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beer in hand and a friendly cat
Friday, February 3 2012
After a day of doing some serious web development, I looked forward to an evening with my Friday Night television line up. Though I don't have any interest in gold per se, I find programming about sad schmucks trying to scrape it from the gold-poor surface of the Earth unexpectedly compelling. Particularly in bad economic times, gold is temptingly-expensive, but when you understand the amount of diesel and sweat necessary to put together just a crack vial of the stuff, it makes you want to keep your day job. I think that's part of the appeal of a show like Gold Rush: it makes us feel happier about our ordinary lives. At least we're not working 18 hour days in the cold only to end up thousands of dollars in debt.
A similar show I've also been enjoying is Bering Sea Gold, where adventurous prospectors improvise dredging equipment to scour the sea floor off Nome, Alaska for gold. Typically dredges have to be operated by divers for hours at a time, necessitating pressurized air supplies and heated diving outfits. Seeing the makeshift solutions to the puzzle of offshore gold dredging (none of which has any of the gleaming finish of a well-funded corporate venture) tickles my hackerly maker bone. It's great stuff to watch with a beer in hand and a friendly cat purring on my chest.
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