I'm very happy about Michelle Kwan's win on Saturday at the World Championships. A beautiful skate, filled with all of her lyrical and graceful artistry. A gorgeous job and bravo all around. Now here's to that Olympic gold medal...

Kudos to Russell Crowe and Julia Roberts :-) Very glad about their wins at the Oscar. Russell Crowe pulls off that skirt look so well. Also, fashion faux paux goes to Sarah Jessica Parker (for that short black number) and Bjork for that strange swan thing. Catherine Zeta-Jones , Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt and Laura Linney looked fabulous. Not that Oscar is really about fashion...

In Seema news (yes, everything is about me!) - no, I haven't written anything recently, but I have cleaned off my hard drive and finally posted some stories that have been sitting around since last fall. No, I haven't finished "A Fugue in Blue Minor" though I do plan to once my creative streak comes back. So far, I'm caught up with all submissions to the Write Connection (wow!) so I hope you're enjoying the new arrivals. I've even caught up with my email (finally!). If I've missed you, please email me. There was a brief period of time when I couldn't keep up. Life is better now.

Really.

The power of the Internet, wow, to affect you, to make connections with people you never knew, with people who never knew you knew them. One of those people, Leyla Harrison, an X-Files author of amazing talent, passed away in February. I would stop by Leyla's page for a quick "X-Files" fix now and then and would read about her battle with melanoma. Leyla's great attitude made me think she could beat this one. Unfortunately, not. The Working Stiffs Fanfic page has a great tribute to Leyla and it's worth stopping by if you ever had the honor of reading Leyla's work. For those of you who haven't, here's Leyla's site.

I'm really getting annoyed with radio people. This is not an understatement in any way. What put me over the edge yesterday was a silly poll where people called in and gave their opinion on whether Tom Cruise gay. For crying out loud, who the heck cares? What do differences does it make in anyone's life that they feel the burning desire to weigh in with this opinion? Then today, the poll was: which celeb would you most like to see nekkid? (Nekkid, for those not in the "know," is apparently how you say "naked" in these parts). The answer to this question gives me more information about people I don't know than I care to know. Intelligent radio. Is it a myth? Or do we, as listeners, get what we deserve? .

On a positive note, here's a fanfic rec for you: "Ashes to Ashes" by Yvonne Harrison. I adore this fanfic in so many ways I can't even begin to start listing them all. This is Tom-torture, incredible angst, and character growth as you've never seen before. Truly a tour de force, not something you see often in Trek, let alone VOY. Definitely a must read. Run, don't walk, over to Yvonne's site and take a look. You won't be sorry.

Ashes to Ashes by Yvonne Harrison (aka "Fanfic Chick")

On another note, if you're reading, drop me an email. I'm curious who reads these web journals anyway and I know mine aren't particularly exciting or entertaining. Plus, you'd make my email very happy:-)

Check out how much you would weigh on another planet.

Visit my friends at the Onslow Forum. They're more fun than I am.

My day. Hour by stintillating hour.

• 6:12 am Alarm goes off. Hit snooze.
  
• 6:40 am Give into the inevitable. Drag myself out of bed, curse the happy laughing people on the radio who don't bother to give weather updates but cheerfully detail various traffic mishaps. Get irritated with happy woman who knows answer to impossible trivia question. It is not normal to be smart and coherent at 6:42 am.
  
• 6:56 am Stare at closet. Find something that is remotely unwrinkled. Find socks that match. Make bed.
  
• 7:08 am On the road, tuned into the '80s station which tunes in and out. Consider making taking up a drive to get these guys a better antenna. Listen to traffic update again and wonder about what the weather is going to be like.
  
• 7:36 am Park next to lady in blue Saturn. Always park next to the lady in the blue Saturn. I don't know her name, but we've been doing this parking thing for about two years now.
  
• 7:42 am Sneak past the boss's office. Arrive in my cube. Videotapes of speakers all touting their speaking prowess have taken over my life. They clutter every available surface. I turn on my computer, check out my Dilbert a Day calendar and the Star Trek a day calendar. Sixty-four cents later, I'm in the cafeteria with other cranky people.
  
