Friday is fantastic. Blue sky dotted with clouds, a slight chill in the air, long shadows. I went swimming at 11:30 and did ten very good laps, probably my fastest time yet. Still had to take a 30-second or so pause between each lap. But I noticed the people in the faster lanes managing to do several laps without stopping, so I figure I can get there, too.

Then I came back to work and had lunch brought from home: an apple and some homemade chili I made on Tuesday.

Here’s a pretty cool little site: November 2. Unfortunately they are out of iron-ons.

So, baseball will be over in a week. What happened last year after the World Series, is that I noticed a steep decline in my tv-watching and nearly canceled cable. I predict the same may happen, but now that we have TiVo, probably not to that extreme. I mean, “Arrested Development” is coming back, and I am kinda addicted to “The Apprentice” and “America’s Next Top Hoochie Model.” As you can see I only watch programs that start with the letter “A”.

Anyway, yeah. Most tv shows are dumb and or boring. I don’t give a shit about cop dramas or lawyer dramas. Sitcoms are for the most part irrelevant, apart from the way “Arrested Development” has reinvented the genre. We don’t get HBO. Most of the “reality” shows (misnamed, as they are, in fact, glorified game shows) are just grotesque. And I say that as a connoisseur of the medium. I can only handle a couple of them at a time, and I never watch the dating ones. I only watch the good ones!

So, here is a list of my favorite TV shows. Shows I would ask TiVo to tape for me.

Arrested Development
The Apprentice
America’s Next Top Model
The Amazing Race
Baseball Tonight
Trading Spaces
Queer Eye
The Daily Show
Reno 911
Shinsengumi (Japanese)
Conan O’Brien
Saturday Night Live (TiVo is very handy for this one)
Adult Swim Sunday nights (sometimes)
Sopranos

Does that seem like a lot? Some of them aren’t on right now, or will soon go on hiatus, so it seems like a short enough list. Maybe one reason “reality” shows are so popular is because people are more entertained by the personalities of regular people (even if they are fame whores) than they are by scripted actors. Maybe scripted programs have gotten so safe and cliched and lame that viewers just don’t care as much anymore what happens to the fake family on tv…

Anyway, TiVo recorded “The Office” Christmas Special for me last night from BBC America and I am so psyched to watch it finally. Had to wait a whole year for that.