Windowseat Weblog by Laurel Krahn

Monty emailed me to tell me that Google now has the full Usenet archives online from 1995 onward. Yay!

It looks great. And I love the simple page (after the hideous-ness of deja.com).

More features to come, I'm optimistic (and still don't get why anyone would be anything but optimistic re google taking this on).

{{ Honest, I'm not going to turn this into an all-baseball all-the time weblog (though if there isn't one of those yet, there ought to be!).

But this article made me cranky.

The final nominations for the Hugo Awards are now available. Pretty cool list.

Ken MacLeod's The Sky Road is up for best novel. I just had the pleasure of meeting him at Minicon and he's just terrific. I also just finally read one of his novels (The Cassini Division) and it was wonderful. So congrats to him!

Also congratulations to Jo Walton, another of our guests at Minicon (that I met) on her nomination for the John W. Campbell Award. Too cool.

Lots of other fine nominees. Ted Chiang continues quite a streak. It just reminds me that I really don't read enough short fiction, alas. And I'm also woefully behind on novels.

Another tough slate in the Dramatic Presentation category, though not as tough as last year. I guess that's my way of saying I enjoyed all the movies listed. I didn't see the Dune miniseries.

Sometimes words aren't enough.

But suffice it to say I'm really really sorry the news isn't better for Kaycee. I'm understating it severely, because . . . words aren't enough.

{{ There are some things which will always make me cranky. Always.

People who brag about not owning televisions or not watching TV set my teeth on edge.

And TV Turnoff Week makes me cranky.

This article sums up my feelings on the matter rather well.

And Tim Goodman's piece on the subject rocks. And not just because I made this joke to a friend myself earlier:

Turn off the TV? What kind of sick cult promotes that idea? Every year this happens, and there's only one act of defiance that works: Keep the TV on 24 hours a day, all week -- power crisis be damned.

Plus: there's a Homicide reference in there, too.

I'm gonna rant some more on the topic myself anyway (fun though it is to read rants elsewhere).

Consider it an opportunity to buy the ultimate Homicide: Life on the Street souvenir . . . The bar that Munch, Meldrick, and Bayliss owned. Where many many scenes were filmed. The Waterfront Bar is up for auction next month. Sigh. I still want to visit it someday, so I hope someone who cares for it will buy it and keep it open and keep it close to how it was back when Homicide was filmed there. A girl can dream, can't she? (In my dreams, I buy it with Meldrick and Munch and Bayliss, but um. I'm obsessed).

. . . but reading this article really made me wish I could get my hands on videotapes of the unaired episodes of The Beat and Wonderland and even Deadline (episodes may have aired in other parts of the country, but not in the midwest). (I still want tapes of EZ Streets and Cupid and Relativity, too, for that matter).

I don't often watch the news or really read much in the way of news. Call me a bad citizen if you will, I'm too busy reading about TV shows and movies and music and such stuff.

But I love it when I stumble on news stories like this one:

Chain-saw waving, hospital-gown man cited in Afton. In Afton, Minnesota, that is.

Note that he blames that darn MTV for inspiring his walk on a highway in the rain clad only in a hospital gown, while carrying a chain saw. God bless MTV. (I suppose that's not the reaction I'm supposed to have, but oh well. It's been a slightly dreary day and this story made me laugh).

These two links were both emailed to me by friends; because they know me and know these are right up my alley. Read into that what you will.

And I wasn't going to link to them because I figured every weblog had done it already, but this weekend I wanted to show them to someone and they weren't in my weblog. Dangit.

Yes, I use this weblog as a repository for links that I might need at a moments notice. And these are among those (ahem).

So without further ado:

How To Hide The Fact That You're Mr. T from Your Coworkers

and

Ask The Voice-Over from The Dukes of Hazzard

I'm filling in for Jim King at The Homicide Links site until the middle of May or thereabouts. Yoiks.

It's an honor to update one of the sites that I visit (almost) daily and have visited regularly for years. A site that I love, quite frankly.

So if you spy any news about any Homicide: Life on the Street alums or any articles that mention HLotS, be sure to pass it on to me.

Nothin' like having your cable modem and regular old cable (of the TV variety) conk out on you to make you realize how often you check email and update websites and refer to websites. And how many shows you watch/record. (Fortunately, thanks to the greatness that is Tivo, I had no shortage of TV to watch).

Regular cable service returned within 45 minutes or so, but when I last checked late last night, I still lacked internet service. :( I didn't check this morning before work because if I didn't have service yet, I'd be grumpy. And if I did, I might've been late to work . . .

