Dear Monkeys,

The last two days have been chain-linked obligations morning till night. I haven’t even had a chance to train. But it looks like things might be able to return to normal, now.

We had a class last night and I went with the professor and a group of TAs out for a couple beers afterwords and had a blast talking about pedagogy and self discovery. It was excellent. We left the lecture hall at 8 and left the tavern at 11, I got home in time to see the Red Sox lose in 12 innings to Baltimore, brush my teeth, and go to bed, wake up at 8, be at the staff meeting at 9, and now I’m here, able to update you all.

I forgot to follow up about my friend who went to burning man this year. He had a great time, it seems. He’s a big proponent of hacker spaces and collaborative culture, and that seems to be a major aspect of what that event is all about.

But, it’s not. Sorry Monkey holes, crash and burning man.

I won’t start an argument with you about it now. If you go there for the week of partying and dancing, that’s fine, it’s great for that (and also getting STDs, according to all the clinics around San Francisco that report the thousands of returnees hitting up the clinics to get treated for every fucked up genital disease imaginable). But if you’re into that kind of thing, that’s great for you.

Just don’t pretend that it’s some kind of hyper-radical experiment in human society or radically self-expressive culture. It’s not.

Who’s up for Bank of America’s 2014 FedEx® Burning Man© Expo? Only $400!

My friend, who did have a good time there, also explained that there were vehicles that only let hot babes onboard, and there were whole “neigborhoods” that were just filled with luxury RVs, driven there by various jackoffs who are there to chase the party.

“And so begins a week of Facebook pictures of filthy, semi-nude, middle-aged people wearing aluminum foil in their hair. #burningman“

The festival has become a glorified corporate retreat— with tech CEOs pulling up in luxury RVs and float-building outsourced to TaskRabbits. Attendees aren’t even making new stuff any more, they’re buying it and bringing it, just like everything else there.

There are nicer places to dance, better places to meet people, definitely better places to see and experience great art and great “out of time, out of place” immersion, better robots and flame throwers and excitement and danger. Go and find that stuff, and make that stuff. You don’t need a swarm of “burners” to make it happen. Make something else happen someplace else, and then let it go before it’s wrecked, like this festival now is.

Can’t believe it’s thursday already, jesus.