fallenpegasus | Recent Entries

Starting on Monday, I will be at Burning Man, and will be more or less unreachable from the default world.

If you want to try to send me a postcard (which would be lots of fun), the BRC Post Office *might* work:

Mark Atwood
Pi & Monorail Camp
6:45 and Baghdad
Burning Man
Gerlach NV 89412

If you are on playa, drop on by, and leave a message. During build week I will be out working on the monorail, and the week of the burn I will be either at camp, at the monorail, or (most likely), out walking around looking at art.

If you are on playa, and have a FRS/GMRS radio, I stay tuned to 17/12.

If you off playa and need to get an *emergency* message to me/us, email to 911@burningman.com and include the above contact information, and it *might* get to me.

I've learned that the Seattle Burner Newbie Picnic could have been better evangulized this year. All the regular Seattle burners know about it, the hard part is letting newbies and Burner-curious people know about it.

So, if you are in the Seattle area today, and don't otherwise have plans. Plus, it's free food and fun people...

WHEN: TODAY 3PM
WHERE: WOODLAND PARK SHELTER 2
WHAT: 8TH ANNUAL NEWBIE PICNIC
WHO: YOU!! (AND BRING A NEWBIE!)

FULL INFO IS BELOW FOR THOSE WHO MAY HAVE LOST OR MISSED IT

The Newbie Picnic is a wonderful event (now in it's EIGHTH year!) designed to draw Burning Man first-timers into the Seattle community. If you are about to make your inaugural trip to the playa, this is a great opportunity to meet some seasoned vets who can share all sorts of tips and tricks. If you're one of those seasoned vets, here is a great chance to help out some new folks... wouldn't it have been great if someone had done this for you a few years ago? So as you can see, the Newbie Picnic is for everyone, whether they have zero or a dozen burns under their belt. Besides, it's a picnic and everyone loves picnics so just shut up and come.

Important! It can sometimes be a bit intimidating for new people to come to local events, so it's up to all of us to make sure the picnic is a warm and welcoming experience. Newbies are hereby authorized to walk up
and join any conversation that may already be in progress; they may sit down and join any group of pre-congregated people; they may ask anything of anyone. All non-newbies are required to watch out for
wide-eyed newbies standing off to the side and periodically check on them to make sure they're fed, hydrated and informed.

Gimme More Picnic Details!

The Newbie Picnic will happen on Sunday, August 8TH. from 3pm until 6pm-ish. It wouldn't be too surprising if folks stuck around into the night, too.

Picnic food and beverages will be provided at no charge to you, so there is no need for you to bring anything. This event has been brought to you through the collaborated efforts of Ignition Northwest and your Seattle Regional Contacts.

If you simply can't help yourself and you do bring something, you must take the leftovers home with you! Also, in keeping with the Leave No Trace ethic, please plan to leave with whatever garbage you happen to
generate.

Please note that ALCOHOL IS NOT permitted in Seattle parks. Also remember that this is an ALL-AGES event in a PUBLIC PARK. So please, mind your p's & q's.

The location is WOODLAND PARK Park shelter #2 It's right by the shelter where we had many picnics in previous years If you missed the link earlier, here it is again http://tinyurl.com/2a52cnk

What can you do?

Show up! Bring friends and family who might like to get a little taste of our culture. Oh, and as you might expect, costumes are strongly encouraged! Why the hell not dress up and impart some great fashion tips to the new folks? Got a nifty playa gadget? Bring it. Wanna sit down and drop some knowledge? We've got plenty of space. This is a great place for newbies and vets to teach and learn. Just like TEITD (that's "The Event in the Desert" for the newbies) you get as much out of this event as you put into it.

What Will This Cost Me?

Your participation is your admission... the picnic and food are free.

Directions http://tinyurl.com/2a52cnk

A few other notes:
**There will be a Burning Man 101 workshop
**Hey newbies! Bring a little notepad to jot things down.
**Yes there will be ezells, and yes there will be a vegetarian option. I cannot make any promises about other dietary needs.

I just got a new cellphone.

It is not at all a replacement for my HTC Passion / Nexus One Android smartphone.

