• I’m back. And I haven’t forgotten you! Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and all sorts of vile will come out of that.

  • I’m away next week. See you on the other side.

  • “i am GOD of timetables” she writes, in response to successfully enrolling for uni this year. One of her most timid status updates, I’ll admit. There have been worse ones.

  • AH, the pain! Even asking to meet over coffee still hurts. It’s like asking the other party to meet an alien.

  • I’ll spare the details on how to eliminate the paper trail. Too nerdy for here.

  • Remember how I talked about XL a few days ago? The wannabe name changer? Well I heard from a friend that he recently knew about some covert observation on him, set up by his parents.

    Which leaves me to wonder, fuck, who else associated with him has been SPIED upon?

    Time to cut the paper trail. I can share some ways to do it, but it’s like going cold turkey. Gosh that will be hard.

  • What fascinates me at the moment is the change is preferred social activities as we get older. Of course the turning point is when one turns 18; the pubs and clubs are now open to you.

    I’m not a pub or a club person, and that worries me. Most people who I associate with are. You can say all you want about not needing to conform, I’ll wait. Either I’m stubborn about this or I should make an effort to change.

    I don’t want to change, I suspect you don’t want to either. You know something, I’d much rather dinner with friends or a theatre show or an ‘out there’ film. The other thing is, I’m terrible at staying awake past midnight. Go figure.

    It’s late, I can’t concentrate, but I want to know what you think. Have you noticed changes in your social activities? Do you frequent the clubs and pubs? Am I stubborn?

  • I make it quite well known that I do not like international students who do not attempt to speak English whilst studying in Australia.

    In defence, if I were to go overseas for exchange, I would do my best to learn the local language. (Of course if the teaching was in English, I would speak English at uni, and the local language in other situations)

    That being said, I think it is absolutely appalling if a student was able to go through an Australian uni speaking only minimal English because they were able to work with others from their own country the whole time.

    Shit. I’ve lost all my rage about this issue. I’ll get back to you with more on this later.

  • If you haven’t noticed, I anonymise everyone who I talk about.

  • I’ve known XL for years, and he’s changed more in the last 6 months than in the last 5 years.

    Always a bit of a ‘black sheep’, most of my friends have stuck by him. That’s good. But what struck us by surprise is his increasing disconnect with his parents.

    Now, most Asians consider family as a fairly important entity, a bit more so than Western culture.

    So XL recently said that he wanted to change his name to cut ties, in a lasting sense, with his family. Rightly so, I think he’s out of his mind.

    He’s built up a lot of rage and anger recently, I think he’ll be in the dumps soon. If I get a chance to talk to him soon, I know I can’t change his mindset, but I hope I can give him a big picture perspective of what he intends to do.

    See, I do have a heart.