Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Two reasons why Glee is evil

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Glee is not a television show I really expected to like, but like many, many other people out there, I was sucked into its strangely addictive universe and now hope it doesn’t fall victim to the hype and its whirlwind success. Despite its appeal, I am convinced the show is evil. My reasons may not make sense if you’ve never watched the show, and for those of you who don’t and don’t plan to, it’s fine if you want to cut out here. I’ll be back to writing about the dogs and computers in tomorrow’s post.

Anyway! Here’s why Glee is evil:

Reason 1: Glee made me read fan fiction.

I am not a fan of fan fiction. I don’t write it and never will. I don’t read it. And what the hell is a beta reader, anyway? Isn’t that what you call proofreaders and copyeditors? Or can you use those titles only if you get paid?

I guess I must now say that I don’t read fan fiction, except for this time, because Glee was evil enough to totally mangle the Rachel and Jesse storyline. I could have accepted Rachel and Jesse not finding true love together, if the storyline that tore them apart had made sense. It did not, not even a little. I wanted to see these two together, and apparently, so did a rather large number of fan fiction authors. Despite the logic that says that most high school romances are ultimately doomed, and my belief that my own life would have turned out poorly had I stayed with any of my high school boyfriends, I so wanted Rachel and Jesse to be together and go on to a happy future together. Or if that couldn’t happen, at least they should have had a better breakup than what we saw. And by better, I mean one that made sense.

So as much as it pains me, I must thank some talented fan fiction authors for creating a happy resolution for Rachel and Jesse in their alternate universes. I hope some of you use your considerable skills to create characters and worlds of your own as well. Some of you others really need to ummm… hone your craft, yeah, that’s it… before you write where other people can see you, though. Or at the very, very least, just please try using spell check. Please.

Reason 2: Glee made me almost like “Don’t Stop Believin'”

It’s not that I don’t like Journey. I’m really okay with Journey. In fact, “Feeling That Way” from Infinity has been a favorite shower song for a long time… “A new road’s waiting, you touched my life, whoa-oooooa-ooo… soft and warm on a summer’s niiiiiiii-iiii-ght…” Okay, maybe you didn’t need to hear that. But I have never liked “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Who the hell are the streetlight people anyway?

It didn’t exactly help when the White Sox picked it up as the song for their World Series run in 2005. I don’t like baseball in general and I loathe Chicago baseball. Considering that Sox fans continually make disparaging remarks about the general wussiness and lameness of Cubs fans (which I am not and never will be) and by extension all North siders (which I have been since moving to Chicago), they sure picked a wussy song, and from a band from San Francisco no less, for their anthem. I mean, did Styx (South siders), Survivor, or Chicago not have any go-to songs? Please.

And worse yet, when David Chase used it to end The Sopranos in 2007. That ending was maddening enough as it is without having to listen to that song. I am obviously biased, as that is not the song I want playing as the last cut in the soundtrack of my life (so now you also know whether I thought Tony and family lived or died at the end).

So, fast forward to May 2009. I’m watching this brand new show Glee and finding myself enjoying it. Coming up on the end, and… oh, no. Not this song. But maybe because it actually looked like something high school kids would put together and have fun with, I didn’t switch the channel. What a cute, fun arrangement. And so the evil that is Glee almost made me like a song that I’ve hated for almost 30 years.

You don’t need any more proof than this, do you?

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 4 of 31)

My old school

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My high school years were not the best years of my life. Oh, sure, I have a few good and even excellent memories from those three years (back in those days in my sector, intermediate school was grades 7-9 and high school was grades 10-12). Along with those few moments in time is a surprising amount of bitterness about stupid crap that I thought was long buried, until I start talking about it. So I’ll try not to go there, because that wasn’t the point of this post when I started typing.

I went to McKinley High School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Since I am easily amused, I get a big kick out of the fact that two favorite TV shows of mine, much like my young life, take place at a McKinley High School. And to add to the amusement, the fictional schools are both somewhere in the vast midwestern wasteland, where I am trapped for now.

The obvious and current one, of course, is Glee. The one that I relate to more because it was set closer in time to my own high school years, is Freaks and Geeks. Lindsay Weir in Freaks and Geeks is pretty much who I was in high school.

Back to my McKinley High School. If you do a Google search, we come up first. We are the Tigers. I spent an embarrassingly long time today researching the sports team nicknames of the fictional McKinley High Schools (thanks, @jenroack, for the help with Glee’s McKinley). Is that sad or what? What’s that? Vikings for Freaks and Geeks, and Titans for Glee. You’re welcome.

The school newspaper was still a daily when I was there. Yup, that’s right, we were one of five high school dailies in the nation. I’m not sure when the paper ceased daily publication. I wonder if there are any high school dailies left? With the creeping demise of print publications in general, I’m guessing the answer is “no.” Even though my aspirations for a career in journalism and any illusions that I can in fact write crumbled to dust long ago, I am still proud of being part of the Daily Pinion.

(NaBloPoMo | June ’10: 3 of 30)

6-bee

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I’m not really a big fan of Jimmy Fallon, or the current incarnation of Late Night, except for Slow Jam the News. But I totally love these “6-bee” Glee parodies…

Good stuff!

Speaking of Glee, I didn’t expect to like this week’s Madonna-themed episode, but there was more to like than not. Didn’t really need to see that “Vogue” number two weeks in a row, though.

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 20 of 30)

An unreasonable request

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As you know, I follow only a few TV shows. Rescue Me and Mad Men were done with their seasons before our vacation started. Not the case with Sons of Anarchy, with two episodes to go. The final one will be airing when we are in the air somewhere between HNL and ORD. We are missing tonight’s episode because FX is conspicuously missing (hmmm, along with AMC, I now notice) from Dish Network’s Bronze package.

I never really considered FX and AMC to be premium offerings, but seeing as they, along with USA, have given us some of the better shows over the last couple of years, maybe they are!

Oh, the unreasonable request? Should be obvious… please try not to spoil me until I catch up via a hopefully timely Comcast On Demand!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 24 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 269 of 274)

Rottweilers are everywhere!

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For those who haven’t seen Sons of Anarchy episode 210 (“Balm”), this is not a plot spoiler, especially since I’m not quite ready to talk about this episode yet.

I just wanted to mention that I was quite tickled to see a couple of shelves full of Rottweiler stuff (figurines, plates and possibly photos) in Piney’s cabin.

Freya (that would be the hopefully-ready-to-trial Freya) just wants to remind you all that Rottweilers are everywhere you want to be, even on Sons of Anarchy.

That is all.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 10 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 255 of 274)