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Laurel Krahn's weblog since August 1998.

um. so. I've been working on a complete overhaul of windowseat.org.

And I got kindof carried away with the new weblog design and far too excited about it to not upload it. And now I'm seeing that there are some things that aren't quite right yet and probably a few things that are flatout broken.

Not to mention that I still haven't done a bunch of things I plan to do.

But. Um. Hey. It's a start. And it's too much of a pain to regress back to the old design at this point. Forgive me if things are a bit wonky for a while. I hope to fine tune and fix things in the days to come. (For now, I have to leave it be because I've other things to do).

it's bright, isn't it? Whee!

. . . is for sale on ebay.

Frankly, I wouldn't mind paying $85,000 for a nice big duplex in Duluth, Minnesota. Providing I could find work in Duluth. It's a gorgeous place. And then I could set up a Bob Dylan museum and . . . um. Okay.

Not realistic for me at this time.

But entertaining to think about.

This page seems to link to all the info, everywhere. Re Kaycee and the media coverage and so on. Including archives of the metafilter discussions and of Living Colours . . .

I'd like to state, for the record, that I am out of control when it comes to my browsing at amazon.com.

I'm addicted to looking at people's listmania lists and at wishlists. And, of course, to adding stuff to my own wishlist.

My wishlist is out of control. More than 150 items on it. It's not as if I expect anyone to buy me anything. It's more a place for me to note things I wanna get someday, maybe. In a way, adding things to my wishlist is like finding something cool on a shopping spree. I get the thrill of "ooh, I like that!" or "oooh, I want that!" without actually spending any money (though of course I do end up buying some of the things I add to my list, eventually) (and yeah, once in a blue moon people have even bought me things from the list from time to time. Much to my surprise and delight).

I feel somewhat embarassed my list is so long. And it's only the tip of the iceberg, which is scary. But I guess I like a lot of albums and books and movies and gadgets . . . (No shock there, eh?)

The cheapest (Early Bird) rate for passes to this year's Winnipeg Folk Festival is only good through May 31st. Tix are $70 US, though if you've got a group together you can get 'em for closer to $60 US.

(Someone was snickering about the "folk festival" when it came up, until I mentioned that there are many other kinds of music represented at the festival and that for some of us it's sometimes more about camping and socializing and whatnot than the music. Though I dig the music, too . . . ).

The Kaycee FAQ compiles a lot of the data that's out there.

I haven't seen anyone mention the whole Jessa's Journal mess in conversations about the Kaycee thing. Maybe everyone's forgotten. It was 1996, I think . . . but it was a super big deal among those of us who kept online journals back then (and/or those who read a lot of online journals).

I had my suspicions. I've been online for 15 years or so now and I've seen my share of hoaxes. I've even seen people I thought I knew as cool people do some crazy things, too.

I didn't read the weblog regularly and now I'm glad. When I first saw it, I was suspicious. But so many people that I "know" online seemed to know her and to have interacted with her on the phone and via email and it seemed, at least from a casual glance, to be real.

What A Mess.

My apologies if the couple of links I posted to the site caused you to be pulled in and caused you any grief. It's the net, you've gotta take everything with a grain of salt.

Anyway.

Bleargh.

There are, of course, many places where this is being discussed. I'm not gonna post a zillion links on the subject, they're out there if you want to find 'em.

What really rather pisses me off is that hoaxes like this diminish the real deaths. And cause people to not believe people who are telling the truth. I couldn't help but think of Leyla, who is really gone, for instance.

A look back at Star Trek: Voyager. Complete with coverage of the wrap party.

I'm switching my work hours from 9am-6pm to 10am-7pm. At my bosses request, but I'd been considering it myself for a while.

Because I've had difficulties dragging myself to work by 9am. I've been too much the night owl of late.

Of course I'd rather get out of work early, that has a certain appeal. But fortunately things are flexible enough around here that if I want to leave early for a ballgame or some special event, I can shift my hours to 8-5 or 9-6 for a day here and there.

Lots of breaking news on the TV front this week as networks announce the Fall 2001 schedules. Be sure to visit tvpicks.net for all the latest and greatest.

I've also put together a grid for how the schedule will look next fall. Well, given the information I have now. Will be adding CBS, FOX, and UPN after they make their announcements.

