Reminder! January Sixteenth!

Just wanted to throw a reminder out there for everyone that buy time is a comin! Yay for overtime this weekend which will not only pay for both our burning man tix but will also buy me 100 doolars of magic cards as a reward for working all gdamn weekend.

For next year: do it yourself hammock

From the really cool DIY website instructables.com a do-it-yourself hammock stand perfect for next year.

Burningman 2007 Time-Lapse

Spartian

total amount spent

Person	Gas Purchased	Trailer Cost	Cost each paid	Amount owed to others
Mark	$237.13	$391.11	$628.24	-$347.41
Jimmy	$290.58		$290.58	-$9.75
John	$160.00		$160.00	$120.83
Bob	$222.90		$222.90	$57.93
Jessica	$222.90		$222.90	$57.93
Bicho	$168.39		$168.39	$112.44
Harry	$272.81		$272.81	$8.02
Total	$1,574.71	$391.11	$1,965.82	$0.00
Cost each should pay			$280.83

So i figure, John covers the 9 bucks owed to Jimmy, and then he and the rest of you pay me the amount in the right column. As far as I know, this is final numbers for everyone. Call or email if you think your amount should be different.

Group pic

Trailer total

A bit too much fun with fonts, you think?

Truck Total Spreadsheet

Here's the truck total spreadsheet with our spend on it. Click to make it bigger.

Next year for Spartiator Bob

Waaaay less winter clothes
1-2 jackets will do
Get Jessica to make Bob a sweet cold night coat, or find one
onry need my orange pants and gray pants
2 pair o shorts
Just rocking sandals did not hurt meh feet
Same thing on food, try and find a bit more variety, more kelbasa less Polish sausage and more steaks
Get two of the medium size 5 day cool coolers, put later half of week stuff in one with lots o dry ice and ductape around it, use other for the start
No glowy extra crappollo, lots and lots of glowy bracelets, some necklaces and a few sticks
SPF 70 FTW!, more flashlights!
lots of hats again, was fun!
Try and pack a day or two before, less to do on day off
Rethink bar placement in order to get people out o the sun
Bring more sugar water, Triple Sec, Lemon/Lime Juice, Lemons/Limes
Bring more tasty Apples and Hard boiled eggs
Bring a bloody drink mixy book

next year fer captian h

- stereo, loud stereo, where we can display OUR musical electiveness's
- more nibbily
- apparently 8 fucking bottles of 7up isn't enough, bringing 12
- host a Pirate Happy Hour since someone else dropped the torch (I feel a keg of "shit grog" would be perfectly adapted to getting pwned off at this)
- select a better dry ice cooler that will keep steaks frozen for longer than the drive. $14 target cooler =/= good for dry ice
- semi-stationary art peice pirate cannon
- rent a box truck and fly the fuck out there
- eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
- suitable punishment for MOOPY MOTHERFUCKERS
- pirate pistol
- a motherfucking bigwheel bike! like those old awesome ones!

Notes to self: next year.

Paul Addis, alleged man-flambér, above.

Notes to self for next year:
-bring day time clothing, bikini top and short skirt for easy bike riding
-make triple sure that the special bike pump thing is attached to my bike
-bring 2/3rds LESS food. Bring smaller coolers
-bring more flashlights
-don't bring as many books.
-bring many more mixers for bar
-bring extra shoe inserts, 3 pairs of shoes (Birks, boots and something else)
-bike headlamp
-make shower out of metal, be sure to bring pallet, extra soap
-make hotel reservations in Wendover or Salt Lake for way home for me and Bob
-make your own delicious jerky
-probably do not need entire arsenal of snow gear.
-get button maker, make buttons with website
-the pluton rocked, make a sitting up sofa with appropriate easy to store cushioning.
-work on making the kitchen more usable
-work on getting motorized bike. fuck exercise.
-look into a metal dome like the god-boxes.
-begin convincing dad that he really does want to fly out and meet the google founders.
-pre-check tire pressure in trailer and pack it more appropriately.
-Elko has h20 as well.
-do NOT volunteer to bring the MWB shit, under no circumstances. cheap bastards.

Gas Costs

My gas expenditure was $272.81. That's how much has been posted, yay.

possibly the cutest font ever...

And it can be found here.... (without the pink... i added that)

A long lack of photos...

At first I didn't really like these costumes... but they've totally grown on me.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee nachos!

It's soo close! Bicho is on his way!

Camelback

Op, my office mate came through! I acquired another camelback, this one is an official US marines one - so if anyone needs it count on it.

Bicho's Burning Bounty

his list.

Search and consent...

I just watched a really interesting video somebody posted about police searching cars and houses. Actually it's an extremely boring and long video, but there were several things I really didn't know. For instance, did you know that if you are speeding and get pulled over you should not admit that you knew you were speeding? Anyway- the information about searching your home applies to tents and living space at burning man. Very interesting. Also, the info about the police stopping you as you are walking around could also come in handy.

Things to bring...

I heard Jimmy mention that he'd like to read a concise list of things to bring for yourself. Here goes... feel free to add on.

• Shelter- tent (It's nice to have a place to go and be alone.. BM can be a bit overwhelming at times)
  
• something to sleep on- air mattress/cot, pillow
  
• sleeping bag/blankets (The temp at night drops very low and it gets COLD! likewise during the day it gets really hot, making it almost impossible to sleep in your tent. A sheet helps. As does a portable fan. We've got the pluton (which will serve as Michaels bed, I believe) and two hammocks. Ear plugs. Eye mask. Sleeping medicine (if your like me and can't sleep in the sweltering heat without a little help)
  
• A bike. Extra bike tire tubes. A bike basket. A bike lock. Believe me, having your bike stolen when you are 2 miles away from your camp and really tired sucks. (This happened to me). Decorate your bike to make it recognizable. (Around center camps there are thousands of bikes... making it difficult to find even when you know where you parked it.) you might even stick a label on it with our camp name and address in case somebody finds it. Burning man is huge and some of the art is miles away from where you camp. I think everyone in our group has a bike, but if you don't put it as your top priority.
  
