Category :: sxsw
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.
Wed 05.27.09 - Or how Ernie, Ms. Jen, and hundreds, if not a thousand plus of us were given free Android HTC Magic phones today at Google I/0.
Or how Google quite brilliantly insured that hundreds of developers would write Android apps by making sure that they would have testing devices!
Craig Duff of Time.com video'd the Bloggies Awards Ceremony on Monday. Go watch it, the video is a great combo of performances and interviews.
The Bloggies were good fun. Great presenters, great performers (George, Jeremy, and Dan!), and tons of great bloggers! Big thanks to everyone.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Sun 03.15.09 - Showing the Nokia N79 to Kenyatta and Ella of Rocketboom on a stair landing at the Austin Convention Center at SXSW Interactive.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Here you go, the first day of Ms. Jen's panel transcripts:
Sat March 14, 2006 - SXSW Interactive
Austin, TX
11:30am - The Creative Path
Jim Coudal - Coudal Partners
Brendan Dawes - Magnetic North
Gary Hustwit - Filmmaker "Helvetica", "Objectified"
Objectified premier is at the Paramount at 5pm.
Jim Couldal:
Creative Path: show don't tell.
Speaking on Joseph Conrad, literary theory, "we are complicit in our own corruption" By the time you have finished the book or movie, the narrative leads you through your own corruption much more powerfully than if Conrad was to write an essay.
Montessori - Teaching kids to learn.
Layer Tennis - Live on Friday afternoons, two artists swap a file back and forth in real time. Continue to add to the file on top each other's work. Ultimate end is to probably to reduce productivity on Friday afternoon. Restraint and freedom, creativity comes out of the balance between the two. Keep in mind that the act and result of creation is a conversation, not a lecture.
Gary Hustwit - Seventy-five minutes and thrity-six seconds.
I make documentary films, which are linear fixed forms of media. There is no way for the viewer of the film to change the plot line, characters, destination, or duration of the film, unless they get up and leave.
How do you make a fixed documentary film to be interactive?
1. use ellipsis... Intentionally leave out information, that the viewer of the film needs to put in themselves, a moment of discovery is more compelling than if someone tells you what the story is.
What is not there, what is left out. It leave the piece open to interpretation.
Delayed gratification.
2. Make it a game. bring in puzzles.
Dialogue going on between the viewer and the film.
Timing, juxtaposition.
"If all else fails, put a dog in the film." - Gary Hustwit
Brendan Dawes -
Made a flash video editor in 1998 - Pyscho Studio - See if folks could make their own version of the pyscho shower scene.
The danger is that when you give folks things to play with, you get some weird shit. Then you realize that people are weird.
Human beings versus machines. Computer would plot an efficient line from a to be. Critical Mass by Philip Ball is where he had folks walk across a park, before they put in the paths, to see how humans used the park.
Good design is about taking things away. Gives example of traffic calming in Brighton, by having the sidewalk & street be the same space with no directions & signs -> it makes drivers slow down to 10mph and be much more aware.
Makes sketches, as sketchbooks don't run out of batteries.
doodlebuzz.com - We get complacent with interface, why can't we create new interface.
"People think these days that if you can't use an interface in 2 seconds that it is rubbish. That is rubbish." - Brendan advocates making new UIs and making the user work for it.
You can start with Britney Spears and end up with the Pope. Any interface that allows you to do that is good.
"If you don't go out in the woods, nothing will never happen & your life will never begin..." Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Yes, it is that time of year again, time for SXSW Interactive and the 2009 Weblog Awards!
The Bloggies are the web's longest-running non-profit, reader voted blog awards. The votes are in and the Weblog Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, March 16th at 12:30pm (Central Time, GMT-5) at the SXSW Trade Show Day Stage.
Come join us in celebrating blogs and bloggers at SXSW Monday at lunch. If you can't make in person to the Bloggies Award Ceremony, join us on IRC, #Bloggies on irc.freenode.net, for live coverage and chat. After the ceremony the winning blogs can be found at 2009.bloggies.com.
The 9th Annual Weblog Awards Ceremony will be brought to you this Monday by Ms. Jen and George Kelly, with big ideas & help from Glenda Sims, as well as all the fabulous presenters and bloggers. Extra big thanks to Nikolai Nolan for all his hard work on the Ninth Annual Weblog Awards web site and managing the whole voting process.
If you are going to SXSWi, please come join us on Monday 3/16 at 12:30pm at the Day Stage for the Bloggies!
I would like to encourage y'all to vote for my Mobile Creativity panel for SXSW 2009.
Moleskine to Mobile :: Consume or Create!
"Mobile devices are the frontier consumption vs. creation for over 2.5 billion people in the world. Do we, the people, use our mobile devices to consume other's creations or do we create with our mobiles? As designers, developers, and creators, will we let the manufacturers & operators define the mobile space or will we?"
Sat 03.15.08 - SXSW Day 9 or The Ides of March - Hometown boys, CH3, at the Devil Dolls / Crawlspace / TKO / Hellcat showcase at Red 7. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Legendary Shack Shakers at the Ale House. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Aggrolites at the Batanga party at Habana 6. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - SXSW Day 8 - Mick Jones is a great live interview, very funny. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
****
My thoughts on this Interview with Tony James and Mick Jones of Carbon/Silicon from my Twitter stream:
msjen: is wandering around Flatstock before the 2pm Mick Jones panel.
msjen: Amusingly, there was a line to get into the Mick Jones interview. Now that Joe Strummer is RIP, I guess Mick is the elder stateman.
msjen: Tony James on SXSW: "It is amazing, it is like they took Glastonbury and dropped it into a city."
msjen: Tony James, still hot... Mick Jones has a beer with him.
msjen: Mick Jones on pubs: "They are all gastropubs. The no smoking thing has ruined it for everyone. It is a class thing."
msjen: Mick Jones is on fire - cracking jokes & acting them out. "I don't want to talk about anything." Takes a pull on the beer.
msjen: Mick Jones on what he learned from the blues while growing up: "You have to live it before you can sing about it."
msjen: Tony James to Mick: "Do you know your username?" Mick: "goingpostal?" Tony to audience: "Mick Jones, the man with no username."
msjen: Mick Jones on mp3s vs. cds: "The problem is you can't roll a joint on it or make a line."
msjen: Mick Jones now is telling the audience Texas history. Tony, "How do you KNOW all this stuff?"
