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Laurel Krahn's weblog since August 1998.

'Tis the season for exchanging cards and gifts and whatnot. If you'd like to receive a holiday card from me, email me your mailing address and I'll see what I can do. In fact, let me know if you like holiday music or not (if you do, you may receive a holiday mix if I get my act together and get one made). I haven't been able to find my book of addresses I sent cards to last year, so um . . . if you think I have your address, you may be wrong. I'm just saying. So sending it again wouldn't be a bad idea. And I'll let you know my mailing address if you write and give me yours.

In other news, by popular demand (well, from family members), I've a wishlist page online. I'm feeling sheepish about it, but it's there.

Lileks:

Shopped for a nephew at the Lego store, and was dismayed again at the literal nature of Lego today. Here are the pieces to build THIS. You can then put THIS into THIS PREDETERMINED SCENARIO. Why, in my day we didn’t have no storylines with Lego. We had rectangles of varying size, and that was it. I excelled at building jet airliners, which I crashed, and models of the Titanic, which I sank. (Well-used Lego is very porous but very buoyant; you’d have to hold your Titanic underwater, which made you feel a little guilty.)

Good sweet lord. DejaGoogleGroups now has Usenet stuff dating back to 1981.

I've spent a weird hour trying to figure out the many different addresses I've posted under over the years. My pre-'93 posting history is still a mystery. I know I read usenet as early as the mid-late '80s, but I didn't post often. I think I was reading via a feed on some Minneapolis area BBS and I have no idea what my posting address would've been or if I used my name at all or some wacky handle. This may very well be for the best.

So many familiar names and handles from the '80s and early '90s, when the net was a much smaller place.

A couple of years ago, I talked about a bunch of great holiday albums. So if you're looking for some holiday album recommendations, start there!

Fansite for the recently cancelled TV series Thieves. Yeah, I liked the show quite a bit, actually. Great outfits! Cool opening credits! Banter, banter, banter. Robert Knepper. Tone Loc. Capers. It was nifty.

Remember when The X-Files was good? And then it was still kinda good? Now . . . not so much. Well, I'm not watching tonight's episode (I'm recording it to watch later, though), so maybe I'm missing a comeback episode (yeah roight). But the two-part season opener was just nonsensical and dreadful.
Frankly, if you want good TV at 8pm on Sunday nights, you should be watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent or maybe Alias. But if you can't completely let go of The X-Files, I feel your pain.

Thank God for Jessica's recaps of the show at Mighty Big TV. The recap of last week's episode is fabulous. Love this:

If I were writing for The X-Files today, I wouldn't use any phraseology that might remind viewers of The Good Old Days. Speaking of, whatever happened to all those clones? I don't mean the Eves from "Eve," I mean the Samantha clones. With the bees? Whatever happened with the bees? And the bio-genetically altered corn oil? Did America's love affair with olive oil render the corn oil plan unsuccessful, and that's why we're moving into fiddling with the water supply? Whoops, we aren't supposed to know that yet. Forget what I just said.

And here's my absolute favorite part, that had me laughing out loud with tears in my eyes:

"What were they doing?" Doggett asks. "Preparing the water supply," Xena tells him. Well, naturally. Please, let's throw something else into the mix here. Clones, alien replicants, alien bounty hunters, gray aliens, green aliens, the Syndicate, the bees, the black oil, the black oil worms, the alien babies in jars, abductions, mysterious cancers, people being brought back from the dead, impossible pregnancies, giant spaceships covered in Navajo writing, super-soldiers. Yes, let's add something else to that list! Water! Screwed-up water! I wonder what else we'll get before the end of the season? Unstoppable flying monkeys, designed to transport mutated ova from lab to lab? Genetically-altered cheeseburgers, designed to transform the meat-eaters of the world into an army of brain-dead drones, leaving the vegetarians to rule the planet? What?

Of course I've thought about writing something here about George Harrison, but I'm not sure my comments would be all that interesting. He was my favorite Beatle, though I used to sometimes wonder if I didn't settle on him years ago just to be contrary, since most people named John or Paul. But truth be told, I always appreciated George's wit, his guitar-playing, his songs, and the fact that he wasn't so flashy as the others. He was extremely talented, funny, and a good sport. Maybe he didn't write as many or as memorable of songs as those two other guys (few, if any, ever have), but he wrote some great songs (which is more than most can say) and the Beatles wouldn't have been the Beatles, wouldn't have sounded like the Beatles we know and love without him.

"Here Comes the Sun" is just one of George Harrison's many contributions that I'm grateful for. I've vivid memories of listening to someone play that as the sun rose one Easter morning years ago; a whole group of us singing along after having been up together all night at a party (this was at Minicon, of course). Thanks, George.

I quite like what Monty had to say about George, too.

This is an excellent article by Brad Zellar for the City Pages about the proposed contraction of the Twins, the state of baseball in Minnesota, and the state of major league baseball. Or something like that. Well worth your time. Too many bits I could quote, I'll leave it up to you to read it.

Thank You to everyone who has made a donation or sent me a gift from my wishlist or simply emailed me to say you care and/or enjoy this site. Y'all rock. I just realized I've been saying "thank-yous" over on the TV Picks page, but it's very possible some people were donating who don't visit that site, who may be more fond of this here weblog. So Thank You.

I've managed to pay my December rent, with the help of donations and with the help of a small loan from my parental units. Of course the bills just keep on coming, but due to the kindness of friends and family and strangers I'm getting by. Hope you're doing alright yourself.

I'm far too amused that Uncle Bob also loves him some Yankee Candles:

I found a Yankee Candle store in the mall. Lemme just say, when it comes to Yankee Candles, I toss my masculinity out the window and become a sashaying, lisping pseudo-male.

I was in HEAVEN!

I smelled about 30 candles and made the "Mmmmmmmm" sound after each one until Andy got embarrassed that his dad's about as manly as Princess Diana and started voicing his disapproval of the store as well as his dad's sensitive portrayal of a mentally unbalanced fruitcake so we left.

I'm pleased that there's a Scottie dog in the White House. Hooray for Barney the Scottie. (I know, I've mentioned this before, but every time I stumble on a photo I can't help but smile). (And now, let's all daydream about what the world would be like if run by Terriers).