The community at BM is wonderful. You can go talk to anyone. People stopped and asked us for ibuprofen for their cramps, for water, or just to talk about nothing and everything. When you are surrounded by strangeness, no one is a stranger.

There were lasers. Lots of lasers, as always. A huge laser installation that made a mile-long image of the BM logo, visible from space.

There were a lot of dust storms, but with goggles and a breath mask it was fine to be outside. One memorable afternoon, the camp next to us brought out bowling balls, and we spent the storm bowling in the road, while the unprotected hid inside. It was really pretty freaky and postmodern to see people in goggles and breath masks all the time, although it was for good reason (protection from the elements) and not any kind of fashion statement. One of my most fun storm experiences was when I was wandering across the playa at night during a dust storm, and I came across a large art installation in the middle of nowhere. It consisted of bells and bell-like things hanging from a support, with huge rubber mallets provided to strike them with, like a huge drum set. As the wind whipped and the dust swirled in the darkness around me, I drummed with the mallets, sending booming reverberations through the tortured air. It was a very primal, satisfying experience.

A cool project that didn't work for me was the eyes. This was a platform that rotated 360 degrees, and had a mirror system that you looked into that basically put your eyes 10 feet apart. That is, there were two mirrors on arms that stuck out 5 feet to each side, and they reflected into an eyepiece which you looked at, so it was as if your eyes were where the mirrors were. Carl said this did strange things to your perspective, but I couldn't get the two images to converge into a single 3d picture.

Carl designed a neat structure, Chiara did some bellydancing, and Rob & Anna each had a piece of art on the playa, but if you want to hear more about those things you'll have to ask them.

After Burning Man, things have remained pretty busy. I'm working, as I mentioned, which is a lot of fun. I hack code on a laptop at home, so its not like a 9-5 job, but I'm excited to be doing something with my time besides wasting it. And then, of course, there is Katy. She lives in Santa Cruz (45 minutes away), and after BM we spent a lot of time together, eventually deciding to embark upon an actual relationship. This is an unexpected but wonderful change in my life, and we'll see how things go.

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