Star Wars: Designer Edition: because it's all about style. And fashion.

[via /usr/bin/girl ]

From the ESPN Twins page:

"I owe the guy. I know what he wants – a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy's." – RHP Brad Radke, on best friend LHP Eric Milton. Three of Brad Radke's six victories have come after Twins losses. Milton was the winner Sunday after the Royals beat Radke and the Twins 12-4 on Saturday.

Pullquote *and* advertisement all in one.

There are tributes all over the place.

There's the User Friendly strip, which got to me. And "Lament for Douglas" by Richard Dawkins. And Strega's piece and Monty's words and Neil has said some things and then there are posts at the official site and elsewhere. And links and tributes at Adams' page in the Guide.

Sigh.

Douglas Adams is dead, of a heart attack. Still looking around online for more details, I'm sure obits and tributes will pour in over the next few days. I'm sure the the official site will be swamped for a while.

I'm stunned.

I didn't know Mr. Adams personally, but I know people who do and like him a whole lot. And I met him once at a reading/signing thing years ago when he was promoting Last Chance To See (a wonderful book). He was funny and kind and seemed really cool. From all accounts, he was.

Of course The Hitchhikers Guide books were a Big Deal to me, as was the infocom game and the radio series and the tv series and so on. In a way, I think of Adams of being the guy who led a lot of folks of my generation to science fiction. Especially to the written stuff, to the funny stuff.

I'm sure my first .sig files were Adams quotes.

So today I'm heading back to Marscon and I suppose it's kinda comforting to know I'll be at a con where everyone knows who Adams is. And will likely be as stunned and saddened as I am. I wish I knew where my "Don't Panic" t-shirt is, the one with the big green Hitchhiker's guy on it and the friendly letters.

But I think maybe I'll take a towel with me today:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-t0-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you-- daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit, etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidently have "lost." What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle agains tterrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

- Douglas Adams, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I'll be helping to host Minicon / Minn-stf / Minneapolis in '73 parties at Marscon tonight and tomorrow night. If you're there, do stop by. (It's at the Radisson South Hotel in Bloomington, MN).

(Party is running from 10pm 'til 2am or whenever. Room/suite 220-- just a couple doors down from the consuite).

Last Sunday afternoon, I went to the State Theater in Minneapolis and saw The Sound of Music on a very, very big screen.

With a crowd of people of all ages, many of whom were in costume depicting characters or song lyrics or events from the film.

And yeah, we all pretty much sang along with every song.

And we hissed at the baroness and cheered Maria and whistled at the Captain and barked at Rolf (!) and "awww-ed" at the littlest kid. Ayup.

They had other pre-fab things as part of this Singalong show, we were each handed a goodie bag as we went into the theater. With fake edelweiss to wave during that song. And a few other prop-type things. Nothing too impressive or clever, but it was still fun.

I'm not a huge fan of the movie, but I like it and have seen it many, many times (never on a big screen, that's part of why I went).

I didn't have plans last Sunday and on a whim bought a ticket on Saturday afternoon. Expensive ticket, but I got a good seat (front row of the loge-- the lowest balcony).

I probably would've had more fun if I'd gone with friends or if I were more into it, but it was still way cool to see the movie Big like that. And the singing along was fun. Not many people shouted things at the screen, alas, but I bet there's more of that depending on how long the show runs and on what city it's in and depending on the showing.

So I haven't been able to update this site all week. Because of server problems. Grrrr.

This would be no big deal, but of course when I *can't* update, that's when I *want* to update.

Will try to track down all the links to things I wanted to add earlier this week and get 'em up today or tomorrow.

Now let's see if this works . . .

Hacking dejaGoogle URLs so that you have shorter URLs to work with for linking purposes, etc. [via Robot Wisdom, of course]

Kirby Puckett visits the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Kirby:   "I was pretty good for a little guy."

Yeah Puck, you sure were.

[And another article about Puckett's trip, this time from Patrick Reusse.]

I'm looking forward to the film Evolution, it looks like fun. Here another site, too.

One of the new iBooks, that is. With an airport card and an airport base station, of course.

Of course I'd take a Titanium Powerbook, the widescreen is so very nifty. Or I'd even settle for someone's old iBook if they decide to upgrade (preferably an orange or lime green one).

