Burning Man's not just this thing in the desert

With all the commotion about that thing in the desert coming up, it's about much more than that. I thought this one part from the Regional Contact section on the Burning Man website spoke to this particularly well:

"It’s great to want to produce the next big Regional event, but there is so much more that can be done to help bring people together and share the Burning Man spirit and ethos in the world. We seek to work with Regional Contacts who have an interest in bringing local burners together to engage in social or civic projects that benefit the local community, for example – the sort of interaction that reaches far beyond parties or events."

So, yeah, we're taking ourselves there, to this temporary experiment of a city in the middle of nature, but it's just as much (if not more so) about what we bring back. Keeping this in mind as I think about throwing my own name in the proverbial hat, to be considered as a Regional Contact for the DC area.

- Nexus

A Wired warning abut Spotify's new privacy policy

Do you use Spotify?

Have you read the new privacy policy? If not, you might want to check out this piece at Wired, to get the cliff notes:

A new privacy policy that is now in effect, and it turns out that the company wants to learn a lot more about you and there’s not much you can do about it. 

We encourage everyone to read the whole privacy policy before downloading the update or checking off the “Accept” box, but in case you have better things to do, here are some highlights from it.

Read those highlights here.

Fortunately, the piece lets you know what you can do about the updates. Unfortunately, it's not too much.

Also, when I asked if you read the privacy policy? Yeah, definitely a rhetorical question for most if not all people. It's okay...it's not like anyone has the time to read every single privacy policy update for EVERY piece of tech we use. In fact, several years ago The Atlantic reported on research done to calculate how long it would take to actually read the privacy policies we should.

Guess how long: 25 days out every year...without sleep. It would take 76 days if you limited your privacy policy reading time to 8 hours a day. Granted this includes the privacy policies on however many websites people use in about a year, which I honestly didn't even think about until reading the article.

So, Spotify has a new privacy policy. BBE News reports that some users have already left Spotify because of this:

Minecraft creator Markus Persson, aka Notch, tweeted to his 2.4m followers that he has cancelled his account.

Read more about Spotify's reasons and users' reactions here.

And there you have it. Out of curiosity:

Any other thoughts you have on the new privacy policy? Share 'em in the comments,

- JR

My Ten Favorite Burning Man Videos

So, after sharing some of my favorite Burning Man videos with a couple of friends tonight, and with 10 days to go until that thing in the desert, I thought I'd share 10 of my favorite ones on YouTube.

Check 'em out, in mostly chronological order by uploaded date, except for the two from the "Spark: A Burning Man Story" documentary; those are in the order they appear in the film. And if you have about an hour and ten minutes, you can scroll straight to the bottom if you'd like to view a single playlist of all 10.

What - Burning Man 2011 HOME
Who - Stefan Spins
When - September 10, 2011
Runtime - 5:06



What - Oh, the Places You'll Go at Burning Man!
Who - Tedshots
When - January 6, 2012
Runtime - 7:09



What - DREAM - Art & Culture of Burning Man
Who - Spark: A Burning Man Story
When - July 2, 2013
Runtime - 13:44



What - Burning Man 2013 [by drone]: In the Dust, Above the Dust
Who - Tugrik d'Itichi
When - September 1, 2013
Runtime - 4:15



What - Burning Man 2013 - Burn // Ellie Goulding
Who - Kien Lam
When - September 17, 2013
Runtime - 3:56



What - Scene from "Spark: A Burning Man Story" with Original Song "Let It Go" by Michael Franti and Spearhead
Who - Spark: A Burning Man Story
When - December 17, 2013
Runtime - 2:03



What - Clip from Spark: A Burning Man Story with Missy Higgins "We Ride"
Who - Spark: A Burning Man Story
When - November 11, 2013
Runtime - 3:02



What - Charlie Goes to Burning Man
Who - jan beddegenoodts
When - August 20, 2014
Runtime - 15:36



What - Department of Mutant Vehicles :: Project LOVE
Who - Burning Man
When - May 12, 2015
Runtime - 5:27



What - Magical sunrises at Burning Man / "Dawn of the Burning Sun" sunrise concert
Who - House of Dayburn
When - July 28, 2015
Runtime - 9:51



Hope you enjoy this selection. Definitely not the 10 greatest videos, just the ones that I've connected the most with personally.

And IF you'd like to see them all in a row (as mentioned at the top of the post), you can do so at this playlist below.


What are some of your favorite Burning Man videos? Share 'em in the comments below,

- Nexus

Runes of the Unemployed - Day 1

So...

This is Day 1 of being unemployed for the first time in a while. Thought I'd start a daily reflection using my runes, runes I haven't really consulted/used regularly since college, except to occasionally do a reading.

Anyway, this morning I drew Laguz:

This was particularly relevant:

This Rune often signals a time for cleansing: for revaluing, reorganizing, realigning. A Rune of deep knowing, it may call you to study spiritual matters in readines for self-transformation. Success now lies in contacting your intuitive wisdom and attuning to your own rhythms.

Have definitely felt disconnected from my rhythms, except occasionally. So maybe this will be a time of incorporating the personal and the professional even more fully than I already have.

Going to keep going with this blog until I draw all 25 runes, or until I figure out what the next step is.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. And, please, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

- JR