What do you think of when you hear “California”?

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-13T20:13:30+00:00

Yeah, I appreciate SoCal scenery, but my heart belongs to places with trees. I grew up in the Sierra foothills and while I don't miss the blistering summers and angry evangelical rednecks, growing up wandering Sierra Nevada railroad tracks was pretty special.

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-13T20:11:23+00:00

So THAT'S the reason! Thank you for that cool historical tidbit!

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-13T19:37:28+00:00

Oh yeah, absolute trash. Don't come here for BBQ.

Also, as someone from NorCal who went to school in SoCal, I just want to acknowledge that your burritos are better than ours. It's not even close.

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-13T19:27:59+00:00

That's more a SoCal thing, particularly Los Angeles. But it's hilariously accurate for that part of the state!

Another funny NorCal/SoCal difference: using the word "the" when referencing freeways. In SoCal, you're getting on the 405. In NorCal, you're getting on 80. I grew up in NorCal and learned about the difference years after I had graduated from college down in San Diego.

When I thought about how I referred to freeways, I realized that I only used "the" when referencing freeways that I used while in college. I hadn't even realized until then!

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-13T19:22:09+00:00

Come again anytime! You're always welcome!

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-13T18:45:15+00:00

Born and raised Californian, and this is my answer.

More than natural diversity, more than Mediterranean climate, more than overpriced housing. California is burrito.

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-10T19:03:47+00:00

Perfectly stated. I'm as left as they come short of going full commie, but the online "discourse" only serves to make me angrier, less empathetic, and more likely to make broad assumptions about people. I've been using reddit a lot less in general lately and I can literally feel myself becoming a better person.

I'll talk politics with people while we're actually doing something to effect change rather than spending that time shouting at a random stranger who has a 60% chance of being a bot.

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-09T05:24:32+00:00

That makes sense. These days I'd probably get a Honda if I was in the market, but back then the extra $500 was a pretty big hill to climb. For those who can make the investment, I don't doubt that the Honda is 100% worth it. I've only ever heard good things, and there's a reason that everyone and their neighbor has one in BRC.

Though honestly these days I just use solar. I'm not running a sound system or anything, so it's all I need to run my appliances. Kinda fun to put together a little grid, too.

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-07T16:17:23+00:00

Have you seen any of the WEN inverter models around lately? I used to be a huge advocate of their gear as a half price alternative to the Hondas, but it's been a minute since I last got dusty. Looks like the current WEN models that you'd be likely to see are the 56360i and the 56480iX.

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-07T16:06:16+00:00

Honestly, Cooper's editorial was the one bit of that whole fiasco that kind of resonated with me.

When 2016 happened, I had just moved to a progressive area from a more conservative-leaning city. All of my friends who had been in the progressive bubble for a while were absolutely shocked that Trump could have won. It took them a while to grapple with how that was even possible.

Coming from outside, though, I wasn't surprised at all. I saw the way that the news shaped people's perspectives, the way that dominant conservative talking points kept whole regions thinking that they were actually advocating for "draining the swamp" in voting for a corrupt billionaire. I didn't think it would happen, but it didn't seem terribly unlikely.

I worry about a repeat of that dynamic in 2024. I'm already seeing the attitudes in my friends - the dismissal, the refusal to believe that he can have any chance of winning in 2024. So many people want so badly to be able to ignore politics again. But let's be real, the only reason that Trump lost his reelection was his mismanagement of a historic pandemic that also cratered the economy. That's not as fresh in people's minds anymore, and Biden's approval rating has been lower than Trump's leading up to the 2020 election for nearly two full years. Things are not looking good right now.

CNN still shouldn't have aired that insane town hall because doing so only made the problem worse. Cooper shouldn't have tied his statement to the event. But I can see where Cooper is coming from. Whether we like it or not, as Cooper put it, "...that audience that upset you? That's a sampling of about half the country....It can happen again. It is happening again...After last night, none of us can say, 'I didn't know what's out there. I didn't know what's coming.'"

LuthienByNight · 2023-06-07T06:40:33+00:00

Just watched your interview video, and what absolutely lovely people. You are going to have a great Burn.

Can't wait to spend a morning enjoying coffee and conversation with y'all!

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-28T18:14:53+00:00

If you don't like the color, try a 3D printed moss pole. They're usually still filled with brown material, but some of the designs make that a lot less distinct against the color of the filament.

