Notes for Da Playa

I just realized that I have 26 days to my first sprint distance, and about 45 days or so to the next and I haven't run in nearly three weeks. And about 50 days or so until black rock city. Not alot done. This is not a happy realization. It kind of feels like those nightmares I had in college where I wake up and the final is already over and everyone is walking out and I show up late.

The worst thing to do is to be late. You can miss any exam, and maybe have a small chance to get things straight if the professor is merciful - but to show up 20 minutes late, you're dead meat. You have to take the exam and you're almost guaranteed to miss a question. The school I went to, there were usually only one or two questions on the exam. (ex. "explain the entire universe. start at planck time" - er. I actually had a similiar question once.. not kidding)

The good news is that I've finally figured out that I'm behind the eightball here a week in advance of things getting way out of control. I did a few races last year and the marathon this year so I feel like I've based but thats just an illusion. I've been playing out here in cyberspace nearly two or three hours a day not counting SL (which I will get back into as we approach burning man)...

So anyway thats that for the tris. I'm also starting to think I'd better get ready for this August Labor Day. Here are some open source notes for da playa :

• The TC Helicon harmonizer studio effect puts the voice in the right octaves. Subtract out the effect from the standard mike input so you end up with just the effect. It works and it blows your mind. My job: phone sex.
• There will be issues with other people being able to hear the voice outside of the mike so we may need to use headphones. There are wireless mikes, and headphones ... we might have to put them over the ears and the like to do it. Also the mikes will be picking up wind noise as black rock city can get up to 40 mph wind
• There is a fundamental connect to nature in all of this that needs to be explored and the idea may very well be to burn all camp infrastructure this year and somehow simply connect people to the fact that voice and speech are likely around as a result of fear of abandonment or fear of predation. Think, maybe, prairie dogs here. They are nervous and silly and might work out fine. I need serious help with this.
• Power is going to be a biig problem. I think that maybe I can talk to andrew. I am going to have all kinds of hardware. If I can do this with cellphones then I will be able to back down and just go with some kind of standard power supply otherwise its going to be difficult. At night it might be rough as well.
• Things that work - I have located at least five, maybe seven people that are good potential candidates to send out there and I've got the transportation thing wired and basic camp supplies in order.
• Transformation of voice is going to be a thing in which I can't likely leave to just electronics. I will need to make a list of things that I am going to need to track and alter and look for in the general subject and see just how many of them I can put a dial on

I am not interested in alot of heavy visuals I am just interested in the sounds that we need to connect with each other and the natural world; sounds that could bind us together / tones that mean something. like say, the fart noise. and, if you've recently graduated from harvard. the door slam that quickly follows. try it. it works. So.. I am heavily underfunded / inadequately resourced and waaaay behind the eightball.. I have a semi-invisible , very small footprint (20 m2) camp to build but I have alot of tricky problems to solve to get there. Aesthetic problems:

• Suppose we mike and headset everyone - where would they go to chat? Can we make it the entire playa? if not we need a place where people can hang out kind of like starbucks or something
• is this thing going to be practicable? not everyone can afford a 22,000.00 mixing board and a 799.00 effect mixer. We need to track down the original, inline one ASAP
• Is there cell phone service in black rock. I bet not .. so the next question. What can everyone put right up to their ear, manically, all the time , so they can talk about their kids soccer game in front of everyone at the grocery store..?

The voices inside my head, at least, are quiet now. They said they're busy doing something but they won't tell me what it is.. something about a girl.. and used climber's rope, that you can get at Atlanta Rocks.. and a mutual nda.