Happy Friday, folks. I’m mostly relieved. This week, overall, hasn’t been ridiculously excessive work-wise (it helps when most of my management, nicely distant most of the time anyway, are out bowing and scraping as part of senior leadership’s retainer for out of state site visits, and most of the public sector workforce is using today as an extra long weekend break), though I’ve got the usual “oh crap, we’re running out of hours on the contract” business (a bit earlier than usual this year, which should make it a bit more manageable), and the last-minute event-slash-production coming up next week that’s the main reason for the first thing, that none of us want to do anyway.

On top of that, the rain hitting the last week or so has totally hosed my sinuses up, to the point where it knocked me down completely Sunday and Monday. As the title suggests, 2018 might as well be my first year as a teacher, as every little virus knocks me on my ass. Or maybe I’m just getting old, I dunno.

Anyway, it’s a long weekend, which I can honestly use. We’re planning on doing Busch Gardens with friends on Sunday, but otherwise, I’ve got nothing on the agenda but a service appointment for the car and intentions to hit the farmers’ market on Saturday morning (plus, Riverdale Season 2, aka “Tween Peaks”, just hit Netflix). I’m hoping to catch a little bit of relaxation, because next week, as alluded to previously, is three days of showing a data trading partner how shitty their data is in practice, because they don’t actually read test reports, and wouldn’t do this 18 months ago when I asked nicely and didn’t have a million other things going on.

Next weekend is ConCarolinas with the Humdingers, which is usually fun, and lots of our musical tribe will be there to share songs and laughs with, even if the con itself feels weird this year thanks to changes in con staff and political drama (these links are pretty balanced accounts, all told – my personal understanding of the situation is that things had to do more with the actions of the guest’s hangers-on rather than the guest himself, though the whole business was handled badly), plus they almost always give us non-optimal show slots (currently Saturday 5pm and Sunday 2pm) . We’ll see; I still get to play music with my friends, even if hardly anybody else comes to that second show.

In any case, that’s life from here. It’s been a meh, congested sort of week. I’m hoping things clear out for the holiday.

Anyway, tunes. Now that I’ve finished off the all-time records thing (which was fun, and I learned of a couple of neat things from friends who I nominated – Bishop Allen is pretty great – thanks Dave!), I’m back to shuffling Pandora again. This one, as I listen, is equal parts classic British art rock and modern indie, which isn’t a bad mix to have on a quiet Friday morning.

1. “Interference Fits” – Perfect Pussy
2. “Easier Said” – Sunflower Bean
3. “Police Blitz” – The Donnas
4. “Sparrow on the Schoolyard Wall” – Jethro Tull
5. “Dear Mr. Fantasy” – Traffic
6. “Ditmas” – Mumford & Sons
7. “Heroes” – David Bowie
8. “Heavenly Bank Account (live)”- Frank Zappa
9. “Iron” – Ensiferum
10. “The Scratch” – Seven Year Bitch
11. “You Are (The Government)” – Bad Religion
12. “Our Swords” – Band of Horses

edit: and apparently I can’t count. Oh well.