Another week, a quick one.

Week by week, they just fly by so quickly that I'm actually starting to kinda worry about how long more to go, to the end, the end of this semester, the end of my Junior year, the end of my undergraduate study. Really, still remember that I was still back in Malaysia for the summer holidays, and then, I came back for Junior year, that was already 2 and a half months ago. YUP. That's about 10 weeks ago. That's really quick. REALLY REALLY QUICK.

And yesterday night, I started looking at what classes I should take for the coming semester. Isn't that scary. Really, in no time, I'll be done with my 2nd round of midterms, and then, come finals, and then, winter break, and then, voila --> next semester. All in a quick ride, in a snap of a finger.

Last weekend, was Halloween weekend. So, parties and all on Friday and Saturday.

Didn't really do much on Friday night, other than watching SAW III. It was alright, slightly predictable. But, it's better than the SAW II. Did some leisure drinking, and went to this party, which was too crowded. It was an OK night.

On Saturday, Michigan WOLVERINES won their home game. The weather was bad, with swirling wind, and sudden rain, and it was cold. I am really proud to say that I stayed for the entire game, wet, and cold, and hungry. (It was 5 degree Celcius out, and with moderate wind.) Because many students left, (shame on you), I managed to walk to the 4th row, and had a close view of the game. But actually, I rather to be on the 20th-30th row, because the stadium is slightly more elevated, hence, a guy, 5-7ish like me can actually watch the game. After the game, I did some homework and studying while watching other games on TV. At night, went to Meijer to get a costume. I bought a demon-ghoullish costume, and bought a toy-knife. Which was pretty cool. The party was great. A huge one, with 10 kegs of beer. Met some ex-hallmates over there. It was great. But, gosh, it was cold. Winter is really here. It's real. Go out and lick the lamp post if you don't believe me. And then, tell me that it's not cold, if your tongue don't get stucked at the lamp post of course.

Sunday... just another Sunday, did some work, and did some studying.

Monday... more studying, as I will be having Accounting midterm the next day.

Tuesday... the accounting midterm was pretty tiring. Hopefully, I didn't screw this one up. I should be alright on this one.

Wednesday... studying for IOE 452 (Corporate Finance) midterm the next day. And quiz for the next day, and some homework for the next day.


Thursday... the quiz went well, the midterm went well, at least I think it went well.

So, it's Friday today, and cool... weekend's here. Party tonight, last home game of the season tomorrow, DeepaRaya celebration tomorrow night.

So, there's this 'allegation' about the previous NST editor plagiarizing Mitch Albom's work. You can find news about this easily on jeffooi's blog. Looking at the similarities of both works, it's clearly a no-brainer. OBVIOUSLY, in my personal opinion, that's plagiarizing. In case you don't know, people of NST, plagiarize means: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source.

You know what lame explanation NST managed to come up with: It just has the resemblance, the same style, but it is a totally different context.

If two articles were entirely the same, it won't be plagiarizing, it will be copying. Here's the 'resemblance' and you can judge for yourself:

Here's one
By Albom:
If Sept. 11 was the day we never saw
coming, Sept. 10 was the day we will
never see again.
And we miss it terribly.

By Pereira:
If June 7 is the day we never saw
coming, June 6 is the day we will not
see again for a while.
And how we miss it.

Here's another:

By Albom:
We miss when politicians didn’t make
you feel that you’re one of us or you’re
one of them.

By Pereira:
We miss those days when people
didn’t make you feel that you’re one of
us or you’re one of them.

There are 5 other similarities on the article. And, to not call this an act of plagiarism, I don't know what can you call. Well, probably the theory of 3000 monkeys typing on 3000 typewriters for 3000 years can be applied here.

Come to think about it, who should we blame. The education system, the lack of transparency in the print media, the lack of a strong print media which isn't control (directly or indirectly) by a political party. Imagine this, students are punished when they were found cheating(be in copying someone else's work, or cheating in an exam) in school, but, hey, guess what, one of the major newspaper's editor can cheat and get away with it. So, next time, prolly a student can get away by saying the exact same words, and he doesn't even need to quote it from NST, since it's a different context. All he/she has to do is memorize this words: It just has the resemblance, the same style, but it is a totally different context.

Sweet!!! How I wish I was taught that? Hell no!!! I'm no cheater. And I don't agree with the saying: If you are not cheating, you are not trying. Hell NO! I'm trying, and I'm trying harder by not cheating.


So, I remembered back in high school, there were times when we need to do projects for certain subjects. And guess what, I don't recall being taught to cite our sources. Maybe that's why? I'm not sure about the syllabus now, but, hopefully, they teach our students how to cite their sources, because that's the right thing to do.


So, that's my rant. Take care!!! :)