End of Saturday

Well, the high tech craft panel was a disappointment. They weren't talking about everyday people crafting - it was four women who were working in fashion design using physical elements of technology (circuits, etc.). It turned into one of those "look I did this awesome thing!" panels - no philosophy of craft and how technology might influence it or anything that I would be interested in. Esin and I left about 20 minutes in. It was disappointing.

We skipped the last panel and hung out in the hall with Kristin and Wes, people watching. That was fun. Then Cuban food for dinner, an abortive attempt to find the 16bit party, and a lovely time with Dinah in the Hilton hotel bar.

Now I am tired. In the second Sunday panel, which is about to start.

Saturday @ SXSW

I have 15 minutes to kill before my next panel, so here's a quick rundown of the day. (Maybe I'll edit later to pick up the later bits.)

* Woke up earlier than intended, so lots of time to get ready, have some breakfast, etc. before heading to the convention center around 15 minutes before registration opened. More people had this same idea than did last year, but oddly enough I ended up standing in the line right next to someone I stood in the same line with last year. Small world, isn't it?

* First panel - Findable Rich Media. Can be summed up: don't be stupid, use language that bots can crawl behind all your pretty flash, and make sure the content is the same in Flash and crawl-able mediums.

* 2nd panel - Contextual Web. It was a quick idea of the concepts to consider while designing for the textual web - all correct and good but nothing new or in depth at all. It was really a very high level overview.

* Lunch with Esin/Wes/VJ @ the Hilton. I was low blood sugar girl, so eating was definitely good, and my sandwich was tasty.

* 3rd panel - Taking Your Web Talent to the Gaming Industry. Just thought it might be interesting to see what they had to say - the game industry is, as someone pointed out, one of the most romanticized places to work. Thought it was great that they solicited direction from the audience interests, and amusing when that led to, "If you aren't interested in A, B, or C, why are you here?" The panel was a bit unbalanced - and I found some of it kind of tedious. Ended up playing Chain Factor to amuse myself - O the irony!

* Roamed the halls before the high tech craft panel, and found the room by the girl with the wristwarmers knitting in the hall. Heh. Was interviewed by someone for a radio program about what sort of craft did I do, and how did I think technology could be incorporated into it? She really wanted to talk about incorporating actual physical technology into craft, but I think the strongest connection for me personally is the craft communities that interact via the web.

* 4th panel - High Tech Craft.

--= That's where I am for now! The panel should start in just a few minutes. =--

At SXSW! Knitting!

So I've made it to SXSW - sitting in the conference center with Esin and Wes, franticly working on the laptop cozy. Was hoping to be done by now. Am not. See?

Now must run to panel.

Macbook Pro did not automatically adjust time to new timezone - says it is 7:51am.

Haircut

I had a sudden realization, once I got my loads of homework turned in on Sunday evening, that I was leaving town for SXSW in 4 days. Am totally unprepared. Clothes are not clean, I haven't looked at the panel list yet, and I haven't asked my folks to feed my poor kitties, either.

In addition, I'm having the "in my old SXSW pictures I am skinny and cute and now I am old and fat" problem that I've been having for the last year or two. Working in an office in high stress situations with lots of readily available food were not good for me, yo.

But the feeling prompted me to get a haircut, because everyone looks better with a good haircut! And I'm happy with how it turned out. Not that I promise it will look like this in Austin, because one never knows about re-creating the stylist's look. She did allow for my low-maintenance style, though, which I appreciated (i.e. that's all blowdrying skillz, no product).

Half Moon Holiday

Bucket and I managed to take advantage of Presidents' Day to break away from everything for a bit. We headed south to Half Moon Bay, driving around for a bit until we landed at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company for lunch and some truly outstanding imperial stout. We happened to end up at the bar next to the brewer himself, Alec Moss. We chatted about his beer, Magnolia's Strong Beer Month, and the British Beer Festival (happening in the first week in August), which he highly recommended we check out - budget notwithstanding, it sounds like something worth crossing the pond for.

On the way back out on highway 92, we stopped at the Half Moon Bay Nursery, which is really an incredible spot. We came home with geraniums, lettuce, vegetable seeds, and a flower for my bathroom window.

It was really nice to have an actual mini-vacation day, without worrying about work and school and everything else, especially considering that he's leaving soon for a work trip, and will be gone for a week and a half. And it took less time than our original wine tasting plans, so we could get back here and back to work by late afternoon.

Happy Valentine's Day

I love what Kevin wrote in the Ficlets blog today.

I know it may seem easy for me to say that Valentine's Day doesn't have to be all about Hallmark and being in a romantic relationship (though I wouldn't claim chocolate shouldn't enter the picture in some form or another), since, well, I am in one.

But when I was growing up, we celebrated VD at home as a family. Not in a big way, but we made each other cards, and gave one another sugary treats. Love doesn't have to mean just romantic love. We love our families. We love our friends. A day to recognize and celebrate love shouldn't be dismissed based on romantic relationship status.

I love my family. And I love my friends. And I love my Bucket. And I am happy about all those things today. Tell the people you love that you love them! And have some chocolate. Because, hey, any excuse to have some chocolate is a good one.

I am thankful for beer.

I am thinking I really need to start a gratitude journal. I need to find some way to focus on the positive things, and remind myself how good I do have it, since so much of the time I am feeling ground down by all the things that aren't going well.

Today, though, I'm mostly just thankful for beer.

And for my Bucket, who has taken time and energy out of his own drama to be supportive, which is pretty awesome. I would miss mah bucket if someone were to steal him.