Flexistentialism Welcome Guest | Login or Register

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.

Feed on comments to this Post