I probably won’t type up most stuff from this weekend, but I figure I’ll add an entry describing my bout of stupidity for later perusal.

This was on Saturday night.  I’d finally decided to wear my loincloth, so that and my boots were all I had on as I headed up to the fire stack.  We were burning a bunch of pallets and I helped several others carry them from their location to the fire area.  When the stack was about halfway done, Rob dumped a bunch of white gas over the fire to prepare it for being lit.

We finished adding pallets.  I put a bit more white gas on, fearing that much of the previous stuff had evaporated, and we were pondering ways to light it.  Troy was going to use a fire staff, but I said I’d light it myself.  I failed to remember the volatility of white gas, thinking of the manner in which kerosene-soaked fires light.

Troy handed me his lighter.  I went to the fire, crouched down, and extended my right arm, placing the lighter up to the piece of wood that was sticking out most from the fire.

I then remember three distinct things.  All of a sudden, there was fire all in front of me—the vapors in the air had ignited—and my sole thought was, “Away!” I pushed myself away from the fire and it followed me as I moved backwards.  The next thing I remember is lying on the ground on my back, some distance from the fire.

Several people came over to me and asked very anxiously, “Are you okay?” I mentally checked myself, realized that my whole right side was hurting in a manner that suggested it had been burned and said, “No.  Is there a wet towel?” There wasn’t, but Rob and someone else got jugs of water, which we proceeded to pour over my body to cool it off.

(I was later informed that several of the women, among them Suz, Amy, and Christie, found the sight of people pouring water over my loincloth-clad body while backlit by the fire very sexy.)

I talked with someone about first aid stuff in the area, concluded that there wasn’t any in the immediate vicinity, and set out with Suz toward my tent, with my first aid kit and its burn cream.  We got down there, I got out the kit, opened it, and dumped out everything.  I barely wanted to use my hands, because flexing my fingers hurt.  Sean (Burning Sean) cut open the burn cream packets and I applied them to the places I felt most burned.  Suz then used Sean’s spray Bactine over everywhere I felt burned at all.  I noticed that I had at least one blister on my left index finger, and it had already burst.  I felt like my lips were blistering and had Suz (and, later, other people) check it, but everyone said it looked okay, just red and swollen.

After finishing the initial first aid, I felt my body feeling a lot weaker and realized that the adrenaline had just worn off, and said as much to Suz, as I sat down.  When the dizziness and nausea continued, I realized that my body was starting to go into shock, so I went and lay down on the bench of one of the picnic tables.  I kept babbling to Suz and Rob and Troy, who were there by then, just to make sure I stayed conscious and had something to focus on.  Rob and Troy dressed the blister on my finger while I lay there.

At this point my memories blur together a bit.  I remember seeing the bright orange glow from the fire reflected off the trees around me.  I remember getting up and walking with Suz to see the thing (it was very big and very bright).  I remember apologizing to Suz for being hurt and worrying her and for her having to essentially ranger me.  At some point, Rob, Suz, and Troy left while Jill arrived.  I recall having Jill check my forehead temperature, which was closer to normal when she checked than when Rob and Suz had (so I was coming out of shock).

That’s most of the tale.  After that, I tried going back up to the fire, but even at a distance the heat was causing my burns to hurt more, so I went back down.  I sat around for a bit, just breathing and half-meditating to lessen the pain.  Other people showed up, and I talked with them.  As the night progressed, the burns hurt less and less, and after a number of hours (four or five?) I could wear a shirt without it hurting too much.  A bit after that, I went to sleep, which my body gladly welcomed.

Originally from an email sent to the baltwash-burning mailing list:

I typed all of this up for my diary then figured I might as well send out to the list (with some of the more personal bits removed—sorry).

§ Who Needs Friendster?

As a result of being at PDF, I’m now very used to walking anywhere and running into friends.  Now, of course, I expect this to extend into the rest of the world, so I keep catching glimpses of people and I get all hopeful for a moment or two.  “Is that Dale over there?” “Hey, that looks like Sean!” “Red hair, hey it’s Suz!  Oh, just a red hat.” Of course, at PDF, I almost goose–er, said, “Hi, Rob” to several people in orange hats.

