Arrested Development grows a White Tree

Sorry, had to slip the Tolkien reference in there. Reagan and I are in the middle of the Tale of Beren and Luthien in the Silmarillion. *sings* Awe-some! 

A new adult cartoon came out on Fox Network few weeks ago, "Sit Down Shut Up". Now, normally I'm highly critical of television and wait a season or two to see what the critics think. But this one made me look three times - I heard old the old, familiar voices of Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Henry Winkler doing their same old Arrested Development schtick.

Now, I'm not saying it makes it easier to give up Michael Sera (as seen in his star wars home video), or Jeffrey Tambor's shiny head and twin cousin Oscar, but...you can't beat Will Arnett's constantly inappropriate inanity. Or Jason Bateman's omniscient sarcasm. Ok, maybe that's dramatic. I just REALLY miss Arrested Development.

So, take a look for yourself. Even if you don't like Arrested Development (or know what it is - mom's friends, I'm looking at you), you have to admit these are pretty damn funny.

Here's absolutely classic Arrested Development. Hear Jason Bateman be just as we remember him - arrogant, adorable Michael Bluth. See if you can hear Henry Winkler and Will Arnett in the ridiculousness.

Here's a clip that makes me think of Matt and Karl for some reason...ban-hees, anyone? Also, it's just...so politically incorrect. Gretchen?

They're back!

Emo Birthday Cake (Black-Bottomed Chocolate Cake)

This is what Devin's birthday cake looked like:

No, that's not true. But it was close.

Emo is a tribute to some of my indie rock-loving friends for whom colored sprinkle cakes are just not appropriate. Don't know what emo is? Look it up - and note Wiki's subheading on "mysogyny". Or just check out this awesome diagram (hidden is so hot!). Recognize anyone?

If you're as ADD in the kitchen as I am, you get tired of baking regular cakes for birthdays and what-have-you. White cake is for weddings (and really needs cake flour, to those lazy regular-flour-users out there), yellow cake reminds me of boxed mixes ('nuff said), chocolate is great but can get boring if it's overused. Even red velvet cake loses its appeal after you've served it to your family for the past 3 birthdays. So, for the last birthday event, I had a dilemma. I needed a cake that was

a) chocolate
b) fast
c) not boring (i.e. new to my kitchen).

It finally hit me. Drawing on a recipe my BFF Lindsey is famous for, I decided to go with a black-bottomed cake. Actually, I wanted to do cupcakes, but had no cupcake tins (mom has 12 of them). Fortunately, a couple years back I made a black forest torte mom was so impressed with that she bought me a set of teeny 7-inch cake pans. I used only two, and they made the perfect torte. Here's how it went:

for the chocolate cake:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (sift me well, otherwise I'll be lumpy)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

You know the drill; dry ingredients first, then blend the water and oil. Add vanilla next, and vinegar LAST - this is your reacting ingredient, so be sure your pans are ready.

for the cream cheese filling:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar (or, if you're a Steele, maple syrup)
  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (minis are good - fair trade is best!)
  

the frosting (chocolate, of course):

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

I usually make frosting up out of my head, but I wanted a nice, stiff consistency that was still fudgy to make the torte stand up. This is the best recipe I've found, although it calls for way too much sugar. Start with half and add more if you need a stiffer frosting.

Cake pans: grease them or, if you're awesome, line them with parchment paper (trace bottoms, cut circles just like in kindergarten). This is important, as there's nothing more awful than baking an awesome cake only to have it break in half as you're getting it out of the pan.

If you don't have cute little torte pans, two regular 12" cake pans would work fine, although the layers will be somewhat thin. If you are feeling ambitions, 1 1/2 the recipe and do three layers. Divide the cake batter into your pans, then divide the cream cheese mixture and place in the center of each. You don't want it to be a ball, but you don't want it touching the sides either.

Bake at 350 F for about 20-30 minutes (depending on what size pans). Cool the cakes, then remove. Place one layer on a pretty cake plate, frost the middle, place next layer and frost the whole thing.

Voila!

Now you have a seemingly innocent chocolate cake with a sneaky cream filling. No one will ever suspect! To class this up, and to make the cake truly emo, I found some Betty Crocker "Black and White" candles.

How to Use Social Networking Sites

Digg-ing the social life - A Stone Age Guide to Online Social Networking

If you've been wondering what this icon is:

then this post is for you.

Six months ago I thought “social networking” referred to what happens when you make friends with your friends’ friends. Or when your mom embarassingly introduces you to someone you’ve never met as if you should know them because they’re next-door neighbors to Soandso. Networking, right?

As I’ve been getting all geeked up on online social networks like Digg, Delicious and Squidoo, most of my family and friends have remained in the Dark Ages of email and Facebook.

There are a plethora of social networking applications out there, they're hip, they're ADD, and they're here to stay. Let's just say we've never had the attention span of our parents or grandparents, and we're never going to. So you might as well tap into the world of shared videos of post-dentist children and articles on anything from Obama's latest policy to proper zombie-lypse preparation.
These applications make it easy to do the kind of schtick we love to do on Facebook - share pictures, chat, watch conversations...you know, networking. Turns out Facebook even has its own sharing button - you can see it below.


Different social networks specialize in different areas. My favorites are the following:

Digg
If you want to read an article on current events, killer robots or the latest craze in iPhone apps, Digg is the place to go. Posts are reviewed by peers, so if you don't want to sort through a lot of search results, just take a look at what others are saying.

Delicious!
With a weird, inexplicable food twist, this network is similar to Digg but a little bit zanier. Try killer ZOMBIE robots, and Obama playing craps.

StumbleUpon
Great title describing exactly what you do here - see something while cybersurfing that you like? i.e., did you stumble up-on it? Let everyone else know how awesome it is, and check out what awesome things others have found. Videos, blogs, articles, news, you name it.

Technorati
For the slightly more serious surfer, this network is packed with current events, political updates, business articles and popular blog posts. Don't be afraid - nerdiness is SO hot right now.

Reddit
Glip, hip, bizarre and surprising. On any given hour, Reddit's newsfeed might feature posts on gay marriage legislature in Iowa, a Monty Python sketch script and fabulous, angry blog posts like this one: If the pope is right about condoms causing more AIDS by encouraging promiscuity, then I propose that seatbelts cause more deaths by encouraging risky driving.

Facebook
Seriously, I don't have to fill you in on this one, do I? Click on the button, bookmark my site, then do it with a bunch more sites. Voila!

For the uninitiated, here's how it works: each site asks you to create an account to keep track of the bookmarks you post - they accumulate, you develop a "portfolio" which you can reference anytime you want to. Others can see what you've tagged and vice versa. Digg does this thing where it compares your "likeness" to other Diggers by comparing your bookmarks'. Make friends. Watch news. Read silly stories. All available now, 100% digital.

So go on. Do it. Try them out, and bookmark my site first!