So Pithy

Unlike, say, MTV, HGTV has done an excellent job of staying true to its roots. Turn it on at any point during the day and you’ll almost certainly find a show about either homes or gardens. Good luck finding something about music on MTV, let alone music videos.

Sadly, there’s a lot on HGTV that is crap. Incidentally, there’s also a lot that’s Canadian. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, either. But one show that is Canadian and simultaneously isn’t crap is Income Property. The gist? Host Scott McGillivray helps homeowners renovate a rental space (say, a basement) to provide extra income and lower (or eliminate) mortgage payments. Each episode McGillivray presents homeowners with two renovation plans to transform the space to a greater or lesser extent. After the choice is made, work commences, and by the end of the episode a gorgeous new apartment is revealed.

One oddity, at least in our household: McGillivray’s insistence on listing the resulting spaces as “legal” apartments. To our ears that just sounds more suspicious, not less. Maybe it’s just because we’ve never lived in a big metro area, or maybe the focus on “legal” apartments reflects Canadian zoning issues (like the requirement of windows but not necessarily windows one can fit through in bedrooms.) Whatever the case, it’s a great show. Unlike, say, My Big Amazing Renovation; somebody must have told the announcer that dropping the “g” from “-ing” words would make him sound more casual, because he is constantly overdoin’ it.

I’m reading The Wisdom of Crowds and Soccer in a Football World and thoroughly enjoying both.

Wisdom is the first book of any length that I’m reading entirely in electronic format, and so far I’ve found the experience to be unremarkable. In a good way. Once I’ve settled in the medium fades away and I’m totally immersed, as I should be. The text itself is full of wonderful bits of trivia in addition to a compelling argument about the ability of independent, diverse, decentralized groups to produce incredibly well-informed (even prescient) solutions given a sufficient means of aggregating individuals opinions.

Soccer in a Football World, on the other hand, contains not bits of trivia but feasts. I’m well into the book and still only into the 1920s and ’30s, when soccer seemed to have a fighting chance against gridiron football, even if it lacked the requisite toughness needed for such a fight. If only the USFA (now US Soccer) and the ASL could have gotten along, maybe things might have turned out differently. During the ’90s and early ’00s football fathers may have been the target of marketers and politicians alike, and the recent retirement of John Madden would have passed without notice.

So much for initial thoughts. Back to the books!

I feared NBC’s Parks and Recreation would be little more than a thinly veiled rehash of The Office. Turns out my fears were unfounded: the show’s creators decided to forgo the veil entirely. The Office has its moments–enough of them that I continue to watch–but not so many that I need to see them reproduced elsewhere.

My fuel of choice while out on a run is an oatmeal raisin walnut Clif Bar. I love a banana before heading out, but carrying one with me for 10-15 miles is not my idea of a good time, although it may serve to amuse others: “Is that a banana in your pocket, or…”

Given my appreciation of the Clif Bar (and the lack of a banana alternative) I’m going to run with the Clif Bar Pace Team at Grandma’s Marathon this summer. Since I’m almost always carrying one with me, maybe this time they’ll help carry me to a Boston qualifying time. They were at Disney World, too, and even though I wasn’t signed up to run with them their presence on the course really helped.

Now I just need to train up to that pace.

Recently I passed around a draft of a 50 page chapter, a chapter that honestly isn’t quite done yet but is already my longest.

The other day I ran 38 miles for the first time. I was aiming for 40, so I guess that run wasn’t quite done yet, either. Cutting it short was the right decision, though. I’ll get to 40 eventually.

Writing a dissertation isn’t like a marathon. It’s like a series of marathons. Or maybe just one ultramarathon. And just like a 100-miler, I haven’t done it yet, but I know I will.

Thanks to the Amazon Kindle app for my iPhone I’ve been reading a bunch of sample chapters. Books I’m considering reading in full:

• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
• The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
• iCon Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer
• Soccer in a Football World by David Wangerin

At this point I’m leaning towards one of the last two, since I enjoyed reading Offside so much.

Today was a day of firsts. To start out, this morning I successfully attempted my first thirty mile run. The weather was great, I kept a decent pace, and I finished strong.

Then, at lunch we tried the new dessert at Olive Garden, some sort of Italian donuts with chocolate sauce for dipping (which I avoided.) It was actually a surprisingly large dessert.

Finally, for dinner I took a stab at making shepherd’s pie for the first time and it turned out pretty well.

I am suffering from some writer’s block that is seriously interfering with my dissertation progress. On a positive note, however, it looks like I’ll be presenting at THE conference in my field this autumn. And most of that paper is written already.

I scheduled my whole day–meals, workout, etc.–around our planned meal at Texas Roadhouse this evening, only to discover they were closed. The rolls have been, and still are, sorely missed.

As for the Super Bowl, I had no real stake in it, so no disappointment there.

The greatest gift you can give to the person you love? Not telling the staff at Texas Roadhouse that it’s that person’s birthday.

You’re welcome, sweetie!