I’m not sure I understand the glee when it comes to the resentencing and “breakdown” of Paris Hilton. Reactions I’ve seen across the Internet seem to range from joy the “bitch” is back in jail to jokes about her getting raped in prison to a (facetious, I hope) suggestion that she be driven around by OJ Simpson and Robert Blake. (So, let’s see: That’s prison, rape, and getting shot or slashed to death. Add in drowning and poisoning and she’s Rasputin.) ...

Oh, and by the way, I’m back from Washington, DC. I always get paranoid about blogging when I’m leaving the house for any significant length of time, but I should really start blogging on trips. :)

Hmm, looks like Maxim came out with its Hot 100 (supposedly straight), and AfterEllen.com responded with a lesbian version. Let’s see how they match up with a…uh… “random” list of five women. List**Maxim rank****AfterEllen rank**Alyson Hannigann/a74Jenna Fischern/an/aKristen Bell4656Sarah McLachlann/an/aShakira38n/a Yep, looks like my interests aren’t well-represented on either list, but more closely on the Maxim side based on the numbers. However, I was surprised at how much easier it would be to pick a second five from the AfterEllen list. C’mon, Maxim, you seriously listed Lindsay Lohan (#1, no less), Fergie (#10), and Shanna Moakler (I’m not going to bother looking that up) in your top 100? Combine that with Second Life avatars, and it’s just wasted space. ...

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. ...

Ah, rugged, deadly, sensitive, pretty, fuzzy. Sounds like someone we all know and love, right, Interested Cat? No, seriously, I’m talking about me. Can’t you see it? Stop laughing.

I’m going to step out on a really wide, solid limb here, and say that the first season of Veronica Mars was the best show on television that year. (Yeah, that includes Lost.) The second season almost measured up to that standard. Then the CW decided to start messing with it, and then they canceled it. Thanks, CW, for saving us from quality television. :( In the meantime, pick up Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season. You will enjoy it. ...

This is a spam message I just received: Providing you demand expert counsel about in which way you are to grow larger tonnage in your reproduction organ, see our site. Just bang the coming up internet site [link redacted for all that is good and decent in the world] Advise x-rated resources next lament fawn hamper aeolus. jensen

Not sure how many folks make it to both, but phantom-thought is pretty much my stream-of-consciousness linkblog (or tumblelog, to be more correct). If I see something interesting that I’m not going to write a post about, it ends up there. Here are a few recent items that I think are worth the attention: Autism Unveiled - An article about an anthropologist’s research into autism that I found more informative than almost anything else I’ve read about autism this year. The U.S. Supreme Court may have just injected a bit of sense into our current patent system. In any case, it has rocked a system that badly needs reform. Now, if they can just reinforce fair use in copyright law. Junebug - Good movie. Exhibits the same quality as Garrison Keillor’s earlier Lake Wobegon novels, where it evokes emotion through familiar characterization rather than forcing it through plot. That being said, I was probably just jazzed because I grew up in the same area where it was set and filmed. Jail time likely to fuel Hilton’s fame - Kudos to Sandy Cohen of the Associated Press for working Fatty Arbuckle into a paragraph with Martha Stewart, Robert Downey Jr., Bobby Brown, and Heidi Fleiss. Scottish revolts never seem to turn out well. You? B-List, at best. Bacon on a Cat? A, definitely. “Why, anybody can have a brain.” - I love the Wizard. Twitter: The Evolution of Cat Blogging “In Romagna, the realm of all stupidity…” - The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci I’d rather deal with communist pirate ninjas without unicycles, but you take what you get. Wasn’t that interesting, folks? Oh well, at least someone found it interesting, right, Interested Cat? ...

Your results: You are Dr. Doom Dr. Doom 71%Lex Luthor 66%Apocalypse 63%Magneto 58%The Joker 58%Mr. Freeze 52%Mystique 49%Venom 49%Green Goblin 45%Riddler 44%Kingpin 44%Dark Phoenix 43%Juggernaut 41%Two-Face 37%Poison Ivy 35%Catwoman 24%Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity. Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

I’m reading an article about a framework in ColdFusion designed to handle object dependencies, and the author relates everything to making a car – A car object needs an engine and transmission – to make things clear. That’s a metaphor with a long history, but I don’t build cars. I handle users, reports, forms…mentally translating from cars to those kinds of collections of data doesn’t really put me ahead at this point. Too bad we have the Factory pattern name; I think it just encourages it. :| ...