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radiantsun tells me that our Ephemerisle Event Liability Waiver will include clauses like:I understand that during Ephemerisle, art installations, theme camps, vehicles (including but not limited to 'mutant vehicles' and 'art cars') and performances will be held and/or on display and I understand that these activities are not owned or operated by Ephemerisle and I assume all risks of injury or death arising from their operation.Hmm, looks familiar...
I acknowledge and fully understand that as a participant, I will be engaging in activities that involve risk of serious injury, including permanent disability and death, property loss and severe social and economic losses. These risks include, but are not limited to, those caused by: (a) the actions, inactions or negligence of Ephemerisle, participants, volunteers, spectators, event officials and organizers; (b) conditions of the premises or equipment used; (c) rules and regulations regarding the activities; (d) temperature; (e) weather; (f) condition of participants; and, (g) vehicular traffic. I further acknowledge and fully understand that there may also be other risks that are not known or foreseeable at this time. I KNOWINGLY AND VOLUNTARILY ASSUME ALL RISK OF PROPERTY LOSS, PERSONAL INJURY, SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH, WHICH MAY OCCUR BY ATTENDING Ephemerisle 2009 AND HEREBY FOREVER RELEASE, DISCHARGE AND HOLD Ephemerisle HARMLESS FROM ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM SUCH RISK, EVEN IF ARISING FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OF Ephemerisle, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS OR REPRESENTATIVES, OR BY THIRD PARTIES, AND I ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY AND LIABILITY FOR MY PARTICIPATION.
- Music:Voices - Disturbed
Should have been shallower. I wonder whether the death was due to bad luck or stupidity.
One of my (many) favorite parts about bman09 was all the opportunities to get acrobatic. Going around almost naked during the day helped me feel very physical, and I often felt playful, and for me playful + physical = acrobatic. My favorite kind of acrobatics is playing with new structures or devices that enable new hacks and moves, and so I love things like playing on the slide.
Here's the website, and here are burning man-specific instructions. Maybe I can combine my pyramids w/ a hexayurt next year and make a swinging hexayurt :).
crasch's truck and am a giving guy, we took lots of people's stuff there and even more people's stuff back. Since I worry a lot about safety and car accidents, the drives both way were pretty stressful for me, driving such a loaded vehicle.I have some notes & tons of stories, not sure how many I'll find time to post. It took me some time to really get into the event (psychedelics made a huge difference), but I had fun the whole time. It was a great experience of growth and challenges. I have many glorious bruises & scrapes from building, carrying, and acrobatics. It was weird in that I hadn't Burned w/o a significant other since 2000 or so, but I also had never Burned w/ so many friends before.
My pyramids not only worked, they worked way better than I expected. Get this: I started out suspending the platform just a foot above the ground, hanging from the three pyramids, because I didn't trust the structure yet and wanted to test it in a way where if it fell, it wouldn't fall far.
What happens when you suspend a triangle from its three endpoints by 5 feet of rope? It swings. What happens when the entire triangle (except a small space at the end of each point) is taken up by a queen-sized air mattress? It turns out that Patri has inadvertently built...a swinging bed.
It was just too cool to change, so after a day at the low level (where I did some brief handstands on the very challenging swinging platform) I jacked it up to about 2-3 feet off the ground, and left it there the rest of the time. It didn't get a lot of "use", but it was still super-fun to have.
My pictures aren't great,
crasch took some better ones, but here is the album and a sample pic after I took off the tarp (that made it into a pseudo-tent) and people were playing with it before I took it down: |
| From Burning Man 2009 |
Also, I was worried about the tension/compression elements of the structure (will the pyramids break? the ropes?), and I thought the platform would be straightforward. It turns out that I should have had more faith in tension/compression - the reason it's awesome (and the reason I was doing it), is that it is so strong. The tension & compression elements kicked ass, while the platform required reinforcement. It's still going to be insane to take this unstable, tension structure and float it in the water at Ephemerisle. Fortunately, I am insane in that way. No idea if it will work, but if it does, it will be awesome.
Anyway, lots of amazing art, lots of great random stuff happened, met lots of great people, did lots of great hanging out w/ friends, generally a great time. But a lot of work, and I am very glad to be home w/ my family, out of the dust, amidst civilized infrastructure, etc.
I think I will probably not go next year b/c we will probably go to Pennsic as a family and Burning also would be too much travel/vacation. Plus, amazing though it is, my mind only needs so much blowing / expansion, and it gets that other ways, so it really isn't something I need every year. But 6 years between Burns was too much, I think.
Ok, I could go on all day w/ thoughts and stories, I'll take a break for now.
Unfortunately I was still finishing building my platform (two 8' long 4' wide triangular pieces) as the Singularity University folk (camping with us, needed some extra space) people were loading their gear, and I didn't realize that the nicest way to load these triangular pieces was blocked by how they loaded their stuff.
