  SummerMagic Female Australia Summer's Calling  Take a seed it won't grow Add some care off it goes. Perfect blossom your nurture share Grow a garden for summer's air. My Poetry Journal:
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UNSW
Yesterday was spent at the horrendously wet and windy UNSW Careers and Courses Day. So did it change my mind about my preferences? Surprisingly it did. The mini-lectures that I went to all boasted about one thing - that Commerce students from UNSW are the most sought after by the industry. When I think to USyd and UTS neither of them mentioned employability, only talking about the great experience you would get from studying at their respective unis. Getting there takes longer than USyd but getting around was pretty easy and if yesterday was a show case of the worse possible scenario (i.e. umbrella's breaking, extremely strong winds, crowds of people) then it doesn't even seem that bad. Cause logically i'd think that on a relatively normal day, walking up the main path would be a lot easier and seem a lot shorter.
As for my majors, what I'll want to major in will probably change after first year but at the moment I REALLY want to do Information Systems. There is currently a big shortage of IS graduates and apparently, every graduate gets 5 to 10 offers upon leaving university and good students are always being scouted out during uni as businesses want to employ the best students before they are snapped up by another company. I know that my auntie got snapped up by an accounting firm when she was in the 2nd year of her accounting degree so I guess it happens all the time. So I was debating over whether to put USyd or UNSW as my first preference and I decided I'd make a table to compare the two:
So after looking at all that, I've decided that I will put UNSW as my first choice. If something does sway my choice I'll just simply change my preferences later. What's important is completing the UAC preference now so that I know that I've got something down rather than fretting about what to do. 
Post-HSC
If you take Monday as being the start of next week, the truth of the matter is that there are only 25 days until we graduate. I still remember this time last year I was really ready to graduate whilst others were a bit less willing. I now find that we all seem emotionally drained feeling the pressing need to move on and finally get the HSC 'over and done with'.
It's weird to think that I'll probably never see most of the grade, the school and the teachers again. In my situation my teachers have been leaving us one-by-one anyhow. First it was Mr Trip.o.lone's sudden announcement of his trip to India before Ms Pot.hoven left to have her lovely baby girl. And now Mr C Mac.kay (one of my most favourite teachers EVER) has just left for a deserved break overseas somewhere. With the grade, to be honest it's pretty hard to keep touch once you aren't all in the same place. I probably will keep in touch with the people I talk to most though. Oh and lets organise the tennis/badminton + swimming outing again! (Once summer rolls around). And it was the Open day for both USyd and UTS yesterday! I think that it was definitely well worth it. The morning was spent at USyd lectures and talking to the volunteers about my preferred course - Bachelors of Commerce and asking questions about majors, subjects etc. I found out that with the majors, we don't actually need to choose until first year is over! Cause the course is structured so that you do all the compulsory subjects first before specialising in your chosen majors so that you get a taste of everything to see what you enjoy most and what you're good at. Oooh and I discovered a major I had previously not given a second thought to: Business Information Systems. I almost didn't go to that lecture but as always, fate was on my side. I had planned to go the Finance mini-lecture, but at the last second I decided to go to BIS and when I got there, it was like a room of only 5 people cause every potential commerce student seemingly chose Finance over BIS - as I initially had. So if I could borrow a phrase, I was in a sense, taking the road less travelled. It was well worth it cause I found that this major is more creative in that you don't rely on textbooks "cause they go out of date in 2 years" but you use real case studies; cause it's about finding creative solutions in technology to help give businesses a competitive edge that competitors don't have as "whatever technology you buy, your competitor can too". So it's not about programming or networking but creative and efficient ways of using technology to help give a business a competitive advantage. Also, the lecturer said that there's a world-wide shortage making it easy to find a job. At USyd it's a very new course, developed specially at USyd to counter the world-wide shortage and every lecturer had to be head-hunted individually. I know UTS doesn't offer it but I'll wait and see with UNSW next Saturday. At the moment I'm biased towards having USyd as my first choice but I know it's partly cause I'm very familiar with the layout and facilities (having been there many, many times) whereas I've only been to UNSW once. If UNSW impresses me enough on their Open Day then my preferences will probably change but if the course is about the same then I don't really see the point of travelling for an extra 40min just cause the UAI cut-off is higher with the aura of being somehow more 'prestigious' in Business. So I'm excited about next Saturday and I'm hoping that UNSW will 'wow' me with its modern facilities and everything else it has to offer. So far my preferences look like this: 1. 511504 - B Commerce (USyd) 94.30 2. 601030 - B Business (UTS) 91.00 3. 424000 - B Commerce (UNSW) 95.20 4. 300210 - B Commerce (Macq) 82.55 5. 300227 - B Commerce-Accounting (Macq) 83.10 6. 707050 - B Business and B Commerce (UWS) 64.05 At first I was going to put my preferences in order based on UAI cut-offs cause that would sound logical. But after some thinking I realised that the UAI cut-offs fluctuate year-to-year and so who's to say that in 2009, the cut-off for USyd will remain lower than UNSW's. There's the real potential that it could possibly rise seeing as the UAI cut-offs for both universities are very close. After going to the UNSW Open Day, I reckon that UNSW will probably move up into 2nd preference and if I'm even more 'wow'ed' it'll probably be my first choice.
