To mark the start of a new month, one that should definitely see the weather kick in to full spring mode (he says knocking on wood), a new edition of Backtrack. As previously noted, Backtrack looks at events that have taken place on this date in history.

In 1891, the Wrigley Company was formed in Chicago. Wrigley, of course, is famous for gum and for having their name on the ballpark where the Chicago Cubs have lost so many games over the years.

The Royal Canadian Air Force was formed on this date in 1924. This marked the formation of Canada’s first official national air force; the creation of the proposed Canadian Air Force in 1918 was aborted a year later when Britain decided to cut funding following the end of WWI. The Royal Canadian Air Force existed until 1968, when Canada’s army, navy and air force were integrated into the Canadian Forces.

Check out this link for rare archival footage of the first official Royal Canadian Air Force test flight. It's hard to believe they used to fly missions in these things.

Nunavut was established as a Canadian territory in 1999. It was formed from land that had formerly been part of the Northwest Territories.

Finally, in 2004 Google introduced Gmail. Some news media and bloggers were convinced Google’s announcement of Gmail was a joke, given its date of introduction and the fact that it offered unlimited inbox space (something then-unheard of from a free email provider).

Over the course of my recent stint of joblessness, I've done a lot of different things. But the two things I've done the most of are job search, and think. And the latter has made me reflect on a few important lessons I've picked up in my 32 years on this planet - lessons I thought I would share here.

1. The way your peers define you when you’re 12 will be completely different from the way they define you when you’re 24, or 48. The trick is in realizing this yourself.
2. It’s never too late to start something. But the longer you wait to start, the more you’ll regret not starting it sooner. I started this blog in January of this year, after more than a year of people asking me why I hadn’t started a blog. I’m an editor and a writer, the theory went, I should have a blog. But I just wasn’t mentally prepared to keep up a blog enough to make it interesting, or so I kept telling myself. When I finally bit the bullet and started this thing, I realized there was nothing to fear, and no reason for me to not have started it sooner.
3. Everything in life is 95% effort, and 5% results. But if you always strive to do the things that are important to you, the 5% results will far outweigh the 95% effort.
4. You can’t change other people, and the effort you expend trying to do so will always leave you disappointed (see above).
5. No matter how much you try to be happy, there will always be times when you’re not. Ignoring the things that make you unhappy will just make it worse.
6. It’s okay to be an introvert as long as you’re smart and/or interesting, and have something useful to say when you do choose to say something.
7. Everyone can learn something from everyone else. This is because everyone you meet will be better than you at something; conversely, you will always be better at something than everyone you meet.
8. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t prepare yourself for certain things. Take buying a house, for one. I didn’t sleep a wink the weekend we bought our house, because I drove myself crazy wondering what we’d gotten ourselves into. I still wonder that, often. But I sleep more now, because I know there’s nothing I can do to prepare myself for the roof leaking, or a plumbing issue.
9. Real love only comes when you’re not looking for it. I’d heard this before and always thought it was some lame, hollow Hallmark observation. But it’s true. I’m not saying that finding the person is easy; I met the woman who is now my wife while we were living in different provinces. But the falling in love part just happened, even though neither one of us was fully prepared for it.
10. Everyone is always faking something. Your parents, friends, co-workers, your boss. The President of the United States. They’re all faking it. It’s not because they’re trying to pull a fast one over you; it’s because they’re just trying to get by in life. Nobody ever figures out everything about anything. Understand this and you will doubt yourself a lot less frequently.
11. You can't go back and change things that have happened. One day, humans will figure out time travel. Until then, this is a harsh fact of life. And you can’t always forgive and forget. But being able to move forward and not dwell on the past is often just as effective.
12. There is always a silver lining. You just have to find it. I’ve now been laid off twice in my career. The first time it happened, in my mid-twenties, I was devastated. And then, a few months later, I landed a better job for better pay. The second time I got laid off, four months ago, the sting was just as painful. But the perspective I’ve gained over the years has allowed me to think about what I want to do next and how to get there, and the time off has allowed me the chance to reach for those goals. I’m almost there.

Earth Hour 2010 took place last night, and depending on in what light you choose to review the results, Toronto’s efforts in reducing energy consumption were either successful or a complete failure.

