One item for BMan 2014 a day

[lucky420]

[quote="trilobyte"]TK, it's probably important for you to come to terms with that. Look at it this way... Kostume Kult brings out more than a TON (yeah, 2,000lbs) of costumes to the playa every year, and they go through them all.

Do what you can, and feel good about that...because it's awesome. People can always bring their own thing to dye, right? Encourage people to bring their tee shirts or polos or other trappings of defaultia and you'll imbue them with playa magic and let them dye with dignity
.[ /quote]

Nope we can't dye t shirts, etc on the playa. Cotton has to be rinsed (a lot). Silk doesn't so we don't have a ton of gray water to contend with.

[Jovankat]

Yesterday I spent pretty much the entire day emailing about camp stuff. My last few days before leaving Australia were hectic and unusually drama filled so I was a couple of days behind. I didn't quite get caught up and more have come in since so I expect today will be more of the same.

I probably would have gotten more done had I not received an angry email (that went back and forth quite a bit) from someone annoyed they hadn't heard from me in like 36 hours after I replied to say that I was sorry I hadn't gotten to replied to their camp application submitted about 36 hours before that as I'd been madly prepping to leave the country and was in fact right then standing in line to check in to my flight from Sydney to the US. Seriously who emails someone who has spent nearly 24 of the last 36 hours in transit to tell them how "unprofessional" it is that they haven't replied to an email about something that is in no way their profession, just a volunteer project they're doing in their spare time specifically to help other people?

[bluemiragemi]

Hitting up the thrift stores the past two days. Got a really cute long black jacket for night wear, $10, just gotta replace the buttons and add fur to the collar. Decided not to sew the EL Wire on, I'll just braid a belt and call it good. Yay efficiency (I hope)! Still searching for an umbrella or parasol, going again today <3

[melodiousdirge]

Last night I made a power cord - 12v lighter socket on one end, banana connectors on the other, so I can plug my 12v subwoofer into my 12v stereo. Beginning to think I took this whole mobile battery powered stero thing a little further than I needed to, but then again pretty much everything I do tends to go that way.

oh yeah, I'm with you on this. Still haven't made my enclosure for the amps or the subwoofer, and where does the battery go? I'm working on distribution wiring for horn, lights, and the two amps, and trying to figure if I want to keep things separate and modular, or just put everything in the same box.

So, I bought some red and black 14ga wire, and a small beach umbrella. It's going Seuss on me.

Oh god, I feel your pain. Just last week I decided that direct wiring things was for nobodies and bought a crap load of panel mount connectors, bulkheads and socket stuff off partsexpress so I can use standard patch cords to wire all my stuff together. Last night when I started putting it together there was at least one moment of forehead on table softly asking myself why I'd done this to myself.

[melodiousdirge]

Is that the watermelon wheat beer I've been seeing around? My brother in law loves that shit.
[Edit] Not meaning to call it shit... I suffer from trucker vocabulary despite working in a button down office.

Yeah, that's the shit, it's great beer for when it's hot out and the beer is cold. Hey, you have a mobile sound system? Want to hook up out at point 3, on the fence, top of the BRC pentagram Tues or Wed at about 2pm? I'll save a cold one for you.

Hell yeah. I hate to make promises to keep appts on Playa but I'm down for a trash fence cruise early in the week!

[Lonesomebri]

Taking the truck in for it's check-up. Vroooooom.

[Elderberry]

Nope we can't dye t shirts, etc on the playa. Cotton has to be rinsed (a lot). Silk doesn't so we don't have a ton of gray water to contend with.

Learn something new every day.

[melodiousdirge]

Took receipt of quite a number of electronic components last night and began the fiddly pain in the ass job of fastening them into my subwoofer cabinet and wiring them up. It doesn't help when half the boards are supplied without any means of mounting. Gotta love drilling holes in heat sinks to screw on brackets.

[theCryptofishist]

WTF? Burningman camps are gloriously not professional. Maybe this person was looking for a plug and play.

[Jovankat]

Iknowright?! This was the best bit;

I kind of figured there was a certain amount of prejudice on your side, but was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But hey, by all means come to MY country with that. Please, do the Burningman community a favor and stick to yourselves.

I asked several times what the *prejudice* was supposed to be and he refused to answer.

[theCryptofishist]

Welll, it's obvious, isn't it?

