Friday’s have held a lot of memories for me. When I was a young professional, Friday was the day that the decision makers left work early. The schmucks that were actually doing the work (like me) were stuck with the same everyday work and less agency to do anything. My co-worker coined the term ‘Fun Day’ Friday for that situation.

There were times in my career that I liked to work Friday nights. I could have free run on the servers without having to compete with other interests or coordinate anything. It made life so much easier to be able to work without obstruction even though I was pretty beat.

Later, as I became a manager I tried to built some team comradery by creating an open playlist on YouTube. I set the tone and then invited the team to contribute. The songs were sometimes silly, they sometimes described the week but they were always intended to blow off steam. Consequentially, I often found myself streaming music on Fridays trying to distract myself from the stress of the week.

This entire year, I have been working on catching up with the back catalog of The Art of Manliness in any free time I have had. As a result, I have not played any music on Fridays this year. To be honest, it is like a distant memory and I have forgotten that I like to do that. Sometimes it was feel good country, sometimes it was heavy metal and sometimes it was antiestablishment rap like Eminem.

The good news is that I am almost caught up and then I am going to stop looking for new podcasts for a while. After listening to podcasts constantly for the last 15 years, it is time for a little variation. It may be time to do a little house cleaning as well. I want to be entertained and inspired. Sometimes that is hard to practice when I am constantly getting input from others.

End Your Programming Routine: With most of my work being so heavy and serious, I thought it was high time to do something different. Next week I am going to have the Festivus podcast so I will be airing my grievances for the year. While that intended to be a little tongue and cheek fun, a little levity for the season is in order.

One last thing, I have decided that the next book is going to be The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy by William Strauss and Neil Howe. Look for the first chapter review to be January 3, 2025. There are a total of 12 chapters so we will get through this book by the beginning of April. I say this with plenty of time so that you all have the ability to get a head start as we go into the new year.