Two exams to go. My last ordeal for this semester has begun. If this were the X-Men I'd be feeling my mutant senses kick into gear about now. Embedded Systems later today should be a bad joke, but Information Network Systems, the final boss of my exams, has me slightly worried. I think I should reread Kafka, there are some hard lessons about the structures of this world I still need to have rammed down my throat.

I've noticed that since I started titling the entries on this page there's been a slightly more emphatic theme of negativity. Huskdom, anti-solidarity, very human anger, goaders, democracy is a crock. What a lovely list it is. My theory explaining the gloominess of my titles: a synopsis is a summary of a larger narrative. A title is a synopsis of a synopsis. And since the propaganda disseminated by the institutions of my mind (yes, my mind is institutionalised) tells me that life is an archipelago of tiny atolls of happiness occasionally breaking the surface of an ocean of ancient, poisonous misery, by the time we get to the summary of a summary of existence it's rather hard to see the isles for the black, breaking waves.

It's at times like these it's wise to remember that one hasn't always felt this way, and that one's current condition is subject to sudden changes for the better when nice things happen like one's exams ending. And so I look forward to the me of tomorrow afternoon bearing remarkably little resemblance to the me of this morning, and probably not whining about synopses of synopses of human life looking like pools of black misery. I'm not titling this entry.

I'll conclude with a brief message to Jen, who is off to Vienna tomorrow:

Jen:

The music is weaving
Haunting notes, pizzicato strings
The rhythm is calling
Alone in the night as the daylight brings
A cool empty silence
The warmth of your hand and a cold grey sky
It fades to the distance

The image has gone only you and I
It means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna!
Ultravox, 'Vienna'

I doubt you've heard the song (it was released in 1981), but it seemed appropriate. Have fun. You'll be pleased by how much cooler foreign countries are than Australia. And if you meet a really cute Austrian guy who can fight like a Saiyan, I'm sure Chas won't mind if you go astray. I might not make it to the party tonight at all, since studying for my final exam is going to occupy rather a lot of my time.

Tom.
P.S.: Send me a postcard, or at the very least an email.