Bush invited 40 Hall of Famers to lunch today and announced plans for a baseball field at the White House where kids can play tee-ball.

In other news: Dwight Gooden announces his retirement.

When I was younger, the Mets were my favorite national league team and I was a big fan of Gooden and Strawberry & company. Here's hoping that Doc Gooden's life is straightened out so he can properly enjoy his retirement.

Opening Day is Sunday.

If you've never read How To Talk Minnesotan by Howard Mohr, I can't recommend it highly enough. Especially if you live in Minnesota. Or ever plan on visiting. Or know a Minnesotan (like yours truly).

I have a friend on the east coast who has read it and finds it funny . . . but he didn't realize, until I told him, that everything in the book is true. And it is all true (he still doesn't believe me, but then he's never been to Minnesota).

I miss being able to walk a block (or less?) to the Metrodome after work to see ballgames.

Me? I'm satisfied, pretty much, with the props I have. Including a shirt that was worn by Daniel Baldwin as Beau Felton. A tie that was worn by Richard Belzer as Munch. One of Kay's notebooks. Business cards for everyone but Frank Pembleton. And Crosetti's badgeholder, slinky, sunglasses, pen, and Fraternal Order of Police keychain. (Still would've loved Kay or Beau's framed certificate from the stationhouse wall. Or one of Meldrick's hats or Frank's trenchcoats. But I'll live).

So updates may be more sporadic than usual around here for a bit.

If you're going to be in Minneapolis (or thereabouts) this St. Patrick's Day, there's a ton of great music to be seen and heard.

The Big Concert is of course Boiled in Lead's 18th annual concert at First Avenue. I think I've been to at least half of those shows over the years. Doors open at 4pm, opening acts are Lehto & Wright, The Tim Malloys, and the Minnesota Pipes and Drums. Boiled in Lead takes the stage at 7:30pm or so.

Lojo Russo & Funks Grove are also playing this St. Patrick's Day:

From Noon 'til 2pm at Borealis Cafe (4th & 13th in Dinkytown)
From 4pm 'til 8:30pm at Kierans
And from 9pm 'til close at The Local (10th St. & Nicollet Mall)

And The Tim Malloys aren't content to merely open for BiL, they're also playing at Kierans from Noon until 5pm.

Yes, you too can play along with the "how long will Adam Stemple's voice hold out?" game (Adam plays guitar and sings with both the Tim Malloys and Boiled in Lead).

Minn-stf is also having their annual Pool Party at the Radisson South Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Starting at 2pm running 'til at least 2am if all goes true to form. Plenty of musician types I know plan to go to the Boiled in Lead show, then return to the Pool Party to play music for a while.

And on my way home I realized I was very much in the mood to see tonight's episodes of Sports Night, but that I hadn't set up a VCR nor my Tivo to record the episodes today. ('Cuz usually I Tivo ER and wait and Tivo Sports Night on Sunday mornings). But I knew I'd cancelled the recording of ER for tonight (since it's a rerun) so I kindof hoped maybe my Tivo would read my mind (as it often does) and record Sports Night just 'cuz it likes me. Or knows I love Sports Night.

God bless my Tivo. I got home and it had recorded both episodes of Sports Night and was in the process of recording (as a suggestion) tonight's Homicide which I'd raved about in my TV Picks and as is often the case, once I raved I realized I was in the mood to see the episode again.

Yeah, I know, I'm a geek.

Among the performers? Blue Rodeo, the Paperboys, James Keelaghan. Cool.

I'm excited about the folk fest, about camping with friends, about our plans for a Spectacle (think: Burning Man) to wow the denizens of the campsite. And then there's that whole turning 30 thing (which excites me less, truth be told I'm kindof dreading it these days).

If you enjoy James Lileks' work, you might also like to read his columns @ startribune.com, including ye olde Backfence.

I think I'm punchy after a long day at work, but this recent bit almost made me laugh out loud (no mean feat when it's late and I'm alone in my office):

I'd like street-specific weather on demand, ordered over the Internet. Can you just imagine? It's March, and you're sick of the snow. You want to call up the City Hall Web page and request 80-degree heat in your back yard so you can strip down to your underwear and run around in that special Batman hood and cape you ordered from --

Let me start again. You want it to be warm in your vicinity. And not the warmth you get in your vicinity when you imagine yourself on the roof, cape snapping in the breeze, pretending there's a Bat signal on the moon. You --

Let me start again. You want warmth at home; you get on the Internet to request a Weather Variance from the city. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-typing! you hum. Hmm: No such Web site exists. Ah -- you typed the address incorrectly. Perhaps you'd see better if you weren't wearing the mask.

