Prickly
Craft, Photos, Site Related, Uni June 5th, 2007Semester is basically over for me, no more classes but final assessments are looming. Argh stress. Anyway, I’ve been productive today! Here’s another quickish crochet project I finished:
It’s a cactus pincushion! I made it for my mother when she expressed she wanted a pin cushion as she’s starting a big embroidery project. The first picture is when it’s still not sewn together yet, but I took a picture to show how the unfortunate positioning of the pins that keep the top and bottom together meant that I was in a prime position to get pricked if I was to graze by it as I hold. This happened often. ¬_¬
Anyway, I’m sick of this layout already! I might recycle another layout that I had up before and liked and maybe close a site. See how productive I get when I’m supposed to be doing assessments?
Oh yeah, nearly forgot! The other day I had lunch with Eileen. It was pretty cool, we had pancakes and I basically bombarded her with questions about the US education system. GOD, EVERYTHING COSTS MONEY! I was flabbergasted to hear that college APPLICATIONS costs money! What the? :O
22 Responses to “Prickly”
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Cutest pincushion ever.
Anyway, assessments schmassessments. Who needs to pass uni when you could make a living from cactus pincushions? ;)
Hi!
Nice to meet you!
Love the simplicity of your layout. :)
I also love your cactus pin cushion! And your little chickie crochet is very cute! Your very talented! :3
GAH! Cute pincushion!
And yes, US is all about the moneh… X_X;; It’s a painnnnnnnn!
Cute pin cushion.. did you follow a pattern or make it up as you went along? :D
To Amanda: Thaaank you! Heh, I think I’d need maaany pincushions to make a living off and to pay off my HECS too. :P
To Jihyun: Thank you! I’m just able to follow patterns, one day I’d love to make up something all by myself!
To Tara: I doubt if I lived in the States, I’d even afford to go to college. :(
To Jem: I followed a pattern :) I linked to it on the flickr image, but yeah, the pattern was created by Crafty Joy but I modified it slightly so it’s not so tall (my mum doesn’t have that many pins).
That is so cute. I was never good with this sort of thing. I believe I was the only one in class who nearly flunked home economic -.- (the teacher said I must cheat at art as well…).
Anyway, that pin cushion is totally adorable. If I were your mom I’d definitely use it. And it’s a cactus as well *makes adoring anime sounds*
Oh and college application cost money here as well. I’m not sure how, since the last time I applied was 4 years ago… but they do. And I remember having been horrified, especially when I heard that at the Economic University they only took the marks, and chose the first 1400 of them. Plus after they didn’t even have the decency to sort them by marks. When asked they mumbled about it not being important as long as you got it. *rolls eyes* So hypocrisy is at an overall high these days.
It’s ADORABLE!! What a cute idea ;)
I had to pay about $50 I think to apply to university last year. I don’t really know what that money goes to, since they just process it and then call you for an interview (they looked over my portfolio since I go to an art university). I also paid about $5000 in tuition this year, plus the cost of various books and art supplies. And next year I’ll need to get a Macbook Pro since I’m doing graphic design and it’s the industry standard, apparently, so there’s another $3000. By the time I graduate I’ll have paid about $40,000 in stuff I need and tuition I think. And I live in Canada, I think it’s worse down in the States.
Yup. Applying costs money. You need to make a deposit once you’re in, too. Then you start paying awful tuition fees.
I have to wonder, how they really spend this money. It’ll be about $5000 a class for me next year, and really, does one class really need that much money… times however many students will be in that class? Professors better have really good salaries…
Wait - in Australia you DON’T have to pay for everything? Gah! Why don’t I live there?
Actually, Margot’s example is pretty close to what happens in the states. I paid about $30-50 for my application, and I pay about $6000-$7000 a year in tuition. I don’t need to specifically buy a computer for this, but I do have books, and those are roughly $200-$300 a semester. So it’s not too much worse here unless you go to a private school - in that case, tuition can jump to $40,000 a year.
