Los Angeles is known for its great weather among other things. May was nice – lots of sunny, pool worthy days; most of June was okay too, even though I’ve acquired plenty of boob and ass sweat while driving to work in my 1999 vehicle, the air conditioner in which isn’t the friendliest. ‘Official’ first day of summer in Los Angeles was no joke. It didn’t break the thermometer or anything but it certainly caused the power in my house to go out. I came home to be greeted with a bunch of candles thinking ‘Awe, how cute’ but nope; there’s nothing cute about a heat wave ruining your life.

So there we were in the dark, substituting ghost stories around the fire pit with sex stories around the candles and homemade water lamps. I can’t say it wasn’t fun; sitting half-naked with my guy friends, wiping sweat off my forehead is my ideal way of spending an evening. Not being able to get anything productive done because my laptop is dead is just a bonus.

The night didn’t go to waste completely though; I discovered a camping trick without leaving the ‘comfort’ of my own home. So you take your phone and turn on the flashlight; put it face down and place a water bottle directly onto the flashlight. One of water’s most fascinating features, besides being super healthy and incredibly delicious after a hangover, is its ability to illuminate light. It ended up serving a much better purpose than the candles because well, unlike candles, plastic water bottles combined with technology don’t have an aura of heat around them; it’s hot enough as it as. The only problem with a self-made water lamp when you don’t have power is the fact that your phone will eventually die leaving you with nothing but a semi-warm bottle of water with no light in sight.

Still though, it’s a pretty cool trick.