So it's a destination wedding, then?
This sounds less like "hiatus" and more like "going away for a long weekend."
Right, but we're talking about Ben, here.
Wow, without Ben to ride roughshod over you people, this place will read like lolcats by tomorrow.
Mr. w-lfs-n has asked me to preside over the conversations in his absence. Mysteriously, however, I still have not received the Secret Access Code necessary to begin writing frontpage posts.
Ben! I had a dream and you were in it.
Perhaps he is using "hiatus" in the sense of this quotation from Tristram Shandy.
The hiatus in Phutatorius's breeches was sufficiently wide to receive the chesnut.
people need some rest from time to time, that's so natural
just that all died line is a bit worrisome, hope everything is OK
i'm going to enjoy my hiatus in August, yay!
Goddamnit. Who is going to step in and do more talking down to us?
You know, I was going to put this off, but I guess it's probably time: everybody, I'll be taking a commenting hiatus for the next three and a half minutes. Good luck with everything.
7: the blue of his eyes was infinite?
Just so!
(The song does not, in fact, accurately describe the dream, blue eyes and otherwise. We were shopping for something obscure, and it was very elaborate and took forever.)
I miss you already! See you Monday!
I are knowing to be the writing of sentences which maybe might to be amusement in the absency of a people who are then being w-lfs-n.
8: I don't know if ben is really ready for the chestnut yet. We
15:
America's Roast Beef, Yes Sir!
soup took a hiatus MID-COMMENT!
19: its youre perogative.
Ben made me promise not to say where he is, but I'll sell the information for the right price.
18: Do we have to buy you a French Laundry gift certificate now?
10: Who is going to step in and do more talking down to us?
Kobe3!
He says it right in the post: "I'm going to join ogged."
w-lfs-n is bpl.
25: Nope. I'll break a promise, but I at least need to *get* something out of it.
i worked with isotopes today, got all this metallic taste in my mouth and fear that i got irradiated, maybe i'll die from cancer someday due to it and still i'm not going hiatusing
i'm puzzled when think more about it
if it's his first time hiatus, something extraordinary must be happened or is happening
just what about that 'all died' thing? people worry!
or maybe he's going to work for elections like volunteering, got like invitation something suddenly coz he erased the overheard post, maybe it was a top secret or was pressured to erase it
i give up, i'm not a psychic, can't see through
well, anyway, enjoy and what is it?
maybe i'll die from cancer someday due to it and still i'm not going hiatusing
read WINS!
20 questions was a euphemism, B.
Its like a blast hear now!! The reason is because freedom tastes like reality. Whose doing the Scarlett Johansson mix tape? Par-tay!
Guess it's time for a fantasy football and MMA thread.
36: Yeah, if only someone had the ability to actually post on the front page.
OT: does someone want to help me with a dumb car question? I just bought this car a couple months ago--it's used. And this might be dumb, but:
Is it weird for the car to be making sounds when it's off? I turned the car off, and since I was in my garage where it's totally quiet, I could hear a fairly loud noise coming from under the hood, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from specifically. Maybe the car was hot and was cooling off? But I'd only been driving like 20 minutes.
38: What kind of noise? How long does it last? And how long after turning off the car does it start?
38: kind of a ticking noise? Is it a Volkswagen, by any chance?
36: FUCK YES.
Standpipe seems conflicted about his or her front-page posting privileges. It's charming.
The garage is a separate structure and kinda far away, so I'm not going to blow up.
The noise sounds like a fan.
I don't know how long it lasts. It was still going when I left the garage, then still when I came back three minutes later. I'm about to go down again, so I guess I'll see if it's still going.
I was hoping you people would tell me "oh, that? Yeah, that's normal, you dumb ass."
I may have responded before Sifu, but he has more authority because he's from Boston like the Car Talk guys. You should probably listen to whatever he says.
The car people can tell you, but some cars, yeah, leave their fans going for a while. I do not remember the dealie with that.
46: I was totally trying to be like the Car Talk guys!
