The Further Adventures of an Idiot Abroad

The Further Adventures of an Idiot Abroad by Karl Pilkington

Bucket list books are becoming popular. "1000 places to go before you die" and the like.  Well Karl Pilkington points out that the trouble with these lists is that they're things someone else wants to do.

Ricky and Steve compose a list of 100 things to do before you die.  I've done 25 of them.  24 if you don't count #89 Go to the Burning Man Festival in California.  It's been a long time since it moved from a San Francisco beach to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.  It's one of the items that he hasn't done.

Karl addresses all of them by the end of the book albeit in a random order.  Ricky and Steve try to force him to do ones he's reticent to do like bungee jumping.  I'm with him on that one.  I have no desire to fall and bounce from my ankles.  His adventures are taped for his television series.

I've always enjoyed British humour and Karl is incredibly funny.  This book taught me how to make my last Toastmaster speech generate laughter from my audience.  If you like Simon Pegg of "Shaun of the Dead" and "Run, Fat Boy, Run" (my favourite movie) then you'll like Karl.

The items that he doesn't do are just as much fun to read as the ones that he does.  The banter between Karl, Ricky, and Steve is included in small dialogue boxes.  I'm glad I wasn't the one getting sent to most of these places.  Meeting the pet hippo would have been cool but not emptying honey buckets.

An entertaining read I sailed through this book.  I have the preceding book now and am ready to embark on further adventures with Karl.

How to Travel the World for Free

One Man, 150 Days, Eleven Countries, No Money! by Michael Wigge

This book appealed to me because the author's goal was to get to Antarctica.  As a lover of penguins I hope one day to get there myself. While I would never attempt this kind of travel myself I was totally captivated by his adventure.

I have attended the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert six times.  It has its own culture which extends beyond the one week it's held.  My view of this book was from the point of a view of a burner (i.e. a Burning Man participant).  There are 10 Principles including Radical Self Reliance.  Each attendee must read the Survival Guide and is responsible for bringing everything that is required for their survival for a week.  Sometimes the event is referred to as That Thing In The Desert (TTITD).  One joking reference to it is to downplay the extreme camping by saying, "It's just a week in the desert."

A person who arrives at the gate without what they need including water runs the risk of being denied entrance.  You can't buy anything other than ice or coffee.  People gift without expectation of anything in turn.  It is not a barter economy.

Some individuals have the belief that "the Playa will provide".  The Playa is the dried lake bed known as the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA.  These people show up and other people get stuck looking after them.  They're labelled "Sparkle Ponies".  They take no responsibility for themselves.

So at first I wondered if Michael Wigge was going to approach this trip by begging or having other people enable his journeys.  To some extent this happens but he has spent a great deal of thought on strategies to attempt along his path.  Judging by his innovative flexible approach he would make an excellent burner.

Going from Berlin to Antarctica began with hitchhiking, couch surfing, and dumpster diving for groceries.  This journey was well directed to its ultimate goal of Antarctica.  Extensive planning was done in advance of departure such as arranging passage on a ship.

One original idea that impressed me was him dressing as a butler.  The outfit was planned and packed.

Not all of his attempts were successful.  Things that worked for him in one country failed in another.  An example was asking restaurants for handouts.

Annual pillow fights which are a kind of flash mob are popular in some cities such as Vancouver, BC.  These while not being official Burning Man events are quite often organized and attended by burners.  One of the many uses of Facebook.

Michael Wigge utilized one-on-one pillow fights as a fund raiser.  I thought his ideas for generating cash were interesting.  Certainly if a person can busk at home that would help with this kind of travel.

He meets a variety of people and takes a few detours.  I'll definitely read any other books that he writes.  I recommend this one.

My 12 Material Possessions List

The web site www.daydreamingonpaper.com has writing prompts. Tonight I decided to give it a try. Twelve doesn't seem a very big number.

If you were only allowed to have 12 material possessions, what would they be and
why?

1. sleeping bag to keep warm
2. tent for shelter
3. hydration pack for water
4. fiddle for music
5. sketchbook and pencils for drawing
6. hat for warmth
7. bicycle for travelling
8. shoes for walking
9. coat for warmth
10. an outfit to wear
11. camp stove with fuel
12. food

There, the packing list for Burning Man. If I limited it to this much stuff it would stand a far better chance of fitting in the car.

