Well my latest enthusiasm is House MD. Down to the point where mom and I did VIRTUALLY nothing this entire weekend except watch it till the wee hours of the morning. Now I've stated before that being a Network Admin is very similar to being a surgeon or doctor. This is one of the reasons I like the show. My profession partially entails taking obscure signs from complex systems and figuring out what is wrong.
Like House you look at the symptoms and run through the possibilities of whats wrong.
Now in a realistic way my profession isn't life or death at all. It's a bunch of circuit boards and virtual realities. However, Corporate America get just as anguished over it's computer networks ( because when they fail it means money..lots of money) as families do over ill loved ones. I'm sure their are plenty of doctors that toiled on against all reason because going out and admitting that they failed and the patient died was a unpalatable thought. I assure you I've toiled on against all reason because going out and admitting the 20 million dollar system was dead was a unpalatable thought. ( yes, I did fix it )
Another thing I like about the show is Houses childish sense on humor. I was raised on childish little boy humor. It's considered the highest level of humor in my family. Never underestimate the wholesome fun of booby trapping the house before you go to work.
You have to admire Houses crabby meanness as well..Because well..people are stupid..admit it's true folks.
Anyway...I pretend my life is exciting as Houses..though for the most part my life does not involve bodily fluids ( good thing) And I have to admit. Having a server go down is WAY less visually exciting than having someone writhing on the floor. Picture a bunch of people jumping on a patient to hold them down..or screaming at for a crash cart then yelling "Clear"
My drama's entail me sitting almost motionless in front of my bank of computer screens, switching back and forth keyboards. Then bursting forth with a string of profanity because a server I was using for a software push folded like a little girl. I then march past Paul grumbling because I now have to drive up to the server room to reboot my frozen server.
House spends his time trying to teach his interns how to diagnose a difficult illnesses. I spend my time listening to Paul's dramatic recounts of his on-going dish duty fights and explaining how to trouble shoot a network.
House spends his time chatting with WIlson. I spend my time chatting with Vishwa. A man who has taken a vow of silence. I know you are asking yourself..how do you chat with someone who doesn't speak. Well he writes on a small chalk board. Please guys you need to figure this stuff out on your own. ( BTW..yes he looks just like you would imagine a little hermit would)
House has the beauty of his office...I have the clutter of my dungeon...
But as I mentioned...medical drama's are visual...network drama's are not. So which is why TV is not full of Networking shows. Because screaming OMG the database collapsed just doesn't provide a big enough thrill.
Now I'm sure some of you are saying, "Well there are movies and shows that have geeks and networks in them." Well...let us just say those shows are written by people who can barely write email. So you might guess that your actually can't shoot a ENTIRE government data base across the net. And when things go all wrong or you hack some high end system...you don't get some really cool java icon spinning on your screen. Part of the disappointment for us geeks is the old time factor. Everything happens in seconds in a movie..now we all know how much time we spend aimlessly surfing while we wait for something to load or process.
Yeah, I know medical drama's lack in reality too...House's university hospital runs on a stunning lack of nurses and tech's...In fact in reality every specialized department is called in and consulted with. One department doesn't do every task...but you know things are always more exciting when you don't know a lot about them...it's the mystery.
