frozen octopus

People who live in cold places know you need to warm up your car before start driving in cold weather. Morning writing is that for my brain and the 200 word goal is just enough warm up for me. The problem is the whole what to write deal. Doing a thing daily is tedious. That's why I crow so much here about a writing trick I figure out. I also know someone has figure out anything I just figured out previously. People have been writing a long time.

Discovery

I wrote a sentence and used the last word of it to start the next sentence. It was kind of amazing how quickly I got through the 200 words. Something about not having to figure out the first word really kept the momentum going. It also kept the writing moving towards more random places and thoughts.

ex: My brain is warmed up. Up to the challenge. Challenge yourself to write. Write the last word first in the next sentence.

That style of writing has a nice ratchet effect. I like how it keeps things moving forward.

It is 2026-01-14. There are 483 albums on my list to check out. If I want to get to zero by 2026-12-31, I need to listen to about 2 albums a day. It is really 1.37, but who listens to a third of an album? Listening to three albums a day would get me to the end of the list at around June 24th. Four albums a day would get me there on May 14th.

My list isn't static, though. I am always adding albums throughout the week. Especially if we play a show and I talk to other musicians and get recommendations.

Having a huge list of things to listen to should be a thing to look forward to, but there is always that vibe that I am giving future me homework. There is also the problem that what I was into at the time isn't necessarily what I am into now.

It might be time to start breaking out the d20 and picking albums at random to clear out some albums. For me, letting the dice decide forces me to put something on despite variables that might block me from pushing play. Things like bad cover art, cheesy band name, or even "this genre doesn't go with the weather".

Knowing that listening to 3-4 albums a day is going to clear out the "clutter" does inspire me to listen to 3-4 albums a day, though.