Friday, January 26, 2007
Now that Blue Monday is well behind us...
(by which I mean January 22 and not the New Order single)

...let's share some cheery news.

1) Kiplinger's released its latest ranking of the 100 Best Values in Public Colleges. UNC-Chapel Hill topped the list for the sixth straight time. The reporters believe that the major increases in public school tuition over the last several years is likely to moderate going forward.

2) Princeton will hold tuition steady for the first time in 40 years. Room and board fees will increase. Overall, the total cost of attendance is about $44,000 a year, while the average annual grant to a first year student on financial aid is $30,000. This could still leave many students with a large debt load, but it is a marked improvement over the past. Hopefully more Ivies and other private schools will look at how Princeton is managing its endowment and follow suit.

And on the personal front...

3) I indulged in some relatively frugal entertainment last night. The auto show was in town, so I stopped by for a visit. Thanks to a coupon, my ticket was only $6. For that $6, I saw:

  • A set by a local band that I'd been meaning to check out
  • A "magic show" to demonstrate the wonders of flex-fuel vehicles, at which I got free popcorn
  • the wacky Ford Airstream concept...CUV, or whatever they're calling not-minivans these days
  • the super-duper integrated audio system in the Volvo S80 (would I buy one? Probably never. Would I sit in one and pretend for a little while? Heck yes.)
  • a vendor selling off-brand accessories for all types of home and car audio. So I finally found an iPod charger for half off retail!
All told, I think it was pretty good bang for the buck.

This weekend, I'm going to use some coupons from my gifted Entertainment book and try to see another Oscar movie. I'm thinking Last King of Scotland, but it depends on which films are showing nearby.

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4 Comments:

Blogger English Major said...

Hey there--I finally got around to linking you up. Sorry it took so long; I was kind of burned out on that latest round of layout renovation. Speaking of new layouts, I think yours is awesome. Very appealing (though it does require a little horizontal scrolling).

Blogger HC said...

EM--I think the layout is optimized for a screen resolution of 1024x768, rather than 800x600. I went with that because it's a more common viewing choice. When I tested it in 800x600, it seemed not to cut off TOO much, so I hoped people wouldn't mind. Let me know if the side-scroll gets too annoying, and I'll see what I can do.

Oh, and I never expect people to add me to their roll right away (or even at all). But thanks for the link!

Blogger Cash Money Brother said...

New Order is a great band, I have them on my MP3 and home play list.

We planned on going to the autoshow on sunday. But I chickened out, I just got done paying off my car, didn't want to hop into another depreciating asset. I know you don't buy cars at the show, but it's kind of hard not to schedule a test drive after seeing some of the new models.

Blogger HC said...

CMB--Congratulations on paying off your car!

I really didn't have the urge to schedule any test drives myself. I sort of treat auto show models as museum exhibits, I guess. (But I wish other people would do the same; people had stolen all SORTS of random stuff out of the cars. "Congratulations, you just snuck out with...a Mazda shifter knob. Whee.")

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