• 7:58 am Cashier makes me make a decision: Will that be exact change, Miss?
  
• 8:03 am Open up Outlook. Open planner. I look organized. Yeah, except for the videotapes which are reproducing themselves. It's a bit scary. System Administrator sends me love letters. I'm over my email storage quota. I ignore the administrator and delete a few token emails.
  
• 9:22 am Breakfast. Barbecue bugles. Really. I share your horror.
  
• 11:30 am Lunch. Yeah, there was work in there sometime, but you must know - my life revolves around food. So there you have it. This time it's a muffin, carrot sticks and peanut butter crackers and a diet Coke.
  
• 12:19 pm Discover laptop battery is dead. The orange light blinks at me. It's slightly threatening.
  
• 1:23 pm Call techies to fix battery. They ask for serial number and I end up unplugging the darn thing and losing my work. I love my job.
  
• 2:19 pm Cross off two things on my list of things to do. The list has 90 items on it. This is progress.
  
• 3:32 pm Eat. Again. Yes. This time an apple.
  
• 3:45 pm Talk to flaky person on the phone who insists she talked to an African-American male. She can tell by his voice, you see. I wonder if she's trolling our department or just being stupid. At least she doesn't work for us.
  
• 4:15 pm Vacation gets closer by the minute. I love airplanes.
  
• 4:29 pm Hit cnn.com for the first time during the day. That site was more fun during Florida.
  
• 4:35 pm Outta there. Baby, it's cold out there. Very cold.
  
• 4:55 pm Hello to the gym. The guy at the desk tells me of a policy change apologetically. I tell him it's minorly annoying but I'll get over it. I hate change.
  
• 5:03 pm Nice lady has saved me spot in class. I was afraid I'd have to arm wrestle for a spot. It's nice to have friends looking out for you.
  
• 6:00 pm Done with the gym. Time to go home.
  
• 6:15 pm At Great Hills and 360 intersection.
  
• 6:33 pm At Great Hills and 360 intersection. On a positive note, the '80s station is playing great music.
  
• 7:00 pm Home. The mail is junk, but Pottery Barn has sent a catalog. I need to be dictator of a small country before I can order from the Pottery Barn.
  
• 7:15 pm Dinner. Yeah. It's food time again. Gotta make something. Make mental note to go grocery shopping.
  
• 8:16 pm Done with the dinner thing. Time for other chores: laundry, packing for the vacation, cleaning out the closet, wrapping gifts, paying bills.
  
• 9:00 pm Log on to computer to check email. Check two email accounts, see 60 mesages combined and decide to forget it. Not worth it. Get on AOL IM, see entire buddy list online. Way too intense. Log off AOL IM.
  
• 9:45 pm More chore like thingies. The fun never stops.
  
• 10:35: Blog my day. Yeah, I know. Wasn't that interesting.

Well, you can't vote for the Oscars or the Grammys or the Emmys or the Golden Globes, but - wait! You can vote for the Freddies! What are the Freddies, you ask? Well, they are the Frequent Travel Awards. Rate your Frequent Travel program folks. More fun than sitting in Economy class. Really.

Freddie Awards

This week's fanfic rec: Paper Saints by Jill Selby. This is a great X-Files fic. It's case file, UST, humor - gosh, what else can you ask for? What I loved most about this fic was I could hear Mulder and Scully saying these things. Realistically done - great characterizations, super attention to detail. Definitely a classic fic, mho.

When do your five minutes of fame run out?

Darva & Rick: Together Again

Spammers are appealing to our mercy. It's kind of sweet in a misguided, desperate sort of way.

"To be removed from future mailings!!!!
All REMOVE requests AUTOMATICALLY honored upon receipt.
mailto:nogoz1@excite.com?subject=REMOVESPY
PLEASE understand that any effort to disrupt,
close or block this REMOVE account can only result
in difficulties for others wanting to be removed from
our mailing list as it will be impossible to take anyone
off the list if the remove instruction is not received."