I was thinking of just sticking them on top of the pile of stuff, but it seems dangerous to have heavy wood on top of a pile. I'm wrapping everything in a tarp burrito, but this wood is easily heavy enough to tear through the tarp if it gets some momentum. So I would feel a lot safer with the triangles in nicely (along the sides), and they would form nice walls for the rest of the pile of stuff, which is boxes & bikes that a tarp can contain better. Hmm. Well, safety first, so I guess we're doing some reloading in the morning...
But all my stuff is built (except for some finishing work that can be done on playa), packed and loaded into the pickup truck! Only 1:30am...not too shabby! Time for 7hrs sleep, then ADVENTURE!
I brought way too much stuff. Power tools. Why the hell am I bringing power tools? Oh well, at least I'll be really popular if someone happens to need them...
So do not expect to see much in the way of posting, responding to comments / email, whatever, from me, until I return from Burning Man a week from Sunday. And of course, you shouldn't post anything exciting to LJ while the burners are away :).
If you are headed to the playa, come find me in the afternoons at 9:00 & Fossil at Future Camp. Seasteading/Ephemerisle Salons will be 3PM Thu/Fri.
I think I've brought way too much (gluten-free, lactose-free, citrus-free, vinegar-free, soy-free...) food, so if you are on a similar diet, stop by for a meal!
I look at it this way: seasteading is a DIY movement, ephemerisle is a DIY festival. If I can't/won't DIY some cool shit, then I'm a shitty leader. I may be a man of words, thinking/talking/writing are my specialties, but even though I'm bad at building stuff, I also need to lead by example, to get my hands dirty and get scraped up while creating things. If I want people to contribute cool art and structures to the festival, I should contribute cool art and structures.
(Although, Chicken John says in this video that Larry Harvey never picked up a hammer in his life to help with building the man).
Here are some pictures of my work so far:
oliana0's advice to find a way to make the symmetrical cut the other way, by rotating the wood instead of the saw.A clever thing is all my rotating of wood and propping up of wood is done with the sections I cut off already. I have all these 30-60-90 triangular bits from cutting 30 or 60 degrees off the end of each 2x4. A pair of them makes a rectangle which then slides to make a larger rectangle of whatever height I want, duct taped at the right spot. And a single triangle makes a perfect prop to rotate my 2x4. Since all the angles I am dealing with are 30/60/90 for all my cuts, the triangles I cut off are the perfect size to rotate the wood for the next cut.
Turns out I made my 1 3d cut Saturday wrong, I cut off 60 instead of 30, would have needed 6 2x4s to come together at the apex instead of 3! So that beam is scrap.
Anyway, I've only made 1 of my 24 cuts for this stage, and these cuts are a bit longer b/c I have to mark each beam, but I think I can do 'em all w/ the equipment I have, and it's a lovely day to work outside, so I am psyched to go pound 'em out. (Came in for a level and a glass of water and to write this!)
Eggs, Beef, Pork, Shellfish, Peanuts, Citrus, Strawberries, Vinegar, Chocolate, Alcohol, Corn, Soy.
Gluten & Dairy come after all the above, ie, not for a month or two.
So, the ones that jump out at me are: eggs, beef, citrus, and maybe alcohol. Those have been the most annoying. Followed by vinegar, since it is in lots of sauces. In some order, (chocolate, pork, shellfish, strawberries). Corn & Soy last because I rarely eat them.
Anyway, I guess I can try two of (eggs, beef, citrus, alcohol) before BM. If I do beef, then I can have paleokits. I get the feeling I'm gonna be living on nuts and paleokits all week...maybe dried fruit? Not much that is on this diet, and doesn't need cooking / keeps.
Here's the complete list of mind expanding events at Future Camp
Plans include:
* Future Salon on seasteading some afternoon (1-5pm)
* Maybe do daily "camp hours" for anyone who wants to come chat about seasteading
* Maybe setup a booth some of the time to advertise Ephemerisle ("Salt Water Shots!", or something like that.)
* Recharge my creative psychedelic hedonism festival juices.
Plans do not include:
* Significant pre-event prep
* Any art project besides what is named above
choiceful's willingness to man the fort at home, and thisisjeff's extra ticket, it looks like I am going to Burning Man! It's been a long time, and I'm psyched to rejuvenate my sense of craziness and the indomitable creativity of the human spirit. And hopefully do some TSI-related networking too.Dunno where I am camping yet. One thing I'm thinking of doing, to help it be a more networking event, is to have "office hours" - commit to being in camp 4pm-7pm every day or something, so I can be there for people to visit. Maybe that is not in the spirit of the event, but whatever, one reason for me to go is to meet lots of people I know (IRL or online) who are going and who I don't otherwise get to see, and this should help facilitate that.
I will prob do the event minimalist style - just bring the bare necessities for survival, plus a bunch of costumes. We'll see. Or maybe at the last minute I'll get the battery and solar panels and charging circuitry out of storage and have a lava lamp in front of my tent. You never know :).
