Reposting What to Bring to Burning Man

August 12th, 2009

I’m leaving in a week and a half and Scotty asked me to dig up the Less Than Zero Expectations what to bring list.  It has been modified for the American Dream. I’m not modifying it for the Evolution theme.  This list has been gathered from friends and changed so many times, who knows where it came from. Catherine and Wizard definitely get the lion’s share of credit.

Bring:

  • BURNING MAN TICKET!!! (or confirmation email printout for will call)
  • Early Arrival Pass (if you got it)
  • Extra Car Keys
  • Cash (once you’re there, you’ll only buy ice, coffee or use it as an illegal bartering medium)
  • Ice for road trip
  • Jumper Cables
  • WATER!!! (BUY IN RENO – you’ll save your car a lot of weight. It’s recommended 1.5 gallons/day per person for drinking/food/showers This is good advice with current gas prices)
  • Food (see list below)
  • Alcohol (pick a budget and stick to it)

Bike Stuff:

  • Bicycle (Decorated! – It’s prettier and less likely to be stolen)
  • Bike Rack
  • Bike Light (it can be DARK)
  • Bike Lock (combo best so you don’t have to hold keys!)
  • Tire Repair Kit
  • wd40
  • bike multi-tool

Camping:

  • Tent
  • Heavy Duty Tent Stakes (Long, at least 12″ although heavy rebar will work well too)
  • Shade structure (I have a carport I got at pep boys years ago. It’s survived pretty well and I use shade cloth on the sides to make it even better. I curse it every time I put it together.)
  • Sleeping Bag or Linens
  • Pillow
  • Air Mattress or futon
  • 2 Camping Chairs so you can have company
  • Camping Table
  • Lantern
  • Camping Shower (cabellas.com has the best one)
  • Tool Kit  (for me this is a lot)
  • Rope/line (as a grip I can say, you can never have enough out there)
  • Small Broom/Dust Pan (sweeping your tent)
  • Water Bottle with Strap, clean canteen on a carabiner or a Camelback (sold at REI- usually,on sale in August)
  • An extra cup or two!
  • Clothing for Warm and Cold Weather (always prepare for extremes)
  • Boots
  • Close-Toe Shoes (at least some of the time – and make sure they can get dirty)
  • EXTRA SOCKS!!! (Seriously, at least DOUBLE what you think)
  • EXTRA UNDIES! (you may loose some)
  • Headlight/Flashlight
  • Tiny Flashlight (to hook on you for night walking)
  • Extra Batteries (all kinds – camera, lantern, flashlight, boom box, etc.)
  • Blindfold (for day sleeping)
  • Earplugs
  • Duct Tape
  • Sunscreen
  • Lip Screen/Balm with sunscreen!
  • Hat
  • Sunglasses
  • Goggles (for dust storms)
  • Bandana for Dust Mask (THESE ARE GREAT CAUSE YOU CAN FOLD THEM UP)
  • Umbrella
  • Rain Coat or Poncho
  • Zip Lock Bags (lots of the ‘storage’ size)
  • Garbage Bags (i suggest contractor bags or trash compactor bags. the last thing you want on your return home is a leaky trashbag stinking up your drive)
  • Plastic Grocery Bags
  • a cardboard box for burnables
  • First Aid Kit
  • Matches / lighters
  • Soft Kleenex
  • Sewing Kit
  • Safety Pins
  • Paper Towels
  • Moisturizing Eye Drops
  • Nose Saline (they have this at 99 cent store)
  • Baby Wipes (great to carry around in a plastic baggie & to take showers with!)
  • Q-tips (to clean ears from dust)
  • Medication (allergy, migraine, Echinacea, birth control, vitamins, etc.)
  • Oil (for hair- great treatment!You can get very dry out there. be sure for hair- some are toxic in high dose)
  • Lotion (Big)
  • Nail Polish Remover
  • Sponges
  • Shampoo/Liquid Soap (dr bonners!)
  • Shower Puff (the plastic ball kind that dry quickly)
  • Towels
  • Toothbrush/Toothpaste/Floss
  • Can Opener- Eureka!!!
  • Swiss Army Knife/Corkscrew
  • Fire Extinguisher (There should at least be one close by)
  • Spray Bottles (2) one for your body one for cleaning dishes and pans!
  • Vinegar
  • Basin
  • COSTUMES!!! (For various types of weather/temperature)
  • Body Makeup
  • Bright Nail Polish
  • Blinkies/Glow Sticks
  • Essential Oils (for smell-just nice)
  • Wigs
  • A bathroom bag (small backpack or sling bag) . contents: roll of single ply TP. flashlight, baby wipes, surface wipes, a ziplock for the used wipes, hand sanitizer basically anything you would need in the porta-potties. Keep it right by the door of your tent. so that in the middle of the night it’s close at hand! Trust me. This is a lifesaver!
  • Kitchen set up plates, cups, utensils. Pots pans, knives spatulas, etc.
  • A butane stove. I got mine at a chinese supermarket in chinatown.
  • a solid cooler that will keep your drinks cold and the FEW things you need to keep cold for freshness fresh.
  • one of those orange five gallon drinking water things. Keep this full of ice and use it to get your water cold. TIP: manage your coolers by keeping them in the shade!

