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For a long time, things that I considered posting were either too boring or too personal. Lately, I’ve had a fair bit to talk about, but every time I start writing a post, I suddenly think “What’s this going to get you? Only introverted people do this sort of thing! You don’t want to become a hermit, do you?” and immediately close the window.

What’s weird is that I’m generally quite fine with who I am (geeky, but in moderation), but I often get a feeling that “if a given activity isn’t helping classes, friends, or relationships, then I shouldn’t even bother”, which tends to override whatever I was doing at the time. While this pattern has certainly helped with my work ethic, and all this exercising has gotten me looking pretty hot (even by my unreasonably high expectations for myself), it’s really getting old. I want to just have fun without worrying about this bullshit all the time.

For example, over the last couple days I’ve been shopping around for a new keyboard. Not for any reason in particular, just because. Then suddenly something comes up and I think “man, this is pretty pathetic. I need to be more normal.”

I think I really just need to just figure out what my priorities are. And what I’m going to do for those priorities. And fucking get over myself. But before then, I guess I have some more things I should write about.

    This semester, I have 3 required textbooks. They would have cost $384.78 (including tax) through the BU Bookstore. I got them online for $96.70 (including shipping), a 74.8% discount. Here is an introduction to what I’ve done to avoid paying hundreds of dollars per semester on textbooks:
    You must first determine what books are needed for your classes. Here are some ways to do this:
- When the BU Bookstore announces that they are taking preorders, use their website (bu.bkstore.com) to see what books are assigned for your courses. Only an abbreviated title and the author’s last name are provided. Searching Amazon is usually sufficient to find the rest.
- Go to the bookstore in person and find the ISBN for each of your textbooks. It can be found near the barcode or on the copyright info page.
- Ask the professor. I’ve never encountered faculty who aren’t sympathetic to their students’ limited finances, so it’s unlikely your professor will mind. If it’s not too much trouble, ask for the ISBN.
    Once armed with ISBNs for each textbook (which guarantee that you get the correct editions), it’s time to shop. There are two types of online bookstores; retailers (standalone stores with their own website) and resellers (students and independent booksellers who list their inventory on other, larger sites). Resellers will sometimes offer “international editions”, which are discount paperbacks originally sold in foreign countries. They are otherwise page-by-page identical to US editions, their only downside is that the BU Bookstore doesn’t accept them for buyback, but they’re so cheap that you often save money regardless.
    To begin your search, I recommend using sites like isbn.nu to get prices across several online booksellers. When planning your purchases, be sure to take the seller’s location into account. For example, I would strongly recommend a seller in Illinois over one in Singapore, if only due to shipping time. Additionally, avoid sellers whose reviews are more than 5-10% negative, and use a credit card for purchases, not a debit card. If you order with a credit card and the book never shows up, you’ll be able to deny payment through the credit card company. In seven semesters of buying textbooks online, I’ve never needed to do this, but it’s good to know about.
    I recommend that you buy your books at least two or three weeks before classes begin, allowing plenty of time for them to be shipped. I have only encountered one instance where, due to some nasty weather which delayed shipping, the book arrived later than expected. If you need an alternative before your book arrives, you may use a reference copy in the BU Library, or buy a temporary copy from the BU Bookstore and return it when your book arrives in the mail. If you do this, avoid shrinkwrapped books, because the bookstore will refuse returns of unwrapped copies, even if you have dropped the class.
    You should now have all you need to start saving on textbooks. Good luck!

6 files have changed between those two versions, yet they still can’t post a diff. Instead, I’m supposed to download the entire package, extract those 6 files, then copy them, twice, to two different websites because WP still doesn’t have a handle on multi-blog functionality.

Over the last year or two, I’ve seriously updated this blog more often than I’ve posted to it.

I was planning on posting something witty and insightful about The Real World, but you’ll have to settle for this today. Enjoy!

PS: Wordpress isn’t all awful, but this “oh woops we have another security update” every 10-20 days sure is.

I’ve also been applying to a few grad school programs for a CS PhD, and they all look really flippin’ sweet. I also have been doing a bit of job-ey things on the side, there was a job fair hosted by the engineering college a few months ago. I only talked to a couple companies there for any appreciable length of time, but both of them ended up bringing me to their offices for an interview. They both look neat, one’s fairly small while one’s fairly large, but I’ve made it clear that I’m considering the PhD stuff to be a priority. Might do something with them over the summer, who knows.

For now, I’m taking a break. Over the past few months, I’ve been developing a moderately large queue of things I’ve wanted to do, and hopefully once I’m home I’ll have a chance to start working through that queue. Heck, I may even give the site a makeover. But first, I need to watch those series I’ve downloaded, finish up that program I’ve been working on..

It feels like this semester started only a couple weeks ago.

Edit: I did get an A in that graphics class. The other three CS classes got A, A-, and B+. Definitely liking CS more than astro/physics, despite still liking them on an abstract level.

Then I wake up, angry at myself.

I start getting ready for class.

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I am again in finals week. They don’t start until Friday, so I’m feeling fairly unmotivated right now. Much less stressful, as there is no physics course this semester, and one of the 4 exams is a take-home exam and was completed over dinner on Saturday. Oh, and, another of the exams is for Economics 101. ‘Nuff said.

[CS] is suddenly rebuilding itself from the ashes that were left 2 years ago.

I <3 Allen.