It is, instead, possibly the least "smart" phone available: the Moto F3, designed for "the developing world".

It makes and receives calls, it sends and receives SMS text messages, and that is it. Period. A full charge gives it hundreds of hours of standby time and half a dozen of hours of talk time It is resistant to water, humidity, dust, temperature extremes, and shocks and drops.

It weighs less than my car and house key.

I paid $20 for it.

This just might be the right kind of phone for my mother.

I'm going to take it to Burning Man, and register it with the OpenBTS Project Papa Legba camp, and see how that works out.

Mark Atwood speaking at Ignite OSCON 2010
Originally uploaded by O'Reilly Conferences

Current Location: Portland Ballroom, Oregon Convention Center, Portland OR

Pi Camp
6:45 and Baghdad
Burning Man
Gerlach NV 89412

Send us a postcard! :D

Clothes at Burning Man are very much an interesting intersection of necessity, preference, comfort, personal style, and public expression.

Again, I will mention the blazing sun, the corrosive mummifying dust, the hot days, the cold nights.

If you want to be as practical as possible, then loose-fitting natural-fiber khaki or light colored clothing with long sleeves and long legs make the most sense, with a broadbrim hat. You will look like you are on safari, in a National Geographic special, or a movie about the Australian Outback. And you will look like a Ranger (Black Rock City's crew of civic peacekeepers).

But this is Burning Man! There is a huge and evolving culture of self expression via clothing there.

You will see people who are not wearing a single stitch. You will see people wearing gear (boots, googles, camelback), and nothing else. You will see people wearing kilts, sarongs, crossvested, safari clothes, burkas, arbian thobe, gis, tutus, body paint, fireman turnouts, fake fur, and very bright colors.

I'm still deciding how to dress this year. I was far too bland and khaki last year.

Express yourself, have fun, and remember, it's hot during the day, and cold at night. (Thus the fondness for fake fur...)

The playa is dry and hot. Very dry. Very hot. And the dust is hydrophilic. This means that you will be dehydrating, literally mummifying. And you probably won't be able to tell that you are dehydrated. The most common "medical event" at Burning Man is acute dehydration.

You will be "out and about" all the time. On foot, on bike, climbing on and off of art cars, climbing around on art projects, setting up camp, striking camp, and dancing.

This means you need to be drinking water all the time, you need to carry a LOT of water around with you to drink, and you want to have your hands free.

The solution is called a "camelback". It's a backpack that contains a plastic water bag, and has a flexible tube coming over your shoulder. There are a couple of different brands of these things, including the eponymous Camelback.

You want one, and you want the largest one that you can comfortably carry.

You can buy them online, and at any good sporting goods store.

My personal one holds 2 liters. While on playa, I will typically refill it 3 times each day, and twice each night. There is a reason that the on-playa newspaper is titled "Piss Clear".

You may notice a common topic in my Burning Man Advice posts so far. The dust. You don't want it on your feet, and you don't want it in your eyes.

You don't want it in your lungs.

This stuff is corrosive when damp, and holes in your lungs take a long time to heal, if ever.

Some people just breathe it and cough it up later. I don't understand how they can do that, but then, I don't understand how people can smoke, either.

Some people wear a bandana, and breathe through it during the dust storms. They claim it is good enough, but I don't believe them.

Some people use disposable painters masks, medical masks, cute Japanese public-health masks, and even full-on fireman's or safety respirators, which is awesome but expensive and overkill.

What you want is the "Mu2" sports mask. You can order them here, or from REI or other high end sporting goods stores and sites.

It is AWESOME. It's cheap, it's light, it's comfortable, and you clean it by wiping it off ever day or two. And most importantly, it works very very well.

The interface between your body and the outside world that is the most delicate is your eyes. In the difficult environment of the Burning Man playa, you will become very much aware of that.

During the day, it is VERY bright. The sun is bright, hot, and merciless. There is no cloud cover. The playa dust itself is almost white, and it scatters and reflects light, instead of absorbing it.

You will need dark sunglasses.