FOOD

  • Water
  • Emergen-C or Gatorade (you’ll need the electrolytes!)
  • Nuts/Dried Fruit
  • juice
  • Shakes
  • instant soups and asian food from Trader Joe’s. Think anything pre-made. just set them in the sun to cook!
  • Oatmeal
  • Those tuna packs that make instant tuna salad
  • Clif Bars
  • salty treats to help keep you hydrated
  • Tasty Bites or similar food in a bag (get at trader joes) a real treat out there!
  • If you want to be super awesome. Get a great dish from your favorite take out restaurant and get a double order of something you love (like gumbo, or kung pao shrimp) and freeze it in a big ziplock. Then eat it in the first few days, just by heating it up in a big pan.

Extra Tips
- Pack in plastic storage containers. Use bins to help stack your stuff!

- Pack clothes in categories in large zip lock bags. Keeps them less dusty. zip them back up when you can!

- Pack one clean set of clothes (including shoes and socks) for the ride home. Don’t open during BM. You’ll be happy!

- Pack all of your undies & makeup in plastic baggies (so never too dusty)

-You might want to add a mesh bag like the kind that onions come in. Put wet garbagein them ( like food waste) and then it dries out in the heat and can then be put in plastic bags for drive home.

DO NOT BRING:

  • Excess Packaging – take cereal bag out of cereal box, etc.
  • Anything with feathers or loose glitter
  • Too much produce (especially watermelons! Never bring watermelon to burning man)
  • Styrofoam Coolers

Things About People #1

August 6th, 2009

“What the thinker thinks, the prover proves”

-Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising

Ever notice that people are exactly as you expect them to be?  They almost never surprise us. And yet, somehow I am unpredictable and unique, capable of being any way I choose.

There is something you should know about people. They are not who you think they are. Sure, how you think about a person can affect them and make them seem a certain way around you, but it is not who they are.

We as people are constantly figuring out how people are. We are building up this huge database of how people will behave in certain circumstances. We predict how they will be so that we can better cope with things like going out to dinner, talking about hobbies, having sex, and getting paid. These are workable strategies. We have a pretty decent map of how people are. It is a very effective strategy. It has gotten us this far.

Art’s quiet, Wolfie’s loud. Scott is always amicable, that old dude in Denny’s is batshit crazy..  Adam is smart, George is as dumb as a box of hammers. My Mom is sweet and my brother is tough.  But in the catagorizing of people we lock them into how we expect them to be.  We then find proof for how they are from the point of view that we have already established about them.

This is a death sentence for the people in your life. In your eyes, they can be no other way. They are doomed to be the way you have created them.

I had this great experience last night, when my best friend, a person I have known for 20 years, totally flipped my whole database for how I know him to be on it’s head. I got to realize what a fool I had been in the way I was expecting him to be.  Most of all though, I experienced delight as my friend was completely new to me again. It should be noted that Art Lazaro is and always has been an extraordinary human being, but last night there was this new life.  It was awe inspiring.

The thing is, it’s not like he just flipped this switch and he was this talkative, charming, and debonair dude overnight. He’s always been. I just had him locked into some past experiences.

So, I started looking. How have I locked other people in my life into expected patterns? Where have I ut someone off from being who they truly are, rather than my little picture of them. I am a little excited to know you newly.

#202

August 6th, 2009

Clackity-clack. It’s the middle of the night. I know that sound. I heard it when I was a kid. It was always late. It was the monster. I’d even once caught a glimpse of it, spidery and black.  It’s been 30 years.

“Eric…” it whispered. “I have a gift for you.”

#201

August 5th, 2009

There’s a logic to the the way the world works. From our little vantage point, walking on the planet it seems random, sometimes cruel and often serious. But when you pull back and look at he world as a singular planet, made of distant chemical reactions… it still baffles me.

