Burning Man

I recently did something cool. I went to Burning Man.

My wife and sister went last year, and after they came back they wanted to go again. I was on the fence for awhile about joining them since I didn't think it was my scene. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I shouldn't close my world off to potentially amazing experiences because they don't fit my preconceived notions I have about what I think I like to do. So I went, and I'm glad I did.

Looking good!

The past few months were spent gathering supplies, making costumes, and preparing for a week of radical self-reliance. Since nothing is sold at Burning Man (except coffee and ice), you have to bring everything with you and plan to take it back out with you (except pee and poo). After plenty of prep we began the long drive up to Sacramento to drop off the progeny with her grandparents. Then we drove through Reno and turned north towards the barren dry lake-bed that gets turned into the most creative city in the world for one week a year.

Our house for the week

We arrived during a brutal dust storm and after 6 hours of waiting made it to our camp. We camped with a group camp that my sister & wife had been a part of. It was a pretty eclectic group, but everything about burning man seems to be built upon eclecticity (and not electricity, since there is no power).

Out on the playa

The cool part of the event is that everyone does something unique and creative, and it's all done as a gift to the community. Some Canadians put up a street hockey rink for anyone to come play. Another camp brought trampolines to jump on. There was a bike repair camp, a camp that gave out poutine at midnight, a camp that would take glamour shots of your genitals and hundreds more. They pretty much had it all. And there was no shortage of camps that ran bars and were out in the dusty streets recruiting people to partake in all the booze you could guzzle.

Nighttime on the playa

While wandering the various camps was fun, the real joy was going out into the desert where the Man is and so are all the great art installations. At nighttime the the barren desert becomes awash with neon lights, thumping beats, bikes and art cars which are almost impossible to tell they were at one time vehicles.

One of the art cars

The amassing of so much culture and art, with an expectation of it being all temporary and there to be experienced made me really see why immediacy is such an important component of the event. I really tried to embrace as much of the event as I could, and try some things I've never done (I went rock climbing!), do some things that were right up my ally (the canned fish/meats symposium was terrific!), and still avoided other events (shoving guacamole ingredients up your butt and pooping out fresh guac - I'm not making that up). I guess I have a reason to go back.

Craft Corner 2

It's been almost 5 years since my last Craft Corner, and I'm sure plenty of readers have been anxiously waiting for the next installment.

This was a big craft project. I refinished the surface of an antique table over the course of the past two weeks.

The original table:

After sanding the table down with 100, 120 and 220 grit sand paper and filling in the cracks and gaps between the boards.

Applying some Tung oil to the sanded table to bring out the color:

The finished table after 3 coats of polyurethane. 

I kept most of the distress marks, which I think adds character to the table. Even though it's sanded perfectly smooth, most of the cut marks on the corner appear to be gouges but are actually just visual, and the table is beautifully smooth.

I'm pleased with the project. Big shout out to my cousin Shawn who gave me some much appreciated advice!

Craft Corner

I'm not really much of a how-to blogger, but this is a cool thing that I haven't really seen around.

Basically, it's a pencil holder made out of discarded beer cans.

All I did was take a can opener and cut away the top of the can. Our can opener cuts at just the right angle that there isn't a sharp edge on it. I first used it to put utensils in at thanksgiving dinner and it would be a great place to keep a toothbrush.

It's for those drunks that like to keep things organized.