walrus

Enlightenment has been vouchsafed me. (This new religion is efficient). My copy of Radiohead's OK Computer is not playing because it's having an identity crisis. It thinks it's a beer mat. It believes this with such conviction that it has persuaded RealPlayer that it's a beermat, so if you load the CD, RealPlayer confusedly asks you to load a CD, please, I do not want this beer mat, it is skkkkkkratched. I have performed intensive therapy with Windows Explorer; by scrutinising the D drive mercilessly, in my best theraputic manner, I have forced OK Computer to come to terms with its tragic delusional schizophrenia, and it now admits, somewhat shamefacedly, that it's a CD, and consents to play nicely with RealPlayer. Not only that, it has evidently played quite happily with RealPlayer at some stage in the distant past, since its therapy record^H^H^H track information is neatly stored. I feel both I and the CD have been somehow ennobled by this mutual journey we have undertaken, although that may simply be the lingering after-effects of discussing medieval romance with my second-years this morning. I have also realised that I have a somewhat love-hate relationship with OK Computer, which is one of those nebulous, shapeless, amorphous sort of albums which annoys me intensely by annoying me intensely and then growing on me, like moss.

I am feeling somewhat trippy. The demented sleeping patterns, i.e. the ones with absolutely no pattern, have remained true to form, inverting neatly last night so that I didn't actually get to sleep until 2am, even with drugs. And, may I add, after almost drifting off at about 1.30, only to awaken screaming on the other side of the room with my calf muscles in cramp, and convinced that the walls were closing in on me, creaking and groaning and about to collapse. There is also a strange law at play that says lying sleepless in bed from 10.30 pm to 2am is somehow approximately six times as exhausting as spending the same time, say, running a crazed role-playing game for a dozen attention-starved hyperactive ferrets. Tonight will be equally horrendous, although with slightly more logical justification, as I actually have to wake up at 2am to give telephonic character testimonial on behalf of a friend in Alaska who is facing a nasty and unfounded court-case from his ex-wife. It remains to be seen whether I can speak warmly and coherently of him from the precarious foothold of as little sleep as I've had lately...

Despite being glazed with exhaustion, I am very, very happy that both starmadeshadow and the dread travemovedy duo Jo&Stv will be back in South Africa this week. It's a desert without them. I confidently expect it to pour with rain the instant the first of them touches down in Cape Town. *adds belief to new religion*