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For the second year now my bookish friend and I — although, by no means is this initiative private or exclusive — have chosen a reading theme for the year; 2010 was The Year of North & South (2009, btw, was Fantasy). The goal is to expose yourself (wait! there is more to this sentence!) to books you would have never read previously. Secondarily you have another person reading along a similar theme, testing the waters, chaffing the chaff, offering suggestions and warnings. Now, the theme is not an iron shackle to your reading list demanding exclusivity. For instance, I read all of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy this year as well. The theme is there to remind you that THE WORLD IS FULL OF BOOKS. Here’s where it took me in 2010:

North

• A Prayer for Owen Meany — John Irving, *****
• The Road — Cormac McCarthy, ***
• The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald, ***
• The Bell Jar — Sylvia Plath, *****
• The Age of Innocence — Edith Wharton, ***
• Moby Dick — Herman Melville, *****

South

• The Help — Kathryn Stockett, ***
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil — John Berendt, ***
• Gone With the Wind — Margaret Mitchell, *****
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter — Carson McCullers, *****
• The Sound and the Fury — William Faulkner, **

Moby Dick and Gone With the Wind were the high points of the year. If there existed more than five stars I would affix them to GWTW with all my might, but alas. I also really enjoyed The Bell Jar. RIP Sylvia Plath, I wish you would have written more than one novel.

The Sound and the Fury was by far the worst book I read in 2010. I really wanted to like this book — or at least understand it, but I cold barely get through it. Maybe I’m not smart enough, which I FULLY ACCEPT. Anyway, no more Faulkner for me.

Now, ON TO RUSSIANS.

Guys, I got a keggerator for Christmas. I’m drinking a cold draft beer as I type these very words. THESE VERY BEER SOAKED WORDS. How incredible is our society, that I, a mere beer consumer once bound by bottles and cans, can now drink fresh beer in the warm (well, relative to interstellar space) confines of my basement?

It’s a pretty neat set up:

I’m still working on getting the CO2 levels and temperature correct — to prevent MASSIVE HEAD (that’s what she said). But other than that, I basically live in my wonderdreamland of love.

As you can see I’ve got space for two 1/6 barrel kegs (or one 1/4 regular sized keg) in there. In the first tap flows Legend Lager — an easy drinkin’ beer that even ol’ Val has come to enjoy. The second tap … I’m taking suggestions!

A note: I got the CO2 tank filled at Richmond Oxygen — aka the place with the best customer service experience in Richmond. I heartily recommend them for all of your gas product needs … ?

Who needs yet another social network? Certainly not the majority of humans — although did you hear that one in twelve of those very same humans have a Facebook account? And, if I’m honest with myself, I certainly don’t need another social network either.

But, my job as internet czar mandates that I’m at least aware of what’s the ones-and-zeroes flavor of the moment. Right now that’s Untappd — the newest in beer related social media technology.

It’s a lot like Foursquare: you “check in” when you drink a beer — optionally specify your location — and it’s sent to your “friends” and other connected social networks. Nothing too revolutionary. I do, however, like being able to look back into my beer-soaked past and pull forth a written record of the beers I’ve consumed. It’s also got a list of trending micro and macros beers, as well as what is trending in your location. Currently, respectively:

• Sam Adams Winter Lager, Boston Beer Company Infinium, Guinness
• Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, Anchor Christmas Ale, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
• Stone Vertical Epic, Stillwater A Saison Darkly

Ultimately I don’t see myself using Untappd long term — excepting a massive influx of local users. It’s kind of a drag to pull out your phone every time you order a beer. Plus, what other social media are you more likely to forget to use the more you use it?

When The U fired their most recent head coach they fired, quite possibly, the very essence of Miami slow cooked, concentrated, and poured into the earthly vessel of Randy Shannon. He was born in Miami, went to high school in Miami, played football at the University of Miami, coached at the Miami Dolphins, and finally — after a handful of years as an assistant — ascended to the head of The U. And, ultimately, he was summarily dismissed at the end of the regular season with a theoretically disappointing 7-5 record.

The man brought in to replace Randy Shannon, Al Golden, has a coaching resume built upon the backs of dreadful places like “Boston College,” “Temple,” and — god forbid — “Virginia.” He’s proven a winner at milquetoast Temple but certainly doesn’t embody Miami like Shannon. Does it matter? In Miami’s never-ceasing quest for Backness they’ll crush and powder the bones of whomever is willing to take the job — which got me to thinking:

What are the worst jobs in college football?

