And for a girl like me who doesn't wear much (if any) makeup on most days, it's just perfect. (Though to be honest, lately I've been wearing Clinique Almost Lipstick in "Ruby Melt" or "Black Honey" almost all the time instead of Lip Tone. And in the winter I use Philosophy's "Kiss Me" at night to prevent chapped lips. But I digress).

I'll usually have a stick of Lip Tone in my purse, plus one of those tiny tubes of Origins Pinch Your Cheeks blush and I'm good to go (Sometimes I'll take the Sonia Kashuk Target brand knock-off of BeneTint instead).

[I've been wearing blush off and on since early grade school, believe it or not. My Mom bought me powder blush to wear to school sometimes because I'm so pale that the teachers kept sending me home 'cuz they thought I was sick. Really. My Mom's solution? Here, try this makeup . . . D'oh!]

Anyway. So I'm kinda crabby that I haven't seen Lip Tone on the shelves anywhere for a couple of months now . . . grrrrr. That was my point, yeah. It feels strange writing about beauty products in my weblog for some reason.

Have I mentioned lately that ye olde "windowseat font" is Fontdinerdotcom and/or Fontdinerdotcomsparkly? Both found at fontdiner (where else?). Now you can make your webpage look too much like mine. D'oh. Or download (or purchase!) some of their other fab fonts.

Invasion?

Sounds a bit extreme to me. And how long will the ice be staying?

Meanwhile, we aren't supposed to travel. Some schools have closed down early. But I'm at work and my van is out there just waiting for the half inch to inch of ice they're predicting before the rain turns to snow. Will make for a joyous commute home, I'm sure. I'm just glad that I live a mere 3 miles from work.

Brak sang the national anthem. John Madden wasn't wearing any pants. TV doesn't get much better than that, really. (Um . . . no, I'm not hopped up on cold medicine as I type this).

While you're at the Cartoon Network site, don't forget to visit the Space Ghost pages while you're there.

Other things making my day? The fact that I stayed home pretty much all weekend with a cold resulted in my clearing almost everything off my Tivo. Fellow Tivo owners will appreciate how good this feels . . . :)

These all do relate to each other. Once upon a time I thought I should make a chart on a webpage to explain it all. Lojo once played in the band Cats Laughing along with Adam Stemple (who is in Boiled in Lead and The Tim Malloys) and Emma Bull (who is one of the Flash Girls) and Steve Brust (who has written songs for Boiled in Lead). Lojo also used to be in Gallowglass Irish Trio with Ken Larson. And Lojo is part of Mogganauff with the Fabulous Lorraine Garland (another of the Flash Girls). Of course there are other connections, but it makes my head hurt. Methinks Lojo would be a hub on that there webpage . . .

I've got chills! Aches and pains! And a painful sinus headache! (and all that goes along with it). Slight sore throat now, too.

I'm counting the minutes 'til I can go home and drink a big glass of "Double Vitamin C" orange juice (in the hopes that it'll cure me), take a hot bath, and then crawl under my rocketship-flannel-covered down comforter, never to wake again.

Oh alright, I'll probably drag myself out of bed to work somehow on Friday.

All this is my way of spreading joy. Or boring you to tears.

Or maybe explaining why I've not updated this weblog much since when I'm not staring at the screen to do work, I generally just want to put my head down on my desk. Or if I'm at home, I don't want to be looking at my computer. It also explains why I'm slower than usual at responding to emails, and so on. Still doing the the d*mn tv picks which I hope some folks appreciate. (I know, the world's smallest violin is now playing just for me . . . ).

Just noticed that one of the DVDs on my wish list was on sale for 40% off at amazon.com, so I went and bought it for myself. Ahhhh.

It's Cat Ballou [IMDB Entry]. I fell in love with it as a youngster, before I learned to dislike Jane Fonda. Ahem. Lee Marvin
is fabulous, of course. And I love the narration and tunes by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye. It's just a fun, fun movie.

They head the cast of a production that will run during late February and early March at the Guthrie. Anyway, was a really fun hour where they answered questions from the audience about the play and talked about taking the stage at the Guthrie for the first time. Had I a better memory, I'd recount some of it, but . . . well . . . I don't.

And no, no one asked Stewart any questions about Star Trek. Thank goodness.

My favorite cartoon character is, of course, Daffy Duck. And this is what that supposedly says about me:

You are annoying in this cute way.  People love being around you because of your utter goofiness.  Making people laugh is your specialty. Daffy lovers think there is a soul mate out there for everyone.  Love is something you haven't found deeply yet but your soul mate will be there, closer than you think.