Anyway. Palm Blvd. reviews Bubblet, giving it a rating of 10 out of 10. Of course.

This will be my 13th Minicon and I'm looking forward to it. The plans for the consuite (i.e. parties) sound great . . . with cocktail party (of sorts) on Friday night and the "When Weirds Collide" party on Saturday night (take the Minnesota State Fair, add Mardi Gras . . . um . . . ). There'll be music and cool programming. And everyone I know that's going seems to be planning a little something extra-special this year.

You can read all (more or less) about it in the latest progress report (this is a PDF).

Our guests of honor this year are Ken MacLeod, Jo Walton, and Leslie Fish who are all pretty darn cool. There'll be other cool writer and musician types at the con as well, of course.

Anyway. It'll be a blast. At the Hilton Minneapolis on April 13-15th.

If you're considering going for the first time or have gone in the past and have questions about the con in general or plans for this year, feel free to ask me about it.

And if you're going, I look forward to seeing you there. I've got all sorts of cunning plans in the works (mwhahahahaha).

The deadline for pre-registrations for this year's Minicon is March 15th (though I'd imagine registrations will be accepted at the Minn-stf pool party this Saturday, too. And they'll usually accept registrations that are a couple days late). The pre-registration fee is $40 for an adult. If you aren't sure you'll be able to make the convenetion, ou can buy a supporting membership now for $15 that will "convert" to a full membership at the door for another $25. Which is cheaper than the $70 at the door rate.

Though I suppose this might be excessive since I've still got an old Palm III around that I use sometimes. And my newish Palm IIIxe.

(There are some gadgets out there that I don't covet, honest).

After months of saving up some money. And debating with myself over whether I wanted a PC or a Mac, whether to build it myself or buy a system, which system to buy if I did, and on and on. Lots of looking at machines in stores and online.

Much as I'd have loved to buy an iMac or a Cube or an iBook or Titanium Powerbook, I figured I'd still want a PC in the house and my current one is dying (and old and slow). And you can get more bang for your buck with a PC, even if the OS sucks when compared to a Mac. Or maybe I should say the OS needs more tweaking. And I kindof like customizing Windows systems after all these years. I know, I'm scary.

So anyway. I got an HP 8860. 1 gigahertz AMD athlon processor. 128K of RAM (yes, I'll be adding more). DVD drive and CD burner. 60 gig harddrive (!). Plenty of room for expansion. I can finally use the TV card I got ages ago which wouldn't work on my NT machine. Open box deal @ Micro Center.

Still have a 15 inch monitor that seems way too small, so I may yet try to pick up a 17 inch or 19 inch monitor.

Anyway. I'll be playing on my PC for a while now. If anyone has software suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em. For the last year or so I've been focused on all things Mac and pretty much ignoring PC stuff.

How bad has this Minnesota winter been? A look at Pioneer Planet's Pain in the Posterior Index reveals all. Yeah, it's been miserable. Worst winter since I've been back in Minnesota.

(A couple of weeks ago I learned we had the more snow on the ground than we've had since 1967. Before I was born. No wonder this winter is getting to me . . . ).

I recommend reading the guide entries for each episode after you've watched them because they contain interesting commentary and questions. Plus quotes from JMS (creator/producer/writer for the series). Of course you'll want to wait to read the entry for the pilot movie 'til after you've watched both parts of it, lest you encounter some spoilers.

Anyway. The whole run begins again tonight on the Sci-Fi channel with the first part of the pilot movie. Letterboxed! Episodes air weekdays at 6pm central time.

Homicide: The Movie is coming out on DVD in May! No details yet on if it'll have any groovy extras (like a commentary track), but a girl can dream.

And The Movie is airing again on NBC on March 25th (opposite the Oscars, someone I bet it's ratings won't be stellar).

Anyway. It's the cool Homicide: Life on the Street reunion movie which brought together every castmember from all seasons of the series. And tied up some loose ends.

