I struggled to start today’s episode because I have so many different micro topics, topics that can’t sustain a whole episode.

But then I thought maybe it’s a whole episode of micro topics.

I don’t know.

Do you ever have that thing where you have self-imposed deadlines?

Yes, we all do, I guess.

But it’s like, OK, I’m not going to…

Sometimes I use mine as hydrating or peeing, neither of which I see myself having to do.

But using those rewards for getting things done is probably less healthy.

Like, I’m not going to let myself go hit the bathroom until I finish these five emails or until I get this thing done.

I did that a lot today because I had a lot to get done today.

And I wasn’t even sure if I was going to record an episode today because I had so many things on my to-do list.

But I’m hammering through.

I’m powering through and I’m making it happen.

Two things left on my to-do list.

And as I record these words, at least it’s 3.35 p.m.

So we’re getting it done.

I’m very excited about this upcoming release of my new album, Blueprint.

It comes out on Monday.

It’s already available on Bandcamp.

If you go to lexfriedman.bandcamp.com if you decide you want to pay for it, even though you can stream it free on whatever service you’re already paying to stream music, come Monday.

And the artwork is by Ani because Ani hates that we’ve used AI to generate our previous artwork.

And Ani’s not wrong.

But, you know, it’s a limited budget project and we don’t want to pay anybody to make art.

And Ani said, I would much rather you use art that I drew than that you buy something.

And Ani actually did a great job.

It looks very cool.

Why is it called Blueprint?

Nobody has asked.

The answer is we named it after Liam’s favorite joker in the iOS and console.

And Liam was annoyed because our past albums, annoyed is over, but he knew for sure what he didn’t want to do, which was name the album something related to song lyrics.

Our first album was called Hunger Attack.

That was because the leadoff track, which was everybody’s favorite on that one, was Let’s Get a Snack, which I’d later called Let’s Get a Snack.

I’m having a massive hunger attack.

I was like, why don’t we make Hunger Attack the name of the album, which we did.

Second album had a song on it called I Wrote This Song Tomorrow.

I love that song.

I think Liam’s intro, and he would acknowledge this as well, I’m not talking out of school here.

I tried to say school and turn at the same time.

You heard it.

But his guitar intro is pretty weak, the guitar.

But the song is a lot of fun.

And the lyrics are a lot of fun, if I do say so myself.

I’m just patting myself on the back.

Not literally.

My arm’s too weird to do that.

But so the album was called I Wrote This Album Tomorrow.

Funny.

I say it’s funny, so thus it is.

Our most recent album, the leadoff song was our dedication to Mercury and Queen.

And the first song was called For Freddy.

And the lyrics of the chorus were The World Wasn’t Ready, The World Wasn’t Ready, The World Wasn’t Ready for Freddy.

Mercury.

And we didn’t say the Mercury part.

It was implied.

But so Freddy, and we called the album The World Wasn’t Ready.

So this time, Liam’s like, I don’t want to do that.

I don’t want to pull from the lyrics or modify the lyrics.

I want to have a standalone title.

And I was like, well, it can be anything then.

And we talked about all kinds of different ideas and landed on Blueprint because we were playing Ballot Trail while we talked about it.

And that’s what we came up with.

When the occasional guest host, Jason Snell, expressed his sadness that we hadn’t released this album in time for Pi Day, because there are many songs that are Pi related on the album.

But we had never thought to tie it to that date.

As it was getting closer, we saw that we were going to just miss it.

But that’s OK.

It’s not a Pi themed album.

It’s an album that has songs, Pi of every variety.

Pizza, baked, the number, etc.

Anyway.

My beard is so incredibly beardy.

It’s unbelievable.

People have asked if my arm is getting better.

It’s not going to get better for a couple of months.

I have some torturous contraption that my dad had me get that I have to call him and learn how to use.

So I haven’t yet.

But I do want to fix my arm.

Also, I’m down about 34, 35 pounds now.

So pretty proud of myself.

And anyway, I have to do one of the things left on my to-do list, which is pick up Liam from school.

I think he had a dress rehearsal for the show in which he is running sound.

And running sound in that show means pushing a button over and over.

These are lined up.

So you push it and it starts the backing track for the song.

You push it and it plays a sound effect.

You push it and it’s all in order.

And he can make sure it’s following the right order.

But it’s pushing one button over and over again.

Kind of sounds like severance.

Anyway, goodbye.

Lex.