 December 9 |
 A 3D print at 1:1 scale of my tumor, extracted from my MRI. The instructions for doing this are in a reddit post that my friend David sent to me shortly after the surgery. A friend of mine who is into 3D printing did the actual printing (thanks Russ!) and I kept this one for about a year. After a while I made it into a necklace and would sometimes wear it. It's a great conversation starter. In October 2024, I learned that David Best, an artist who has designed more temples for Burning Man than any other artist, had designed a small temple for display in Houston and that it was going to be burned on November 9, the anniversary of my surgery. I've never been to the "big burn" but I've been going to regional burns for 10+ years, so of course I knew I had to go and put my necklace in the fire. After I got this printed I made it into a necklace by attaching it to some Mardi Gras beads. I decided when I went to Houston I would implement a plan. I had my friend Russ print up four more copies of the tumor, but in white plastic rather than black. I invented a game where if someone asked me about the necklace, they got the story, but also got offered a copy of the white tumor. Of course I would keep one for myself. So myself and a bunch of burner friends go down to Houston for the temple burn and it turns out the there's a new Meow Wolf open there, so we go through that, and when I get done and I'm waiting at the end a woman comes up and is the first person to ask me about the necklace. I start to tell her the story, and at some point I say "You look weird - are you weird?" She says she is, so I ask if she knows what Burning Man is, and she says she does. I tell her my plan to put the necklace in the fire and then she tells me that she is on the temple burn crew and they don't normally allow plastic in the fire, but that whatever magic led to us meeting must mean something and so I should just find her that evening and she'd make sure it got into the fire. She got a white one for sure. Thanks Doxxy! |
 What an actual meningioma looks like |