Why I Oughta...

Earlier this week I flipped over my Christmas music tracking advice website to read:  "Yes" as of Monday, November 1st, 2021.  I've posted about " Can I listen to Christmas Music? " before including last year (when I posted on November 1st ) and have posted about it over the years. If you go to the Christmas Music Permission site and scroll down, you'll see that I have it listed as a project that I established in 2015.   Ever since then, I've posted about the project - and how I flip it from "No.  Don't be a lunatic." (which is up from Jan 1 --> Oct 31) to "Yes.  Go ahead." (which is up from November 1 --> Dec 31 - almost every year. In 2015, I started the "Can I listen to Christmas music?" project back in 2015 . In 2016, I posted on Christmas music from 2016 and included a Buzzfeed video. In 2017, I posted on listening to Christmas music from 2017 on November 2nd In 2018, I posted about the move to a new landi

The calendar has flipped over to November first.  That means one thing:  Go ahead.  Break out those Christmas tunes.  Play that Christmas music.  It is time.  Visit one of my annual projects here:  Can I listen to Christmas music ?   This year - 2020 - has been tough and that means there's never been a better year to turn this from no --> yes on November 1st.   I started the "Can I listen to Christmas music?" project back in 2015 .  And have posted about it every years since. Here's the post on Christmas music from 2016 . Here's the post on listening to Christmas music from 2017 .  Here's the post from 2018 when I introduced a new landing page .

Back in the rear part of our property - where the soil was undisturbed during our construction, the ground is littered with these little holes - which I think are Cicada holes.  Why?  Because they're everywhere in our neighborhood.  This appears to be part of the 17-year cicadas that are in Northern Illinois.  From the University of Illinois Extension office, they label these cicadas  - in 2020 - as the " Northern Illinois Sub-Brood (part of Marlatt's XIII) ". Note the inclusion of "sub-brood" in their name.  Turns out, the ones that are coming in 2024 - also on a 17-year cycle - are going to be more significant than this Summer.  Again.. .from the University of Illinois Extension office : The northern Illinois brood, which will emerge in late May 2024, has a reputation for the largest emergence of cicadas known anywhere. This is due to the size of the emergence and the research and subsequent reporting over the years by entomologists Monte Lloyd and

Via Can I Listen to Christmas Music? I neglected to post a link to my annual Christmas Music project earlier this season.  So, I'm getting to it now:  Can I listen to Christmas music ?  (v2).  Why V2?  Welp, that's because V1 is still up at the original URL , but I wanted to try something a little different - and more simple.  Once the season passes, I'll put in a redirect from the old site to the new one - which I think serves the most basic of purposes:  notifies you if you can or can not listen to Christmas music.  I posted about this project last year in November .  And on November 2nd of 2016 .  The old, V1 site, has lots more stuff - including a countdown clock , email subscriptions, etc.  I'll work to port those over, but for now, there's just one page and a simple answer:  Yes.    It is built on a responsive template, so it looks identical in both desktop and mobile.  Come January something, I'll flip it back over to 'no'.  The new

If you haven't been able to pick this up by now, I'm not one to hold back my opinion on some things.  Nat insists that I think that the entire world should think just the way I think on some things.  And, I guess that's true.  I do, often, wish that the world thought the way I did on a bunch of topics.  But, I'm not sitting by and leaving it up to luck that people will come around on some topics.   If you've followed along at all over the years, you know I have an opinion on when it is acceptable to listen to Christmas music .  And I tried to do something about skunks in Elmhurst .   Today, I'm excited to release my latest web project.  The wedding industry is chock'd full of advice sites.  How-to guides.  Tip sheets.  Consultants.  In fact, my wife Natalie was an award-winning member of the industry for a bit.  My project is aimed at the wedding industry. It is an advice website called " Holiday Weekend Wedding ".  The goal