Signal Fills the Void

I'm sure than anyone who may or may not be reading this knows how it feels when you're tired... so fucking tired that you cannot get any restful sleep. I've slept for 4, maybe 5 hours total over the last two nights, and whereas I could once push myself through that lack of sleep without problem, it's getting more and more difficult as I age. Not only is my body tired, but my soul is just drained, exhausted, and lifeless. I thought all of the exhaustion that accompanies a semester of grad school would dissipate a few days after the semester ended, but it has been a few weeks since I turned in my research paper (the research paper on missile defense that raised me from an B+/A- in US Foreign Policy to a grand A!) and that hasn't happened yet, and I am more exhausted than ever.

There won't be much sleep coming tonight, so I'm looking to tonight's activities to rejuvenate my restless spirit, much like the Wolves in the Throne Room/A Storm of Light/Krallice show did a couple of weeks ago. Seeing Isis and Pelican should do the trick, at least for a while. Perhaps this is too much to expect from one concert, but there's something about Isis's new album Wavering Radiant, their entire back catalog, and Pelican's collected body of work that has led me to believe that this one night of live music could ease the constant tension on my heart and soul. There's one catch, though - I may HAVE TO hear Isis play "Hall of the Dead" and "In Fiction," and Pelican will certainly be REQUIRED to play "Last Day of Winter." Don't let me down, boys.

The gentlemen in opening band Tombs would be pleased, perhaps, to hear that I expect nothing from them. Not that they're not a good band - they are - but they don't get to me the way Isis and Pelican do.

My little kidlets are doing their best to (unintentionally) keep me smiling, as they always do. I mean, how could this not make you smile:



Or this:




They are such good girls. It also helps that they love one another.


... I love them to death - I mean, more than anything in the world. But there's something to be said for some silence once in a while, too. Having two kids running around doesn't leave much time for quiet reflection - something that has been in short supply. I'm looking to my upcoming trip to Minnewaska - my favorite place in the world - to provide the quiet and solitude that I need.

It also doesn't hurt that somehow I've actually managed to form what seem to be meaningful friendships ((** GASP **)) over the internet. You know who you are (that's not supposed to sound so foreboding). Thanks for being cool.

The 99 Toyota Corolla leaves for Northampton in t-minus 4 hours or so, and since this is the quiet (and I mean COMATOSE) period of the year at work, I can fill those four hours with music as loud as my laptop speakers get.

Here's hoping the boys rock out with their cocks out!