• Dust masks/goggles/gas mask. I've personally never used a gas mask... those regular dust masks work fine. However, gas masks look cool- but seem like they'd be really hot during the day.
• Light, loose clothing for the day. If you burn easily make sure you have something to cover your arms. Undies. A hat helps too. Plenty of sunscreen. Aloe. Lip gloss. Lotion or bag balm for playa foot. Lots of clean socks. Comfy shoes. Boots are best because they protect your feet from the alkali desert. I generally put a whole bunch of bag balm on my feet then put on new socks and then boots. I read this in some book about trench warfare. It works well. My feet have gotten so torn apart and blistered there it was extremely painful to walk.
  
• Warm clothing for the night. Long underwear, lots of layers, a heavy coat. It gets really really cold at night.
  
• Wet wipes- for daily washing. Biodegradable, earth friendly soap. Dr. Bronners is quite nice and utilitarian. Your hair will feel like straw and form into hitertoo unimaginable shapes.
• Flashlight/tent light. We all have glowy items now, I believe.
• A camping chair, hammock and stand. Folding chairs if anyone's got em. We have two 6ft tables, one for the eating area and one for the hanging out area. Really we need to be sure that we have plenty of seating.
• Something to do during the hottest times of the day-- books, games, cards etc.
• Camera-- store this in a plastic bag when not in use. EVERYTHING, your most intimate crevices that you didn't even know you had, everything in the cars, everything electronic will come out coated in dust. It has a very distinct smell, and you will smell of it for weeks.
• First Aid stuff- bandaids, antibiotic ointment, aloe. Or duct tape and windex if you are particular brawny.
  
• Food things- a plate, knife and fork/metal utilitarian spork. A pot and a skillet for cooking. Bring a cup with a handle and maybe a lid that can be attached to your camelbak. Lots of people set up bars but nobody provides cups, so having one you just carry around is quite fun.
• Enough food for the week. The first year we went we all took MRE's. Michael seemed to love this option. I felt like I was starving. Last year I overcompensated by having an elaborate meal plan for each day, which resulted in a lot of time devoted to cooking and clean-up. This year I aim for somewhere in the middle. A couple tasty dinner meals, but mostly snack food and light, pre-packaged (we have a vacuum packer at our house) easily prepared things. While we will have a community kitchen set up this year, everyone is responsible for their own meals. We are not doing community meals. It is virtually impossible for us anyway- considering Bobby's gluten allergy. Generally plan on a breakfast meal and a dinner meal, and snack through the middle of the day. Along with the extreme temperatures you will be exercising quite a bit with all the biking a walking. Also, with all the H20 consumption you need to make sure to eat lots of salt for electrolytes. Plus salty food tastes good on the playa.
  
• A cooler or two. Generally one for drinks and one for your food stuffs.
  
• Easy meal ideas-- Snacks- Cheese, hard sausage, crackers, tuna, canned chicken, hummus, salsa, chips, hard boiled eggs, beef jerky, cookies, granola bars, ramen noodles, jelly beans and other candy. Breakfast- Pancakes and bacon, scrambled eggs with potatoes and onion, omelettes, frozen fruit smoothies (provided we can acquire a battery operated blender), cereal. Soy milk or rice milk lasts longer in the desert, I think. You can also get powered milk or canned milk I believe. I personally abhor cereal. It's absolutely disgusting. Dinner- think protein and starch. Meat and potatoes. Baked potatoes, sour cream, bacon and cheese. Noodles are actually a bit of a pain in the ass, as are things with sauces. Kabobs. Tacos. Hot dogs. (The buns won't last very long). Hamburgers. Fried rice. Kielbasa sausage.
  
• Drinks- besides the ubiquitous water consider bringing soda, Crystal Lite, and whatever alcoholic beverages suit your fancy. Cans are better than glass because you can recycle cans at the Recycle camp. However we will be bringing Boulevard and Mikes which only appears to come in glass.
  

Try to avoid bringing- bread, fresh fruits and veggies that wilt quickly (grapes, non-frozen berries, lettuce etc.) Anything that is too messy (cleaning up dusty spaghetti sauce with paper towels and a micro-inch of H20 is a pain)

Things we have as a group- Two big domes, a half dome bar area, a trailer (somebody could probably sleep in there), a pimp shower, an evaporation pond, a camp kitchen complete with sink, a camping gas grill, a pluton, two hammocks with stands, solar power and night time neon lights.

Things we absolutely still need- enough camping chairs for everyone to sit and room for new friends. If you don't bring a chair expect to sit on the ground. Radical self reliance! Trashcan. Squirt bottle for kitchen. Rugs (2 or 3 20.00 rugs from Wally World)

Things that would be handy- A bike rack. Another pluton or larger camp chair. Another portable hammock (those things are NICE!). A charcoal grill (Bobby's parents have one we brought with us last time which we may consider bringing again). A burn barrel (we have a small barrel we found in our yard that might work... It'd be so damned handy to burn our burnable trash instead of hauling it back home). I just read on some other camps blog that they are bringing a fire pit like we have. Perhaps if we just stick a cement block in it, it'll be fine. A trash separator would come in handy here-- with compartments for trash, glass, cans and burnable material.

Burn some CDs to listen to during the event. I enjoy people's themed CD's. Our first year somebody played Johnny Cash for all of burn day, which was very appropriate. I know Michael is making a CD of both pirate tunes and music that has something to do with burning. A personal MP3 player is also very handy. I enjoy biking around listening to music and looking at stuff. Also, I'm sure personal music will be essential in the van on the way there.

Game stuff- poker chips, Magic cards, Cranium etc. Around 3 it gets so hot that everyone seems to wind up at the camp.

eyeball boobies.

