A few days ago I came to the realization that I’ve set up my “permalinks” incorrectly. If you recently linked to me (hmmm, I’m not really sure who you’d be, though), you may have to come back in a few days and re-link again after I fix this. Sorry. Just going through the typical new launch bugs. If you haven’t already, rent (or re-rent) Cinema Paradiso. You’ll fall in love with the movies all over again.

There’s been a bit of talk in the web log world about good/better/best blogs. What makes a good blog? Tom has given his opinion (see his May 11 entry), and Ev has sort-of said that the best blogs are the most freqently surfed blogs (chicken/egg to me). How about you? Why do you read and re-read certain blogs? I don’t have a good answer yet, but if you do, send it to me and I’ll post it here.

This weekend has been a total wash. I’m ready for long summer days.

All right, if you’ve been visiting in the past few days, you’ve probably noticed that (once again) I’ve re-done everything and am now moving toward a peagreen and red scheme, bypassing the aforementioned orange all together. And I’m sure that in three months I’ll be tired of whatever I’ve done here and it will change it drastically once again (wow, I’m starting to act like Mark, redesigning every five minutes). What can I say? It’s now my own site and I can do whatever I want, dammit. Last night I watched the Webbys, but sadly, the site I wanted to win didn’t take the Webby or the People’s Choice award. Rumor has it, though, that Jason accepted on behalf of Jim Romenesko … thanks to some nasty Net congestion I missed it. Guess we’ll just have to meet in person someday.

Congratulations! You found me! (You did update your bookmarks now, didn’t ya?) Welcome to my new, sassy and orangalicious site. And yessiree, I’m even planning to make all the links function in the next few days. Plus, there’s a bonus for you Netscape users: the background image is sure to show up as soon as I figure out what I’m doing wrong with this silly new code. Features you won’t want to miss:

• Check out that funky little picture down on the left there. Then click your “refresh” button. Pretty sweet, eh? Only one of those pictures has me in it, though. Stay tuned for more.
• When you really like what I have to say one day and want to link to that particular entry, you now can! Yep, that’s what that little orange box is after each entry. It’s a “permalink.” (That’s a technical term.)
• There’s now a list of archives right on the front page. Like I said, it’s not working right now so don’t bother clicking. If you’re dying to read what I wrote two months ago, you can still snoop around on my old St. Olaf site and you’ll find it there … for a while, anyway.

So, I hope you’ll tell me what you think. I don’t deal with criticism, though, so only send me your nicest, most complimentary thoughts. Let’s stay in touch.

Yes, I know the updates have been a bit … uh … lame-o lately. That’s because I’ve been scouring the web for fascinating links that are sure to please my tremendous readership. Trust me — today’s features won’t disappoint. First things first. I may be a bit behind on this, but you can now listen to Salon Radio. For the five minutes I listened, it felt like I was tuning into some national digital radio service you’d get off the high channels from your satellite dish … I didn’t like it. I want my radio to be personal. Local. With voices I recognize and have grown to know. They’re only playing music for now, and until they start doing talk radio (which is what they’re going to be good at, I bet), I probably won’t be tuning in.

Also, I’ve been meaning to save this link until I have complimentary material to accompany it (trust me, I do), but I couldn’t resist: they’re the king of the road, the Rolls-Royce of the travel trailer. They’re Airstreams. And now they have their own web site.

Yawn. I think I finally figured out Cascading Style Sheets for the new site. I’m going to bed now.

Tomoka walks down the street to the bus stop, rides five minutes to Shibuya station — a hub through which 1.8 million people pass every day — walks up two broad flights of stairs during morning rush hour, runs her pass through one of the 20 wickets, gets on a local train at one of the four platforms, takes it to the fourth stop, then walks 20 minutes to school. Tomoka is six years old.

Ugh. I never knew love could be so painful. Why couldn’t I just have a real boyfriend?

“What kind of idiot would open an attachment they know nothing about?” Well, people, apparently I’m that kind of idiot. I’m the person who lives by email and manages a pretty big web site, so I think I know a few things about computers and the Internet … but when the message and attachment comes from a trusted acquaintance … You can also let the people at Slashdot.org tell you how dumb I am. This is not good for my ego today. Yes, I’ve been attacked by the “I Love You” virus, which actually doesn’t love me at all. Don’t worry, though — a few weeks ago I accidentally deleted my personal address book (yes, dumb people can do smart things!) so I believe it didn’t spread it to anyone. But if I sent it to you without my knowing, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. From what I can tell, I’m going to be losing some files on my hard drive … could be ugly.

I am most sad right now since at this time, 12:10 p.m., there doesn’t appear to be an easy fix. My computing friends have told me they’re “working on it.” More updates to follow.

1:30 p.m. UPDATE! One thousand nine hundred fifty two. That’s the number of files I lost today thanks to being loved. Well, I needed to clean up my hard drive sometime, eh?

This afternoon when going through some old files, I found a piece of paper with the handwriting of a friend who moved away a year ago. The two of us communicate often by phone and e-mail — but never by letter. Seeing that paper with his scrawls made me realize how much I missed it, and in essence, him. Don’t take offense, Minnesotans, but it’s pretty much true, don’t ya think? You betcha! (Link via Oregonian Heather.)

Happy May Day — the day of giving May Day baskets to the ones you love. I discovered this little treasure on Metababy (hurry before it’s gone) this afternoon:

Dearest Laura,

It’s hard to believe but I know it’s true. I am falling in love with you.

Heart in your hands,
Shmuel

Wow. I think I’m gonna cry