Co-workers and cars

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

One thing I've noticed about the last two places I've worked - there's a contingent of operators who seem to be completely obsessed with cars. Car screensavers, car models on their desks, car posters in their cubicles, car websites in their bookmarks. They even spend their lunches talking about their cars while eating, so there's a constant background sound of *moomf moomf turbocharge moomf carburettor moomf moomf pulled the engine out and moomf moomf slick wheels moomf three-litre moomf paintjob moomf moomf..."

Is this something new? Or am I just behind the times? And why doesn't there seem to be any other obsession which is just as common? Even the subject of building / tweaking one's own PC (previously the #1 techsupport subject of choice) seems to have paled and fallen by the wayside in the face of this automotive onslaught.

Anyone here a revhead themselves? And if so, what the heck's going on?

Comments

[sheryls.livejournal.com]

i dont have that much at my new work, there are a few guys who like to look at car sites (one guy likes to watch pictures of really nice cars that got totalled), but where i used to work it was always the older IT guys that were obsessed with cars. they'd even go to races that had top fuel dragsters and stuff.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

It comes and goes. I'm an old motorhead, into the '60's muscle cars. The young guys with their turbos and 4 bangers are like a different breed, though. Then they see me figuring out a twin turbo/big block setup and see just how much power it could make and they seemed stunned. Weird. Still, maybe it's time to ditch the APOD screen saver/desktop and do some car ones...

[duality.livejournal.com]

*cheers on the GW contingent*

[duality.livejournal.com]

well he can't help it if he's right in this case.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I think it's more to do with lower-middle-class Aussie males myself. I didn't notice techies in NZ or the UK obsessing nearly so much about cars and so on. Lucky I have an old Kingswood, so we actually have a common topic of conversation. But it's boring. I was going to kill myself while Bathurst was on.

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

Umm, Cars are popular with guys in all walks of life. And Tech heads make superb gearheads. With the recent resurgence of cars that can be easily and cheaply modified, gearheads can once again discuss thier obsessions in polite company.

Note, I'm one of these gearhed techs.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Umm, Cars are popular with guys in all walks of life.

Duh. It's like saying "Man, I work in ACCOUNTING and there are all these guys around me who are into LOOKING AT PICTURES OF BOOBS. I mean, what's with that?"

Ubiquity. It's fucking everywhere.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

I failed college math, twice. Am I allowed to still look at boobie pics?

[plutherus.livejournal.com]

Sure!
I failed college math myself, twice, and work as an accountant as well as a techie and look at the occasional boobie.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

It's mostly sales or the beancounters that are the car nuts, with only two techs I can recall off the top of my head. Although I do live in Melbourne, which is full of Greeks, Italians and Asians who love to rice up their cars...

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

There were car nuts in all the tech support places I worked. Of course, there were also the hunting nuts, with pictures of deer in crosshairs on their desktops, and the movie nuts, with Josie and the Pussycats posters all over their cubes... heh.

[tecie.livejournal.com]

the last place I did ops in there were a couple of guys who talked about nothing but mustangs.
Every shift.
Every day.
...

They were the reason I bought an MP3 player.

[sms123.livejournal.com]

I'd rather hear about cars than listen to yet another discussion of WoW. People talk about it as if it, oh, mattered.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Or as if it were even a mildly interesting game. (hint: it is not)

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

If I had a Prius or something I might care. But messing with hardware is so *dirty*, and the software side is so much more fun...

[jecook]

Not yet, although I laugh at ricers, because I do appreciate the big block cars.

I'm in the process of researching what kind of motorcycle I'm going to buy in a few years when I get in better shape financially and I have my mid-life crisis. :)

[geeklovepoetry.livejournal.com]

I've got a COMPLETE motorhead at my helpdesk job.

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

Funny, I work (program) for a major automobile producer and we talk about anything BUT cars in our free time. ;)
I guess it's all that Pimp My Ride stuff going into people's braaaains.

;)