44: my Volkswagen makes a ticking kind of fan noise while it cools down. Someplace in between a whir and the sound that a piece of metal makes as it bends back into shape after being heated.
Once I had a dream that w-lfs-n and I were jumping on a trampoline (which arrived by courier), and I was looking at him through a telescope, so that his eye was frickin' huge. I have no idea what that means.
I had a dream that there was a new blogging software that allowed w-lfs-n to correct and mock my grammar in real time. True!
7, 49, 50 -- This is like the most perverted thread ever.
Were his boobs bobbing up and down? That's the generic trampoline sex dream.
leblanc appears to have wandered off, but regardless, the obvious solution is to acquire a minidisc recorder, put beats to the car noises, and sell it to ben when he returns next week. He listens to weird shit.
Blam! New car fund.
You know, I've seen plenty of naked women on trampolines, and the bouncing up-and-down thing is actually not nearly so cool without the slo-mo.
I've seen plenty of naked women on trampolines
Burning Man, dude. Check it out some time.
Naked women on bikes: also overrated.
57: not true! Kind of rad! Naked men on bikes: not so good.
Naked men on bikes: not so good.
Truer words have never been spoked.
We were fully clothed in the dream. I am a lady.
Hey Sifu, is Burning Man worth going to? My boyfriend usually goes. It sounds like a recipe for dehydration and heat exhaustion. What do you do there? What do you do if you're a girl who doesn't generally go to four day parties in the desert and doesn't do drugs?
Burning Man is unbelievably awesome. I have also nicknamed it "The Relationship Krusher". You do... shit, you do everything there. It's indescribable. It also can be hard. It's more than a party, certainly. The weather, uh, takes some getting used to, and if you don't go under the right conditions -- a good camp, good camp-mates, the right attitude -- it can seem frankly hellish. If you can figure it out, though, it's among the peak experiences available to humans.
I guess my typical moment that I describe is getting out of your tent at 6AM -- because it's started getting hot -- cracking a beer, and seeing a full-size spanish galleon go silently cruising past, afloat on the sand. This isn't meant to describe something specific, it's just that kind of thing, 24 hours a day.
What do you do if you're a girl who doesn't generally go to four day parties in the desert and doesn't do drugs?
Be somebody else for four days.
I have definitely been to Burning Man without doing drugs (excluding pot and alcohol, obiously) and had a great time. Other people I know have gone and had a great time without doing a damn thing besides eating. But, you know, it works best for seekers of peak experience. If you're not interested in braving discomfort for the sake of extravagant wonder, it'll probably annoy you. It might annoy you anyhow; I've seen it happen. Best thing I've ever done, though.
I've never been, but Roberta went four years in a row when she was living in Arizona.
I dig extravagant wonder. It appears that one must go well stocked with camping supplies and a shitload of water. I looked at the back of my bf's ticket, and holy, is that waiver the most awesome thing ever from a legal point of view.
61, if true, suggests that you should not attend Burning Man. Under any circumstances. [/PSA]
69: "bring everything you need to survive" is, I think, an understatement. Bring shade, food for yourself, food to share, ridiculous clothes, a bicycle, more shade, better food, champagne, music, a giant sound system, more bicycles (because fuck it, right?) and possibly a shit-ton of drugs (that you can hand out to others). Also more shade.
The last few times, I've brought an Armani suit, and let me tell you, that was a great decision.
Obligatorily, I will link again to the time machine my friends 'n I brought out there.
70: I am only a lady with w-lfs-n.
Although, when my boyfriend and I went to the naked hotsprings retreat, we were the only two tools in bathing suits.
May Ben's hiatus look a little like this.
The URL is deceiving; Belle's naked hotsprings resort is not located in the coldest city in China, famed for its benzene-polluted water.
75: if you think so, you should probably go to Burning Man.
73: Naked hot springs gross me out. If one looks closely, there are always not-so-tiny bits of exfoliated skin floating in the water. As a result, I recommend wearing not just a bathing suit in such situations, but also hazmat gear. Or an Armani suit, which never really goes out of style and is good for all occasions.
