Today, breathing is on my mind. Especially breathing in time to music. An eight-count inhale, holding it for eight counts, exhale eight counts, and holding for eight.

I believe the term for it is "box breathing" which uses a four count. You need to adjust it to what you are playing or listening to.

I use it for remembering to get enough air while drumming. Keeps me from getting tired.

I also use it as a metronome. Keeps my mind on the tempo.

Despite a week of chaos and tension, I did manage to listen to some music. I did notice though that when I get really stressed out, I turn off all sound. These three albums were wonderful though. To be fair to them, I should re-listen to them in the future when I can focus on them more.

• The Dream Syndicate These Times #indie
• Taiheiyousiranuigakudan Taiheiyousiranuigakudan #indie
• Cecil Taylor Conquistador! #jazz

Also getting some areas of the blog a little more ironed out. Slow, steady, and whenever it's fun is the schedule.

I got a Genre page set up with a full list of genres. On my genre tags, genre is in the beginning, so I thought something needs to be there. I doubt anyone would ever try to see if something was at /genre when they saw /genre/jazz. Better safe than 404 though.

Didn't know what to put there, so I quickly grabbed a list of all the genres. It's interesting to see them all together and to notice what I get from the list. 

When I see the list, I keep waffling on whether I regret not getting more specific with the genres. I tag something "jazz" or “punk," but there are so many flavors of them. It would be cool to see this list be wider and deeper.

At the same time, I just want to put on some music and quickly note what I am listening to. Knowing me, properly being a librarian of music and filing each one with proper sub-genres would cause me to miss the first song of each album researching.

Such is the life of a waffle.

Today's writing prompt caught me by surprise. By the end of 200 words I felt like I was doing more of a mental self-check than the usual improvisational word play.

"I am just trying to ___________"

I have been experimenting with giving the morning writing to AI, telling it is an expert on the subconscious, and seeing what it says. It went wild with today's writing so I take it as a signal of a good morning writing prompt.

There is no way I would follow the advice by the way.

Went through the list of last week's music, and I could only recall one. Like a favorite hoodie is how I would describe Yo La Tengo. I need to remember how good they are for when I need some sound to get some things done.

For a brief moment, I wondered if only being able to recall one album is a sign of mental stress or memory loss. Actually what is happening is a lot of people are in town for the cherry tree season. It is throwing my normal routine into chaos.