Shannon & I really want to go to Pennsic, so we have put it on the calendar well in advance to plan it for next year. It's a really kid-friendly event (compared to Burning Man, at least), so we'll bring Tovar, which should be fun, and good for blowing the minds of those whose model of Patri does not include his name being literal. And maybe if we are really on the ball, we will be able to arrange for Tovar to hang out with one of his sets of grandparents so that S&I can go to Burning Man or Ephemerisle next year. (This year I will go to Ephemerisle alone, and S&T will stay home).
Stay tuned for updates.
UPDATE: Let me know where you're camping!
Like too many others, I've generally had a poor balance between
ideas and implementation, as a friend helped me realize this year.
The former is so easy and the latter is so much hard work, but
ultimately much more rewarding. This summers Burning Man festival
provided a fabulous excuse to push things in the right direction.
Lots more info and lovely pictures to be found here:
2002
Burning Man Balloon Project
Labor day approaches, my adrenaline flows, and thoughts turn, as always, towards the playa. After last years Burning Man festival, Brian Johnson and I decided that while costumes and little projects were fun, we'd come back if and only if we had something really cool to do. So we are planning to lift participants ~100ft above the desert with helium balloons - just like you dreamed when you were a kid (which is what BM is all about...). We are conducting our tests now, and have received preliminary approval from the BM organization. Details and pictures to follow later, probably after we've returned.
For a little while, I was feeling unsure about whether to devote lots of effort to this project when I have bigger, longer-term projects that are more important to me. Its just for fun, and I feel like I spend lots of time having fun already. But reflection today changed my mind. After all, my long-term goals involve trying to safely push the boundaries of engineering in a harsh environment, which pretty much describes the balloon project. And it has something my long-term goals lack, namely immediate feedback. When you have big dreams, it can be hard to feel like you are making progress on them, which is frustrating.
It may not be changing the world, but if all goes well, in 2 weeks my friends and I will be soaring above a desert where anything seems possible, a canvas on which people's dreams are annually painted. Seeing a multitude of crazy visions come to life cannot help but inspire those of us who seek to mold reality. So even if all we get from the next few weeks is a deep conviction that the limits to human ingenuity are few, I believe our efforts will have been amply rewarded.
After a long interlude, I've decided to attempt a return to purple hair (although not a mohawk this time). In preparation, Katy bleached the hell out of my hair this weekend. The result, while just an intermediate stage, looks rather amusing:
I just got a 1U rackmounted server that I'm planning to colocate for ~$70/mo, which I can then use for all sorts of exciting high-bandwidth always on applications. I've had lots of ideas about fun things to do with net servers that just ain't practical over DSL. Getting unix running on it is somewhat stretching my technical abilities, which is a little frustrating but at least its proving a useful learning experience.
Two of my plans for the summer involved visiting Costa Rica and taking Spanish classes. It seems I can combine them by going to an immersive language school in San Jose, Costa Rica for 1-4 weeks. Since its in the capital, I'd also be able to play in the juicy local no-limit poker game a few days a week. A positive addition to my thoughts on moving to CR is the success of their libertarian party in the latest election, (6 out of 55 members of congress). I am still torn about expatriation, as I wrote to a friend recently:
I am torn between being deeply bothered by supporting things that I find repugnant, and the fact that my whole life is here: my friends, my family - my community. I vacillate between feeling as though I cannot, in good conscience, remain here, and feeling as though I can't leave. Reading newspapers always puts me in in the first mode, and time spent immersed in my life and ignoring world events in the second. I have seriously considered moving to Costa Rica, but as yet I have not found the strength to actually do so. Do I not have the courage of my convictions, or am I being realistic and practical?
For now I am taking steps to make an eventual move possible, but doing so fairly slowly.
The annual Burning Man festival is coming up at the end of august. Last year my friend Brian and I decided that we would return this year if and only if we had a cool project. Inspired by the Cluster Ballooning website</a>, our plan is to bring enough helium and balloons to lift a person and some ballast into the air, using a paragliding harness (with integrated parachute). The person would be tethered for safety, of course. Since the theme this year is the desert as ocean, we are thinking of using EL wire to decorate the cluster as a giant jellyfish (running a power line up the tether). Carl & I did some preliminary investigation and think it could be done for $5K or so. I just hope those F-16's don't buzz the camp low again this year, that could be dangerous...
I spent 2 weeks this month at the annual World Series of Poker in vegas, where I played 4 tournaments, reaching 11th (out of ~420) in one of them, my highest WSOP finish to date. Woohoo! The championship event starts monday, wish me luck!
After a period of more than 6 months without a major project to work on, I've reluctantly admitted that I should get a job. Being a dilettante is great fun, but I could use some more structure in my life, to help me get work done. I'm going to try to get a half-time job this fall, something that I can telecommute to which involves fun programming and/or working on something whose goals I approve of. Until then, though, I'm gonna stick with the usual mishmash of missions, potluck of projects, and tons 'o travelling :).
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