Partying during Early Arrival?

[FIGJAM]

The tin man comes to mind!!!

[sparr]

The few virgins on our EA crew got initiated to our family. Friendships were cemented. People banged. And it was lovely. No one was perturbed because they read the FAQ that told them there would be no fun allowed during EA, and there was fun going on after all. Our virgins handled it just fine. Our camp was built. The rest of the city was built. The magic happened.

Sure, they handled it. Would even one of them, the one weirdo who likes to plan for contingencies, have had a *better* time if they had more accurate info ahead of time? Maybe. That was me. Maybe it's only one other person who ever goes to BM. I'm doing this for that person.

[sparr]

Oh, man. For the uninitiated, a random orbital car buffer is the single best massage implement in the universe. Seriously awesome, intense, deep vibrations; sort of puts you in a trance. My camp has a massage table and a couple people with buffers. I bought mine for like $30 from the Despot, along with a dimmer switch to be operated by the recipient, which really takes it to the next level. Totally worth it. And the rum just makes everything better (I'm a Kraken fan, myself).

Google "two handed massager" for the non-shop-tool equivalent device designed for massage I love finding them at thrift stores; a quick ultrasonic alcohol bath and they are ready for fun!

[Jackass]

I'm doing this for that person.

What exactly is it you are doing?

This whole thing is about having some fun, not endlessly fleshing out mundane details about things that don't matter and should have no effect on you the "burner".

Were you able to enjoy yourself, or did the task of solving endless minutia and worrying about everything prevent that from happening?

Maybe you could have just turned yourself over to the fetish camps and let them shock the shit out of you for the remainder of the week... maybe next time. I'll bring the jumper cables

[Jackass]

Of course this^^^is just a suggestion, not written in stone by any means...

Kinda like forcing the computer to re-boot


but I will bring the cables

[Akela]

The few virgins on our EA crew got initiated to our family. Friendships were cemented. People banged. And it was lovely. No one was perturbed because they read the FAQ that told them there would be no fun allowed during EA, and there was fun going on after all. Our virgins handled it just fine. Our camp was built. The rest of the city was built. The magic happened.

Sure, they handled it. Would even one of them, the one weirdo who likes to plan for contingencies, have had a *better* time if they had more accurate info ahead of time? Maybe. That was me. Maybe it's only one other person who ever goes to BM. I'm doing this for that person.

My personal opinion, which you're obviously welcome to ignore: Your burn wasn't negatively affected because you didn't have accurate enough information, it was negatively affected because you relied too much on your expectations rather than just throwing them out the window and rolling with it. Maybe that's your personality type, and you're welcome to hide behind that, but an alternative path would be to treat this experience like one of those Burning Man life lessons that affects your behavior in defaultia too, and learn to be a little more spontaneous.

Virgins of any personality type, weirdo or non, would be best counseled with the simple advice that the majority of their expectations will not stand up to reality, but the more flexible they are in response, the better their burn will be. Pound that general rule into them, rather than attempting to coach them through hyper-preparedness for every minute detail that's not covered by the Survival Guide, FAQ, Facebook, ePlaya, Reddit, burn.life, and their coworker Steve that drove his van down in 2010. That's especially true if the virgin is doing EA with an established theme camp full of veterans.

[gaminwench]

^^^ so much this.

[Captain Goddammit]

Well holy shit. Good, useful info DID come from this thread.
If there weren't people like this, you'd have no relative standard to define how cool, fun, and awesome your friends are.

[BBadger]

"You set the –273.15°C in the friendships of my life!"

[^Rhino!]

Every time I've had EA, I've gone in with the attitude of 'bust my ass getting my camp ready and help those in my neighborhood who have issues'. Things have always worked out great as a result. Anybody who doesn't contribute in some small way, I'm not worrying about. The guy who I can change to do better is the one in the mirror.

[ranger magnum]

Sparr

Instead of worrying what other people are doing, maybe you should worry about *why* you are worrying about it...

[tatonka]

this is what alot of page 2 is about , right? Or is page 2 like fight club and your not suppose to mention it?

[Skuzzy61]

Read a few of the posts, and the original post so I may be being redundant here. sparr, I have no idea if this is a fair representation of how you are, or not, but your post did stir this pot and so I am going to go with it.

For most of my life I was a very anal type of person. Incredibly, extremely anal. Always setting expectations and if not met, getting upset about it. I had no way of knowing how to be any other way. The word "spontaneity" might as well have been a Klingon or Romulian expression for some type of fruit punch.

My Wife, of the last 22 years, has helped me crawl slowly out of that single point in space to show me there are other ways to approach things. It has been a long journey for me. My default fallback is to be anal, but I put up a fight before falling too far into that rabbit hole.

I still have no idea what it means to be "spontaneous" or to "go with the flow". To "go with the flow" you have to recognize what the flow is and I still struggle with that, but I have relinquished the steadfast rule of creating expectations, and after 62 years, it is a step in the right direction, of sorts.

For those who have not been there, it is not an easy transition from being anal to being spontaneous. It is a difficult concept to comes to terms with. Being anal is not always a bad thing, and the point I could make would require me to reveal something very personal. Instead, I'll just ask the reader to trust me and go with it.

[sparr]

Instead of worrying what other people are doing, maybe you should worry about *why* you are worrying about it...

That's easy. To try to provide more accurate information to future first timers, so they aren't as confused and/or misled as I was.

[Jackass]

Mislead by whom? Your own preconceived notions of how it should be, even though you had never been? Humbling experience isn't it?...

[Dr Helix]

Page three and I STILL have no new information on Bliss's ass mole. I thought eplaya meant ANSWERS!

[trilobyte]

Reading the thread, it seems much less an attempt to try and educate future new participants and much more like a series of complaints and gripes because experience and expectations were out of alignment.

Given that early arrivals are granted to specific teams and projects (art build crews, theme camps, etc), participants who are either experienced burners or novices should probably be looking to their team leaders for guidance and the setting of expectations (though I highly recommend going in with little to none in that department). If you have an issue with that guidance and any expectations that were set, you should discuss that with the group leader.

[Savannah]

Page three and I STILL have no new information on Bliss's ass mole. I thought eplaya meant ANSWERS!

[sparr]

Mislead by whom?

The people who write the early arrival documentation and rules. I'm not sure how this answer wasn't readily apparent to you from the first two posts in the thread.

[Meat Hunter]

Oh gosh......

[Captain Goddammit]

Did BRC get built? Was it fun enough to be worth building?
When either answer is "No" then something is wrong.

Good god man. Have some Kool-Aid.

[Token]

Embrace the outlaw life or stay home.

[The Rod]

[media]

[AntiM]

[media]

[The Rod]

Right on! We're getting off to a good start on my "early arrival party 2016" playlist.



We are going to PARTY!

[The Rod]

[media]

[AntiM]

The Song Remains the Same...

[media]

Thread drift, I need to find my mod hat, I think.

[mudpuppy000]

[media]

[ygmir]

[media]

[mgb327]

Well crap.... I've been going for years and have been mislead and confused every year....wouldn't have it any other way.....