Ever got the feeling that you’ve been cheated?”” Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten asked as he ended a concert. This question sums up how life feels sometimes.

It is the little things in life that seem to cheat or disappoint — like getting a free sample tape of Weezer’s new album, putting it in the stereo, all pumped up, only to find that it is five 20-second snippets — just one big tease. Or like running to use the bathroom in your apartment only to find that there is no toilet paper left in the entire house and running for a back-up roll in the laundry room and discovering that they are all gone, too. Or sitting down on the couch to watch some quality CNN, only to find that the lead story is about how much the New York mayor thinks ferrets are dirty, unfit animals to keep as pets. These were just the little things in one afternoon; the list really has no end.

Maybe those examples are too minor and trivial, though. It is more like the cheated feeling when you write a check to the dreaded UC Regents, and then another, and another and another. Or when you cannot find a single parking space even with the $300 parking permit you bought, and then you get a ticket for parking and paying at a meter that expired only minutes before you returned to your car. Or getting your tax return from the State of California for one whopping dollar. Why do they even bother?

Why is it that we obsess with the little bothers instead of being satisfied with the moments of happiness? Maybe it’s because the perpetually cheerful people’s happiness is more sickening than contagious, and the internally disgruntled people usually seem more mysterious or interesting. Maybe it is just more fun to be overly dramatic about little bothers; they bring a little more excitement to a mundane day.

But why dwell in the pessimistic world that leads only to frustration or suicide? How could we possibly enjoy the good things in life if it weren’t for the bad things? And anyway, the good things really do outweigh the little moments of being cheated; it is only that we let them fade from our memory too soon.

Besides, upper-middle-class students really don’t have much to complain about in life. Maybe if more people read the New York Times best seller “”Tuesdays with Morrie,”” there would be a greater appreciation for the little things in life that make it so good. Or if everyone traveled to a third-world country for a month and saw firsthand how much we are spoiled and really just self-centered idiots.

But if the feeling of being cheated or disappointed persists, it can always be diminished with the crooning voice of Coldplay’s Chris Martin, singing “”We live in a beautiful world, yes we do, yes we do ….”” And if all else fails, in attempting to overcome petty disappointing times, just develop the pictures of your friends at the Sun God Festival.