Hmmm

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 35%
Visual : 64%
Left : 31%
Right : 68%

Tedward, you possess an interesting balance of hemispheric and sensory characteristics, with a slight right-brain dominance and a slight preference for visual processing.

Since neither of these is completely centered, you lack the indecision and second-guessing associated with other patterns. You have a distinct preference for creativity and intuition with seemingly sufficient verbal skills to be able to translate in any meaningful way to yourself and others.

You tend to see things in "wholes" without surrendering the ability to attend to details. You can give them sufficient notice to be able to utitlize and incorporate them as part of an overall pattern.

In the same way, while you are active and process information simultaneously, you demonstrate a capacity for sequencing as well as reflection which allows for some "inner dialogue."

All in all, you are likely to be quite content with yourself and your style although at times it will not necessarily be appreciated by others. You have sufficient confidence to not second-guess yourself, but rather to use your critical faculties in a way that enhances, rather than limits, your creativity.

You can learn in either mode although far more efficiently within the visual mode. It is likely that in listening to conversations or lecture materials you simultaneously translate into pictures which enhance and elaborate on the meaning.

It is most likely that you will gravitate towards those endeavors which are predominantly visual but include some logic or structuring. You may either work particularly hard at cultivating your auditory skills or risk "missing out" on being able to efficiently process what you learn. Your own intuitive skills will at times interfere with your capacity to listen to others, which is something else you may need to take into account.

Tent For Sale

This monstrous dome has only been used once and is everything it says it should be:
easy to set up, packs small, comes complete with rain-fly room divider, etc.
It has a 12'x17' footprint and is about 7' high in the center.

I'd be using it this year at BM except that I have a really small plot of land for our theme camp and I can fit 2 monkey huts in that area.

Retails on ebay at $140, will let it go for $100 OBO

LA County to follow NAFAA regs

Okay so, anyone who's tried to get a permit or two in LA County knows you run into one of two problems: LA City and their antiquated codes or you roll the dice on whatever the local LA County FM decides to shove on you. One guy says you can't wear paper clothing, but lets you spin with broken equipment. Another guy wants an asbestos blanket on the stage, a $1000 jobber box to hold the fuel, and limits you to tools that can be spun out without the fuel hitting the ground. *sigh*

At least in LA City, the worst thing you have to deal with is the written codes, but most of the time, dropping the NAFAA regs on them seals the deal. This is very root of the problem with fire codes: if they don't have them, you never know what kind of treatment you'll get. One day, the fire chief, or lieutenant on duty says "yeah, fine whatever you want" and the next day they threaten to put you in jail for fire eating. At least with some kind of code, the worst you have to deal with is some weird quirk in the code put in for reasons nobody knows.

For example LA City regs state that you can't spin with a fuel that has a flash point below 50 degrees, but when you ask for their preferred fuels, they tell you alcohol or white gas (both well below 50). Or how about the Seattle C7? for years they had a rider stating that a 5 gallon bucket of open water was necessary for fire safety. Well, as many of us know, water is counterproductive to putting out petrol fires:
www.youtube.com/watch

So, you can see how exciting it was to me to be invited to talk with Captain Penn in the West Hollywood branch of LA County. He took a copy of our fresh, new, bullet point checklist from NAFAA, a copy of the LA City codes, the NFPA 160s and the NAFAA regs 2.1. After a long talk about the city codes, and a quick review of the rest, we went down the bullet points line by line. It took hours, but in the end it looks like we have an agreeable list without silly things like a 12" flame size limitation, or the 50 degree flash point crap. He was actually particular about changing the more open-ended wording to keep untrained marshals from going too far with regulation.

The next step is the November training seminar. Well, hopefully November. They'll gather the LA county training marshals together (about 80 of them), who are in charge of disseminating new material and training local departments. We (NAFAA) will be present to give a powerpoint presentation and a live demonstration of fire performance to help lock down the deal. They'll take it to their own departments and we may have a uniform code as soon as the end of the year.

ABC series "Wanna Bet".

Looking for: 5 skilled fire breathers

Stunt : maintain a fire ball for 90 seconds without torches

Gratuity: $1000 per performer (no SAG/AFTRA)

When: 7am-7pm Thursday Aug 2nd, 8am-7pm Friday Aug 3rd

For: ABC series "Wanna Bet".

(Los Angeles)

Halloween Haunt

Okay, folks, we got the gig (tentatively), we still have to negotiate the location, though. corporate wants to move us to the main stage (wagon stage), which is fine, except that it has no spin-out zone, a trampoline in the middle, a band performing there and Nylon carpeting over the whole area. So, we're trying to get our own stage...

I hate flying

Actually, it's kinda cool, but it's the airports that's the problem. the last time I flew... well, Clinton was in office.

Today, I had a 6;35 am flight. Yeah, that's right. Be on a plane an hour after bed time... ;D
But It gets worse.
I had to run Burn Club until midnight the night before. So, 6 hours between last burn and take-off.
But it gets worse..
Instead of just sleeping a lot the day before, the landlord chose that day to finally spray for roaches.
Uhggg.
so, short on sleep anyway, I get home after Burn club at 1am and decide to get 4 hours before flying.
This leaves me ... grumpy.
Despite going 65 all the way to LAX, I arrive "too late" to get my paperless ticket. It turns out that the "suggestion" to arrive at the airport 2 hours early is actually policy for Delta Air.
This leaves me... more grumpy.
So I drive all the way back home, narrowly avoiding mass murder several times, and call travelocity. And they actually make a little headway. Granted it's store credit with Delta but it's something.

So the $180 lessons learned
1) Plan on parking in the airport 2 hours ahead of departure, even if things are slow
2) If you use travelocity, take their contact number with you. Had I called earlier, they may have been able to switch flights for me.
3) When your instincts tell you to miss a mid-week, out of town, meeting... miss it.

Round and round

Once again, I made a joke that I may never get to tell (it has to do with supporting troupes who've volunteered for an illegal war).

A lot of pundits are wagging about the surprise that people are showing over recent events.
This isn't the first time a president has taken office without the popular vote to back it.
This isn't the first time US soil has been attacked
This isn't the first time the WTC was attacked.
This isn't the first time a presidency mishandled a situation.
If you believe the truly paranoid, it isn't the first time the Dog has been wagged.
it's not the first time the government has spilled money into a company (like Haliburton)
It's not the first time a presidential family business has benefitted from a standing president
This isn't the first war that wasn't really a war we've entered.
this isn't the first time that "operational protocols" have been shifted (afganistan>saddam)
It's not the first time a president has backed all his cronies no matter how incompetent.

Really, there's nothing particularly unique or surprising about the Dubya administration. Except this:
WHY DO WE KEEP LETTING POLITICIANS DO THIS? WHY HASN'T A GRAND JURY BEEN ASSEMBLED, OR A GOOD OLD FASHIONED LYNCHING? WHAT THE HELL CAN WE DO?