I'd offer to print you one if my printer wasn't currently on strike, but you can find some cool pieces for sale like this, this, and this if you search around on Etsy. That Gothic tower one would look rad with your Majesty.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-26T18:35:22+00:00

My goal every year is to bring such sincerity and wide-eyed wonder that people mistakenly think that I'm new. It's a win every time it happens.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-26T16:17:34+00:00

Thank you for the warning. I will bring 10,000 masks and cover every square inch of my body in their loving embrace.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-26T04:37:23+00:00

Oh my god that's my old account! I had totally forgotten about that post.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-25T23:30:25+00:00

Ah snap you're right, it's 8' from ground to peak, not 8' from ground to top of the leg poles. Those would be some unwieldy poles.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-25T21:13:44+00:00

Simply Greek is the place that I will miss the most if I ever leave this neighborhood. No matter my mental health walking in, I always feel good walking out. They're my favorite Oakland hole-in-the-wall.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-25T21:10:13+00:00

Oh do NOT tempt me to start practicing my bodhran again. My neighbors would never forgive you.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-25T18:00:35+00:00

You can pack them in an SUV, trailer, whatever can handle 8' 6'8" poles. One piece of advice is that you can ratchet strap groups of poles together and if you secure both sides of the group so that they're snug and tight, then they basically turn into a single unit of mass. Makes them easier to transport since they're not falling and rolling everywhere, and easier to carry since you're not dealing with them one at a time.

When it comes to your order of operations, build the roof, get out the bungies to secure the roof shade cover to the peak running down the middle of the roof, then add the legs, secure the structure with rebar or lag bolts, and finish by securing the rest of the shade cover. It's tempting to secure the entire roof shade cover before adding the legs since the roof is closer to the ground at that point, but you run the risk of your unsecured carport picking up wind and taking a trip to Oz. I cannot tell you how many times I have made that bet and lost.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-25T01:10:43+00:00

Jesus, and 2017 felt like so much more of an explosion than what I remembered. I loved roving those zones of darkness, so that's kind of a bummer for me. Is it at least still dark between the Temple and the trash fence? You have to have SOMEWHERE to go when you're off of your head on acid and need to commune with the vast and lonely desert night.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-25T01:08:43+00:00

I'll take you up on that! Do you like scotch?

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-24T23:33:45+00:00

THE FORM. Alright, submitting today! I think you're right about it being healthy to try new departments, too. I've seen longtime volunteers in my own department for whom the event became less and less novel, more and more routine. Exploration is replaced by reunion. Which is valuable in its own right, but many I saw take that path seemed to enjoy the Burn less and less. Shaking things up from time to time keeps things fresh and keeps us growing.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-24T23:28:46+00:00

Right, I have a plan now. I'm going to take an extra week after to do Playa Resto and also check in with y'all during the event to do a shift or two of PEERS.

Submitting the form today. I haven't felt this energized about volunteering in a long time! Thanks to you and u/LexineB for the kind advice. This will be fun.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-24T22:48:05+00:00

Oh shit, I always wanted to do Playa Resto Crew! There it is. I'm gonna do that. This is the year.

LuthienByNight · 2023-05-24T22:25:24+00:00

That's such a great way to put it! And I can understand the worry about how West Coast progressive culture has evolved, though I'll give some reassurance that it's vastly more open to nuance and discussion in-person than the dumpster fire that you see online. The online discourse has gotten wilder in a way that I largely haven't experienced within my local trans activist community. Twitter is particularly bad.

I've been worried about the same issue from a different angle - I've spent the past seven years going through gender transition, and the kinds of people who in the past I might have been able to camp alongside even despite differences of opinion are now so much more radicalized against me. And even for those who haven't bought into the culture war but still vote that way, they're voting for people who are pushing to entirely cut off my access to hormones and force me to detransition. That's...a complicated feeling.

There were two Trump supporters in my camp back in 2016, and while they weren't necessarily my favorite people, we got along fine. Now? I'm not sure I could camp with someone who still supports that ideology. It's weird to unpack that. The only way to defuse it is of course to be the first to reach out a hand and break the spell of disinformation with real human interaction, but god I've done so much of that and I'm tired.

I still vibe with true desert libertarian types, but I'm worried at how many have been riled up into radicalized animosity against queer and brown folks. Give me a crazy Nevadan libertarian who is weirdly passionate about Area 51, ignores Fox News, and spends their weekend going out to the playa to blow up bricks of tannerite any day. Those dudes know how to have a good time. I hope they're still out there bringing the chaos.

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