Today was my friend Amanda’s birthday and Nick had put together an awesome day for her and her friends. We had brunch at Chez Zee (Bed and Breakfast French Toast FTW) and then hung out at their place while Nick picked up the cake and Amanda got a massage. We played video games and party games and iphone games. And there was cake.
All posts in What I Did Today
Live diggnation
I’m not a big diggnation fan, but I am a fan of Alex Albrecht and since there wasn’t a live Totally Rad Show this year at SXSW, this was the closest thing.
The line to Stubb’s stretched from Red River down to I-35, but, being Stubb’s, we all got in. While there is a lot of overlap between a TRS and digg crowd, I got the impression that, like the actual site, diggnation had a broader appeal. The whole scene was more rock star 2.0 than a panel at a tech conference.
The whole show was really fun. Local celebrity Brian Brushwood warmed up the audience with magic tricks, Scam School style. We participated in a Twitter hoax, broadcasting the news that Conan O’Brien was joining Revision 3. The digg CEO came out and talked about some new features coming to the site. Then Alex and Kevin did the show, which was really funny and alcohol fueled. Leo Laporte showed up with his mobile webcasting rig and ended up crowdsurfing (while webcasting the whole experience). Surprise guest Robert Rodriguez came on stage to talk about Predators. And then Alex and Kevin did some crowdsurfing.
Allergies
I hung out with my friend Kristina for a bit. I think I may be allergic to her cats.
Anything for Cache
I joined a geocaching meetup. I really like geocaching and I thought it would be fun to do it with a group. The first meetup was a meet and greet thing at El Arroyo. The place was really loud, so it was hard to hear what everyone was saying. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was an odd experience. The woman who organized the meetup had printed out an agenda and was introducing everyone at the table by reading the bios we had posted on the meetup group. Why couldn’t we just introduce ourselves?
Then she gave us a quiz about geocaching which assumed we were all familiar with the geocaching.com web site, which I had never visited. The group was supposed to be laid back and open to all experience levels, so that was a bit weird. She had written a little poem that she wanted us to read in unison at the beginning and end of our meetups, like we were in the Boy Scouts or something. The whole thing was at once over-organized and a little silly.
I’m still going to give it a shot and see what it is like to go find an actual cache with the group.
Sloths Will Blow Your Mind
I still need to write up an account of STAPLE for yesterday, but I’m still pretty wiped out.
Last night/this morning I found myself at a party with improv peeps from The New Movement. We didn’t know whose house it was. The walls were adorned with large anatomical illustrations where one might find a Van Gogh. Similarly, there were coffee table books about horse anatomy. Outside on the patio, a projector displayed super gay music videos against the side of the wall. I don’t know if it was a primarily gay party or what. It was just the backdrop to some good conversations and some idiot savant wisdom coming out of Milo’s mouth, including some secrets about sloths and the directive to not deny his passion.
Parties
I was holding off on posting in my blog because I am going to be moving web hosts, but that has been delayed due to a mixup.
The STAPLE pre-party was neat. I had forgotten how many comic books there were at Austin Books & Comics. It felt like an ark for comic books, a backup vault in case civilization fell. I didn’t really know anyone there besides Chris, but my “Team Linus” shirt served as social currency. I also got to meet Goatboy, the artist who did the interior art for The Stork. I had only worked with him online.
Then I went to Reed’s housewarming party where I talked to cute girls about Doctor Who. Cory brought New Age and fruit, pretty much sealing the deal on the fun party situation.
Status Quo
Not much to report today except I discovered there is a new large expansion for Talisman coming out. Plus Adobe CS5 will supposedly get released in April. The new features of Photoshop CS5 look crazy.
Tired from errands. Bye now.
Could He Be the One?
Recently I decided to try reading the the Dune books in chronological order, including the extended universe books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. I made it about 100 or so pages into the Butlerian Jihad before I couldn’t stand it. The story seemed epic and could have been interesting, but the writing was just so juvenile I couldn’t justify spending more time in the series.
So I satisfied my Dune craving by rewatching the Dune Extended Edition with Nick and Amanda. Despite the horribly dated effects, it is still awesome.
Mike Doughty, Yeah
As with JoCo, it seems that going to see Mike Doughty has become a yearly ritual. This time he dropped by the soon to be closing Cactus Cafe on the UT campus. Entering the sleek, hip student union made me pine for college and youth.
This was the first time I had seen the Question Jar show, where he answers written questions from the audience between every few songs. He kept the answers pithy and amusing. It was a typical Doughty set, with a few Soul Coughing tunes and stuff from the new album thrown in. I hadn’t realized how similar the guitar riffs were on about half of his songs. It created a perpetual anticipation: Which song is this? Is it going to be Circles?
He played Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well and Tremendous Brunettes, but no Gambler cover and no Pleasure on Credit. Can’t have everything.
Don’t Press the Button
Something I like to do: Make random widgets in Photoshop.