The sleeping bag I used every night but I had a fleece liner to help keep me warm. I hate being cold.

My new instant up tent is big and roomy and a cinch to set up. Throw it and by the time it hits the ground it's up. But there's a reason why they don't show the person trying to close it. I can't close it on my own. It's really complicated and 3-d reality just doesn't map well into a 2-dimensional instruction sheet.

Water is always good but you do need a source for refilling the hydration pack. Like the giant water bottles and pump that we had.

I brought my extra cheap fiddle and my cheap synthetic bow. It came with two bows but I think that a discount luthier must have rehaired them because the hairs are too short and aren't being held. In the Irish session I was wishing I had brought my good fiddle because this one kept going out of tune which may have had something to do with being stuck in a hot trunk for days.

Afternoons I spent happily drawing naked people at the Art Model Camp. Oops! Did I say naked? I meant nude, of course. So sketchbook and pencils are essential to a happy existance.

Monday night I volunteered for the 3 am to 6 am sunrise shift at the Temple. A hat for warmth makes a huge difference when you're freezing to death. So do mittens which I didn't have and will have next year but that would be a thirteenth item unless mittens can fall with hat into accessories. Wintertime accessories that is.

Number seven, a bicycle helps you cover nine miles of playa easily. Assuming you're not following a frog water truck and that it hasn't rained which it did Monday afternoon when I was trying to pitch item two in a wind storm. No gears, no fenders, nothing fancy - wait, no, fancy is good. Decorated and with lights.

Since so much effort must be extended each day to run all over to see everything, or at least attempt to, good walking shoes save your body from stress.

At night time a warm coat makes a huge difference to whether you want to run home to bed or stay out and party.

I had separate items for clothing but then I realized I needed to have food as an item. So instead of pants, and shirt it got condensed into an outfit to wear. Certainly packing costumes (or outfits as Halcyon prefers to call them) takes a lot of room in the vehicle.

Last year was canned food. This year was mountain backpacking meals. Next year will be real food cooked on a real camp stove with real fuel. Because next year will include smokies. This year the food was horrible.

So lastly we come to food already previously discussed. Is it too early to pack for Burning Man?

Indecision

When there are too many choices it is easy for me to become indecisive.  Like what to write today.  The discipline I'm trying for insists on my publishing a post every day.  So on what topic?  I need to write one on Lamplighting but it will have to be a longer one and need more than the quick knock off I need to make today.  It is 7 pm and I need to get going for the fire show at 8 pm.  I was a Lamplighter at Burning Man last year and again this year.  Last October I was also involved with the first official online regional in the Second Life virtual reality game.  Last year it was called Burning Life and fell under the rule of the Second Life management team.   This year it will fall under Burning Man management and be called Burn 2.  Second Life said that it was not allowed to keep the old name.  Burn 2 sounds kind of stupid though.  I will be the Keeper of the Lamps again.

Best to get going so as to not miss the show : )

A Full House

At the age when most parents figure the kids will be moving out I am finding other kids moving in instead.  I fought against this incoming tide for the last couple of years.  Extra kids couchsurfing.  I'd send one home and when he rebounded I'd get two back the next time.  I have one 20 year old son and a 16 year old daughter.

Sunday night there were 8 of us at my house.  Myself, son, daughter, son's 20 year old best friend, son's best friend's 17 year old brother, son's 20 year old other friend, son's best friend's 17 year old brother's best friend, and another friend of them all.

A few months ago the four official resident boys were trying to rent a house across the street from the community college.  They didn't get the applications forms back in before the landlady had already selected tenants.  It would have been perfect.  Across the street from the college my son is going.  The kind of closeness I had in residence where you could sleep to the last minute and roll out of bed and be at class.  A couple of easy walking blocks to the shopping center with the availability of part-time jobs.  A bedroom for each of them in a newly renovated single dwelling house with beautiful landscaping.

