[UPDATE]
Oh yeah! When I go in, REMEMBER TO CHECK MY TWITTER! I will most likely be be updating through there, so I won't be cut off fully!
[/UPDATE]

Spent today lazing about on the sofa, reading and listening to the radio. Finished Smoke Screen by Kyle Mills. It wasn't what the synopsis offered, but it wasn't bad. Also finally finished The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure by Adam Williams. Despite the rather colourful title, it was quite a good read, and I felt for the characters who died. It is set during the turbulent times of the Boxer rebellion in China, and the plot is quite interesting.

It was on these pages that I saw a very relevant quote about war, relevant because this is the penultimate day of my life as a free man.

"...and young men and boys, as he once had been, would continue to rally round flags, and their officers would urge them on with attractive sounding creeds. Only later would they discover, if they became older and wiser, that it was the same creed, the naked struggle for power, garbed in different slogans, different uniforms, different banners."

-The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, Adam Williams

And it is quite true, is it not? Dulce et decorum est and all that. Since the beginnings of man and the beginnings of organised fighting. Basically it all means the same thing. I'm going to miss my literary side when I go in. In advance, I bid my higher intelligence a fond farewell. Haha! Cheers.

1 day and 11 hours more.

I suppose to a certain extent, my constant reading and lazing about may be seen as a desperate attempt to squeeze as much pleasure out of life as possible, or even a way to hide and run away from it all. To escape from the inevitable. It takes my mind off things.

One of which is that I have yet to receive a call from the universities yet. I tell(lie?) to myself that I submitted my application quite late, but not all hope has extinguished yet so I'm still clinging on to that.

Another is avoiding thinking about the foolhardiness of applying to the School of Art Design and Media when my (limited!) range of artistic sensibilities consists of making tiny stick figures kill and maim each other with miniature blades and automatic weapons, and generally do very bad things to each other.

They have to be laughing at my drawings, which are unequivocally CRAP. Well, honestly, SHIT really. No point blunting my words now, is there? I have really gone and put my foot in it this time. Or rather, hand. Ha-ha. Sometimes I amuse myself. Indeed.

On a side note, I have idly watched the proceedings of the Olympic Torch (Quite a fiasco, really.) throughout Europe the past few days with a rather amused eye. When I first saw the announced route, I wondered why they missed out Singapore. Watching the poor beleaguered procession limp around the great cities of London and Paris, I silently smirked.

They really should have chosen Singapore, really. I'd love to see those protesters try and pull stunts here, and get stomped on by typical Singaporean...pragmatism, shall we call it? Note that I'm not on either side here, I just feel it would be quite an...experiment.

Look at me ramble again. I suppose that in a way, one of the things I'm avoiding is my imminent loss of certain personal freedoms. It is going to be quite an experience. I have been away from home for extended periods of times before (Taiwan), but that was for pleasure. This, is different. Haha. Right now, in fact, Taiwan seems pretty much like a dream. I can hardly believe I flew over a thousand(?) km without parental supervision, but right now I am agonizing over my exile to a little piece of jungle and birdshit a few km off Singapore.

I will be out of contact (for the most part) with my friends. True, the first few months may not be that bad. But it's for two years. I know I will be missed and I will miss too. But this is a thought that ben made me realise. Soon they will be moving into uni. With schoolwork and other friends to juggle too. Two years. Will the bond of our friendship strain and wear? Will they hold?

I'm not belittling the ties we have. This thing is, it's two years. A lot can happen in two years. Can it handle the extended separation? The being in two different places? The different schedules? The different friends? The different lifestyles? For the short term, I'll hopefully be fine. But I don't usually think that way. I think long term. I'm a long term person. After all, the long term is...forever. Or however long forever seems in our puny short human lives anyway.

How now, my friends?