Eek! It's fairly accurate, except maybe for that love and soulmate stuff (sorry, I'm a cynic these days where that stuff is concerned).

Tim: I have a plan.
Frank: A plan?
Tim: Yeah. A very clever plan.
Frank: Bayliss has a clever plan.
Tim: Do you have a plan, Frank?
Frank: I admit it. I have no plan.

That's an exchange from the "Full Court Press" episode of Homicide: Life on the Street.

I've got a plan or at the very least I've begun planning the 2nd Annual Homicide Party Thing. What's this all about? Well, follow the link for gory details.

Y'all are invited, of course.

You might want to check out the official website and the soundtrack website. And the movie's IMDB entry.

And of course you can buy the soundtrack at amazon.com.

It features great folk performances, both old and new. From the original "Big Rock Candy Mountain" to four different versions of "I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow."

Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year.

I can't convey in words how cool this is. Well, maybe I'll try later. For now I just wanted to register a big "woohoo!"

Star Tribune coverage of the selection of Puckett and Winfield. Lots and lots of cool stuff there. It's well worth listening to the recording of Kirby's press conference, it's amazing. Funny and fascinating and fun and cool. Don't miss the Barreiro piece re Puck, that kinda explains a little teensy bit of what I'm feeling. But Kirby's words themselves do it the most, appropriately enough.

AP story @ ESPN. And an article by ESPN's Tim Kurkjian.

I also know that I've gotta be there for the ceremony, so I'm already plotting a trip to Cooperstown in August.

Then you'll want to check out this alternative list. Plus: it's Lando-riffic. From some of the folks behind Stomp Tokyo so you know it's good.

I don't necessarily agree with them, but their list amuses me thus far, even if they pick on a bunch of my favorite classic movies.

(I found the link at plastic.com)

It's not bad, actually. Had I more time, I'd edit the image my own self to change the color of the cat and add my other cat. And maybe extend that orange shirt so it covers my belly button (I don't think I've ever worn a shirt that bares my belly button).

I do wear orange, I to tend to wear black jackets or shirts over top of bright colored tops and black pants and black boots. And those glasses look just like the ones I wear most of the time. Kindof spooky.

I tend to assume that I'm the only person who uses the page, but maybe some of you do (or will after visiting it).

So if you notice anything that's busted, let me know. And if you can think of a link you think I'd like which isn't there . . . tell me about it!

And of course I'd love to hear about your weblog or journal or page. Or your favorites that you visit.

I'm still friends with plenty of people I met on those BBSes, I've lost touch with others. I've got good memories and not-so-good memories (of course).

There's a Citadel webpage that contains some information. And I recently stumbled on this archive which has copies of a bunch of different variations on Citadel software.

Does anyone else have a Cybiko? Got any tips? Site or software recommendations? What can I do with it, really?

My friends think I should take it to the Mall of America and scan for compatible people (!) . . . I fear I have the only Cybiko in Minnesota.

When I made the 14-year-old-Japanese girl remark at a party recently, my friend Alexa said "that sounds about right, except for the Japanese part." D'oh!

Hynes confesses:

I’ve read Little, Big four times now, and wept shamelessly each time over those last, extraordinary fifty pages, and over the years have purchased and given away fifteen copies of it (when I could find it–it is inconsistently in print). When "You’ll love this" isn’t recommendation enough, I have proceeded to claim (as I’m claiming here) that Little, Big is an Important American Novel that bears comparison to such works as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Nabokov’s Ada.

This sounds so familiar. Little, Big is one of my favorite books and whenever I stumble on a copy, I buy it in the hopes that I can give it to a friend who'll grow to love the book as much as I do.

Hynes tackles the genre question, it's one that science fiction fans talk about a lot:

Still, Crowley’s career is an object lesson for any writer who wants to write serious fiction outside the lines, as it were: once you enter the labyrinth of genre, it may be impossible to find your way out again. It’s all right, apparently, for a writer with an established literary reputation to venture into science fiction [ . . . ] but God forbid someone should try to create literature with the tools of the genre writer.

Anyway. Before I quote the whole article, go read it yourself. It's good stuff whether you're already a fan of Crowley's or not (though it's worth noting that the story contains spoilers for some of Crowley's books).

And here's a link to his latest book: Daemonomania.

And then we got to the stand-alone episodes. At least there was talk of Mulder's disappearance, at first. And acknowledgement of the difficulty involved with a new partnership. I even like Doggett, I do.

