siuDE.com

So, we have covered clocks that tell the correct time only twice a day, lights that are permanently turned off and paper towel dispensers destined to give you a headache. Well, get ready for numbers four and five: saving cars and saving effort.

4. The parking lots. (saving cars)

I think the university decided we needed to stop burning gasoline and take the bus or a bike to school. That must explain why the parking lots are so tiny, which is a little unfair for those of us who really do have to drive to school from a home that is over 30 minutes away.

I get to school before 8:00 a.m. and never manage to get an "ideal" spot. In fact, I have timed it. You have to get to the Faner parking lot before 8:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and before 9:00 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to get a parking spot if you have a red sticker.

Faner and the buildings around it service a good chunk of SIUC students. So why is the nearest parking lot so difficult to get in to?

Another problem with the parking lots is that you are either a vulture or the prey.

You morph into a vulture when you get to a parking lot after the magic hour and have to wait for someone, anyone, to give you a parking spot. The prey are those who get there earlier than you and parked in your spot.

I feel really sorry for the people who drive motorcycles. I think the reason their parking spaces are so close to the staircase at Faner is so they can make a quick exit. Rather than being tailed to their motorcycle, and then make the driver disgusted because they can't fit their SUV into that small of a space, they can drive away quickly.

Another class of people who don't need to be tailed because they just create irritation are those who park in "no parking" spots. Of course, you don't want to take their parking spot.

A final class, which I frequently fall into, are those who are parked in a legal parking spot, non-motorcycle, who simply are getting something from their car. Every time I go to my car, I have to mouth to at least three cars I am not leaving. Sometimes this doesn't work and you follow it with a firm headshake.

5. The sign in the bathroom. (saving effort)

I don't really know if this deserves to be in the top five, but it is in my top five. So I guess it counts.

In a bathroom in the engineering building, there is a sign that says, "Please don't throw brown paper towels in urinals or stools. Thank you."

Now, this might not be a problem for some of you, but it was posted in the ladies bathroom. So far, I have not spotted one urinal in there. Maybe I overlooked it.

The sign is posted as you enter the bathroom. So if you are new to the building, you might just run out, afraid you've entered the wrong bathroom (they are side by side).

I don't know if the author was mass-producing those signs and did not want to have to make a separate note for each bathroom. The signs are handwritten, so, maybe he did not want to have to put much thought into the production of mass signs.

These are my top five irritating "energy savers" around the campus: saving time, saving energy, saving paper, saving cars and saving effort.

Maybe they will let go of some of these savings eventually. Until then we can keep earning interest and losing patience on them.

Lindsay is a senior studying journalism

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