Personality Quiz
So, once again I find that i'm doing these personality quiz things. Gosh man, this quiz had a million questions! But here are my results:
I wasn't surprised by some answers but the ones I am surprised about are: Traditional/rebel - I would have classified my self as more rebellious. Conservative/liberal - Since when was I that conservative?? Humble/elitist - I'm not that elitist am I?? Am I? But other than that the test was pretty accurate. Try it out and post your answers, I'm interested.
Trials are over!!
Yes trials are finally over for me! So I officially have 1 afternoon to relax. I've re-borrowed Midnight's Children and planning to finish from where I left off, and I also borrowed The Persimmon Tree! It seriously looks A LOT bigger than I remembered. It's a 711 paged hardcover measuring 16cmx24cm. Now I've got one afternoon to relax...hmm what to do. I guess I'll start with this quiz off Sophia's blog!
W O U L D. Y O U . R A T H E R. 1. Pierce your nose or tongue? Tongue. 2. Be serious or be funny? Funny! 3. Drink whole or skim milk? Whole milk. Definitely. 4. Die in a fire or drown? Be enveloped in the soft caresses of the ocean. (DISCLAIMER: aforementioned statement comes from a person who has obviously not drowned before but rather enjoys using poetic-sounding lines. lol) 5. Spend time with your parents or enemies? Parents. LOL isnt that obvious?? Who'd want to spend time with their enemies?? D O . Y O U . P R E F E R. 1. Flowers or candy? Flowers. Pretty! Tulips are my favourite kind. 2. Grey or black? Grey. There are always shades of grey but only one shade of black. 3. Colour or black and white photos? Black and white looks special. 4. Lust or love? Love. 5. Sunrise or sunset? Sunset, especially during the long warm evenings of summer. 6. M&Ms or Skittles? Skittles. 7. Cool partner who doesnt talk much or geeky partner who talks alot? Cool partner who doesn't talk much. 8. Staying up late or gettin up early? Staying up late!! A N S W E R . T R U T H F U L L Y !! 1. Do you like anyone? Byakuya counts right? Right? 2. Do they know it? *sniff* no. D O . Y O U . P R E F E R. 1. Sun or moon? Moon, it's so majestic. 2. Winter or Autumn? Autumn. It's much warmer. And no frostbite! 3. Left or right? Left?? What an absurdly queer question. 4. 10 acquaintances or having two best friends? 2 best friends! 5. Sunny or rainy? Sunny! :D Warm sunny days. 6. Vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream? Vanilla, chocolate ice cream tastes fake. A B O U T . Y O U! 1. What time is it? 5:16pm 2. First Name? Livia 4. What is your birth date? -censored- 5. What do you want? A lot of stuff. Shall I roll off the list? Getting into uni, a car, house, the books on my to-read list, Mimco handbags...list goes on. 6. Nervous habit? Twisting/flicking pen before exams. 7. Are you double jointed? Don't think so. 8. Can you roll your tongue? Yep. 9. Can you raise one eyebrow? A bit. 10. Can you cross your eyes? LOL yes. R A N D O M 1. Did ya ever lie 2 avoid going with someone? Yes. 2. Ever thrown a shoe at someone? No, who throws shoes?? 3. What was the oldest someone thought you were? Someone in Cambodia asked if I was married yet. SIF, just cause Cambodians are short. 4. Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it? Twirl. LOL I've never heard of cutting spaghetti before! 5. Have you ever eaten Spam? Nope. 6. What's your favorite non-alcohal drink? Fruit punch with the little fruit pieces in it. 7. Do you cook? Yep. Dinner every second day. (I take turns with my brother). IN . T H E . L A S T . M O N T H . H A V E . Y O U ? 1. Had a b/f or g/f? Nope. 2. Bought something? Yes. 3. Sing? WHY IS THIS IN PRESENT TENSE?? IT SHOULD BE 'sung'. But yes, I have SUNG in the last month. 4. Been hugged? Yep. 5. Felt stupid? LOL Yes. 6. Missed someone? Yeah. 7. Got drunk? Nope. 8. Danced crazy? No, not crazily. 9. Gotten your hair cut? Nope. 10. Cried? Yeah. 11. Lied? Yes... Now maybe I'll start some reading. Ahhh I love reading, haven't had time to read a good book in ages.
