A life without cable.

My entire life I've had basically open access to cable TV. That isn't to say that I was or am spoiled. Now I don't have the spoils of cable in the house I'm living in, college life is expensive and spending way too much money on cable just isn't in the cards when you have internet, electricity, gas, and other bills to pay.

Not having cable (which is in essence not having television at all because in this town the only things you can get from antennae are Canadian networks which have no good programing) makes a person do strange things when combined with the stress of University. Such as purchasing (not renting, actually buying) the entire series of Stacked.

Now if you don't know, Stacked (pictured on left) was a Fox television show staring, who else, Pamela Anderson. It chronicles the misadventures of a dumb blond (played by the incomparable Ms. Anderson) who gets a job in a book store. That's right, a book store.

Here's the thing. It isn't bad. It's actually pretty good, except for the bad acting from the lead actress, the scripts are pretty well written and it's a wonderful show for mindless watching either to veg out to or to have playing in the background while you're working on school work or just lounging about the house surfing the internet. I don't recommend going out and buying it, but I hit an amazing deal at Hollywood video (which is where I buy most of my dvds) and I got the whole series (all three disks) for under ten bucks.

Another thing you do while you don't have cable is watch bad movies. Well sometimes you watch good movies, but most of the time you watch bad movies. Then you watch bad movies with their commentary tracks playing. I never was one for watching commentary tracks, but now that I don't have the distraction of cable I can watch my favorite movies over and over and then with commentary from either the stars or the director. Surprisingly the best commentary track I've watched is from Mean Girls, with Tina Fey doing most of the work talking about making the movie and making jokes the entire way.

You also start renting television shows on DVD, it's amazing how fast you can get through an entire season of a show. Ugly Betty was the first we rented, and we watched it in two weeks, renting one disk at a time. Currently I've rented Qeer As Folk, which I watched on Showtime when it aired originally, but it's generally a fun show to watch.

I also rented the first disk of Weeds, mostly 'cause my friends are all about this show. So we'll see how it turns out.

Any recommendations of good television shows to rent? I'm always looking for something new.

The Grandma Mabel Memorial Recipe Box Show & Tell Contest

So Kay over at Mason-Dixon Knitting has posted a contest for Recipe boxes and I rememberd my mom's being amazingly kitsch so without further ado, here you go:





sorry for the bad photo quality but I don't have a camera right now so these are from my cell phone.

My mom doesn't even pretend to close the thing anymore as it is overflowing with folded pieces of paper with random recipes on them from the internet but this is my favorite recipe which I don't know how long it's been around or whose handwriting it is in.

Crock Pot Steak Soup (in red on the top it says "Very Good (Cheap!)"
3 cups water
2 small onions, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1 - 14 1/2 oz can tomatoes
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp monosodium glutamate (msg, you can probably skip this)
1 - 10 oz package frozen vegetables
1 lb coarsely ground beef browned and drained
2-4 tbsp beef base granule or paste
1/2 cup Butter, melted
1/2 Cup flour

Put all ingredients except putter and flour in Crock Pot. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hrs (high 4-5 hours). Once hour before serving, turn to High. Make a roux of 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/2 cup flour. Stir until smooth. Pour into crock-pot and stir until thickened. Cook soup on high until thickened.

Projruncan

Who am I to judge the project runway canada designs in their latest 'hope' challenge? Well I'm a design student and I felt like it. this is the internet.

Anyway, I'm not going to re-cap the whole episode though it was amazingly touching and Iman is beautiful and she could do anything and I would buy it/support it/watch it. ("Oh do you want to buy some Iman shit?" ..."YES!")

Anyway Lets start with the bad and end with the good.

Megan

Wow, this is an ugly dress. Well if the length were mini it would be cute and completely contemporary but no she did floor length. It looks like the model fell over in the fabric store and stood up and this is what she was wearing. The color is wrong, the shape is wrong. It moves beautifully but that's what happens when you don't cut or sew any fabric, it just moves.

Kendra

Would anyone like some sausage? That's all I could think with this dress. I think it's a little poorly sewn or pressed or something that's giving the model that ever sought after sausage look. I also hate anything mermaid, I thought we had left it behind in the 80's but I guess I was wrong. The color is great and the silhouette would be wonderful if not all the weird puckering and wrinkles.

Shernett

First of all is it bad that I keep forgetting this bitch is even on the show? Probably. Her dress isn't horrible, all it needs is some Viagra to get the top of it to stand more and it would be really chic. I think on her first fitting with the model it looked like that and I thought it was a sure winner, her sketch was pretty cool too... I wish she had gone with that more literal interpretation than with what she has here.

Stephen

Ouch! MY OVARIES HAVE EXPLODED! Other than the unfortunate medical condition portrayed in the dress (which is not particularly hopeful) and the desperate need of a press or steam this dress is pretty good, finally something worthy of Stephen's self hype.

Lucian

Dear Lucian, could you be more euro? -me Beautiful dress, pepto-bismal pink isn't usually my favorite color but it works here, The bust line has a weird line to it but all in all it's very nice red-carpet dress. Did they ask for a red-carpet dress? I'm not sure... Also, how did you manage to make your model look chubby?

Biddell

Ah biddell. I like you, probably because If i were on project runway, project runway canada, or project catwalk I would be just like you. Well not exactly, I'd be more like a mix of you, Daniel V, Jay, Matthew (PC) and Luke (PC). Anyway, this dress is great, a little over the top if you ask me but that's ok, I love all the pleating and the smoothness of the silhouette in contrast to the complexity of the surface. Great color, but i'm just not sure why this dress is hopeful...

MG

In my Opinion MG was robbed. This dress is spectacular, and sold for $10,000 (and that's not that week ass american dollar that's canadian bitches) It's exuberant, artsy while being wearable and an all around beautiful piece of fashion. It's like if a Ballerenna were to go out on the town, and her tutu deflated while dancing in the clubs (in a good way). It's probably the best dress I've seen on PRC. And the only thing cuter than this dress is the sketch of this dress.MG and her dress are made of 100% win.