Day: April 13, 2018

This little guy is still a bit off balance after his long stressful day, but he was really glad to get home and seems to be settling in.

I didn’t even notice for a while, with all that fluff and it being right under one arm, but they apparently did have to shave a patch to do the ultrasound. We’ve seen how much he loves clippers 🙀

maharani-to-be:

gravelyhumerus:

shadesofmauve:

rainydaypaperback:

shadesofmauve:

songscloset:

nihilisme:

ittybittylittleworld:

punkasslouis:

I just watched a kid break down in the bookstore because his books for the semester totaled $600 and that’s the american university system in a nutshell

I was on the verge of tears when I got to the cashier so yeah, that’s messed up

Go here and just, don’t waste any more money okay?

While I entirely support following that link, I also suggest going to Abe Books or Book Depository or even eBay to see if there are inexpensive print versions of books you need. I haven’t paid full-price for any of my texts while I’m in school… because that would DOUBLE the cost of school.

I use the ISBN of the require books and search the cheap sites for them.

Good luck out there, guys!

Paging FenrisLorsrai! Come work your resource magic on this post!

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED. (but I’ll post on my actual bookstore account)

Quick anddirty meta search for books: Addall. it’ll crawl 40+ book sites at once including ABE, ALibris, Amazon, Half in both domestic AND foreign versions.

Meta search #2! GetTextbooks.com which focuses specifically on textbooks. It omits some foreign sites that AddAll includes, BUT it also includes a whole bunch of rentals as well.  Renting is probably the most cost effective method overall.

NOW, HOW TO SEARCH!

First determine a few things:

  • Make sure you have the ISBN
  • IF IT IS A BUNDLE: Determine if you need a software key/CD/workbook/lab book or not.  Many times you do not.  Math classes increasingly NEED the software key, but more on that later
  • ASK THE PROFESSOR: If this is not the first edition of the book, can you use a previous edition?  One edition back is generally half the cost of current, two is generally about 1/8th the cost.  Generally you can get away with this if its material that doesn’t change rapidly. Your course on the Civil War, you can probably use two editions back. Your computer programming class on latest greatest language… you probably need newest edition.
  • FOR LITERATURE CLASSES: determine if you book is from before 1929. If it is, its in public domain, you can almost certain get a free copy online.  If they want a SPECIFIC copy for an essay bundled with book, see below.

Now, run your search by ISBN using the two metasearch sites.  Open them in separate tabs.  

gettextbooks shows you WITH the shipping, Addall does NOT show you the shipping.  keep this in mind when you’re comparing.  You’ll see a lot of duplication.  GetTextbooks will also show you SOME variants.

Now that you have those open, open two more tabs.  Run a second search on same two sites using the author and exact title you picked up from search #1.  This will show you all the international editions and weird bundles that don’t exactly match the ISBN of the bookstore

WHAT THE HELL IS AN INTERNATIONAL EDITION: its a paperback version of the US version with an angry notice on the cover saying “NOT FOR SALE OUTSIDE INDONESIA”. Its the same book, but way cheaper.  ignore the angry warning, the US Supreme Court has your back. NO, REALLY. Right of first sale, baby!  ignore the angry warning and you basically have same book, it just isn’t printed with ink made from student tears and unobtanium.

Now filter results based on whether you need any Extra materials or not. 

IF YOU DO NEED THE EXTRA MATERIALS: this is where it gets tricky. an intact bundle is generally the most expensive option or near top end of price curve.  If you NEED the other materials, you may be able to get them cheaper in pieces.  and you can buy mismatched pieces!

Say for example you need a math textbook, but need the software key for the math problem program.  The professor said you can use older book.  Buy a math book that one or more editions back and then buy the software key separately from the SOFTWARE manufacturer.  You’ll find the software keys on booksites all by themselves, but they’re generally way more expensive than buying the key direct from software manufacturer. and no shipping then!

NOW A WORD ON LITERATURE: sometimes profs want you to get a specific edition of something to read a specific essay in the book. You have about 50/50 odds that the essay is in the front of the book. IF IT IS, you may be able to read the essay on Amazon by going to that books page and clicking on the “look inside”.  They generally preview between 10-30 pages of books and that often means its the essay you needed, not the actually BODY of the book.  So you can look up the specific copy of Frankenstein on Amazon, read the essay, then download a free different version from Project Gutenberg.