§ Miscellaneous Things I Liked

I love my tent.  I stayed nice and dry, at least when I was in it, and all my gear remained dry and mud free, despite the location of the tent in a river of mud.  (It’s a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight CD.  Only really sleeps one person with gear, but it works quite well for just me.)

Rob’s radio station rocked.  If I didn’t like the current music, I could just pop in the earphones and listen to something I liked, especially if Rob or Dale was spinning at the time.

§ Main Burn

The main burn was beautiful.  Declan got a great shot of it, too.

Once it was going well, I liked the view from the side, with the internal red glow coming through the gaps between the still-unburnt logs on the outside.  And the fire team did an excellent job just getting it lit in the first place.

The wet ground was conducive to the “spin white gas onto the ground at your feet then light it” effect, though I was successful in not emulating Sean.  (i.e. I didn’t set the fuel dump on fire.)

I like Alex’s (dancingmantis) poi.  Three wicks, short, long life even with white gas, and metal rings for handles to facilitate movement of the poi.  Now I need to make a set of my own like that.  I think I’ll work on my planned single wick monkey fist poi first, though.

I did burn myself with Alex’s poi, though.  (I wasn’t quite familiar enough with the handles to have attempted an over-the-head thread the needle.)  It’s probably the worst burn I’ve had from poi (some blistering, which mostly subsided by morning) and also the most fun I’ve had burning myself.  :)

Helping quadgirl lose her fire virginity was fun.  And she looked good with the staff, too.

There was one particular woman spinning that had a very beautiful spinning style.  I didn’t get to talk to her afterwards and see who she was, though.  (Too much other stuff going on.)

§ Dress Day

Many thanks to Tanya for lending me her pink wig, pink lipstick, and glitter on Saturday.  They all went well with my pink dress and pink umbrella.

• Camp Hon 1
• Camp Hon 2

§ Iron Chef

Once again, PDF Iron Chef was a blast.  Many thanks to Leah for running it a second time.  This time around it was vegans versus carnivores, with a theme ingredient of tofu.  The vegans managed to win over the judges (even though the carnivores had sushi with eel; I mean, eel sushi, c’mon :) ).  I wish I’d been able to taste more of the dishes.  (In particular the vegans’ oatmeal-fruit-tofu pie looked very good.)  I was busy making sure things were coordinated (or micromanaging, depending on how you look at it) and by the time I got to taste the food, most of it had been eaten.  But the vegans added more tofu to their curry, Magorn had a lot of chicken dish and sauce, and Suz saved me a piece of sushi.  So I had some things, which was an improvement over last year.

§ Theme Camps

The Gold Bar was again fun.  I like just hanging out there, talking to Whiskey and company, and chatting with people as they drop by.  It’s too bad they were down a couple of people (having a baby right before PDF, how silly :) ) and that they packed up early and left on Saturday.

I was also sad to see Dale and Sara leaving Saturday evening.  And while I’m missing people, I was disappointed not to see Alicia or Laura there.  Silly people, moving away from Baltimore.  :)

Primal Fred was fun, though a bit distant.  Jill’s body shot bar looked fun for those participating.  Not really my thing, though.  I’m too private a person (and too shy) to do body shots in public.

I think I’ll camp in the general camping area next PDF.  While I liked the theme camps, it’s a good hike to get out there.  And they can be loud (especially the DJ who set up across the way from Psychedelic Shamans; I probably should have tried to talk to him, but I was far too tired, even if I couldn’t actually sleep very well through the loudness).  I also like hanging out in the pavilion, which is really the hub of PDF.

§ Everything Else

There were so many other things I loved about this burn.  You’re all wonderful people and I’ll see you at the next one!

For aggregators (and we’ll put some in the first sentence for summary-only ones: UTF-8(äéîøùñÞÐ∰ち) XML(äéîøùñÞÐ∰ち)).

