Last updated on November 17th, 2020 at 02:22 am
As I stood outside, chipping away at our icy walkway with a spade borrowed from our in-laws (because remember, our garage is still frozen shut from the ice storms), I suddenly recalled that FebruaryΒ started with a surprise visit from my parents.
Having missed out on seeing DoomzToo for the entire month of January, they came to Casa de Palmer to see a scruffy Casey Palmer in his house clothes, a relaxing weekend planned with his family and sister-in-law, who was visiting from Ottawa.
Lesson learnedβalways dress like you’re ready forΒ anything.
Regardless, another month’s come and gone, much of it spent seeking refuge from the harsh Canadian winters we face each February. Many of my Canadian peers likely read this with disdainβafter all, what doesΒ Toronto know about theΒ cold?βbut while we don’t share the massive snowfalls or the extensive swaths of black ice you endure while commuting to your destinations, we too know freezing winds that chill you to the bone. We too know the misery of days all too short, sun blotted out by snow, hail and all manner of projectile falling from above to ruin our days.
In short, fellow Canadians, we know your feel.
But though winter would have us quit and hide indoors until the first blades of grass emerge from below the permafrost layer blanketing the city, we don’t quit. Canadians know we only get so many days of good weather a year, so we prepare. We spend these cold months checking things off lists and dealing with theΒ boring stuff so we can laze about on the beach in July, or enjoy a beer at the cottage on Labour Day weekend.
With that in mind, that was what this month was all about. February was about driving in Toronto rush hour for the first time to take the care in for maintenance. February was about Montessori visits, finding a place for DoomzToo to build the skills he needs to make him as awesome as his Dad. (Pause.)
A Chance Encounter With Zanta
This month I met David Zancai, aka “Zanta” on the way to workβhe’s trying to make a comeback into the Toronto spotlight after a 7-year hiatus, making appearances on Kenny & Spenny and even putting YouTube videos out to herald his return.
I wish him luck in everything he’s doing!
What’s All The Rage With Sage, or, Social Media Moves in Mysterious Ways!
Despite deciding to shelve starting a business in 2013, largely due to all the things on my plateΒ already, after meeting Brian Webb at #FordNAIAS 2014Β (who happens to beΒ Sage’sΒ Marketing Manager), I joined Sage’s Blogger Outreach Program, trying to find a way to use their accounting software in my life.
Blogging finally hit a point where pay-for-posts could be aΒ reality, and a common mistake that bloggers make when getting paid for their work is failing to keep solid records for when the taxman cometh.
But after getting a copy of Sage 50 Pro Accounting 2014 and access to Sage Oneβtheir online offering that’sΒ ridiculously secure, convenient and efficiently keeps your files in working order for your accountantβI feel like I could take some baby steps to getting my business mindΒ right.
IfΒ that doesn’t sound helpful, guess whatβthey’reΒ alsoΒ running the Sage One Be One contest with 2 top prizes of $5,000 in Google AdWords credits! If you’re living that #BloggerLife,Β trust meβthat’s aΒ lot of potential eyeballs. You can enter here:Β https://bit.ly/1lBrGshβbut do it quick! The contest ends Friday, March 7th!
Watching Cars and Losing Family at the Canadian International Auto Show
Hot on the heels of the North American International Auto Show, Chevy Canada and Klout sent me tickets to the Canadian International Auto Show for some wheels, swag and shenanigans. Taking my best friend and brothers, we made an afternoon of it with some notable events:
- Despite getting a portable phone charger as a gift from Chevy Canada, the volume of people at the show overloaded the cellular grid, draining both my phone and myΒ patience as I tried to reconnect with the family who I’d… “misplaced”… early into the show
- Getting a line bypass to try the Chevy Camaro Challenge is a great Klout perk and all, but when you suck at racing games and you’re driving in front of a 45-minute line to try it outβlet’s just say that driving badly (i.e. not even finishing the course) in front of a crowd staring daggers into your back is less than appealing!
The show was alright, but I’m going to wait for the day where bloggers can get press credentialsβcompeting with massive crowds and smartphones for great shots makes for rotten blogging, and with a little one at home, I don’t have time to waste!
Other notable February events include:
- Finally seeing all the flicks inΒ The Fast and the Furious series, intrigued but definitelyΒ not a fanboy
- Of course, Valentine’s Day and the lovely cards I got from my wife and son
- Not to mention the second season ofΒ House of Cards released that night and its expansion park forΒ Cards Against Humanity won a couple of weeks later
- Appearing inΒ Inspired Q&A, an eBook meant to inspire young workers in the Web technologies industry with insights and observations from others who’ve had the problems they have.
