Outside of the fact that downtown Madison smells an awful lot like sweaty [insert favorite smelly body part here] this morning, the commute in was fine. I believe that is partly due to the fact that the traffic was very low considering it was 7:30 which is normally the peak traffic time for the beltline. The other reason it was a manageable drive had to be the music.

I was playing a CD that I received for free in Chicago after attending a SKA concert with my friend Joe. That was probably two years ago, but this is the first time I grabbed it. (My music tastes have been shifting like crazy the past few months and I don\'t stay on any one genre for very long.) This morning\'s menu...hard rock. I must say this was some good stuff. I won\'t say who all was on this little 13 song sampler mainly because I don\'t want to reveal how incredibly *un-hip* I am when it comes to this stuff, but I did recognize four of the thirteen bands.

Normally this type of music isn\'t my speed as much as it used to be. Mind you, I am not a Manilow fan or anything, but sometimes this stuff is just a bit to rough around the edges for me. Today, it hit the spot to the point where I\'ve brought the disc in with me to spin whilst I play catchup on the growing list of things I need to accomplish.

Anyway, today started out well and I hope it carries through to the end of the day. I could use a fast *AND* productive day...