OMG TGIF

If I were to express my feelings in acronyms, OMG TGIF!!! Yes, the title is redundant, but I can't ever seem to express in words how thankful I am when Friday comes around. The week is so long for me between school and work, I just can't wait for the day when I can relax. Although, tomorrow won't be so relaxing, but I can take it a little breather at least. I have an inQsit exam tomorrow at noon for my Psysc 277 class, but at least I can still sleep in somewhat. After that I intend on going back to my apartment for a brief moment, and since my job sucks every bit of normal life, energy, and joy I have out of me, I will be going in to work for a few hours on Saturday. Apparently the 45-50 hours of my life I give them a week isn't enough and I'm not meeting the goals they steadily keep increasing. After that I will come home for a nice relaxing evening, maybe do a little cleaning around the apartment and certainly do my dishes.  I let them pile up for a few days and finally washed them the night before last. That was a bad idea, because then I had to muster up the motivation to do a massive pile of them.

Sunday I have no plans, but I do have the opportunity to take my Psysc 277 again if I want to see if I can get a better grade. So we will see how the first one goes and then go on from there. Hopefully the first is good enough that I won't need the second, so I can sleep in as long as my body will let me on Sunday.  I need a complete recharge.

Research Topics

So this week we're establishing where our group is in the research process. While I'm sure many groups are still working on finding their topic, our group, consisting of myself, Amanda, Tiffany and Molly, immediately agreed on our topic: The Real Cost of College Textbooks. It's a subject that affects all of us, everyone in the class, and let's face it, anyone who has ever attended college. Now, if you're a trust fund baby, this may not apply, but for most of us, coming up with the money to pay tuition, housing, and dining charges is difficult enough. I only have to worry about tuition and fees, I pay for my own apartment and food. Thousands upon thousands of dollars are poured out of pocket or borrowed in loans to pay for our education, only to be faced with seemingly ridiculous book prices.

Like me, I'm sure many students go right for the used books, so we can get the same content for a lesser price. We choose not to pay for aesthetic appearance, but content and savings.  New books can range anywhere from $50 for a light paperback to well over $200 for a new hardcover. Some classes require more than one book. This semester for example, if I had bought all my books new, I would have spent over $500. Instead, I spent an estimated ten to twelve hours scouring various sites on the web and bookstores for the best price. Ultimately I ended up getting my books from three different locations, renting two and outright buying the other three used. Even with all my hard work, I still had to spend over $200.

One of the subtopics we want to touch in our project is the fact that so many books are going electronic, or at least have an electronic version. In a green world, it is a great idea to help reduce the amount of paper and processing that has to be done to print books. But one would think that with the reduced cost of printing, processing, binding, shipping, and even repeated resale (cutting out the middle man) the cost of the text would decrease significantly. I mean after all, the only thing that has to be done once the book is organized and put together is to copy the file and deliver it to the purchaser. The path to consumer is much shorter, and the production cost is much less, so why are the e-books approximately the same price? There are even e-books now that students can purchase for the length of the semester or academic year that expire after a certain time. So why is the cost of these e-books still so high? Where is the money going? One would think that when the cost of production goes down, so would the cost, a way of encouraging the easier sale. Is the money lining the pockets of the publisher, the author, or both? These are the questions we look to answer in our project.

TGIF

Another LONG week has finally come to an end and I have the chance to relax again. I expected my schedule to be difficult going to school and working Monday through Friday, but I never realized how tired I would be by the time Friday comes around! There is nothing like watching the clock hit 11:00 PM at work on Friday, walking out the door, arriving home, falling into the couch knowing that tomorrow, I don't have to hear the alarm taunting me, telling me I have somewhere to be. It feels so great to just relax, knowing I don't have to be anywhere. Most of the time I do go into work for some overtime, but usually just for a few hours, and since I'm not scheduled I can leave at any time, which makes it a lot easier to work.  This weekend though, I'm not going to work any overtime. I'm probably going to go visit my parents, maybe go to the orchard, weather permitting. I decided I need a couple of days space from work, I need to relax and get some things done at home, and for school. 

I'm sure Monday will come all too soon, and I kind of dread it already. Another week will pass, Friday will come again, and the entire cycle will continue. How very exciting...