Ubiquitous

Elie Saab Haute Couture And Others

// January 29th, 2008 // 10 Comments » // Academic, Fashion

I rarely write fashion posts for fear of sounding superficial or clich/e. But I recently came across Elie Saab’s Spring 08 Haute Couture collection in my RSS feed and it’s just absolutely gorgeous. Here are my few favourites.

Even the Elie Saab Ready-to-Wears stand out from the crowd.

Other than that, I really like Andrew GN.

Anyone else notice that the sunshine yellow is really popular this season? Favs from Derercuny.

Dolce and Gabana below. Hmm… looked nicer in the ads haha. And why is this Ready-to-Wear and not Haute Couture?!

Hmm… I just noticed that there is a very distinct style that I prefer in clothes. Let’s see if the trend continues. Versace.

Yea yea yea, I’m purposefully throwing in a lot of sunshine yellows to prove I’m right =D More Versace

And to finish it off with some of my favs from the Armani collection.

I love how they’re playing around with the idea of suits for femme, and adding a lot of glam to it.

Okay, enough runway shots… before I scare everyone away. Schoolwise, math HL and history mock exams were surprisingly… easy. Math especially, guess studying hard actually pays off. I think the class average will be 60-70%, and if I’m lucky I’ll slip by with an 80%. In my Math HL class, that means a 6 on the IB Scale and at least an A. Sometimes hard teachers come in use… because the rest of the class end up failing . I heard last year only two people out of thirty passed the mock in HL, and supposedly we’re the smartest kids in the school, HA!

French and English Mock tomorrow, Chem on Thursday, Physics on Friday.

Popularity: 38% [?]

CRAM CRAM CRAM

// January 17th, 2008 // 11 Comments » // Academic, Quotables, World for the Week

Ah, so the dreaded IB Mock Exam season is upon us. So are the English Oral Exams. So are a bizallion other things. A lot of people are going out of their minds right now walking around dazed holding a thick package of Yeats poems in one hand, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in the other. Basically, the Oral Exam is a mandatory External Assessment. We’re given 18 poems (Yeats and Heaney), 1 novel (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf), 1 memoir (Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje) and 1 play (Julius Caesar, choices depend on the school). During the exam, we randomly draw a 30-50 line package from the available 80 or so choices, get 20 minutes to prepare notes, and then have 15 minutes to analyze the passage and answer questions. Everything is taped on a cassette and sent to the IB Headquarters in Switzerland. Since I’m in Higher Level English, we’re expected to do about 200% more than the Standard Level people in terms of materials to be covered and depth of analysis. What a pain in the ass. I’m presenting tomorrow at 2:50 pm. DON’T GIVE ME JULIUS CAESAR OR ONE OF HEANEY’S OBSCURE POEMS. THANK YOU.

Has anyone seen the new Macbook Air? I don’t care about its functions and whatnot since I rarely buy Apple products, but look-wise, it’s stunning.

And isn’t the slipcover just adorable?

Haha yes, I’m all into the aesthetics and design!

Here’s how my next few weeks look.
Fri. Jan 18 - English Orals, Physics Test, 2 Labs Due, French Performance
Sun. Jan 20 - Youth Parliament Cabinet Meeting
Mon. Jan 21 - History Paper 1 Due
Wed. Jan 23 - Math HL Test on Solids of Revolution (Calculus)
Fri. Jan 25 - NO SCHOOL, STUDY!!
Mon. Jan 28 - University Alumni Interview AHH!
Tue. Jan 29 - Math HL Mock Exam, History SL Mock Exam
Wed. Jan 30 - English HL Mock Exam, French SL Mock Exam
Thur. Jan 31 - Chemistry SL Mock Exam
Fri. Feb 1 - Physics HL Mock Exam, Math Portfolio Assignment (Wow, in one week, about 80% of our term mark is decided!)

Surprisingly I haven’t been over-the-top stressed. Other stressed people are keeping me sane. And to finish off with a quotation…

Math HL Teacher: —–, you’re sleeping in my class again. Did your girlfriend keep you up last night?! *roars of laughter*
Student: *quietly to self* No, I was having a Menage A Trois with Yeats, Mrs. Dalloway, and Julius Caesar.

Ahh… gotta love math class!

Popularity: 3% [?]

