Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

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)

TV break

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If you’ve stopped in here before, you know that none of my favorite TV shows are on Thursday night, so you might be wondering why I’ve picked tonight for a TV break. I’m catching up, thanks to TiVo, Comcast On Demand and Hulu.

In general, I like the concept of On Demand and it allows me to keep up with some shows that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to keep up with. I do have a gripe about how Mad Men has been handled so far this season, though. The HD version always appears right on time, shortly after the scheduled episode is aired. The non-HD version sometimes doesn’t appear until a week or more later. We’re not planning to replace our non-HD TV until it truly needs to be dumped, so I hope that Comcast wakes up to the fact that we’re far from the only subscribers in that situation.

For a couple of weeks, it appeared that Sons of Anarchy wasn’t going to be an On Demand show. Thankfully, that did not happen, and all of this season’s episodes were added starting about two weeks in. This has really become my main must-watch show. I saw it described somewhere as “soap opera for bikers” and it’s that, but deeper, too. My one disappointment so far is that rogue FBI Agent Cohn was killed off in the first season, so there’s now no reason for the Sons to travel to Chicago to hunt him down. I would have loved to see shows filmed here, even though the chances for that would have been extremely remote for a number of very good reasons.

I’m disappointed so far in Dollhouse. I was so glad it was renewed for another season, but the first two episodes really haven’t lived up to the promise I saw in the last few episodes of the first season. I’m even more disappointed in this year’s crop of medical/emergency medical shows. I’d be hard pressed to tell you whether Mercy or Trauma contains more stereotypes and recycled plot lines. Three Rivers seems slightly more promising. I guess I’ll give them each another episode or two to grab me. If they even make it that far, that is.

The show I didn’t expect to like and find myself liking way too much is Glee. Judging from on- and off-line conversations about the show, I’m far from alone in that feeling. My favorite musical numbers so far: Maybe This Time (you did know I’m a huge fan of Cabaret, right? I know it’s a bit out of character) and It’s My Life/Confessions.

I thought I might like The Good Wife and I planned to watch a few episodes anyway because it is set and partially filmed in Chicago and the suburbs. I actually do like it, and glad it’s an On Demand show, because it’s on at the same time as SOA. I wasn’t a huge fan of Julianna Margulies as Carol Hathaway, and I really hated the last legal drama she starred in (I can’t even remember the name) but I’m pretty much liking her as Alicia Florreck.

That’s enough TV talk for now if I plan to actually catch up on the watching!

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 8 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 230 of 274)