78: Word. You have to shower with their special tea tree oil scented soap before going in, but really, come on. Also weird to see dudes grabbin' at themselves to wash in certain crevices. Also, since it's open air, tons of tree bits floating around too. Really interesting, and I actually like hot springs to ease the academic's lower back pain (sort of like "tennis elbow"), but still, kind of icky.
It will be fascinating (in its way) if BelleLettre goes to Burning Man. Great to hear, or read, a report.
There's a great backwoods kind of hot spring on the way back to LA from the burn, but I suppose you wouldn't be heading that way.
Oh and also, I kept wondering why there are so many Tibetan stores in Berkeley--like, who shops there? Who needs that many sarongs and embellished tunics? People who go to hot springs retreats, that's who. We were there for maybe a couple of hours, but apparently there's meditation, singalongs, like summer camp for aging hippies. That's really the SWPL when they get to be middle aged and their tattoos begin to stretch. Also, I was the only Asian person there, until another sister came, also with her white boyfriend.
79: Yeah, 78 was a test. I'm back to thinking that Burning Man isn't for you, you delicate flower. But really, hot springs are gross. Even this one, which is in one of the most beautiful spots I know. Still, floating bits of skin can ruin just about any view.
If you go to a hot spring that's part of a river -- like the one on 395 we hit -- things pretty much get washed downstream, and the grossest thing you have to deal with is the odd sulphurous smell.
82: Crap, I totally forgot that you're Asian. Does "delicate flower" reek of racism, albeit the unintentional variety (I know, I know: the most nefarious kind). If so, I'm really sorry. Usually I only hate black people.
Dude, Ari, don't even sweat it. Everybody knows you're racist; even without your comments, the hooked nose makes it obvious.
80: I grew up so fucking sheltered under my strict Asian dad (who, as soon as I started growing breasts, wanted me to wear burqa-like clothes) that I am always having new experiences well into my adulthood. And now I'm getting hungry for adventure. True, I can't ride a bike (Sifu, this may complicate Burning Man...).
But now I really want to go hang gliding, paragliding, urban iditarodding, etc. And I want to sail the boat to Alcatraz. So far, we've only taken the boat as far as I dunno, halfway to the Bridge. So unless we're doing something else that weekend, like going to a wedding, or unless this is some man-retreat for him, Burning Man would probably be a good experience for me. I think the capacity for wonder diminishes as we age, except for the very sheltered. Burning Man sounds like true wonder, and so my senses will likely be obliterated and my horizons expanded beyond belief. Like, awesome.
And of course I'd report. I always do.
87: Okay, okay, you should go already. Just don't admit to anyone that you're Asian.
85: Nah, that's a compliment. All women like to be reminded that we're fragile and quickly fade in beauty. This makes you only a misogynist (kidding, of course).
Actually, I didn't even think that at all upon reading the flower comment. And not surprising that you forgot that I'm Asian (though dude, Facebook friends), since my pseud isn't like Lotus Blossom or anything. I do have a friend who started a bar fight over being called "Tokyo Rose," though.
I started a bar fight over being called "Jetpack Winchester". Well, maybe "bar" should be "yacht club", and "fight" should be "abortive duel". That scamp from Montauk (of all places!) felt the sting of my glove, though, I'll tell you that. Where glove, obviously, should be "poorly mixed cocktail".
87: Well, good luck if you go. I'm not sure that viewing it as a weekend activity unless you have a wedding or something to go to is the right approach, but I may be wrong. Self-reliance is key. Going with someone who has experience of it seems pretty important.
You kids with your social networking. So cute. Also, did your friend win? Because Asians are renowned weaklings, right? Well, maybe not the women, but certainly the men. And finally, you have a sailboat out on the Bay and you haven't invited me. That's just wrong.
92 to 89. And whoever else has a sailboat in the Bay Area.
I hope you didn't throw the cocktail at his left foot. Because that might have splashed back at your Armani suit. When in doubt, always bite your thumb. It's a good gesture for expressing doubt, and also insult.
94 to 90.
