Sure, I suppose it might come in handy when (if?) he assigns more questions  — but considering we’re at week 6 of 14 … you’d think we’d have been assigned more by now.

I was willing to forgo the marks until it occurred to me that this assignment was for the terrible class of mine in which we are in a single group for the whole semester (and no-one is particularly motivated in my group, including myself). Off I went to the bookstore, waited in line, read the large return policy sign, handed over my Visa, swipe, sign  and voila. The stupid book is now mine.

I plan to return this book … tomorrow, in hopefully mint-condition. I cannot bring myself to spend this much money on something I will only ever use rarely while I am in this program. Hah, I’m pretty glad I can do this! Normally I wouldn’t consider it … and if this was the first week of September I would keep the book. Being at the half-way point makes me think it’s worth the risk to take it back. I feel kind of clever … mwhaha.

Mwhaha.

I’ve been returning textbooks from first semester to the used book buyback. Sigh. I’m really glad to have shed the Video books. It’s horrible to buy a book and never open it. Luckily it seems I am getting “half back” on the books I’ve brought in so far; they say it’s half-back … but uh, I distinctly remember paying more than $36 for one of those books. Oh, and how about that $8 for the $55 premiere book? Nice. I contemplated keeping it, but seriously I will never use that god damn book. Ever. _EVER_.

After buying a boatload of books in first semester I vowed never to buy a textbook again. Ironically, I bought a book at the beginning of the summer that happens to be a textbook we’re using in one of my classes (so I kind of already failed that ambition). Aside from that my vow would have been unbroken. That is — I suppose — until our teachers heeded to the complaints. Indeed, we complained about buying books and not using them.

What do we get in return? Courses with “required” textbooks that are actually required. For the first time since High School I will actually have to bring something with me to school on Monday’s (aside from a lunch + laptop) … a textbook for my 3D class. Haha!

Oh Sigh! It could be worse …

Someone in our class found 2 of the books we “need” via torrent (some teachers still say they are required, but have no plans to make us use or read them). It’s convenient to have them in pdf form! Sweetness. I guess it’s not all bad in the end! I think only one of the books I “need” is above $50, too. I’m reaaaally hoping I don’t have to buy that thing. Yay!

STUPID READING. EH? EH?

Looking through it, I noticed that the appearance of the pages seemed odd. The quality of photos and such were just as bad. At first I thought it was to mimic the style of a newspaper.

Someone just walked by and said “nice computer”. MIKE, SHE WOULD HAVE TALKED TO YOU HAD YOU BEEN ON WEBCAM. That’s right, I’m picking up ladies left and right just by sitting on a bench, using the Macbook. *cough*

Back at my locker I decided to examine the book some more. I looked at the back cover and noticed that it had a proprietary barcode and other associated information. It looked like it was all added by Algonquin. I opened the cover, which doesn’t look bad — if you get in close enough it looks a little ‘off’, just not as sharp as you would expect it to be.

At the bottom of the first page I noticed “Reprinted with permission of the author, 2004″. Meh. Lots of books are reprinted. Third page: “Printed by the Algonquin Publishing Centre”. OMG. No wonder it was cheaper than Chapters (who had 0 in stock online, and in-store). Then it suddenly dawned on me: the book doesn’t have a ‘style’ … it was photocopied (with permission). *shocked*

So I was quite surprised when I read the confirmation email which said “To get items to you quickly, we will ship each item as soon as it’s available. As a result, you may receive multiple shipments.”. HEART.

Oh yes, the fact that I was able to use my gift card online is another reason why Chapters rocks my socks. *cough Futureshop sucks*

And that is why I like Chapters. The end.

How is it that a full-colour, 300 page book costs $100. It’s not some rare book either, it’s copyright is actually for 2007, and it’s in its 6th edition. Oho, compare this to a 700 page, full colour book with pages of a heavier paper weight … it was LESS than half of the 300 page book. DO YOU KNOW WHY ONE LEFT A $100 DENT IN MY STUDENT LOAN? IT’S BECAUSE IT’S PUBLISHED BY “THOMSON WADSWORTH” AND THOSE BASTARDS PROBABLY INFLATE THE PRICE … YOU MAY RECOGNIZE THE THOMSON NAME FROM TEXTBOOKS USED AT MHS (or even … uni …). It’s a good thing we’re supposedly heavily using this $100 book … because good god … I would be so pissed if we didn’t.