Camp flag ideas

Which is better, rectangular or triangular? I've got several yards of flag fabric in pink, black and red. I think they would look swell in the entrance of bicho's bar. I love both types of skulls, so I think I will use both. Not very happy with my number font selections though.

There and back again, maps.

Our route. Google maps says it is 22 hours and 40 minutes. Since we'll be hauling the trailer we'll have to go slower. I've got it stuck in my mind that it's a 28 hour trip. Mabey not. Also, driving up through Denver the way the above map suggests is a bad plan, because around Denver the mountains come into play. This will piss off both the truck (who is very well behaved and deserves to be coddled) and the van. Going north into Wyoming via Nebraska puts us in hilly areas, but won't start really being an issue for longer.

Refer to green line on below map.
Nebraska is one hell of a boring state though.


Then we will be stopping in Winnemucca, Johns' least favorite town in the world, where we will be subject to mass hysteria and moody shopping. I plan on crying hysterically at least once here. There are a weird lack of good restaurants in Winnemuca. But many casinos. Here we will also purchase H20. Last time we purchased most of our H20 here, and they had plenty stocked up for the week. I have no idea how to calculate how much it costs to move a pound of stuff out there... but rest assured that it makes very little sense to haul H20 that far.

The Official 54th post on Camp 54.

Bicho's lovely pirate bar. I will also be making pink/black/red 54 banners with little pink skull and crossbones. Also, I think we should consider making this the entrance to our dome-home area.

Op. also, we need a trashcan or something.

Also, acquired yesterday... the wonderful... the glorious... the unfortunately terribly photographed "camp kitchen". It even has a sink feature and a place to hang H20 for watery goodness. And it folds into a handy box.

Not only an eclipse, but a meteor shower!!
Meteor Shower: Aurigids
Late Friday night-Early Sat morning Aug 31- Sep. 1:
Aurigids, a rare and spectacular meteor shower will be peaking at 4:36 a.m. in the east- north eastern skies. Visible from Nevada. It will last about 1.5 hours. Best to watch between 4 and 5 am, with up to 160 Aurigids meteors per hour.
http://aurigids.seti.org/
This very rare shower will occur again on 1 September 2007. A brief shower of tens of meteors will radiate from the constellation of Auriga, many as bright as the brighter stars in the sky. The Earth will be in the thick of it during the one hour centered on 04:36 a.m. PDT. The
shower will be visible by the naked eye from locations in the western United States.
Best viewing: Keep Moon out of field of view (best to block behind obstruction such as telephone pole, then watch whole sky), avoid city haze that scatters moonlight Best direction: East and Northeast Best time: Start one hour before peak, then see the rate of meteors increase and decrease while Earth travels through the shower.

One of the noobs needs to buy some cheap-o walkie-talkies. For the ride out.

Our trailer is reserved, courtesy of Mark.

Pluton

Our pimp seating. Doubles as my playa bed.

It's chances are high of becoming immolated. If it survives, yay for it!

Overload - Assets Continued

Ok, here's an ongoing list of shit we still need.

• Mailbox - the feds will not be happy - I'm on this


• New air filters - for both cars, this will increase our gas mileage on the way home


• coolers - I propose that you work out food storage with the people you live with. Noobs, don't bring more than 3 coolers.
  - Get yours!


• solar shower - simply putting the shroud together and then taking it apart. I need a length of velcro/some "flap shutting" solution and zipties.


• PVC for the second dome


• Rugs - Keep acquiring them, we have an awesome huge one that Vickie found for us, another two big ones would be swell - a few 19$ smaller ones from the 'marts would fill the void as well.


• Seats - camping chairs outside of the plywood furniture - noobs get some

Add anything you can think of.

Arrival

Ok, first, someone should post pictures of the shade structure bicho has created for the Bar. I e-mailed it to relevant parties but am too close to going to GWAR to post anything that's not ranty.

Order of business: topic: ARRIVAL!

Essentially I say we leave Lawrence at 12:01AM on the 26th. This places us at burning man near 2am the 27th barring unfortunate events.

Personally, I've felt it's wonderful to arrive on the playa when the gates open. This is typically when all of the theme camp placers are awake and present - sure they are busy, but it beats waiting 8 hours for them to wake up. Second, it will maximize the amount of time we get to sleep under the stars on the first evening. After a 26 hour car trip, landing on the 100 degree sunny playa trying to find someplace to sleep is not a good idea. Doing camp set up the morning after arriving after a 6 hour confusing sleep is always a good idea in my book.

Some say it's silly to wait through the crowds of the start and entrance - I've heard the crowds never get lighter until about Tuesday at 1am. They pick back up hardcore from then on (20k cars getting searched always means a line - and they are at their most efficient as greeters in the first 6 hours.) This basically negates that. Sure we'll be tired of sitting in the car, but there's nothing keeping you in the damn car once on the playa.

Further, for the sake of argument, there's the sheer number of people coming up highway 447 from reno - the cops will be present and will pull over a mighty .01% of the traffic. We're gonna win $1000 on the gasoline slot machines before they nab us. I assume the cop presence on these roads never lightens, but the traffic certainly does.

Anyway, if anybody has any conflicting opinions I say voice them! Otherwise the kapt'n requires no mutiny!

Lunar eclipse...

Apparently while on the playa there will be a total eclipse of the full moon. Thats pretty cool.
From the enviornmental blog: "From Mike with the BLM: “It should start about 1:00 to 12:00 PM on the 27th and end about 3:AM on the 28th. We will be able to see the entire eclipse at the Burning Man event. This will be the first ever total lunar eclipse at the event."

Too bad it's so damned early in the week-- we'll probably just be getting there. Or do we get there the morning of the 27th?

Also- I finished your coat Michael.

Needs cont.x2

Not a very inventive blog title for me today I am afraid.

Vicki just called and said she found another tent for $15 bucks. First one who claims it wins.
Also, I know Michael saw it but we got one huge 10ft by 10ft rug for one of the domes. She's still looking for more-- but we may need to have a couple of those $20 rugs from Walmart. Of course we've never had rugs before in the domes, so it's not a super-need.

