I am surely not the only one to notice this, but music makes things better.  (If I AM the first to notice, please use my middle initial when you quote me.  Looks better:  Brenton J. Mumford.  Like that.)

But the quality of my work is so often inextricably tied to the music I happen to be listening to at the time.  I just redid the footer on this very site while listening to The National’s as-of-yet unreleased album (legally – at least, it was on nytimes.com, so I hope it was legal, although I have heard they’re hurting for cash a little, so who knows).  I think it’s a darker bit of code, with splatterings of color, texture, and rhythm, perhaps as an homage to the really very good drumming The National features.  I also formatted the CSS file a little differently than I normally do.

I doubt that’s due to the music, though.  I can say that the gentleman who works across the room from me is listening to pop-rock from the Oasis/Nickelback family, and my productivity has taken a nosedive.  And I’m quite sure those things are related.