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Click the above button to register and vote for my idea of Textbook Leasing over at ideablob to help me win $10,000 to start my business! Thanks!

Jan 13/14 storm

Nothing has changed. Everything has changed. I’ve seen model runs with a nice nor’easter with a good amount of snow for Millersville, and the latest with a possible shower (of rain). I have no idea. Models have no idea. Oh well. I’ll be making my official forecast sometime Saturday, most likely in the evening and will publish it after I verify with the 0z run around midnight. As of now, my call is: I don’t know.

In other news, I’m declaring right now that there will not be any election coverage on my blog whatsoever since I’m already sick of it. I’m all for politics- but enough is enough with the coverage. So there you have it: Marking Time ii is politics-free.

Last week home

Update: I actually might not have that boring of a week after all. Updates below.

Well, it’s my last week at home before I head back to Millersville. Well- tomorrow really, but whatever. Here’s what’s on tap for my last seven days… don’t worry, there’s not too much! Haha. Let’s see…

Sunday [6th] – Church in the morning, Dinner at my Aunts in Jersey in the evening.

Monday [7th] – Nothing.Maybe a trip to Target

Tuesday [8th] – To the shore with Erica and a friend of hers to take some photos.

Wednesday [9th] – Meet with someone at the HS (12:30pm).

Thursday [10th] – 11AM, doing a computer repair job for a few hours. Dinner at the Hibachi grill probably.

Friday [11th] – Nothing.

Saturday [12th] – Nothing. Hopefully something fun during the day! Babysitting in the evening.

Sunday [13th] – Head back to ‘ville!

Anytime - Work on family video project, See Juno (or something at the movies!), Two other yet-to-be-scheduled computer repair jobs (should be easy), Work on my business plan, Hang out with the coolest person I know.

Everyday - If possible, watch The Big Idea on CNBC (10 PM weeknights).

Busy busy busy! Or… not. Oh well. I think I’m gonna go eat my loneliness away in some moose tracks ice cream!

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!

I should probably get a life…

I sit here on New Years Eve. It’s 9:00pm. I went to dinner with my family and got back around 8:00. I have read everything I want to read online. I have no will to get up and do anything. I experience the sights and sounds of my younger cousin, brother and his friend play Guitar Hero on the Wii. I hear my parents and my cousin’s parents talking and laughing in the distance. This is pretty sad. I have no where to go and nothing to do. I want to be with a certain someone. I want things to be good. I want to be happy. But I sit here. I’ve done this before. All the time. I don’t have many friends (or at least ones who like to hang out with me) so I sit here. I used to have someone who I could spend time with, and who has friends (who I thought were my friends, too) that are spending the night together. But I sit here.

I can’t stand it. I can’t wait to be back at school. Back where I have my friends. Less than two weeks, and I can’t wait. I can’t wait to be back to classes. Back to spending weekends doing nothing… walking down to the river, going to concerts, watching movies. And with my new Nikon D40, it will be even sweeter. This semester is going to be awesome. I just wish I had someone special to share it with, just like I wish I had someone special to spend tonight with. Someone to kiss at the stroke of midnight, someone to share my stories of craziness in Gaige, and someone whom I can be there for.

I know things are never going to be the same, and that I should stop listening to my heart and just be happy with the way things are now. And I guess I have to be- I got myself here.

Jack Johnson single

I’m really digging Jack Johnson’s new single, “If I Had Eyes.” It’s available on Ruckus and iTunes, or you can listen to it via YouTube here.  Lyrics below.

If I had eyes in the back of my head
I would have told you that
You looked good
As I walked away

And if you could’ve tried to trust the hand that failed [fed?]
You would’ve never been hungry
But you never really be

The more of this or less of this or is there any difference
or are we just holding onto the things we don’t have anymore

Sometimes time doesn’t heal
No not at all
Just stand still
While we fall
In or out of love again I doubt I’m gonna win you back
When you got eyes like that
It won’t let me in
Always looking out

Lot of people spend their time just floating
We were victims together but lonely
You got hungry eyes that just can’t look forward
Can’t give them enough but we just can’t start over
Building with bent nails we’re
falling but holding, I don’t wanna take up anymore of your time
Time time time

Sometimes time doesn’t heal
No not all
Just stand still
While we fall
In or out of love again I doubt I’m gonna win you back
When you got eyes like that
It won’t let me in
Always looking out
Always looking

I really like the song because (1) Jack Johnson is a great musician and (2) the song lyrics really speak to me… I mean, its like Jack has been following me around the past few days and wrote an awesome song about how I feel. Amazing.

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.

Tornadoes, Ice, Olga… oh my!

Wow, so this storm is getting to be a pretty neat event. Moisture is being drawn up all the way from the gulf, west of Florida! (Edit: On second thought that sounds pretty redundant since the gulf IS west of Florida) The remnants of Olga apparently exploded west of Florida. Severe weather today in the South cause three Tornadoes: one in extreme northwestern Florida and two in central Georgia. Here’s the current IR satellite from this post: (NOTE: THIS IMAGE IS NOT LIVE- CLICK ON IT TO SEE THE LIVE IMAGE)

As far as the models go, I don’t believe either of them much right now. The GFS says in a few hours what was Olga will not exist much, which may or may not be true… but I think Olga may have an impact on this thing after all. The NAM has the SE PA region getting heavy rains tomorrow morning, which I believe (despite my wishes for snow… alas, I can’t have it all).

Going to bed now… didn’t get to do updates today because I was busy all day, but I’ll try to sneak in one in the morning tomorrow and another in the evening, then on Monday with a verification. I wonder how I’ll do!?

If you are looking for updates in the meantime, check out what Henry Margusity has to say.

Oh, and if you read that previous post and wondering what I decided: My Mom does not want me sleeping out to get a Wii just to sell it (and make some major moola) so alas, I decided not to go… but I did check at midnight and there were eight people lined up at my local Best Buy, and while I KNOW they will have 21, a lady said she heard 60, so it may not be that big of a deal anyway. Oh well… I guess I’ll just have to find a job or something like that.

A different kind of part-time job over winter break

So I need to make some sort of money over break. I have about a month. My summer part-time gig said they have no work available for me, which stinks. I might get a job working with my Dad’s employer, but I’d rather do something else to be honest. Then, I had a stroke of genius… or greed, depending on how you look at it.

The Wii is as hard to find this year as it was last. Last year was fun- I got one. My Dad and I slept out at target, where we were about 5th in line (we got in line as the store was closing), out of which turned out to be well over 100 people. When morning came, they handed out tickets which, when the store opened, would be good for the purchase of one (1) Wii. I didn’t need two, and since my Dad had a ticket already, we had an extra. A guy comes up to me as we are walking back to the warm car and offers me $300 cold hard cash for it. (It might have been more- can’t remember exactly.)

Here’s the thing: this weekend, all the major retailers will have the Wii in stock come Sunday morning. Christmas is just over a week away. Do I do it again? I figured out I could bring my little brother and maybe some of his friends, pay them $50 each or something, and keep the rest of the change? I know that by being first in line, then selling it to people who “only” got up and got in line at 4am might be a bit immoral, but I mean, it’d be like sitting in line for someone… and hey, I could do that to. Just find someone in line, say I’ll sit all night (in the rain, for that matter) and get them a ticket to buy a Wii might not be a bad deal, and wouldn’t be as bad. Hmm…