Years ago, I kept running across two albums by Meryn Cadell at the Used CD shop I frequented in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They kept getting marked down 'til they were ridiculously cheap.

I bought one and loved it. Then I bought the other (and loved it).

I used to listen to them a lot; I should be listening to them a lot now. I hadn't thought of Ms. Cadell in a while and I'm not sure what prompted it today. But now I know I must rush home and find those CDs because I've really missed them.

You, whether you know Meryn Cadell's work or not, must visit her website and read the rant there. She's right about so many things. Including Felicity, Britney, the Amerian music awards, musicals, pop music and pop culture . . .

I used to write a lot about TV shows here. And now . . . I guess I don't. At least not as much as I used to. Mostly doing the picks is plenty for me.

I just figure if you follow any shows, you're probably already checking out TV Barn, TV Tattle, Teevee (and plastic.com's TV section). And they end up covering most of the stuff I would. (And yeah, I send tips to plastic and other places sometimes).

But just in case you haven't heard, Buffy is moving to UPN. Joss sez: "I would like to think that most of my fan base is smart enough to use a remote." Well yeah. Though there are some markets that don't get UPN. I need to contact my cable company to bug them because my reception on my UPN affiliate sucks.

And they've announced the actress who will replace Angie Harmon on Law & Order.

And Once and Again was recently featured on this year's TV Guide cover story for the "best show you're not watching." (Yay!)

Wow. I'm only just now reading about this St. Paul Saints promotion. They're gonna pick one person to live at Midway stadium for the entire Saints season. Whoa.

Were I still a college student and not someone with, you know, a dayjob, I might've been tempted. Okay, probably not too tempted. But still. Sounds like fun, in a way. Living at a cool ballpark, watching a cool team, buying what you need off the net. I'd be kicked back watching all the games and spending the rest of the time reading or chatting online. Let's hope whoever is selected is net.savvy and will do a weblog in addition to the requisite journal entries on the website. Well, I think that'd be cool.

One might get a little stir-crazy, but then if your friends are baseball fans, they could visit you fairly regularly at games.

I'm not over 40, that is.

But I got every answer on this quiz correct. And according to the quiz, I must be over 40.

Nope, I'm only 29 years old; I'm just steeped in American pop culture.

(I found the quiz @ weblog wannabe).

Jane Yolen is a wonderful writer, storyteller, and a very interesting, cool person. Her official website is way cool (and is maintained by her husband).

It's not too early to preview items that will come up for bid at this year's Gillian Anderson Web Site Auction. Lots of cool items will be available, with proceeds going to charity. You can still donate items to the cause, too.

Once upon a time, Neil Gaiman was to be interviewed by Elise Matthesen on The Well. And he was, too. But then rather than depart after the interview, he lingered. That conference has since been closed (after 1900 or so posts) and there's now a second one (900 messages and counting).

You can read all the messages there, whether you belong to the Well or not.

Nowadays Neil posts regularly there and to a diary at the American Gods website.

A cool article in the Washington Post about Wonder Woman.

Okay, so it's only April. I made a few people laugh awfully hard when I pled pennant fever over the weekend.

But the Twins are looking good.

Lots of people seem surprised.

I'm surprised a little bit about some aspects of it (the homeruns!), but after attending a whole bunch of games last year, I'm not surprised the Twins are good. I saw more close games, more come-from-behind rallies last year than I have in all my years of watching the Twins. And more triples thanks to Guzman.

I hope they can keep this up.

Steve Wulf considers a Twins-Cubs World Series (yeah!). And Jim Caple talks with Twins GM Terry Ryan about how it feels to have this kindof success, finally.

You, too, can follow the Twins: ESPN's Twins Clubhouse, startribune.com's Twins Dugout, Pioneer Planet's Twins page, and the Official Site of the Minnesota Twins.

I am oh-so-very tired.

Maybe getting a mere 2 hours of sleep per night on the two evenings *before* Minicon was not a good idea. And then there's the fact that I probably only got maybe an average of four hours of sleep per night during the con.

All in all, I didn't truly feel it until the wee hours of Monday morning, when I found myself nodding off in the consuite.

And now, even after having lengthier stretches of sleep-- I'm back at work and I'm nodding off. I guess I don't have the andrenalin keeping me going anymore.

For what it's worth-- I had one of the best Minicons I've ever had. Best convention experiences, ever. It was fabulous in a lot of ways and it flew by far too quickly. Thanks ever-so-much to those who were there and to those who worked on the convention, for making it magical. And to Monty for covering for me @ TV Picks.net.