FOR RECENT NONFICTION, make sure you have an up to date library card for your HOME library and the LOCAL city library where your college is.  Many have digital loans available, where you can check out the ebook for free and popular nonfiction is frequently available that way.

IF YOU CAN GET YOUR BOOKLIST BEFORE GOING TO SCHOOL: shop for the mundane things locally first.  There will be 50 people in CollegeTown looking for that book, you may be the only one in your home town.  supply and demand, if you found it in collegetown, it may be 10X price of your local bookstore.

and check you local library as well!  You may be able to check out some of those books from your local library and take them to school with you and renew them online one or more times, depending on how in demand they are.  There will be NO copies in CollegeTown library because there’s 50 people asking for it.  But your HOME town, you may be able to renew it twice since its low demand. Write on your calender when they’re due or need to be renewed.  Renew them OR tuck the whole pile into a Priority Mail flat rate box and send them home to your folks.  The cost of the priority box to send several library books home is probably way less than what you’d pay for them. (or if its stuff you know you need AFTER a break where you’ll be home, request a hold from school, pick up at home)

ONE LAST WORD BEFORE YOU BUY…

You determined you HAVE to buy a book and you’ve narrowed it down to a few choices of source.  Run a search for “coupon + Sitename” what looked like the lowest priced may not if you find a coupon for the 2nd or 3rd lowest priced option. Gettextbook will generate some automatically, but you may be able to find even better ones.

So make yourself some food, get a beverage, put on some tunes and compare prices!

and if you’re reached point of wanting to curl up in a ball and die, you can send us an ask with the ISBN for your book and answers to questions aobe (extra materials, previous edition, etc) and we’ll send you back an note with a link to the cheapest one we can find.  I do this for a living, send an ask and I’ll get it done usually within about 12 hours.

WHOOP WHOOP MASSIVE EXCELLENT RESOURCE ADVICE ABOVE!!!!

In my experience avoid purchasing the textbook before you hear the words in person from your prof. I found out that I needed a specific edition AFTER I bought the textbook I thought I needed. 

For Arts kids check out [university/college name] + textbook exchange on facebook, a lot of the time theres upper years selling books to you, so you usually get them for at least half price. This is always a cash deal where you meet the student on campus.

For science / engineering kids, talk to some upper years about what textbooks you’re actually going to need. I have a friend in second year applied math engineering who didn’t purchase any textbooks this semester because all the content was on KahnAcademy 

The on-campus libraries almost ALWAYS have your textbooks. If you’re really strapped for cash, borrow them. For me they’re on a 3 hr loan, but sometimes if you try to check it out right before they close you can take it out overnight!

For future reference

Update: Good news!

Poor Mirrors may have gotten to spend the whole day at the vet’s, but he did come home with Mr. C as soon as he could get back from work. After the scan, they don’t want him back until the next annual checkup/vaccinations 😸

They’re not sure why he has the heart murmur now, but the ultrasound apparently didn’t show anything worrying, and they’re not suspecting any serious problems. As long as he seems to be feeling and eating fine (like he has been), no need for much concern.

They apparently weren’t suspecting hyperthyroidism either, since he hasn’t been showing symptoms. And after dealing with SNC, I feel more confident in knowing some things to look for there.

I actually trust those vets’ judgment way better than any MD I have seen in the past 15 years. (About as long as we’ve been with that vet practice, actually, and I really wish they could treat humans too.) No reason to think they’re prone to dismissing potentially serious issues, so I do feel much better about the situation if they’re not that concerned now.

Still kinda wish I had been able to go and hear exactly what they did have to say about it, but it’s still a relief.

shoutingjar:

skeletrender:

joyeuse-noelle:

venatus:

prokopetz:

I totally get that wacky conspiracy theories are fun to joke about – but if you’re going to joke about lizard people, you should probably be aware that “reptilians” is a code-phrase for “crypto-Jews”.

When conspiracy nuts talk about politicians and celebrities secretly being lizard people, what they’re really implying is that they’re secretly Jewish. The whole “Reptoid conspiracy” thing is just a verbal smoke-screen – a veneer of plausible deniability.

Sure, you probably didn’t mean it that way when you joked about it. You probably weren’t aware of the double meaning at all. This stuff is pretty good at flying under the radar; indeed, that’s the whole point.