So many gadgets I want, so little money . . .

I really don't get it.

I've always been proud of Minnesota sports fans. Yeah, I'm sick to death of many Vikings fans (especially the fair weather variety). And I've made jokes over the years about all sorts of things relating to being a fan of sports teams in Minnesota.

I was crabby about what happened at Monday night's Twins game against the Yankees. Sure, boo Chuck Knoblauch. The guy was a jerk when he played in Minnesota and he openly and very publicly told people he didn't like it here and wanted to be traded. So I understand booing him when he returns on another team.

Even though, quite frankly, I'm very grateful for what happened. That deal got the Twins Guzman (one of my favorite players) and Milton and Buchanan. Fine by me.

But throwing things at players is just plain wrong and stupid and . . . ugh. I've never ever seen it before at a Twins game (and I've gone to a lot of games).

The worst related behavior? Beachballs that accidently fell on the field. And paper airplanes that made it onto the field.

I went to the game on Tuesday night. The Twins lost, it was a very L O N G game. And the crowd was excited, into the game. I saw more signs in the stands than I have in ages. And the left field crowd booed Knoblauch and heckled him-- but they didn't throw anything on the field. They went through an impressive 10 beachballs (a couple of which did land on the field), but that was it. I thought the added security and the general disgust over behavior on Monday night was the end of things.

And then tonight things got really really bad. I don't even want to link to accounts, frankly, because they embarass me as a Twins fan. Of course I don't think that many (if any) of the people responsible really despise Knoblauch that much. I think it's more Something Crazy To Do. At the ballpark. With a mob of people, many of whom had been drinking, I'm sure. Mob mentality at work? Of course.

Some local news people have tried to blame the behavior on younger crowds, the fact that so many teenagers and college students are showing up. But honestly, I don't buy that.

Jerks are jerks, no matter what age group.

I'd like to say it's cool that more people are going to the ballpark these days-- but it's not cool if they're there for the wrong reason.

It's embarassing and nasty and wrong.

I was heartened at Tuesday's game because the crowd was cheering the right things. Mientkiewicz got, by far, the most applause, for instance. Whereas in the past how much applause players got depended more on personality than on how they were playing. And the crowd around me seemed to know their stuff re the Twins and/or Yankees. The signs in the crowd were clever, for the most part, and positive.

I didn't boo Knoblauch this time around. I didn't cheer him either. I did clap for Bernie Williams, because I like him. Even though of course I wanted the Twins to beat the Yankees. I cheered a lot for the Twins. And I'll keep cheering and going to games. Hoping (and knowing) that the positive people in the crowd outweigh the jerks that came close to costing us the game tonight. And who made this win rather bittersweet.

It's strange to me that the nasty stuff happened at the games we *won* against the Yankees. After Good Things happened for our team.

What a bizarre way to celebrate.

Two years ago in this weblog, I was still obsessed with Homicide: Life on the Street, went and saw the Twins play the Yankees (huh), confessed that I visited Toys R Us shortly after midnight to see Star Wars: Episode I toys (gosh, I'm a geek), saw Pushing Tin and Entrapment, and linked to a bunch more stuff than I've been linking of late. Pop culture, computer stuff, post-columbine rants, yadda yadda.

One year ago, I got my first-ever foul ball at a Twins game (vs. the Mariners. Olerud hit it off Guardado), I joined The Well, and posted about the weather and Minicon and pop culture (imagine that!) and TV. Plus Badtz Maru, Mike's Hard Lemonade, popcorn (the song), peeps (the "candy"), ILOVEYOU virus, and John Wesley Harding mp3s. Linky links.

But I've already tried to find this link here a couple of times only to not find it and spent way too much time looking for it.

It's very strange. It's a wacko movie that a bunch of us watched a couple of times at a party (the same party where we watched All Your Base and fed lots of sites through the T'inator and found cow game sites and I don't know what all else). Moral of the story: if there's a computer connected to the net in a central location at a party, geeks will take turns showing each other wacky sites.

I should note that Karen Cooper sent me this link first (well, the movie was at a different location then) on April 6th.

{{ I'll be turning 30 on July 5th, 2001. (Eek! Where has this year gone?)

Y'all are invited to my party (well, parties).