Surely, The U. Miami has a nationwide fanbase, but can’t sell out their stadium — they averaged 70.1% capacity in 2010. With an undergraduate class of under 10k they’ve got a small alumni base. They also compete with Florida, Florida State, and — more recently — South Florida, for in-state recruits. Miami also has high turnover for head coaches: no coach has lasted more than six years dating back to 1979. That’s crazy when you think about the success they’ve had as a program over the last three decades.

What about Florida, Michigan, and USC? All are storied programs, with stiff competition, and — perhaps unreasonably — high expectations. Frankly, I’m surprised Rich Rodriguez hasn’t been canned at Michigan for going 15-21 over three seasons. The pressure of these jobs can be, literally, debilitating — as Urban Meyer’s heart discovered. New coaches need time to establish their systems, and I’m not sure any of these programs are willing to wait for that to happen.

But Notre Dame, NOTRE EFFING DAME, must be the worst coaching gig of all time. You’ve got the same annual media pressure for Ultimate Success as Miami plus a host of other issues. No one has more history than Notre Dame: there is a pantheon of Coaching Gods watching your every X and O. They could give a shit about breaking contracts: they’ve got the money to hire and fire at will. Due to historic rivalries and conference independence their schedule is actually pretty tough year in and year out. Plus, you’ve gotta be a Catholic.

Good luck Brian Kelly!

Distribution of Slave Population in Southern states

I’ve been following the NYT’s Disunion blog since its inception a couple months ago. While overly Northernly focused — for this guy — its fun to see things playing out in quasi-realtime. As a lover of fine chartsandgraphs this post caught my eye.

There’s an interesting note on the side of the map:

It should be observed that several counties appear comparatively light. This arises from the preponderance of whites and free blacks in the large towns in those counties such as — Henrico Co. Va, Norfolk Co. Va., Shelby Co. Tenn., Davidson Co. Tenn., St. Louis Co. Mo., Orleans Co. La., Charleston Co. Sc., etc.

How comparatively light is Henrico County? Here’s a detail:

Henrico had a 30-40% slave population while surrounding areas had as high as 80% slave population.

The full map is available as a PDF.

This is the best photo I’ve ever taken with my iPhone:

Guys, I love the iOS only Instagram! Taking/sharing square-format toy-camera style photos is currently MY STRAWBERRY JAM. It’s nice to have absolutely zero options to futz with — just point and then shoot.

Actually, that’s not 100% accurate.

I use a few apps to hipster up my pics, and since the format is so informal the cheese-factor is totally acceptable.

• TiltShift Generator
• Hipstamatic
• Swanko Lab

The most interesting thing I’ve got going on with Instagram is my Morning Commute photo series. Each morning I try and grab a pic during my morning commute. It’s fun, informal, and (slightly?) interesting.

These are some quotes from the in-game IM convo between Justin and myself.

• me: UNNGH FINISHED
• Justin: wtf, how do you not block that one guy
• me: ok offense, i have no faith in you, but please
• Justin: if you can’t score a TD on JMU, you don’t deserve to win games. i mean right?

• me: COME ON FATTY. game. oh my god. fuck. that is game
• Justin: turnovers. will destory you

• me: i’m venturing into forums
• Justin: oh why, WHY YOU WILL NEVER COME OUT. forums are fire beamer i bet
• me: nah plyer hate. direted at Tyrod Taylor
• Justin: forums are going to be cleansed with fire after this

• Justin: game over. okay well. i feel pretty crappy. i don’t really want to watch other football games now
• me: yeah me neither WE COULD STILL WIN THE ACC

And so we did.

The other day I made the best nachos of my entire life. I asked, on the tweets, what makes excellent nachos. Here are the crowd sourced answers — chips consistency is the critical factor.

@RossCatrow really good chips that don’t get soggy. – @jonnew

@RossCatrow root beer – @scottpahrr

@RossCatrow homemade tortillas chips, guacamole, black beans, sharp cheddar, JALEPENOS – @rsmartt

@RossCatrow Enough fresh jalapenos to give a Mexican restaurant liquid stool. – @jjvega

@RossCatrow …but the chips are so good when they get squishy & you have to sort of leverage them up with an edge chip! – @throwingutah

@RossCatrow chip integrity will stay intact if you make your chips, drain the meat and use whole (not refried) beans. #nachotalk – @rsmartt

@RossCatrow it needs to be smothered. You have to sacrifice some chips to sogginess – @chwy

@rsmartt @rosscatrow do not bean my nachos. #nachotalk – sljesq

@RossCatrow Nachos MUST use real shredded cheese melted under broiler. non of that “cheese” sauce crap.– pagalina