Pseudonymous Ramblings by Psychobunny

So random, no title seems to fit.

Quick note to the person whose car alarm is going off every five minutes in the nearby dorm parking lot: Yes. I get it. You're a freshman. You're new in town. But this is a small, somewhat safe, rather crime-free town, and your dorm is literally less than two minutes from the university police department. They drive through near-compulsively in their anti-drug, anti-alcohol, anti-fun fervor, a fact you are bound to learn quickly. No one is going to steal your car. Really. On the other hand, the cars are packed into the lot like sardines in everyone's haste to be nearest to the door, and people are going to bump into your car, and this will set your car alarm off. The fact that you even have the alarm on, in fact, is what tells me you're new here. I, on the other hand, have lived here for the better part of two years. I know the campus cop patrol schedule and what every last one of their vehicles looks like, and this is why I need for you to go shut the [censored] car alarm off right [censored] now before I go downstairs and make a 720 around your precious car with my keys. Thank you.

Two of my roommates are here now. The third one, a recent reassignment, is still MIA. She'll show up soon--after all, classes begin Tuesday--or maybe, if we're really lucky, she found someplace else she would rather live (this place is decidedly not large enough for four).

I get to go back to the rat lab on Monday. I'm kind of excited, especially since I now have my own pass to get into the building. :) Dr. Candid Advice is going to show me how to use Schedule Manager, then later on, she said she's going to let me use the mad Visual Basic skillz (my term, not hers :D) I spent this summer learning instead of the canned software. There were supposed to be a couple of other students in there with me, but Dr. CA thinks I'll be able to do it by myself so she assigned them to work on other projects. This, of course, makes me both proud (She thinks I'm a good student!) and nervous (by myself?!).

As usual, the campus bookstore disappoints. I always look at their sales website to see if they have the books I need available before I arrive in Small Undergrad City. The problem arises, however, that the on-campus book listings are removed shortly before the beginning of the semester (because they have no time to ship the books to you if you order them). I looked at their website just a couple days before leaving and saw that there would be four inexpensive books for a once-weekly colloquium I'm taking. Because the entire class registration is only ten people, I figured they would have the books if I got there soon enough, so I didn't write down the titles. I get to the bookstore and, nothing, not even a space where the books would be located on the shelves. Having to wait until class starts, then order the books, then wait for them to arrive so I can study and participate in class discussions makes me Very. Angry. I'm not a fan of the used book trade, because one of my not-so-secret ambitions is to write a textbook eventually, and the authors make no profit of the sale of used books. I just don't think it's right for someone who is not the author to make any money off the sale of that book. But the bookstore disappoints me every semester, so I've decided that I'm going to get the book info off the sales website and order all my books of discount websites from now on--at least I know that the books will end up in my library and not back on the shelves.

Updated to add: It turns out the reason I couldn't find the colloquium books I needed was because the department bought them to give to us for free. What a great surprise! Of course now, no matter how cheap the books I find, having to pay for them is always going to be a disappointment. :)

posted by Psychobunny at 11:00 PM