Concessioneer

How to Have Fun on July the Fourth

Saturday, 2 July   Slip away from helping my wife at her farmer's market booth to set up machine and workspace.  Make about fifteen bags of floss to test the process as a one-man operation.

Sunday, 3 July   Spend six hours building a parade-style float from a gardening wagon, and outfitting it with 'trees'.  'Trees' here are vertical poles with nails half-driven into them at downward angles, making pins to hang bags of floss.  Then pass seven hours (with help from a family member or two) leaning over floss machine with a paper cone in one hand, spinning floss, bagging it, and hanging it on the poles, on the float, filling up all the 'trees' on the float.  Do some more painting on the float, and make the price signs for the big event tomorrow.

Monday, 4 July   Roll the float out of the garage-turned-workshop onto the driveway, Attach price signs and decorations that would have made the float too tall to otherwise fit through garage door.  Take a picture of the float for posterity's sake,

and make tracks toward the chosen first event.
     Return from first event with empty float and $490 more in money envelope.  Load up entire floss setup into pickup truck, do thirty minutes of location scouting, then return home to a garage that has lost power.  Unpack pickup truck and setup floss machine in garage again.  Start Honda generator, string extension cord into garage, then spin, bag, and hang floss bags for three more hours.
    Pizza break.
    More floss.  More and more, until float is full again.
    Roll float out of garage again.  Reattach price signs and tall decorations.  Inflate tires on float (that's probably why it felt so spongy during first event!  Makes sense.)  Sell roughly 15 bags of floss to assorted drivers who notice the float in the front yard.
    Make tracks to a second chosen event.  Be mindful of wind gusts.
    Walk back to the house to bring car along, which is windproof, and holds many bags of floss that would have otherwise been blown away.  Pass about twenty minutes (with helper, if so fortunate) loading bags of floss into car.
    Continue rolling float toward second event, now that wind has completely died down.  Sell more bags of floss along the way.
    Restock float from supply of floss which was stashed in the car earlier that hour.  Keep moving on to second event.  Don't hesitate to cause minor traffic delays by selling floss to customers at stop signs.
    Maneuver float onto grass (garden cart, after all), being mindful to not tip the float over while traversing side slopes.
    Sell floss.
    Arrive at main concourse for second event, and sell remaining floss.
    Park empty float somewhere safe, and watch fireworks show.
    Return home, count $433 new dollars.

How to Have Fun on the Following July the Fourth

   Do all of the above, and then set up floss machine at pavilion and make fresh floss to sell.

 

Occupy SLC, Part III

This entry made possible by the Blogger app for Android, on my Motorola ATRIX. 
I dropped my laptop on its head today, and broke a piece of the plastic case, near the top corner of the display. The screen doesn't work on it anymore, but this app seems quite capable of performing the necessary tasks.
I talked to Jordan, a friend of mine, who lives in Provo. Concerning the movement, he said he had a friend who reports for what I think is a college newspaper there in Provo. The reporter, according to Jordan, drove up here to cover the event, and in the process, succeeded in convincing a female protester to abandon the cause, and go home. After he questioned her about the protests, it became apparent that she didn't know why she was here at the park. He never asked her to go home, it just dawned on her that she wasn't well-enough informed to want to stay.  That, or perhaps she ran out of marijuana.
Tonight, I'm set up beneath a tree, near the first night's location, and the general size of the camp seems to be decreasing ever so slightly.  There are still transients and pot-heads frequenting the place. I hear someone banging on what sounds like a thin steel saucepan, and it's minutes after midnight.
I turned out not needing the heater last night, and didn't bother with it tonight. The last time I had it in the tent, Sunday night, it ran out of fuel halfway through the night. It was the first night I had it going continuously, so I wasn't sure how long the fuel supply lasted. I found out--the cold way.

Occupy SLC, Part II

Though I didn't get much sleep last night, it being colder than I expected in the tent, I awoke, took a picture of the tent with the ambient light, and proceeded to pack up, still without talking to anyone.

I went about my day's activities, church, then a social event with some wonderful apple crisp, and at about ten o'clock, returned to the park with a plan.