But I never cared much for the standalone Monster of the Week episodes of the show. Only if there was cool character stuff going on or cool humor involved. But most of the ones that played it straight, trying to scare me either grossed me out or bored me (or both), especially when Mulder and Scully weren't on screen together.

And it seems that's what Carter and company think this season is about (grossing me out and boring me).

Autumn Tysko's review of the "Surekill" episode nails it:

The X-Files sure has "reinvented itself." It's reinvented itself right into a dull anthology series with a quasi-paranormal slant. Carter and Spotnitz have been telling us for years that they believe the show is plot driven rather than character driven, and in the last two months they've proven it to us. Guess what guys? Your plots are dull. Dull, dull, dull.

[ . . . ]

Instead of giving the audience what they want, the 1013 writing staff continues to think people are interested in the likes of Squinty and Stupid the Wonder Twins and their mousy assistant Tammi. Gee, how is Scully's pregnancy going? How bad were things that she was recently in the hospital? Did she ever tell her family she's pregnant? Has her mother EVER called her back? Does it wear on her to be investigating these stupid cases without Mulder? Is she as annoyed with Doggett just barking out "Agent" whenever he wants her to come as the rest of us are? Is she still having nightmares about Mulder? Does she still go over to Mulder's apartment every few days and feed his fish? No, we can't answer any INTERESTING questions that might lend to character growth for the series LEADS when we can instead find out that three loser men are all in love with the same loser girl for no apparent reason. Because that's the plot. Congratulations Greg Walker, you too are a plot driven writer. You've learned to fill your script with the sort of tension that Spotnitz and Carter, rather than the audience, crave. Thrilling stuff like the unbearable tension of Tammi and the answering machine message and the chilling "let me use this lighter to see your face because this office is lit too dark to make it seem spookier" scene. Pardon me while I yawn.

As did I. The Mighty Big TV recap of "Surekill" is pretty cruel, too. Deservedly so. What a dud of an episode. There've been worse episodes, I think, though now the worst ones I'm thinking of at least had some funny one-liners from Mulder.

Only good thing? Scully's hair looked great, her clothes were great. That's it. Sigh.

I miss Mulder. And the Mytharc, even. And I'd grown to really dislike the mytharc in recent years.

Hi,
Are you a Girl ?
Wanna boyfriend ?

What's greymatter? It's the cool software that I'm now using to help build this site and my TV Picks page. I really like it, even though I haven't yet begun to take full advantage of all it's features.

And I haven't yet upgraded to version 1.2, but I'll get to that sometime this week. I can't wait!

It's kindof a slashdotty webloggy affair. With different sections. The Vidiots of teevee.org edit the TV section of the site. nerve handles the sex section, Wired News the tech section, etc. Other contributors/editors include folks from Inside, Movieline, Spin, Gamers.com, NetSlaves, Modern Humorist, and The New Republic.

I beta-tested the site a bit this weekend and I've already contributed two stories to the TV section and posted a couple of comments.

I'm not entirely sold on the design and I'm sure there may still be bugs to work out. But there's promise here, I think.

Will the site be cool? Will it work? Much depends on whether people show up and contribute. So have at it, eh?