          .0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 .A .B .C .D .E .F
     160.  ᘀ  ᘁ  ᘂ  ᘃ  ᘄ  ᘅ  ᘆ  ᘇ  ᘈ  ᘉ  ᘊ  ᘋ  ᘌ  ᘍ  ᘎ  ᘏ 
     161.  ᘐ  ᘑ  ᘒ  ᘓ  ᘔ  ᘕ  ᘖ  ᘗ  ᘘ  ᘙ  ᘚ  ᘛ  ᘜ  ᘝ  ᘞ  ᘟ 
     162.  ᘠ  ᘡ  ᘢ  ᘣ  ᘤ  ᘥ  ᘦ  ᘧ  ᘨ  ᘩ  ᘪ  ᘫ  ᘬ  ᘭ  ᘮ  ᘯ 
     163.  ᘰ  ᘱ  ᘲ  ᘳ  ᘴ  ᘵ  ᘶ  ᘷ  ᘸ  ᘹ  ᘺ  ᘻ  ᘼ  ᘽ  ᘾ  ᘿ 
     164.  ᙀ  ᙁ  ᙂ  ᙃ  ᙄ  ᙅ  ᙆ  ᙇ  ᙈ  ᙉ  ᙊ  ᙋ  ᙌ  ᙍ  ᙎ  ᙏ 
     165.  ᙐ  ᙑ  ᙒ  ᙓ  ᙔ  ᙕ  ᙖ  ᙗ  ᙘ  ᙙ  ᙚ  ᙛ  ᙜ  ᙝ  ᙞ  ᙟ 
     166.  ᙠ  ᙡ  ᙢ  ᙣ  ᙤ  ᙥ  ᙦ  ᙧ  ᙨ  ᙩ  ᙪ  ᙫ  ᙬ  ᙭  ᙮  ᙯ 
     167.  ᙰ  ᙱ  ᙲ  ᙳ  ᙴ  ᙵ  ᙶ  ᙷ  ᙸ  ᙹ  ᙺ  ᙻ  ᙼ  ᙽ  ᙾ  ᙿ 
     168.     ᚁ  ᚂ  ᚃ  ᚄ  ᚅ  ᚆ  ᚇ  ᚈ  ᚉ  ᚊ  ᚋ  ᚌ  ᚍ  ᚎ  ᚏ 
     169.  ᚐ  ᚑ  ᚒ  ᚓ  ᚔ  ᚕ  ᚖ  ᚗ  ᚘ  ᚙ  ᚚ  ᚛  ᚜  ᚝  ᚞  ᚟ 
     16A.  ᚠ  ᚡ  ᚢ  ᚣ  ᚤ  ᚥ  ᚦ  ᚧ  ᚨ  ᚩ  ᚪ  ᚫ  ᚬ  ᚭ  ᚮ  ᚯ 
     16B.  ᚰ  ᚱ  ᚲ  ᚳ  ᚴ  ᚵ  ᚶ  ᚷ  ᚸ  ᚹ  ᚺ  ᚻ  ᚼ  ᚽ  ᚾ  ᚿ 
     16C.  ᛀ  ᛁ  ᛂ  ᛃ  ᛄ  ᛅ  ᛆ  ᛇ  ᛈ  ᛉ  ᛊ  ᛋ  ᛌ  ᛍ  ᛎ  ᛏ 
     16D.  ᛐ  ᛑ  ᛒ  ᛓ  ᛔ  ᛕ  ᛖ  ᛗ  ᛘ  ᛙ  ᛚ  ᛛ  ᛜ  ᛝ  ᛞ  ᛟ 
     16E.  ᛠ  ᛡ  ᛢ  ᛣ  ᛤ  ᛥ  ᛦ  ᛧ  ᛨ  ᛩ  ᛪ  ᛫  ᛬  ᛭  ᛮ  ᛯ 
     16F.  ᛰ  ᛱ  ᛲ  ᛳ  ᛴ  ᛵ  ᛶ  ᛷ  ᛸ  ᛹  ᛺  ᛻  ᛼  ᛽  ᛾  ᛿ 