Loss of a Friend

August 4th, 2009

I just lost a good friend.

Technically, I lost her a few months back, when she lost herself. But Sunday night, she took her own life. At least that’s what the police said. This marks the third friend I have lost to suicide in the last few years. Veronica was the one who I was closest to.  It’s not okay.  I really need people to stop doing this around me.

Suicide leaves a trail of collateral damage. Yesterday, I went to her apartment with my friend to retrieve their cat. It was theirs together when they were a couple. Tears, pain, sorrow. Sobbing. She had just died, and was found right there, in that threshold that I kept passing through.

It seemed like she was getting her life in order. There was a book on the center of her desk about finding strength in the hard times. She was so close to getting it. Her boyfriend had left for just an hour. He came back and found her.

Damn it.

My mind can’t really wrap itself around suicide. I want to find the reason. I want the reason. I keep wanting to find out the real story. I want the drama to make sense of it.

It’s reasonless. I cannot and never will comprehend what was going through her mind. Veronica, you will be missed.  You left behind some people who loved you.

#200

August 4th, 2009

In the shadows of the trees we approached the gates. We felt the magic fall from them like fine sap that coated us. The trees were helping us. Invisible and scared, we quietly walked right past the brutish guards and into the courtyard. No one had gotten this far before.

Just One More Week for Cirque Berzerk

August 3rd, 2009

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Remember that wonder at the first time you saw a beautiful man fly through the air on the trapeze?  Can you remember, fondly,  those first stirrings of lust you felt when you saw scantily clad dancers vamp seductively? Remember those real fears that emerged when that clown looked you in the eye and smiled? Oh yes, the circus.

There’s just one more week to catch the freak circus, my friends. You may have seen the giant red and white circus tent in the Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown for the better part of the summer.  Know that inside is a dark wonderland of acrobats, dancers, ghosts and strongmen.  Cirque Berzerk is your opportunity to indulge that inner juvenile delinquent, and run away to join the dirty circus. This show’s definitely intended for mature audiences, leave the kids at home. I mean, unless they are teenagers and into that sort of thing.

They have shows Thursday through Sunday (8/6-8/9), and this weekend is the last weekend of the season. Last year I got to see them on the last weekend of their run, and it was epic and it was sold out. I suggest getting your tickets in advance at their website (www.cirqueberzerk.com).

Plan a whole creepy circus evening of it. You can pack a picnic and gather around the park. Dress up and get involved! When you start seeing the massive flame cannons, the show is about to begin.  You can party with the fantastic carnie band Vaud and the Villains in the Booze Tent.  Stay after the show and dance with the cast. They keep the second tent open until pretty late and it becomes a hopping little party in it’s own right. It’s a magical show, they do it right.

Resume Writing For The Freelance Genius

August 3rd, 2009

So as I am reworking my resume, I am finding it one of the harder writing assignments I have ever had.  I need to write about myself,  which is hard enough. Then I have to keep in mind that bio-survivability is completely tied to this.  I need to straddle that fine line between playful self expression and button up business language. And, I have to survive!

It’s madness.

I find the one sheet standard for resume writing is an outdated model for the freelancer. Things like Linked In serve as a better model. It’s got this modular language one that people familiar with social media can wrap their heads around. I found LI was a great tool for getting my work history nice and organized. Although my profile there needs a little work still, I am getting the hang of that.

Complaining about the format that resumes are accepted in won’t do any good. It’s like complaining that regular work hours are nine to five, right when traffic is the worst.  So I need to fit it all into this tight little space. I’m considering just listing my countless jobs, and titles and years, while putting the bulk of the info in the skill section. I’ve been a freelancer for seven years or so, how do you  convey the breadth and depth of that experience. This is my challenge.

Then there’s the formatting. I have yet to really see a one page resume style that I really like. I will happily take suggestions on this. Right now I am using Pages on my Mac and using the “Modern Resume” format. I am a modern guy, this makes perfect sense.  But damn, again… I keep feeling like I am doing it wrong.

The hardest part, by far is just sitting down and writing the thing.

#199

August 3rd, 2009

As a kid, playing lots of DnD, I was told the rough value of a gold piece was $20.  I think about the countless GP I found in that game… ah the treasure.  It would be nice.

By the way, if you know any ancient tombs that need looting, I’m your guy.

#198

August 3rd, 2009

We were once friends, close, like brothers. Something happened. Something always happens. Suddenly we weren’t friends anymore.

It was almost a year later, and the two of us were standing side by side in a crisis. We both had to be our best. It was easy to be friends again.