I recently had an email conversation that sparked some thoughts about the love/hate relationship between my DIY Philosophy and the television.
First of all, if I’m watching the TV, I’m not actually working on any of my projects. So unless the TV is giving me step-by-step instructions for the next project I need to get started on, at least one hemisphere of my brain feels guilty not just for watching TV, but for watching other people accomplish things on the TV that I should be accomplishing at exactly that moment in time in my real life.
On the other hand, yesterday while recovering from a night wherein I went insane and stayed up until four-thirty in the morning, I learned how to create a dovetail inside a mortise and tendon joint using wedges and absolutely no power tools on The Woodwright’s Shop.
So, there’s something to be said for that, which would never have occured to me in a thousand years.
Not that there haven’t been times in my life where I watched the DIY Network for seventeen hours straight without blinking. Believe me.
But the one think that always strikes me is… okay listen, I’m not watching you people do things I haven’t done before. But when I do them, it looks like my entire house/backyard was blown up with pipe bombs. Parts of my hair stick up in unnatural ways, generally with the help of gorilla glue and/or paint that is spackling my entire left arm, and I get worried when I look in the mirror and there isn’t mystery substance/dirt all over my face because it makes me think I really haven’t been putting enough effort into my projects lately.
When I see people working on projects who aren’t covered in debris… it just doesn’t feel right to me. Which is why like like seeing things like this, (thank you DIY Network) which are absolutely hilarious.
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Comments
patti
i am ALWAYS peeved at the cute little outfits DIY gurls wear when painting. Puh-lease. I nuke every “outfit” when painting. it’s a family joke…
jennifer
Just pass me the stilletos and the shovel!
Hairy Weisenheimmer
I look like total hell when I’m involved with my projects. So bad that after knowing each other ( over the fence anyway) since we moved in last December, my neighbor says to me today ( after I returned from a job interview) ‘Oh! You got a haircut!’ Nooooooo, its just the first time she’s ever seen me with it brushed…….
A-Ron
That video rocked.
I just finished a ghetto repair job of my garage siding. I think I might blog it DIYDiva style.
The Handyguys
Those shows make me laugh sometimes. Yes, I do learn stuff. More often than not I am yelling at the TV because what they are showing is a half baked way of dong something. Worse yet they leave out some important piece of information or the information they give out is just plain wrong. I do not claim to have all the answers either I just generally know when I don’t and I’m not afraid to admit it. Next week (Thursday, May 8th) the Handyguys discuss considerations when deciding to finish a basement. We give our listeners food for thought about considerations for such a big project. Not everything should be a DIY project for everyone is the bottom line message there.
I would love your opinions about DIY/Home Improvement podcasts. You certainly have an opinion on DIY TV. The Handyguys think a podcast may be useful because its on demand, can be played in your car, or even listened to while doing a project. The audio format has its drawbacks too in that we cant show every detail of a particular project.
Your thoughts are appreciated. Any chance of adding us to your blogroll? Interested in being interviewed on an upcoming show?