News You Can't Use! A few behind-the-scenes updates

Things at C&S and the palatial Mattrèssor Manor are rarely at a standstill, and this past month has been especially eventful.

None of these events really warrant posts of their own, but are newsworthy ^{[to whom?]} nonetheless.

The big news, for those of you not following me on Twitter or Facebook, is that Jillian and I are expecting our first child.  As of today, she's eight weeks pregnant, and we're both ecstatic!  We've had a couple of scares so far (Jill's doctor has her on bedrest for the time being), and are hoping and praying for a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.

Second, I haven't had a haircut since April.  I have really thick, fast growing hair, which isn't a bad thing at my age (almost 40).  However, it's getting unmanageable and looks rather unprofessional.  Rather than get it cut, I'm thinking of growing it until St. Patrick's Day, or July when our child is born... then donating it for wigs for cancer patients.  My hair is a rather uncommon shade of red, and I'd like to be able to help any fellow redheads out!

(or anyone else, for that matter)

Third, I'm starting yet another blog, bringing my total, active or otherwise, to ten.  This one is centered on my recent conversion to the Catholic faith, and will house my reflections on a newly religious life.  I'm keeping it separate from my other works out of respect for opposing views, as religion (especially Catholicism) is a touchy, polarizing subject.  This way, you're only exposed to articles centering on religion if you're actively looking for them.

Religion is a subject that inspires heated debates among believers and non-believers alike, and I've been on both sides of the issue.  While there are plenty of avenues online for these debates, I don't want C&S to turn into one of them.

Fourth, I'm no longer working on my book or podcast.  I've never found/made the time to work on them, and have summarily lost interest.  As I am now facing the much more rewarding/damning challenge of parenthood, I'd rather give that my full attention.

Fifth, I've gone analog.  Y'all know I prefer actual terrestrial radio (AM/FM/Shortwave/Longwave) to internet or streaming radio, and keep a pen-and-paper and/or typewritten journal in addition to my blogs.  Well, I've gone one step further into anachrony, and have given up on my smartphones and PDAs for personal information management purposes.

Yes, I stepped back to the early 90s (when I entered the workforce full time) and bought myself an upmarket Day-timer on eBay for a fraction of the original price.  I got tired of constantly having to charge and sync my devices, and more tired of having to upgrade to a newer model once the one I had was no longer supported. I'm sure my paper planner will outlast the next few iterations of smartphone/tablets...

While searching for current calendar/planner pages for the thing, I discovered the DIY Planner site, wherein one can find templates for the various types of planners and daytimers... they even have a program that'll allow you to edit the calendar and daily planner templates for the years after 2007.

An added bonus is the (perception of) increased security of my personal data - if anyone wants my info, they'll have to swipe it the old fashioned way, via physical confrontation.  Which I don't recommend, as I'm told I fight dirty.


Lastly, I've updated the Conceit and Sociopathy FAQ for the first time in four years.

That's it for now.  I'll see you again on Monday, when I post the results of the poll from the previous post (and from Twitter and Facebook).

Pollaxed! or "People without kids won't understand"

Good day, C&S faithful!

I'm currently gathering data for an upcoming post on living car-free.  While I have plenty of data on single people (or childless couples) in regards to car-free living, I have none on people with children (whether single or couples) who are living carfree.

Rather than stand outside public places and querying random passersby as to their family situation and modes of transportation, I've put up a poll on the righthand side of this page.  You may need to scroll to the right to see it, depending on the size of your screen.

If you're a parent, please answer according to your situation.

Also, please refrain from commenting.  There will be plenty of opportunity for comment once the data has been gathered and resulting article written.

(Web) Traffic Calming Circles

I've been poring over my traffic logs, and I've noticed a marked increase in search engine hits.

I'd like to say it's all due to my wit and excellent writing skills, but I'd be lying (on a few counts).

No, most of my traffic comes courtesy of Google, and 99 percent of it is focused on a single post (with over 1300 views) mentioning a certain British porn actress whom I will not name.  If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you'll know this actress as the (nick)namesake of my Powerbook Lombard.

So, for the proverbial shits and giggles, I've turned the post back into a draft so I can monitor the decrease in traffic.  I expect it'll take a while for any significant change, as no doubt the post has been cached by every search engine out there.  If this works, I'll do the same to another post featuring a certain actress who was married to the guy from Fight Club.

Let's see what happens...

Update:  The Top Ten Posts widget still registers it as the most viewed, but doesn't display it on the list.  Therefore there are only nine posts listed in the top ten.  Interesting.

Screw the Election, Here's some CanCon!

As my faithful readers and data harvesters will attest, I don't care much for politics these days.  After closely (read obsessively) following civic, domestic, and foreign (US, Europe) politics in the 90s and early 00s, I am still quite burned out on the subject.

Suffice it to say, I'm not following the US election tonight.  Or tomorrow.  Or the inevitable controversies during the next few weeks.

Instead, I took to the 'net to search out some music.  And you know what?  I'm glad I did.

I had a song in my head earlier this evening, and something told me to check YouTube to see if anyone had finally posted the video. Sure enough, someone had...



T'é Qui Toé was one of my favourite tunes in rotation on MuchMusic back in the early 90s, and I was quite excited to see it again after twenty years (unfortunately, nobody has posted his other song Vise Le Top yet).  Pining for a past that exists only in my head, I hit eBay to see if anyone had Dédé Traké's eponymously-titled CD for sale. Usually a futile effort on my part, a quick search turned up two copies for sale! Needless to say, I snapped it up without hesitation.

---

Another video in rotation during the same period was About to Drown from Ottawa band Furnaceface.  The song grew on me after a week of heavy rotation, and I was compelled by my corporate masters to seek out their appropriately-titled album Just Buy It.

Purchased initially for the aforementioned tune, the album occupied a slot in my 5-CD changer for nearly a year after purchase.  As much as I liked About to Drown, two other songs on the album became my favourites:  Unemployment satire Government Cheque, and the album's title track - Just Buy It -  which I embed for your viewing pleasure.



I'll leave off here.  I think I hear my CD racks calling me...

Anyone (around) my age have a favourite Canadian song from the same time period (early-to-mid 90s)?  Let me know in the comments section!