Yesterday once more

I've been quite preoccupied recently, and not with my usual philosophical wanderings. Now that I'm finishing up here in Aussieland and about to embark on the Great Journey Home, I've been thinking about all the friends I once knew, especially the ones I've lost contact with one way or another.

Anyone who really knows me (and I use the present tense here, since I've presumably changed somewhat from the person I used to be) would probably know that I try as hard as I can to live in the present.

It's not that I don't miss the old days.

Nor is it that I don't wonder what the future brings.

I just feel that while it's my past that has brought me here, it's the choices I make right now that will get me anywhere in the future.

So entrenched am I in the present, that slowly but surely, my past starts slipping from me. Even memories start slowly fading away. Just ask wen; she'll attest to the number of people I've mysteriously forgotten.

And while keeping my attention on the right-here-right-now makes me more flexible and responsive to the events happening in the present (so I hope), it irks me that this seems to be a by-product of such mentality. Because these people used to be my friends.

I'm actually quite worried my long-term memory may be failing. My mind is my most prized possession, so any kind of brain defect scares me to the core. Maybe I should go see a doctor about it...

So here's my current wish list. I'm not looking forward to a new desktop, or for Stover to finally finish writing his latest novel, or even to discover new ideas that can make me question myself (which used to be near the top).

Instead, I just hope to meet up with these people again, have a chat, find out what they've been up to, know they're doing great (no particular order):
clive+wen+xing, shaun+adr+yj, ailing+zhan+koksiew+angie+zhiyang, shijia+diah+meiyun+sloem, daniel+yy+jianming, tcw+frankie+skum+nick+leonard, edmond+archer, boba+butterfly+ewok+yoda+maul, yp+zy+maomao+tk, woon+ghim+sotong+brian, fee+shu+xiaohui, sert+merv, boo+des