Unreal realities

Have to take care of some business to start. First, congratulations to Gabriel and Ale on the birth of their son, the newest member of the ND class of 2026. Wow, we really are all becoming adults now. Well, at least all of you are, the only dependent that I could list on my taxes is my Playstation 2.

Second, I kind of neglected to mention that the story I posted yesterday had an ending that even I once said was “sappy enough that it could be used as a pancake topping.” I want to say that I wrote that in 98 or 99, when I was less cynical but a lot more resigned to the unfairness of life. Now I’m pretty sure that I can overcome any obstacle but I’m cynical about the world. I think that means that I am in the exact same place. Anyway, I’ll be posting stuff like that every once in awhile. I have about half a lifetime worth of short stories either on my laptop or lying in folders in my apartment and I’d like to at least see them published in some form in my lifetime and this might be it.

Ok, that’s it for house cleaning. Time for some real observations.

As many of you know I am a reality television addict. Let’s face it, any guy who would have a business school project revolve around correctly predicting the winner of Survivor has definitely lost touch with normality. That said, at the same time I spent 13 of 14 nights at the Backer so I didn’t have much of a baseline of normality to go start with.

I used to be a huge Real World fan but that’s ended in recent years. Once it became a show of endless self promotion, drunkenness, lewd behavior and adult situations I kind of tuned out. Yeah, I’m as confused as you are on that one. I just liked the early shows a lot better. These were people like me, living rent free but having real jobs and a seemingly real life. I’m the only person in the world who liked the London cast, which had both Jacinda (now an actress who never mentions that she was on the show) and Kat (who made my original top 10 perfect mate list, a topic for a blog entry if there ever was one).

But let’s face it, the real reason I stopped identifying with the show is the cast all stayed 19 and I got a lot older. And now watching the show is like hanging out at Kelly’s on a Saturday night, watching the people who are going to a bar for the first time. It’s funny for a while, then it turns kind of sad and you wonder why you are there in the first place.

The thing that kills me now is that being on The Real World is apparently a full time job for years afterwards. You then get to go to the Real World/Road Rules Challenges, where you get to compete against the same people you competed against the year before. Come on, does the Miz actually have a job? Or does he just bank on the twenty grand that he’ll win by being on the show every year? It just kills me because this is the ultimate example of being famous simply because your famous. There’s no actual purpose or even interest, you just know who these people are so you continue to watch the show.

I’ll talk about some of the other shows in the next few weeks. Including my request to be a part of one of the shows. Any of the shows really. Especially Pimp my Ride. I really need 20 inch spinning rims on my Grand Am. That would be awesome.