I have friends who ask “why can’t you just text like a normal human” when I call.

If you’re heading to Sideburn, get the dust app. (If you haven’t already). https://dust.events/docs/intro/ (link for Android or iOS app is here).

It is an app (for burning man & regional events) that has details of theme camps, art, music & the events on during the festival. They may have a paper guide and the app can be more up to date.

I recommend having a look through the events so you have the option of preparing for any you require something specific for (like a particular color clothing etc). The app doesn’t require internet access after retrieving the event data if you don’t have reception at the location.

For me biggest missing I’ve found is web/external queries. Excel has a system to log in to an API, retrieve that data and format it before it lands on your sheet.

Libre functionality here is lacking/non existent.

My workaround was to write a python query, add it as a cron job, write that data to a csv then call that csv from my sheet with a timed refresh. Not something the average user can or wants to do.

Everything else I’ve found achievable.

3 day old account posting this link twice…

7.1 in 2010 6.2 in 2011

Interesting tidbit: The 2011 earthquake had a lower magnitude however it had 3x the wave frequency than the 2010 which made it feel much more violent.

The first one was west of Christchurch, the second was south. Different direction of the waves brought many of the already weakened buildings down.

Where I was staying was on the hill of the epicenter of the second earthquake. Couldn’t stay from fear a boulder would roll through the house during an aftershock. I remember after every aftershock running outside to make sure nothing was coming our way.

The 2011 earthquake was not long before the Japan earthquake.

I flew into Christchurch the night before the 2011 earthquake, couldn’t do anything from all the damage. Flew to Indonesia. In Indonesia woke up to the rumble of a 6+ mag earthquake off the coast of Bali and ran out of the house…

That’s when Japan was already having 7+ magnitude earthquakes. The next day was the 9 magnitude earthquake in Japan.

Incredible experience.