But, well, now you know.

is this really a thing? cause a lot of people think they are literally shapshifting lizards, and use stuff like red eye (from camera flashes) as evidence that they’re lizards and not human.

Short version: “Reptilian” to mean “crypto-Jew” does happen, but that’s not how it started out or how most people actually use it.

As far as I can tell, the “reptilians” thing started with David Icke, who literally believes that certain people are in fact shapeshifting reptilian aliens who have infiltrated society. A lot of people have been convinced by him. (It is shockingly easy to get people to believe Secret Truths, especially when they have certain mental illnesses.) 

However, recently (and by that I mean within the last ten years or so) white supremacists – they like to call themselves “Nationalists” – have decided that when people talk about “Reptilians”, they’re really talking about crypto-Judaism, and have twisted the whole “Reptilian” narrative to fit their anti-Semitic agenda. 

So. When the average conspiracy nut talks about politicians and celebrities secretly being lizard people, they literally believe this. When a white supremacist talks about politicians and celebrities secretly being lizard people, it’s an anti-Semitic dogwhistle.

So, well, now you know.

There is a massive overlap tho, between “white supremacists” and “conspiracy theorists,” and this is just one example of how the former sees the latter as fertile ground for conversion, and uses the latter’s own ideas to prepare them for racist ideology

Except that David Icke is actually a huge anti-semite who believes Jews control the world, but often back pedals in saying “no, not all jews, just the ones allied with the Rothchild’s. He’s been accused of anti-semitism for a long time, so now he says “Rothchild Zionists” as code for “Just those Jews I think control the world.”

He literally blames the Jews for both world wars and terrorism. Sometimes he says the Jews are the reptilians, sometimes he says they are allies of the reptilians, but he uses them interchangeably in his “who controls the world” ramblings. 

He probably does mean the word Reptilian as interchangeable. 

Also, please remember when folks like David Icke use the word “Zionism” they are not talking about Israeli nationalism, but rather are using it as a term for the Jews that they think control the world. It is not a mistake that people throw out the word Zionism as cover for their antisemitism – they are borrowing the use of the term from these people. More-over, people like David Icke have taken to using Israel and the Israel-related uses of the word Zionism as well as any anti-Zionist movements as a cover for the anti-semitic shit they spew. When people use Zionism to mean “all Jews” or “all Jews I disagree with” these are the people you are helping promote.

Even outside of his conflation, all the tropes he uses when talking about Lizard People are straight out of a long tradition of anti-semitism. Like he literally uses the term “blood drinking” all the time. 

He’s a gross anti-semite and a terrible way to claim that Reptilians is anything but code for Jews. 

I’m not saying a bunch of people don’t actually mean shape shifting lizards / lizard aliens. I’m sure most celebrities who use it, or people who joke about it on tumblr do mean it that way. But still all of the tropes used in those posts grow directly out of antisemitic rhetoric.

I wanted to list a bunch of videos for you, but honestly I really can’t deal with this rhetoric long enough to pick one or two. With the way some people on this site are so quick to latch onto old anti-semitic tropes and use them in what they claim is just anti-zionism, I’m super hesitant to link to them anyway. There is a reason he’s been around as long as he has and that he’s convinced so many people. He’s a con man, and he’s using millennia of hatred for Jews to peddle his books. If you do want to look up “David Icke + Jews” on youtube, pay attention to the ways he tries to rhetorically dodge the fact that he’s saying Jews control the world. He uses code words instead. One of them is Reptilians. And do not take a single fact he says as truth. Even the ones that aren’t straight up lies are only half-truths. The real kicker, is that these lies have been around so long that you can find all kinds of “citations” or “sources” for them. You’ve likely heard some of them before. Do NOT believe anything out of this man or any of his allies.

TL;DR – David Icke is a raging antisemite and the Reptilian rhetoric is about Jews whether or not the person who uses it knows that’s where it came from.

notchicken:

Kids are interesting. I’m babysitting a 9 year old boy right now who’s homework is to write a fictional story and he wrote about how in millions of years the sun will expand killing everything and one man fell asleep at the beach and missed all the official announcements about the world ending but he managed to be the only survivor of the solar flares because he applied SPF 100 sunscreen.