I’m down here for a very fun (really) two day work meeting… .. The catch is.. the meeting started at 9ish this morning.. and I needed to stay in VT last night to watch the latest episode of The Colony. As is our new habit, we all crowded into Jen and Jim’s living room to watch one of the few Discovery channel receiving TV’s in our social circle. It’s getting to be quite a party each time.. I love it !.. It’s so much fun watching the show then filling in the folks with the stuff they missed (Cynthia.. giving nothing important away.. relax 🙂 I really liked ast nights episode.. it was really intense.. but I do have a couple of reservations.. First.. I’m kinda sad that the science builds are getting such a light treatment.. it’s generally just 1 or 2 shots then voila.. it works.. ! .. I would love to see more teaching involved.. about the science behind the builds.. I would gladly sacrifice some of the ‘drama’.. maruaders, yelling etc to do that.. That said, many folks.. including the women on the cast feel that we’re focusing too mcuh on the buuild. I guess if both of us are a little dissatisfied.. then maybe the show’s right where it should be 🙂 . I did learn that the ratings continue to rise.. 1.6 Million housholds.. making it the number two show on pay cable for men age 18 to 49 (!!!!).. Therein lies my second sadness .. The show seems to be catering mostly to males.. For some reason our women colonists are always protrayed as working in the kitchen, or laundry.. even though the were working on the builds along side us every day. Amy made the lift for the water to the shower, the emergency ladder, the fish trap. Morgan worked with me on the gassifier and water filter.. she and I built a monster air cannon and a brick bread overn. she also made our first goat cheese. and she helped me build the case for the solar tracker. Alison and I built a stethoscope.. and she helped me build a sphignometer (blood pressure thingy).. I do know it’s hard to edit all the stuff that’s covered in a week. . and I really do feel that the production folks are doing a great job of balancing things. I just wish some more of this women-built stuff was making it into the show every week. THE COLONY WOMEN ROCK !
I spent the resto of the time on verious phone calls with Australia and India which made the time travel quickly. Before I knew it i was in POK in time for my meeting.
It was a great all day session. I wll say this.. being in a room with smart technical folks reminded me a gain that there is no substitute for a good face to face meeting. We tend to forget that with all our dependence on teleconferences, web conferences, facebook, myspace, etc..
-me