Birthday cake, parking meters, and tv shows I plan to watch in the future.

[alg]

My letter writing campaign actually worked -- I am stunned. The community advocacy group talked to some politicians, and the meters and signs will be removed! This is pretty amazing. Community activism in action!

Today I baked a birthday cake for my baby sister. I want to say it's ridiculously complicated, but it's not -- it just has a lot of components. So does the frosting. And the ganache that goes inside it. I tried to take pictures as I go, but my camera is on its last legs -- which, right now, means that it can't focus after it zooms, making decent food shots pretty difficult.

Anyway, happy birthday to my baby sister! Who is really not a baby anymore, but try convincing me of that. :)



I was thinking last night about other television quotes that I say all the time, and I honestly can't think of any. I can think of a lot of movie quotes, though -- mostly from when I was a teenager or a little kid. Like, I quote a lot from Rock 'N' Roll High School. I saw that movie when I was a little kid (seriously, I think maybe I was eight or nine) -- as a disaffected, unpopular kid who hated school, and all my teachers, and the awful town I lived in, I found the events of this movie extremely cathartic. And while as an adult I can recognize the ridiculousness in every single moment of that film, I can remember being nine years old and thrilled by the cavorting of the main characters.

Also, please note that the main character in the movie -- Riff Randall, Rock 'n' Roller! -- wants to write music for the Ramones. Not sleep with them, or be someone's girlfriend, or stand in the background whilst they get all the glory. It's pretty clear that she wouldn't mind sexing them up, that she thinks they're hot, but her goal is to write songs for them. When I was nine, that was amazing. I mean, it's still amazing, but it was particularly amazing when I was a kid and the only woman on tv and in movies whose goal wasn't to hook up with a dude was Sister Stephanie on Father Dowling Mysteries!

(In 1994, when Showtime was airing the "Rebel Highway" series of movies that were based on 1950s movies, they aired a movie starring Renee Zellweger called Shake Rattle and Rock! [er, that is the original, terrible punctuation], with the three female leads -- Dey Young, P.J. Soles, and Mary Woronov -- from Rock 'N' Roll High School as repressive, prim, and prudish anti-rock 'n' roll activists, and the characters had the same names. That right there is a hilarious in-joke.)


I also quote a lot from Empire Records and Reality Bites and Clueless. Even my dad quotes from Clueless, although I am not convinced he even realizes he's doing it half the time. Talk about hilarious!


Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)

Currently in my queue to watch: Carnivale, The Wire, and Pretty Little Liars. I am also finishing up Fringe -- I'm putting off watching the last few episodes of season two, because I don't want it to end -- and have just started Community.

I know it seems like I always have the television on, but I actually don't watch many new shows. Most of the shows I watch are old shows that I've seen a million times, because that way I can tune them out and have them as pleasant background noise while I work. The new stuff I usually watch at night, an episide or two before bed. I also sometimes sit in the living room with my mom on the weekends and we watch a few episodes at a time of older shows that we can stream on Netflix -- like yesterday, when I was writing my angry post about parking meters, my mom was sitting in her armchair, watching the second season of The Rockford Files (and playing Bejeweled).

Every once in a while, I'll marathon a show with other people -- my friend Jonathon and I spent, like, two years getting together sporadically to marathon episodes of Angel, which he'd never seen. We could go for a month or two, and then he'd come over and we'd sprawl on the couch with giant cups of coffee and watch six or eight episodes in one day. I did the same thing with my dad and Doctor Who -- we blew through the first three seasons of Nine and Ten in under three days. (I'll be honest -- it was more like two days. We hardly stopped to sleep.)



Other days...
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death