The plan involves a Coleman space heater, fuel-powered, capable of heating a small tent such as mine.
Now, I'm not sure what the policy is here at the park concerning open flames, but I see a few homeless people up against brick buildings, and surmise that if open flames were allowed, at least one of these folks would have started one by now.
So I pitch my tent, and inside, light the open flame to start the space heater. The plan is that after burning an open flame for about ten minutes, the heater will be primed, and the heat-generating reaction will happen internally from then on out, to heat the tent without flames.
I light the first flame, and after five minutes, the flame burns out, but the heater didn't get primed enough. So I try again. This time, I prop open a hole in the top of the tent to let out exhaust gases, careful to keep it low-key. I have inadvertently set up my tent next to a Night Watch guard--an apathetic, portly fellow in his mid twenties wearing a yellow fluorescent vest.
On to light the flame for the second time. Burning for about ten minutes, I locate the heater to the place in the tent where it will continue to put out heat for another three after the flame burns out. (During this occasion, also, I hear the Night Watch man say something about a "situation" that he has. Fearing he's talking about me, I mentally prepare my talking points in favor of this saving flame of mine. No need, though; I am never approached.)
The third time will be the charm. I can't keep doing this, or this smoke emerging from the vent hole in the top of my tent will surely incriminate me! I light an even bigger flame than the previous two, with the tops of the flame almost licking the inside of the small tent. I set my phone's stopwatch and commence blogging.
And the flame did it! I am now looking at a faint orange glow in the element of the heater, and soon, the tent will be nice and toasty warm. Hearing traces of a conversation outside the tent, the phrases "the United States of Wal-Mart" and "BP" jump out at me.
I secretly hope for a light snowfall, so my tent will stand out as the only one with a melted radius around it, just to make these crazies a little envious.

Occupy SLC

A chilly October evening, and I find myself in Pioneer Park, beneath a military pup tent.

I'm not a refugee from justice, no. I'm just trying to get some sleep among the anti-capitalists and marijuana smoke. And the occasional homeless person.

I live three hours away from the protest that is taking place here, but I came to Salt Lake for a few days to see my dear Rebecca, to meet an old friend at the airport as he returns home from a mission, and to attend Rebecca's graduation from her vocational school. In looking for a place to stay, nothing jumped out at me, so I decided I could join with the peaceful (almost too peaceful) demonstrations taking place in Salt Lake City, our state's rendition of the recent "Occupy Wall Street" movement.

Though I don't particularly agree with what these people are protesting, I see that they have a permit from the city to occupy the park, and I need a place to sleep for a week, so bringing a sleeping bag and some blankets with me from my hometown wasn't out of the question. That, and I picked up a military surplus pup tent from a local store, and I am in business. The business of listening to pot-heads next to me dispute The Bible, cuss out a man having a coughing fit, and otherwise carry on into the night, that is.

Tomorrow is Sunday, but I'll try to make an entry every day with my impression of the event here in Pioneer Park.

High Dynamic Range...

So, I came across a program that can compile pictures called HDR, which stands for "High Dynamic Range." These pictures have detail in the light areas as well as in the dark ones. This is accomplished by using different exposure settings on the camera, and taking about five to seven pictures of the same scene with these different shutter speeds. Then the images are compiled together to blend all the detail from these different areas, light and dark, alike. The result is a surreal-looking picture, that has detail all around, and no parts are washed out.

Dreaded Guest

Well, it has happened. Today, I came home from the college, to find, to my ultimate dismay, some unknown luggage in my room: Needless to say, I am not pleased. I mean, I have to split apart my king-sized bed. Not to mention, I have to clean up my room!
Okay, that's not really the problem. But I do like my space. Hopefully this guy is cool. But he's short, so I don't expect much.
I'm kidding again, folks. More to come as I get to know this guy.
--Isaac "San Fran"

"Any way you want it, that's the way you need it..."

I don't know exactly what the point is of blogging this, but I'll do it anyway. I'm just listening to Journey, thinking of the next musical artist to sample, and contemplating BUYING some more blankets and such for my bed. Also, a job would be nice. But first I need my car up here. I would prefer an off-campus job to an on-campus one, for the sake of experience. And something in an original field would be cool. I love new experiences. And, surprisingly, I am better with people than one might think, especially my parents. For one reason or another, I have a hard time showing them some of the impressive sides of myself; I fear that they won't appreciate them enough. So, I build them up by acting less qualified than I am, so when I DO show the side of them that everyone knows, they are more impressed. Do many other people do that?


I saw an add-on for a poll program, so I think I'll try to set that one up.