[theCryptofishist]

(I hate mindfuck.)

[Jovankat]

There's only two things I can come up with, we're aimed at virgins and he's a vet but we're REALLY up front about that so I'm not sure it could really be called a prejudice. Also if you're a vet you shouldn't need our help in the same way anyway...

The other thing is age, he mentioned in his application that he's 47, I kinda wondered if he thought we didn't want him because he's not a hot young raver type and that's why he hadn't heard back. But that's totally not the case. American Boyfriend had commented that he sounded really cool because of some other things he mentioned and I'd barely even looked at the app I was so busy. Also we have a super cool camper who is 50 so we're really not limiting our intake by age. But whatever, both parties feel like they've dodged a bullet and it was the other who was rude first so if nothing else I guess we're even.

[theCryptofishist]

The playa is one of the few places where age doesn't matter much. or as much.
Whatever.

[Geekette70]

Scored a (full sized/folding) mountain bike for the spousal unit for $35 on Tuesday. (Needs a minor tune up, but rides just fine)
Just scored front and rear bike racks for said mountain bike for $5 each.
20 minutes later scored a BRAND NEW Schwinn Meridian Trike for $90.

HOT DAMN, I love me some Craigslist! ::happy dance::

Transportation is just about covered (been buying LED dazzle and other bike accessories/tools from Meritline for about 6 months, so I'm ready to start decorating!)

[jneilvindy]

I'm a young 50!

[Meat Hunter]

Geekette,

Good score on the Schwinn Meridian trike. I purchased mine last fall and the electric drive kit in January. I absolutely love both. Before assembly, I took the time to do some accessory painting of the different parts.

Later in the spring, I purchased a front basket and built a locking lid for it. Now, I can carry my small "Y _ _ I" ice chest locked into in the rear basket. And, anything that I do not wish to walk away, I can lock in the front basket. If need be, I can also carry a passenger sitting on the ice chest.

One word of caution from one who made the same mistake -- twice or was it three times. When making your turns, make them almost "dead slow". If you make a sharp turns at speed, I promise you that you will go base over apex in a second.

A hint, when one rides a bike; one makes most turns by leaning. However on your trike, you will have to adjust your mind to remember that to make a turn; you MUST turn the handle bars. My first couple of times riding I ran myself into the bushes until I learned to turn the handle bars in the direction that I wanted to go and not lean. It will not be long before it becomes second nature and the natural thing to do.

I know that you are going to have a ball riding that trike.

[VultureChow]

Ordered a bunch of last minute items. Finally got another computer to work with my engraver and am pumping out the second side of my dog tags. Ordered a new jig for them that will hopefully fit the tags and reduce my work. They do look good though:


Confirmed my reservations. Finished washing and packing or hanging all of my clothes.

[AfricanFire]

Just handed in a huge project for work that has been keeping me up till 3 or 4am most nights over the past few weeks. There may be some small cleanup to do on the data, but the bulk is done. Which means now I actually have some time to do those important things like packing etc.

[Geekette70]

Thanks Meat Hunter, I've been watching the bike section of Craigslist like a hawk for 3 weeks now. I'm relieved it finally paid off. Husband's on the fence about if it will fit, but we've got a cargo trailer and I'll make it fit if I have to ride on top of the truck.

Thanks for the advice. It's a 26" trike so I am a little concerned about the higher center of gravity. Fortunately, being 4' 11", I'll have the seat down pretty low, which should help some. Been putting in 2 hours a day on the exercise bike at the gym to get the legs ready (which is probably fortunate, since this is a single speed. But...$90, right?)

[unjonharley]

Last year the boom box was dropped.. The phone plugs would not hold/stay in..Went out to buy a new one.. The new boom boxes do not have a out/ear phone jack...Need both to amp up..

Come home disassembled the broken one, fixed the problem and it works without any left over parts.. Saved $50.. Sound is ready to go..

Now to get my kid to down load music to the Ipad..

[melodiousdirge]

Thanks Meat Hunter, I've been watching the bike section of Craigslist like a hawk for 3 weeks now. I'm relieved it finally paid off. Husband's on the fence about if it will fit, but we've got a cargo trailer and I'll make it fit if I have to ride on top of the truck.

