Beginning of the end...

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

Sums up Year 12, doesn't it? First 18 years of our life over...tomorrow is the rest of your life. Guess we better make the most of it. You only live life once, after all. Gotta make my mark, then get out of here...the illness is life, the cure is death.

Can't believe that, 13 years ago, I was some kid in Prep who had glasses and couldn't do anything very well. Now all that's different is...I need glasses, and I still can't do anything very well. ^^ How times change...

I guess the aim of this blog was to try and explore my past, and in some respects come to terms with many of the things that happened in my life so that I can face tomorrow confident that I have mastered the past. It truly is so that he who controls the present controls the past, and he who controls the past controls the future.

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Congratulations to every with cross country today :) Guess we'll find out the results on...Monday? And while every house can't come first, I wish we didn't have losers...today, everyone was a winner.

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Memory of the day: Final assembly, Grade 6. The entire class stood outside the hall afterwards holding on to each other, hugging, crying, shaking hands. Even me. Song of the day is my graduation song :)

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Today is the 70th anniversary of Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany, thereby beginning the Second World War. I think Australia was the next country to declare, about 30 minutes after Chamberlain announced it to the world via shortwave radio. Also happens to be Legacy week this week. I encourage everyone to go buy a badge and support our diggers. Lest We Forget.

Today

I was going to just write "Rien" and leave today's blog otherwise empty, but I realised that'd be unfair...so I'm going list out all the things I'm looking forward to this year.

October 1st - 60th anniversary of the declaration of the People's Republic of China. Should have a massive parade in Beijing - looking forward to it!
October 15th - Annual Ceremonial Parade
October 16th - Officers' Dinner
October 22nd - Muckup day. Time to start planning...
November 18th - VCE 3/4 exams finish (for me)
December 1st - Last speech night
December 3rd - Valedictory dinner
December 4th - 18th birthday

I'm pretty sure that covers everything. Can't wait for this year to be over...but I'm going to miss it. Well, actually, compared to last year, this year is easier schoolwise, but far worse socially. I'm going to miss being a kid.

Memory of the day: Personal news presentation for grade 3. I was so lacking in ideas that I wrote a story about playing cricket with my family in the front yard. It was absolutely shit. But, for my family, that was about as much together time as we got. And then in grade 5, Dad left and went to China with sister, and life's been pretty shit since then. Sure, I barely had a father figure before then, but having none at all is just crap.

Colourblindness

Congratulations to anyone who got a Services award :)
Hope you got your Formal photos today; if not, check out the Hockey Pavilion on Friday. Remember your money!
I hate my laptop.
My headphones suck.
I had an argument with a close friend and the world is going to shit.

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If you grow up being taught that a specific colour is "red", but someone else is taught that it is "green", while in reality they are both the same colour...then who is right? If each truly has an inherent belief that they are correct, then neither is lying. If that is so, then both must be telling the truth. But how can they both be telling the truth if it is a mutually exclusive event? The colour is obviously either "red" or "green". Thus, either different realities exist for different people, or something must exist other than right and wrong, or true and false, or yes and no. At the same time, this something else must also be an absolute, not a "maybe".

Reality is all about perception. How you see the world around you defines what you believe. Even if that brings you into conflict with other people's perceptions, it doesn't mean either of you is wrong...rather, simply that different people live different lives in different worlds. So it's entirely possible that religion isn't a lie...but that doesn't mean it's not mass delusion.

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Memory of the day: This isn't really a memory, but today is such an important day that I'm waiving that...
1st September, 1939
The Invasion of Poland
60 German divisions with 9000 guns and 2750 tanks, supported by 2300 warplanes, crush Polish resistance within two weeks. It is the continuation of the Great War, which paused 20 years earlier. Now begins the March of the Dictators in a war far more terrible.

Lest We Forget.