Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Reality Bites

I went to the gym yesterday for the first time since January. I was quite excited since I’ve had two major interruptions to my workout routine. There was my Anatomy class, which took more of my social life than I anticipated, followed by a brief encounter with a stress fracture. I waited until the doctor said I could run again but realized since my final was approaching with little less than three weeks to prepare, I should wait a little longer to test the healed foot.

The final was yesterday therefore last night was my anticipated gym night. I’m sure normal people would celebrate by going to dinner, or a movie, or not going out but I’m different. I wanted to go running.

My gym has 10 - 12 TVs mounted to the wall so runners, stair steppers, or cyclists can watch programs while they exercise. Last night, it seemed that each TV was tuned to a different reality show. I thought the networks would run out of ideas years ago. Survivor, Big Brother, Real World, and the Bachelor grabbed the media’s attention. Oh, it's just a fad. But years later we’ve gone through Newly Weds, Till Death Do Us Part, The Osmonds, Iron Chef, Wife Swap, Dancing with the Stars, and countless others. I’m not good at predicting fads apparently. And I thought…

What if I had a reality TV show? I ruled out the relationship theme. Bachelor, Bachelorette, Average Joe, and A Shot at Love have covered every angle. I also don’t want to drink pureed pig feet, lie in a vat of mice, or eat a live spider so Survivor won’t, shall we say, survive. And my last name isn’t Simpson so I’m not forcing anyone to watch my family assist my band career or my first attempt at marriage.

The reality is that I go to work Monday through Friday. I’m a secretary for a construction agency and I’m bored at work. I check facebook. I blog. I balance my checkbook. I email.

So here’s my idea for the show: I take 5 contestants. They each get one day of the week. Whoever can make it through the day without dying of boredom wins. The catch, of course, is that they will not have access to the internet. The computer will only have three screens to switch between: Word, Excel, and the Standard or Scientific Calculator.

The winner gets my job. How's that for reality.

8 comments:

RED MOJO said...

That's so real, no one will want to do it!
I always feel sorry for the people in toll booths. Man, I'd want to jump out in front of a truck if that were my job!

Coordination Queen said...

At least you do have the internet... it is so easy to waste time with that helpful tool.

Beth said...

As with all other reality shows, I'm not at all keen about entering yours. (I don't watch any of them - just hearing about them makes me cringe.)

And no Internet? That's harsh.

Shankar said...

I already don't have Internet at work, so I could be a prospective contestant. But my job requires me to use other software, so I couldn't meet the other restriction. As for the prize, thanks, but my reality includes an occasional helicopter ride.

Anonymous said...

So check this out, my gym has the 10-12 flat plasma screen tv's, plus an individual 15 in lcd screen on each computer, plus a different room with a full out theatre for all your cardio needs. ITs makes it pretty easy to workout cardio.

Anonymous said...

sorry the 15 in lcd is on each machine, my bad.

Melissa said...

No internet! Cruel and unusual...actually, when I was at Enterprise we didn't have internet or Microsoft Word! What a messed up company! When I finally got Word I couldn't even remember how to double space lines.

Unknown said...

My wife would totally win that. She just LOVES Excel spreadsheets. Can't get enough of them.