You remember those books right? Of course you do. That’s Little Miss Kris, over there. Isn’t she cute? (Come on, it’s Friday night!) Like the fabulous StorTroopers, there aren’t a lot of options so you may have to do some Photoshopping to complete the likeness. (Link courtesy of not.so.soft)

Cool! The official Harry Potter site is now up! It’s a bit Flash-intensive, but it’s worth it, I think. Make sure you watch the introduction movie… The tone of the design seems to be darker and scarier than I expected. And I’m proud to announce that I’ve been sorted into Gryffindor!

Microsoft says open-source software is un-American. Excuse me while I collapse in giggles. Whew! That’s a good one. On a related note, I just bought Rebel Code: Linux and the Open-Source Revolution for vacation reading. It looks good… I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Apartments.com is hosting a contest to find the Messiest College Apartment in America. The winner gets $10,000. Suddenly I wish I had taken more pictures of the room I shared with Eileen Dunne freshman year…

MenWhoLookLikeKennyRogers.com. This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I had to run around and show everybody in my office. Damn, I love the Internet.

Hey girls! (Boys, hide your eyes.) Apparently Procter & Gamble are developing high tech, interactive panty liners that will tell you when you’re going to get your period, when you’re ovulating, if you’re pregnant, and if you have an infection. (Sounds nuts, but true!) The only problem I have with this idea is that women are going to be persuaded into wearing panty liners every day. That’s insane – nobody does that! So while it sounds like some great breakthrough for feminine health, it’s actually just a giant cash cow in the making for Always and Tampax. I’ve posted a much longer rant on this article at Plastic. (Okay boys, you can open your eyes now.)

Salon’s music critics pick the 10 most paranoid songs of all time. #7 is “Private Eyes” by Daryl Hall and John Oates, which was the inspiration for my sister’s weblog.

Ooh! The one-sheet poster for Bridget Jones’s Diary is out! I’m getting a very good vibe from this film. I read somewhere that they tested it with an English audience and it scored higher approval ratings than any other film, even Notting Hill. I just re-read the book last weekend in anticipation for the movie. I realized, though, that the two males leads are, like, NEVER in the same scene together. In fact, Mark Darcy (i.e. Colin Firth) is barely in it at all! I wonder if his billing before Hugh Grant reflects an enlargement of the role. I hope so. Mmmm, Darcy-licious.

Elie Wiesel was apparently involved in the Marc Rich pardon. WHAT? The Nobel Prize winner? This just gets weirder and wierder. I wrote off a lot of people’s complaints about the Rich affair simply because I thought they were just slamming Clinton as usual. It looks like the truth is more complicated than I thought. And it doesn’t look good, Bill.