I read a post today on the popular local website BlogTO, which was critical of Toronto’s Earth Hour performance. While, as the article points out, the city experienced a double-digit drop in energy consumption from 8:30 to 9:30 pm last night vs. a typical Saturday night in March, the author seemed to be more concerned with the fact that photos of Toronto’s downtown core show that buildings that are typically lit up overnight remained so yesterday.

But BlogTO wasn’t the only media outlet to give Toronto’s Earth Hour performance the thumbs-down – the Toronto Star also took the “if I can see lights on downtown, Torontonians must be heartless, environment-hating assholes” approach. To me, reactions such as these raise several important questions about Earth Hour:

• What is the most important measure of Earth Hour – how the event promotes awareness of the impact of humans on the environment; or the actual quantitative energy decline that’s measured in that one hour?
• If the most important thing is the measured drop in energy for that one hour, how do we measure that: using percentage drop figures from hydro companies; or by actually being able to see lights go off across a city’s skyline?
• If we are measuring percentage drops in energy consumption, how much is enough? As BlogTO points out, Toronto’s measured energy drop for Earth Hour 2010 was 10%, compared to 15% in 2009. On the surface, this could be used as evidence to suggest that the impact of Earth Hour, or Torontonians’ interest in the environment, is waning. Of course, measure Toronto’s 10% decrease in energy consumption last night against the 4% drop seen through the whole province of Ontario, and Torontonians’ efforts are actually above average.

What if instead of just focusing on people’s efforts during a purely symbolic one-hour annual event, we focused on people’s energy consumption habits over the course of a whole year, as compared to previous years. And what if, instead of spending time criticizing citizens for not participating in Earth Hour at a level sufficient enough to meet purely arbitrary quotas, the media (both mainstream and blogs) focused their energy and efforts into looking at exactly how people and businesses have begun to cut down on their energy levels all year round, rather than just on some random March weekend?

As Ontario Hydro has pointed out, the province’s energy consumption has been on the decline in recent years—even as technology offers us more and more things to plug in and play with. Clearly, if we use this as our measure of success, awareness efforts such as Earth Hour are having the impact they’re intended to have.

Canada lost an important member of its music industry last week, when Dan Achen passed away at age 51, from a heart attack suffered during a pickup hockey game.

Achen was perhaps best known as the guitarist for the great Hamilton band Junkhouse, from 1989 until their breakup in 1997. After the band split, Achen took what he'd learned about guitar sounds and recording, and opened Catherine North Studios in a converted Hamilton church. There, Achen worked with artists including the Trews, Kathleen Edwards, and his niece, Feist. He also produced City and Colour's second album, Bring Me Your Love.

I was a big Junkhouse fan back in the day, so it only seems fitting to remember Dan's great guitar work with a couple of the band's best tunes:

In honour of the annual celebration of shamrocks and shenanigans, a few St. Patrick's Day facts and figures.

249 - Age of the world’s largest and oldest St. Patrick’s Day parade, in New York City. The parade, which involves more than 150,000 marchers but no floats, travels a 2.1 mile route and lasts about six hours – at least until next year, when new city rules come into effect that will shorten all parades by 25 percent to save money.

98 - Length, in feet, of the world’s shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The parade travels the length of Bridge Street in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The celebrity grand marshal for this year’s parade is Bo Derek.

13 million - Number of pints of Guinness that the brewery estimates are consumed on St. Patrick’s Day, up from 5.5 million on an average day.
125 - Number of calories in a 12-oz glass of Guiness draft, according to realbeer.com. This makes the “meal in a glass” a lower-cal choice than other popular beers, including Miller Genuine Draft (143), and Heineken (166).

119.5 - Length of time, in seconds, that the six steps involved in the “perfect pour” of a pint of Guinness should take, according to the company.
 
166,000 - Number of visits to Ireland made by Canadians in 2007, according to Statistics Canada.

44 - Percentage represented by potatoes of the 79.5 kg of vegetables consumed per Canadian, both fresh and processed, in 2008. This means the average Canadian consumed just under 35 kg of potatoes. That’s a lot of spuds, but it pales in comparison to the 140 kg consumed annually per capita in Ireland.

1962 - Year that Chicago began its annual tradition of dying the Chicago River green for St. Patrick’s Day.

Another new feature here at the B Log. In the B List, I’ll give a run down of some of my top picks in a random category. For the inaugural B List, I thought I would take a look at some cool songs that reference other bands.

