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I felt I had used up my quota of yearning

NP: Roger Waters - "Radio K.A.O.S."

I'm pretty sure I'm one of only like three people on the planet who like this album (the others being my friend Dave, and Roger Waters himself). But that's alright, because it really is excellent. The whole anti-war, anti-nuclear proliferation angle (it was the late '80s after all) in some of the lyrics seem pretty prescient at the moment, as well:

When the cowboys and Arabs draw down
On each other at noon
In the cool dusty air of the city boardroom
Will you stand by a passive spectator
Of the market dictators
Will you discreetly withdraw
With your ear pressed to the boardroom door
Will you hear when the lion within you roars
Or will you take to the hills

Anyone? I suppose a big chunk of "Amused to Death" also hits the mark, what with the whole examination of war televised on CNN, and the modern tendency for us to see war in some far off place as a video game that doesn't personally affect us.

I dunno, Waters is easily one of my two or three favorite lyricists. And that's even if you ignore the stuff he wrote for the Floyd (though I'd almost classify "The Final Cut" as his first solo LP, despite various Floyd members playing on it). But his solo albums in particular are amazing. He has this knack of tying the political and personal, the world view and first hand view together.

In any case.

I meant to update at some point yesterday, but I didn't have a moment to spare. I've been working my butt off the past two days, doing analysis and coding for this emergency query performance fix. Since I have working knowledge of the procedures in question, one of the chief engineers grabbed me (his joking words: "won me in a poker game") to do some of the work. Put in an hour and a half of overtime yesterday. Might have to do a bit today, too, but I'm not sure yet. In any case, things are going well. I'm very busy, but it's a good busy, you know?

It's snowing again. Granted, it's only now started sticking to the pavement, but still. I'm ready for warm temperatures, nice breezes, spectacular evening thunderstorms, and that rush of ozone that always hangs in the air after a solid spring rain.

Things between Erin and I feel a million times better at the moment, much better than they have in a few months. It feels like our weekend apart was the culmination of us getting back on proper terms, back to the way we should be. Because, really, there's no use fighting, and bad feelings need to get resolved as quickly as possible. I want to be with her, doing good things and being constructive -- I want to laugh, smile, kiss, hold her, and stay up talking about everything under the sun.

Which reminds me, she guessed her anniversary present already. It was so cute how excited she was. She kept at guessing for ages, too, until she got it, which was really impressive. I think I now know for sure what I'm doing for her for Valentine's Day, too. That's also good, as I hate waiting till the last minute for things.

Now I should go find something for lunch before I have to get back to work. Woo.

then / now