while i know this makes me sound like a total bitch; if i need to bring my own friends,have shit planned out, if i need to be able to tell people i have some kind of occupation, and be careful not to go in some places because when in doubt i'm not welcome... i can sure as fuck do all that shit with...

RangaRoss, I am very sympathetic. Certainly my first year I had a great time but couldn't shake the feeling that others were having a better time. And it is hard to feel like you HAVE to have a good time. But I think your concerns about how impersonal the event can sometimes feel are part of why vil...

Yeah. Last year I definitely had a day when I was feeling weird, and I was definitely drinking enough, but... everything got better when I upped my daily salt and electrolyte mixture by adding some half-strength gatorade and beef jerky to my diet.

Pets... I don't have a problem with people doing stupid things that may result in THEM getting hurt. That's their perogative. Where I draw the line is when they start doing stupid things that may result in ME getting hurt. I'd like to believe I take every reasonable precaution -- and yet I've still ...

I used to think dosing was pretty much an Urban Legend. Unforuntately, I now know that isn't the case. This is in part because we were accused of dosing someone this year (we didn't do it, but it was upsetting all the same) and partly because I had a talk with a ranger about past dosing incidents. O...

FWIW (agian, not defending the rude gatestaffer who's responsible for the original psoter's experience) I've always had very positive experiences with gatestaff. This year, the guy who took our tickets said, "Just so you know, I'm gate staff, not greeter. It's my job to look for stowaways." No apolo...

I've said this many times, and I'm sure I'll say it again. More than once this year, I on my bike with at least four lights (headlamp, back glowstick, front blinky, and wheel spoke glow) almost colided with an unlit bicycle going perpendicular to my path. Once the guy gave me that "fuck you" glare, ...

While I don't want to defend a rude gatestaffer, and it sounds like he handled the situation poorly, I don't think it's wrong of them to expect an ID. It's not easy to tell how old a kid is. And yes, people are trying to scam their way into burning man all the time. (Last year, the gate woman who se...

I had a dome tent with a vented ceiling, and had dust problems. I haven't decided if I'm just going to bring an extra sheet to cover everything inside with next year, or if I'm going to go the duct-tape and plastic-wrap route. I might do the former but also cover up the upwind-side vents -- some peo...

The kryptonite company is actually pretty good about updating their design whenever this sort of thing comes up.

I've never felt "read the back of your ticket" was an adequate response, because, honestly, I've read the back of my ticket, and people make suggetsions for rules that strikes me as an attempt to take the responsibility the ticket demands. Because there's a limit to how much responsibility I can tak...

The Beatboxer goes by the name "Kid Beyond," just FYI.

He was pretty amazing.

I do think that movie up the gate closure would have a beneficial effect. On the other hand, some people who want to go and could be a positive part of the community would get screwed over. There's no easy way to remedy this problem. I think a comprehensive camera ban might be more effective. Or may...

Most men I know are to some degree both guilty of sexually objectifying women and uncomfortable with the same. I don't see this as a trivial matter either, as transforming beings into objects is the primary route to abuse, rape and murder. wow. Okay. I totally agree with the first sentence you writ...

It's important to remember that, at BM, your social interaction is what you make it. Particularly if you arrive early in the week, it's very easy to find interesting, loving communities on the playa that don't feel exploitative or sexually retrograde. But if you arrive later in the week, and/or don'...

A good thing to remember is that everything motorized (no matter how small the motor!) has to stick to the 5mph speed limit, even those little stand-up scooters.

They will impound you, otherwise.

I always bring blinkies to gift, but at least three times I almost had a collision with an unlit biker. (When I'm on my bike, I always have at least four lights on -- headlamp, front blinky, back glowstick, and a wheelspike glow or blinky). I got plenty of glares from people who were going faster th...

The questions we all have to ask ourselves are: "What is it reasonable for me to expect of other people to facilitate my view?" "What is reasonably expected of me to facilitate the views of others?" If somebody's kneeling in front of you, rather than sitting, it seems like the logical solution is, r...

Badger, Badger... Hey, I'm glad you tried to involve LE, too. Getting ejected is not enough, although it's certainly better than nothing. But, like I said earlier, as a member of a camp that was falsely accused of dosing someone this year, I do want to encourage people not to jump to conclusions. Ge...

First of all, I'm glad you got home safely. Whoever dosed you is an asshole, plain and simple. BUT... Be careful about assuming that you were drugged by the guy running the bar. I say this because my theme camp was accused of dosing two people with LSD this year. We didn't do it -- period. This does...

First of all, I'm glad you got home safely. Whoever dosed you is an asshole, plain and simple. BUT... Be careful about assuming that you were drugged by the guy running the bar. I say this because my theme camp was accused of dosing two people with LSD this year. We didn't do it -- period. This does...

Wow. Expecting a little common courtesy from people (if you want to stand, try to stand behind the sitters) is now fascism!

Good to know.

To Hotspur: You totally miss the fucking point and are obviously incapabable of entering into this discussion at the level I'm trying to bring it to. Since you're the one who has some bizzare notion of what the majority wants out of you, totally unconnected from reality, why don't you go shove that...

Yeah... how hard is it to figure out what street you're on (to within at least half an hour) if you've been in BRC for at least a few days.

Or you could, you know, ask a stranger. Interaction with other citizens! Crazy, I know, but there's hardly any time of night when you won't see somebody awake.

For what it's worth, I think that part of the reason there's a problem with "mood" building up to the Temple burn is that unless you're front and center, it doesn't seem like anything is happening. The wonderful opera singer from Death Guild sang at abotu 9. It was more than half an hour from when s...

The problem, Iamtony, is that it's not always easy to tell what sort of person you're sitting next to when you start. This year, I was at about 3:00 (from the Temple) and in the middle of a great crowd -- quiet, respectful, engaged, but not without a sense of humor (pretty close to the bagpiper who ...

i am the first to say that if i caught someone snapping photos of me and my girl while engaging sexually i'd hurt them pretty bad. but that would be impossible because we dont do it in the public eye. if you dont want to be photographed doing sexually explicit acts, do them in private. DAaaa. But t...

I think it is very important to know that darkness does NOT give to the presumption of privacy (which is the legal principle which prevents the cops from using IR equipment to watch you inside your house without a warrant). I think it's lame that we have to worry about this stuff, but it's not surpr...

I find this odd because I, personally, loved the way the dome burned away from around him, leaving him standing alone.

(Althougha pyro hit in the heart or the head would have been cool).

It was obvious, however, that the burn didn't go the way they planned it.

But I dug it anyway.

I think it's a really good idea for every camp to have some sort of recognized leader -- it's not very politically correct, maybe, but it helps a lot in these sort of situations. Somebody who everybody trusts to talk to if there's a problem. Especially in cases of sexual predators, the very open, co...