Entries by TATIANA

It has been soooooo nice outside all of October so far, almost summer like. But according to the weather report the rain is lurking around the corner. Like tomorrow or so. I wore my flip flops this evening, one more day. Holding on to one more day of flip flop weather. I took in all my spring and summer garden decorations today, in case it does start raining tomorrow.



It has been so warm that the trees are still green although the leaves are falling.



The flowers are still vibrant.



And one more picture.....I like that lone light shining in the midst of the trees.



I am laying in bed yawning and ready for sleep......trying to come up with some other stuff to write about but I am too tired.

I failed today. To help. It is a terrible feeling.
I met with a friend for lunch this afternoon in one of Portland's nicer areas. After lunch I walked back to my car. I saw a person in the distance approaching on my side of the sidewalk. It was a woman. She was abusing a dog. Pulling it, violently trashing it around.
Loudly yelling at it. The dog was clearly very, very scared. A small female black and white pitbull type dog. As the woman was about to pass me we locked eyes. I decided to approach with kindness. I asked her if she needed any food or anything else for the dog, I informed her that I volunteer with a group and I have access to these items. The woman starts yelling at me. All kinds of word vomit comes out of her. She had marks/scarring along both arms and all over her face. She yanked the dog around and yelled at it more. Two men were sitting at a table nearby, they were watching. I asked if they could help. I said this is animal abuse. A woman briefly stopped then continued on.
Nobody did anything, said anything.
Then the woman announced that she was taking the dog in for grooming at the nearby upscale pet food and accessories store.
A place that I am very familiar with. She walked inside and I followed her. By now I am upset. Inside I tried to explain what I had witnessed. The woman continued to yank the dog around and yelled at it loudly while it cowered. She yelled in a made up language, I know this because I am pretty good at languages.
I was hoping to get some help or assistance with this situation inside the pet store by fellow animal lovers but the manager ordered us to leave. We were disrupting the well to do customer's shopping.
Outside again on the street we yelled back and forth at each other.
A man that had been inside the store walked by, looked at me and mouthed "thank you". I told the woman that I will call the police next time I see her (if I ever see her again with the dog). NOW I know I should had called the police then and there BUT I did not know that then. I was so upset I could barely think. She walked away, dragging the dog behind her. I walked to my car, crying. I called the non emergency police number. I am filing incident reports on this and I emailed the pet food store.
I wish that I had not witnessed this, it weighs heavy on me. You don't just shake it off and forget it.
That dog had clearly been abused before. I know the difference. I can only imagine how the dog gets treated when nobody is watching. It is truly heartbreaking.
There is a big difference between repeated animal abuse and an isolated incident when a stressed or tired pet owner yanks at a leash too hard or raises their voice. I have been that person and I still have pangs of guilt over those situations but my pets do not cower when I raise a hand or my voice.
And what bothers me is that nobody did anything. I asked the dispatcher on the non emergency line if animal abuse is a crime in Oregon although I already knew that answer to the question. And yes it is.
I do hope that others say and/or do something if they see abuse, whether it is a human or animal getting abused. In this case I spoke up but I failed. I failed the dog. I should had taken that little scared girl away from the abuser.
I feel sad and powerless. There is not much more to say on this. Beside.....we do not deserve animals.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE treat animals with respect, kindness and love. Thank You.

I guess the Jeffrey Dahmer Story is one of the most viewed series on Netflix ever. WTF? I have ZERO interest in watching it, in fact I think it is rather not cool to watch it because I do not think that the sub human the series is based on was even close to deserving anything to remember him by. I think it is a tasteless move by Netflix to sensationalize him (I will not write his name again in this blog entry) and what he did.
There were many victims left behind, the victims have families.
These families have spoken out that they are against this Netflix series and I completely understand why. And I read that Netflix did not contact them prior to the series coming out and they have not been compensated at all. But the con artist Anna Sorkin got paid by Netflix? Unreal. Why she got any attention is also beyond my comprehension.
If Netflix wants they can follow my ass around with a camera crew for some time, guaranteed way more entertaining than some wanna be fake socialite.
Anyhow.....back to what made me write this entry. Definitely not a good move to bring up the past like this and make the victims that are still around and the families of the victims that did not make it to relive this nightmare. Does this make sense to anybody? Hello? Any people with empathy out there?
I do not understand why serial killers and mass shooters are given any attention whatsoever. That is what they want. Do not give them what they want. Their names should be erased and they should be referred to as a number, a number sitting incarcerated somewhere, preferably they should get executed and nobody should care about them ever again. They should be forgotten.
There were victims, innocent humans that were subjected to unthinkable terrors. For people to sit at home and watch that while snacking on popcorn is grotesque.
NOT COOL OK!
If you want to watch some true crime stuff watch Dateline or something, where the families get interviewed and the victims get remembered in the right kind of way.
Not to mention dressing up like that subhuman for Halloween. Disgusting. Do NOT be that person please.
By now I loathe a large percentage of people anyways. This bullshit just adds to the fact that people in general suck.