My life is now complete: GWBush Discussion Forum.

Web design no no's. Or maybe they are yes's - who knows? Everyone has their own idea of what makes a good website and what doesn't. My thoughts:

• Don't make your visitors download anything to see your site. This includes Flash plugins, Quicktime, and cursors. Especially those dang cursors.
  
• Don't play music on your site. Midi does awful things to great songs, not to mention the rest of the load time slows when that twangy song is trying to play in the background.
  
• Backgrounds. Yuck. Don't. Ever. If you wouldn't write a letter on it, don't use it on your website. That simple.
  
• If you must use blinking and dancing things, limit it to one or even two a page. At three or four, you're pushing it.
  
• Limit use of graphics - unless you're a graphic site. Too many graphics = slow load time = impatient viewer = stopping the load = going elsewhere
  
• Javascript pop-up windows. You get 'em when you come, you get 'em when you go, and when you return, you see 'em again.
  
• Broken links. Watch for these - especially the ones you have control over: the ones on your own site.
  
• And while we're on the subject, make sure font color and background colors are not the same. White font on a white background poses some problems, as you might imagine.
  

That's my list - for now. There could be other things out there, but I haven't been sufficiently annoyed by anything today to nitpick too much. Must have been some great coffee I had today.

Dear Deja News,

Hi! How are you doing since Google bought you out? You doing okay? I worry, you know. Things have been tough - I got that. Yeah, I've been reading the Business section here every day and at one point, I thought of coming out and offering you a hand or two when things got really bad. Still, you should've told us that you were selling to Google. Not that Google isn't cool - they just aren't you. I mean, they don't have the funky 70's color scheme going; I miss that - there is something curiously bland about white. And then of course there's the lack of posting and updating - but I bet you've heard the complaints. So, enough on that.

I am appreciating you more and more by the minute as I struggle with the "free" newsgroup access provided by my ISP. Yeah, it's been a trip. Most of my posts disappear out into the ether. I don't know where they are and I'm certainly concerned about their welfare - apparently, there have been sightings here and there, most recently in Greece, of all places, but I haven't seen them. At least with you, I knew that my posts would get to their destination safely.

Anyway, you never quite appreciate what you've got until it's gone. I've come to the conclusion mailandnews.com, newsone.net, and news2web.com can never take your place. Thanks for the memories - it's been fun.

Sincerely,

seema

Three words and ten minutes - that's all it takes to be a hero. That's all it takes to make a difference in someone's life. That and two vials of blood. I'm talking about becoming a bone marrow donor. Donating two vials of blood is less painful than donating a pint of blood and once you donate, you're on the registry until age 55. You can be a match for anyone in the world. More importantly, minority representation in the registry is incredibly low. The more people who join, the more chance there will be that a match will be found for someone who desperately needs the marrow. Click here for more information. Three words and ten minutes - that's all it takes. Be a donor.

despair.com

Some days are just like that.

Wow - heavy posting day. Here's a story rec for y'all - one of my favorite "X-Files" fics of all times. This is "The Rift," by RocketMan, and it's an amazing potrayal of Mulder & Scully - married & babyfic. And even with that - there's no sap. Seriously. There's angst, lots of it, character development, and an adorable child who manages to hurt you as much as she hurts Scully. A perfect read for Valentine's Day and even for 'shippers in general. Enoy!

Rift by RocketMan

http://netslaves.com/ . No, not that. Check out the dotcom failures... and if you happen to be one of the "netslaves," vent your frustration here. You'll feel better.

Have a good time.

New fashion statement? I can just imagine the hoards rushing out to Target or wherever to pick up this new "must have" item. Would be tragical if tube socks were sold out for people who would actually want to wear them, you know, on their feet.

Frighten yourself with how much people can find out about you on the Internet: privacy.net

Valentine's Day. Tomorrow. Here's my take and no, I don't have another word to say about this nasty, horrible, terrible commercialistic holiday. There - is that bitter enough? :-)