There is often wind. And there is always dust. Which means dust storms. And the playa dust is not just any ordinary dirt. It is strongly hydrophilic, it is corrosively alkaline, and it is microscopically fine. Which means that it LOVES your eyes, and your eyes will hate it.

You will need goggles.

You do NOT want to wear contact lenses.

You will go out at night. Every night. Most of the "action" really gets going after sunset. There are light shows, multicolored displays, lasers painting the sky, eruptions of flame. And when you go out into deep playa and look at the sky, there is no urban light pollution, so you will see the most amazing sea of stars.

You will need to be able to see clearly in the dark.

One of the things that you may notice when looking at pictures of Burners out on the Playa are the myriad ways that each of them try to solve this problem. Most burners have goggle with dark lenses that fit snuggly over their face. Those who wear glasses will either have Rx goggles, or they will get ones that fit over their regular glasses.

I use a 3-fold solution. I have my regular glasses, I have a pair of cheap dark sunglasses, and I have a pair of goggles that I had driving Transitions Rx lenses put in. I carry all 3 around with me, and keep a set of hard protective glasses cases in my pockets. When the goggles are not over my eyes, they either on my forehead, or around my neck.

You can get cheap dark Rx sunglasses online at Zenni Optical and at 39 Dollar Glasses.

You can buy good Burning Man goggles here. Buy one (or some), and then take them to an optician's shop, and have Rx lenses put in. You want "Driver Transitions", so they will go dark during the day, mostly clear at night, and will cut glare.

Or a cheaper solution is lab goggles that you can wear over your regular glasses at night, and your sunglasses during the day.

Remember to bring glasses cleaning solution and a lint-free cloth. You will want to keep your glasses clean.

One of the important pieces of gear to have at Burning Man is foot protection.

You will be using your feet a lot, probably much more than you do in the Default World. You will walk and probably bike many hours each day. You will be on an uncontrolled surface that is covered with surprising rocks, bumps, divots, tools, and pieces of rebar. It is make out of a very fine dust that literally will eat your flesh if it gets wet. You will be climbing up and down stairs and ladders onto art projects and onto art cars. You will be surrounded by people who are wearing boots and are riding bikes. The sun will burn your skin during the day, and the air and the ground get cold at night.

My first burn, I wore Teva sandals. This was simple, not a big change for my feet, low cost, and didn't involve bringing lots of stuff. It was a mistake. The dust between my feet and the bed of the shoe got damp from sweat, and burned the soles of my feet. When I got home, I was literally crippled. I needed a wheelchair to navigate an airport.

The second year, I bought a pair of boots, and couple dozen pairs of natural fiber socks. I changed my socks every morning and evening, and washed my feet in vinegar each time I did. My camp actually had a foot washing station just for this. This worked much better. However, my boots didn't fit very well, and so I got sore feet from them, and playa dust got into them more than I would have liked.

Probably the best approach is to have a pair of good working or hiking boots, at least ankle high, that are already broken in to your feet. Burning Man is not a good place to get "new boot blisters". And do the "change the socks twice a day".

Some people who have tough feet go barefoot for the event, and trust the dust to keep them dry. This can work if you already routinely go barefoot over natural ground, but I think it is very unwise. It's just too easy to get hurt that way.

Some people wear "Vibram Fivefinger KSO" and other similar "barefoot shoes". I wouldn't have believed they worked, but they seem to do. I may try them this year.

Remember to reserve a pair of clean socks to change into AFTER you leave the city after the exodus. You do not want to wear playa-fied clothes on your drive or flight home, and neither does the airport and airline.

I am starting a series of posts about my personal experiences and advice on how to enjoy Burning Man.

I will try to be as direct and practical as possible, and focus on my own experiences and lessons learned, and on what I directly saw myself.

This year will be my 3rd time to the Playa. There are many people with much more experience than me. In addition to my advice, you should use your own judgement, and also carefully read all the documentation at the Burning Man website.

I am not a fan of "fake" things, including fake flavors. Red "cherry" flavoring tastes nothing like real fresh cherries. Pink "watermelon" tastes almost nothing like a real dark red watermelon, as cold as ice, on a hot summer day.

