Reality

I've been watching some shows, since we have cable. It's one of those deals to get reliable internet.

I thought I would get hooked on Animal Planet, again. But, while I still like Emergency Vets (real stories from an animal hospital - close enough but not my work) and the various Animal Rescue/MSPCA shows (NYC, Phoenix, Detroit), I find myself caught up in Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and finally, Cash Cab. Reality shows all, sort of. I think I've finally kicked my COPS! addiction.

We were discussing what about these shows made them fun, irresistible.

Mythbusters is a couple of guys with special effects, robotic, model building experience, as well as a rather impressive compilation of other skills, from welding to animal handling, who like excuses to blow stuff up. I love the science, the enthusiasm, but mostly, I enjoy seeing smart people working together, disagreeing, solving problems, and then giggling like children when it works, or they blow something up, whichever comes first. They remind me of the bright people I work with and laugh with.

Dirty Jobs has a self described "B-list celebrity" going out to work for a day with people doing actual jobs, like cleaning cement trucks, tarring roofs, or tagging wild geese. Most of the folks are pretty bright, the host laughs at himself, or sometimes their oddities, but never their intelligence. He throws himself into the mud and poo, soot and slobber, with wry humor and a great appreciation. Hard to hide one's true self when covered in shit, cold, exhausted or bitten red ants. He consistently comes across as a nice guy.

Cash Cab is simply a game show in a NYC cab, with a final offer of double or nothing - nothing being a free cab ride really. (Double or nothing is always a sucker bet.) I feel bad for the dim ones, cheer on the knowledgeable riders, and answer most of the questions myself. It's cheerful, even the 'losers' get a bit of free fare, and the questions are on par with Jeopardy. (One contestant actually answered in the form of a question.) A moment in their lives, a peek into relationships, which are mostly pretty good. I'd get into a Cash Cab with D any day.

My friend from work poked around my blog during downtime, me looking over her shoulder. She was asking about how to find other blogs, so I showed her to click the comments, and the sidebar. I was hard pressed to tell her how to find other blogs from scratch. I put this up, read Moira's site, clicked through the links from the comments that I liked. We have an interesting corner of the world here, this network of blogfriends, artists, photographers and poets, writers and gardeners, Zen like and thoughtful, compassionate travelers, respectful and very intelligent. All striving to be true and real.

Striving for genuine brilliance, and finding it thick on the ground. This is what this is all about. Not blogging every day. Not whether the details are boring or not. Just real people, expressing their best to share with all the world. We don't need skinny, pretty people acting at us, we are enough. Scripted drama is overrated, we have stories and insights aplenty.

Now, if only we could all safely manage high explosives...