Episode 165: Preliminary Research

I just had a fun time calling up various companies to cancel the memberships I was automatically enrolled in when I bought a 'trial' of the product. In theory, it means I won't be charged for anything beyond the trial's shipping cost, which I'm fine with. I will, however, by monitoring the charges made to my credit card over the next few weeks, and as soon as anything suspicious pops up, I'm going to do everything within my power to hammer them. Just to be safe, I'm not going to use my MasterCard for the next month or so. Shall switch to Visa if I need to use a credit card to pay for anything, which is unlikely to happen anyway. Am feeling foolish now for not being more careful and doing my research. I also forgot to go down to pick up my £10 refund from the French Society. Sigh. Hope I'll be able to get it on Monday with no problems, although the secretary has assured me that if I encounter any, I shouldn't hesitate to let him know. In other news, I am feeling good about myself, academically speaking. The Stoppard essay turned out fine, although my inability to get anything other than 74 is starting to make me wonder if I'm an intelligent mediocrity. I have also picked out the essay topics I want to do over Easter vacation for three of my modules, and have made tentative attempts to research them, at least enough to pique my interest and generate some vague ideas about the directions I want to take the various essays. Shall have to do some serious reading tomorrow, I think...