I'm a geek.

I'm a geek?
Originally uploaded by art chick.

Holy crap. I mean, I knew this day would come. The day when we have literally hundreds of TV channels at our disposal with millions of programs. I could watch "Friends" from the beginning of the series to the end by flipping back and forth between USA, TBS and random FOX affiliates. I can watch 24 hours/7 days a week of anything and everything having to do with interior design and decorating. But what do I watch so much of lately? What do I DVR and check nightly to see if any re-runs I haven't seen have been recorded? I'll tell you what I'm addicted to. The [so hysterically funny that the science geekiness is cancelled out] Discovery Channel show: Mythbusters. Oh. My. Gosh. That show kills me.

Ever wondered if your stomach would really explode if you ate Pop Rocks with a Pepsi? Mythbusters did (Pilot 1). Did you ever hear that a penny dropped off of the Empire State Building could kill someone on the ground? Yep, Mythbusters heard that one too (Episode 4). Did you hear the one about using tomato juice to get rid of "skunk funk" if you ever get sprayed? Uh huh (Episode 16). Take urban legend, add to it every email "warning" you've ever been forwarded and then sprinkle in a few playground legends and that's essentially the subject matter of this show. With a twist.

The Mystbusters are Hollywood special effects guys that essentially pick a myth, do all the science to figure out how you'd have to replicate that myth, then create a real life reproduction of the exact same circumstances and put the myth to the test. They weld rockets to the top of cars. They bury dead pigs in concrete (and dig them up again), they bark at skunks. On purpose. All in the name of science. I now officially love science. And I have a fine arts degree, people.

At the end of each test, the myths are laid to rest. They're either officially declared busted, confirmed or plausible (it's the plausible outcome that seems to irritate the Mythbusters the most. They don't seem to like to leave things hanging).

The best? When things get really fun if the myth is easily busted. A quick bust just opens the door for totally useless - yet extremely entertaining - destruction. Like the time they were testing to see if you could really be decapitated by a ceiling fan. They made molds of one of their heads out of ballistics gel with real cranium inserted. And used pigs' spines to mimic a human spine and put the whole thing together to make a freak of a mannequin complete with fake blood if the head was torn off. Official outcome of the myth? It was totally busted. So they made a bigger, badder fan. From a lawn mower motor. And sharpened metal blades. Almost completely tore through the freak mannequin though the myth stated "decapitation". So they still weren't able to perfectly replicate the myth even with their scary equipment substituted. But it was really fun to watch them try.

Ok, so you really really have to watch this show. New Episodes are on the Discovery Channel every Wednesday night at 9:00. Re-runs of various older episodes come on during the week (and I haven't yet figured out their schedule yet which is why I have to keep checking the DVR).