We also have a bike rack that can hold up to 4 bikes. We can toss this on the van, hopefully.

Are we still thinking of making the plywood bike rack? It'd be handy. Depending on our money situation in a week or so, I may pone up for that.

Funny Shit

"h: on the environmental section
http://www.burningman.com/environment/resources/burning.html
<-- reading that due to its extreme relevance
Bicho: haha
lets see if we can burn everything listed under the "do not burn toxic stuff" category
h: hahahahahaha
Bicho: i'm planning on painting the bar sometime today
h: that is so awesome that it's noble"

The Pluton has a mattress, it looks suspiciously flammable. My bed is complete! The lighting fixtures are complete! All that is needed is to run wires around the camp and make a study little thing for the solar panel. The solar shower is next up on my list. What's the status on the other dome's PVC and rope?

Hep Kitten and Plutons

The Pluton is mostly finished! All that is needed is to steal a futon mattress from around Lawrence (EVERYONE be looking!) to round the edges, and to sand everything off.

I'm finishing the lighting fixtures this afternoon - they're very simple. I still need to make a little 2x4 support to put the solar panel atop the van.

I think that we are going to need to create some bike-carrying system for the uhaul - 8 bikes of different sizes will be interesting. We have the one for the back of the truck/van that Vickie brought out after we found the pup.

Oh, and our placer Hep Kitten gracefully requested this:
"HI all,

I have a small request to make. Please send a note to all your fellow theme camp mates to pose all questions to me through you.

Unfortunately with over 140 theme camps to help out if a few people in each of those camps sent me a message a day I would be completely overwhelmed with incoming messages.

I am happy to help where I can - but I still need some time to get my gear ready for the burn as well.

Thanks so much,

HepKitten"

Bicho's bar

Bicho's pimping slotted bar. Very well done.

Placement!

Placement was announced today! And we're FIRST on the list!

Camp: 54
Location: Estuary and 4:30
Size: 100 x 75
Contact: Hep Kitten

That's a block from the porta potties, slightly closer than Bicho and I camped last year, on the motherfucking 4:30 PLAZA road. Pimp-tact-ular. God Box is a block out from us!

random tuesday...

The yip yips were possibly my most feared, and favorite Sesame Street Characters. Assuming they are costumes. Clever!

Here's a good link to a tip from the environmental blog about storing ice in a cooler. She says to get one of those plastic 2.5 liter jugs with the spout at the bottom and pour your ice directly into that, and place that inside your cooler so the food never touches the melted H20. That way you can use the melted and cooled H20 in your camelback or cooking rather than having to put it on your H20 drying thing.

MWB cargo!

"Harry,
I know you're looking for another rider in the van. Are you also looking for people who want to throw down on uhaul costs in exchange for cargo space in the truck? Like people who are flying out? If so, we could put some info on our The Burning Man Experience page on www.midwestburners.com Putting info up for just one seat on a van seems like overkill but if you're looking to defray uhaul costs, then it could be worth it.
Let me know.
--Zay"

What should we do? Say we can fit a 'decent amount of shit'?

Shuttle Bus!

The "burn clean project" is doing a swanky sounding shuttle between Reno and BRC this year. 130$ to and from the playa - loose scheduling, but sounds great!

Burn Clean Project Biobus Shuttle.

I figure if this is still existent next year that it'll be expanded - then mostly we can FLY in and save a ton of hassle.

More costuming...

I found a site that links to tutorials for everything costume related. It's a little rough looking, but there are endless tutorials about making stuff.

A note on costuming...

For anyone that wants to make, or hire me to make a costume: the fabric store in Lawrence is having a big sale this Saturday. I've got 40% off coupons and everything will be discounted.

They have this glorious flag material, which I am planning using to make some 54 banners.

Also, the more I look at some of those plans for the below post the more I want to make a playa couch/loveseat and some chairs. They'd be cheaper than a camping chair and would pack down to a smaller size.

JRS

Just reading the JRS newsletter and clicked to the playatech.com page which has some really brilliant ideas for plywood furniture that can be broken down into small, easily shippable units.

What/Where/When

I've made a post to the What Where When! We might actually get printed and shit! Anyway: it's details

Title: 54 Conflagration Service
Date: 7:00 Thursday until the end of the event
Entry: "Tired of suffering with simple matches and torches to set your shit on fire? Unsatisfied with your current means of immolation? Come by 54 and talk with the Burna Boyz to burn anything at your request. Art of all sizes, any time, anyplace – the 54 Conflagration Service will burn for YOU!"

I thought it was clever - also prevents us from having to schedule shit.

Tips for Noobs

Quoted from the MWB mailing list. I found some of these positively delightful.

"From Seattle with love,
My Raveriffic Co-Regional Posted the Following on our local discussion list. My response is toward the bottom

It's that time of year folks, where I whip out ye olde regional hat, and declare:

TIPS FOR NEWBIES!

Tip #1: EARPLUGS.
Tip #2:
Tip#3:
Tip#4:

Bonus tip for the boys: Johnson and Johnson 100 percent cornstarch unscented baby powder. Put LOTS on yo' junk every day.
Riff Raff saved me with this one.
Tip #1: EARPLUGS.
Tip #2: 2 Emergen-C and 3 cups off coffee immediately
after waking up and immediately before drinking
Tip#3:
Tip#4:

Bonus tip for the boys: Trim yer armpit hair (don't shave). Seriously. I can give you at least 5 reasons why this is helpful. I know it sounds weird, but even you playa vets should try it.

Bonus tip #2 for everybody: The sooner you can embrace the dust, the better. If you fight it you will lose and you will be miserable. When the dust coats you and everything you own just let it.

Bonus tip #3 : Playa dust is an excellent sunscreen. YOu should embrace it (see Bonus Tip #2).

Bonus tip #4 : Do not belive anything Diem tells you. If you need earplugs to sleep, then you are not ready to go to bed yet. You are therefore doing it wrong.