Of course, these are just the tunes that came to my mind as I was writing this. There are many other examples out there. Leave a comment and remind me of some of the great songs I've missed.

Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes


This song, which references T. Rex, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, is considered an anthem of the glam rock era. It was written for the band by David Bowie, who was a fan and had heard they were on the verge of a split. The tune catapulted Mott the Hoople to stardom; the band subsequently repaid Bowie’s faith in them by never recording another hit and quickly breaking up.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama


This song was written in response to two Neil Young songs in which he is critical of Southern slavery and racism – “Southern Man” and “Alabama.” While the lyric “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her/Well I heard old Neil put her down/Well I hope Neil Young will remember/A southern man don’t need him around anyhow” is commonly interpreted as Skynyrd telling Neil Young to mind his own business, singer Ronnie Van Zant has said the song’s been misinterpreted and that it’s actually agreeing with Young’s criticisms of southern racism.


Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel #2


Okay, so Leonard doesn’t make a direct reference to another musician in this tune. But the woman about whom Cohen sings “You told me again you prefer handsome men/But for me you would make an exception” was long understood to be Janis Joplin. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that Cohen finally admitted the song was referencing his brief relationship with Joplin. In a 1994 BBC interview, he expressed regret over using personal stories in the song, calling it “the sole indiscretion in my professional life.”

Bob Dylan - Song to Woody

This song, from Dylan’s eponymous 1962 album, is his tribute to folk legend Woody Guthrie. By the time Dylan wrote this song, Guthrie’s career was in rapid decline – he was suffering from Huntington’s Disease, his first wife had left him, and a campfire accident left him unable to play the guitar. Dylan eventually met his idol when Guthrie was hospitalized in Brooklyn the early 1960s, and would play for him.

Wilco - the Late Greats

Since – if history is indeed our greatest teacher – I’m virtually incapable of posting anything these days without a reference to Wilco, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to see this here. I’m also cheating a bit with this one, as it doesn’t actually reference a real band. But outside of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and everything on the Hedwig and the Angry Inch soundtrack, this has to be the best song about a fictional band ever. (Actually, a band called The Late Greats does exist, though they took their name from the title of this song).

Veruca Salt - Volcano Girls


This song actually contains three separate musical references. The lyric “I told you about the Seether before/You know the one that’s neither or nor/Well here’s another clue if you please/The Seether’s Louise” reference’s the band’s only other hit single, “Seether,” as well as Veruca Salt member Louise Post. The third musical reference in the song comes from the structure of this lyric, which is a Beatles reference, as it mimics a lyric in the song “Glass Onion”: “I told you about the walrus and me, man/You know that we’re as close as can be, man/Well here’s another clue for you all/The walrus was Paul” (that lyric, of course, references both Paul McCartney and another Beatles Song, “I am the Walrus.”)

Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke

This song, from Stevie Wonder’s 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life, was written as a tribute to Duke Ellington, who had recently died. In the lyrics, Stevie name-checks other greats of the Big Band era, too: Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Glenn Miller.

So, it appears I've let this blogging thing slip a little bit over the past few weeks. Sorry about that. I wish I could say that I hada legitimate excuse or two. But the truth is I don't. I've been tied up with a few other things, mostly job-search related. And while that doesn't excuse the lack of posting - especially when writing a decent blog post isn't the most time-consuming activity - it has led to my mind being focused elsewhere.

Anyhow, enough apologizing. I hope some of you are still reading, or will at least come back and start reading again, because I'm planning on getting back to posting on a more frequent basis.

As a first step toward posting more often, I'm planning a couple small changes to this blog. First off, I've decided to abandon my self-imposed rule that all my posts have to start with the letter B. While I started this blog with that as my schtick (B Log = posts that start with B), I'm starting to realize that a good blog doesn't need schtick. Besides, as a writer and editor, limiting myself to writing post headlines that start with the same letter all the time was starting to drive me bonkers. So from now on, some posts will start with B (particularly the regular features I've already introduced), and some won't.

Secondly, I'm searching for a new look. This template has worked great for me as I've taught myself about the blogging world over the past couple of months, but it has its restrictions. I'm looking for something cleaner and more user-friendly. I hope to have something new in place in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for good Blogger templates, send them my way.