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NP: Idlewild - "The Remote Part"

Erin and I are seeing 'em two weeks from today. Very exciting. I mean, by all rights they should be huge here, and they should be playing arenas or at least mid-sized theaters. But of course, they're not, and I get the satisfaction of getting to see them in a tiny-ass club.

And just a reminder, people such as myself who voted Green in the last presidential election are not at fault for electing GW Bush. I know I beat that horse dead many months ago, but it bears repeating since I keep reading things like this. Remember, people who voted Green wouldn't automatically have voted Democrat otherwise. Don't assume that had Nader not existed, those votes would've gone to Gore. So yeah, don't bitch at me, bitch at the people out there voting Republican -- they're the ones who elected Bush. Well, I suppose technically that Supreme Court idiocy elected appointed Bush, so yeah...

Yesterday evening it was nearly springlike outside, 50 degrees, mild and all that, and when I woke up this morning, there was a bit of snow on the ground and it looked pretty cold out there. When I went to leave for work, I discovered that there was a horrible little glaze of ice completely coating my car. It's that really terrible type of ice -- just enough that you have to scrape it off, but not enough to really be easy to remove. So, I spent like ten minutes hacking away at the layer, eventually getting enough off to see where I'm going.

I've never truly come to grips with the terms "postmodern" or "post-rock". I'm not sure if they imply futurism, or if they're simply stating that they are the next evolution past modern, or rock. Though, really, wouldn't something postmodern just be, well, modern, simply by the fact that it's the most current thing out there, and wouldn't you just then recalibrate the classifications of everything prior? I dunno, it's all just semantics to me, I suppose. I'm sure the terms have perfectly valid meanings to people who use them, but to me it just reeks of pretentiousness. Especially "post-rock". That always gets me. Stuff described as "post-rock" is almost always still played with guitars and drums and bass, and maybe some keyboards. It's not like it's Neptunian xylophone music or something similarly extraterrestrial. It's just slower, arguably more experimental rock music. Just please, never ever use the term "post-rock" to allude to something with progressive rock tendencies. Call a spade a spade, eh?

You know, I could really play some Pac-Man right about now.

I'm enjoying my current work assignment. Well, the battle with bureaucracy from the other day was a pain, but otherwise, it's a pretty good gig, it's like being a data detective. I have a steady flow of things to work on, yet nobody bothers me about it. I just report in when I have questions, or when I've finished some analysis and pass my findings along. I appreciate not being micromanaged. I've been on projects where it's been like that, and it's nightmarish. I understand the need for knowing current status, but at the same time, I'm a more efficient worker when nobody's breathing down my neck.

I need a haircut very badly. I think I'm going to stop somwhere on the way home and see if I can get a trim.

I drank far too much coffee earlier this morning, which has made me stupidly hyper. But it was good coffee -- coffee I brewed myself, not a cup grabbed from the gas station. That gas station is so strange. Regardless of the name ("Phil Mart"), there are always weirdos hanging about. Most of them are the people who work there. There's this lady with glasses and a ponytail, maybe 35 years old, who's usually staring off into space. Takes ages to get her attention so you can pay for stuff. Then there's this younger guy with crazy sideburns, maybe in his mid-to-late 20s, who's always there, whether he's working behind the counter, or just hanging out. Regardless of his function on any given day, he's usually hitting on the girl with glasses, at least that's what it seems like. She seems oblivious, or maybe just humoring him, but he's very gung-ho. In addition to those two, there's usually a cop hanging out near the register, drinking coffee and talking with the workers. There's almost always a delivery guy about somewhere, too. This shop is really tiny, so just imagine how crowded it gets with two or three clerks, a cop lounging about, a delivery guy dragging around an unwieldy dolly, and anywhere between one and four customers trying to squeeze around everyone else. It's pure madness. But at the same time, it's fantastic.

Heh, there are now two guys in my lab with ponytails. The geek factor just increased exponentially. I mean, the guys-who-have-beards count currently stands at three (four and a half if you count my friend with the goatee, as well as the one engineer who's elsewhere in the building), which is probably already driving the computer nerdometer to its limits. Seriously, all I need now is to see someone actually wearing a pocket protector, and it'd all be complete.

Just looked at the clock -- I can't believe I've babbled on for so long. I've been working the whole while I've had this entry cooking, but in any case, I should get back to all that anyway. Later gators.

then / now