Bonus tip #5 : The Peterman plan is grossly overrated.

Bonus tip #6 : You only need enough food to last you until wednesday. Seriously. Everybody always brings more food than they need. After wednesday everyone starts worrying that their food is gunna go bad so they start cooking it up and offering it out to strangers. On thursday the weekend yahoo lookiloo spectators get there with fresh supplies of abundant tasties. Go two blocks back from the esplanade and walk until you smell quesedillas. Follow your nose to deliciousness.

Bonus tip #6 : You do not need to bring any of the following :
-Blinky Things
-EL Wire
-Silver Clothing
-Funny Hats
-Glow Sticks
-Wings
-Pacifiers
It is possible to radically express yourself without a costume.

Bonus tip #7 : Unless you are overly sensitive, the dust cannot hurt you. Dust masks and goggles are very overrated. If you are overly sensitive, stay home.

Bonus tip #8 : Cheering when the sun either goes up or down will only show how much of a sheep you have become. I promise you, it will be up again tomorrow about a half-day before it goes right back down again. There is really no need to cheer. However, if you cheer every day for the sun's rise and set anyway well, I really can't help you.

Bonus Tip #9 : Give a man a glow stick and he will be happy for about 6 hours. Teach a man to Raver Fish and he will be happy forever.

Bonus Tip #10 : Nobody at Burning Man wants to buy a space station.

Bonus Tip #11 : Cuddle domes may seem like a good idea, but make sure you bring Purell and you watch out for pink eye.

Bonus Tip #12 : Bikes are overrated. Walk to the esplanade and hop on an art car. That is why they are there. Who cares where its going? You will end up where you need to be.

Bonus Tip #13 : Never, ever, ever under any circumstances embark on an outing with more than two other people. More than that is like herding retarded kittens. Nobody can ever decide where to go and then someone gets lost and someone else sees a blinky thing and then its all over.

Bonus Tip #14 : The Poop Hammock. When the Jonny On the Spots (porta potties) have been freshly clean, you must watch out for splash back. The way to prevent splash back is the Poop Hammock. Instructions:

1) Lay a couple of long pieces of toilet paper lengthwise over the bowl. Let it droop a ways down into "the pit" Tuck the ends under the seat. Do the same thing lengthwise a couple of times.

2) Poop

The Poop hammock will break the fall of the poop therefore creating less splashback of the blue water on your ass. As a second feature, the hammock will serve as a guard for what splashback there is. Blueless bottoms every time!

Bonus Tip #15 : Funnest thing ever : "Playa Spins." Go find an open piece of playa with no obstructions nearby. Look directly up and find a star to fixate your eyes on. Spin around as fast as you can for as long as you can. Stop. Run as fast as you can. Fall down. Laugh uproariously. Repeat. (there are many ways to enhance this experience, which I encourage).

Bonus Tip #16: Playa Navigation. Look for blinky shiny bright looking anything. Go there. Repeat.

Bonus Tip #17: Get lost on purpose.

Bonus Tip #18: Great Game to play (of my invention). Cargo Shorts Vs. Burner Hair. This game is best to play on the esplanade in center camp. Find a friend and pick teams. One person takes cargo shorts the other takes burner hair (extentions, dreadlocks, blue hair, etc.). If you pick cargo shorts you get a point for each pair that you point out. Likewise for burner hair. Play to 50, 100, 1000 whatever. Other
variations such as Funny Hat Vs. Hippy Drum, Topless Vs. Bottomless, etc.

Bonus Tip #19 : Pants.

Bonus Tip #20 : First Camp is where all the organizers of Burning Man camp. Its right on the esplanade where the promanade leads into first camp. Their coolers are always well-stocked with tasty food and microbrews. Feel free to stop in, hang out as long as you'd like, and get wasted. Make sure you ask lots of questions. Especially personal questions. If you do Reiki or Massage make sure you offer it to everybody.

Bonus Tip #21 : Walk into a trance camp with a megaphone and you will be the life of every party.

Bonus Tip #22 : Do not volounteer to do anything in your camp if it is your first year. We all already know that once you get there you will be disappearing for the first three days. When you finally come stumbling back to camp and are all like "Oh my god, you'll never guess what I saw blahblah blah blah...." we will laugh at you and tell you to drink water. That is what is going to happen. Seriously. Watch.

Bonus Tip #23 : You know those hilarious cat pictures on the internets with captions like "I like Moar now Ples" or "I'm in your bass, killin yer d00dz." And then there is that other thing with the prairie dog turning around, and the "all yer bass belong to us." You know what I'm talking about, funny things that catch on quick and go on and on and on in different incarnations and variations ad infinitum. Well, the
playa is like that only 1,000,000 times better. So learn to be funny. Quick.

Bonus Tip #24 : You know how the vikings called it Greenland even though it was covered in ice and called it ICeland even though it was all nice and purdy? They did that to confuse conquorers. So with that I have one word for you: Hushville.

Bonus Tip #25 : If you ever feel the temptation to use the words "be quiet" or "shut up" at any point during the event, it is time to go home.

Bonus Tip #26 : One of the most horrifying and entertaining things you will ever see is your closest friends going into complete and utter meltdown. Its a special moment to be cherished. Welcome to the Playa.

Matthew A. Conlon, Esq.
//Seattle Burning Man regional"

Circus Freaks

I like these peoples samuri banners and funny circus mustache. Nothing new to report.

Also, this site has a pretty thorough guide and list and makes for interesting reading.

Just watched the Malcom in the Middle goes to Burning Man episode, which can be found here. One thing that really bothered me was that Malcom steps on a cactus (there is no plant life on the playa) and the little kid gathers rocks (there are no rocks on the playa). Also there was no dust, and the man was weeny. It's sorta cute though.

