Holiday Cheer

This time of year always brings holiday parties, which are my favorite! There is nothing like wearing ugly Christmas sweaters, sharing beverages, weird finger foods, and best of all hilarious gift exchanges. It brings out the best in people. The first holiday party on my agenda wasn't this sort of cheerful party though. It was the other kind of holiday party, the awkward gloomy kind of party. The party where your weird in-laws ask you all sorts of bizarre annoying questions about every minute detail of your life. After I survived all the strange family parties I moved on to my next holiday event, a Christmas party at my best friend's house. The theme for the night was a potluck with a "funny" gift exchange. The night turned out to be a success. Everyone had good laughs at the odd gifts and full stomachs from the delicious food. My holiday party experiences were overall good!

Textbooks: The Real Money Maker for Universities

With the winter term dooming closer and closer I ventured onto Portland State's bookstore website to inquire about the massive debt I was eventually going to acquire for some measly paperback book. My whopping total, roughly 250 dollars! That has to be a million percent mark up from the whole dollar that it took to make the damn book. I don't know how it is plausible that anyone could charge that much for textbooks. The over pricing of textbooks reminds me of going to the cinemas. You pay an expensive ten or twelve dollars to see a movie, much like paying tuition ( the meat of the purchase). But of course their is always the extras, you have to have drinks, popcorn, and candy (the textbooks). The only problem is these extras are WAY to overpriced. This is where these two institutions are making their money. A fountain drink for 7 bucks or a textbook for 150 dollars, absolutely ridiculous!