It would have cost them each $500 every month.  There was a workshop which could be used as an art studio.  Since it was a house there wouldn't be neighbours complaining about any noise the way apartment neighbours do.  One reason why the one friend wanted to move out of his $1000 apartment.  That and the cost.  The two brothers were told to move out by their father.  He's selling his condo and getting a one bedroom apartment.  He had tried to move them into my house earlier.  I kept sending my son's best friend home.  The father wouldn't let them play World of Warcraft if they weren't working or going to school.  So he wouldn't allow the computer in his house.  I made them put the huge computer in the car so I could drive them and it home.  On the way it occurred to me that they didn't walk to my house with it nor carry it onto a bus.  So I asked how it got to my house.  They confessed their father had driven it there.

Half a year ago their father was planning to move to Montreal.  My son was concerned that they were going to be homeless.  He asked if they could move in with us and I said okay.  The move didn't happen and I avoided the situation.  For a few days anyway.

Finally I decided to stop fighting the flow.  Not worth it.  Might as well just let life unfold as it will.  The major stressors are noisy people up until 2 or 3 am although the nights that's happening are becoming fewer.  Last night there was a lot of late night commotion.  One kid was getting an ear pierced.  Hair dying is common place.  The messy ones are learning to clean up after themselves because the neat nick was getting tired of cleaning.  The one that starts cooking school in January baked a cheesecake and shared with everyone.  Happiness seems to be the new norm.  Gradually everyone is getting used to living with each other.  And lives are getting straightened out and figured out.  Rights of passage of young people.  It's worth the noise at   Penguin's Home for Wayward Boys.

Starvation in Black Rock City

This past year someone said that my burn last year seemed to be about food.  It wasn't really.  There were a lot of other details.  But now after burn number two, I'd have to say we still haven't figured out food for Burning Man.

Last year (2009) I flew to Reno with my two teenagers.  We drove a rental mini-van to the desert.

In Reno we bought groceries and a lot of two and a half gallon water bottles.  It wasn't until we were getting rid of the van that we discovered a hidden floor in the trunk where we could have stowed some of them.  Some of them leaked water as we were entering Black Rock City and the cops that pulled us over commented that we were leaking something.  They had a young guy standing outside his van looking intimidated.  We got pulled over because it was night time and I had forgotten to put on the headlights after we left the gate.  I turned off the car and took the keys with me while we rang the bell to signify we were Burning Man virgins.  That means it's your very first time at Black Rock City.  The van's two keys were wired together and the rental person wouldn't separate them for me.  Lots of warnings about no locksmiths had me loath to leave them in the ignition in case I somehow locked them there.  The police also said I was going in the wrong direction from our camp.  What are called streets there are more like tire tracks in snow.

We kept most of our clothes and food in the vehicle.  Every time we went into it, the lights came on and stayed on for awhile.  When it came time to leave I turned the key and nothing at all happened.  Luckily one of our remaining campmates had a battery charger to get the engine started.

Our food consisted of cashews, chips, puddings, and assorted cans.  We also had pop.  By the end of the week the puddings were unappealing even from the cooler.  By the very end we would open the trunk;  look at the selection of cans (beans or pasta) and close it again.  The snacks ran out near the beginning of the week.  The fruit in jello kept in the cooler and the canned pears were good.  We tried not to have worrisome food in the cooler but we should have had some real food there.  I had made a list of theme camps offering food but left it by the computer at home.

The highlight of the food week was Tuesday morning when we were biking around and Kristof invited us for blueberry pancakes.  I spent the rest of the week unsuccessfully looking for his camp again.  It was close to Barbie Death Camp.  It taught me to carry a notebook to write down addresses.

This year (2010) I asked my mechanic about the car battery being affected by the lights.  He said a good battery would stay charged.  A campmate suggested starting the car every other day and letting it run for 15 minutes.  I did that and had no car problems on route.  We also didn't keep the food in the car.  One light stayed on for hours so we ripped it out (that'll teach it).  I had already removed the hot trunk light weeks earlier after it burnt a hole in a friend's tarp.