Thurs 03.15.08 - I <3 the Asylum Street Spankers. Hands down the best band of SXSW! Absolutely amazing show.
Thurs 03.13.08 - Photo taken on 6th Street by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thur 03.13.03 - Minipop, the 12:50pm band at the Noise Pop party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
... Have fun at recycling!
Tues 03.11.08 - The sentiments of many on the last night of SXSW Interactive.
Tues 03.11.08 - Photo of Andy Budd and Richard Rutter by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen when laying like a lump in bed last evening while everyone else was out at SXSW Interactive parties having fun.
The short and sweet summary of this story is that in the last 3 weeks, I have only had two days (last Thursday & Friday) where I was not tummy sick in some fashion. Friday night I ate something funky at Iron Cactus which started another round of tummy troubles, which morphed by yesterday into a full case of fever/chills & trotting to the toilet. Basically the Bombay Bug was upset that the Austin Bug decided to show up and they have been throwing WWIII in my gut ever since.
Gatorade & Imodium are allievating the problems, but I am weak and worse for the wear. A fine way to spend SXSW. Bah.
Mon 03.10.08 - SXSW Day 3 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen at the Great British Booze Up.
Mon 03.10.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen while crossing 6th Street to attend the Great British Booze Up with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Ernie, Shane, a friend, and Tom at Iron Cactus during the Fire Eagle / Flickr Party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Elizabeth Perry and George Kelly. Photo by Ms. Jen at SXSW with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Today is the Big Day. George Kelly and I will be conducting our Web Standards Confession Booth "Core Conversation" in the Ballroom E of the Austin Convention Center at 3:30pm.
Come on down, drop by, etc. to participate in the conversation and/or to give your confession. ;o)
Sat 03.08.08 - Towards the end of the annual Wine & Cheese party, Steve decided to have a bit of a lie down.
Sat 03.09.08 - After lunch. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat 03.09.08 - At lunch at Las Manitas. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat. 03.08.08 - SXSW Day 1 - I watch this tree, at the SW corner of 3rd & Trinity Sts in Austin, bloom and start to leaf out every year since 1998. It is fun to see its yearly show.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Friday 03.07.08 - SXSW 2008 Day 0 - View of West Austin at dusk from the hotel.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.07.08 - SXSW Day 0, View from the Hampton Inn pool deck. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thurs 03.06.08 - Arriving at LAX, next stop Austin.
Me and Rob being very silly. Rob has the best beard ever.
@ Mongolian BBQ on San Jacinto and 2nd.
Breakfast - Overrun 5 mins before 10am closing by hordes of the Music folk looking a bit zombie-fied. Hung out with Ben and Dave. Around noon, Alex, Adeline, and Christina showed up, I printed the Austinist party list out for them and we all (LA + BP + Patrick Haney) went over the Iron Works for BBQ. Chris from Turbonegro joined us and Alex had a quiet fanboy moment. Good lunch, got my fill of beef. First bbq of the week. The Brits and PH departed to go to the airport and I sat talking with the LA crew.
Christina and Adeline together are a scream. Much like Ben and Dave should have their own tv show, Adeline and Christina should have one, too. It might be more amusing if we put them all in a house together... ;o)
Off we went to the convention center to get wristbands for Adeline and Christina. Chris went off to band related duties. After the wristband pick up, A, A, C and I went over to Moonshine for the Honeypot Radio and Heidi's Night of Beauty party. We got there just in time to see Piney Gir play with Goldrush. Excellent! Fun western swing-ish country meets indie rock, good stuff. Not at all like the Graham Parsons indie-country rock stuff that is so popular right now. Piney Gir is from Kansas but lives in London. Must buy some CDs. Brit friends - please go see her and her Roadshow.
Heidi gave me a fabulous jeweled cherry toe ring that I turned into a mobile accessory for Peek-a-Pooh. Lookin' good.
Another Brit band, The Height, played next. Good but I was not excited about them as I was with Piney Gir and Goldrush. Off I went back to the hotel to drink water and work on my computer. Here I am 4 hours later still tiptapping away. Now off to dinner.
I was walking down 1st St. (Cesar Chavez) to go to lunch with the Brit Pack jnrs and Alex, Adeline, and Christina, when someone in a car started yelling at me... Julia Johnson Britt!
Julia and I have been friends since I was 16 and she was 17. We went to punk and other rock shows together, we did the great summer of 1988 tour of London, France, Germany, Ireland, and London again as traveling partners. And now she is living in Texas. Wahoo!
What a great moment of serendipity.
SXSW - Day 5 - Wed. March 14, 2007 - The Post-Interactive or the Vacation Part of the Adventure
Breakfast with all the Hampton Inn Brit Packers and East Coasters before folks depart. Hung out talking with various and sundry folk from 9 am to past 1 pm. Got to spend a good amount of time talking with Aaron.
Had lunch at the Rio Grande (again, delightfully) with Aaron G., Craig C., Derek F.,Christopher S., Dave T., Steve M. and Ben W. Good laughter.
Then those who did not have to fly out in the afternoon went back to the Hampton to sit on the 2nd floor and work with our computers. The Brit Pack jnrs and Andy Budd went off to Halcyon in the late afternoon and I took a short nap before going over to the SXSW Music Awards.
The Music Awards started at 8pm and went along fine for a half hour until I got a call from Lauren, went out to the Creekside patio to call her back and she gave me an update on her mom's condition (still in ICU, another round of surgeries planned, blood donation, etc.). I cried. I tried to go back into the Awards but was unable to really appreciate the bands, so I left at 9:30pm. Squeek, thank you for the ticket, I am sorry I was unable to stay the whole night.