At the local farmers market there is a lady who grows her own mint bushes, infuses the leaves, and makes REAL mint truffles. After trying one, I can't ever really enjoy standard "chocolate mint" again.

I just had a similar experience. At the newly opened cafe at the new Elliott Bay Bookstore in my neighborhood, they have handmade pudding. And because they were out of the vanilla and chocolate ones, I decided to have butterscotch. It turns out to be made from real butter and real scotch, from an old recipe that one of the baristas researched and tweaked.

It is almost entirely unlike the fake butterscotch-flavor pudding or candies I've had before. I don't think I can face eating that fake flavor again, after having this.

I've asked them for the recipe, and they don't have it there, but will bring it in. And I will be back.

And I suggest that everyone in Seattle, especially here in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, come to the new Elliott Bay Bookstore Cafe, and ask for a buttered scotch pudding.

Current Location: Elliott Bay Bookstore Cafe, Seattle WA

A beautiful comment to this post about HbaseT

Three connectors for the Internet under the sky,
Seven for your A/V devices in all their power,
Nine for wired peripherals doomed to die,
One for the mighty computer in his metal tower,
In the world of gadgetry where awesomeness lie.
One BaseT to rule them all,
One BaseT to find them,
One BaseT to bring them all,
And in a harmony bind them.
In the world of gadgetry where awesomeness lie.

I just saw this article Regulating Distributed Work (Part Three: Why It’s a Good Idea), and after reading it, I posted the following comment (currently awaiting moderation)

You say you “would rather risk crowdsourcing growing slower, or only in certain circumstances, or not at all for a while, than deal with the alternative.”

However, I seem to not have the same fear of this nebulous “alternative” that you do.

Any negatives of this “alternative” seem to mostly be the fears of politicians desiring defined interest groups that can contribute votes and contributions, regulators seeking expansion of their authority, and other “stakeholders”, which appear to mostly be the shrouded voices of people who fear that their position, influence, wealth, and stability are threatened by the changes in the status quo.

And more importantly, the intelligent and energetic very poor people who’s lives are being bettered far far more they they ever would or could ever be by your impulse to be an “organizer” do not seem to be one the “stakeholders” of which you desire to champion, because flatly you want to tell them “all this money that you are making now, we need to slow it down, and slow it’s growth, while we wise and enlightened and smarter and richer than you people get a handle on how to control it”.

You seem also overly concerned with Americans, and not at all concerned with the people who utterly depend on this growing stream of money for their eat-or-die livelihoods.

Color me unimpressed with your “good intentions”.

I have an idea for a useful Unicode script.

It consists of a single character, but will have a number of "accents" or "combining characters".

MANUS SYMBOL
MANUS COMBINING CHIRALITY DEXTER
MANUS COMBINING CHIRALITY SINISTER
MANUS COMBINING FACING PALMAR
MANUS COMBINING FACING DORSAL
MANUS COMBINING DIGIT THUMB
MANUS COMBINING DIGIT INDEX
MANUS COMBINING DIGIT INSULT
MANUS COMBINING DIGIT RING
MANUS COMBINING DIGIT SMALL

For each of the chirality and facing types of combining character, exactly one must be specified. For the digit type of combining combining, zero to five may be specified.

It would take 128 glyphs to display this font, less if the font system can handle reflections or even better, algorithmically generate the glyphs.

What this font represents should be obvious.

When I moved to Seattle, I quickly discovered an excessively tasty treat in the local grocery stores, the "Nanaimo Bar". I have to limit myself to two per month.

For a long time I thought the name was either random, or was Japanese, or seomthing. Then I learned a while ago that it is Canadian. (Well, probably the name is probably a corruption of a First Nations word).

They are still tasty.

It's very fun and very easy to pile onto an internet bandwagon, and make fun of, criticize, and be outraged by some plank in some state party platform document. I am even likely to agree with you, about stupid and offense planks in state party platforms.

HOWEVER...

Have you actually gone to the original source and read the full text of that state party platform? Do you know what a "party platform" is, and how it is different from legislation or even consensus? Do you know how state party platforms are written by that party in that state?

