My departure to the Black Rock Desert is only mere days away now. And like every year, I get a bit jittery about playa conditions. The last two years have been kind, with mild heat and not a whole lot of dust.

Except for this fun dust tornado on Wednesday of '06, of course:


This year however - and unless the playa gods take mercy on the rumored 50,000 people descending on the Black Rock Desert - it might be a different story.

As one contributor to the eplaya thread on weather conditions 2007 put it: "I highly recommend that everyone prepare for the loosest, dustiest playa surface in at least the ten years I've gone out there."

And indeed - the playa looks pretty freaking loose.

Note to self: Take extra ziplock bags. Leave your 5D camera at home - take the old 10D instead. Take extra babywipes. Double-check on the dust mask and goggles. Bring extra rebar.

Also: Daily conditions in nearby Gerlach and NOAA weather forecast.

Here we come, oh playa. Weeee ....

Be prepared, Burners and non-Burners alike: On Tuesday morning, August 28th, we'll get to experience an unusual celestial event: A full lunar eclipse.



The event begins 54 minutes past midnight PDT on August 28th when the Moon enters Earth's shadow. At first, there's little change. The outskirts of Earth's shadow are as pale as the Moon itself; an onlooker might not even realize anything is happening. But as the Moon penetrates deeper, a startling metamorphosis occurs. Around 2:52 am PDT, the color of the Moon changes from moondust-gray to sunset-red. This is totality, and it lasts for 90 minutes.

The eclipse will be visible from Australia, Japan, parts of Asia and most of the Americas, but not from Africa or Europe. Pacific observers are favored. On the west coast of the United States, the entire eclipse will unfold high in the post-midnight sky. On the east coast, totality will be truncated by sunrise.

What makes this so insanely cool is that in the stillness and clarity of the Black Rock desert, the heavens always seem so much closer and more alive anyway. So a mere full moon is a treat. But a lunar eclipse is going to *rock*.

The question, of course, is whether I can actually stay awake until 3am ...

I finally I found a minute to indulge in my annual ritual of posting a picture of my Burning Man bike:



Compared to last year's bike, this was definitely a more involved project. Not only is my ride dressed to coincide with Burning Man's Green Man theme this year, it also required lots of forethought, hunting down of materials (like buying the blinking squishy frogs) and the tying of lots of fishing line to attach everything.



I hope this post will spread good mojo in two ways. One - I hope the bike won't get stolen. Two - I hope everything on it stays put, and that I won't MOOP with the flowers or frogs.

10 days left until I take off.

Unreal.

You're wondering what this weirdly, somehow intriguing headline is all about? Puzzle no more!

It's an anagram of my name. [For those of you who are unaware of my first name, midddle name, or last name - tough luck, folks. ;) ]

So what's the anagram of your name?

Play - and post in the comments.

I was going to write a post to the effect of Yay. My birthday is near. Leos rule! Hear us roar!

Then I saw this footage on YouTube.

In short (and if you don't have the bandwidth or time to watch the whole 8 1/2 minutes): Water buffalo calf gets chased away from mom by a pride of lions. One lion tackles the calf in a flying jump, landing them both in the water. Pride tries to drag the calf out of the water. A huge croc creeps up and grabs the calf. Lions and croc play tug of war. Croc looses. Buffalo mom shows up with a freaking *army* of other buffalo. They collectively kick the lion's asses. Buffalo calf - alive and well - slinks off to mom.

Freaking incredible, if you ask me.

National Geographic - eat your heart out.
YouTube rules.

Roughly 18 years ago, when I first laid eyes on the line The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. in the first of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, I had no idea I would ever get so drawn into a story. If you've never read any of them, you probably can't relate.

But for years, Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah and Oy have ruled my imaginary universe, leaving me yearning for more with every last word, on every last page, of every volume. King seemed to take *forever* in finishing up the story.



:: SPOILER ALERT ::

And now that it's finally over, I feel strangely sad and satisfied. Eddie, Jake and Oy are dead, but Roland reached his goal (sort of, anyway). There was a moment in time, when I thought he never would: The day Stephen King got hit by a car.

Don't get me wrong - I felt for King. But honestly, upon hearing the news, I thought to myself: He can't fucking die on me now. He has to finish the Dark Tower series! I know that's selfish, but King had only just finished the fourth book, and Roland was still a long ways away from the Tower. The world would have been a sad, wrong place if it had to all end there. Like Tolkien never finishing his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

On the other hand - genius that King is, he took the experience and rolled it into the last book in the most masterful way (you just have to go read it for yourself if you want to know how ...). All hail to him for that. What an extraordinary way to immortalize yourself via your own story.

Plus, Marvel Comics just finished the prequel graphic novel series The Gunslinger Born, so Roland lives on after all ...

Yay.