Ashta Made You A Mixtape – A curated music radio show Friday nights at 9 on 101.7fm CHLY

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  • Half Music Half Esther Part 2

    Part 2 of what we started last week on The Sweet and Sour Variety Hour. Half music and the second half of a one-hour conversation between Adam Grant and Esther Perel which aired on her new podcast called How’s Work (of which I highly recommend!)

    Here is the file, airing via CHLY 101.7FM on Wednesday April 15th 2020

    Tracks

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  • Tracking Life

    Tracking Life

    For the past year and a half, I have kept a life log that has, over time, revealed patterns in my life that now completely informs how I live. It all started as a method of birth control called FAM, but soon turned into my own little accountability reference aid that has connected me to my body, and my body to the moon. Basically, I take my temperature with a digital thermometer in the morning before getting out of bed. There is a discernible spike in temperature the day after ovulation, so after a while, you know exactly when you’re most fertile.


    What are Fertility Awareness Methods?
    Fertility awareness methods (FAMs) are ways to track your ovulation so you can prevent pregnancy. FAMs are also called “natural family planning” and “the rhythm method.” – plannedparenthood.org


    Other patterns start to emerge too. For example, now that I know when I’m most likely to have depressed feelings, I will control for it. Perhaps hosting that dinner party would be better suited to this other week, when I know I feel particularly motivated and on top of things. I track all my big headaches, my weight fluctuation, exercise, fasting, pimples, moods, and…other things. It’s a clear way of seeing how this stuff relates to where I am in my cycle, and where my cycle is with the phase of the moon. Just by keeping this log, I feel accountable to this document, and thus, am more likely to keep my goals.

    I made a custom chart that I’m giving away for free. It’s in Celsius (Canada, eh?) and includes a weight section with spaces between 130-160 lbs, but you can easily convert it. It’s mostly blank and customizable, so you can write in whatever you want to track! Pick up a digital thermometer (with preferably two decimal places for better accuracy), and get charting for a more informed connection to your body!

    Click here for the PDF

    I printed it out and made a booklet. It looks like this…


    Ovulation day: February 27th, known because it’s the day right before the spike in waking temperature
    Seeing the days and intensity of my menstruation help me to plan ahead
  • Uses for Young Maple Flower

    Uses for Young Maple Flower

    It is that time in the spring that tender green flowers are emerging from the buds of what I like to refer to as The Maple Syrup Tree.

    Added whole into a stew at the very end will barely cook the buds, which mean they keep a bright colour and retain a little crunch.

    This morning I added them to a breakfast bowl of oranges, roasted almonds, and cream top yogurt.

  • Half Happy Tunes Half Esther Perel on Work

    This week on The Sweet and Sour Variety Hour, we hear some upbeat music for half an hour, and then we hear the first half of a one-hour conversation between Adam Grant and the brilliant Esther Perel which aired on her new podcast called How’s Work (of which I highly recommend!)

    Here is the file, airing live to over a million human beings in the Coast Salish area of Cascadia via CHLY 101.7FM

    Here are the tracks

    • Rene Aubry – Happy Voices
    • Randy Newman – Monsters, Inc.
    • Rene Aubry – My Body is My House
    • George Bruns – Nation on Wheels
    • Mop Mop – Kamakumba
    • Taggy Matcher – Paranoid
    • Four Tet – Locked
    • Radio Citizen – Everything (feat. Bajka)
    • How’s Work with Esther Perel and Adam Grant

  • Pregnancy and Childbirth Survey

    Haven’t done one of these in a looong time! Hello 2008!

    -What do you remember about finding out you were pregnant? With F, being shocked at how soon after we’d “pulled the goalie” that I got pregnant (3 weeks), and saying “oh my gawwdd” back and forth to one another in amazement. With J, being shocked to find out that I was pregnant with the surviving twin of a miscarriage! I was halfway done the pregnancy by then. 

    – Who was the most excited to hear you were expecting? Pat’s mom!