Been reading the BM websites enviornment blog and they had this clever tip for managing stinky trash...
Place kitchen scraps in an old onion bag, one that lets air flow through, and hang it in the sun. Your actual trash, the stuff that can’t be recycled, will be cleaner and dryer. Your food scraps will dehydrate instead of rot. No smell. Now you can carry them home to be composted.

Also note... I am considering putting a rideshare out to see if somebody in our area needs a ride. Obviously they would be contributing to our gas and would save everyone a spot of money. We've got 7 people going and can probably fit one more person in the van. Thoughts about this? Yeah or nays?

Another thing we need-- a cheap boombox/stereo system. Everybody look in your basements to check if there are any lying around. Remember: anything you bring out there will be playa-fied. So don't bring anything too nice.

$$$

Everyone saving their pennys? As discussed with Michael, we probably need to collect for gas prior to going. Bobby and I are not going to have the savings to pay for it as we go and collect it afterwards. Mark has generously offered to put the money down for the trailer.

Other than that... my pirate costume is coming along swimmingly, as well as my Marie Antoinette costume. Suck it!

Trains, planes and motherfucking vans.

Ok, Fib has acquired us a van! We can fit 6 comfortably, and 7... possibly. So, truck/trailer and motherfucking van. That is how we are getting to the playa.

Gas prices are as follows: Total Estimated at $3.50 a gallon
$1983 in gasoline, $270 in trailer costs.
That's $281 per person if Jen comes with us. $321 if she doesn't.

In the unfortunate event that we have $4 a gallon gas
$2266 in gas, $270 trailer.
so $317 a person with jen, $362 without.

If she comes and gas stays level, we're getting out there for $100 bucks cheaper per person. Spend it on alcohol.

Immolation

Ok, I've posted to the MWBs a few times about burn barrels and such. Instead of just summing everything up I'll just copy the messages over here.

spiteridden wrote:

Hey all,
Our camp this year is considering having a burn barrel or two for warmth, added light and other goodness at night. I know many of you made some for IF a year back - I was wondering where they were purchased? What cost should I expect, how heavy are they? I'm pretty much a blank slate as far as steel barrels go.

Secondly, we have a "Fire Effect" which we plan to put on display this year. The ATF would call it a flamethrower - it's capable of about 20-40 foot sustained flame and is completely portable. I used all my creative juices just making the damn thing, I have no idea how to showcase it. Does anyone have any funky ideas as to a show/scene we could create out on the greater playa?

-harry

-----------------------------------------------

Sup Harry!
Ranger Danarchy got a bunch of the 50 gal steel oil drums from his Fort Leavenworth Army Base back in '04 I believe. I'm not sure if he had to pay for them or what the price was. He's since moved back to Minnesota. Kathleen also picked some up for us. Kathleen, where did you get yours?

We cut the tops off the drums at HullabalU 06 and InterFuse 07. I don't know the exact weight. Maybe 20-30 lbs?? One person can heft the barrels and of course they become lighter when you cut designs in them.

Jimbo does beautiful burn barrel art and brings it to InterFuse and BM too I believe. I've cced this to him in case he knows where to get barrels and prices.

The BM LLC is going to want you to have them on burn platforms so you don't leave a burn scar on the playa.

BTW folks, Harry's crew is a themecamp from Lawrence that we didn't even know about till now.
--Zay

-----------------------------------------------

Weldboy wrote
"The LLC has past a new rule this year. You can only light your burn barrels from 1pm to 6pm. That means they will be useless for warmth or light but who cares as long as you're burning something."

i am not sure what event or LLC you are referring to but that is not true. fire is allowed at all times baring high winds at burning man!

the green theme means we are trying to be more thoughtful of our burning and its effects and taking steps to burn recycled wood and wood that had to be cleared post forest fire.
i look at this year like a light cigarette all the great burning taste but half the tar and nicotine

Dave X

p.s I have included the guidelines fore fire and open flame in Them Camps.

-----------------------------------------------

Dave X is the "fire effect supervisor" at Burning Man Org, so I take his word as law. Zay said he'd check with the people currently storing the burn barrels for interfuse - we may be able to snag a couple from them without having to dish out any money.

Oh yeah, I encourage anyone to join the MWBs mailing list and group. www.midwestburners.com.

AMERICAN SPARTIATORS!

Allright ya buncha I be needing ya'll to get some gym membership and hit the weights, cause we got about 13 months to get sweet as hell! There is like @least three or four events that would be simple as hell to setup, But we all need some

so gotta fix that first. Good luck men!

Signs

Above: A rough idea of what the shadowbox could look like. Not sure if it should be painted black... as it'd be much more difficult to see during the day. But we could put glass, or something like that, behind the cutouts to defuse the light. Actually dyed cloth or thick paper might work the best-- as glass would be liable to break if the sign got blown over. Depending on how hot the lights would be.

This one may be a bit ambitious... but it'd be cool to elevate the numbers and make them as a sort of entrance way to our dome. Obviously the numbers would be a bit thicker to allow more light through.

This one may actually make the separate entrance idea more workable by attaching a top box to secure it. If we screw it onto larger boards and make holes in the board for rebar attachment into the ground it may actually achieve relative sturdiness. Also it would come apart into three boxes for travel and storage.

I don't know precisely how they do it, but the banners below would be cool... and easy to appliqué the 54 on everywhere. I think the more 54's we have around the better. That way when people ask what our theme camp IS we can look at them funny and say something ambiguous about 54.


It'd also be kinda cool to make a stencil and spray paint the dome with 54s. Maybe. Assuming we are going to roll with the 54 theme for more than one year, which I would assume is highly likely. It's ambiguous enough to go about anywhere.

Also, I read somewhere that you can use your run-off water from the shower and stuff to water a plant that you bring. I personally have no problem dumping it into the road (now somebody random is going to read this and freak out) because they spray it down with H20 anyway and we use biodegradable soap. However, the plant idea is a good one-- and probably something we will do whenever we get an awesome trailer.

Assets - Kunt.

Ok.

