Yet Again, eBay Makes Me Happy

This summer, I decided to take three classes. The graduate program recommends taking two, and even suggests the two I should take, neither of which were being offered. This set the future semester studies in a bit of flux, because obtaining permits for classes was based on 'did you take this class or do you have this experience?' Each time, the answer was no and no.

Fortunately, two of the professors I contacted were willing to work with me, and based on the tech skills I already have, suggested the same book. Both asked me to obtain the book (Karel the Robot), complete the exercises within, then send the completed items in a zip file for review. Professor S because I've never performed web programming before, and Professor H because I hadn't taken Professor S's class (even though I've worked with the Adobe product she teaches.)

So, I searched Amazon, found a gently used copy for 2 bucks (and another 3 shipping) and I'm ready to dive into the book next Tuesday or Wednesday and have a go at Web Programming before the ten week journey in my class. HTML coding, here I come!

Okay, so that leaves the other class and I'm at a precarious crossroad. Future classes hinge on what I've taken and could even delay my graduation a semester. This is not a huge problem, as the doctoral program recommends starting in the Fall and doesn't even admit new candidates to summer classes.

Still, I didn't want to spin my wheels, and the idea of taking two programming based classes as a newbie wasn't a good idea. One of the fall recommendations opened up, I looked at taking the suggested summer class and it worked. I enrolled in the Fundamentals course, which closed the next day. That was a relief.

As I hadn't enrolled in all three of my fall classes, opting to see exactly how Web Programming progressed before deciding on the next course (maybe Web Programming 2, maybe another language), I looked to see what offerings were around and miraculously, the class I'd wanted for the summer session was now listed as a permit class for students not in the Educational Leadership program. An hour later, I had a permit and spot in the class. Hey, jump on it when you can, right?

I think this may scare Ed a bit, considering that last summer's 4 classes were like boot camp. However, the two Foundations classes pair very well together and the programming class, while new to me, is not completely foreign like last summers Biology class!

Okay, so yesterday I realized that Foundations classes require textbooks. First, a look at the campus bookstore site to find out the ISDN's of those I need, then off to Amazon and eBay. I find and bid on both titles, listed at 99 cents each with 25 hours to go.

One quickly shot up and ultimately sold for 45 bucks. Once it went above my maximum bid, I looked at the other listings and found a buy it now for two dollars. Yes, two. The reason for this is that apparently, there are a lot of lightly penciled notes in the first chapter of the book. Big whoop. Writing in a book that saves me $150 and can be erased is tolerable.

So, the other book. I bid my maximum of 15 bucks. It started at 99 cents, then my bid brought it to 1.25, then another bidder kept bidding to bring it up to 10.50. I thought for sure that it'd get sniped this evening while I was out, but it didn't.

For 25 bucks, I succeeded in getting all the print materials for this summer's classes. I'll take it. As for the extra class this summer? It gives me the chance to take an extra class in the spring...

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