If I didn't get a chance to talk to you much (or at all) and you were at the convention, I'm sorry. I was busy busy busy. It's amazing how I found time for so much stuff and so many conversations, yet there were still so many other people I'd've liked to talk to more (hey, you can always email me).

Now I've gotta ease my way back into the "real world," I guess. And start plotting Minicon 37.

I'm attempting to update my journal from Minicon on a regular basis.

It's crazy, but it just might work.

Of course if I stop writing, it means I'm too busy having fun to find a single minute to post. Not a bad thing, that.

I'm taking a week off from doing the TV Picks, but wait-- there's more!

Monty Ashley will be doing the Picks while I'm gone.

(And if you don't visit Monty's website, you really should. I forget if I've mentioned that before. If not, well . . . whoops. If you read Teevee.org or visit DHAK, you've probably seen some of Monty's work).

His picks today are cool and funny and online much earlier than mine would be.

(I was like that once. Before I did these things for almost 2 years without a break. Who am I kidding? I was like that-- maybe-- on a good day. Well, except for the 'funny' part).

In case you're wondering why it's been so quiet here . . . um. I've been super busy. Though not so busy I haven't updated my journal a few times. And updated the Minicon 36 webpage and the Minicon 37 page and the main Minicon page. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Cybersaver fares for this weekend have been announced, so if you're in Omaha, Kalamazoo, Winnipeg, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Boise, Philadelphia, or Washington DC, you could score cheap roundtrip tickets on Northwest for Saturday - Monday or Tuesday and be in Minneapolis for a large portion of Minicon. (I also may know some folks who have discounted memberships available for sale).

Anyway. I'll be at Minicon. I'll be on some panels and wandering around and generally having a good time. If you're going to be there, do say "hi" in person, eh?

My pal Felix sent me this link sans commentary and I nearly hurt myself laughing.

I'd describe it more, but don't want to ruin the surprise.

I know I haven't been reading as much online or offline these days, but I'm still surprised that I'm just now hearing of Yuri's Night. Especially since we're having a celebration at Minicon this year.

Thursday, April 12, 2001 marks the 40th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic trip into space. And the 20th anniversary of the first flight of the space shuttle. Very cool things (IMHO) to celebrate.

I really don't need this, but I want it. Not enough to pay that price, though.

Now I do need another chair and I think this would look swell in my apartment. Don't you dare bid against me if I bid on it. (That goes for any auctions I link, right? :p)

I like poundy.com and I don't think I've mentioned it here before. But a portion of this entry made me laugh out loud:

I just bought a George Foreman Lean Mean Lowfat Grilling Machine because it was about time, I guess. I don't know much about it. I know that supposedly you put ordinary food on it and close the lid and then when you open it suddenly everything is wonderful and savory and different and practically throbbing with low-fat flavor. So I guess it's a magical portal for your food. I just hope the Lean Mean Grilling Machine won't be mean to my Hello Kitty Toaster, which is also on my kitchen counter, and which toasts a Hello Kitty face onto every slice, making it a very sissy appliance. Then again, it's really too bad that the George Foreman Grill doesn't grill a George Foreman face onto every chicken breast. Or maybe it does; I'll have to try it.

I forget whose weblog it was in (I did a lot of quick surfing), but someone was going on about how good Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were together in Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. Well yeah, they were alright (though hardly together for more than a few minutes in Sleepless), but they were much more fun together in Joe vs. the Volcano.

Usually when I hear people talk about Joe, they're picking on it. And while yeah, the film has it's flaws, I think it's a heckuvalot of fun and I like it a lot.

I did a quick google search and of course there's a fan page, of sorts. And a page that focuses on the music of the film (and they've also got the screenplay online).

And I read Roger Ebert's review, while I was at it. And he's right:

Gradually through during the opening scenes of "Joe Versus the Volcano," my heart begin to quicken, until finally I realized a wondrous thing: I had not seen this movie before. Most movies, I have seen before. Most movies, you have seen before. Most movies are constructed out of bits and pieces of other movies, like little engines built from cinematic Erector sets. But not "Joe Versus the Volcano." It is not an entirely successful movie, but it is new and fresh and not shy of taking chances. And the dialogue in it is actually worth listening to, because it is written with wit and romance.

Now I'm wondering if I've got the movie on tape someplace 'cuz I'm in the mood to watch it again.

(Hmm. Just noticed that Ebert calls The January Man-- which was written by the same guy-- "astonishingly bad." Well, I own that "astonishingly bad" movie on tape. But then how could I not own any movie that features Kevin Kline *and* Alan Rickman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio?)