Cue The Pretenders' "Back On The Chain Gang"...I'm back to school for Spring Semester 2005.

I got some disappointments...for example, a book which was indicated as being absolutely necessary on the LAVC Bookstore website turned out to be a $35.00 waste of money because my primadonna English 103 prof "cancelled" it for us. In its place is a $50.00 "book packet" which consists of works written by a personal friend of the professor. Can you say "conflict of interest?" Can you say "bend over, here it comes again?" I knew you could. I also have to buy a copy of "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams and "Death Of A Salesman" by Arthur Miller. All taken care of, but still... :-(

I got a pleasant surprise, though: my Math 114 prof will *not* use the crappy software package from Educo, so I don't have to spend $15 on re-upping for the software license. So with one hand I get money taken away, and with the other hand, I get a modest rebate. I will also try to sell the book that my English 103 prof cancelled.

(Note: just got a call from this guy who's selling the "book packet" for half the price. Good. I'll see him tomorrow.)

Yesterday I managed to largely evade the Stupid Bowl. It meant getting rained on a little, but that's a small price to pay for a little serenity. I spent some fun time tramping around Chinatown and Little Tokyo, where I found some goodies and had my first taste of Singaporean noodles. One thing that's a bit disappointing: the Mitsuwa shopping mall is dying fast. The bookstore is gone, but that was not a surprise. A lot of the little stores that were there were also gone, which actually was a surprise.

I also got a chance to really eyeball some real kimonos to see where the convention one had gone wrong, and got a real schooling on what one is really supposed to do with the front. It's supposed to kind of taper a little downward rather than be straight up and down, which explains the weirdness about the collar. There were some neat Yukatas, including one from a Tokyo hotel, but unfortunately they cost more than I wanted to pay.

I've gone a little short of nuts on eBay buying patterns. That's not a bad thing, because they are usually quite cheap. I will have plenty of grist for the costuming mill coming, and most of it looks pretty damn easy to do. Maybe this will also come in handy for holiday gifting too.

One last thing...looks like the meat axe has been sharpened to cut Pell Grants. This might make it hard for me to proceed further with my college education. Dammit!