Creating that table was rather more exhausting that I had expected!

When I compiled this album, I simply dragged songs that I like and thought of as "peppy and energetic" into an iTunes playlist, the trimmed it down to fit onto an 80 minute CD. I've paid for almost all of these albums, some new, many used, and at least two on emusic.com. I debated trying to pick a certain order for things, but in the end I decided to let them go in alphabetical order by artist, and that has worked out beautifully.

Though the length of the songs vary, I know that the first eight songs make a great thirty-minute session on a Precor EFX556 Elliptical torture device. The initial charge of No Limit settles down nicely with Fallin', and just when I think it's time to quit, Intergalactic kicks things up a notch before sending me out with a little Ben Folds Five. I couldn't have planned it better.

Sometimes, for variety, I'll start with track nine and end things with Smooth, but I have to admit I've never gone longer than thirty minutes on one machine, so I've never actually gotten to the last three tracks in the gym.

I even made a paper case for it. Apparently NEATO makes rigid punch-out envelope cards that you can buy and print on yourself. I know that they include a template for them on the floppy disk that came with my disc labels, so I grabbed a relatively appropriate cover art image for the front, put the table you see above on the back, printed and cut on the lines. It's a little worse for the wear right now since I left a slightly damp towel sitting on it all day long last week, but it works.

Of the nineteen albums represented by this list, only two or three would actually make my top albums list, but they're all pretty darn good. They're not exactly widely representative of my taste in music, though, so I forsee volume 2 coming soon. I just need to find better cover art!

(This article originally appeared at W6 Daily.)