Tomorrow marks the first day of Spring 2004 Semester. I only have one class to go to -- a PE class, believe it or not -- but I will have to be there to try to sell some of my Fall 2003 books.

Have I mentioned that I hate the LAVC Bookstore? Have I mentioned that they are a 1st class rip-off?

Since I went online instead of buying from the bookstore, I can't sell my books to them. However, since I got my books a lot cheaper than what it would have cost to even buy used from the bookstore, I can undercut their price. I'll be able to defray the costs of buying my books for Spring if I sell the books for the price I want.

Apparently I am not alone in my frustrations with the high cost of textbooks. The Washington State Public Research Group (WashPIRG) did a study on the costs of textbooks, and it was quite frightening indeed. At the University of Washington, the average student tab for textbooks is $898 for the 2003-2004 school year. One way to take a bite out of this heavy tab is to go online, but as I mentioned it's harder to resell the books once the semester is over. If you decide that perhaps you might want to keep a textbook or two the hassle factor is no longer an issue.

I did most of my textbook shopping at Amazon. I know they're not especially PC, especially among geeks, but they have one advantage most of the other places don't, which is the ability to set up a publically searchable wish list. The wish list makes it very easy for people to order books for you, and since my family has such a case of the warm fuzzies about my being back at school, they've been lending a hand here and there. However, there are some great alternatives out there too.

Oh yeah...to change the subject, this furor over Janet Jackson's breast has gone way too far. I think there is a strong undercurrent of misogyny and racism to the fact that Janet's catching all the hell for this incident and Justin Timberlake is not getting any of the blame. It takes two to tango here, Justin was a willing accomplice if not equally to blame here, so why the hell is he performing on the Grammys tonight and Janet was disinvited? NARAS can kiss my ass. I'm sure there will be another lengthy speech by someone or another about the evils of filesharing. I'll skip it, thank you very much. :P