(no subject)

A quick study revealed just how costly U Rochester's printing services were.

Approximately $20,000 a month was being spent just on paper, equipment maintenance, replacement purchases, toner, and supplies. Worse, at the time, students had unlimited access to printers. This generated excessive waste, and in many cases, students didn't realize how many documents they were printing at one time.

"We estimated more than 400,000 pages were printed monthly, and about a third of these documents were either discarded immediately or not even retrieved," says Ponella. "We found, for example, an entire copy of Homer's Iliad, printed from a Web site and then thrown in the recycle bin. And we weren't even counting all the pages that were picked up and thrown away somewhere else."

houses

We're probably going to decide between two houses pretty soon. Finding large houses for rent is much more difficult than I thought. Nearly all the houses are divided into apartments which are rented individually. And when whole houses do go on the market, they're usually for sale. Anyway:

HOUSE A

- Located off Monroe, within walking distance to the Little, Eastman House, and of course the restaurants and shops on Monroe Ave
- Kind of small in square feet, but the space is well utilized
- Six bedrooms (!) -- one is very small, but still.
- Hardwood floors
- 20 minute bikeride to campus. Near a busroute?
- Extremely cheap ($895/month)
- Poor insulation (average energy bill: $180/month)
- Landlord lives in California. Property managed by a management firm.
- Small and entirely paved backyard, but still a decent space for patio parties, etc. We'll put up christmas lights over it, etc.

HOUSE B

- Huge victorian house with round tower (!) and enormous porch
- Three bedrooms on first floor, three more on second floor
- Right across the river from UR. Easy bike ride. (Closer than our current house.)
- ENORMOUS attic. I am in awe of the attic. It is illegal to sleep up there (third floor occupancy is against fire code), and it is not insulated (cold in the winter/hot in the summer). But its awesomeness can hardly be described. Banquet hall, movie projection area, craft area, etc.
- Fairly cheap ($1300/month)
- Landlord lives across the street
- Carpet everywhere. Current occupants have pets. Carpet would have to be professionally shampooed, etc.
- Lots of backyard parking, but shared with the neighbors. Also a grassy area and a garden.

I'm leaning towards house A, actually. I think it's all about the hardwood floors. We're going to check out the 2nd floor of House B on Saturday. [Right now the house is rented as a double, and only the 1st and 3rd floors were available for viewing yesterday.]