I was in the mood to have a bit of food, as I missed dinner, and to sit quietly with friends. I met up with Andy Budd, PPK, and the BP jnrs at Buffalo Billiards. Alex Hernandez and Adeline Wylie joined us. I ate and chatted with PPK, Alex and Adline while Andy, Dave, Steve, and Ben played foosball. Around 11pm plus, Alex and Adeline went to go see The Smoking Popes and the rest of us retired back to our respective rooms.
The waffle is still frozen on the inside.
SXSW - Day 4 - Tues. March 13, 2007
10am - Web Typography Sucks
Richard Rutter - Clearleft.com
Mark Boulton - Markboultondesign.com
Vertical Rhythm -
Richard
Typographic Layout
Grid system
Rational Ratio - Rule of 3rds, 2:3, divides block into 6 sub-blocks of 1em
Because the grid is defined by the type size, there is a relationship between all the elements
Typeface and Fonts
The thorny issue of the web
Richard recommends that you first call your preferred typeface, even if a small percentage of folks will see it, and then use the font that come on any mac or pc.
Richard - new fonts shipped with Vista. Calibri, cambria, candara, constantia, corbel.
Mark - these are world class typefaces, start using them, extend the font stack.
Richard - 'They all begin with "C", which is just silly.'
Continue reading SXSW - Day 4 - Tues. March 13, 2007.
Mark Boulton and Richard Rutter
SXSW - Day 3 - Mon. March 12, 2007
I woke up fairly early rested. Called Lauren. Breakfast. Off to convention center for panels.
10am - Ajax Kung Fu Meets Accessibility Feng Shui
Jeremy Keith
Derek Featherstone
AJAX Kung Fu - Jeremy Keith
Accessibility -
1) Making sites accessible for people and a device, ie screenreader
2) Device agnostic - universality - site that can adapt to the needs of the people using the site
Progressive Enhancement -
1) Begin with Content
2) Structure - semantic (HTML)
3) Presentation - add look (CSS)
4) Behavior (Javascript and AJAX)
The problem is that a lot of applications are built with AJAX first and you can't get to the content without AJAX. This does not work to well.
Continue reading SXSW - Day 3 - Mon. March 12, 2007.
At the Great British Booze Up!
SXSW - Day 2 - Sun. March 11, 2007
Woke up vaguely on time a bit discombobulated due to time change last night. Got ready to get over to the 10am panels.
10am - Every Breath You Take: Identity, Attention, Presence and Reputation
Christian Crumlish - Yahoo!
Kaliya Hamlin - Identity Woman
Mary Hodder - Dabble
George Kelly - allaboutgeorge
Ted Nadeau - Dot Line
I came in half way and tea did not engage brain until end. Mostly a discussion of privacy and reputation. I need to ready more of Mary Hodder's work.
"I don't wear my bathrobe to work and I don't wear my work clothes to bed" - Mary Hodder, on reputation, "Think of having multiple identities, it is more like who we are in real life. We present slices of ourselves as they are appropriate."
Continue reading SXSW - Day 2 - Sun. March 11, 2007.
Here are my notes for SXSW - Day 1 - Sat. March 10, 2007. Some of it is quotes and some is paraphrase. I may or may not find time to add more of my thoughts (ha ha ha!).
****
SXSW - Day 1 - Sat. March 10, 2007
9am - Breakfast with the gang at the hotel. Bought one of Cindy's "Geeks <3 *" shirts. Norm made me laugh and laugh some more.
****
(Jen says : transcribing whilst comatose waiting for caffeine to kick in makes for...)
10 am - Emerging Technology and Trends
Moderator:Wired Mag (Laura Moorhead)
Frog/NYU: (Robert Fabricant)
Blum: 2nd from left (Andrew Blum)
Middle Guy (Eliot Van Buskirk)
Raffel the Yahoo guy (Jeff Bonforte)
Pete the Engagdet boy (Peter Rojas)
Engagdet boy - talked on technological determinism or social determinism (he didn't use those words)
Frog/NYU prof - Technologies don't really propagate until there is a social need.
Continue reading SXSW - Day 1 - Sat. March 10, 2007 - The Notes.
Sat. 3/10/07 - Derek Featherstone and Tantek Çelik at the Frog Party
Sat. 03.10.07 - Austin Convention Center, SXSW 2007.
Sat. 3.10.07 - Steve Champeon and Andy Clarke sitting out on the smokers balcony at SXSW.
Sat. 3.10.07 - Jason Toney and Tiffany Brown at lunch.
Sat. 03.10.07 - at SXSW.
Sat. 03.10.07 - Noah Glass and Jay Allen out on the balcony at SXSW.
Fri. 03.09.07 - Dinner at Moonshine with 21 of my favorite Brit Pack, Euro, and East Coast friends. Happy days.
Taking photos of cranes.
Almost ready for SXSW.
Around Ireland : A Mobile Documentation Project is a finalist in the "Student" category of the SXSW Web Awards 2007!
I am very excited. Simon said via email, "FANTASTIC". Shonagh wrote, "such brilliant news about the website! ". Jasper emailed, "hooray for us."
In case you missed my blogging about the Around Ireland project this last summer, here is a summary from the About page:
Around Ireland is a mobile documentary project completed as part of the MSc in Multmedia Systems at Trinity College Dublin. We have travelled the 32 counties of Ireland, gathering video and images on mobile phones over the course of the Summer of 2006. The mobile content is sent directly to our site, Aroundireland.net from camera-equipped mobile phones in real time.
Rather than sending an image to just one other individual via MMS, Around Ireland aims to act as a central respository for mobile photographic content, allowing visitors to browse submitted mobile pictures from all over the island, geotagged according to location.
A big thanks to SXSW Interactive and see y'all at the 10th Annual SXSW Web Awards on Sun. March 10, 2007 at the Downtown Hilton, Austin, Texas!
Photo by Ms. Jen's Nokia 7610 of the plane on the final descent into Dublin this morning.
...my body is not sure what day it is or what time it is. I miss Austin. On Thursday night, I joined James Craig and his friend Courtney at the Town Lake amphitheatre for Blackalicious and Spoon, it was delightfully warm, the skyline of Austin across the lake, great music, good company, and stars in the sky. Can I please go back to the Town Lake shore, sit on the grass, and look at the stars?