I might as well mention that if you're a fan of Homicide, it's still worth checking The Links Site at least once a week for the latest news on folks who worked on the show. And visiting alt.tv.homicide. And of course the show still airs weeknights at 10pm (central time) on Court TV.

Tech: I thought you said you had thousands of email messages in your email box that would need converting when we switch you over to the new email software . . . I only see twenty or so in your inbox and a few more in another folder.

User: What? Look right here . . . there are thousands of emails that I refer to.

Tech: Um, that's your Trash folder. You mean you actually refer to emails in the Trash?

User: Yes, all the time. I go back and read stuff from old emails from clients, from the boss, and others.

Tech: What was the name of the folder you were saving things in again?

User: Trash

Tech: And you thought this was a good idea, because . . . ?

User: Um . . .

Tech: Do you also save important papers in a garbage can instead of a file cabinet?

User: Um, no.

Also: Don't forget to pre-order Season 3 of The X-Files if you haven't yet and are into that sortof thing. It's worth it to me just for the promised commentary track on "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" by Rob Bowman and Darin Morgan. But I'm a geek.
And I like plenty of other season 3 episodes, too.

All the pieces are worth reading (and worth quoting, but I'm running out of energy since I haven't had lunch yet and it's late).

I'm with Monty re reading all of Twain's stuff, by the way.

I'll probably post something to my journal later this week about this stuff, I've some thoughts I want to share. But have I mentioned I'm short on time now and I haven't had lunch yet and I'm cranky? D'oh. ;-p

"Taking care" of oneself is Neanderthal patois for "looking attractive." Since it is no longer considered politically correct to insist on a female partner who is combed, curled, shaved, plucked, painted, and pumiced to within an inch of her life, the euphemism "taking care" was revived from its Ozzie Nelson coma to circulate like a social disease, shaming women into adopting a labor-intensive grooming ritual or risk being accused of the lowest of insults: not giving a shit about themselves. The touchy-feely sensitive connotations of "taking care" belies its true meaning; it is yet another means to make women feel that their worth lies in their appearance alone.

On my lunch hour or a break I'll usually visit Mighty Big TV to see what's going on, maybe read some recaps or some stuff on the posting boards if I have time. And I've started stopping regularly at DamnHellAssKings 'cuz they link to some sites I really enjoy. And I check out the journal entries of my friends at Livejournal.

And when I have extra time, I'll visit my portal page and try to make my way through at least some of the weblogs on that list. And back to some of those sites I used to visit more daily. I know there are more weblogs that I'd like to add to the list, but I've been losing track of them lately. My brain can apparently only hold so many weblogs. And my bookmark file is a mess right now.

I need more time to surf and to read and to watch and to listen and well, you know. Do everything.

So I've often talked about feeling sort of out of place in this little community of people who write online journals. I try not to make too much of a deal of it, but to wit: I don't watch Buffy. I don't really know shit about computers. I've never been or thought of being polyamorous.

And the two entries below this one are ones I tried to post last night from home.

And don't dis Weird Al, Moxy Fruvous, Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, Spinal Tap, John Williams' Star Wars scores, Space Ghost or Brak. Or there'll be hell to pay.

I'm studiously avoiding the DVD player tonight. 'Course I've a Tivo chock full of stuff. And then there are the 96 episodes of Hogan's Heroes I taped a couple of weekends ago . . . (you think I'm kidding).

If I weren't busy doing that, maybe I could learn how to use style sheets. And how to put together some cooler graphics. Etc. Oh, well.

(Forget what the old main page looked like already? Here it is in all it's . . . subtlety).

The commercials gave me the fear. Pratfalls?!? Mission: Impossible hijinks? And then I read about the woman who'd be on the show. Don't get me started. And some lunkhead guy shows up in the second episode who'll be a regular, too. Sigh.

And then there was Chris Carter on Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien. Painful to watch. "It's a comedy with a little drama." Huh? Sure, I can imagine it'd be funnier more regularly than The X-Files, but having Frohike fall down alot isn't my kind of funny (once in a while, sure-- but all the time? Please).

I know Chris Carter wanted to be sure people saw the show, but killing Mulder and then putting a wacky comedy Lone Gunmen series on in The X-Files timeslot for six weeks seems like a surefire way to tick people off. And let's not forget that the Gunmen are Mulder's best friends (other than Scully) and that they'd be pretty upset about him being dead and all.

