returning from the yukon trail

Tremendous place, America. I've been there for a week, driving hard around the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen in my life, eating the good food, meeting the good people, and generally having an amazing time. I've been back here for a busy few days - doing a big Getout jetlagged, getting trained as a Pyrotechnician, Vegging out over a few beers - and I'm still in the US in my head.
If you're ever in Seattle, go to the Zoo at Point Defiance, because they've got three walrus. Being close to these beasts is amazing, and they respond very well to cameras. Similarly, go to the Aquarium down on the bay, because they've got two big octopus, who don't respond very well to cameras, but they do move around a lot, and look back at you with their very human eyes, thinking their Cthulu thoughts.
If you're ever in Oregon, spend some time at the Coast, but then drive through the cascades in the southern half of the state, and go see the high desert places. I guarantee that in three hours driving you will see the most stunning range of scenery ever, from fifty metre waterfalls, to giant snowbanks and volcanic lakes to endless logging forests. You will then be in the rain shadow of the mountains, dry and warm and very relaxed, eating ribs in an RV park restaurant and wandering what it might take for the Government to let you move here with no particular ambitions other than to come eat the ribs every thursday evening.
What a fortnight its been. It turns out you don't need a license to call yourself a pyrotechnician. "I did not know that!" I've been calling myself a flyman for years, and its largely similar, If youve fired and rigged a lot of pyrotechnic articles, and can prove your experience in the field, you can sell yourself as a pyro firing geek, same as you can call yourself a Flyman if youve bounced a lot of tabs and know more knots than the guys on the deck. Now, Having had a full days instruction on the finer points and fired a lot of minor effects in the past, I'm not about to go changing up my CV to "Tom Tache: Fire in the Hole!" - but it does make you wonder. particularly about the assumptions I feel a broad section of the industry trades under. You ask the majority of technicians about pyro licensing, and I think most would hedge their bets and say yes, Pyro should be rigged and fired by someone with a certificate, particularly once its beyond a certain scale (e.g Disneyland). This is the cautious answer of a technician aware that the governing issue is one of insurance, and also of the technician who doesnt much fancy rigging Pyro above a certain scale and would rather get a specialist company in to do it. This is a fair standpoint, but its good to know that the guys from the companies are no more badge carrying than the rest of us, its merely a question of the practise they have had.