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Joy of Missing Out
Friday, August 30th, 2024 12:17 amBetween a sudden December in Hawaii, a two-week road trip for the eclipse, and two weeks lobbying about climate change and running around the hills of West Virginia, I used up all my vacation this year and could not go to Burning Man. One consequence of this decision is that this has been probably my most laid-back non-pandemic August since 2007. "I think I'm going to screw around on the Internet this evening" feels almost transgressive when I'm used to spending a week and a half between Dragonfest and Burning Man working on a long list of things that need to be packed, and another long list of things that need to be found and then packed. (Last year I realized I had no almost no unaccounted weekends for four months.)
After my first burn in 2004 I said "That was fun, but I don't know if I'll do it every year. But I'm going to make sure that if I don't go to Burning Man, I'll do something else cool instead." Usually the other-cool thing has been on or around the same week (visiting Iceland, getting married, taking photos of DNC protests, going to Norway…), so it's extra weird having already done the cool thing, and having burn week as just an ordinary time. I played a great softball game on Tuesday, and got a blinky lights, bicycles, costumes, and electronic music experience tonight with Boulder's Happy Thursday cruiser ride.
It's been so low-key that I didn't decide what I'm doing Labor Day weekend until a couple days ago. For months I'd been considering watching a different giant wooden man get set on fire, with Zozobra marking his hundredth anniversary in Santa Fe. I wasn't excited about how the logistics were looking, and have some things going on next week that would be awkward if I was fighting COVID after hanging out with 40,000 people.
This means instead I get to spend Saturday sitting on the Gilpin/Clear Creek county line so I can double my fake Internet points for the Colorado QSO Party, a ham radio event where Colorado stations try to contact other counties plus other states and outside hams try to contact as many Colorado counties and stations as they can. I got over 40,000 points by operating from a triple-county line in West Virginia in June; I'll see if I can beat that with more power and more operating time on just a double-line. In 2021 I hung out in the NCAR parking lot and then went for a hike with my handheld and later received a certificate for first place in the Single-operator portable QRP power category with a whopping score of 36. With high enough cardinality, everyone can be a winner.
I've heard that this year's Burning Man weather has been quite pleasant, after last year's adventure with rain and mud and 2022's excessive heat and dust storms. I would've been bummed to miss the paradise built in mud last year, but I'm feeling pretty okay with missing out this year. And as we say, next year was better.
After my first burn in 2004 I said "That was fun, but I don't know if I'll do it every year. But I'm going to make sure that if I don't go to Burning Man, I'll do something else cool instead." Usually the other-cool thing has been on or around the same week (visiting Iceland, getting married, taking photos of DNC protests, going to Norway…), so it's extra weird having already done the cool thing, and having burn week as just an ordinary time. I played a great softball game on Tuesday, and got a blinky lights, bicycles, costumes, and electronic music experience tonight with Boulder's Happy Thursday cruiser ride.
It's been so low-key that I didn't decide what I'm doing Labor Day weekend until a couple days ago. For months I'd been considering watching a different giant wooden man get set on fire, with Zozobra marking his hundredth anniversary in Santa Fe. I wasn't excited about how the logistics were looking, and have some things going on next week that would be awkward if I was fighting COVID after hanging out with 40,000 people.
This means instead I get to spend Saturday sitting on the Gilpin/Clear Creek county line so I can double my fake Internet points for the Colorado QSO Party, a ham radio event where Colorado stations try to contact other counties plus other states and outside hams try to contact as many Colorado counties and stations as they can. I got over 40,000 points by operating from a triple-county line in West Virginia in June; I'll see if I can beat that with more power and more operating time on just a double-line. In 2021 I hung out in the NCAR parking lot and then went for a hike with my handheld and later received a certificate for first place in the Single-operator portable QRP power category with a whopping score of 36. With high enough cardinality, everyone can be a winner.
I've heard that this year's Burning Man weather has been quite pleasant, after last year's adventure with rain and mud and 2022's excessive heat and dust storms. I would've been bummed to miss the paradise built in mud last year, but I'm feeling pretty okay with missing out this year. And as we say, next year was better.