While SXSW Interactive 2003 was the best year for panels and technolody inspiration (that was the year that got me to start this blog), this year was the best for people and conversations. I have all of my transcripts ready to go, I am still working on the images for my daily photo essays. When I get them all up, most likely tomorrow, I will make a post with all the links to the various bits.
On a fun note, or not so fun note, I walked out of the Dublin Airport this morning after getting off the red eye from Chicago, wearing my SXSW t-shirt and a pair of capris to be greeted by a wind straight off the plains of Siberia. I screeched, ran back inside, pulled my jacked out of my big bag, and wondered what I had been thinking. After donning my jacket, I got into a cab, and the cab driver asked me if I had broken any hearts in Texas (what? my brain was not computing) and then he went on to inform me that he was on Viagra. I was very very very thankful to get out of that cab and arrive at my warm apartment.
Fri 03.17.06 - Goodbye SXSW. Goodbye Austin. Fare thee well to all of my friends. Big hugs to all of you.
Above photo of Chicago whilst waiting to board the plane to Dublin.
Thur 03.16.06 - SXSW 2006 - Former web design student, Matt Maust's band.
Wed 03.15.06 - The Interactive Playpen.
Tue 03.14.06 - SXSW Interactive
Mon 03.13.06 - SXSW 2006 - Microformats.
Mon 03.13.06 - SXSW 2006 - Richard Rutter.
Sun 03.12.06 - Dan Catt
@ the Yahoo! Party.
Sun 03.12.06 - Jon Hicks demonstrates the fine art of banana drawing before the accessibility panel.
Sun 03.12.06 - Lunch at Halcyon coffee house.
Sun 03.12.05 - SXSW 2006 - In between panels - George Kelly!
Sun 03.12.06 - SXSW 2006 - Kenneth, Veerle, Geert, and Jon.
Sat 03.11.05 - Yesterday at Whole Foods, Lauren, Lesile, and I bought cheese, wine and other bits. Tonight we had a low key after-panel party at our hotel room.
Sat 03.11.06 - Walking down 6th St after lunch.
Breakfast will all of the gang - Brit Pack, the Belgian/Dutch Pack, Shaun and Lesile, and others. It was good to sit and hang out in the sunny breakfast area. It was good to chat, drink caffiene, and laugh.
Jorie Lordes dropped Lauren (LEI) off around 11am and joined us upstairs for awhile. At noon, a group of us (LEI, Lesile, Jessica Spengler, Chris Mills, Craig, et al) walked over to the Whole Foods mothership for lunch and to do a little shopping at Whole Foods and Waterloo records.
We sat outside near the Whole Foods "water feature" stream to eat our lunch in the sun. Warm.
LEI, Lesile and I went back in to buy cheese, wine and crudites for our proposed wine and cheese party. Afterwards we walked over to Waterloo with Aaron Gustafson and I bought a new tshirt (bunny with headphones) and a new pink bowling bag purse. The best part is that Aaron gave us a ride home in his rented AC car.
Yes, it is hot enough to need Air Conditioning. Yeah!
4pm - Time to go pick up our badges at the conference center. Even though I uploaded an approved photo to the SXSW site, I received my badge with last year's photo. ;o(
5pm - Saw the a gang of the Hampton folk (BP, BDP, etc) go to the free drinks in Brush park, sit under a big oak in the sun, and then walk around 6th Street and 4th Street looking for a place to have a drink before dinner with the Aussies and then Break Bread with Brad. We found Anders Pearson and he led us to 219 West 4th St. This was a nice wine bar/hang out place. We ended up staying and turning it into the Dinner with the Aussies. I had several delightful glasses of wine, ceviche and calamari, as well as delightful conversations with Lesile, Jessica, Gillian (Jill) Carson, Erris Free, Andy Budd, and others. I was finally able to pass off the loaf of bread that I had been carrying around since Whole Foods off to Molly Holzschag.
Someone brought label stickers and we made "tags" for people. Andy Clarke gave me "I met Chuck Heston once", and one other that I forget what it said.
9pm - We went as a herd across to Break Bread with Brad at the Gingerman. As I was walking out of 219 West, I saw The Wolf!!!! The Wolf, aka John Marlow, is an old online friend from the 1996-2001 message board days. I had lost his cell # and new email, and didn't know how to find him. John has lived in Austin since 1999 and is always a good SXSW host. He and I may try to get together for drinks at some point.
There was quite a line to get into the Gingerman and I ended up having big hugs and chats with all kinds of folk coming in and going out (Molly Steenson, Sergio Villareal, Tom Coates, Heather Heskith, etc). Once we got into the venue, I was very tired and not much up to chatting. Brad was very welcoming. I got a bunch of the "My URL is..." stickers and started to write up name tags for folk.
When I hit the tired wall, I went back to the hotel with a group of folk and off to bed I went. Kenneth Himschoot was kind enough to walk the ladies back.
This was truly the first day of SXSW, even if the conference does not start until tomorrow.
Fri 03.10.05 - @ Check in.
Fri 03.10.05 - Breakfast at the hotel.
I left my apartment at 10am to go to the Dublin Airport. At the airport, I went to the Aer Lingus counter to see if I could extend my ticket two days to stay in AUstin a bit longer than just SXSW Interactive. Nearly 3/4 an hour later, I had a ticket to return on 3/17 for only $81 more.
On the flight from Dublin to Chicago O'Hare, I worked on my thesis and worked up interview questions, as well as distilling what my 171 survey respondents said to my hypothesis and interview questions for more in depth questions.
Last two hours of the flight was very turbulent, and I got very air sick. It took another two hours at Chicago walking up and down the concourses to stop the intense nausea. Due to the large rain storm, there were two hour delays for all flights and many were cancelled so the airport was full of crying kids and agitated business people. The 6:35pm flight to Austin finally departed after 8:30pm and we did not arrive in Austin until after 11pm. I got to the Hampton late and then woke up after 5 hours. Argh. Travel over 24 hours, sleep less than 5.
The best part of the flight to Austin was that I sat next to a fellow who works as an engineer for a large construction company and he worked on the Hampton Inn build out. He said it is very safe. Good to know.
