etc.

I’ve had a couple of emails recently asking about the current state of infestation in the crazy little house. A few from friends, others from concerned readers. Thanks for your interest, note that this is not for the squeamish:

• The first chimney, the one with the original raccoon, is still sealed so we continue to assume that nothing big is living in it.

• The second chimney, the one I paid $175 to the pest people to remove a raccoon that wasn’t there, also has nothing big living in it. On the issue of the pest people, we’ve vowed not to use their services again on account of their blatant disregard for the real problem (ridding the crazy little house of critters period) because we have turned into their cash cow. We are the reason why they are going to have a bountiful Christmas this year. I blame it on profit motivation à la groveling capitalism, the mister blames it on sheer dishonesty, and neither of us are wrong I think. But, this is a topic for a whole other post.
• We occasionally hear scuttling in the ceiling above our bedroom, but it’s usually short-lived and not nearly as frantic as when we caught the squirrel climbing out of the forced air duct.
• We do get the occasional whiff of something faecal wafting through the vents in certain areas of the house. Since we don’t actually hear the offender at these times, it’s really hard to guess what it is and exactly where it is.
• Some solutions that have recently been considered include: having the ducts cleaned again (good), having the other defunct chimney cleaned (too expensive, no internal or external access), placing a radio tuned to talk-radio right into one of the offending vents (practical & affordable), simultaneous burning of many candles and scented oils at all times (implemented), calling the city’s Animal Services people in for a consultation (to-morrow), drawing up a charter and holding the inaugural meeting of the We Love Wildlife But Just Not In Our Homes Association of Toronto (interested stakeholders in our neighbourhood alone could make this work).

This page will be updated as we know more but for now suffice it to say that we aren’t receiving visitors until the problem is solved. You will be notified. Likely exuberantly.

I told you it would be pared down.

If you’re interested in the technical bits, it’s all shtml now. Server-side includes mean more parsing and loading time so unless you visit each of these pages every day, stuff will load a fraction of a second slower. Visit early and often. If I had the time and smarts, I would have coded in xhtml or php or something like that but, as it stands, I can’t even tell you what those acronyms definitively stand for.

I’ve only linked to the major stuff, as you can see. bibliolatry.net and blogwithoutalibrary.net are still here, you just can’t get to them from any of these pages. Link directly if that’s what you’re here for. The biggest change, for me, is not having to deal with many different blog templates. This is a very good thing and it can only become a better thing. And Netscape users are no longer shunned, it’s not perfect yet but at least everything is visible now.

As usual, report icky css, awkward page display and broken links to me, and thank you in advance. I’m leaving the old stuff where it is for while, but an all-over purge is planned for a couple of months from now. You’ve been forewarned.

As promised, no more sitemap (redundant), sidebar (unnecessary), preoccupations (changeable), mumbojumbo (no one cares but me). If it’s memes you crave, go elsewhere. This isn’t a portal to anything or anywhere, it’s just a portal to me, if you will. Back on my feet again, I didn’t stew as long as I thought I would. And I’m glad you’re here.

I have to admit to a recent onset of web fatigue. This is wrapped up in a wee bit of seen-it-all-itis, where every blog I read regurgitates the content of every other blog I read (mine included, I suffer no illusions), and where every bit of media I pick up rehashes every other bit of media I pick up.

This is also wrapped up in me becoming very tired of the Constant! Drive! To! Provide! More! And! Better! Content! Sidebar links are becoming a chore and memes will spread far and wide without the linkage I provide, thank you very much. And then this morning, I was convinced that I was the target of a random blogrolling attack, where all my links were to Laura’s Blog (no link to protect the innocent). Turns out it was probably a blogrolling problem, but the damage was done. A minor programming glitch was all it took for me to throw up my arms in despair and declare “No More!”

No, I’m not quitting, I might have considered quitting if I didn’t enjoy the writing so much. I’m merely regrouping. This will likely manifest itself in a new design, stripped down, no extras, just me and my words. No sidebar (that was shortlived), no blogrolls, you all can find interesting content without my help. It might take a few days, I’ll be stewing for a bit, and working on chapter revisions (due in a week!), but when I get back expect to find less of the rest of it and more of me. I hope you’ll come back.

Easily the best about page I’ve read. Ever.

Mom Finds Out About Blog.

Governor General’s Literary Awards for 2003.

One thought in my mind when leaving the theatre after watching this film: you can really see the evolution of Quentin Tarantino’s filmmaking style. Another thought: I hate the trend he’s perpetuating with the whole volume 1 & 2 thing. There’s no reason this couldn’t have been one movie, I could have edited out about half of volume one and, I’m guessing, that will probably be the case for the next installment as well. Studios are going to love the implications of this (thanks, Matrix) and we’re going to end up paying $27 to see ONE movie (it’s $13.50 to see a film in most major theatres in Toronto, which is why we rarely go to the cinema anymore). But, I digress. Slightly. There is a whole lot of style and artifice in this film, a few laughable moments, and not a whole lot else. I doubt I’ll even bother with Vol. 2.

Three seemingly unrelated narratives come together — literally — as a result of a nasty car accident. Solid script and even stronger acting, this is one of those films that had me riveted throughout the entire 2 and a half hours, not only for the satisfaction of finding out how it all plays out, but also because it didn’t take long to start caring about the fate of the characters.

For those who are following along at home, the NLC had this response for me: “Thank you. We are familiar with that article.”

I don’t think they like me. I’ll have to move to get an ISSN now.

Paul Martin, Canada’s next PM, has a blog.