even though it's nearing 12 and i haven't touched my case study yet, i shall blog cos today has just been such a wonderful day =)

thank you my dear friends from a13b and softball and from at large for the bday wishes and presents. i'd expected a quiet birthday but haha, guess God wanted me to be happy since promos are coming >,<

birthdays are kinda weird days. they can pass in joy and fun but then when it all quietens down it suddenly hits you that you've grown another year. or you can pass it in solitude and wish for that very celebration that prevents one from contemplation of the implications of your birthday. lol you can tell it just hit me that i'm like oldddddd now and best thing is i don't feel my age! i feel youngerr x) and less mature than i think someone of my age should be. what's more, the big 18 and the big 21 are dawning closer and closer and somehow, i dont want them to come so fast.

adulthood is scary. period.

time to go back to my case study (=

this is really funny. i was just scrolling through economist.com's Style Guide, which is given to all the journalists at the Economist. one of the rules is never to use jargon when you can substitute with a simpler word, and an example was "gubernatorial". i just saw it on MSN.com's Top Headlines: "Jakarta votes in first direct gubernatorial elections". Heehee.

okay maybe it wasn't that funny. but i'm currently trying to avoid long-windedness in my writing and speech. unfortunately it is something i find hard to get rid of, and consequently i suffer. i read about George Orwell's six rules of writing, here they are, theyre pretty useful:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

i don't really understand the last one though. what constitutes barbarism? if it's something like being racist or ageist etc, isn't that relative? what is considered barbaric today might not have been in the past. some certainly might become less of a taboo in today's more liberal world. but of course, publications live in the short run - what is breaking news today is old tomorrow, and so, journalists write in whatever style is acceptable at the time.

right. my eyes are behaving like walter's habitually do. goodnight, before i forget.

today was quite a blehh day. except that i attended a talk about US universities at around 5 to 7, which was quite interesting! Grads from UMich, UIUC, UVA and Harvard came to talk to us. i took notes, so below is a summary of whatever they presented:

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

• not really applicable cos they're strong in accounting and engineering
• quite cheap fees
• weather is extreme: winter can be as cold as -20 to -30 degrees!

University of Michigan

• biggest soccer stadium in US
• a lot of distinguished alumni! eg Larry Page (Google) and the founders of Borders Books
• Their Ross School of Business ranked 1st in US by Wall Street Journal
• according the powerpoint, their liberal arts college is not too bad as well
• one of the largest singaporean communities in US unis
• http://admissions.umich.edu

University of Virginia (UVA)

• Business Week Online rankings: 2nd
• founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 (random comment: the same year Raffles landed on SIngapore)
• #2 public uni in US
• -5 degrees is lowest temp so quite good weather
• full tuition scholarships like the Jefferson Undergrad Scholarship available, but hard to get
• strong in accounting, finance
• commerce school is very popular
• summer school, where you get to go some other country to pursue somehing related to your major (eg this guy went to Tibet to assess its impact on China, he's doing politicla science or something)
• "honour code" you actually get to bring finals exams back home and hand it up at the end of the week!!!!!
• sororities and fraternities, secret societies oO

Harvard

• quite extreme weather as well
• oldest US uni
• more grads than undergrads (12000 to 6750)
• undergrad liberal arts college is Harvard College
• cross-classes with MIT
• 8-10% int'l students (avg 2-3 frm S'pore each year)
• need-blind admissions, need-based aid
• house life is good

Yale

• very liberal
• biggest LGBT population in US unis (LGBT meaning lesbian, gay, bi- and trans-sexual, for the uninitiated)

yep thats about all the relevant stuff i have. for more info eg SATs please check the uni webbies.