Sat 03.19.05 - As soon as I got back to the hotel after the last band I was going to see, I borrowed a pair of scissors and set both of my cameras free.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.
Wed 05.27.09 - Or how Ernie, Ms. Jen, and hundreds, if not a thousand plus of us were given free Android HTC Magic phones today at Google I/0.
Or how Google quite brilliantly insured that hundreds of developers would write Android apps by making sure that they would have testing devices!
Craig Duff of Time.com video'd the Bloggies Awards Ceremony on Monday. Go watch it, the video is a great combo of performances and interviews.
The Bloggies were good fun. Great presenters, great performers (George, Jeremy, and Dan!), and tons of great bloggers! Big thanks to everyone.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Sun 03.15.09 - Showing the Nokia N79 to Kenyatta and Ella of Rocketboom on a stair landing at the Austin Convention Center at SXSW Interactive.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Here you go, the first day of Ms. Jen's panel transcripts:
Sat March 14, 2006 - SXSW Interactive
Austin, TX
11:30am - The Creative Path
Jim Coudal - Coudal Partners
Brendan Dawes - Magnetic North
Gary Hustwit - Filmmaker "Helvetica", "Objectified"
Objectified premier is at the Paramount at 5pm.
Jim Couldal:
Creative Path: show don't tell.
Speaking on Joseph Conrad, literary theory, "we are complicit in our own corruption" By the time you have finished the book or movie, the narrative leads you through your own corruption much more powerfully than if Conrad was to write an essay.
Montessori - Teaching kids to learn.
Layer Tennis - Live on Friday afternoons, two artists swap a file back and forth in real time. Continue to add to the file on top each other's work. Ultimate end is to probably to reduce productivity on Friday afternoon. Restraint and freedom, creativity comes out of the balance between the two. Keep in mind that the act and result of creation is a conversation, not a lecture.
Gary Hustwit - Seventy-five minutes and thrity-six seconds.
I make documentary films, which are linear fixed forms of media. There is no way for the viewer of the film to change the plot line, characters, destination, or duration of the film, unless they get up and leave.
How do you make a fixed documentary film to be interactive?
1. use ellipsis... Intentionally leave out information, that the viewer of the film needs to put in themselves, a moment of discovery is more compelling than if someone tells you what the story is.
What is not there, what is left out. It leave the piece open to interpretation.
Delayed gratification.
2. Make it a game. bring in puzzles.
Dialogue going on between the viewer and the film.
Timing, juxtaposition.
"If all else fails, put a dog in the film." - Gary Hustwit
Brendan Dawes -
Made a flash video editor in 1998 - Pyscho Studio - See if folks could make their own version of the pyscho shower scene.
The danger is that when you give folks things to play with, you get some weird shit. Then you realize that people are weird.
Human beings versus machines. Computer would plot an efficient line from a to be. Critical Mass by Philip Ball is where he had folks walk across a park, before they put in the paths, to see how humans used the park.
Good design is about taking things away. Gives example of traffic calming in Brighton, by having the sidewalk & street be the same space with no directions & signs -> it makes drivers slow down to 10mph and be much more aware.
Makes sketches, as sketchbooks don't run out of batteries.
doodlebuzz.com - We get complacent with interface, why can't we create new interface.
"People think these days that if you can't use an interface in 2 seconds that it is rubbish. That is rubbish." - Brendan advocates making new UIs and making the user work for it.
You can start with Britney Spears and end up with the Pope. Any interface that allows you to do that is good.
"If you don't go out in the woods, nothing will never happen & your life will never begin..." Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Yes, it is that time of year again, time for SXSW Interactive and the 2009 Weblog Awards!
The Bloggies are the web's longest-running non-profit, reader voted blog awards. The votes are in and the Weblog Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, March 16th at 12:30pm (Central Time, GMT-5) at the SXSW Trade Show Day Stage.
Come join us in celebrating blogs and bloggers at SXSW Monday at lunch. If you can't make in person to the Bloggies Award Ceremony, join us on IRC, #Bloggies on irc.freenode.net, for live coverage and chat. After the ceremony the winning blogs can be found at 2009.bloggies.com.
The 9th Annual Weblog Awards Ceremony will be brought to you this Monday by Ms. Jen and George Kelly, with big ideas & help from Glenda Sims, as well as all the fabulous presenters and bloggers. Extra big thanks to Nikolai Nolan for all his hard work on the Ninth Annual Weblog Awards web site and managing the whole voting process.
If you are going to SXSWi, please come join us on Monday 3/16 at 12:30pm at the Day Stage for the Bloggies!
I would like to encourage y'all to vote for my Mobile Creativity panel for SXSW 2009.
Moleskine to Mobile :: Consume or Create!
"Mobile devices are the frontier consumption vs. creation for over 2.5 billion people in the world. Do we, the people, use our mobile devices to consume other's creations or do we create with our mobiles? As designers, developers, and creators, will we let the manufacturers & operators define the mobile space or will we?"
Sat 03.15.08 - SXSW Day 9 or The Ides of March - Hometown boys, CH3, at the Devil Dolls / Crawlspace / TKO / Hellcat showcase at Red 7. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Legendary Shack Shakers at the Ale House. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Aggrolites at the Batanga party at Habana 6. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - SXSW Day 8 - Mick Jones is a great live interview, very funny. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
****
My thoughts on this Interview with Tony James and Mick Jones of Carbon/Silicon from my Twitter stream:
msjen: is wandering around Flatstock before the 2pm Mick Jones panel.
msjen: Amusingly, there was a line to get into the Mick Jones interview. Now that Joe Strummer is RIP, I guess Mick is the elder stateman.
msjen: Tony James on SXSW: "It is amazing, it is like they took Glastonbury and dropped it into a city."
msjen: Tony James, still hot... Mick Jones has a beer with him.
msjen: Mick Jones on pubs: "They are all gastropubs. The no smoking thing has ruined it for everyone. It is a class thing."
msjen: Mick Jones is on fire - cracking jokes & acting them out. "I don't want to talk about anything." Takes a pull on the beer.
msjen: Mick Jones on what he learned from the blues while growing up: "You have to live it before you can sing about it."
msjen: Tony James to Mick: "Do you know your username?" Mick: "goingpostal?" Tony to audience: "Mick Jones, the man with no username."
msjen: Mick Jones on mp3s vs. cds: "The problem is you can't roll a joint on it or make a line."
msjen: Mick Jones now is telling the audience Texas history. Tony, "How do you KNOW all this stuff?"
