Think? Man.. it's summer vacation...
I've managed fairly easily to get dry cotton balls to light up (as well as the with PJ added). So far for other tinder I've tried dry grass, dog hair (she's shedding like mad), crushed leaves and poorly-carved fire sticks. No cat tails grow around here.

Probably going to BBQ tonight; will try my hand at char cloth before I throw meat on the grill. It'll give me something else to try.

I suppose a better add-on to my original statement would be, how do I improve with natural tinders? I can carry a billion cotton balls, but eventually they'll run out, y'know?