Day 1 recap

I have notes on the panels and Tracy and I did a podcast from a loud bar that I don't know if I will put up, but might. Internet access at the event was sketchy, and I was not about to drag my computer around town with me.

But let me recap briefly here to remind myself for later...

Arrived on time-ish. Waited in the reallyfuckinglongline for my badge, then waited in a thronging mob for my badge to be made. Managed to get to the emerging social and technological trends panel on time. I recorded it and took notes (note to self: need to dump the data from the media player before leaving today.) then went down a secret elevator to attend the bridging cultural divides panel. Jason, Lynne, Samitha, and Elayne (crap. I'm too lazy to get up and check the spelling of her name, but I am pretty sure we talked later about how her name is the opposite of mine) did great. I liked what Jason had to say about gating and also about anticipating the needs of a particular community rather than just building stuff that seems cool to the developer community. Also enjoyed what Lynne had to say about free speech and historical records (even if they are historical records of someones idiocy.) I have a lot to say about this panel, but I said it in my notes and I don't want to give too much detail here.

After the cultural divide panel, we all went out to lunch at Mekong River, which was good. I think the basil tofu at Thai Passion is better, but the company was good so the food didn't really matter. Met a comic book loving, austin living in woman whose name begins with an M, but I can't remember the rest (do you sense a theme here? I am just awful about names! Thankfully I have it written down somewhere) but who I hope to run into more often. We had a nice talk about families and computers and homeschooling. I think this is the first time I have ever met someone new at sxsw who is actually from Austin! Yay!

Anyway, finished up lunch late and missed the keynote, but no matter. I'm really kind of tired of everything being about marketing and monetizing, but I suppose that is the unstated purpose of all sxsw panels. I want there to be more about inclusion and opportunity, not just of untapped markets, but of, you know, segments of society who need to be included for the sake of social justice.

Sat in on a godawful panel by some hack who wrote a book about all the chicks he slept with. d0000d. I guess I was supposed to be impressed. I was told my use of the word assholishness made a small cadre of twitterers at The Hideout erupt into laughter, which made me feel like my time was not totally wasted. I ignored the next panel to play around on the suddenly available internet, then headed down to the panel on blogging and spirituality.

Tracy and I met up and hoofed it to the car to drop off all of our gear, save the essentials. Thought about dorkbot, but the line was too long, so we walked over to Whisky Bar for drinks that we had to pay for (!!!!) Met a bubbly woman from Boston who wants to work on a project connecting businesses with non-profits somehow, and a dude in an oscar the grouch shirt. Sat for a bit, swilled two very strong rum and cokes, then stumbled back to Tracy's car and on to the AMODA thingy at Mohawk's, but we were early so we decided to get something to eat.

Does the city do some sort of homeless sweep for sxsw? Because there seemed to be a LOT fewer panhandlers in the usual areas where panhandlers congregate. At any rate, we made it to Havana unscathed and hungry. Ate some really good food and some veggies that tasted like they were straight out of the frozen food aisle. Hit or miss at that place. I'm going to stick with El Vegetariano, even though it is mostly fried stuff. Tracy started talking to his fork and planning escape routes from the restaurant in case of laser beam attack, so I figured it was time to get him out of there...

Back to AMODA where we saw jason and Lynne and Tiffany, and where I stood in back of fist-pumpy guy watching the laptop battle. I wonder who won? I wanted the guitar dude to win just because he did something interesting. And, no, not because I have a weakness for guitar dudes, although that is very true.

AMODA got boring, so we walked a zillion miles to Molotov for actual free drinks. I sat down to people watch (pretty much I had had my fill of social interaction by this point) and the couch I sat on was damp (yick!) and I was done with the booze for the night. Tracy and I headed back to the car, allowing the long walk to sober us up a bit. Thought about going to 8-bit, but missed a turn and decided against it.

Daylight savings happened in the car, just as I was saying "I feel like we are going home early, even though it's already 1 AM" and right as I said that, the stoplights started flashing yellow and Tracy remarked that it was now 2 AM, and our credibility as party animals had been upgraded by an hour due to daylight savings time.

Came home, zoned out, went to sleep, woke up...fuck. Forgot to set my regular clock. I guess that first panel session isn't TERRIBLY important. I am hoping it is not the one George is on.

Good morning, beautiful people.

Best of so far:
-Twitter is the coolest thing ever to hit the internet
-The cultural divide panel, and the discussion over lunch
-laughing and stumbling around with Tracy
-"Say no to crack"
-Making friends with a cool local! yay!