Thurs 03.15.08 - I <3 the Asylum Street Spankers. Hands down the best band of SXSW! Absolutely amazing show.
Thurs 03.13.08 - Photo taken on 6th Street by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thur 03.13.03 - Minipop, the 12:50pm band at the Noise Pop party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
... Have fun at recycling!
Tues 03.11.08 - The sentiments of many on the last night of SXSW Interactive.
Tues 03.11.08 - Photo of Andy Budd and Richard Rutter by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen when laying like a lump in bed last evening while everyone else was out at SXSW Interactive parties having fun.
The short and sweet summary of this story is that in the last 3 weeks, I have only had two days (last Thursday & Friday) where I was not tummy sick in some fashion. Friday night I ate something funky at Iron Cactus which started another round of tummy troubles, which morphed by yesterday into a full case of fever/chills & trotting to the toilet. Basically the Bombay Bug was upset that the Austin Bug decided to show up and they have been throwing WWIII in my gut ever since.
Gatorade & Imodium are allievating the problems, but I am weak and worse for the wear. A fine way to spend SXSW. Bah.
Mon 03.10.08 - SXSW Day 3 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen at the Great British Booze Up.
Mon 03.10.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen while crossing 6th Street to attend the Great British Booze Up with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Ernie, Shane, a friend, and Tom at Iron Cactus during the Fire Eagle / Flickr Party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Elizabeth Perry and George Kelly. Photo by Ms. Jen at SXSW with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Today is the Big Day. George Kelly and I will be conducting our Web Standards Confession Booth "Core Conversation" in the Ballroom E of the Austin Convention Center at 3:30pm.
Come on down, drop by, etc. to participate in the conversation and/or to give your confession. ;o)
Sat 03.08.08 - Towards the end of the annual Wine & Cheese party, Steve decided to have a bit of a lie down.
Sat 03.09.08 - After lunch. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat 03.09.08 - At lunch at Las Manitas. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat. 03.08.08 - SXSW Day 1 - I watch this tree, at the SW corner of 3rd & Trinity Sts in Austin, bloom and start to leaf out every year since 1998. It is fun to see its yearly show.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Friday 03.07.08 - SXSW 2008 Day 0 - View of West Austin at dusk from the hotel.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.07.08 - SXSW Day 0, View from the Hampton Inn pool deck. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thurs 03.06.08 - Arriving at LAX, next stop Austin.
Me and Rob being very silly. Rob has the best beard ever.
@ Mongolian BBQ on San Jacinto and 2nd.
Breakfast - Overrun 5 mins before 10am closing by hordes of the Music folk looking a bit zombie-fied. Hung out with Ben and Dave. Around noon, Alex, Adeline, and Christina showed up, I printed the Austinist party list out for them and we all (LA + BP + Patrick Haney) went over the Iron Works for BBQ. Chris from Turbonegro joined us and Alex had a quiet fanboy moment. Good lunch, got my fill of beef. First bbq of the week. The Brits and PH departed to go to the airport and I sat talking with the LA crew.
Christina and Adeline together are a scream. Much like Ben and Dave should have their own tv show, Adeline and Christina should have one, too. It might be more amusing if we put them all in a house together... ;o)
Off we went to the convention center to get wristbands for Adeline and Christina. Chris went off to band related duties. After the wristband pick up, A, A, C and I went over to Moonshine for the Honeypot Radio and Heidi's Night of Beauty party. We got there just in time to see Piney Gir play with Goldrush. Excellent! Fun western swing-ish country meets indie rock, good stuff. Not at all like the Graham Parsons indie-country rock stuff that is so popular right now. Piney Gir is from Kansas but lives in London. Must buy some CDs. Brit friends - please go see her and her Roadshow.
Heidi gave me a fabulous jeweled cherry toe ring that I turned into a mobile accessory for Peek-a-Pooh. Lookin' good.
Another Brit band, The Height, played next. Good but I was not excited about them as I was with Piney Gir and Goldrush. Off I went back to the hotel to drink water and work on my computer. Here I am 4 hours later still tiptapping away. Now off to dinner.
I was walking down 1st St. (Cesar Chavez) to go to lunch with the Brit Pack jnrs and Alex, Adeline, and Christina, when someone in a car started yelling at me... Julia Johnson Britt!
Julia and I have been friends since I was 16 and she was 17. We went to punk and other rock shows together, we did the great summer of 1988 tour of London, France, Germany, Ireland, and London again as traveling partners. And now she is living in Texas. Wahoo!
What a great moment of serendipity.
SXSW - Day 5 - Wed. March 14, 2007 - The Post-Interactive or the Vacation Part of the Adventure
Breakfast with all the Hampton Inn Brit Packers and East Coasters before folks depart. Hung out talking with various and sundry folk from 9 am to past 1 pm. Got to spend a good amount of time talking with Aaron.
Had lunch at the Rio Grande (again, delightfully) with Aaron G., Craig C., Derek F.,Christopher S., Dave T., Steve M. and Ben W. Good laughter.
Then those who did not have to fly out in the afternoon went back to the Hampton to sit on the 2nd floor and work with our computers. The Brit Pack jnrs and Andy Budd went off to Halcyon in the late afternoon and I took a short nap before going over to the SXSW Music Awards.
The Music Awards started at 8pm and went along fine for a half hour until I got a call from Lauren, went out to the Creekside patio to call her back and she gave me an update on her mom's condition (still in ICU, another round of surgeries planned, blood donation, etc.). I cried. I tried to go back into the Awards but was unable to really appreciate the bands, so I left at 9:30pm. Squeek, thank you for the ticket, I am sorry I was unable to stay the whole night.
