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I’m off to the desert! I’ll be at Burning Man until the evening of the 7th. Don’t expect any posts or anything in the mean time, though there is the possibility I could hit a terminal and get online for a few minutes.

If you need to get ahold of me, well, don’t bother, it probably won’t work. Email is your best bet, I’ll try to check it once during the week, and again when I’m back in California after the event.

Again, if you are going, find me at Pandora’s Matchbox, 3:30 and Mercury!

The past few days have been very busy for me. I had my birthday on the 14th, and that was a lot of fun. Most of my friends were out of town, but my upstairs neighbors Colleen and Tracy were kind enough to make us dinner. Then we sat around in their apartment and drank wine for 9 hours. It was lots of fun! They are great people, and are getting married next year up in Canada, we’ll be trying to make the trip up for that.

Madalene got me a whole round of little gifts, including goodies for the desert like aloe and handy-wipes. She also replaced my favorite mushroom book ever, “All the Rain Promises, and More…” which was stolen along with my Timbuk2 bag a while ago. I was sorely missing it, but no longer! She also took me out shopping for BM stuff, and helped me go through my lists.

Burning Man preparations are moving along full tilt. I’ve arranged for all my major needs, and my minor needs are coming along well. Today I need to buy a big duffle bag, one that will hold my stilts, because I realized that there is a large community of stilt-walkers like myself at Burning Man, and that I should bring my stilts if I want to get in on that. In fact, some people even build bars that are up really high so that only stilters can use them.

I built a set of goggles utilizing my polarizing film. They work great. They give me a huge bug-eyed look that is pretty interesting, and the lenses rotate to adjust the tint. I can go from quite clear to nearly opaque with just a twist of my wrist. They may get some LED enhancement soon, depending on how much time I’ve got available.

I was originally intending on flying with my fire spinning equipment, just packaging it very tightly so that the residual fuel doesn’t escape. I do know people who have successfully done that. However, a friend of mine recently had his poi taken away on a flight. They were in his checked luggage, they detected the faintest chemical signature of fuel, opened his stuff up, and confiscated the poi. A damn shame! So this time I’m packaging up my fire gear and handing it off to a friend who is taking a vehicle out. Its a small package, but it will give me some peace of mind to not have it on the plane with me waiting to get confiscated.

I brewed a batch of beer on Saturday with Drew from work. We both took the day off to make the batch, though we were technically ‘on the clock’ while making it. Why? Because on October 7th we are presenting Science on Tap, the first of a new series of adult programs for the Science Center. We’ll be presenting at the Schlafly brewery here in town. The evening includes dinner, an open beer bar, an hour long presentation/demonstration (not a lecture, fully interactive!) about the science of beer and brewing. Then after our presentation, the participants get a full tour of the brewery, getting a chance to see the science in action. Its going to be lots of fun, what with all the science and the drinking. Tickets are $35 a head, and selling out fast. If things go well (they will) then we’ll be doing additional programs about wine and other fun things (maybe do one at a distillery?).

Thanks to my parents who sent me some fun stuff for my birthday, including a great sarong for when I don’t feel like wearing pants, and a duct tape wallet. They also sent me soap that is shaped like a slug. Grotesque. Clearly my mother’s idea. I’ll still wash with it though.

Sorry for the deluge of random information, but I’ve got more work to do.

I’ve become pretty seriously addicted to a show called Good Eats. Supposedly it broadcasts on the Food Network, but I really don’t know. Probably six different people have independently recommended this show to me because they know I like science, cooking, and have a sense of humor.

I normally have mixed feelings about cooking shows. In my mind, I see a pretentious chef-school chef who has access to equipment and ingredients I’ve never heard of who in 24 minutes produces something I’d probably never eat, and couldn’t cook if I wanted to because of their quick treatment and step skipping. Now, I’ve seen a few that I’ve liked, but I never got that into them.

Good Eats, on the other hand, is right up my alley. The host, Alton Brown, is interested in keeping food simple, and prefers ingredients that are available to everyone. He even has shots of himself at the local restaraunt supply store or grocery store picking up the items. He also avoids recipes. Like myself, he feels that cooking should be an experiment, and that once you’ve got the basic idea of how to cook something, you can freely branch off on your own. He’s also a pretty silly, lighthearted guy, which is something I can relate to.

But most importantly, he describes some of the science behind the cooking. Instead of just telling you to do something, or worse, assuming you already know the technique, he shows you why a certain technique is important. He might use a Hoberman Sphere toy to demonstrate the molecular structure of bubbles in whipped cream, or puppets to describe how fat and water interact in a french fry. He even has food scientists and physicists appear on the show to explain certain properties of foods. I’m big on the ‘why’ of things, and I don’t feel comfortable using a cooking technique that I don’t understand. When you understand the why of the technique, the how often becomes apparent.

