I'm not camping at the potties!

It seems this year the potties are between D&E (if I believe a map I saw recently - see above), so I updated my earlier blog: people.tribe.net/btd/blog/...750eed0536 It's probably safest to say I'll be camped 1 block out from the D/E/F potties on 3:30 as near to the intersection as I can. My current estimate is:
• 3:30 & Freshwater

I nice to see (assuming the above pre-event map to be true) the two sets of potties on each spoke street:
• Desert → Estuary (although Estuary → Freshwater on 5:30, 6:00, 6:30)
• Intertidal → Jungle

Basic needs are essential, but camping in potty space would be no fun!

More karaoke

After my work out and shopping, I remember Wednesday's is Karaoke, but I was a little later so I only got two songs in:
• "Living on a prayer" (originally by Bon Jovi) - wow, difficult ending
• "Hey Stoopid" (originally by Alice Cooper)

I was a little surprised to see my drink (sprite) get cleaned away after I'd finished the last song, but since they were closing up and there was only one song after me, maybe that shouldn't have been much of a surprise!

This week another couple of guys were there too.

Where to find my camp? Where to find your camp?

Having a number of people ask me where will I be camped... I thought instead of my usual turning up, and camping where feels nice, choosing even the side of the city based on the lesser traffic as I leave the greeters, I took a look at my previous years (see above photo)

I notice I've not camped between 4:30 → 7:30 and that suits me fine, it all seems pretty crowded whenever I've visited friends there, and the porta-potties level of use (or abuse) show the density of the population there.

Similarly 9:00 → 10:00 and 2:00 → 3:00 seems to have lots of good places to visit (especially at night), so the potties in those areas seem to get their fair share of use.

I think you see where I'm going with this.

Yes, I have found that the porta-potties at 3:30, 4:00, 8:00, and 8:30 seem to be the nicest, least disgusting by the morning. Basic needs are important to me.

So, back to my map... I see the 7:30 → 9:00 has been camped at 3 times, and 3:00 → 4:00 only twice. There's a nice slot at 3:30, and I feel about Estuary is good: it's close to the potties, but not within sniffing distance! I want close due to an incident in 2005 when I was between Esplanade and "A" and the potties were too far away for my upset stomach. Not a pleasant experience!

So... I'll be at 3:30 & Estuary (see update below) - look for my aluminum trailer: www.dongrays.com/images/view.cgi
although I might not bring it, it depends on if my brother chooses to come (or not).
If you cannot find me, look me up at Playa Info!
BUT.... I only intend to be at my place between 4am → 9am sleeping, waking, getting ready to go out (but feel free to wake me, even at 6am - it's Burningman for heavens sake), and 6pm → 8pm, as I eat and get ready for night time spectaculars.

But please, if you know, add a comment where you'll be camped this year.

THANX

An UPDATE: According to a map I found, it seems 3:30 & Estuary ARE the potties, so I'll actually be at 3:30 & Freshwater. But pre-event maps are often inaccurate, so it'll simply be easier to say I'll be one block out from the D/E potties on 3:30 - as close to the intersection as I reasonably can be.

Karaoke

I went and had a great time. I was the first person to sing too!

My songlist was:
• "Hotel California" (originally by The Eagles)
• "Get The Funk Out" (originally by Extreme)
• "Beautiful" (originally by Christina Aguilera)
• "Livin' On The Edge" (originally by AeroSmith)
• "Bohemian Rhapsody" (originally by Queen)

Someone else did a really good "You Ought To Know" (originally by Alanis Morrissette).

I noticed, excluding the DJ, I was the only guy to sing.

Purpose of tribe?

A few months ago, I saw a photo from a tribe friend and wanted to compliment them. I found I could not, nor could I send them a message. I do not know why.

Last week, a tribe (so-called) friend (after some messages back and forth) sent me some harsh words and I found could not reply.

Yesterday, another friend blogged, and I wanted to congratulate them on the quotation they'd found. But I could not, nor could I send them a message (if the blog had been set to not allow comments).

In the above three, it seems I was set to "ignore".
So when I discover these tribe friends had set me to ignore I dropped them as a tribe friend.

