Picking up a new fandom used to mean picking up a new icon. It turns out I already had one. I'd thought it was nice looking and atmospheric with no knowledge whatsoever about the character in it, and to no one's surprise, I managed to pick out my favorite without even trying.

Going from MASH to Top Gun to Friday Night Lights is something where I could easily pull out a through-line beyond that it's a trio of ensemble casts working within and against the rigid structures they're living in, whether or not it's by choice. Something about maintaining a sense of self and self-worth both externally and internally, but I'm only about halfway through the first season. I know that it ends well, but not how it ends, or how it gets there, and I'm enjoying the process quite a bit.

There's no word for the feeling of watching something and being hit with the thought, "So that's where that icon comes from!" Sometimes it's reading and getting to a quote, sometimes it's a fraction of a moment caught up in a 100x100 square. But since the experience isn't unique, simply highly specific, I might a well just call it "fandom."

For no reason I'm capable of understanding, starting sometime yesterday, my iPhone and iPad stopped connecting to my home wifi. The network was there, the devices acknowledged it, and my desktop was always able to tap into it through the relevant connecting device. The desktop's too old to have inbuilt wifi capabilities, but the iPhone and iPad were new enough they've got it, except it wasn't in them. They kept saying the password was wrong. I checked on the wifi router provided by the phone and internet company and typed it in, several times, and neither device acknowledged it as correct. I tried the trick of having the devices forget about the network before trying to reconnect, and it didn't work.

Resetting the route managed it, somehow. I'd be better able to understand what happened if the desktop also didn't get it for a while, but it did, so I have to wonder where things got messed up. Because there was a problem that got fixed, and it wasn't a problem for everything.

I used the last of the season's rhubarb to make my sister in law G. a tart birthday cake. I didn't try any, because she didn't want to slice it, but based on the batter and the sound of the crust when I tapped it, it came out the way I'd hoped. Not too sweet, with a bit of pucker you don't often find in cakes. If I make it again, I'll keep it at just one cup of sugar and use more rhubarb. Also, seeing about a lemon juice glaze to give it one last punch-up.

My dad's book group isn't meeting this coming Wednesday. However, I've still been tasked to bake for my parents' roof party in a few weeks, and I've decided on mocha and parsley for an extreme contrast. While I said I'd be happy to do this, I was told by one of my parents' friends that I was more or less tasked to make three cakes: two for the party, one for him. I'm thinking something with plums. Or possibly carrots. I'll see where the market takes me.