I am not necessarily excited to be in school this summer but I know it will be worth it when I graduate next April. A new semester has started and new experiences are to be had. Here is one from my physics class today.

Professor: “Is there anyone without a text book?”

lonely guy: (raises his hand)

Professor: “Ok, please get one by tomorrow if possible.”

middle-aged woman (MAW): “I got mine for free!”

class: (gasp and shock) “Where? How!?”

MAW: “Online from a website.”

class: “What’s the site?”

MAW: “The pirate b…”

class: “WHOAA!! Ok, ok, right. Let’s not go there. Obviously…”

MAW: “What? I just downloaded a torrent file and it gave me the book that someone scanned page-by-page in PDF format.”

class: (chatter and laughing)

Professor: “Might as well finish telling the name.”

MAW: “bay.org”

class: (more chatter then awkward silence)

I think most people would consider discussing illegal means to getting a book with your professor a bad thing. What made this incident so awkward was that the MAW clearly did not understand the legality of what she did and then freely admitted to it and suggested the idea to everyone else, during class and in front of our professor. I don’t think she understands the internets. This kind of thing might have been ok when we were a college, but now we’re a university.