92: I don't. He has a friend who has a chartered boat. Buy a boat, donate it to Cal Sailing, and hey presto, they pay the dock fees. But I took sailing classes back at UCI, where the waters are much calmer. Sailing in the Bay is fun, but whoa, hard work and occasionally scary and seasick inducing, even for Vietnamese boat persons. Sailing on Sunday was actually kind of miserable. But next time there's less windy conditions, hell yes we should get together and rent a boat.
She had to be restrained from getting into a real fight by two of our dude friends, because it was against four other dudes. Asian women are feisty.
And now I'm getting hungry for adventure.
The Unfoggedtarian-Jamaican Self-Discovery Retreat in Kananaskis Country is still taking shape. Don't miss out.
DS, you'll have to explain this some time. It's mostly for chicks who wear heels, isn't it?
91: Thanks. The right attitude is "holy fuck, watching Survivor Man is apparently not going to be enough", and yes, going with someone who's gone four times before is going to come in handy. He's pretty good about outfitting survival trips (he's been camping/fishing everywhere), even though most of our trips have been to places where the only hardship has been that they don't have foie gras. And no, this is not my doing.
It's mostly for chicks who wear heels hotpants.
I bet there;s foie gras at the burn.
99: If you decide to go, lemme know. I know a shitload of burners; I'd be happy to hook you up with a good camp.
Personally, while I'm happier living in a world where Burning Man exists, dear god do I never want to go.
103.2 gets it exactly right.
Burning Man can be an amazing time even if you don't want your experience to be of the "naked hippie drug free love eurotechno dance party" variety. The city's just so fucking big that there's plenty else to do out there. One of my favorite things about the event is simply the place where it's held--high desert is lovely, and the sheer scale of everything out there is impressive (and one of the things you really can't get a sense of unless you actually go).
That said, it's not for everyone. It gets hot as hell out there, which makes plenty of people cranky. I do think heat-incompatibility is the only automatic dealbreaker, though. Everything else can be dealt with.
Everything else can be dealt with.
There's also the dust. And the white people.
103: Thanks. And now that you're back from vacation and I'm out of school, must meet up with you and Magpie. Ah, Saul's.
A nice thing to do at Burning Man is to turn on the ignition of your Chevy Suburban so you can run the air conditioning and have some sex where it's cooler.
BL, if you're looking for desert adventure but don't want to commit to a burn, I'm taking the full moon weekend in August to head up to the Eureka Valley Sand Dunes. We'll climb them naked under moonlight and slide down as one, creating an unearthly hum that reverberates throughout the valley. And we'll hit those hot springs that Sifu was talking about.
The rules of ben-w-lfs-n-hiatus-ness dictate that I point out that there exists a biscuit conditional in #111.
Sounds fun, nonetheless.
If the Language Log people ever find this place, we are going to Rum Ble.
111: cooool. Also, are you serious? (Only one who has never had any sort of adventurous vacations would ask this.)
I am serious that we do that and I am serious that you are welcome to come. Meetup! The sand is soft and the moonlight is forgiving.
I can't really invite you to 110, however.
One of my favorite dune areas out that way (more SoCal though) are the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave.
115: You are the coolest ever. Gotta check, but hell, that sounds like something The Dude would get me to do. In addition to learning how to ride a bike, tread water, and hang glide. He went to King's Canyon one summer, and really liked that, but I'm not sure if he's gone to sand dunes. That sounds super cool
Also, how many Bay Area people are here? A meetup would be awesome. So far, I'm counting w-lfs-n, me, our mysterious departed host, Josh, Magpie, Meghan from the Archives (but only on weekends)....
I'm going to join ogged temporarily in the land of no-blog.
Are thing not anal enough around here Is there not enough anal around here now, young Ben?
I was hoping you people would tell me "oh, that? Yeah, that's normal, you dumb ass."
Well, it is normal young lady (I can say that now! Whee!). 'Tis not dumbassed to ask.
The car people can tell you, but some cars, yeah, leave their fans going for a while. I do not remember the dealie with that.