    – Did you find out the sex in utero? didn’t find out either

    – Gender reveal party? no.
    – Did you feel nauseous? Very early during each pregnancy. With F, we had a sailboat and took it out quite often. With prego nausea, it was almost unbearable. With J, I was working at a Greek restaurant, and the smell of the roasted lamb turned my stomach like nothing else in life.

    – Any notable cravings? F, scrambled eggs and ketchup, J,bread and butter
    – Heartburn? only once in a while with each.
    – Swelling? Noticed in my face, mostly toward the end. 
    – Mood swings? Probably since my husband could tell when I was pregnant before I did on both occasions, I reckon my demeanor was a tad off. Throughout (with each) I cried easily. I remember trying to watch The Revenant and had to turn it off after 20 minutes because of my uncontrollable sobbing.

    – Did you read any books or take any classes? No classes, but I read books.Lots of birth stories from Ina May Gaskin’s books. I read Ingrid Bauer’s Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene two times during pregnancy with F, and one more time during pregnancy with J.  There was also a period where I obsessively watched YouTube videos of women giving birth unassisted. This counts as study?

    – What were you doing when your water broke? Eating the best cheesecake I’ve ever made.

    – Born how close to due date? F, 2 days early. J, 1 week early

    – Midwife or doctor? Midwife Rhonda was front and center both times!
    – Epidural? F, no. J, no
    – Cesarean?  F, no. J, no
    – Strategy for coping with labour? Amanda Bee gave me advice about controlling my breath by counting, which totally worked. The wisdom of the people who wrote their stories in Ina May Gaskin’s books helped me a lot too. “Make your monkey do it”, and “Sphincter Law” come to mind. Knowing that my body was strong enough to cope if my mind was strong. Keeping the mindset that nothing is wrong, Im not injured, I can do it, I can open. Relaxing and opening was a major concept. I was literally lolling my tongue out of my mouth saying “oooopen, oooopen” in the final moments before J came out. Every uterus-haver should know that they have the power to consciously control their cervix during child labour. 

    – Hours in labour: F, 8. J, less than 1

    – How long was transition (pushing)? F,15 minutes? J, 5 minutes?

    – Induced? F, no. J, castor oil smoothie
    – Weight: each were close to 8lbs
    – Sex of baby: F, boy. J, girl 

    – Place of birth: F, home. J, maternity ward 

    – What do you remember about the first time you saw your baby? F. Let’s get that cord unwrapped from around your neck!  J, I can’t believe it’s over already

    – Something that was never the same afterwards: We hardly ever watch any violent entertainment. The baby can feel it!!  

    – How old is your baby now? F, 6 years. J, 22 months


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  • Spring Music and Nanaimo Chronicles New Podcast, Inside

    On this week’s episode of The Sweet and Sour Variety Hour, 50 minutes of a wild ride through a few different kinds of music, followed by an installment of Tod Maffin’s Nanaimo Chronicles Podcast – Inside.

    Here is the file, airing to over a million humans in the Coast Salish area around the 101.7FM transmitter on Wednesday, March 25th, 2020 beginning at 8am PST

    The Music

    • Los Lobos – Kiko and the Lavender Moon
    • Luiz Bonfa – Pernambuco
    • Alex Izenberg – To Move On
    • Nancy Wilson – How Glad I Am
    • Linda McCartney – Seaside Woman
    • Johnnie Frierson – Have You Been Good To Yourself?
    • Pierre Cavalli – Un Soir Chez Norris
    • Wings – Spin It On
    • Ween – Learnin’ to Love
    • Blackrock – Yeah Yeah
    • Max Webster – Toronto Tonto’s
    • Gorillaz – Last Living Souls
    • They Might Be Giants – Seven Days of the Week (I Never Go To Work)
    • Talking Heads – Born Under Punches
    • The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist
    • Beck – Gamma Ray
    • Nanaimo Chronicles, Inside – Wren

Lookit! An Instagram!

This is it!