HAH. When making the comparison above, look at the pictures below. I’ve noted the expensive book … but the book I was comparing it to was “Head First HTML …”. The astute readers may also notice that it is the ‘pillar’ of the book column (because it is so big and heavy). To figure out how many pages were in it involved me sliding it out from underneath the rest of the books (JENGA! JENGA! JENGA!). HOWEVER, this sent the books sliding backward into the wall.

My first reaction: “NO! NOT THE $100 BOOK”. It’s cover is SLIGHTLY bent, but not appreciably (there is no crease). SO BLOODY GOOD. THIS THING IS LIKE DIAMOND. AN UGLY, UNREFINED PIECE OF DIAMOND.

* I realize this is probably a losing battle for me, since your books might be hardcover and thicker :P. BUT IT’S SOMETHING AMUSING TO DO, ANYWAY.

Now I have to figure out which books with which courses, because it’s actually difficult to tell, in some instances.

This is where the less interesting stuff goes (IMD: Day 3). I got very little sleep last night, for some reason I kept waking up and it took me a while to fall back asleep. So I was tired, waking up at 7:30. This was heavily compounded by my first class: Design and Authoring I. Oh my god. Guys, I don’t need this class. For those of you that don’t know what Dreamweaver is, check out Wikipedia, because basically we’re using that. HOWEVER, this is the annoying part: we’re not *really* using it in its coding view (THAT’S ALL I DO WITH IT, I DON’T NEED THE SILLY WYSIWYG THING). WE’RE NOT EVEN REALLY LEARNING HTML, THIS IS A STUPID DREAMWEAVER COURSE. I will slowly come to love it as my easiest course, I’m sure.

Anyway, my extreme boredom and disinterest came from the sheer amount of time we spent doing virtually nothing. I don’t know how long — possibly 40 minutes — discussing how we would hand in files and stuff, since there was some problem with the way he used to do it. AGH. Seems like a really nice, down-to-earth prof. though!

Fortunately I was extremely pleased and suprised to discover that both of my long classes (one 3 hours, the other 4) gave us 15-20 minute breaks. HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF.

What I like about both labs I was in today: the sheer sexiness. My Design and Authoring I lab uses widescreen 19″ LCDs, powered by a 2.1 Ghz, dual-core, 64-bit, AMD processor (can’t remember name). Photoshop opened so fast, and closed so quickly. It made me giddy. I wish I could be that giddy on the Macbook, but Photoshop is still made for PowerPC processors *shakes fist*.

Class finally ended and ‘lunch’ began. I’ve decided to store non-perishable foods in my locker. HAH. I already have a box of granola bars, crispy minis, and gold fish (I walked over to Loblaws s). I figure that snackfood is going to have to drive me during the short breaks (especially on the day when I get no lunch break between 10-3.

My next class, “Multimedia and Design” (translation: Graphic Design) was one I was worried about when I read the description. It seemed really ‘intense’ I suppose. After the 2.5 hour class (he let us out an hour and a half early), I am significantly relieved. It should be quite interesting! Even if it’s like re-learning the fundamental art-things (line, shape, texture, etc. — the etc. is there because I never seem to be able to remember them all …). For the first time, the prof made us each say something about ourselves (HEH, finally … I know almost no-one). One guy in the class is apparently a genius and part of MENSA, he’s also immune to certain poisons from snakes and scorpions. Umm. OK!

We spent a huge chunk of time analyzing two separate pieces of art.

WOOOOO. I know I am not alone in this, but I don’t really know ‘anyone’ yet. That is to say, I have yet to find someone to ‘bond’ with. HAH. It sounds odd, but yah, everyone is a mystery to me. HMMM. What i’ve noticed about other people: generally everyone has one ‘talent’ in some field. For example, in my first class this morning I sat next to a guy who can do crazy stuff with video and audio editing/production … but knows nothing about HTML. Whereas I know virtually nothing about audio/video production/editing, and could drink him under the table if HTML and CSS was booze. HAH.

ANOTHER OBSERVATION (I should’ve pulled out the sexy bullet points): some of the books come with CDs, and those CDs were made using Macromedia Director. HAH. I love that, as you will notice in the pile of books … one of them is all about learning to use Director.