I'm around. Who says I'm not around? I definitely didn't vanish for ten months to quit my job, move a thousand miles, quit again, and go back to personal training in my new town... That would just be silly. Anyway, I had mixed results. The silicone held up very well, the mix of black and clear "shap...

It hit me last year on burn night. My first burn I'd gone there with my partner and what felt like a tight knit group of friends. There was one night on Wednesday of my first burn where 11 of the 13 people in our camp stuck together until the sun came up, wandering as a group, dancing, making it bac...

This is what he's talking about: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/7f/2e/2c/7f2e2c696202c607d097a8eb84a2901a.jpg It definitely works better in fabrics that can shift and stretch like heavy duty canvas as compared with tarps which tend to be lexx able to flex and stretch. That said, Gorilla t...

Is posting with impurity optional? I thought it was mandatory.

Those double headed tent stakes are surprisingly expensive, and since they aren't made of stainless I'm guessing they corrode over the course of the week limiting their lifespan? Some of our lag screws were in pretty bad shape when we pulled them out last year (thank you freak rain storm on day 1) b...

It's helpful to have a general idea of what part of the city you want to end up in. I can tell you that if you turn left when you go through the gate it will be louder than if you turn right. For the most part the loud sound camps are along the 2 and 10 roads, but the ones that aren't (that I'm awar...

Twine? That sounds... precarious. Consider investing in some mule tape. They use it to haul cable through ducts and pipes and what not. The stuff is dirt cheap used and rated around 1,800 lbs typically. I wouldn't recommend reusing it year to year, though. With our overly anchored structure our mule...

Fuck.

A while back I posted something about "fuck cancer". Back then my friend was still fighting.

Her diagnosis came back today. 3-6 months. Tops.

Fuck me...

I think it's easier to scale up an EMT structure than it is to lash the carports together though, isn't it? We have about 2,300 square feet of usable, fully shaded space under our EMT structure. Would that be possible with carports?

This coming burn has me nervous. Two years ago, 10 of our 13 members were in Los Angeles. One long distance member was a local camper's sister and she was actually there for our meetings despite living in the bay area. The other two were good friends of a camp member, driving in from Utah, and were ...

If you use something that isn't wind permeable you're driving up the cost of your cables and anchors substantially. 1/4" cable won't be strong enough for canvas or tarp and your anchors are going to have to be insane...

We use a setup like that (1" EMT with 90 deg. fittings, ball bungee anchors, silver tarps) with additional angled tarps to block the wind and help keep the whole thing anchored. Wind passes right over our structure. Only problem we had either year was with rain pooling, but that's an unusual problem...

We need a couch! "Fuck yo couch" No, we really need a couch! *runs to basement storage, pulls out the old, (but still serviceable) : Couch of Carnal Knowledge. "haveaseat* Weeeeeeeeeeeee plonks down on couch. Teach me :twisted: http://i.imgur.com/GLkAgUi.png Oh wait, that's carn ivore knowledge. My...

It's hard to tell from this angle, but is the scaffolding along the rear edge of the structure? If so you're introducing a potential problem. The sum vector force created by the guy lines appears to be extremely uneven and the guy lines appear unable to resist the net effect of this uneven force as ...

We wound up having a burlap sign on the front of our hard lemonade stand. We put it up after the rain so no idea how horrible it would sag when wet, but it didn't moop at all. I beat the hell out of it in the back of the closed box truck before putting it into place just to be sure. The lumber we at...

That's why we need to serve only alcohol, clearly. Permits? We don't need no stinkin' permits.

It's interesting to see all the outrage from the people who *aren't* actually staying later and doing all the work to clean up after everyone and restore the playa. Fortunately the playa restoration team (the ones who *are* doing the work and IMO the only people in a place to feel outrage about it)...

Holy shit. Has any camp been singled out for shaming like this in the past? Though I'm inclined to say they deserve it. Major resto work is going to go into hauling out the top layer of playa from pretty much their entire camp site...

It's tough for me to pin down a straightforward answer. I tend to default to wandering off alone and while I definitely need some time solo, I enjoy it less. Last year my favourite night by a wide margin was when my whole camp went out together. But even that night I ended up solo as most of my camp...

skippy3k wrote:

FossaFerox wrote:both reached to touch a small bulge under their costumes in unison, and both turned and left without a word.

My immediate assumption was that they had a way to key in an "acknowledge" on their radios so they could respond to dispatch over the noise and without being as obvious.

And that table bed is bullshit, let me tell you. I tried using it in the RV I drove to/from the event for another burner. I had an easier time sleeping in the passenger seat of the RV (driver side couldn't recline as far because of a bulkhead).

If it wasn't an undercover cop, some guy took a really strange interest in me on both Friday night and Saturday night. Friday night he was at OT, not really dancing, hanging back very near the platform closest to the fork-lift swing. He had on a donkey-eared hat that conveniently obscured his actual...

Invest in some guy lines. Looks like you got it right the first time. Guy lines are awesome for decapitation. If your anchoring is solid, no need for tie downs. I realize that for every day I've spent on the playa you probably have a full week on me (at least), but the structural engineer in me res...

*snip* Anyway, next year I was thinking of just flying to Reno and renting a camper. Will I get banned for thinking that? :twisted: There is a container that goes from New Jersey for burners, but its about 4 hours from where I live (upstate) and I can't really think of any other way to do it.... Re...

No no, Lucky, Roy has a point. Us chewing out people for asking questions that are answered in sticky posts (in the section of the forum they're posting in, no less) is WAY worse than someone pulling a gun on Bless. Worst behavior by far. We're basically war criminals. Also, I definitely didn't help...

Was last year a particularly art-rich year? That would explain my perception as it was my first burn and set the bar, so to speak. The art this year was great, there just felt like there wasn't as much of it.

Next year I do all my own wiring for my costumes. I soldered in a break away connection on my vest's LEDs this year, and when it started to flicker with movement I thought I'd somehow fucked it up. Nope. Factory cold soldered a connection further up the line. I was able to track down soldering suppl...

Holy shit, Bless. That's awful. I'm so sorry you and your camp had to deal with that.

all reserved spaces are clearly marked on the map you will receive at the gate. That's a nice thought, but not always the case. I've had space conflicts on two separate occasions with theme camps that were not shown on the map to be using the space they claimed was theirs. I've also wound up campin...

If it helps, the footprint on my shade structure is now 50'x60' with vehicle parking taking up another 50x10 in the back and our interactive stuff taking up 50x30 in the front.