But I digress.
THAT IS A CACTUS PINCUSHION. OMG. I want one sooooooo bad but I would never, ever use it as a pincushion - I would use it as a friend. I want one! :D
Re college finances: In Australia our uni/college applications are free. Our uni entrance exams are free. International students usually have to pay full tuition fees for their degreee however, Australian citizens don’t have to. We have the opportunity to pay it in full or partially and get a discount or we can defer it entirely (like what I have done, I haven’t paid a single cent yet towards my degree). Deferrence means that as soon as I get a job, and get paid above a certain bracket, I have to pay back my fees to the government over time, depending on how much I earn. Currently I only pay for textbooks. So yeah, it’s quite an eye opener to see how much people overseas have to pay towards their education!! My friend Eileen apparently pays some $42,000 a year (inclusive of boarding) and I was totally agape to that!
To Kudarania: Aww thanks… hmm well your birthday IS coming up…
Yeah I forgot to say that I’m not even paying for residence this year either, I’m still living at home. And what I pay is relatively cheap compared to some other courses people take - I have a friend in nursing who can pay $700 - $800 in books alone per yer, not to mention tuition, the scrubs he has to buy and such (and that’s in the province of newfoundland which is pretty cheap compared to ontario, where I live). And another friend is studying film and she had to buy a $200 lightstick and most projects cost about $40 to do because she has to get stuff printed and developed and such. The little costs really add up.
Education in America is unparalleled. The amount of debt one accrues over a four year period is indeed astonishing. Yesterday I read about how public education is mostly free in the UK and I’m pretty sure that was the most intense anti-Americanism I’ve experienced to date.
Oh, so I was explaining this to a friend of mine who comes from HK to go to our school, and I forgot to mention that submitting SATs or SAT IIs to more than a set number of colleges/unis costs money too. Everything about our college process costs money. Everything. $270k dropped on my HS to college education so far, probably more if you count the smaller things… T___T This is why my parents own me…
Waha, so cute! xD
Pincushion is the most adorable thing ever. Creative too! Want to make me one? Haha jk I don’t get near needles XD
@Belinda - if you pay your HECS upfront, you get a 20% discount. :) Even if it’s just a partial payment of over $500, you’ll get that discount too, so if you pay $500, they’ll take $600 off your debt.
That’s why I pay all my fees up front - they’re about $2200 a semester, so I end up paying around $1800.
Is it sad that I don’t even know what a pin cushion is? x_x
How cute! :) Can’t wait till my knitting skills start producing things that are useful for my mum, lol!
That is the neatest pin cushion idea! The pins become the cactus needles! Nice job.
To Margot: Ick, I hate how much textbooks costs myself. My textbooks costs rack up to about $500-$600 a year and now I’m going to try to buy second hand textbooks to lower the cost. =/
To Sabrina: Tertiary education in Australia used to be free a few decades back I think, but now we have to make at least some contribution sooner or later. People complain about that here, but at least it’s not as bad as it is in the US. However, I don’t see the need to go “US has no education welfare therefore the US sucks”. It’ll be nice if you guys got some sort of education reform or something.
To Amanda: Oooh I didn’t know the partial payment can be as little as $500. I’ll look into it, but I doubt I’ll be able to afford to pay $500/semester as well as for my textbooks, and I don’t want to borrow from my parents. I guess it’s my fault for not having paid job. =/ Still… I’d live with the idea that a portion of my wages would be taken off to cover my HECS.
To Matt: That’s okay. :P A pin cushion is an object (usually with a soft, cottony inside) that you stick pins in. That way you won’t have pins everywhere as they’ll be stuck onto a pin cushion rather than being lost here and there.
Kat: That cactus is actually crocheted but don’t worry, I’m sure there are patterns out there that’s for a knitted pin cushion! :D
I wish I could do something as creative and artsy as that.