His simple, yet quality productions show you a basic recipe that includes all the correct techniques, setting you on the right direction for all your own experimentation.

Due to my aquisition of a large pile of his episodes, the last few days have been a cooking bonanza. I’ve made a few things based on his suggestions, but I’m now thinking more carefully about all of the things I cook, and imagining ways to improve techniques based on what is actually happening during the cooking process. We’ve made fish and chips, bruschetta, omelets, salsa, and had brownies in just the past few days. There is a reason my friend Barb calls this stuff ‘Food Porn’.

As you can see, I’m pretty pleased with Mr. Brown and his show. If you have the Food Network, you can probably just watch it. However, his shows are also available on DVD, or if you are an enterprising soul, you can download them via BitTorrent.

Its decided, I’m going to Burning Man! After a few years of trying and failing, I’m finally definately for real going to Burning Man this year. I bought my plane ticket today, my BM ticket is lined up and ready to go, and all I need to do is pack my bags and high-tail it to the desert.

For those who aren’t aware, Burning Man is a 7-day festival/event held in the Black Rock desert in Nevada. The desert is completely devoid of life, and hundreds of miles from civilization. Unlike sandy deserts, the Black Rock desert is a hard packed alkaline flat, left behind after a large body of water evaporated hundreds of thousands of years ago. Facetiously called the ‘playa’ (pronounced ‘plai-uh’, not ‘play-yuh’) which is Spanish for ‘beach’, the climate is extreme. The temperatures reach over 100F during the day, and can drop into the 40s at night. With no bodies of water or biomass to regulate the temperature, the climate is much like you’d find on Mars. Dry and calm, with occasional dust storms and fierce winds. Even the alkali soil has it in for you, being strongly basic and tending to eat through skin and unprotected items.

Why would you want to go to a place like this? Because for 7 days, Black Rock City springs from the ground as over 30,000 people flock to the desert. As tents and shelters and buildings are set up, neighborhoods form, streets appear, and the hustle and bustle rivals any major city in the world. Artists come from around the world to display art installations that are either inappropriate, or unsuitable for the regular world. A celebration of creativity, people dress how they want, show off their art, regardless of how strange or big or dangerous, and have a good time. The desert is a blank canvas that any number of amazing things can happen upon.

At the end of the week, a gigantic, towering sculpture of a human form is burned (hence the name). Other artists join the fray and set their artwork aflame. On the last day, people clean up their camps, and return to their lives. Burning Man is a Leave No Trace event, which is taken very seriously. Camps pack in, and pack back out every little thing they bring, each piece of trash, and even used greywater. When artwork is burned, it is placed on large raised platforms to prevent scorching the fragile earth. With everyone working together, you could come back after the event is done, and not realize anything had even happened there.

Burning Man is an escape for many people, and one important feature is that no commercial activity is allowed at Burning Man. You will see no corporate advertisements (or even non-corporate ones), you will not have to sell anything, or pressured to buy anything. The only things for sale are ice and coffee, which are available at one special camp in the center of town, and proceeds from the sales are given to the local communities who live on the fringes of Black Rock, the people who’s ‘backyard’ the event is held in. Just being away from advertising for a few days is a unique sort of vacation that I’m looking very forward to.

I recall a humorous story I heard once about a tax assesor visiting Burning Man to investigate tax violations. It was assumed that with so many people in one place, lots of untaxed commerce was probably occuring. However, when the tax assessor arrived, he saw no monetary transactions. In his report, he humorously noted that the only transactions he saw were to the effect of, “One massage traded for one game of miniature golf” and “five grapefruits exchanged for a body painting.” With no transactions, there were no violations, and nothing to tax.

Survival is difficult in the desert, and Burning Man publishes a very detailed survival guide outlining what you need while in the desert. You need to prepare for bitter cold, and blazing heat, prepare for rain or shine, and have structures that can handle the intense winds and dust storms the desert is apt to experience. People dehydrate fast, and everyone is expected to bring at least 2 gallons of water per person per day for drinking and cooking, more if you plan to take a shower or something. People take care of each other, but people are also expected to come with survival in mind, ready to take care of their needs in the harsh environment.

