burning man gets an iphone app?

most of the technology mentioned in this article is WAY over my head. i think i'll take that as a sign that i need to brush up on my tech-nerdery, and resist the urge to use this as my transition into the land of curmudgeons..."all these kids and their computers". frankly, i blame my lack of iphone/crackberry and gps, neither of which has been an urgent necessity for me (see upcoming post on why i don't have an iphone or gps). @brady wrote a great article, and i'm sure there are others out there, but i ran across his first.

at any rate, it looks like burning man is branching out into (or being infiltrated by) the technologically creative world, as opposed to the old-fashionedly creative one. maybe they've already developed an iphone app where you can 'bump' the Man with your iphone flame and kick off the main event. plumbing can't be that far off...i might make it out there one day after all.

kudos to the event planners for using social networking to keep participants apprised of critical information. i'm all about efficiency and communication. however, every burner i've ever known has gone on and on about how it's about building a community of people, getting off the grid and back to society and survival at its most basic, depending on yourself and the community you create instead of an infrastructure, trading goods, services, and experiences instead of money, and most importantly, artistic freedom and expression*. as with any other contemporary experience, and unfortunately, some of the most mundane, people now feel compelled to share this with 436 of their closest friends. i frequently wonder how much of this is actually sharing for the betterment of others, how much of it is entertainment, and how much is just blatant self-promotion/cries for attention/self-importance on the part of the sharers, myself included. but that's another post.

what's going to happen to the mystique, the secret burning man society, the idea that "trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind"? i guess now people can try to explain it in 140 characters or less.

folks are twittering while touching the man, blogging about what to pack, flickring the art they see, and mapping themselves on google, so where does this new track fit into the burning man experience? a lot of it is useful-i know i scoured the web for every bit of first-hand advice before i went to bonnaroo. but i can't help but get back to that idea that some of it is just silly.

some people are as comfortable with technology being a part of the burning man experience as they are with its seamless integration into their daily lives; it is one of the most truly democratic forums out there-"we can make our own maps and base them on our own lives--screw you, rand mcnally!" it's just a tool; a means to an end for living life on their own terms. on the other hand, like people who can't experience nature without a patagonia fleece and $300 hiking boots, some adopters of technology are only in it for the benjamins. or the status. or because the cool kids laughed at them in 4th grade history for not having a trapper keeper, and now that they have real jobs they're getting fancier versions of the stuff they didn't have then. it's all relative-who am i to judge?

like any other art form, i guess it will just come down to the artist and the audience. maybe by the time i make it out to burning man, there will be personal transmitter chips that follow and report our actions to the general public. then everyone will know how amazing and cool i am--i won't have to blog about it anymore.

*i've never been to burning man. if you have, i'd love to hear your take on all of this.

adventures in tealand

it's been a crazy week, and a crazier monday. amidst the craziness, i went to make a cup of tea, just a mid-afternoon ritual to get another couple of hours of work out of myself, and no big deal for me...unlike some of my co-workers. ahem.

i used to love Good Earth white tea, which had this vanillaish flavor, but you can't get it around here anymore. i miss that tea. it was good, had a cute old chinese man on the box, came with little sayings like Dove chocolates but less schmaltzy, it was solid. consequently, i've been looking for a replacement with little success. while i was at publix in atlanta last week, i found some Lipton (i usually don't like lipton, but i've been trying to be less brand-prejudiced) white tea.

the full name on the box is as follows:
WHITE TEA
with
Island Mango and Peach Flavor
with other Natural Flavor
Made with real orange leaves and lemongrass

i mean, simple is usually better, but if a tea requires nineteen words to name it, it's an event if nothing else, right? why not?

so i opened the box today at around 3, eagerly anticipating my new caffeine fix, and the smell was an olfactory assault. pleasant, but aggressive. i'm pretty sure it killed the lunch funk that lingers down here until 4 most days. so far, so good. i brewed a cup, and DAMN. it was like i was by the pool on some island where peaches and mangoes grow. and oranges. and lemongrass....a fictional island. super fruity. not very tea-ish, but good.

initially i loved it. however, it's been about an hour and change, and there's a distinct burning in my throat. weird. the ingredients are all natural, no fifteen-word chemicals, but it's still kind of odd. we'll see how the next adventure goes.
try it...if you dare...