Time flies at Black Rock City, one week goes by in an instant.
Before you know it, it is Friday and you get that lingering sadness inside knowing that the end is near and you don't want it to be.
Then it is Saturday and you head out for the man burn like sometime after 8 30 pm. You watch the amazing fireworks and the man burn down with thousands of others. I do not need any fireworks in the real world because I have the fireworks I will ever need on the playa. This year there were many spectacular drone shows as well since the man came down with the help of drones last year at Renegade Burn.







Then Sunday arrives and after Sunday comes Monday which is Labor Day and the day Burning Man officially ends. People start packing up anytime between late Saturday and Sunday. Some stay on the playa until Tuesday. You touch that fine dust, feel the dusty ground underneath your feet and gaze out across the playa when the sun sets on that last day and think......I hope to be here again next year. Well at least I do. Even though the dust storms and the heat were extra challenging this year I still want more of Burning Man. It is my place. It is such a magical place. The amount of effort and pure love that goes into building a city on a vast dry lake bed and then tearing everything down and leaving no trace - it is truly impressive.
I miss falling asleep to the soothing sound of music somewhere out there, hearing voices of people walking or biking by the camper while I drift off to sleep......waking up to the bass coming from an art car driving by.
Until next time!



A link to a short Burning Man video. By Vincent Rommelaere.
https://vimeo.com/754906174

It was an absolutely gorgeous day today. I drove to Vancouver in Washington state just across the Interstate Bridge. I met up with a local designer for a little photoshoot by the waterfront. I wore three of her dresses and she also makes necklaces and earrings.
My favorite out of the three dresses today was this blue one.



Pretty earrings and necklace.



Hopefully the pictures we took today turn out good. Besides that I decided that I have to go back to Vancouver again. The waterfront area is gorgeous. Portland and Vancouver are close distance wise.

What I most regret, what irks me the most about this year's Burning Man is that I missed out on most of the art. The art theme this year was Waking Dreams. I just did not make it that far out to see it and yes there were some amazing pieces of art on the playa. I did not have the energy. It was hotter than usual, there were a couple of long complete white out dust storms (one lasted a full day until the evening) so I was stuck at camp during those. First I thought it was me, like am I getting too old and frail for Burning Man (yeah right!)? But I was not the only one that felt that they did not see and do as much this year compared to other years....it was a rough one.
I did not even find the Playa Barbie booth! That is kind of my mandatory yearly Burning Man picture.....I just could not find the Barbie booth. Sad, sigh......



I could not decide on what picture to pick so here are both.





I liked this piece (I do not know the artists name or what the art was called).



Christmas in the summer time? On the Playa of course!



Whomever decorated that mantel shelf really knows what's up.





I DJd twice at Planet Earth, out of three scheduled sets. Two of my sets were on Friday.
First 80s Pop and New Wave and then 90s rave. 90s rave! Yeay!
I finally got to play Prodigy No Good Start The Dance and some Robert Miles! Plus other songs I used to dance to back in the days.
My first rave was in.....1997, Narnia. Somewhere in the forest past Los Angeles, a whole new world opened up to me and I fell in love with the rave scene that first night.









Sunday evening I headed out to Planet Earth to DJ my third set and there was nothing there. Planet Earth was gone! I thought I was lost or confused at first.....but yes they were completely packed up and gone before the end of Burning Man.
I guess some people in that camp tested positive for COVID so they dismantled and left. OK?
I don't understand why a WHOLE camp decides to tear down because of some COVID but I am not them.
My outfit on Sunday.



I saw Paul Stamets and Tom Eckert (not pictured) speak at the Psychedelic Speaker Series - something I am very interested in.



A fun sign. You should print it out, laminate it and hang it where you work. I am planning on doing that.



Alllllll kinds of amazing stuff awaits out there......let's go!