Name: Thom
Age: 39

Where I Live: San Francisco

Been to Burning Man before? When?
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Camped with? When?
You are that Pig 2003-2006
The Lost Colony 2007

Why Burning Man? Best worst time I ever had. A sea of possibility. An oasis of the big YES. A conspiracy of bliss.

Burning History: I just have always known about burning man, and friends have been going since the mid-90s. I wanted to go before it reached it's tipping point and I was happily surprised that it held up to everything I thought it would be, and hadn't tipped into the "it's so big that it's heart has been lost." Burning Man seems to magically hold on to that utopian vision. I love being around thousands of people who just get it, and make it happen.

Describe BM: Ha! HAHAHAHAHA!! ... hehehehHAHAHAHAH... no way, yer on yer own with that one. Multiple, simultaneous meaning. On one level, It's a camping trip .. in the desert ... with 35,000 of your friends. And art. Stop me when this all starts to sound familiar. On another level, it's a cosmic maelstrom of community elevated out of the consensual hallucination expressing themselves, witnessing, connecting, creating. That, I feel, is what twists peoples minds and hearts all around. It's so raw, and present, and real ... deeply real. The unconditional generosity of spirit is profound and healing and it's so "normal" at burning man, you don't think it's there, until you leave, and it's not. And then you see other burners, and they smile, and you smile, because you both get it. It's like religion.

My Life: In the default world, I work full time for a big new media Internet corporation. I enjoy my life. I'm happy. I like to decorate. I've been getting fit with a trainer. I never thought I'd be someone who would enjoy going to the gym. I grow a semi-wild garden. I have liberal political opinions. I'm diplomatic, and occasionally inappropriate.