We brought and used:

individual raisin packages (well I ate them - I like raisins)
Gatorade (Glacier Freeze blue - we should have brought more)
fruit in jelly (pears and peaches)
instant oatmeal
bananas
triscuits
cashews
canned pears
Tillamook sharp cheddar slices
Hummus (needed a waterproof container - said goodbye after it went swimming in cooler water)
mozzarella slices (also went swimming)
nectarines (never ripened - should not have put in cooler)
milk (stayed good all week - new cooler and ice blocks)
cereal (chocolate chip cookies)
potato chips
corn chips (for the hummus)

We should have brought:

cantaloupe (others shared and it was wonderful )
jerky (again - others shared - thank you)
crackers
waterproof containers
apples
oranges
smokies (I got given a hotdog and the cook is now my hero)
buns
ketchup

We tried to bring a sterno stove but it didn't heat up much.  Two friends who have been for two decades between them each independently had butane stoves.  They're small $20. one burner stoves and the fuel is inexpensive.  A real camp stove is a necessity.

My biggest mistake was to bring backpacking meals.  They're horrible (and expensive).  With the Mountain House Backpacker's Pantry the ones with the yellow labels are better.  The potatoes and beef with onions one was reasonably good.  The southwestern chili with beans was yummy but we had a test one camping earlier but none at the desert.  The ones with pasta really need boiling water.  We just put water in and left them on the car but the noodles were crunchy because they didn't absorb the water.  Then it was like crunchy soup.  The macaroni and cheese was watery because of this.  The vegetable stew with beef is good if you don't have my carrot allergy.  It had potatoes.  The pasta vegetable parmesan had parsley and carrots so it was doubly allergic for me.   The savory Italian pasta with beef was absolutely gross.  We hit two bad packages over two days and it was hard to try any more after that.  The spaghetti and sauce tasted the same as the Italian pasta.  We still have a lot of packages so more reviews to come.

My smaller mistake I realized at the Reno grocery store was that the coolers (three foldable ones) were in the trunk which was packed tight and sealed by a bike rack and bikes.  I bought the only non-styrofoam cooler there.  It works better than any of our existing ones so it was a good investment.

Before leaving home I printed out the descriptions of all the theme camps and brought the binder with me.  I'm not sure I actually referred to it.  I had read all the descriptions and annotated it so I could find the activities that interested me and also which ones had food.  The trouble is you have to make it during the scheduled time.  One of my friends got a waffle at the Cock 'n Waffle up the street from us.  He only had to vote.  There's usually some kind of requirement.  Midnight Poutine was across the street from our camp but I'm not sure if any of my friends managed to get any.

My first morning, friends made me pancakes and hot chocolate.  Another friend made burgers and hot dogs one night and shared.  Burning Man is blessed with generous people.  During our five hours of Exodus leaving the playa at a snail's pace we were gifted snacks by someone from New York.  Maybe next year we will be able to share our food with others.

Priorities and Sanity

Over the past year I have come to realize that it takes very little to cause an anxiety attack.  Our society dictates that we should feel guilt if we are not bowing to the capitalistic creed.  Creative endeavours are scarcily given the honour they deserve. I had a friend in high school who wanted to be a musician but his parents wanted him to have a career path so they steered him into engineering at university.  It wasn't what he wanted to do with his life.  He got a job in a music store and he also taught music to individual students.  I don't think he ever finished the engineering degree.

The chorus is always that while an exceptional few can make a living creatively (as in rock star millions), there are thousands more who can't get out of poverty.   While this may be true it shouldn't stop anyone from trying to have their life score go according to their own musical taste.

Sometimes audacity to try is enough to turn your life onto the successful path.  Madonna knew she wanted to dance and sing.  She was determined to succeed.  The Harry Potter author just kept writing and now she's mega rich.  If you look around Chapters you can see tons of people have managed to get their books published.  Really published not just the Internet vanity press.  But to be published you actually have to write the first rough draft which means putting in the time to create it.  Being dedicated to your dream.  Maybe just trying is enough.  It definitely isn't a question of just talent because hard work is required.

I got my first check for paintings this month so I've progressed to professional artist.  I'm going to rent a table at a Christmas craft show since I have framed drawings and printed cards all set to go.  It's a mini-step but it's a way to keep the positive flow happening.

This blog is a way to keep the written word flowing too.  I'm going to try for an entry each day.  Tonight's going to be busy watching a riding lesson and then going to fire spinning.

What can you do to be creative today?  One of my friends started the day by sharing delicious homemade New York style cheesecake he made last night.  The day continues to be a great one.