          .0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 .A .B .C .D .E .F
     220.  ∀  ∁  ∂  ∃  ∄  ∅  ∆  ∇  ∈  ∉  ∊  ∋  ∌  ∍  ∎  ∏ 
     221.  ∐  ∑  −  ∓  ∔  ∕  ∖  ∗  ∘  ∙  √  ∛  ∜  ∝  ∞  ∟ 
     222.  ∠  ∡  ∢  ∣  ∤  ∥  ∦  ∧  ∨  ∩  ∪  ∫  ∬  ∭  ∮  ∯ 
     223.  ∰  ∱  ∲  ∳  ∴  ∵  ∶  ∷  ∸  ∹  ∺  ∻  ∼  ∽  ∾  ∿ 
     224.  ≀  ≁  ≂  ≃  ≄  ≅  ≆  ≇  ≈  ≉  ≊  ≋  ≌  ≍  ≎  ≏ 
     225.  ≐  ≑  ≒  ≓  ≔  ≕  ≖  ≗  ≘  ≙  ≚  ≛  ≜  ≝  ≞  ≟ 
     226.  ≠  ≡  ≢  ≣  ≤  ≥  ≦  ≧  ≨  ≩  ≪  ≫  ≬  ≭  ≮  ≯ 
     227.  ≰  ≱  ≲  ≳  ≴  ≵  ≶  ≷  ≸  ≹  ≺  ≻  ≼  ≽  ≾  ≿ 
     228.  ⊀  ⊁  ⊂  ⊃  ⊄  ⊅  ⊆  ⊇  ⊈  ⊉  ⊊  ⊋  ⊌  ⊍  ⊎  ⊏ 
     229.  ⊐  ⊑  ⊒  ⊓  ⊔  ⊕  ⊖  ⊗  ⊘  ⊙  ⊚  ⊛  ⊜  ⊝  ⊞  ⊟ 
     22A.  ⊠  ⊡  ⊢  ⊣  ⊤  ⊥  ⊦  ⊧  ⊨  ⊩  ⊪  ⊫  ⊬  ⊭  ⊮  ⊯ 
     22B.  ⊰  ⊱  ⊲  ⊳  ⊴  ⊵  ⊶  ⊷  ⊸  ⊹  ⊺  ⊻  ⊼  ⊽  ⊾  ⊿ 
     22C.  ⋀  ⋁  ⋂  ⋃  ⋄  ⋅  ⋆  ⋇  ⋈  ⋉  ⋊  ⋋  ⋌  ⋍  ⋎  ⋏ 
     22D.  ⋐  ⋑  ⋒  ⋓  ⋔  ⋕  ⋖  ⋗  ⋘  ⋙  ⋚  ⋛  ⋜  ⋝  ⋞  ⋟ 
     22E.  ⋠  ⋡  ⋢  ⋣  ⋤  ⋥  ⋦  ⋧  ⋨  ⋩  ⋪  ⋫  ⋬  ⋭  ⋮  ⋯ 
     22F.  ⋰  ⋱  ⋲  ⋳  ⋴  ⋵  ⋶  ⋷  ⋸  ⋹  ⋺  ⋻  ⋼  ⋽  ⋾  ⋿ 