Thanks for the advice. It's a 26" trike so I am a little concerned about the higher center of gravity. Fortunately, being 4' 11", I'll have the seat down pretty low, which should help some. Been putting in 2 hours a day on the exercise bike at the gym to get the legs ready (which is probably fortunate, since this is a single speed. But...$90, right?)

The three wheels are pretty stable. My trike is a 24", but I have an extra long seat post so I can ride it in 7" platform boots. I've managed to fall asleep while riding it (priceless) and not fall off. Also the single speed isn't too bad. I converted mine to a 3 speed with a gear hub but the first year I got around OK with one speed. If you want to change the front chain ring out I'd suggest finding a lowish gear to help you through dunes. Another thing to note (especially since you're 4'11") is that a trike is a pain in the ass to walk anywhere if the playa gets too soft, as the back wheel will forever be running over your back foot. I got around this by tying one end of a 4-5 foot rope to each end of the handle bars. That way I can walk in front of the trike and hang on to the center of the rope so it just rolls behind me.
You can kind of see it in the photo below:

[Meat Hunter]

Geekette,
You should have no problem with the seat lowered all the way down. Although your trike may look large, the foot print on the floor is actually rather small. I am of the opinion that it will fit nicely in your cargo van -- just stack high and all around it.

melodiousdirge,
The tow-bridal from the front is a great idea. I have already gone out to the shop and fashioned one for my trike.

[melodiousdirge]

Geekette,
You should have no problem with the seat lowered all the way down. Although your trike may look large, the foot print on the floor is actually rather small. I am of the opinion that it will fit nicely in your cargo van -- just stack high and all around it.

melodiousdirge,
The tow-bridal from the front is a great idea. I have already gone out to the shop and fashioned one for my trike.

Glad I could be helpful!

In terms of packing trikes, if space is really a big issue, most of them come apart into significantly smaller pieces with only a few bolts. As long as you don't mind some assembly when you reach the playa, you can save a bunch of space this way.

[Geekette70]

I'm not terribly concerned about space, we can throw it on top of stuff. It's a 6X12 (ish) Cargo trailer, so I'm not too worried, but he's convinced it's not going to fit (in all fairness I don't exactly pack light.) We just got some shelves installed in it recently, though. That should help stack the lightweight stuff up off the floor to make more room.

melodiousdirge - Thanks so much for the towing idea! I just made about 40 feel of bias tape out of canvas that I now have no a use for, so I may try to rig up a harness for hands-free towing out of it. Hmmmmmm....

[EmilyD]

Yesterday I spent pretty much the entire day emailing about camp stuff. My last few days before leaving Australia were hectic and unusually drama filled so I was a couple of days behind. I didn't quite get caught up and more have come in since so I expect today will be more of the same.

I probably would have gotten more done had I not received an angry email (that went back and forth quite a bit) from someone annoyed they hadn't heard from me in like 36 hours after I replied to say that I was sorry I hadn't gotten to replied to their camp application submitted about 36 hours before that as I'd been madly prepping to leave the country and was in fact right then standing in line to check in to my flight from Sydney to the US. Seriously who emails someone who has spent nearly 24 of the last 36 hours in transit to tell them how "unprofessional" it is that they haven't replied to an email about something that is in no way their profession, just a volunteer project they're doing in their spare time specifically to help other people?

I'm so sorry this happened to you as you were trying to finally do some of your own organizing. That's bullshit! It's sometimes thankless to be organizing a camp but usually there are enough good people, who are supportive and grateful, AND willing to help (and pull their own weight) that it makes up for the jerks like the one who emailed you. May all the rest of your adventure to and back from the Playa be magical and filled with beautiful people loving you.

[Meat Hunter]

Geekette,

That is a bit of weight to be pulling from Texas. What type of vehicle do y'all use to pull a well loaded 6' x 12' cargo trailer with?

I will wave as I drive by Irvin on Aug. 19. If by odd and unlikely chance you see a dark blue Mercury Grand Marque, pulling a 5' x 8' ATV trailer, with a white homemade box on the trailer, and with a blue and yellow Schwinn Meridian strapped on top, wave back as I go by.

[Oldguy]

Two 6 volt lantern batteries in my Coleman, one 6 volt lantern battery in my big handheld torch. I has light.

[Savannah]

. . . Crackers . . .

[VultureChow]

. . . Crackers . . .

Crackers in not the preferred nomenclature. Caucasian-Americans, please.