I want to create an online personality test called “Which online personality test are you?”

I think that might put the whole thing to rest.

Reminds me of the line in the Simpsons episode when they get the monkey’s paw, and wish to be rich and famous. They’re walking through an exclusive restaurant and you overhear a woman say, “The Simpsons! At first they were cute and funny, but now they’re just annoying.”

CityDesk, Joel Spolsky’s web content management program, is finally out. It’s basically Blogger on the desktop, keeping your content locally and then publishing it to the web via FTP. It’s not set up out of the box to be a weblog tool; it’s more focused on news or opinion sites with longer articles. But the scripting language appears to allow the regular weblog-style stuff to be accomplished. There will have to be some templates and scripts written for it geared toward weblogs before it becomes a good tool for most non-techie webloggers. In fact, I think Joel should think about adding those templates in a future release. Whatever the limitations of this first release, it’s an exciting step in the right direction for low-cost, easy-to-understand web site management. Bravo to Joel and his company, Fog Creek Software.

Random holiday thoughts

1. Rudolph should have told Santa and those other reindeer where they could stick it, after how they treated him.
2. I like Christmas music a lot more than I like Christmas.
3. I really don’t think Santa needs to see me when I’m sleeping.

Random incredibly funny movie dialog that you have to see to appreciate:

Evelle: These balloons blow up into any funny shapes at all?
Grocery Man: Not unless round is funny.
-Raising Arizona

On the cover of a recent Time magazine technology insert is a woman holding a gift wrapped in red white and blue paper, ringed with stars.
The headline read, “Online shopping – Do your part for the holidays!”

I think additional commentary is not necessary.

Crucial new legislation for Russ Feingold to spearhead:

-No Christmas decorations, music or commerce until after Thanksgiving.
-No carry-on luggage on airlines. If you want to take it, check it, buddy.
-Andy Rooney is deported to a desert island no less than 500 miles from the nearest TV transmitter.

This country has a lot of laws. But I think these are things we can all get behind.

If Andy Rooney does another “commentary” about the contents of his desk drawers, I swear to god I’m going to go over to CBS and bang his head against the wall over and over until I feel better.

Wait, I feel better already. You’re safe, Andy.

On my trip to Florida I began reading “The Fellowship of the Ring,” in preparation for the movie coming out at the end of the year. I never read these books in high school or any other time, and I’m enjoying it immensely. Tolkien’s writing is spare and beautiful, and he has an uncanny ability to create a sense of magic in his world. I even started marking pages when I found passages I particularly liked. Here’s one that reminded me of a certain Texas governor – Frodo tells Gandalf that Gollum deserves death, and Gandalf responds:

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”

I will be in West Palm Beach visiting my brother until Sunday night, with very little chance of getting near a computer. This is both good and bad, of course. Until then, why not visit Monique? Tell her I sent you.

Pop culture confession: I watched both the “80s TV” Weakest Link and the “Star Trek” Weakest Link shows. I was struck by how generally smart the Star Trek crew seemed, even though the questions were incredibly easy. And I was shocked at how dumb most of the 80s TV people were, with the exception of “The Love Boat”‘s Jill Whelan (who knew?). Fred “Rerun” Berry (who is 50!) and Erin Moran were especially dumb. If you had asked Erin Moran her name, I think she would have gotten it wrong. And Wil Wheaton, Mr. A-List Weblogger, was trying to be hip and interesting but just came off as pathetic. I bet any of those other Star Trek people would be interesting to sit around a dinner table with, though. Not that they’re making plans to come over any time soon.