Parsimon wins!
Basically, when you're driving the car, the water/radiator fluid is circulating, so accumulated heat is um, radiated away by the um, radiator as the wind passes over the vanes. Otherwise, as happens when you have a broken water pump, the heat accumulates and the water boils over, eventually the oil boils and then the engine seizes, if you push it far enough. (The primary function of engine oil is to equalize the distribution of heat inside the engine.)
Anyways, in your modern type cars, they have shifted to electric fans, which saves horse power as the fan only runs when it is needed.
The thing is, is that they have also made engines more efficient, so they run hotter, and they have made radiators smaller, which saves weight and space. So when you park the car after it has run hot for awhile, the water (mostly) stops circulating along with the oil, but there is still excess heat to get rid of, thus the fluid temperatures continue to rise for awhile. Which is where the fan running after the engine is stopped comes in: that helps cool down the stilled radiator fluid and keeps the radiator from boiling over.
I'm surprised that you haven't heard this noise before since you were Texas for awhile I do believe. If you walk across a big parking lot you can hear the fans of recently parked cars running. (That's not so common in Illinois except maybe in the summer.)
So, basically, if you hear the noise after you've parked, that's GOOD! If you do not hear the noise and smell/see dripping radiator fluid, that's BAD.
If you wanna see it yourself you can pop the hood after you've parked (and if you hear the noise); the fan is in the front next to radiator, and should be spinning away. You should also see a big warning sticker on or near it warning you to keep dangling things (like hands or necklaces) away from the fan even if it isn't moving because 'the fan may turn on at any time'.
The fan is your friend!
(Side note: if you see clear water dripping from somewhere near the doors when it's hot and you've been running the A/C, that's condensation from the evaporator. Not a problem, the water has to go somewhere and it's just water from the air. Radiator fluid smells funny and is a greenish/yellow color and would be dripping onto the ground near the front of the engine compartment.)
max
['Sorry for overkill, but in for a dime, in for a dollar.']
83: The key to dealing with naked hot springs etc. is being confident that your dirt is stronger than their dirt. At swipple places and college places that's easy. I wouldn't feel a problem with deadhead abd biker hotsprings, but I'd probably draw the line at homeless and leper colony hotsprings. But then, many of the Unfoggetariat have weak dirt.
I was thinking of Cougar Hot Springs outside Eugene, for those keeping score. A semi-permanent resident said it was college kids, Deadheads, and Rainbow Family in that order. Or in some other order. There also were a moderate number of semi-permanents, who seemed mostly to be Deadhead burnouts, with an occasional nondenominational psychotic (e.g. Michael Son of God).
Cougar Hot Springs
I've been there! Many naked hippies of various sub-genres!
Our trip was ruined by unprecedented bad weather for which we were not prepared. Alas.
On my first day off from teaching this summer, I will be spending it here. Jellis?
Real hippies hike 10 miles to get to hot springs. (Sykes Hot Springs in Big Sur.)
125: Tell Mary Catherine about it. She claims that there's nothing in Queens that anyone in Manhattan has ever heard of, except for one Indian restaurant.
I work in Queens, so I'm not sure I count as a true non-Queensian.
As a first time poster, I'd like to take this opportunity to announce my upcoming, and likely permanent, hiatus.
Thanks for all your support.
I do think heat-incompatibility is the only automatic dealbreaker, though.
An allergy to fun fur might be difficult, too.
AWB, that looks fucking awesome. I want to come along!
In Oregon Goldmyer and Breitenbush hot springs are very nice. Breitenbush has been commercially developed by a non-profit spiritual group. Use of Goldmyer is very restricted:
Use of glass, soap, tobacco, alcohol, firearms and unruly behavior is prohibited or strictly limited on the property. The entry fee is $15 per day [for a total of 20 people / day.]
Hot springs do tend to attract the riffraff. Goldmyer was once completely trashed by bikers.
"bring everything you need to survive"
A guy I went to college with made a documentary about showing up at Burning Man with literally* nothing.
*Please note that I am not one of those people who think "literally" means "not literally."
