the change of ending.

I don’t recommend it.  I highly recommend reading the book.  Don’t see the movie and then read the book.  Read the book and then see the movie if you really want to.  It’s not one I’d see again and certainly not one I would buy.

I have been an avid watcher of Jon & Kate Plus 8 for about nine months.  I watched nearly every episode since going to school and actually having cable.  After just the first episode, I was hooked.  I was very impressed with Jon & Kate and the kids are adorable.  Jon & Kate show so much love for them and tried hard to keep their lives normal despite their fame.

However, my opinion has drastically changed since the semester ended.  The allegations against both of them for cheating was just the beginning.  Now, at least one of them is on the front cover of every tabloid every week.  I have no idea what is true and what isn’t, but there is obviously something going on.

Now, Jon & Kate are getting a divorce.  That in itself is not what bothers me.  Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce in this country and although that is incredibly sad, it remains a fact.  The Gosselins are choosing to get a divorce.  Not that big of a deal.  It is incredibly sad for their children, but it is what’s going to happen.

One of my favorite episodes of this past season was the one where Jon & Kate renewed their vows in Hawaii.  It was such a beautiful ceremony.  But what sticks out most in my mind was something Kate said.  She said something about how the children know that a lot of parents get divorced, but she wanted to reassure them that that will never happen in their family.  And now, only months later, they are getting divorced.

What bothers me is how they are handling the situation.  Namely the fact that they are continuing with the show.  Kate specifically said, ‘The show must go on.’  That, in my opinion, is kind of ridiculous.  Is it really in the children’s best interests to continue the show after they’ve been in tabloids for the past two months?  Probably not.  They’re never going to get to live a normal life now.

In one episode, Kate mentioned something about how they always ask the children if they want to continue the show before each renewal time.  The kids apparently always say yes.  However, I have a feeling they feel pressure by Jon & Kate to say that.  Children like to please their parents.  There’s a reason guardian ad litems are appointed for children involved in court cases.  I read in one tabloid that the children have told their aunt and uncle that they don’t want to continue the show.  I have no idea how accurate that tabloid is, but I tend to believe it.

The show is going to now feature Jon doing stuff with the kids and Kate doing stuff with the kids.  They should change the name to ‘Sometimes Jon Plus 8 and Sometimes Kate Plus 8′.  Honestly, I think the best thing for these kids would be to stop the show and let them try to live a normal life.  Jon & Kate once said they started the show in order to earn money to pay for things the kids need.  That’s believable.  Raising eight kids takes a lot of money.  But at what cost?  Buy the kids less clothing and go on fewer vacations and take the cameras out of the house.  I think they’ve earned enough money now anyway, judging by the size of their new house.

I have to mention the one thing that impresses me about this situation, though.  And that is the fact that the children will not be shuttled back and forth between parents.  Jon & Kate will be taking turns at the house with the kids.  I have to give them credit for that.

Why does it not surprise me that Warner Brothers has changed the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again? Oh, wait, I know why!  Because they did it not only once, but twice.  This makes it the third time.  Three times.  I cannot think of another movie that has had its release date moved three times.

Granted, this date change only applies to IMAX, but it is still rather unfair.  The Leaky Cauldron has provided us with the reasoning behind this extra delay.  The premiere of Half-Blood Prince in IMAX on the July 15th release date would create scheduling issues with the new Transformers movie.  So, apparently, Transformers gets first dibs and Half-Blood Prince has to be delayed again.  Somehow it does not seem right that the movie that has already been delayed eight months has to be dealyed again.

As someone who drives three hours to see Harry Potter movies in IMAX, I am not very impressed with this.  That’s two weekends that I can no longer have the possibility of making the drive to the nearest IMAX 3-D theater.  My weekends to make such journeys are limited during the summer and now I only have two available weekends to do this before classes begin at the end of August.  I will now have to hope that one of those weekends will fit into my parents’ schedules and the schedules of our friends who we usually see Harry Potter movies with.

Of course, I shouldn’t even bother figuring out the logistics.  If history has taught me anything, it’s to wait for Warner Brothers to announce the next date change.