Do you know how state party platforms are written by YOUR party in YOUR state? How hard is it for a small group of well organized people to insert a plank into your own state party platform?

Have you read the full text of the state party platform for YOUR own party in YOUR own state? Do you agree with it all? Is there nothing in it that you don't find stupid?

Until you have done all these things, I will leave you with a paraphrase of Harlan Ellison: "You do not have a right to an opinion. You have a right to an INFORMED opinion."

And until then, please, STFU on this topic.

When I was a kid, a game that my brothers and sisters and I loved to play with our dad is he would stand in the front yard, and kick a soccer ball over the house. We all would spread around the back yard, and wait for the distinctive sound, and look upward to see dot of the ball high over us, arcing over the house. It would land, bounce high again, and we all would race for it, to see who would get it first, and carry it to the front yard for him to kick again.

He would read to us. The books that stick the most in my memory are of him reading both of Alice novels, and the poetry of Shel Silverstein.

My dad had an old dusty blue 1940-something truck we all called "Old Blue". There was nothing "electronic" or "digital" anywhere about it. I remember many nights of holding a lamp and handing him tools as he worked on it. Especially the time he had to rebuild the clutch.

When my dad was a young man, he was a construction worker, specializing in building forms for concrete pours. He can still point at the parts of the US interstate highway system he helped build. One winter day, while hanging in a harness inspecting a bridge that was being built over Utah's Jordan River, something when wrong, and he was dropped into the river. When they hauled him out and warmed him back up, he says his first coherent thought was "Nice Warm Classroom". And so he went back to school, and worked hard and smart in those Nice Warm Classrooms, until he walked out with a PhD and then with a couple of years of teaching experience.

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all. — Leo Rosten

The Capitol Hill Seattle Blog recently posted a story and a followup about "a perfect storm" of trash at the central park of my neighborhood, Cal Anderson Park.

The first public comment on the story was an anti-Republican diatribe, which said a great deal about the poster, but not so much about the problem of trash in the parks.

I am reminded of a pair of photographs I saw a year or so ago, that showed the Washington Mall the day after two large events, one being the 2009 inauguration, and the other being a large "right wing" populist gathering and protest. In one, the Mall was literally ankle deep in trash and litter, it looked like a scene out of Pixar's WALL-E, and in the other, the Mall was almost pristine. One group had packed out their own trash, and in the other, the crowd just dropped their crap where they stood. Guess which one was which...

Anyway, I posted the following comment:

Pack out your own MOOP

The public trashcans are a convenience, and an expensive one.

I would much rather the Parks department spend their manpower and our money on more parks, and on gardening, and less on people who are too lazy to pack out their trash. If you can carry stuff into the park and turn it into trash, you can carry it out with you, and put it in your own trashcans or recycle bins at home.

I'm disgusted with the people who just piled their trash on top of and around the full containers. It's littering, exactly as if they had just dumped it on the grass.

I am especially annoyed that Eeyore’s Birthday is suffering some blame for this "trash storm", since most of the people at that event were Burners, and Burners know (or should know) the rule: "don't MOOP".

Don't blame the Parks Department for the trash. They are *our* parks, and it is *our* trash, and it's *our* job to clean up after ourselves, not theirs.

Current Location: Metrix Create Space, Seattle WA

Profile

Mark Atwood

August 2010

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A Place in the Forest

Recent Entries

Burning Man, contact information

Burning Man Newbie Picnic

I just got a new cellphone. It's not a smartphone.

Mark Atwood speaking at Ignite OSCON 2010

Our postal address at Burning Man 2010 (updated)

Burning Man Advice #5. Clothes

Burning Man Advice #4. Camelback

Burning Man Advice #3. Dust Masks

Burning Man Advice #2. Glasses

Burning Man Advice #1. Boots

Burning Man Advice #0. Introduction

Real Buttered Scotch Pudding

(no subject)

Response to "Regulating Distributed Work (Part Three: Why It’s a Good Idea)"

A Modest Suggestion for a Truly Digital Unicode Script

Nanaimo Bar

On easy outrage, and state party platforms

Some stories about my father

(no subject)

Thoughts on park litter

Profile

August 2010

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