Anyway, I’m pretty excited, and I hope to have a great time. I’ll be leaving St. Louis on the evening of August 27th (a Friday), and flying to San Jose, CA. There I’ll meet up with some good friends of mine, and we’ll ride together into Nevada. After the event we’ll ride back to California together, and I’ll catch a flight back home on the morning of September 7th (a Tuesday). More friends will be arriving by school bus (modified for habitation, and for running on pure vegetable oil instead of regular diesel fuel), and friends from St. Louis will be arriving via rented truck and trailer. I haven’t seen many of these friends in over two years, and I can’t imagine a better opportunity to spend some time with them. If you are going, look for me on the playa!

The other day I took a bike ride with Madalene and Barb. The ride was fun, but it served to alert me to the poor mechanical condition of my bike. Its a nice bike, a GT aluminum frame mountain bike with a Shimano STX drive train, hard tail, and hard fork. However, the bike had been purchased used and the previous owner had unceremoniously sanded the paint off. This uglified the bike quite a bit, serving to protect it from theft, thankfully.

The bike has been given some hard use, including single track downhill, urban curb assault, hard trail riding, and even some river fording and surf riding. All of these things add up to a great amount of wear on a bike. My derailleurs are sadly out of alignment, and in great need of overhaul. The brakes were shredded, and also in need of overhaul. The cables are rusted and the housings are coming apart. My front hub was dry as a bone, having been thoroughly infiltrated with water and grit from the river fording. The whole bike creaked and ground as I rode it, and if you know anything about the mechanical world, you know that noise = friction, and friction = wear. I replaced the chain a while back because the original one broke. You are supposed to replace all your cogs and chainrings at the same time as the chain, but I couldn’t do this for cost reasons, so the new chain is having its way with the old cogs, shredding them at a furious rate.

I’ve also noticed a grinding sound coming from the crank, indicating that the bottom bracket has probably been infiltrated in the same way as the hubs. Unfortunately, that will require the purchase of some tools for me to properly overhaul. Also, I’ve noticed that the cogs on the rear cassette wobble back and forth now. Not cool. Oh well, that cassette was probably due for replacement anyway. I just hope that the hub is OK.

One thing about working on a bike, or any mechanical thing, really, is that if you fix one thing, it results in a cascade of stuff you have to do to complete the repair. For instance, my bike works at the moment, but if I investigate the rear hub, I may find that the cogs are shot, and that I need to replace the cassette. Then, as I’m opening the cassette, I may find that the freehub is damaged. If the freehub is damaged I’ll need a new hub, but if I replace the hub I’ll need to use new spokes and buy a new rim, since its not a good idea to reuse rims of this age. Of course, I won’t know for sure until I actually dismantle it. Risky business. The same is true with nearly all of the bike. If I replace the cables and housings (which should be pretty easy) I may find that the derailleur is too far gone and needs to be replaced too.

I’m going slowly, overhauling bit by bit as I move over the bike, hoping to get it all working with a minimal cost outlay (so far, 5$ for hub cones, 1.50$ for bearings and a few dollars for tools, not too bad).

Tonight I overhauled the front hub (easier than I expected, though touchy to adjust), and overhauled the front brake calipers, fully readjusting the brakes on the way. Unfortunately, my front rim is out of true, meaning I couldn’t perfectly adjust the brakes, having to live with some extra slack to make up for the wobbling wheel. Thats another thing I have to learn how to do, true up wheels… That was my goal for tonight. The next step is overhauling the rear brakes, and doing a full adjustment of the derailleurs. Then I replace the cables and housings. Then cassettes and rear wheels, then chain rings and the bottom bracket. Then headset, stem and shift/brake levers. Then, uh, I hope that will be it!

I’ve found that working on my bike is fairly enjoyable. It requires several specialized tools, which annoys me, but the fact that the entire workings are visible to me makes it enjoyable to work it over, just getting greasy, and feeling worn, gritty parts turn to smoothly operating machines with your gentle touch. I recommend it! Its actually quite easy to get into bike maintenance on your own. Nearly anyone can do basic things like adjusting brakes, replacing tires and chains, lubricating and cleaning parts, and so on. The basic tune up offered by your local bike shop is something that nearly anyone can do if they try. Then, its just a quick jump to doing more advanced work, like rebuilding hubs and overhauling brake systems. You may find yourself doing nearly all the work on your bike short of things like wheel truing that require specialized tools. And maybe you’ll even find yourself doing those things! Its certainly addictive.

For an excellent shop manual, I recommend this Barnett’s manual that is available online in PDF form. The entire manual is over 300 double sided pages, and is incredibly detailed. You can find it at the BikeForums.net Mechanics forum. The entire forum is actually a great resource, with loads of information discussed in the past and available through the ‘search’ function, and lots of helpful people who will try to answer your questions for you. You can also check out books from your local library that will get you started on basic bike mechanic’in. Enjoy!