Here's a thing about software development. This dude I used to work with would sometimes, in the winter, head up to the mountains for some pre-work skiing before rolling in to the office at noon or 1, and in the summer, take off early for some afternoon wakeboarding. When asked about it, he pointed to the cyclical nature of our jobs: during certain parts of the software development lifecycle, he works from dawn until the wee hours of the morning...and during other parts, not so much. He called those long days the time when we earned our money.

Right now, I'm in a phase where I'm earning my money. I see the light at the end of the tunnel - the week after next is going to be much easier - but right now, it's crazy. And all this is my way of apologizing for being a day late with this post. In fact, since Seattle and Redmond are blanketed with a few inches of snow, I'm working from home - so time to get a lot done, whee!

My guest listener this week is going to be my kid, because he's the only person walking by my "desk" (otherwise known as my kitchen table).

"I'm listening to AC/DC (High Voltage and Back in Black) and some Metallica right now," says eight-year-old Gabriel. "I really like Metallica's "And Justice for All" because I just like hard music like that." (Note: the album "High Voltage" is as old as I am. Weird.)

Okay, he's not the best interview. Oh well. The Zune Insiders this week have a decent variety of music:

Matt (Skipdeez) says, "I  heard this new track “Magnificent” from Rick Ross and John Legend last week on G-Unit radio. I fired up the Marketplace on Tuesday and was stoked to see that it’s already in the catalog. Rick Ross’s new album should be out soon, but this should hold you over until then. Check it!"

Candice - Bliss16 - adds, "Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop. I love the harmonies and if you are looking for the real Chili Peppers rap/funk styled song, this is the one you should listen to from this album. The music video is also available on the marketplace, check it out when you can…It has the band members doing all these random things and my fav part is John Frusciante singing while sitting in a trash can."

And The Social himself, Justin, answers, "'Beautiful' by Akon. The new features I’m working on in Zune right now are populated with test data, and this song happens to always come up in the tests.  So I’ve heard it dozens of times in the last week, and I love it."

As for me, today I'm going old-school with my introduction to electronic music - Delerium. Two of their older albums, Karma and Semantic Spaces, will forever be a couple of my favorites for listening to while working hard. Melodic, trancey, and chill - check them out!

 K, post what you're listening to in the comments. And before you ask...no, Justin and I can't tell you what we're working on. :-)