First I want to say thank you to everyone that wrote back with nice comments about Defiance, the piece that Marsha sent out. I actually write a lot of stuff of that kind that I post on Tumblr. Why Tumblr and not FaceBook or Google+? Well OK NOBODY does anything with Google+. There’s a joke going around. It shows a cup of coffee. The caption reads:

FaceBook - I had coffee.
Instigram - This is my coffee.
Google+ - I work for Google and they made me post something.

Technically I am on Google+. I set up an account a year ago and nothing of interest to anyone anywhere in the world living or dead has happened since then. I’ve checked groups. I looked for people, I’ve searched for topics. Nothing, nada, zilch. Signing up for Google+ is like volunteering to be stranded on a desert island.

Actually I AM on FaceBook too. You won’t find me though. I used an alias that has nothing to do with my real identity and filled in no additional information. I don’t post anything, just use it to track theatre and film groups here in Nanaimo; Nanaimo Theatre Group, Nanaimo Film Group, Hub City Film Society, and such. When I get up to full speed again I’ll be using it to find roles.

But back to Tumblr. I like Tumblr because it’s a hangout for artists, actors, musicians, and such so I’m more comfortable there. I post quite a bit of stuff out there as Daalseth. You’re welcome to follow if you like. Be advised though, as you may have noticed in Defiance, the language on my Tumblr stuff is a bit rougher than what I use in my letters. Different audiences and different venues require different vernacular.

This was a big week here because I went back to work. As I mentioned last week I’m not in charge of IT any more. At my request they moved me to the Quality Control department. This gives me a chance to play with the toys. Yes I have high tech robots to drive, wonderful motorized cameras with laser beams to fiddle with, and astoundingly complex systems to build. Early in the week I helped set up a training and demo session for a client. Friday I was in production helping one of the techs assemble a robot. OK I watched and occasionally held something while they hit it with a hammer. Other than that I just tried to absorb the astounding number of details involved with building the robot. How complex? Over the course of eight hours we got the mechanical part of the manipulator arm put together. Monday we’ll mount the circuit boards and do the wiring. Only on Tuesday will we start to look at the rest of the robot, the crawler tracks, the camera, and the chassis that will have all the smaller bits mounted on it. These things are complex, and exceedingly well built. Of course, that’s what you want if you’re spending many thousands of dollars for a machine to go into a dangerous environment, or deep under water, or far underground, or into a nuclear reactor to inspect or sample or fix something. When it really counts you don’t send in an RC car from Target. You want something you know will make it there and back in one piece. (Unless of course it’s been in a nuclear reactor when having it come back out isn’t really desirable.)

And finally this weekend is Thanksgiving. I like this: I work five days and get a three day weekend. I gotta figure out how to do this every week. Anyway while Monday is Thanksgiving up here, we’re all getting together at Barb’s on Sunday. I volunteered to bring a special salad. It’s a traditional Jello-Cranberry salad that I haven’t made in a number of years. There’s a picture of it below. I told everyone it’s a Minnesota recipe.

Doug & Marsha

PIX: Minnesota Cranberry-JellO Salad, Houseboats in Victoria, View from Victoria across to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, and another cool forest monster