I'm not entirely sure of the exact date I started this weblog. It seems likely from the archives and other notes I have from that time, that I started it in the Fall of 1998 . . . possibly in early November, though I might've begun work on it in September or October and I didn't think to save archives of the first entries. Because when I look at the first entry in my archives, I know that wasn't the real first entry, that other stuff was posted before it. Maybe I'll stumble on those pages someday. Will I ever know the true anniversary of this weblog? Probably not. But I'm gonna celebrate the anniversary now, darnit.

Why'd I start a weblog? It seemed like a good idea. This is what I wrote about it at the time. I was inspired by Raphael Carter's Honeyguide and Jorn Barger's Robot Wisdom.

When I started this weblog, I was working at startribune.com where I spent most of my time running reports on traffic to that website: a very tedious task. So I spent a lot of my time surfing the net while those reports ran and eventually a weblog was born. In the old days I often updated multiple times each day (yikes!) and even managed to sometimes beat Jorn and Jim @ obscure store to quirky news stories.

My TV Picks evolved from this weblog, eventually becoming a separate page. And I suspect the TV Picks also took me away from this weblog: eventually I didn't have as much free time to cruise the web and what little time I did have was devoted to daily updates of the picks.

I still haunt most of the sites I cited years ago on my usual sources page, as well as plenty of others now listed on my portal page.

Unfortunately I don't have time to look at more than a handful of other weblogs occasionally these days. And my weblog really hasn't been updated very often at all during the last six to twelve months. I feel bad that it's fallen by the wayside, but I'm not sure the world needs still another weblog now that there are so many.

When I started there were 20 or so, then maybe 50. And many of us read all of the others we knew about. Jesse's got a good list of weblogs that includes ye old gang. I miss the ones that aren't out there anymore, even though I haven't the time to visit any as often. And I fear this one is heading in that direction.

But it's been a lot of fun, most of the time. And I've "met" a lot of people at least virtually that I might never have known. They've enriched my life, that's for sure.

Thanks to each and every one of you for visiting this site-- regularly or only occasionally. Or even if this is your first visit. And special thanks to everyone who ever emailed me feedback or who linked to my pages: you rock! Your comments and links mean the world to me.

And of course this weblog wouldn't exist had I not found all sorts of cool stuff out there that I wanted to share with friends and strangers, and remember my own self for years to come. Wander through the archives and you'll see what I mean. There's good stuff there.

I've linked to a lot of stuff over the years. And I owe the folks I linked feedback.

Special Thanks to:

. . . Raphael and Jorn and Steve Bogart and the rest of the webloggers who came before me. For inspiration, encouraging words, and links. Who'd've thunk one day there'd be many thousands of weblogs?!?

. . . Aaron Barnhart and everyone at tvbarn.com
. . . the Vidiots at teevee.org
. . . Felix Strates (for sending me so many links for this log!)
. . . James Lileks
. . . Jim King et al at The Links
. . . Jon Carroll
. . . Al Roker
. . . my old pals at startribune.com
. . . the denizens of alt.tv.homicide
. . . Shaun & Alexa
. . . Al Iverson
. . . Autumn Tysko and the rest of OBSSE
. . . my pals at the Well
. . . Harry Knowles
. . . the reviewers at X-Review
. . . Dean Gahlon & Sharon Kahn & Karen Cooper & Bruce Schneier and the rest of my friends in Minn-stf.

These are people I've quoted many times, sites I've linked to a lot. Or folks who've provided links or comments. The weblog wouldn't be nearly as interesting without any of 'em.

One last thing: Of all the things I've linked to over the years, which made me laugh the hardest? That'd be The T'inator.

Back with more webloggy type stuff maybe in a week or two (maybe, we'll see how it goes). Thanks *so much* for reading.

- Laurel