recap

semester's done! woohoo! now what? Oh yeah, sleep. Haven't tried that in a while.

I got my first B transcript grade, and in my gen ed no less. Well, I can try and justify by saying it was A) an honors class and B) frikkin' English! So based on the B++ grade I got on my final portfolio, my average for the whole class must've been darn near 88 or 89%. So now I'm pissed. Had I worked a little harder on the essays I might've gotten an A. Had my grade been anything less than 87 I would've been content with a B. But no. I don't like being a procrastinating perfectionist.

I think I'm only gonna get 14 units of official credit. Apparently independent study only gives me credit for the class and not a letter grade. Dangit. Now I don't get to make Dean's List. WAH! But now I'm peeved because I worked my ass off these past couple of weeks on the class. I got a 97% on the final, a 95% on the homework, and a 93% avg. on the midterms. Damn, I should've just asked the professor to sign me into the regular session instead of this independent study crap. I figured I couldn't sign up for the class since it was at the same time as another one of mine. So the credit is there, just not the level of commitment. Hell, I could've gotten a D and no one would care. A pass is a pass.

One roommate left for Mexico today. He'll be back in January, and my other roommate left last Friday after his easyashell gen ed final to go skiing in NM. I hate not having money. I hate being on the computer and nobody's online to talk to. I need to get out more often. But I hate the social scene. What's a guy to do?

economics

bugger. I'm gonna be in a crunch for funds even worse than I thought. Asides from rent and tuition I forgot about 2 other sources of woe:

1. TEXTBOOKS. Holy crap! I forgot I have to buy new books next semester. I looked at my student link and they say it could cost anywhere from 450 to 650 just for books. Well, at least I can charge that on my bursar's account. And sure I could look around, try and buy my books maybe online or at another store (which of course I'll try and do) but I'm still waiting for my scholarship money in the mail and until then I can't push my pennies very far. Then there's the issue of selling old books. I mean I should sell what I got and get some money from that, but then I like to think that at some point I'd actually like to READ these books beyond the scope that the classes offered. Part of me is like, "ah, yes, your quest your knowledge lies within" and the other half of me is like "what are you, nuts? sell those books already. Im starving! You're never gonna look at those ever again!" so I'm conflicted. On Thursday I could've sold my math book back theoretically for 50 bucks, but they don't know the table of contents tore out. I still have it, but I'm sure they wouldn't even want it back anyway. Then there's my Java book. To an extent, I kinda wanna learn a little more programming, but am not motivated enough to take 127b (the second semester class for newbies) or 227 (the traditional paced class for people who know how to program already in something else). So do I just resign to my needs and sell it back, disk and all, for like 20, 30, 40 bucks or starve and possibly learn more about programming? It comes down to the economic principle of marginal cost (MC) versus marginal revenue (MR). It's the same idea as "Yeah, I could double the size of my massive drink for 40 cents more, but is it really worth it? Would I even finish all that extra soda?" In this case the hard put is placing a dollar amount on the possibility of attaining more knowledge. How much is an 'if' worth? Idunno.

2. I forgot that since I'll now be taking upper division Engineering courses, I have to pay their jacked up tuition fare, like 300 a semester more, and I'm sure it's going to good use, but I too am fed up with these tuition hikes that I feel the state should help us with. Of course, this is from my biased point of view.