The Simpson Blog

Many thanks to J. Money at Budgets Are Sexy for the shout-out ! I interviewed Mr. Money recently for a Christmastime feature about preparing for the boxing day shopping deals. I've been reading and enjoying Budgets Are Sexy for a good long time, and appreciate his style of financial advice. Amanda & I took some of his advice and incorporated our own, and researched the hell out of some Boxing Day specials. We settled on two choices at Future Shop, and I got in the electronic checkout line along with thousands of other shoppers at 9pm Atlantic time, just as the online sale got under way. After some web site f-ups, we came away with the Sony LCD TV we were hoping for. It'll be delivered Saturday, and if all goes well, there'll be no buyer's remorse -- aside from the credit card bill. This was a virtually giftless Christmas, so this is our only significant expenditure from the holidays. Happy New Year's Eve to all! See you in 2010 if I don't post again

Family and friends have negotiated a giftless Christmas with us. That doesn't mean everyone's incommunicado, though. We've sent packages out to Ontario today, with delivery definitely expected before Christmas. The 'big' gift this year is the wedding DVD! Lots of video including some stuff that's never been seen. It's also the on-disc premiere of the latest cut of my video for my as-yet-still-howcome-it's-unfinished cover of Cub's "New York City". But if you just can't wait, here it is. I apologize for the singing. I still don't have the music done to my satisfaction, but the video is 99% satisfactory, aside from two or three frames in the middle where something went bloop and two clips didn't butt up properly. You probably won't see it. Enjoy! And, as always, go to YouTube and rate the video, comment and subscribe. I get nothing out of it, but it makes me feel like someone's watching.

My latest attempt at weight charting shows I've only gained a few pounds in the past year, and the math suggests I only have a caloric surplus of something like 65 calories per day. This ad illustrates, disgustingly, that just a little more every day can add up to many pounds over a year. Add that up over the years and it's not hard to see how we get fatter without trying.

Spotted at People Of Wal-Mart: Gotta love the tags, too: tagged as barber, big butt, bro, brother, butt, buttocks, funny jokes, gift card, haircut, hoe, hoes, holidays, hooker, lose weight, shaved head, shoppers, shopping, turkey dinner, wal-mart.

Thanks to the Industry Minister's decision to override the federal telecom regulator's decision to keep a foreign-owned cell-phone company out of the market, my company's stock has fallen today. So far it's down nearly 7%. Ouch. This backs up my rationale in a recent post about getting out of company stock and getting into some more diversified investments. And I had the share withdrawal forms all filled out and ready to go, since the stock was climbing all week. Booo. Oh well. Them's the breaks. In other news, ratings were up huge for my show. If I'm going to second-guess the ratings system when the numbers are less than stellar, I want to be consistent in my skepticism. Even though the latest survey suggests year-to-year growth that should blow my mind and make me super-happy, I'm going to temper my enthusiasm and just say I'm glad people are listening.

Globe and Mail columnist Leah McLaren was recently complimented on her healthy butt, and seems utterly surprised that such a thing could happen. In fact, she's astonished that the stranger didn't notice her breasts. Really, she figures, don't boobs trump ass in terms of attractiveness? What is up with men and booty? In an article today, she notes that bottoms are the new tops: While women certainly worry about their breasts, the dilemma is simple – you either have cleavage or you don't. And if you want some, you know where the buy it. Bums, on the other hand, are rather more complicated. There is no “Perfect C” cup size to aspire to, and one woman's ideal butt is another's banana split disaster. There is something difficult to quantify about the female rear, which is why I've always studiously ignored my own. But the park incident got me thinking – could “real” buns like my own be making a comeback? I asked a single male friend if he liked an ample beh

Anyone who's been to karaoke with me has probably heard me do this song. I've been performing it for more than a decade. I even performed it at the wedding, but didn't get it on tape. I thought it deserved to be on the DVD, so I got Producer Bill to follow me through the halls with a camcorder, and did the rest in post. We did two takes. I think it turned out well. Double-click on the video window to go right to YouTube and check out the HQ version - looks and sounds twice as good for some reason! Please rate, comment, subscribe, all that.

I'm home alone this weekend, working on video and music. I hope to re-do my New York City song and video ... looks like I won't be the only one on YouTube doing so!