(The following is a compilation/extrapolation/mash-up of multiple responses I've made across the intertubes in the last 36 hours - but it should all be in one place for posterity.)



The offers of gear/rides/etc. to actually get me out to BRC this year are incredibly generous, and I thank you all. But in all honesty, it was shaping up that I wasn't going to make it this year even before this happened.



Going to Anticipation is only my fourth cross-country trip in my life, and my first ever out of the country. I have no idea what kind of recovery time I'm going to need. gridlore and I get back from Montreal on 12 Aug (our flight's scheduled to arrive SFO 2330 11 Aug, which is as near as makes no difference once you figure in Baggage Claim and travel time home). That's NINE DAYS before my standard date of departure; it's anyone's guess whether I'd even have the [spoons | action points | insert analogy here] for the drive to and from BRC, to say nothing of actually surviving the event. (I like visiting dafydd on-playa; I'd prefer not to do so as a client.)



Further, those loans come with an emotional cost, one levied exclusively within my head.



I'm not one who's very good (at all) at the sweat-equity type of stuff that's needed within a camp; I sit in the trailer at DMV doing Tech stuff all day because that's all my body is capable of if I'm still going to have the energy and ability to get between the two places. So I pull my weight back in camp by making damned sure I have EVERYTHING I'm going to need for the week. Sitting in a campsite full of borrowed gear would take its toll on me, because I'd look at it and think "damnitall, I'm leeching off people who care about me again."



(I actually had a short, but really good, conversation on this with one of my village-mates.... A couple of years ago, a group of us pooled resources and not only bought his ticket for him when it looked like he wouldn't be able to attend, but arranged for his flight from Reno to BRC. And while he was certainly touched by the gesture and grateful and all of that and voluntarily gave back as much as he could while he was there, he also felt as though the village "owned" him as a result.)



It's flattering as hell that so many people - village-mates, DMV coworkers, and just people who don't Burn themselves, but know how important it is to me - have said "I cannot imagine the event without you there, and I will do whatever I can to make sure I don't have to experience it." But the repeated cries of "No! You MUST be there!" start pushing all my old peer-pressure buttons, and that gets awkward.



Consider also that I've already worked last-minute miracles getting out to the event once; I haven't missed a Burn since I first came out in '03. I know a lot of people who would envy me on that point alone. Yeah, it's gonna suck not being there this year (particularly with all the awesome changes happening in camp), but it's just gonna make next year that much better.

Twice now I've tried to import my LJ entries to my DreamWidth account; both times it has permanently failed, with the message XMLRPC failure: Exceeded XMLRPC recursion limit.



Is there anything I can do at my end to fix this? Or do I need to file a bug report with them? (It's imported all of my entries through 9Oct03, and then it horks.)

http://kshandra.dreamwidth.org/



For now, it is simply a mirror of this journal; I mostly wanted to secure the /nick. I've got a permaccount here and like it that way. But if, $DEITY help us, the sky really does fall one of these times, it'll be nice to have a bolthole.

...because SOME ASSHOLE STOLE ALL OF MY FUCKING CAMPING GEAR OUT OF MY GARAGE.



My bike - gone.



All three tents (the dome you all remember, the new one I had last year, and a second dome I picked up on Freecycle and never bothered bringing out) - gone.



My cooler - gone.



My drink Igloo - gone.



Bastards were thorough...they went into my bin, pulled out all the camp food, and left the raverbait and zipties. (I'm surprised, though; they left my two Slumberjack pillows and the Army duffel with my two sleeping bags.)



This is the third bicycle gridlore and I have had stolen in the six years we've lived here - including one that was chained to the railing in front of our door. And we live in a second-floor apartment.



The ONLY silver lining in all of this is that (for once) I actually meet the deductible on my renter's insurance.



Even if we didn't have Montreal to think about paying for this year, I'd be hard-pressed to replace everything before it was time to leave. And while I was willing to consider accepting charity from my village-mates to cover the cost of my gas or whatever (I did not ask, nor would I; it was offered freely, when that looked to be the only obstacle to my making both WorldCon and the Burn), this is too much to ask of anyone...too much to ask of all of them.



I love my village...my City... to pieces, and I'm going to miss the holy fuck out of everybody, but this is absolutely the final nail in the coffin of my going.



I'm gonna go be sick, now.

...not André (and not Andrae, either, though there is a Red Lobster around the corner...), but Buggy!



As some of you already know, eleri is coming down to the SF Bay Area for a seminar next month, and she'd love to see as many of you as possible while she's here. So we've made plans for a get-together, and hope you can make it.



When: Thursday, May 14th, 6-9pm

Where: Fresh Choice, 5353 Almaden Expy #39A, San Jose, CA 95118 - (408) 723-7991

Who: eleri. kshandra. gridlore, assuming he hasn't fallen asleep already. You. And you. And yes, you, even though you've never met her before.

Why: Because Everyone Loves Eleri. It's not just a good idea...it's the law.