Updated: How low will it go?

I’m having a little bet with my roommate for the low tonight, just for kicks. Here’s who’s “competing” and what they are betting.

Matt (my roommate)	7
Me	9
CWS	8
GFS	13
Eta/NAM	8
NGM	15
NWS	8
NDFD / Wunderground	5
Accuweather	9
Weather Channel (online)	13

All forecast lows were retrieved around midnight. I will post results tomorrow for both MU Obs and KLNS.

Updated: Actual low: 8/9 (MU Obs/KLNS) Winners: For MU: Me, AccuWx; For KLNS: CWS, NWS, Eta/NAM.

Do we really need a two hour delay?

Millersville has a two hour delay today… which I don’t think was really needed. I’m about to go out and see. I’ll update this post with info and pictures later on.

Update: Eh… when I went out around 9:00 AM it was raining at a good rate, but most of the ground was fine. In a few parts of the sidewalk there were bits of slush, but the roads on campus looked and felt fine. One interesting thing that my roommate found out- the mud by Lyle Hall had a layer of ice on it that the rain was falling on, so when he walked on it, he was only walking it a little bit of water. Cool stuff. I may post pictures in a bit. This is definitely a heavy rain event, with puddles everywhere… more so than usual!

Update 2: All the slush is gone. Winter Storm warning has expired. Just some rain to look forward to. Rain rates recently slowed down, but we still have a few bursts of heavy rain to go before the storm ends. Rain rates were at 0.15+ inches/hour but now stand at a moderate 0.05 inches/hour. This is my last update for this storm. Thanks for reading! If you’d like to see the meteogram for the past 24 hours at Millersville, just check out with Weather Center page and click the link to MU Obs/webcam.

Friday look at the Monday storm possibilities

We’re now within the 84  hours of the storm meaning that the NAM and GFS can now be used to forecast… though I still don’t like what they’re saying. Both are pushing the system out to sea so far that Millersville would just be in for a possible snow shower on Monday.

Henry Margusity [Accuweather Sr. Meteorologist / Svr Expert] has posted a ‘low confidence’ snow map, though I’m a little upset because I really don’t feel that there is enough consistency with everything to make a forecast. I understand he does state blatantly that there is very low confidence, but I feel that he should have published multiple maps with different possibilities to cover all his bases. But hey- he does have a degree and has been doing this for a while, so he know more than I do.

With all that said, I do like what he is saying with the map that has put out, giving us in the Lancaster about 3 inches or so. I sure wouldn’t mind a nice snow shower the first day back. However, Eric Horst [Millersville Weather Station Manager / Director] has a ‘first call’ of nothing to an inch or two, which I am guessing he is saying with the latest runs pushing the storm too far off the coast.

My call? Not enough confidence to say either way… though I will say I’d like a nice little snowstorm, I’m not sure what’s really going to happen. Next update tonight or Saturday sometime.

Textbook Leasing: My business plan so far

I’ve been thinking about this for the past few weeks and wanted to write it all down and hopefully get some feedback. I’m going to make a group on Facebook sometime soon, but wanted to get some pre-initial feedback first and make sure I’m not forgetting anything. Without further ado, here’s my plan:

I want to create a business that will lease textbooks to students, at a flat rate of 20% of the books retail cost. Books will be leased out for a semester at a time. Books must be returned during the week of finals, with the deadline being the last day of finals at a certain time (say, 3:00pm).

Acquisition of books in the first place

How am I going to get books to rent in the first place? Well, I have a two ideas.

• Purchase books from friends and others who are interested in renting, with myself paying no more than 50% of the retail price for books, and a minimum of 30%. I believe the minimum would be a big selling (well, buying) point, since often times the book store will only give you a few dollars for a $60 book!
• Buy used books from online sources. Not the best, but if I can get some good deals with books in good condition, it might be worth it.

“Why lease when I can just buy and sell a used book?”

I want to do this because it eliminates the stress of buying and especially selling. I was so frustrated for find out that my $168 Chemistry book would only get me about $50 to sell back, even if I tried to sell it online. What?! With my leasing service the book would have been about $35 for the semester! That sounds like a better deal to me.

What if someone doesn’t return a book or returns it with damage?