I believe the purpose of tribe is to communicate, comment on other's photos, blogs, posts. I love it when people comment on my posts, it means I know they (hopefully) got some enjoyment from what I did, I also comment on many posts in the hope that people will comment on mine. As a friend you will notice I do this, a lot, apparently more than the average, but not as much as some people (as I've been told).

I will do this in the future, unless someone can explain why "ignore" is a friendly action.

Secondly, people who write comments to me (specifically ones intending to hurt) and then set me to ignore so I cannot reply seem childish or maybe controlling and manipulative.
If you don't want a conversation then don't write/reply. Preferable with ONE line, saying something simply about not wishing to talk about it anymore. No justifications, no final stab, no threats.

PS While it may seem you cannot send a message when someone sets "ignore", there are ways...

Pepsi Forced to Admit It's Bottling Tap Water

I was amused by this recent news www.alternet.org/environment/58604/ found via: news.google.com/news
===============================================
Pepsi Forced to Admit It's Bottling Tap Water -- Amy Goodman [August 2, 2007]

Pepsi is being forced to change the labels on its Aquafina water to admit it is tap water. But that is just the tip of the iceberg, as activists are ramping up campaigns against the water-bottling giants, Coke, Pepsi and Nestle.

The soft drink giant Pepsi has been forced to make an embarrassing admission: Its bestselling Aquafina bottled water is nothing more than tap water. Last week, Pepsi agreed to change the labels of Aquafina to indicate the water comes from a public water source. Pepsi agreed to change its label under pressure from the advocacy group Corporate Accountability International, which has been leading an increasingly successful campaign against bottled water.

In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently banned city departments from using city money to buy any kind of bottled water. In New York, local residents are being urged to drink tap water. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has passed a resolution that highlighted the importance of municipal water and called for more scrutiny of the impact of bottled water on city waste.

The environmental impact of the country's obsession with bottled water has been staggering. Each day an estimated 60 million plastic water bottles are thrown away. Most are not recycled. The Pacific Institute has estimated 20 million barrels of oil are used each year to make the plastic for water bottles.

Economically, it makes sense to stop buying bottled water as well. The Arizona Daily Star recently examined the cost difference between bottled water and water from the city's municipal supply. A half-liter of Pepsi's Aquafina at a Tucson convenience store costs $1.39. The bottle contains purified water from the Tucson water supply. From the tap, you can pour over 6.4 gallons for a penny. That makes the bottled stuff about 7,000 times more expensive, even though Aquafina is using the same water source.

... ... read more at: www.alternet.org/environment/58604/

Another bridge

This time not so funny.

A section of I-35 in Minneapolis collapsed, in rush hour, but "luckily" it was slow moving and down to single lane due to construction.
Reports say 4 died, probably many injured.

I've been on that bridge - but not too many times - when I lived in MN.

Understanding women

A man riding his Harley was riding along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said, "Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish."

The biker pulled over and said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want."

The Lord said, "Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required reaching the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind."

The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, "Lord, I wish that I and all men could understand women; I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, and how I can make a Woman truly happy."

The Lord replied, "You want two lanes or four on that bridge?"

No more spam

In looking at my email, noticing how much spam was getting past my software (spam-assassin), I then noticed it was last installed/updated in December 2004 at version 3.0.1.

Time for an update.

Now at version 3.2.2, and although I had to also upgrade a couple of other modules, the recognition tool is MUCH better, and my junk email is tagged much more effectively.

eg, over the weekend before I upgraded I got 395 messages, and it'd tagged just 40. ie about 1 in 10.
Since the upgrade it tagged 101 messages of the 140 messages that were spam. Not perfect, but I think I can increase the score threshold to improve it further, but then I have to check that any real email isn't falsely tagged as spam.
Dang!

Speedup

Over the past few weeks I have notice my desktop XP computer computer has been really rattling the hard drive when I have both browser and email program running, and on investigation it was clearly running out of real memory so was swapping (almost constantly) memory to the disk to do it all.

My computer had 256Mb RAM.
So I got 512Mb more (pity it had to be non-generic because I have a Gateway machine), which arrived Friday (I bought it online for half the price in the local store - including shipping), I installed it, and I'm very impressed how much faster everything happens now.
Yes, I would have preferred more, but the balance of need vs money had to be thought about, and tripling the memory seemed good enough!

I'm happy about it.