errantember

This year's Flipside was the closest it's ever come to feeling like I'd had a bad time overall, but the ending saved it. One major realization that I had was that Rangering graveyard (2 AM to 8 AM) is pretty un-fun, because no one is awake and none of the art is running. It's nice because it's cooler and not much happens, but that second part is pretty boring. It's choosing to walk around a really exciting event at the least interesting time. And the you have to sleep until 2 PM to be functional. Next year I will sign up for different shifts.

Part of it was timing, too. Although I only spent 20% of my Flipside waking hours doing volunteer/setup work, it was *all* right at the beginning of the event. While there was a lot of satisfaction involved, there wasn't really much fun, and three days without fun is a long time at Flipside.

There was one really, really fun thing that *did* happen in

gailmom's yurt that actually resulted in visible steam rising from various orifices afterward. :)

The new infrastructure we made for Circle of Fire rocked, and we're already getting better at deployment and teardown. Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen.

I had several close encounters with the Bad Side of Recreational Pharmaceuticals, with fairly far-reaching consequences to several people I cared about. This almost but not-quite ruined my Saturday night, but I was finally able to talk myself into having a good time for few hours before I went to bed. In the end everybody was ok, but it was a poignant reminder that many of us put things into ourselves originating from points unknown, and that there are risks associated with those kinds of choices.

Sunday night totally rocked and pretty much made up for everything else. I knew everyone was safe, all my responsibilities were done, and I partied 'till dawn. I did fire safety rather than perform in the processional, which I though went very well this year. I got a *massive* crick in my neck from watching the fabulous fireworks from point-blank range, and I think DAFT did an amazing job creating meaning with the Freak even without fire. My final goodbye to Freakalicious Safari was to take a paper cup that was in my pocket from Elysium and throw it into the burn barrel at Art Car Camp, unifying two of my favorite sacred places.

Hexayurts brought out by my X-tended Krew, including mine,

worldmegan and

gailmom's all performed wonderfully, much to my relief. I tracked the indoor/outdoor temperature inside mine, and the inside of the yurt tracked 6 degrees below the outdoor temperature in the *shade* during the day, and kept me warmer at night. The highest indoor temperature was around 90. I was able to sleep reliably until 1:30 - 2:00 PM. My ridge vent seemed to work well, and kept out the rain when lowered during a torrential downpour. The final major upgrade I feel mine needs is some kind of solar-powered air mover. Even a fairly small fan would have made it comfortable even during the hottest parts of the day. I will endeavor to install one before Decompression and/or Orfunner. I've also considered a passive heat tower, but I doubt that would work well at Burning Man. Then again, at Burning Man, you can use a mister instead.

The hexayurt bug has *definitely* caught on at Flipside. There were at *least* 10 of them this year, and there may have been as many as 20. It's Your Birthday camp even had a small theater constructed out of R-MAX, one of the many air conditioned yurts at the event.

By the time I got up on Monday at 12:30 PM, all the COF infrastructure was already down, and all I had to do was stash my own gear and hang out until everybody left to do a final moop-walk as the COF Earth Guardian. Thanks to everyone who helped MOOP, the area was nearly spotless.