I sit at my table, facing my pixellated screen with Adam Lambert's Whataya Want From Me on replay, a half-empty can of Red Bull sitting comfortably less than 5 centimeters away and "Visual Communication: Images With Messages" wide open to page thirty-seven. I have an assigned reading sixteen pages long - of color, form, depth and movement - by far the most interesting reading I've read in a long while. At least one that's caught and retained my dismal attention span for far longer than it's been in quite some time. The roomie's the DJ for the night shift and hasn't returned yet. The Skype Chat with the love of my life has been put on hold - giving me some time for proper reading time. I type, in between minute sips of Red Bull to sustain myself, already exhausted from the day's activities.

The iTunes playlist has been set to Shuffle - Coldplay comes on. One thing lovely about their music's that it automatically fits in anywhere, anytime. Especially for quiet nights with long pockets of time specially set aside for catching up on the never-ending responsibility that is academic work.

Lifehouse comes on - Whatever It Takes. Such strong lyrics expressing regret, begging, a broken relationship. Indeed, the fragility of it all. After a while though, such over-played songs morph into background music; its lyrics - heard too often - lose their meaning.

Demi Lovato begins to scream through my speakers. Such angsty, teenybopper rock songs are in such contrast to the quality soft rock tracks I have trained my ears to be accustomed to. Again, I find myself paying no attention to the lyrics - what else but a combination of love and angst could teenybopper rock tracks contain anyway?

"Hello, my friend, we meet again. It's been a while - where should we begin? Feels like forever. Within my heart are memories of perfect Love that you gave to me. Oh I remember... when you are with me, I'm free. I'm careless, I believe. Above all the others, we'll fly. This brings tears to my eyes - My Sacrifice." Ah, the familiar sounds of a song that's grown older with me.

Skypeing with the love of my life never fails to amuse me somewhat. Especially after being compared to the Bubble game and hearing yelps coming from a house full of men.

Moving on, Twenty-Seven minutes after midnight, Visual Communications calls out to me once again. I should get back to covering the sixteen page reading before my Red Bull burst wears out.

The iTunes playlist has been put on hold in favour of Skype. The wonders of technology - that they seemingly have the ability to bring someone so far away so close, yet at the same time maintaining the cold, long distance.

I have always dreamed of being that superhero
To fly right in and somehow save the day
And I have always wanted to be more than I could be
But seemed to fall and somehow lose my way

But the day Your love stepped in
Was the day my life began

'Cause You make me shine, You make me soar
You make me everything I never was and so much more
You give me strength
You let me stand
And I don't have to move a mountain but I know I can
'Cause You make me the best man

Even through my weakness
You know who I am
And You give me amazing grace
That I don't understand
There are no words
That could ever describe
The glory of the beauty of You in my life

Because You gave your love to me
I'm the best that I can be

'Cause you make me shine
you make me soar
you make me everything I never was and so much more
you give me strength
you let me stand
And I don't have to move a mountain but I know I can
'Cause you make me the best man

I would never be the same
Cause you have changed everything
From the man I was to the man that's standing by Your side

'Cause you make me shine
You make me soar
You make me everything I never was and so much more
You give me strength
You let me stand
And I don't have to move a mountain but I know I can
'Cause you make me the best man

Fatigued from work and the long, insane travelling hours, I’m beginning to ask myself – At the end of the day, what am I doing all of this for?

I could be spending more time with friends, could be spending more time on my readings, could be having more “me” time, could be doing more of this, could be doing more of that.

But yet, I still decided to go back. People say they hardly see me around – which is true, I’m either in school or at work. Even those in school, whom I’m undeniably closer to, have stopped exclaiming how little they see of me.
I suppose life is about making compromises. One can never, as clichéd as it may sound, have one’s cake and eat it too. Sadly, I compromise time spent with close friends for work. Whatever for? To build up my portfolio because I like what I’m doing.

Yes, I do enjoy what I’m doing. I do enjoy my craft. But when the rainbow dies down and the initial hype disappears, my stand begins to waver. What if I get tired by the time I’m done with school, proper? What if I work so hard at the portfolio, only to realize at the end of it all, I am sick and tired of the industry and what it has to offer?
And I may then find myself seeking greener pastures overseas – Hong Kong maybe, but then again, how long would these bursts last?

At the end of the day, the same question remains: what exactly are you working for?

On another note, I witnessed a Taiwanese family get caught in the middle of the closing train doors, force the train doors open, push their pram (with a child in it, mind you) into the carriage and proceed to swear about the MRT system. Throughout their entire grand entrance, I stared. I stared at how blatantly ignorant they seemed about the dangers of even forcing themselves (let alone three young children) onto the train. One would wonder if they even so very much possessed the rare sense that when the train doors signal to close, one shall not rush into the train.
Such behavior left much to be desired about the said Taiwanese family and questioned their level of street sense.
Oh, and their audacity to complain about the safety of our system when they clearly showed next to no concern about their own safety.

One truly wonders what makes these people tick nowadays.

With reference to the iPad release... is Apple out to achieve world domination?

And are we destined to have our lives controlled by Apple's smart products - parallel to the mark of the antichrist? And especially in a school where MacBooks are as commonplace as water is to sea, we have all conformed - or as they say, "moved on to the dark side".

Unless I am reading too much into it, most of us (if not all in time to come due to peer pressure) have succumbed to the power of Apple and unknowingly use almost all their products for our daily activities. Need a phone to contact a friend? iPhone. Oh, in fact, it doubles up as a camera and internet browser too. Need music for that long ride? iPod. There's even iPod touch nowadays. Need a laptop? MacBook Pros are all over the world. Oh, now we have an oversized iPhone - the iPad.

Let's face it. Sooner or later, Apple is going to rule the world.