Callistonian.net

What would you do if you had old textbooks you wished to get rid of, and someone told you, “I’m sorry, but you can’t sell any of those books” ?

On the backs of their textbooks, some particularly avaricious universities have started printing, “This book may not be sold.” If the books were originally sold at heavily discounted prices, if they were copied illegally, if they were printed off the Internet … then maybe this policy would make a bit of sense. But they weren’t, so it doesn’t make any sense.

University students can easily spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks each semester. Used books save trees and help keep prices down. Used books are good, right?

What annoys me the most about this is that legally “this book may not be sold” is weightless nonsense.  Publishers may print whatever they wish on the backs of their books. “The pages in this book may not be folded over.” “You may not write in this book.” “You may only open this book after 5PM on Wednesdays.”

But statements like that are not enforceable.  If I buy a book, I may write my name in it. If a publisher dislikes that, oh well - it sucks for her. :P Instead of printing unenforceable rubbish, publishers should save their ink!

It’s just terrible that universities go along with such nonsense. Aren’t they getting enough money out of their students already? Do they really need to cut crooked deals with publishers?

You make your students buy this overpriced version of this particular book, and we’ll give you $3 for every one we sell. *wink wink*  But remember, the deal is off if you even think about letting them resell their books. We won’t be undermined.

If you’re interested, here’s a proper article on “custom” textbooks.

On my last entry, I got such wonderful comments. Thank you! :) I didn’t realize that half of them were there until yesterday - I’m sorry - they got stuck in moderation.

Some kid’s ignorant classmate said, “Ah~ How can you not be good at math? You’re Asian! Wow. I’m going to tell my parents I did better than the Asian kid!”

One of my pet peeves: stereotypes. I am not fond of them; I hate them. People who incessantly employ them irritate me.

I teach; I volunteer. I help students with their math. Sometimes, I help—gasp!—people of Asian ancestry. When students tell me that their being Asian coupled with their being less than stellar at math causes their classmates to tease them, I get annoyed. Picking on someone’s ethnic background has been out of style for, at least, 50 years, amirite?

It’s bad enough that the kids are struggling. Shame on anyone who makes them feel less human or less Asian because of it. “You can’t really be Asian. Come on, I did better than you on this… You were probably adopted and just don’t know it yet.”

Also, shame on those who, without joking, attribute their mathematical abilities to their being Asian.

X: How’d you know that? Wow.
Y: Duh’. I don’t need to try. I’m naturally good at math. I’m Azn.

Okay—so because I’m not Asian, I’m going to suck at math? :( Or if I were Asian and still sucked at it, something would be terribly wrong with me?

Other annoying people feel that such stereotypes are wonderful. They get rather huffy when the subject is brought up. “OMG, you’re Asian. You can’t complain about racism. Your stereotypes are all good! You guys are good at math. You guys are frugal…ugh.”

I don’t know about them, but I don’t see anything particularly good or progressive about being held to a higher standard than the rest of your peers, simply because of your race, and then being looked down upon if you can’t meet it.

I haven’t had any personal experience with the subject, though. I’m black and female, so 99.9% of my stereotypes are bad. Sadness. Something that irks me, though, is that it seems… a lot of people assume that I’m part Asian or something because, “Like, OMGz, I’m not an idiot.”

What experiences have you had with stereotypes?

Traditionally, the Ides of March—RIP Caesar— has treated me poorly. If there’s ever a day when I’m late to work, it will be March 15th. If there’s ever a day when my car breaks down, it will be March 15th. If there’s ever a day when I drop my cell phone and it shatters into a bajillion pieces, it will be March 15th.

What’s gone wrong today?

I forgot my dear drunken panda umbrella somewhere. It’s irreplaceable!  I’m hoping that I left it behind at work. It’s cute, so I doubt that any of my coworkers or students will see past the deceptive pandas… If someone does, I’m sure that (s)he’ll be properly perplexed by the pandas’ cutesy inappropriateness.

Oh—and once on March 15th, I was rushed to the doctor and got 19 stitches. That was fun. :(

I hate March 15th; I want my umbrella back. But I’m not pessimistic or superstitious, so the rest of the day is going to be wonderful, seriously.  Today is my sister’s birthday. XD

Happy Birthday Cynthia! ♥

Lovely things to do: blog everyday for the rest of November, study math(s), and learn 500, give or take 200, vocab words.

I want to blog more often. I signed up for NaBloPoMo after the first of November, so I haven’t failed in this endeavor just yet. But I have an exam, the GRE, on the 21st. exam prep > blogging everyday. This exam is hugely important; it’s an if I fail, I might-as-well-go-and-hide-under-a-rock-for-the-rest-of-my-life sort of thing. I exaggerate, but… Wish me well.

I think that it’s impossible to literally fail the exam, so everyone gets to apply her own standards. My standards dictate that to fail is to not do better than 90% of those (way more than most people) who take the test. If I fail, everything will go to hell, I’ll have to re-take it ASAP, and re-think my grad school plans (oh dear~).

I suppose that this post is more of a warning/disclaimer than anything else. If I blog everyday for the next few weeks, I’ll probably always have something to say (and it may not be positive) about the exam I’m preparing to take.