          .0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 .A .B .C .D .E .F
     300.  　  、  。  〃  〄  々  〆  〇  〈  〉  《  》  「  」  『  』 
     301.  【  】  〒  〓  〔  〕  〖  〗  〘  〙  〚  〛  〜  〝  〞  〟 
     302.  〠  〡  〢  〣  〤  〥  〦  〧  〨  〩   〪   〫   〬   〭   〮   〯 
     303.  〰  〱  〲  〳  〴  〵  〶  〷  〸  〹  〺  〻  〼  〽  〾  〿 
     304.  ぀  ぁ  あ  ぃ  い  ぅ  う  ぇ  え  ぉ  お  か  が  き  ぎ  く 
     305.  ぐ  け  げ  こ  ご  さ  ざ  し  じ  す  ず  せ  ぜ  そ  ぞ  た 
     306.  だ  ち  ぢ  っ  つ  づ  て  で  と  ど  な  に  ぬ  ね  の  は 
     307.  ば  ぱ  ひ  び  ぴ  ふ  ぶ  ぷ  へ  べ  ぺ  ほ  ぼ  ぽ  ま  み 
     308.  む  め  も  ゃ  や  ゅ  ゆ  ょ  よ  ら  り  る  れ  ろ  ゎ  わ 
     309.  ゐ  ゑ  を  ん  ゔ  ゕ  ゖ  ゗  ゘   ゙   ゚  ゛  ゜  ゝ  ゞ  ゟ 
     30A.  ゠  ァ  ア  ィ  イ  ゥ  ウ  ェ  エ  ォ  オ  カ  ガ  キ  ギ  ク 
     30B.  グ  ケ  ゲ  コ  ゴ  サ  ザ  シ  ジ  ス  ズ  セ  ゼ  ソ  ゾ  タ 
     30C.  ダ  チ  ヂ  ッ  ツ  ヅ  テ  デ  ト  ド  ナ  ニ  ヌ  ネ  ノ  ハ 
     30D.  バ  パ  ヒ  ビ  ピ  フ  ブ  プ  ヘ  ベ  ペ  ホ  ボ  ポ  マ  ミ 
     30E.  ム  メ  モ  ャ  ヤ  ュ  ユ  ョ  ヨ  ラ  リ  ル  レ  ロ  ヮ  ワ 
     30F.  ヰ  ヱ  ヲ  ン  ヴ  ヵ  ヶ  ヷ  ヸ  ヹ  ヺ  ・  ー  ヽ  ヾ  ヿ 

Just some experiments with various typography.

§ Quotes

I wouldn’t mind using nice-looking quote marks for things.  HTML has a tag for inline quoting: the <q> tag.  Most browsers don’t quite work properly with it.

Here’s Exodus 8:1:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Release my people in order that they may serve me!” ’ ”

When rendered with <q> tags, it looks like this:

Then the Lord said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh and tell him, Thus says the Lord: Release my people in order that they may serve me!

A lot of browsers don’t get things right beyond two levels of nesting.  The standard is that nested quotes should alternate between single and double quotes.  (British usage often starts with single quote son the outside, while American usage starts with double quotes.)  In my testing, both Firefox (102) and Chrome (110) started with double quotes, used single quotes in the middle, but then used single quotes again for the innermost quotation.  (They also didn’t add any space between adjacent quote marks, which is often recommended in typesetting for legibility.)  elinks actually got the alternating quote marks right.  It also used straight quotes, not curly ones, but I can forgive that given the textual environment.

§ Column width

A simple rule of thumb is that a text’s line length should be set so that it contains between two and three repetitions of the lowercase alphabet.  (That’s a rule from print publishing; websites appear to be able to use longer lines without harming readability.  But the 2–3 alphabet rule isn’t a bad starting point.)

Here are lines containing two, three, and four repetitions of the lowercase alphabet:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Terminal environments have centered around a 80-column display since at least the era of punch cards.  Here’s an 80-character line in <pre> tags:

         1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890

§ Sentence Spacing

There used to be some examples of different typography around end-of-sentence spacing here.  But those have since been subsumed into the sentence spacing post.

As suggested in AJAX Considered Harmful, I’m testing out blosxom’s URL-encoding.  In practice, the problems he raises aren’t much of a concern for me, since blosxom gets its URLs from the filenames, and I stick to ASCII for entries in my filesystem.

An interesting side note is that one of the pages he links to recommends not using extensions like “.html” for URLs, since they indicate formatting/delivery, not content.  Despite the presence of “.html” in my URLs, I’m actually fairly compliant with this, because blosxom treates that extension as a content request.  Still, it’d be better for the browser and server to do content negotiation.