meanwhile, i'm still on the hunt for a white tea replacement.

baseball is magic

i have loved baseball since i was a kid, and despite boring grown-up protestations about major league salaries, corruption, boredom, exploitation, racism, and the corporate whoring of american secular cathedrals known as baseball stadiums, i'm still enchanted by it. and even though the modern dogma might get in the way, there's something about the ritual, the superstition, and the tradition that brings all of the excitement and wonder bubbling to the surface (oddly, i have the same feelings about christmas). i love the sounds of the ballpark and the feeling of a night game at the beginning of summer, i prefer to eat cracker jacks and hotdogs when seated in the most uncomfortable chair possible, keeping score and within earshot of the cotton candy vendor, and my favorite soda is wax-flavored, diluted concession stand coke.

recently, some coworkers and i were traveling for work, and the subject of baseball came up. they informed me that they are not baseball fans, and cited the aforementioned protestations as evidence in support of their opinions. all i really had to support my viewpoint was a childhood spent watching and playing baseball, and a father who supported my habit. not my strongest arguments. i remained unable to express why i think baseball is the bee's knees...until now.

for any of you out there who remain unconverted, allow me to present exhibit A.

baseball IS magic.

photos that stopped me in my tracks today

i've been spending a lot of time working on the computer lately (at work), which is a mixed blessing.
on the positive side, it's july and for the first time in a while i'm being spared the florida summer cycle of sweating like a pig, then getting rained on, then having to go sit in the a/c, then sweating like a pig again. on the not-so-positive side, i'm on the computer. all day. inside. i got into this field so that i wouldn't have to work in an office. in front of a computer. but hey, i'm employed, so i'm happier than a (insert colorful southern idiom here).
another positive is that i not only have more time to keep up with things like current events, email, the part of my job that involves being on the computer, etc, but also that i find gems like these:

this photo came from a great site i mentioned in a previous post called lostateminor. something about it just gets to me. at first, it eeged me out. the inverted starfish, the mix of sea creatures with flowers...but then it grew on me.



the other is just a personal preoccupation: rachel weisz. i'm not prone to celebrity worship, and i definitely don't have posters of her on the back of my office door (unlike certain coworkers of mine and hilary duff), but i like her movies. except the fountain...snoozefest (sorry, kris).
i don't know her personally, but she seems like she'd be fun to have a glass of wine with. and this photo, while somewhat scary and she-might-eat-me-if-i-piss-her-off-ish, is...nice. i'm a fan of actresses and models who aren't fetuses flaunting their sex appeal...more fodder for the "you don't have to be fifteen to be sexy" movement. also, this picture came from one of my favorite guilty-pleasure blogs, where you can actually vote on whether this picture is awe-inspiring or fear-inducing.

philodendron and felis

someday, i want a small part of my garden to look like this:

2 cool sites

i'm engaging in personal activities while eating lunch at my desk...at least i'm not working while eating lunch at my desk, although i really should get away from the computer for a bit.
anyway, while compiling pics for the blog post i intended to write, i realized that if there are people out there who haven't seen these sites, they are in need of enlightenment. if you've been a subscriber since before the sites existed, please pardon my horribly outdated web recon.
they're published by the same weblisher (i think i made that word up), and are targeted for the same demographic, which must be me, 'cause i think they're boss.
enjoy or scorn accordingly:

Lost At E Minor is an online publication of inspiring art, illustration, photography, music, fashion, film, and more, featuring our latest discoveries in the ever-changing world of contemporary pop culture.

My Secret Playlist is a music discovery website and weekly email publication in which invited bands, DJs, producers and musicians write about the songs and albums that are inspiring them right now.

enjoy. if that's not your thing, perhaps you will be entertained by the knowledge that my office currently smells like cheetos and stale a/c. and i didn't do it.

i'm back

(insert blogger excuses, etc here)
i'm back from my blog hiatus, sabbatical, lapse, period of laziness/sloth/inactivity/retreat/hiding/hibernation/whatever.
i have no excuses, i just wasn't feeling it. lots happened, though. lots that i'm not going to recap. instead of doing the whole "here's what i've been doing for 8 months", maybe it'll come out in humorous anecdotes of the past which relate to timely current blog posts. i prefer to focus on what's at hand. as for the past....feh.