Two Extensions Left
So my exams are almost over with only Extension English 1 and History Extension left. They're probably the hardest exams in that you are given the freedom to explore concepts and to explore your own texts and your own historians. So it may be fun as you choose what interests you personally but that also generates that bit of doubt, you know, whether or not what you've done is right.
I didn't study as much as I would have like for trials and so I have this 'screwed' feeling for all of them with the exception of Biology. The prac was harder than all the other pracs but I should have done okay. It was funny watching other people trying to cut their potato though! The prac required us to cut out 5 even potato cubes to test with different chemical pH's and so we were given two potatoes with a chopping board and serrated knife per bench. Ma.rk was my bench buddy and so I decided to use the chopping board + knife first in case he took forever it and I chopped out my five 1cm cubes in like 40seconds. Then as I was writing out my plan, out of the corner of my eye I see Si.na attempting to chop his potato in a very dangerous way. He was holding the potato from the top with 2 fingers and a thumb on opposing sides and the knife in between. If the knife had slipped either way he would have sliced part of his meat off! What's worse was that he didn't try to cut the knife like how you would with a serrated knife but tried to push down which you don't do cause the knife will slip!! Thankgoodness for him, when the knife did go through he let go of the potato in shock causing one half to roll of the bench LOL. But he wasn't the only one! There were lots of other people who obviously have never chopped anything in their lives. I mean we're almost 18, adulthood. I sincerely hope my future husband can cook. The bio written exam was also okay. I was hoping to achieve 95%+ since for me bio isn't too difficult, but I've already lost 3 marks =.= cause after the exam I realised I answered a 3 mark question wrong!! I also expect to lose single marks here and there. So I think i'll get 94% but I really do hope I see something like 96%. Oh and if I get under 90% then I'll cry cause I feel pretty confident I did well and so it'll be very hard to improve cause I won't know where I went wrong. *Fingers crossed.* Continuing on with the biological theme (and maybe I'll put in some biology stuff): The beginning part of the day was spent at the doctors cause the blisters on my fingers haven't gotten better. Well you'll never guess why (unless I've already told you). I've actaully got MILD FROSTBITE! Yep, frostbite here in Sydney. I was like ??? the first time I heard. The doctor said that I have very, very sensitive vessels in my hand and during the cold mornings my body's natural reaction was to attempt to maintain homeostasis (maintenance of a constant internal environment) by constricting the blood vessels to the tips of my fingers to stop the blood from cooling. So this then resulted in a positive feedback loop (designed to accelerate or enhance the output created by a stimulus) as my thermoreceptors (temperature detectors under skin) detected that my fingers were still cold and so blood was kept being restricted and hence the cells died, forming a blister. So now I've got a cream to aid the healing and to prevent an infection from bacteria bypassing the first line of defence, skin. I also have to wear gloves to keep my hands warm until the blisters go. I was wearing gloves before exam time anyhow, but during these past two weeks I took them off everytime I got into the hall cause I can't write quickly with them on. Ah well, compared to the diseases we had to write about in the bio exam (i.e. cholera, tetanus, influenza, athlete's foot) this isn't too bad seeing as it's not causing me any pain or permanent damage. Let's hope for a speedy recovery hey -
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