Got back from Burning Man yesterday. I went there with my gay Personal Trainer, Kelvin Holifield, and some of his gay, straight and bisexual friends. At Burning Man everything is free (including alcohol), people run around naked, and pretty much everything goes - or so it seems.

The city, which only exists for a couple of weeks per year and is then leveled, is located in one of the most beautiful spots in the US: Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Some people say Burning Man is a bit like a Utopia. I think that's an exaggeration, but I can see where they are coming from. There are a lot less naked people at Burning man (only 35.000 or so), quite a lot of drugs (more or less depends on your preference), and A LOT more dust.

A normal festival has a foundation or corporation or whatever that is central to its planning and execution. At Burning Man, they only provide the infrastructure, the medics, and some other basics. Then it's up to the participants to make something great out of it. When 35k people spend an entire year preparing for something like this, the results can be stunning. There are more bars than you have a chance in hell visiting in 10 days, flame spewing 30m long serpents, autonomous robots, western saloons with whiskey and whores, and much more. It's pretty cool. Burning Man was started by my neighbor Larry Harvey.

I went to "The Burn" on Wednesday last week, the day after I got back from Costa Rica. The original plan was to go there on a Tuesday, but Julie and I missed our connecting flight Monday evening with United. It was the last flight so we got stuck in Cincinnati. As if this wasn't bad enough I had to deal with an inflated cretin of an idiot working at the United service desk. Sabena may be the least reliable airline (they lost my luggage 6 times in 5 months in 1999), but United is probably the least friendly.

Anyway, at Burning Man, I met this Cowboy from Kansas. Emotionally fueled from 500-gallon diesel-fuel-bomb explosions, we ended up cruising the saloons and bars (including "Whiskey and Whores") until 10 in the morning. At that point I crashed, and the lone ranger continued cruising the flatlands for god knows how long - I was thoroughly impressed by his persistence. Here are some photos.

Julie and I spent the last couple of weeks in Costa Rica. About 30% of its land is protected, and the country's second largest industry is Intel - one company to rule them all. The country is surprisingly undeveloped for a place that sells $1M plus condos to rich Americans retirees. Personally, I don't think I'd retire in a place where crocodiles routinely feast on human flesh unless it had good medical care, but that's just me.

The trip was a little bit on the adventureous side, almost too adventurous. We visisted pretty much the entire country apart from the South West which is hard to access. Apart from bumping around in boats and buses, we spent a lot of time scuba diving, hiking, river rafting and sleeping.

The most amazing nature thing was by far Torteguero and the turtle nesting. The most pointless thing was San Jose. After 30 minutes of walking I had already been offered hookers and drugs and god knows what else - my spanish is not that good. Here are some more photos.

Julie and I watched the world cup finals at the French Consulate in San Francisco. I screen printed some cool Zidane tshirts. Of course, Zidane ended up headbutting Marco (or as my French collegue said, buttheaded him.)

It was a pretty good game, but I didn't want Italy to win. Last time France beat Italy in a major game I was in Toulouse and there was a riot. French people rarely get worked up unless they're on strike, so that was fun.

Celebrated midsummer in Sweden at the Dafgard family colonial Gorby mansion. It was a traditional Swedish get together with west coast hip hop and your own body weight in beer. Yes, we're invincible.

Spent my bday in Carmel with Jules. Met a man with a pet monkey. He didn't look very nice, and I felt a bit sorry for the monkey.

Busty nurses, beer bongs, naked people and drunk superheroes. Only in San Francisco.

Took a few days off on a business trip to NYC, and brought my femme fatale with me.

Took off to Sequioa and King's Canyon with Julie. It's foggy, secluded, and beautiful.

Halloween is great and there is no place for it like San Francisco.

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

- Charles Mackay