I was in the mood to have a bit of food, as I missed dinner, and to sit quietly with friends. I met up with Andy Budd, PPK, and the BP jnrs at Buffalo Billiards. Alex Hernandez and Adeline Wylie joined us. I ate and chatted with PPK, Alex and Adline while Andy, Dave, Steve, and Ben played foosball. Around 11pm plus, Alex and Adeline went to go see The Smoking Popes and the rest of us retired back to our respective rooms.
The waffle is still frozen on the inside.
SXSW - Day 4 - Tues. March 13, 2007
10am - Web Typography Sucks
Richard Rutter - Clearleft.com
Mark Boulton - Markboultondesign.com
Vertical Rhythm -
Richard
Typographic Layout
Grid system
Rational Ratio - Rule of 3rds, 2:3, divides block into 6 sub-blocks of 1em
Because the grid is defined by the type size, there is a relationship between all the elements
Typeface and Fonts
The thorny issue of the web
Richard recommends that you first call your preferred typeface, even if a small percentage of folks will see it, and then use the font that come on any mac or pc.
Richard - new fonts shipped with Vista. Calibri, cambria, candara, constantia, corbel.
Mark - these are world class typefaces, start using them, extend the font stack.
Richard - 'They all begin with "C", which is just silly.'
Mark Boulton and Richard Rutter
SXSW - Day 3 - Mon. March 12, 2007
I woke up fairly early rested. Called Lauren. Breakfast. Off to convention center for panels.
10am - Ajax Kung Fu Meets Accessibility Feng Shui
Jeremy Keith
Derek Featherstone
AJAX Kung Fu - Jeremy Keith
Accessibility -
1) Making sites accessible for people and a device, ie screenreader
2) Device agnostic - universality - site that can adapt to the needs of the people using the site
Progressive Enhancement -
1) Begin with Content
2) Structure - semantic (HTML)
3) Presentation - add look (CSS)
4) Behavior (Javascript and AJAX)
The problem is that a lot of applications are built with AJAX first and you can't get to the content without AJAX. This does not work to well.
At the Great British Booze Up!
SXSW - Day 2 - Sun. March 11, 2007
Woke up vaguely on time a bit discombobulated due to time change last night. Got ready to get over to the 10am panels.
10am - Every Breath You Take: Identity, Attention, Presence and Reputation
Christian Crumlish - Yahoo!
Kaliya Hamlin - Identity Woman
Mary Hodder - Dabble
George Kelly - allaboutgeorge
Ted Nadeau - Dot Line
I came in half way and tea did not engage brain until end. Mostly a discussion of privacy and reputation. I need to ready more of Mary Hodder's work.
"I don't wear my bathrobe to work and I don't wear my work clothes to bed" - Mary Hodder, on reputation, "Think of having multiple identities, it is more like who we are in real life. We present slices of ourselves as they are appropriate."
Here are my notes for SXSW - Day 1 - Sat. March 10, 2007. Some of it is quotes and some is paraphrase. I may or may not find time to add more of my thoughts (ha ha ha!).
****
SXSW - Day 1 - Sat. March 10, 2007
9am - Breakfast with the gang at the hotel. Bought one of Cindy's "Geeks <3 *" shirts. Norm made me laugh and laugh some more.
****
(Jen says : transcribing whilst comatose waiting for caffeine to kick in makes for...)
10 am - Emerging Technology and Trends
Moderator:Wired Mag (Laura Moorhead)
Frog/NYU: (Robert Fabricant)
Blum: 2nd from left (Andrew Blum)
Middle Guy (Eliot Van Buskirk)
Raffel the Yahoo guy (Jeff Bonforte)
Pete the Engagdet boy (Peter Rojas)
Engagdet boy - talked on technological determinism or social determinism (he didn't use those words)
Frog/NYU prof - Technologies don't really propagate until there is a social need.
Sat. 3/10/07 - Derek Featherstone and Tantek Çelik at the Frog Party
Sat. 03.10.07 - Austin Convention Center, SXSW 2007.
Sat. 3.10.07 - Steve Champeon and Andy Clarke sitting out on the smokers balcony at SXSW.
Sat. 3.10.07 - Jason Toney and Tiffany Brown at lunch.
Sat. 03.10.07 - at SXSW.
Sat. 03.10.07 - Noah Glass and Jay Allen out on the balcony at SXSW.
Fri. 03.09.07 - Dinner at Moonshine with 21 of my favorite Brit Pack, Euro, and East Coast friends. Happy days.
Taking photos of cranes.
Almost ready for SXSW.
Around Ireland : A Mobile Documentation Project is a finalist in the "Student" category of the SXSW Web Awards 2007!
I am very excited. Simon said via email, "FANTASTIC". Shonagh wrote, "such brilliant news about the website! ". Jasper emailed, "hooray for us."
In case you missed my blogging about the Around Ireland project this last summer, here is a summary from the About page:
Around Ireland is a mobile documentary project completed as part of the MSc in Multmedia Systems at Trinity College Dublin. We have travelled the 32 counties of Ireland, gathering video and images on mobile phones over the course of the Summer of 2006. The mobile content is sent directly to our site, Aroundireland.net from camera-equipped mobile phones in real time.Rather than sending an image to just one other individual via MMS, Around Ireland aims to act as a central respository for mobile photographic content, allowing visitors to browse submitted mobile pictures from all over the island, geotagged according to location.
A big thanks to SXSW Interactive and see y'all at the 10th Annual SXSW Web Awards on Sun. March 10, 2007 at the Downtown Hilton, Austin, Texas!
Photo by Ms. Jen's Nokia 7610 of the plane on the final descent into Dublin this morning.
...my body is not sure what day it is or what time it is. I miss Austin. On Thursday night, I joined James Craig and his friend Courtney at the Town Lake amphitheatre for Blackalicious and Spoon, it was delightfully warm, the skyline of Austin across the lake, great music, good company, and stars in the sky. Can I please go back to the Town Lake shore, sit on the grass, and look at the stars?
While SXSW Interactive 2003 was the best year for panels and technolody inspiration (that was the year that got me to start this blog), this year was the best for people and conversations. I have all of my transcripts ready to go, I am still working on the images for my daily photo essays. When I get them all up, most likely tomorrow, I will make a post with all the links to the various bits.
