Reality Bytes....

I go to the gym as often as I can. That means time spent on exersize equipment, and now that students are gone from the college I work for, and whose gym I go to, it means I can actually snag the one precor that faces the six LCD TV's that line one wall of the gym. I'm not one of those people who asks them to switch it to a certain program, though - I watch whatever happens to be on, which is often reality TV.

Lately, at least one of the TV's has been tuned to Bravo. Usually that means Top Chef, a show that's growing on me since I loves me some foods, although I do find it depressing that many of the chefs are my age or younger and own their own restaurants, while I have trouble microwaving a can of soup.

But today Top Chef was tuned to Work Out, which showcases the beautiful people who work in a gym in LA.

I find myself hating this people and envying them at the same time. The people aren't really very terribly interesting, but they are easy on the eyes. The cougar-ish owner of the gym and her 25-year old girlfriend who spend half the show making out. The other cute female trainers. I envy the male-model-turned-trainer who is dating his hot blond client after one workout session. But at the same time, most of the characters come off as shallow, self-absorbed, petty, vindictive, and annoying. I'm mean, they work at a gym in LA - what do you expect?

I've often joked that someone should make a reality show about working in tech support. Given the fact that there have been shows on every job, from Dirty Jobs to Parking Wars to King Of Cars, I'm surprised that someone hasn't made one about the exciting world of IT. Our job has plenty of crisises (some real, some invented), lots of trying to get stuff done by the deadline, attempts to figure out and solve difficult problems, and plenty of interaction between coworkers. And the people who work there are an interesting bunch - everything from confirmed bachelors to people with piles of kids, recent college grads and people about to retire, people who barely made it out of high school and people with Master's degrees, politics ranging from gun nut libertarians to tree-hugging borderline commies.

But we are also a pretty homely bunch. No six-pack abs or muscled arms, and nobody wears spandex or sports bras to work (thank God!). So even though I think we are way more interesting than gym rats, I don't think we're ever going to be on TV. Not even on G4.