paper graffiti

It’s been hard lately, folks. I’ve had a lot going on, but I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say, the home office is coming along, I’ve got to have a long talk with my doctor about how not having headaches every day may not be worth the price of drug-induced nail-biting anxiety, and the fact that I write and manage projects for a living always has to take precedence over my own writing.

Today I was in a horrible mood. I’m not really sure why; again, it could have been drug-induced moodiness (I find it unfair that a drug I take for chronic pain that is ANTI-anxiety and PRO-calming could make me a cracked out freak) or just the fact that I wished I was working in the comfort of my apartment with my sweet kitties keeping me company. It could have been the fact that a bunch of someones flaked out on something important that I needed for a project. It could have been the fact that it was only Tuesday, and I want it to be Friday. But I was not just moody–I was flat out SURLY.

When I get in a mood like that in the office, I find it best to retreat behind the comfort of my High Fidelity-worthy giant headphones and block out the environment so that I can focus better. Today I fired up the My Neighbourhood radio station on my last.fm account, and suddenly I was more myself again.

I have been a last.fm user for the last three years, but I’d stopped using it awhile ago when a playlist got stuck playing on my laptop one long weekend and totally screwed up my play counts. I could have gone in manually and fixed it, but that was too much of a pain in the ass. So, recently I set it all back to zero and started fresh. I’ve been scrobbling the tunes I play on my iPod during my 30-45 minute commute each way, and I’ve rediscovered their radio stations.

One of the cool features on last.fm is the tagging feature–you can tag a song you’re listening to with anything that you like. When the song is playing, you can see what other people have tagged it with. I haven’t gone so far to tag all the songs in my played library yet, but I have started tagging songs that I like but do not have “toget” so that I can go back and remember who to search for in the iTunes Store or at Good Records.

Music has always been a balm to my soul–it sounds cheesy, but music is a big part of who I am, and it grounds me. My husband is the same way and it’s one of the biggest things we bonded about when we first started dating. Let’s put it this way–he always leaves the house with his iPod, but doesn’t always make it out of the house with his cell phone! (That will all change when we both get iPhone 2.0 in August, of course!) I know that as I get back to writing for myself again, iTunes and my iPod will be keeping me company.

In the meantime, check out my recently listened tracks in the sidebar of this blog, or click below to listen to My Neighbourhood radio. To see more about what I’m grooving to these days, you can visit my last.fm profile for some serious track stats.

What are you listening to these days?

Word Counts - Today: 0 | June: 0 | 2008: 4,473

I had a pretty uneventful weekend, really.  I let my mind rest from a week of hard blogging and writing and only managed to churn out 100 words last night.  It was nice to take a break from my own stuff, though I know I can’t do that every weekend or I’ll never get done!  I watched two movies (Knocked Up and Superbad), started a book (Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris), upgraded my eeePC to the newest release of Ubuntu, and my husband and I celebrated Mother’s Day (and his birthday!) with our families.  This next weekend probably won’t see much writing either, at least on Saturday.  We’re having a party to celebrate Shawn’s birthday and I’ll probably be getting the apartment party-ready all day long.

I did spend part of Friday downloading a bunch of new albums from eMusic, since I still had my 50 trial downloads plus 30 for the month.  I got quite a few things, including the new album from The Weepies, the much-lauded Bon Iver, and Frightened Rabbit on the recommendation of my friend Bill.  The iPod seems to be a big fan of the new Weepies stuff this morning!  It’s also been on quite the Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis kick.

1. Counting Crows - Washington Square
2. Ida - Blue Clouds
3. The Weepies - Orbiting
4. Rilo Kiley - The Absence of God
5. Nickel Creek - This Side
6. Feist - After thought
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Pin
8. Frightened Rabbit - Backwards Walk
9. Rilo Kiley - Accidental Deth
10. The Weepies - Take So Long
11. Romantica - I Need You Tonight
12. Lisa Loeb - What Am I Supposed to Say?

In other news, I have passed the 2,000 Tweet mark on my Twitter account without even knowing it, which is a testament to how much I use the service.  If you haven’t joined Twitter, it’s a lot of fun.  The 140 character limit on Tweets (posts to the service) makes it kind of challenging to craft what you want to say.  It’s been an incredible way to network and find people of a like mind.  If you are already on Twitter, be sure to hop over to my profile and follow me!

Word Counts - Today: 200 | May: 4,473 | 2008: 4,473