On a fun note, or not so fun note, I walked out of the Dublin Airport this morning after getting off the red eye from Chicago, wearing my SXSW t-shirt and a pair of capris to be greeted by a wind straight off the plains of Siberia. I screeched, ran back inside, pulled my jacked out of my big bag, and wondered what I had been thinking. After donning my jacket, I got into a cab, and the cab driver asked me if I had broken any hearts in Texas (what? my brain was not computing) and then he went on to inform me that he was on Viagra. I was very very very thankful to get out of that cab and arrive at my warm apartment.
Fri 03.17.06 - Goodbye SXSW. Goodbye Austin. Fare thee well to all of my friends. Big hugs to all of you.
Above photo of Chicago whilst waiting to board the plane to Dublin.
Thur 03.16.06 - SXSW 2006 - Former web design student, Matt Maust's band.
Wed 03.15.06 - The Interactive Playpen.
Tue 03.14.06 - SXSW Interactive
Mon 03.13.06 - SXSW 2006 - Microformats.
Mon 03.13.06 - SXSW 2006 - Richard Rutter.
Sun 03.12.06 - Dan Catt
@ the Yahoo! Party.
Sun 03.12.06 - Jon Hicks demonstrates the fine art of banana drawing before the accessibility panel.
Sun 03.12.06 - Lunch at Halcyon coffee house.
Sun 03.12.05 - SXSW 2006 - In between panels - George Kelly!
Sun 03.12.06 - SXSW 2006 - Kenneth, Veerle, Geert, and Jon.
Sat 03.11.05 - Yesterday at Whole Foods, Lauren, Lesile, and I bought cheese, wine and other bits. Tonight we had a low key after-panel party at our hotel room.
Sat 03.11.06 - Walking down 6th St after lunch.
Breakfast will all of the gang - Brit Pack, the Belgian/Dutch Pack, Shaun and Lesile, and others. It was good to sit and hang out in the sunny breakfast area. It was good to chat, drink caffiene, and laugh.
Jorie Lordes dropped Lauren (LEI) off around 11am and joined us upstairs for awhile. At noon, a group of us (LEI, Lesile, Jessica Spengler, Chris Mills, Craig, et al) walked over to the Whole Foods mothership for lunch and to do a little shopping at Whole Foods and Waterloo records.
We sat outside near the Whole Foods "water feature" stream to eat our lunch in the sun. Warm.
LEI, Lesile and I went back in to buy cheese, wine and crudites for our proposed wine and cheese party. Afterwards we walked over to Waterloo with Aaron Gustafson and I bought a new tshirt (bunny with headphones) and a new pink bowling bag purse. The best part is that Aaron gave us a ride home in his rented AC car.
Yes, it is hot enough to need Air Conditioning. Yeah!
4pm - Time to go pick up our badges at the conference center. Even though I uploaded an approved photo to the SXSW site, I received my badge with last year's photo. ;o(
5pm - Saw the a gang of the Hampton folk (BP, BDP, etc) go to the free drinks in Brush park, sit under a big oak in the sun, and then walk around 6th Street and 4th Street looking for a place to have a drink before dinner with the Aussies and then Break Bread with Brad. We found Anders Pearson and he led us to 219 West 4th St. This was a nice wine bar/hang out place. We ended up staying and turning it into the Dinner with the Aussies. I had several delightful glasses of wine, ceviche and calamari, as well as delightful conversations with Lesile, Jessica, Gillian (Jill) Carson, Erris Free, Andy Budd, and others. I was finally able to pass off the loaf of bread that I had been carrying around since Whole Foods off to Molly Holzschag.
Someone brought label stickers and we made "tags" for people. Andy Clarke gave me "I met Chuck Heston once", and one other that I forget what it said.
9pm - We went as a herd across to Break Bread with Brad at the Gingerman. As I was walking out of 219 West, I saw The Wolf!!!! The Wolf, aka John Marlow, is an old online friend from the 1996-2001 message board days. I had lost his cell # and new email, and didn't know how to find him. John has lived in Austin since 1999 and is always a good SXSW host. He and I may try to get together for drinks at some point.
There was quite a line to get into the Gingerman and I ended up having big hugs and chats with all kinds of folk coming in and going out (Molly Steenson, Sergio Villareal, Tom Coates, Heather Heskith, etc). Once we got into the venue, I was very tired and not much up to chatting. Brad was very welcoming. I got a bunch of the "My URL is..." stickers and started to write up name tags for folk.
When I hit the tired wall, I went back to the hotel with a group of folk and off to bed I went. Kenneth Himschoot was kind enough to walk the ladies back.
This was truly the first day of SXSW, even if the conference does not start until tomorrow.
Fri 03.10.05 - @ Check in.
Fri 03.10.05 - Breakfast at the hotel.
I left my apartment at 10am to go to the Dublin Airport. At the airport, I went to the Aer Lingus counter to see if I could extend my ticket two days to stay in AUstin a bit longer than just SXSW Interactive. Nearly 3/4 an hour later, I had a ticket to return on 3/17 for only $81 more.
On the flight from Dublin to Chicago O'Hare, I worked on my thesis and worked up interview questions, as well as distilling what my 171 survey respondents said to my hypothesis and interview questions for more in depth questions.
Last two hours of the flight was very turbulent, and I got very air sick. It took another two hours at Chicago walking up and down the concourses to stop the intense nausea. Due to the large rain storm, there were two hour delays for all flights and many were cancelled so the airport was full of crying kids and agitated business people. The 6:35pm flight to Austin finally departed after 8:30pm and we did not arrive in Austin until after 11pm. I got to the Hampton late and then woke up after 5 hours. Argh. Travel over 24 hours, sleep less than 5.
The best part of the flight to Austin was that I sat next to a fellow who works as an engineer for a large construction company and he worked on the Hampton Inn build out. He said it is very safe. Good to know.
Sat 03.19.05 - As soon as I got back to the hotel after the last band I was going to see, I borrowed a pair of scissors and set both of my cameras free.
