One unique thing I can really say about this week is that it passed, at least to the point I write this, remarkably fast; I’ll take it.

Work’s been work, apart from the absolute shit briefing on Thursday afternoon; ’nuff said. I’ve been hiking rather than biking this week for my fitness/stress relief; partially for a change, partially because weather has been iffy for biking (it’s either way too hot or way too wet). It’s been nice; each the days I’ve gotten out so far I’ve done three miles or so at a different local park along the James and it’s associated marshes/watersheds, seeing lots of pretty dragonflies and and logging some km in the Niantic AR games (Wizards and Pokemon), because if the phone’s in the pocket anyway, why not (it also helps me track my distance)?

I’ve also started working on some downsizing of possessions and media (old CDs, books, comics, and DVDs), because my house is only 1400 sq. feet and there are lots of living things in it, and this old stuff is just taking up space, really. Figuring some of it’s worth something to somebody, I ran a big load of things out to 2nd and Charles, a kind of neat used book/media/etc chain that’s got a location nearby, on Tuesday (when it was raining too much to knock out much outdoor exercise), which got a lot of stuff out of the way, and logged me some store credit, but not as much as I’d like (to be fair, it was mostly mass-market paperbacks that they sell for a buck or two, so I probably got a quarter a pop) that I can use eventually, though, it’s really only the first load of many; Once I finish the books, I’ll start working on thinning out the blu-rays, which should net me a bit more, that I can spend on fleshing out a slightly more curated pile of crap.

After last week’s wealth of paying gigs (heck, I made almost $200 playing music inside a week), it’s been quiet musically, though I did arrange a basic drum track for the next song, which is going to be much more electric than most of the other stuff I’ve recorded thus far – “Hello Friend” (my big hit?) feels like it needs to lean into the power pop feel for the studio recording, which I’ll spend some time on this weekend, I think, since there’s not much else going on.

Speaking of power pop, there’s a lot of that in this randomized musical selections; Spotify’s “weekly discovery” playlist appears to have spent some time watching MTV’s 120 Minutes circa 1988 recently. Overall, this isn’t bad; it reminds me of that cute mousy alternative-ish girl from freshman honors english class who listened to IRS-era REM and the Smiths that we nerdy types had huge crushes on but were too socially awkward to do anything about it.

Whatever. I think I managed to do pretty well in the romance department in the end; I can still dig the music:

1. “See America Right” – The Mountain Goats
2. “Apollo 9” – Adam Ant
3. “Bring on the Dancing Horses” – Echo & The Bunnymen
4. “Crater” – Gord Downie, The Sadies
5. “God” Tori Amos
6. “Son Of A Gun” – The Vaselines
7. “Best Friend” – The Beat
8. “Birth, School, Work, Death” – The Godfathers
9. “Joining A Fanclub” – Jellyfish
10. “Ladykillers” – Lush
11. “Valerie Loves Me” – Material Issue
12. “Gun” – Uncle Tupelo
13. “Starry Eyes” – The Records
14. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle” – Cake