But we’re a sixth through the year, so I should haveΒ just over 16 things done toΒ track for success inΒ The 2014 100. Let’s see howΒ that’s going:
The 2014 100 Update!
9) Find a way to change my Twitter handle from @doomzTO to @CaseP
Following some sound advice from a friend, I sought out Case Prattβowner of my coveted @CaseP Twitter handleβand found him on Facebook! I left a message explaining my situation, that I noted he’d only used the account five times since 2010, and that I wasΒ really interested in changing my handle.
Sadly, it looks like he’s yet to see the message, but I really hope Β to work something out, because it’s time for my Twitter to grow up some!
14) Enter more blogging awards
With an unexpected silver finish in the Canadian Blog Awards’ “Personal Blog” category, I’m hoping for more blogging competitions to cross my radarβever since placing in the CBAs, I’ve seen a little more traffic from the site. It’s not mind-blowingβmaybe an extra click or two each dayβbut every extra set of eyeballs counts! So I’ll keep my eyes peeled and hopefully come across interesting challenges throughout the year!
26) Guest blog more often
When I wrote this up, I was only writing for my site and a monthly piece for The Hooray Collective.Β Since then, I’ve taken up writing forΒ Parent Tested Parent Approved, and looking at expanding my work to a few more sitesβyou’ll see links on the right side of my content as I build my profile.
So I’d say I’m happily making progress!
32) Figure out why my siteβs been suffering so much downtime and lag lately
If they create for long enough, every blogger invariably Β reaches a point where they want their individuality radiating from their blog, looking to customize in ways often exceeding the capabilities of free solutions.
The danger with being the master of your own domain is that you can go overboardΒ all too easily. You get plugins for things you could do with a simple line of code. You click options without really understanding what theyΒ do. Websites are very delicate, and Content Management Systems like WordPress can make effective website managementΒ deceptivelyΒ simple.
After crashing my website at the end of January with a wayward option in Better WP Security, February was all about sorting out the back-end of my site to prepare for several changes I’m working on for 2014.
Weeks later, the site’s running great, and while I’ve still got a laundry list of maintenance ahead of me, the site’s ready for almost anything! (Almost.)
35) Transfer the files from Sarahβs old IDE hard drive to a SATA hard drive
I wish my family wasn’t so prone to tinkering with tech, or I’d still have a bunch of old hard drives at my parents’ full of files and memories. But they’ve been long-since formatted in my baby brother’s experiments, all that history gone with them.
But not so with Sarah’s 12-year old laptop! Back when I’d slum it in the school computer lab to avoid sharing the family one at home, Sara rocked an 8.5-pound Dell Inspiron 2650 with such stunning specs as:
- Intel Pentium 4-M 1.6 GHz Processor
- 128.0 MB RAM
- 80 GB Hard Drive
- 1024 x 768 XGA Resolution
- 1.0 x CD-ROM
She had photos going back toΒ 2003, old documents and other things she’d long forgotten. Though the drive’s now thoroughly formatted and bagged up for electronic disposal, it was good to save some of her pastβevenΒ if she never looks at the files again!
STATUS: Digitally DONE.
59) Return Karen and Colinβs stack of Blu-rays
After a botched attempt in January, we finally had our friends Karen and Colin over, and I handed over the Blu-rays I had forΒ far too long.
While I didn’t get to watch them (pretty sad for 2 Β½ years, right?)βI’m not too worried.
Because Internet.
And all its wonderful films.
STATUS: Doneβa little less Blu!
70) Come up with the best story ever for the βAbout Meβ section I usually leave blank on all those websites
Coming up with an “About Me” that turns heads ain’t easy. I’ve led a busy lifeβtrying to summarize it in a paragraph or two leaves me flabbergasted, preferring talks about life over lattes or giving a talk to a crowd. 500 characters simply isn’t enough space.
Regardless, I tried my hand at one, trying to captureΒ what I’m all about. I think it could use refining (or a total re-write), but let me know whatΒ you think:
Calling the Great White North his home, Caseyβs spent the last few decades in pursuit of creating killer content. From novels as a kid, comics as a teen, to blogs and photos once he could grow a beard, heβll use whateverβs around him to create amazing stuff.
When heβs not creating, heβs parenting, exploring and trying to make life as awesome as possible for everyone around him.
Because a boring lifeβs not a life worth living!
72) Come up with the perfect stink face to give people every time they ask whether Sarah and I have thought about Kid #2 yet. Because I canβt hit them.