1. I'm twenty-nine years old (in theory, at least).
2. I'm of Norwegian and German descent.
3. I have blonde hair, green eyes (that sometimes seem more blue or hazel), and I'm extremely fair-skinned, I sunburn super-easily (to put it mildly).
4. I live in a suburb of Minneapolis in an apartment with two mutant cats.
5. Preferred drinks? Cold cold water, Good Earth iced tea, orange juice, Brisk Iced Tea, Dr. Pepper, vanilla coke, cherry coke (but only if made from "scratch"), vanilla frappucinos. I'm fond of Bailey's irish creme, some hard ciders, cosmopolitans, Mike's Hard Lemonade (the Canadian vodka-based version), white russians, and various frou-frou drinks. (To be honest, I don't drink very often).
6. I'm a systems administrator at Colorhouse, a graphic prepress shop.
7. I drive a 1988 Chevy Astro minivan; I didn't pick out the vehicle, it was a gift, of sorts, after my previous car blew up. It's got 180,000 miles on it (most of which weren't put on it by me).
8. I'm not a programmer, though I'm pretty good at modifying existing perl scripts and I've been known to write shell scripts.
9. I have an "innie."
11. I almost always wear black shoes or boots, most of which are made by Aerosoles. I wear Teva sandles in the summertime sometimes. I've my eye on some cool Campers, though. And it's well past time I replaced the Docs I had (and lost) ages ago. It's extremely rare that I wear anything with high heels. 1-inch boot heel? Yes. Anything else? Unlikely. I tend to wear and wear and wear the same pair or couple of pairs of shoes.
12. I don't have any tattoos. Nor any piercings. Many moons ago a doctor warned me that I'm prone to forming extra scar tissue and that piercings and tattoos probably wouldn't work on me (and no, I don't think my parents bribed the doc). Plus: I'm a wimp when it comes to needles.
13. I tend to assume I'm wrong. Except when I know I'm right (then there's no use in trying to change my mind).
14. I don't wear boxers or briefs, but can't bring myself to say "panties" 'cuz that sounds silly. Actually, I have a few pairs of flannel boxer shorts that I wear around the house, but I'm not sure they count.
15. I have a Palm III that I got ages ago and I just recently purchased a Palm IIIxe. I very much want a Palm Vx. And I like gadgets. Also have a Cybiko. And a cell phone.
16. I don't know from deepleap.
17. I don't really care for popcorn, though if someone else buys popcorn at a movie, I'll usually eat a little of it.
18. I'm too shy to say who I think is "wicked sexy" even when they're famous people I'll probably never meet. D'oh.
19. I like it when it's dark outside (or inside). So long as I've the technology to make light if I need to.
20. I admire the music of a lot of people, including Richard Thompson, John Wesley Harding, Neil Finn/Crowded House/et al, Greg Brown, Peter Gabriel, and plenty of others too numerous to list. I'm a music.junkie.
21. I don't like coffee, but I've learned to like lattes and frappucinos and such coffee drinks so long as there's a lot of steamed milk and other flavorings involved. I do like coffee ice cream.
22. I believe there are a few "stupid questions," but most of the time I like answering questions (regardless of whether they're stupid). Not so good at asking questions, sometimes.
23. I need to get a haircut. But I'm not sure if I want to try and grow it out long again or if I want to have it cropped chin-length (or so) again. I'm indecisive.
24. I tend to type and say "gr00by" instead of "groovy".

When I was growing up, I hated breakfast and didn't like school lunches, so I'd usually eat very little until I got home from school . . . then I'd watch TV and eat ramen. Those were the days . . .

And now when I went searching for that link, I found Asteroids fanfic and other computer game related fanfic stuff. Eek.

I'd thought iBooks were real pretty (especially the orange ones and maybe the newish green ones). But now I'm glad I didn't spend my hard earned $ on one of them, because I simply must have a new Titanium Powerbook. Oh. My. God. Great tech specs + great design = drool. Um.

If the spirit moves you, please contribute to the Buy Laurel a Titanium Powerbook Fund. (Hey, a girl can dream . . . ) (I've never ever had a portable computer. Well not since my Commodore SX-64. I think it'd be cool to have one! I could post entries from the road and everything!)

And I just put my new flannel rocketship comforter cover on my comforter on my bed. It's so spiff. A gift to myself.

These things, among others, make me happy.

I highly recommend both these items in particular and happiness in general.

Meanwhile, the real detectives who work Homicide in Baltimore had some good news this year:

Baltimore recorded fewer than 300 homicides last year for the first time in more than a decade, curbing a vicious cycle of killings that stained the city as one of the nation's most violent urban centers.

The year ended yesterday with 262 homicides, well below the 305 in 1999. That broke a barrier that seemed impossible in April, when the number of killings exceeded the previous year's pace by nearly three dozen.

And The (real) Board is back in Balmer where it belongs.

A very clever plan (maybe): I'm planning "The 2nd Annual Mpls Homicide Party Thingie" (for lack of a better name). Last February a few Homicide fans gathered at my apartment to watch Homicide: The Movie and we had a great time. So I figured it's time to plan another party for sometime in February, somewhere in or near Minneapolis. If you're a fan of the show and want to get together with some other fans to watch episodes and talk about the show and lord knows what else (write on whiteboards?), email me. And if you can't be here, but have ideas or stuff to contribute, pester me.

But I could never customize it quite as much as I'd like and then there were the few times big entries were lost . . . which was incredibly frustrating.

And after weeks of Blogger being super slow, yesterday was the final straw. I couldn't take it any longer! I tried for several hours to upload my TV Picks and I could never get Blogger to cooperate.

So yesterday I switched my picks over to using Noah Grey's fab greymatter software and today on my lunch hour I worked on switching this weblog over.

I've still got things to fix, but at least now I can post!

While Blogger is a cool tool and much is being made out of how they're now soliciting donations to buy bigger and better servers . . . I think they're doing it too late. And that the folks at Pyra should've stopped letting folks sign up for a bit, until they could afford an upgrade. 'Cuz I doubt I'm the only longtime user who got fed up and left . . .