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?

I don’t know if it’s the same where you live, but in the States we do this thing where the cost of items isn’t the same as the price tag on them. An over sized cup of Chai, priced $2.50, is probably going to cost $2.72.

This insanity has two effects: First, people rarely know how much money they’re going to spend, before getting to the register. Second, it makes paying with exact change difficult. Prettily, evenly, priced things are corrupted by the sale’s tax.

Most Americans have given up on paying with exact change, but I like it… because I’m not fond of pennies. I want to get rid of them, not accumulate them. One cannot buy anything for a penny. :(

Do you pay with exact change?

In other news, I’ve been toying about with my abacus. I can only add and subtract, but I already pwn the calculator dependent. :)

Anyway, updates are coming to Callistonian.net. But I’m unsure of what to add first… Suggest something. In my queue are blog entries better than this one, photos (baby bunny photos, random place photos, &c.), a photo blog, foreign movie reviews, and books reviews.

For your information, (and in the US, at least) tomorrow is Mother’s Day. If you haven’t prepared something for your mum just yet, you may want to get to it.

I’m a Grade A* procrastinator. Procrastinating is something that I shouldn’t do. But as it is something that I do very well, I can’t help but indulge in it every once in awhile. Anyway, I bought my mother something today. I’ve still yet to put together a card and things… I will.

I bought my mother a tea pitcher and dainty tea cups/saucers. She likes tea. I like pretty things. Tea + pretty things = pretty tea things. Thus, that is what I bought her. :D

The pitcher was originally way overpriced, but because I was oh so lucky, I got the pitcher + cups + saucers + a coin purse for myself for less than the original price of the pitcher. I win! Seriously, I feel like I accomplished something amazing in the world of retail. :) Have you ever gotten a good deal on an item you really wanted?

Do you have any plans for Mother’s Day?

I am, indubitably, a perfectionist. But Callistonian.net was rejected (twice!) from Perfection, a design gallery that aims to showcase the web sites of passionate/perfectionist designers.

Okay—what I really want to know is what I can do to improve Callistonian.net (because, you know, I’m a perfectionist. I honestly want to get better! :P ). What’s wrong with this layout? What’s wrong with my blog entries? What would you like to see? What would you like for me to blog about? I hate criticism, but I care about improving more than I hate being criticized. So, as much as it pains me to say this and as much as I feel that I may regret it: do your worst and critique my site. Thanks.

What do you think of the header (the large graphic above)?¹ I was rejected from Perfection because of it. -_-; … I like it. I think it fits my style: I can’t draw; I’m detail-oriented; I like complex things. I doubt that I will ever get into Perfection because its member seem to like things I dislike and vice versa—that’s fine. ♥

Anyway, I’m thankful to the members of Perfection who reviewed my site. Thanks! Also, because the gallery is all about perfection (and thus, improving), I’m going to return the favor by critiquing it just a bit. I made the mistake of getting rejected, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say the following comments aren’t the product of bitterness.

Suggestions for Perfection:

• Add a paragraph explaining how sites are added. The owner doesn’t decide who to add, so it’s atypical and hard to figure out intuitively… Sites are “reviewed” before they’re added, but how does it work? Do random members vote on the sites? Shouldn’t this be explained somewhere? If it’s a random number of random members voting on each site doesn’t that make the process more subjective than with most galleries because with Perfection different standards are applied each time? Anyway, an explanation is needed.
• Add more specific guidelines to the guideline page. This page doesn’t list anything besides the bare minimums; it makes it seem that all decent looking sites will be accepted.

  Add the following:

  * Clean, organized, often validated code.
  * Quality, well-written content.
  * Unique, eye-catching designs.
  * Exemplary use of color and space.

  The guideline page also suggests comparing one’s site to those in the gallery. That can be a little misleading; it can also cause bitter my site is better than X why wasn’t I accepted rants. Brigette’s site displays the most beautiful dolls, but she’s using a pre-made theme… :( Impish.ca’s layout is nice but really simple. Silencia.net and Amelie’s Not-Noticeably.net are also lovely and simple. But sites with equally simple layouts have been rejected. Aside from giving applicants a very rough idea of whether or not they can get in, comparing doesn’t have much of a point. It only seems to create false hope. What are visitors supposed to think when they see sites using pre-made layouts?

• Reevaluate member sites. Perfection lists the sites of perfectionists. If members become lazy and create things that are not up to the community’s standards, they should remove themselves or be cut. That sounds harsh, but Perfection claims to be “a collection of top-quality websites and like-minded designers.” It should push its members to achieve their best by refusing to list sites that have become second-rate. On the other hand, if it feels that all of the gallery’s sites are great - why refuse to list similar sites? :D

¹ Don’t comment saying they were insane &c. to reject me over the header. Different people like different things. :)