What isΒ up with people asking whether we’re ready to have a second kid only 3 or 4Β months into life with theΒ first one? And it’s always the onesΒ without kids asking, in some snide jokey tone like they’re laughing at how complicated life’s gotten as a parent, pointing fingers at the new situation with a vile sense of Schadenfreude.
While I can’t smack these people like they rightly deserveβDoomzToo shouldn’t have a jail-bird for a Dad, after allβI still need to find a way to appropriately communicate how stupid and tasteless that question is at this stage in the game.
Give me some timeβI’ll come up withΒ something.
91) Eat St-HubertΒ at least once, unless I make it to Montreal and my cousins can take us out for evenΒ betterΒ chicken




Even if I don’t make it to St. Hubert this year, technically, I didΒ manage to eat some when No Frills had a number of pies on sale and Sarah brought some home!
I’m still hoping to hit Ottawa sometime this year, though!
95) Acquire a Bitcoin
I actually tried to win a Bitcoin from Indie 88.1 FM, telling them I’d invest it for my son’s educationβbut lost to a guy who said he’d buy a goat for an impoverished community through World Vision and name it Indie 88.1 FM.
Well played, Goat Manβwell played.
Total completed = 5/100
Total needed toΒ track for The 2014 100Β success = 16/100
STATUS = Woefully behind.
I killed another Mophie Juice Pack; ate twice at The Wren for date nights; hung out with my friends at the Two Bite Saloon for delicious sliders and cheap drinks; and drove my maiden voyage in rush hour traffic to take the car in to the shop. DoomzToo’s possibly started teething; we befriended our pregnant neighbours; and I got more involved in my parent blogger communities.
In conclusion, February came and it went. I’ve entered March realizing that at some point, any post earlier thanΒ late 2013 had all its images mysteriouslyΒ vanish, meaningΒ hours of restoration work to get my blog as clean as possible. I’ve a few months yet of #100HappyDays ahead, and many tales and ideas to share in 2014!
Thanks for the visit! I’ll see you in March!
–case p.
11 replies on “The February Freeze”
Great post Casey – cool that you bumped into Zanta. I remember his antics on the subway many moons ago when I used to take it into work. BTW – your little guy looks adorable!
Thanks for the comment, Margaret π I was surprised to see Zanta after he’d been off of everyone’s radar for so long, but he made for a good commute up to work, if anything π
My son is officially 1000x more photogenic than I am. I thought I did okay, but he’s got me beat in numerous ways. I’ve come to peace with this.
Appreciate the visit!
I entered that contest even though my business is my blog..is that okay? Ha!
And you just have to double up on your To Do tasks for the next month! Ain’t nobody got time for excuses. Excuses are for those who don’t griiiiiind.
LOL @ you sucking at racing games. I’ll teach you a thing or two, young city bwoy.
Totally okay that your blog is your business β were I to win, I’d completely use the $5,000 to help promote the blog. You have the right idea π
You know, it’s interesting. I come up with a list at the beginning of the year of things I think would be nice to do, but as the year develops, all these other opportunities and projects come up, many of them better than the things I originally planned to do. So it’s not really that I’m lacking for accomplishments β it’s more that I end up accomplishing far different things than I’d originally imagined. I’m still happy with the progress I’m making in 2014 β easily been my busiest year for social media yet!
Feel free to come over and school me on my racing game anytime, Race Game Guru π
Yup I totally get that. My friend is actually designing a logo for me …and that was nowhere on my list! LOL. We dreamers have a hard time staying focused on one project haha!
And ummm I am the queen of allll racing games (specifically arcade and N64 versions, tho.)
I gave up on focus years ago. Now I just “do”. It works out better for me π
love seeing updates. BUT needs more Baby Doomz!
Aliya, I didn’t even know you read my blog! Amazing π
I leave the updates with DoomzToo for Facebook – are we not connected there? I can only expose him so much! And there’s a thin line between sharing cute photos and exploiting my kid for the attention π
i do read, but mostly stay silent.
i’m wary of FB. it seems a black hole of “where did my day go” and entirely too much oversharing and too many perfectly curated snapshots of lives without any of the mess that makes life, well, life.
i will stay here and get the teeny bits of cuteness (because teeny is better than none).
I’ll take silent but visiting over finding a specific post to blast me over, any day π
Facebook’s become my main hub for socializing over time β if one wants to know my inmost thoughts, it’ll probably be there because of the large user base of people I know and the privacy settings. I try to find a purpose for every outlet I use; Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr are still ghost towns for me when it comes to content. I’ll get there, though.
I’ll see what I can provide on my blog π