134: heh, I know that documentary. That was pretty funny.
So how did he get there without being arrested?
Sure, but I'm literally mindedly taking "literally nothing" to include clothing. Maybe he got a ride in the back of a van.
138: Right, no clothing.
I haven't seen it, but my impression is that he arrived with a car full of stuff, or else they wouldn't let him in the gate, and then he left the car, stripped off his clothes, and wandered on in.
69: Burning Man requires tickets? Sold by whom? I thought everyone just sort of showed up.
There are gates too? This is bullshit.
141: it's expensive, too. The things they don't tell you.
140 described it pretty well up until the mid-to-late 90s.
Oh. The last time I knew anything about it was about 1996, so maybe that's why I'm confused. But, seriously...wtf? Gates? Tickets? Is it sponsored by McDonald's now, too?
The crack about McDonalds in 143 is pretty much everybody's reaction to the revelations in 142. No, no corporate sponsorships. You can't even display your corporate logo at your camp. When Napster showed up in the Napster bus people covered it in mud.
The deal, basically, is that the BLM was going to shut it down unless they got a huge use fee, and the cops were going to shut it down unless it got run like a regular festival. Arguably the philosophically pure thing to do would have been to shut it down, but the organizers worked with the Man. Lots of cops there, now.
How expensive is it?
I'm still trying to figure out if I should try and go this year. It sounds like a hell of a lot of fun, and I know a couple people around here who run a relaxed camp and have invited me along, but it seems like it would be really weird and lose a lot if I weren't able to go with at least one good friend. I also really wouldn't know what to bring... Argh.
I think the tickets are up to like $350 at this point; they're cheaper if you buy 'em earlier. Sometimes people will sell their early, cheaper tickets on craigslist (generally with no markup, per community guidelines: feel the love!) when they realize they can't go.
147: No shit?? So instead of a free festival of sex, drugs, and general pandemonium, you now pay $350 to go stand around in the burning sun under the watchful eyes of law enforcement? No thanks.
148: there's still plenty of sex, drugs and pandemonium. It's just a little less anarchic than it once was. Less drive-through shooting ranges and handing-of-bongs-to-dudes-dressed-like-cops, more massive, astonishingly elaborate art pieces and theme camps. Less people dying every year.
The wikipedia article has a nice chart that shows attendance through time. 47K last year.
Wow. Geez...
Yeah, that'll wait. I'd rather blow that kind of money and time on SXSW for a week of crazed in-group hedonism.
I dunno, if I meet some people who run a good theme camp and can convince a few good friends to do it, it sounds like it could still be pretty amazing. But geez.
How do people keep their food from going bad after the first day or two in the desert?
151: you can buy ice; that's the only thing they sell on-site. Although I kept my cooler cold for 5 days last time through a 3 cooler combo dry ice/regular ice system.
It costs a lot more than $350; shelter, transportation, food and so on add up. I'd much rather do the burn than SXSW (or coachella or any music festival). Whole different kind of thing.
A lot of people who are going (more-or-less) on their own will scout the listed theme camps to see if there's one they can join.
SXSW (or coachella or any music festival)
How dare you compare SXSW to any other music festival!
Seriously, no comparison whatsoever. Given the free day party scene and the general takeover of downtown Austin, I'd say SXSW is closer to BM than it is to any music festival out there (CMJ is its own lamer deal).
But yeah. Point taken. *sigh* I'll talk myself into it one of these days, but I might just end up sitting around and waiting for the next crazy zeitgeist-capturing party to arise in the middle of nowhere.
On a note that's related only in my brain (events that should be cool as hell, but by now are too well-known and overly crowded compared to the legendary days, I suppose), I still can't believe I passed up tickets for the My Bloody Valentine reunion show in Chicago. But $200 on craigslist now? Eesh.
I'll talk myself into it one of these days, but I might just end up sitting around and waiting for the next crazy zeitgeist-capturing party to arise in the middle of nowhere.
The words you are looking for are "Fourth of Juplaya" and "Flipside".