 |
|
3-27-03 // 10.59 am under city lights or a canopy of stars NP: Rush - "Power Windows" If your notion is to dismiss Rush as wanky, screechy stoner rock from the '70s (which is kind of the truth, at least prior to about "Permanent Waves", which is where my interest in the band truly begins), I would suggest diving back in and giving this LP a spin. It's one of their string of excellent mid-80s albums, kind of synthy, but with precision (yet mostly restrained) drumming, tempered vocals, and Alex Lifeson having discovered that guitar sound kind of like that of Andy Summers out of the Police and merged it with his already excellent soloing. The lyrical themes are decidedly human, and the overall impact is very emotional. Like I said, it's worth a shot if you think you don't like Rush. There's a "going away luncheon" today for some lady here at work. She's only even worked here for like three or so months, and nobody has mentioned why she's going. Not sure if she's been "restructured" or if she's quitting. Either way, she's more management than anything else, and my interaction with her has been extremely limited. But yeah, there's this luncheon thing today that I don't want to go to at all. I'll have to pay for a lunch I don't really want to eat, and it'll take up like an hour and a half of the day, which means I'll have to stay later this afternoon to make it up. There's nothing I love more than unsubstantiated rumors about the war in Iraq. There's this one guy in my lab who's always on top of that. I keep wanting to ask him what his news source is exactly. Maybe it's Fox News. Or maybe even some drunk guy at a bar. I dunno, at this point, I really refuse to believe what either side (side meaning not only US-UK vs. Arab vs. rest of the world, but also American liberal vs. conservative) is telling me. I read CNN, the BBC, al Jazeera, the Post-Dispatch, Indy Media and the AP wire, and I figure the truth is probably somewhere inbetween what all the various sources are telling me. Or perhaps the truth is something completely different that what's being disseminated. I think it's terribly sad that I don't feel like I can truly trust in and rely on an independent media at times like these. The change of seasons and shifting weather patterns of spring mean that I am currently suffering from one of those lovely sinus things that I tend to get every so often. Though this one doesn't seem too terrible, it's mostly a bit of drowsiness combined with allergy-like symptoms and a tiny bit of sore throat and behind-the-ears pressure. But I'm coping, and hopefully soon I'll feel much better. Erin and I took the metro to the airport last night in search of Cinnabon. According to their website, there are only like three locations in the entire area, and this seemed like the best option. So we caught the train and went out there, only to find that the stand was inside one of the gates. Since we didn't have boarding passes for a flight, we couldn't get inside. We consoled ourselves with big pretzels from another kiosk that was accessible. Either way, it was tons of fun. I mean, we could've been taking the train to absolutely anywhere or nowhere, it didn't really matter. It was just nice to talk and hang out with her, you know? It's that whole aimless summer night driving around phenomenon, only with a different mode of transport. Taking my parents out to dinner tonight for my Dad's birthday. Well, his birthday was actually on Tuesday, but this was the best day for going out. We originally thought we'd go to Chris's, but I think now we may head to Olympia instead. Best gyros in the city? Damn straight. I'm currently doing a lot of string manipulation and pre-processing type stuff at work. Which is interesting, as it's requiring me to flex some mental muscles that I haven't used for a while. It's actually like doing a bunch of those little five point daily programming exercises in a sophomore or junior level CS class. My work phone just rang with an automated opinion poll from Channel 5 about perception of the government's relaying of information to the public, as well as on the military's battle readiness and estimation of Iraq's military force. So I pushed the buttons and gave my answers. Needless to say, I feel we're being fed a fair amount of misinformation, both deliberate and accidental. I also believe that the US military underestimated the fight that Iraq would put up, and now they're having to publicly backpedal when giving status reports, saying "we never said this would be a quick conflict", when all along, that was clearly all we were being told. Ugh, I'm feeling so tired and run down this morning. Which is no good, considering I'm also having to work pretty hard. But oh well, the day will be done soon enough.
|