New Year Activities

// January 9th, 2008 // 11 Comments » // Academic, Fashion, Personal, Wordless Wednesday

Baked: peanut butter oat bars (see recipe) I’m surprised at how much ingredients I had readily available at home.

Ate: Plain sushi and Californian rolls. Mum’s first attempt of making them was a complete success!

Bought: Hoodie from Garage (pics as close as possible), print dress from Costa Blanca, and brown belt from Suzy Cher. Call this my post-unable-to-get-anything-on-Boxing-day splurge. Don’t you hate it when after Boxing Day, only the Large and Xtra Large sizes are left?! What about us small people, grr!

Addicted to: HOUSE. Can’t believe it took me till now to settle down and watch it. Episodes of House interspersed with university application essays completely saved my sanity. Finished season one, woot!

Neglected: Solids of revolution in integral calculus, BAHHH!

And that’s what I’ve been doing so far in the New Year. Oh yea, speaking of calculus, yesterday I fell asleep as soon as I got home (6pm), napped for 5 hours, got up at midnight and did 2 hours of calculus, then went back to sleep . I forsee much more of this in my IB future.

P.S. - My minicity is born!

Popularity: 3% [?]

SAT Scores are Online

// October 25th, 2007 // 13 Comments » // Academic

Bloody hell… my total from the October testing actually went down compared to the May one.

Combined total
Critical Reading: 700
Math: 800
Writing: 760
Total: 2260

The total score went up by 40 from the last test (yay for perfect on math… the first time with a 770 was a disgrace). I studied SO hard for reading, and yet it only went up by 10 point. Everyone I know bombed Writing this second time…. ahhhhhh. My boyfriend got a lower score than me in the October testing but managed to land a combined score of 2340. He just HAD to check it in front of me this smorning *grrr* ah well, at least he’s Yale-bound, I’m happy for him. He said he didn’t deserve his high 770 in CR and I didn’t deserve my 700 because I studied so much more than him. Guys somehow always managed to pull of a higher score with less studying AKSDFJDKJ.

The Early Decision deadline for the University of Pennsylvania is less than a week away. Oh god, I still have two one-page essays to write, so stressed out! I just got my 4000 word Extended Essay out of way today (Supervisor said she liked it, yay!) I often wonder what I’m doing applying there with such low SAT and IB scores.

Popularity: 2% [?]

In Full Swing

// October 18th, 2007 // 4 Comments » // Academic, QOTW

They say once the ball starts rolling, it just keeps gathering momentum until May of next year. I’m in the midst of getting recommendation letters, filling out university forms, and obtaining transcripts. On top of that, I’m juggling contract work and a full course load. It never ends.

I got my transcript today… it’s both sad and amusing. When I was in Regular (or Enriched) in grade 9, I had an average of 94 for the whole year. Pre-IB, 90. IB Year 1 (grade 11), 88. ARGH. Those admission officers better take my hellish course load into consideration. Thank god I did summer school… I can’t believe I took 11 courses in my grade 11 year.

I spent the last weekend typing (5 hours on Friday and Saturday, 7 hours STRAIGHT on Sunday) a Math Portfolio for Higher Level math. The topic? Modelling logistic functions to determine sustainable fish population, with references to the chaos theory (see here). I think teachers forget that WE’RE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL for God’s sakes.

I meant to write a few articles here, but never had the time. My blogs lack coherent structure as well, ah shucks. Upcoming deadlines include 3 scholarships on Oct 31st, Early Decision app on Nov 1st, Extended Essay on Nov 5th, more Univ Apps on Nov 31st, SAT II on Dec 6th (?), and all U.S. Univ apps on Dec 31st. Bloody hell, this better be one of my last mark/deadline/IB/Univ-oriented posts. Surprisingly I’m handling this year pretty well, so far. Less complaining, more getting down to work.

Going to see Elizabeth tomorrow, starring Cate Blanchett. See, I have a life! (The little voices in my head are saying, Nice try Crystal…)

Question of the Week: Well, more like request, for the ladies out there, what’s your favourite store to shop for Prom Dresses (and likewise suits for the gentlemen)? Any favourite designs/brands/colours? My grad photos on less than a month away and I STILL haven’t bought a dress yet!

Popularity: 2% [?]