The pilot wasn't as bad as I'd feared it'd be, but it could've been so much better. And of course I'll keep watching and taping and hoping. But still. I hope for episodes penned by Vince Gilligan. For fewer pratfalls. For a realistic female character (ha!).

And in the meantime, I think this is a perfect time to reread this look at Carter's involvement with The X-Files. Written by someone known as "pisher" for the 11th Hour, it's fascinating. Scary. And maybe it's all true. Carter's appearance on Conan and what's happening with the Gunmen series makes me want to believe (believe pisher, that is). You'll probably also want to read part 2 and the conclusion of the saga. It's a lengthy read, but have I mentioned it's fascinating?

I've been known to devour Bujold books in one sitting, so this may be a new kind of slow torture, I'm not sure if I dare read these advance chapters. Then again, it's not a Vorkosigan book so maybe I won't be as impatient, yeah, that's it.

Chiasso and Ikea and Garnet Hill make me happy. I think I've craved bright colors ever since the day my Mom painted my bedroom walls bright yellow (I was skeptical of her plan back then, but learned to love those yellow walls. Though when I was in high school I had two walls painted black and two a sortof dark teal . . . ).

One thing I hate about living in an apartment is that I'm stuck with white walls and beige or grey carpeting. Wah. I want wood floors and throw rugs. I want to paint the walls!

But I've still got splashes of color all over the place. A blue denim slipcover on my couch + bright colored throw pillows. A bright yellow big heavy square coffeetable that I got at a flea market for cheap. A handpainted copy of a favorite Renoir painting that my parents got me at a sale (some art student must've painted it for a class or practice or something). A floor lamp from Ikea with a bright orange plastic lampshade (that just matches the orange in the Renoir, of course). A bright blue Ikea table lamp. A bounce around Tigger toy. Black bookshelves that are chock full of books (I always prefer black shelves so that the colors of the bookjackets or CDs or tapes show up brightly against the shelves). Then there are the action figures and movie posters. The kitchen full of Fiestaware. The bright yellow rubber duckie rug in the bathroom. And so on.

Stuff I need from the Chiasso catalog? That Medusa floor lamp. The blue rocketship lamp. The rubber duckie hot water bottle. A set of those swing glasses (one in each color). The red rubber heart coasters. "Need" might be too strong of a word, but nahhhhh . . . after a winter like this, I need more color.

I surely agree with Delany on this score:

A temperamental reason why I prefer the written interview may be even more important: I'm a writer. My thoughts are formed by writing. When I want to think with any seriousness about a topic, I write about it. Writing slows the thought processes down to where one can follow them- and elaborate on them--more efficiently. Writing is how I do my thinking. Thus, if you want to understand what I think, ask me to write--not to speak.

The few times I've been interviewed, I've had a hard time saying what I wanted to off-the-cuff on the phone; I've been relieved when I've been asked to do interviews via email. Email I can do.

At about 3:30 AM PST on 27 February an optical fiber cable connecting the U.C. Berkeley campus with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was cut, apparently by vandals trying to "salvage" copper from other nearby cables.

The broken fiber carries data and voice connections for LBNL and also for the Space Sciences Lab and the Lawrence Hall of Science. SSL is where the SETI@Home project is located, so the millions of participants helping to analyze data have been unable to contact the SETI@Home servers ever since.

This morning we (CNS) were told that the repairs would be finished sometime today. Unfortunately that's not the case. The carrier has finished pulling new cable, but now LBNL has to splice the new cable into their own fiber plant. This process will not be completed until late in the day Friday, 2 March.

For more information, please visit the newsgroups sci.astro.seti and alt.sci.seti.

Thanks to Pat for emailing this to me. And yeah, I've got three systems running SETI screensavers (one at home, two at work). They've been less than happy for the last day or two. :(

It's a fabulous production, and though the play is over three hours long, it flew by. Very funny, poignant, thought-provoking, sad, and impressive. I heard plenty of people talking about what an endurance test it was to watch such a "horrible play," because all the "nasty people do is fight," but I went with a couple of skeptics who owned up to the fact that the play really moved along and was quite funny, even if at times hard to watch (for some folks). I imagine it's harder for Minnesotans to take than folks from other parts of the world. The movie version always left me cold, but this version is fabulous. Part of a very smart move by the Guthrie folks.