I will check into the availability of 55 gallon steel barrels. I know the MWB's used a few so they must know where some are. The tarp for the evap pond is cheap, I'll grab one my next trip to the depot.

I have a couple ideas with things to do for a camp sign - mainly doing some sort of shadow box with a couple cathodes inside - but I dunno how to make it artistic. Jys, would you sketch out a few designs so I can visualize wtf to do? I'm not a fan of having raw el-wire exposed on surfaces, it looks too 'krinkliey.' I'm thinking similar to the LTC studios sign we had rocking - just with cathodes and plywood and some artistic spraypaint.

Mark has one cooler. Bicho has/had two. I may purchase one for adequate beer storage, or may look into securing one through other sources. It depends, I'm not planning on bringing much food.

I have four 6 gallon water jugs, the green sort. I need to wash them out as they've aquired a queer taste about them. Last year I used them as 'emergency water' for when my gallon jugs ran dry. I'm thinking about doing the same this year, bringing maybe 2 for myself for the shower and any misc water needs I may have. I AM bringing bottled jugs of water as they kick untold amounts of ass. Maybe the fancy square and stackable kind for ease of package. Having semi-disposable 1 gallon containers out there never got old. Doing so means I never had to worry about contaminating a full day's water to get some delicious tang for my wodka.

Water from winnemuca/battle mountain is definite. Hauling it even that far is almost a waste. Where was it purchased from? One of those water-supplys places, or just walmart?

One of my final camp-design issues I'm facing is the ability to put up a flag pole. I REALLY want a jolly roger/54 banner flying high. I've thought of things like a wooster (painting pole) messily taped and hose clamped to the top of one of the domes. I've also considered doing it like our neighbors last year. Ebay has collapsible aluminum 'winsock' poles for ~ 50 bucks but if anyone has a cheaper idea I'm all for it.

Etc.

Funny costume!

Assets, Needs

Alas, you really do have to stake your tent.

Assets- (As a group)
I've recently acquired another parachute, some white winter shade coverings (the guys at the surplus store swear they are virtually unrippable (which I giggle at), two 6-foot folding tables, camp stove, fire pit. John has (I belive) gotten our shower stuff.

Things we still need (As a group)- Hammock stand, barrel for fire (if we decide our fire pit is too unstable for the playa winds), bike pump (John is checking into this), coolers, black tarps for H20 evaporation pond (people get really snarkey if you don't have one of these), plywood and El-Wire for sign

Everybody needs to be gathering up a tent for themselves, a bike and a camel pack of some sort.
Who has coolers? We need at least 3 for the dry-ice system I previously posted about.

Also from my experience purchasing H20 in Winnemucca (despite Johns extreme hatred for the city) is a really good bet. Hauling all that water from Kansas seems wasteful, and is probably more expensive than buying it. That said, we may still need to think about getting some water containers-- like the green 5 gallon kind, so we can better pack the water in. The website says we will be needing 1.5 gallons per person per day. From previous experience this is PLENTY of water. However that will mean we need 13.5 gallons per person and for 7-8 days that equals around 100 gallons. Thats HEAVY!

Finally, check out this really cool site in comic book form of pics from the last 10 years of Burning Man.

CNN Money Article

Here is an article that's been circling the MWB message group. It's interesting; I'm not sure exactly what "Clean-tech companies can exhibit their technologies, but their products can't display a logo. No marketing material will be allowed." will look like on the playa. Right now I imagine wind turbines and a vast field of solar panels somewhere in the deep playa.

JRS

"(hint: ice will be close by, no matter where you are in the city!)"

Cool!

How to solder EL wire

At some point I will succeed in mastering el wire!

El Wire

Such a cute idea for El Wire, I think. Been getting ideas for my bike.

This place seems to have some good deals, as well as a playa special.

Glowstick totals

OK- The glowstick order is as follows. Meticulously broken down in an excell spreadsheet by myself (because I love the odd organization of a spreadsheet)
John- 38.62
Bicho- 20.80
Mark-20.80
Jimmy-9.47

Bobby and I got some funny glowy shot glasses and mouth things.

Other than that, Jimmy reminded me that somebody needs to pony up for a bike pump, or does anyone have one?

Glowsticks... more planning

We are nearing on the time when we are going to order glowsticks and such. Really need to get an idea of what people want to buy.

Also, I bought a parachute yesterday. It's a regular army green one. I was looking at some white ones, but they were twice as expensive, and I'm really not sure how well they would take dye, being nylon and all.

Survival Guide

Ok nubs. Fib, Prime, anyone else who's yet to experience dust. Listen up:

Don't expect to go shopping two days before and have everything you want or need. I'll go with the both of you and get you a good "idea" at least a week ahead, then we can fill the holes over the remaining week.

Think about food you'd want out there: I'm always fine with eating MREs for a week, but it nearly killed Jessica and Tina. Don't expect anybody to cook for you.

Think about costumes: Really, get your mandress together or honestly consider how to look like an ORK. Grab a funky red-striped shirt and a bandanna, add rum: instant pirate. If you want to go to Spikes "Dusk till Dawn" bring something that can be uber goth (think the blood shower scene in Blade.) I'm talking anything that can fit next to PVC, chains, and Stabbing Westward style eyemakup. I'll still rock the straw-hat and cutoff camo look for the majority of the week. You'll be glad you put even 10 minutes of thought into an outfit.

Read the fucking survival and virgin guides. I know Fib has epic amounts of time to read at work and Mark just has epic amounts of time. READ it.

Art Car

awesome shit that I desperately want to do.

Costuming

This is a post to remind myself of stuff I found while at Marks on Saturday. Our internet is out at our house currently, which is very sad.
Blue wig.
Silly girly kimono.

FIRE

I've spoken many times with the "fire safety" guy at burning man (davex) about a wiiide variety of topics. He's given us the greenlight on getting a laminated-badge thingy to wave at the playa firefighters if they come and try to squirt us with a hose. He suggested that we come up with some sort of 'show,' but knowing bicho and I it'll be something like skeet shooting teddybears with the burna. Any ideas on what would make an amusing show are appreciated there. Hell, he even suggested that we list it in the what/where/when if we think up something. Would be pretty cool to finally do *something out there.

