I should really be blogging more...
Jul. 9th, 2012 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usernamenumberThings that have happened recently, the short version:
M and I went to Firefly (for those un-familiar, think Burning Man, but with 600ish people instead of10kish 50kish, and in the woods instead of the desert).
It was fun. I brought books and planned to spend lazy days whiling away my time reading quietly. This was silly to expect, and it did not happen. Instead I played on giant cargo nets, looked at pretty things, and made friends with strangers.
Personal Firefly highlights included...
M and I went to Firefly (for those un-familiar, think Burning Man, but with 600ish people instead of
It was fun. I brought books and planned to spend lazy days whiling away my time reading quietly. This was silly to expect, and it did not happen. Instead I played on giant cargo nets, looked at pretty things, and made friends with strangers.
Personal Firefly highlights included...
- Joining up with a roving group of people who were making up Firefly-themed riffs on old folk tunes, and ending up traveling through the entire camp (including the porta-potties), doing improvised, harmonized, jazz and gospel choir type songs about and to the camps and people we passed. This is totally becoming an official Event next year.
- Attempting to learn the basics of aerial silks, and finding that I am very bad at them because of Physics.
- Learning the basics of partner acrobatics and pole dancing, and finding that I am surprisingly good at them, the former also because of Physics, the latter because I have good legs and no shame.
- Standing shirtless in front of the giant wooden bug after they set it on fire, soaking in the heat and the light, surrounded by dancing hippies in various stages of costumery and undress. When I rejoined friends who kept their distance, they used me to warm their hands. I even remembered to drink water this time, so I didn't wake up with what was effectively a hangover the next morning, despite having consumed no alcohol... not that that happened last time or anything... but I digress.
- A neat little art installation that involved the use of artist's dummies and mirrors to let the user create animations. I did my best to make it do a Karate Kid crane kick, with... mixed success (video here. This was right before I hooked up with the afore-mentioned singing group, which you can hear in the background).
- Napping at the all-hammocks camp while people took turns doing readings from 50 Shades of Grey in funny voices over the PA.
- M's little project, about which she can tell you.
- Important Developments wrt other friends, about which they can tell you.
- Leaving early (aka late Sat night) to have a day of decompression at home today
On that note, today's highlights have included...
- Not being in the woods (though we did have one reminder in the form of a (non-lyme-carrying) tick that derailed an otherwise romantic shower...)
- Watching Star Trek all morning, followed by...
- A trip to the local bookstore, followed by...
- Iced tea, gelato and reading at the local cafe, followed by...
- A walk through the neighborhood, guided by the constraint that we weren't allowed to go toward any part we'd been to before.
It was really cool seeing the different sub-neighborhoods in our area. We saw a surprising amount of displayed religious paraphernalia, some nice gardens, a few colorful characters including an older guy who looked straight out of a Freedom Rock commercial, but was quite friendly and had an adorable dog that he claimed was part papillon, part rat terrier, and part border collie (cue "which one of these is not like the others....").
The most striking thing we found, though, was a wall. It was full of hand-written memorials to a teen(?) who had died. I got the impression that it was something gang related, but the messages on the wall spoke great emotion about few details. Some messages decried youth violence, some expressed solidarity, or simply said "never forget". Some messages were written directly on the wall, and some on a Mexican flag that had been attached to it. All seemed years old, with ivy encroaching, and all were written with a palpable weight of emotion behind them. This one struck me in particular, so I'll close with it and then go to bed, a little more conscious than usual of how good it is to be able to do so.
The most striking thing we found, though, was a wall. It was full of hand-written memorials to a teen(?) who had died. I got the impression that it was something gang related, but the messages on the wall spoke great emotion about few details. Some messages decried youth violence, some expressed solidarity, or simply said "never forget". Some messages were written directly on the wall, and some on a Mexican flag that had been attached to it. All seemed years old, with ivy encroaching, and all were written with a palpable weight of emotion behind them. This one struck me in particular, so I'll close with it and then go to bed, a little more conscious than usual of how good it is to be able to do so.
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Date: 2012-07-09 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-07-09 03:43 pm (UTC)