The Discovery Channel is one of my favorite stations. I dig learning stuff, and they have a lot of neat specials. I generally dislike any sort of reality television, but I find I make an exception for some of the stuff that Discovery puts out. Something about watching people try to strike it rich in the far corners of the country, doing jobs I could never dream of doing, intrigues me.

Some years ago Deadliest Catch was the big draw, and I noticed a couple of other crabbing/fishing shows popped up around it. Then, looking for the next Deadliest Catch, they turned to logging, and again, some imitators popped up on other networks.

Now it seems to be gold mining, and Discovery is hosting not one but two shows on the subject. One about good ol’ dirt gold mining, and another focused solely around dredging, or the pursuit of gold along the ocean floor.

They are, as all reality shows are, edited to create as much tension and drama as possible. Scenes get repeated, they state and restae the obvious for dramatic effect, to let you know how dangerous or dire the situation is, etc. But at the heart of it, underneath the comparitively thin layer of reality-show bullshit, these are people doing some pretty interesting jobs. Jobs that carry a risk, either financial or physical, and also carry a large potential payoff. I think they’re neat.

And also, fucking Diver Dave.