Funny you should mention that, Ygmir... we were just talking about that recently, and our dear Savannah's working on revving up a thread on the subject. It's often overlooked, even though these days the Survival Guide has a nice bit of coverage on the idea. They're not just needed to survive, but to thrive (avoid crankiness and fatigue and all that). Keep your eyes open for it when it comes out, and please weigh in. I'm hopeful that people will share their experiences and help give some of the newer folks (or seasoned burners who didn't know) some ideas to help them have a better burn.
Glad to hear BettieJune had some reassurances to offer, Marty. My understanding is that Burning Man has all kinds of contingency plans that people may not realize. Remember when the man burned early in 2007? They had a backup back in SF they were able to scramble, prep, and get ready. Any good playa plan has redundancies and what-ifs worked into it. If the folks at HQ are anything like my girlfriend, the memory of that 1998 burn is so deeply ingrained that there's always a contingency plan for wet weather, or getting stranded on the playa.
I'm excited to hear that it looks like SF decom will be going down on 10/13 at the same spot in the dogpatch area of SF. I'd been hearing some rumors that the location may change, and of course that would have been Murphy's Law, now that we live in the neighborhood. It's all about stumbling distance
I was up early enough to make my way into Second Life this morning and attend the Burn2 town hall meeting. Burn2 is the virtual world regional burn, it goes down later in October, and is a lot of fun. Pandorra and I have been particpating in that event since 2008, and we love the space. They announced that camp parcels are on sale now (purchased using the in-game currency, and priced based on the size/detail of the camp space). Like other regionals, it's self-supporting, and they're looking to cover the cost of 9-12 "sims" (256 square meter chunks of virtual world space). They'll also have something like 85 plots available to give to people in the game world (which is free to play, btw) in a sort of lottery. They're also doling out space to artists and builders who submit proposals and all that, I'll avoid going full regional spammy in here lol. Anyhow, while I was at the meeting and getting the skinny on what's going on, Pandorra and I were asked to build a temple for the event! My first reaction was fright (gah!), then it was to reject the idea (oh hell no, we're already up to our eyeballs in building ziggurats in RL), then as they explained that the timetable for design and construction gave us room to finish TTITD and get back home again, Pandorra and I talked it over and agreed to give it a go. So look at us, building virtual temples!
Anyhow, it's been a busy Saturday. Painting and polycoating parts

Now it's time to refresh my
drinkelectrolyte solution and get back to work!