As far as camp fires, yeah. We are allowed to have individual off-the-playa campfires this year. Anyone can have a burn barrel, a camp brazier, or reasonably controlled fire without needing registration. Their requirements are, and I quote, "that nobody burns the damn place down." We'll have to keep gasoline for the thrower and any spare for vehicles under a fire tarp and have some cleanup supplies/extinguishers nearby for any... accidents. I figure we can find some way to make that thing wind resistant, maybe a few metal hose clamps to hold the bangle down then a peice of rebar to hold the footing down? We can have it in our little communal area around all the tents. Would definitely make for a warmer night. Someone bring marshmallows.

Can you canoe?

Taking a brief break from BM related stuff, Jon is spearheading a canoeing trip sometime late this month or early next. T'will be only around $30-50 per person. Will post more info when I have it.

Solar P-P-P-Power!

Today I managed to leave my book at home so my lunch hour was filled with aimless shopping. Went to the Tractor Supply store near the wendys I inhabit and dropped $250 on solar equipment.

I walked out of there with a 15 Watt, 12 volt solar panel and a deep cycle 120 A/H marine battery. Figure we can at LEAST light up the camp for 12 hours every evening. I'm going to go garage sale shopping for a pair of shitty, but loud, speakers and I'm currently working on making my old 40gb Ipod run off of external battery for the 'head unit.'

Another possibility is to get an inverter (I believe bicho and jys are talking about purchasing one for the cars) which we could pwn off of the battery easy enough to run little things like a 'rita blender, air compressor or massive vibrating dick-machine.

54

54 RULES!!!!!1111

Camp Shower - Kunt.

This is what I have been wishing for, simple battery operated + propane heater. It's made to be a camp sink, but can easily propel water 7' and heats it well. Pulls easily from a large drum of water/little 6 gallon. For the evap pond we'll just do a black 4x6 tarp rolled up and stapled to 2x4s. I figure we can stand the shower on a pallet with some sort of awesome flooring on top (thinking some cheesy tile samples.)

"shade cloth" could be an interesting way to get the tunnel/extra areas shaded fairly easily. I don't know if it'll be easier (see: cheaper) than burlap, but it comes in large pieces and could very easily span across a few tents. There's also this Aluminet shade stuff that just looks hoss.

HUGE fan of the dry-ice idea, there's none better. The multi little coolers is certainly the way to go. Last year we had a "food" and a "drink" cooler. The drink cooler was what we kept any extra ice in and both kept cold easy. I figure, bicho and I will be combining most of our foods together so we'll be sharing two coolers ourselves.

Flame Effect Night Test #2

Tent heater... tent cooler... other

Camp evaporative cooler (aka portable AC that runs off of an icechest!)

Tent heater...

This seems like a really cool link to a whole bunch of guides from Alternitive Energy Camp. I'm trying to figure out how to make an effective evaporative cooler battery free.

Also, this is an interesting list of meal ideas and suggestions.

Here's a quote about keeping food cold that is interesting...
"I take three ice chests (for the 2 week stay) I try to keep them all in the shade.
1.Small one for the day of travel and the first day setting up: snacks, one light dinner and frozen water bottles to keep things cold and later drink
2. Medium one for the first two full days in camp
3. The large coffin (2'x6') plywood box lined with 2" Styrofoam, covered with 1 reflective fireblanket.
This is not opened until the third day when camp is set up and we can begin to enjoy our bounty. It's packed with ~100# dry ice and about 2 dozen frozen liter bottles of light lemonade, in addition to 2 - 5 gallon plastic containers of frozen water (the ice melts and the water is contained and drinkable).

Labeled frozen food is placed on one end near the dry ice. Fresh food (vegetables, eggs, butter, salami, and a little milk and cheese) are in assorted Tupperware in the end furthest away from the dry ice. Cans of soda and V-8 fill in the spaces. Very important to me is that everything is contained. - I dislike to have to deal with partially decomposing food floating in dirty cold water.

We don't need to buy ice and the last two years I have returned home with some ice still intact."

Bob and I got a food shrink wrapper (for lack of a better term for it) for our wedding, so we can encase meats and whatnot in plastic and keep them very fresh in dry ice.

Camp showers

This is a pretty cool thing, a water heater powered by propane. It sucks water from any water source and heats it.


Then you can use this tent to suspend the hose on the inside. This isn't particularly shamey- but is a good solution for height. Without having to get oversized PVC.


This also would work, 29.99 from this site.

FYI- this is posted by Jys, after setting up Marks ability to post.

Camp 54 map

Ok, so I'm slightly bored. Here is the tentitive layout for camp 54. I made this so when looking at it if somebody gets an idea, (like oh, we need this)... and will post on it.

Glow-sticks

Glow-sticks. Who wants to go in on some with us? You definitely need them so you don't get hit by cars or bikes (or get yelled at by irate passers-by). If interested I'm going to be looking into L-wire as well. Will post about that later.
Bob and I will be making our order at the end of June.
This site seems to be very cheap and has good deals.


Glow necklaces are $20.00 for 50. $70.00 for 200.

Glow bracelets are $10.00 for 100 or $45.00 for 500



Glow sticks are 50 for $17.50 or $125.00 for 500.

Glowey mouths are totally cheesy- but we'd like to get some anyway. They are 24 for $11.76.
This site has funny glowey beer mugs, $3.00 a piece.

Also, this site has glow-paint which is supposed to charge from sunlight and stay glowey for 24 hours. This might be fun to paint a sign out of. Basically it's $2.50 per tube.

Bob and I want to get 100 necklaces, 100 bracelets, 50 (or less) glow sticks and some glowey mouths. We'll probably get the beer mugs as well as the paint.