"Books, Records, Films -- these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the damn truth." - High Fidelity

July 29, 2012

Thunt at the California State Fair 2012 Statistics


Thunt the Dragonslayer

Attended:
 7 days, 6 concerts (Fab Four (Beatles), Happy Together Tour (60s), Rick Springfield, Dave Mason, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Police Tribute)

Rode Bike: 2 

Took Photos: 5 

Photographed Fireworks: 3 

Photographed Motorcycles: 3 

drum roll...

2,023 photos

also used tons of great coupons, bought two presidential magnets (JFK & Truman) and ate lots of great fair food (deep fried twinkee, eggroll on a stick, deep fried grilled cheese, cinnamon buns, slushy, chocolate dipped ice cream cone, corn dog, chicken wrap, chocolate dipped ice cream sandwich).

July 15, 2012

Burning Man sends out False STEP notices - you may already be a loser!

Truly unbelievable news this morning.

My brother won tickets in the STEP program!  Our whole group (6 total) will be able to go!  We can build a proper structure and have people to help out at camp!  Woooo!

But that was just when we were reading the email, an email that claimed to be "happy to tell you that tickets have been resold into the Secure Ticket Exchange Program and are now available for you to buy."

But when we clicked the link in the email, we were no longer happy:

This is heartbreaking.

I don't know how many of these they sent out, but not only is it hugely embarassing for the BMORG, but it's rude, insulting and demeaning to those still left in the STEP program.  You win!  No you don't.  There's no reason that this message should ever be sent out because of "routine server tests".  That doesn't many any sense.  (I'm an IT guy, and I hate to call for anybody's job, but this is a colossal blunder.  I can't think of anything worse that you could do if you worked for a ticketing website, than sending out false notices that people have won tickets.  Think about it.  The entire purpose of the website is to sell tickets properly...)

I'm starting to worry about the future of Burning Man, if they can't manage to get this ticketing situation worked out. 1,000 extra tickets went into STEP, but clearly they just did that twice or managed to load last week's database, causing this embarassing error.   Then they're going to put 1,000 tickets into the new land rush (and hope the servers doesn't crash too badly), this makes me think that next year's plan (which is still a secret, because you wouldn't want any feedback from the community) is simply going to be another land rush with better servers.  I used to spend most of the year making Art for Burning Man, now I spend it trying to get tickets.  Is this what they have planned for next year?

July 9, 2012

StubHub removes 3 scalpers selling 139 Burning Man Tickets while prices begin to fall


StubHub has removed the 3 scalpers selling 139 Burning Man Tickets and seems to be setting an artifical cap at 8. (which is still a lot of lottery tickets to win, they must have bought dozens of visa cash cards at walmart and beaten the hell out of the lottery to win so much, or just bought as many presale tickets as they wanted.  Ahhh, what one could do with money.)

But it seems that smart money is on the run, as ticket prices are falling on StubHub, with tickets being scalped as low as $750 and still not selling, because Burners will not pay above facevalue and the recent announcement that 2,000 additional tickets will be distrbuted by STEP and a private sale has struck fear into the hearts of the scalpers and has them on the run.  Prices are falling!

However, there are still tickets available for $999,999, $10,000 and $5,000.  As you the regular reader knows, all tickets purchased above the $5,000 dollar price include a golden wristband that grants the wearer to Golden PortaPotty access:

Look at the satisfaction on this man's face as he exits a Gold PortaPotty.

Have Faith and Buy Late! Let's drive these scalpers out of business!


Did you know, some people believe all scalping should be illegal?  Would you like to join those people?  Join Americans Against Ticket Scalping and help end scalping today!