I’m still up in the air about this. In a perfect world, all of the books would be returned on time with minimal damage. Unfortunately, we don’t. In one case I read about where a school started a textbook rental service, nearly 20% of the books were returned late or never at all! I don’t want to deal with this, but I also don’t want to have to take credit card numbers and deal with all that crap. In fact, I don’t want to take down every little bit of information about you like most places do. I’m here to lease you a book at a great price, not to know every little thing about you.

Now, there are four things that can happen with each leased book: (a) books are returned on time, (b) books are returned late (c) books are returned with damage and (d) books aren’t returned at all.

• LATE: If a book is just late, I’m thinking a penalty of 10% of the price, plus the cost of shipping it to me if necessary, provided the book is returned (or shipped) within a week of the deadline. Past this, I’m thinking 20% of the cost.
• DAMAGE: If the book has severe damage that renders the book unusable, an extra 30% of the retail price.
• NEVER RETURNED: I will track down the person (using home and cell numbers, Facebook, school and personal email, etc.) to determine what happened. If it’s just a matter of the customer forgot, then the late fee will be applied. If the book has been lost not returned, then it will cost them another 40% of the retail price, bringing the total price up to 60% of the retail cost. I just don’t want to worry that people will abuse this and just use it as a cheaper way to buy.

Security Deposit?

A security deposit sounds like a great idea to me. To make sure people return books in proper condition, I’m thinking an extra 10% of the price, which would cover any late charges. I could also just charge a flat fee of $100 for leasing services, which would be given back at the end of the semester provided all books borrowed are returned in good condition and on time. What would you be willing to pay?

Other issues

To start up, I need books. To get books, I need money… or do I? As I was writing this, I was thinking that instead of paying people for books with cash, I could pay them with “store credit” that could be used to rent books. I think this could give me the start I need to start getting books. (I would just make this an option, not mandatory.)

Accepted forms of payment? Cash. And, as mentioned above, possibly books.

Shipping? I don’t want to deal with shipping and stuff right now. For my first run at this (hopefully this semester with some books from my fellow ripped-off freshman), I’m only offering this for active students at Millersville University. At first, I’m only looking for books used by many students (General Education classes, Speech, Wellness, English Comp, etc.). I need to make a database of what classes/professors use what books to know what people will want. I also don’t want to go buy 10 books for a class that only occurs every other year, or a class with low enrollment.

Legality of it? Chegg.com does it. (Though they are the only company I have found other than University store’s that do it.) I’m leasing out books. I (or the company I start) will still own the books at all times.

Interested?

Please comment or send me a message on Facebook telling me what you think. Also, if you are interested in helping me in any way (or have an idea… such as a name suggestion), let me know. I know I can’t do this alone, which is why I’m asking everyone I know for help. Thanks in advance, and I hope by starting this business I’ll be able to save you tons of money!

FA07: Semester 1: Final Grades

Well, my final grades are in today and I am pretty pleased with the results. I didn’t do too hot in Calc 1, but I know I can do a lot better next semester, especially with a resource I found that will help me immensely (more on that later). Here’s what it looks like

Class Number – Class name – Grade – Credits
Art 100 – Art in Culture – B – 3.0
Chem 111 – Intro to Chem – B – 4.0
Engl 110 – English Comp – A – 3.0
Math 161 – Calc 1 – C- – 4.0
Music 128/129 – Marching Band – A – 4.0

Semester GPA: 3.05 | Final GPA: 3.05 (obviously)

Calc stunk for a few reasons. First of all, while the professor wasn’t terrible, she wasn’t the best teacher I’ve ever had- but that wasn’t really my problem. My problem was that when I didn’t understand something, I just didn’t do the homework, or did a few homework problems and then thought I understood something when I didn’t completely know it all. For Calc 2 I will definitely be studying hard and am going to shoot for a B+ or above. I know I can do it, because for the final I studied like crazy and actually learned a lot, with help from the book online. I found the book (an older version, though) by searching on Google. Sure, it may be a bit out-dated, meaning some of the chapters are not in the correct order, but its all there for the most part. In addition, the practice problems were really well done and everything was organized nice. The site is only works in Internet Explorer and can be found at http://www.mhhe.com/math/calc/smithminton2e/cd/.

More weather updates soon.