keeping my desk neat since 2007
{ Monthly Archives }
Today I witnessed the birth of my nephew, Hendrix Zion, at the home of my brother and sister-in-law, with midwives helping out and Dominick and Kyra Moon watching. It was truly awe inspiring. I am still overwhelmed by it. It’s been a gorgeous and exhausting day. Here he is. He is perfect.
So today I ducked out of work and ran to the convention center where I nabbed free tix to see The Bravery play live for a broadcast on directtv. My brother flew into town this afternoon so we headed down around 8:30 to get in line. We were pretty early and there were fewer people than I expected since The Bravery had played a sold out crown at Stubbs the night before - that, and I think the satellite channel did a terrible job of telling people about these free and open to the public concerts. At any rate, once the doors were open I was up in front, hand on a monitor, w00t! They came, they played, the rocked. Sam sweated on me, there was contact, I got a pick. I am a pleased little groupie. They didn’t have quite the spunk they did at the insanely hot ACL fest show they gave a couple of years ago, but the whole TV studio thing had a bit of a dead ring to it and it took them about a half hour (2/3 through their set) to really get the crowd awake. The songs from their new album sounded great, I look forward to geeking out over it when it comes out.
Did I mention I got Sam’s pick?
So, I’m standing by our big glass garage door talking to my coworker when something bright catches my eye. Jumping out of an SUV comes a superhero! Blue tights and leotard! Red cape! Bright yellow fins on his shoulders and yellow underwear and knee-high boots! He pauses to fix his hair in the car window, then leans into the vehicle to get… his superhero tool belt? Ray gun? NO!
HIS MEGAPHONE!
And so he was off, to fight crime and harrass the hungovers on 6th street.
Go SXSW.
A fun-filled day was had at the Saturday session of SXSW interactive. Such a change from the last time I attended in 2002, during the heart of the slump. It was the most depressing conference I’ve ever attended. It has grown over the years and the rooms are packed each session. Highlights were Kathy Sierra’s keynote and Peter Merholz’s “Stop Designing Products” for which he should have been given an hour. It was a shame his session was so short, there was lots of good content and I came away with a couple of ideas that will help with the software I’m currently redesigning. I saw plenty of geeks I knew and made friends with the visiting web/ux team from the New York Times (news junkie alert!) while we waited for the “High Class/Low Class Web Design” panel that Khoi Vinh (NYT design director) was (slightly surly, with good reason) on. After a dinner at Mekong River, Michael, Bug, Emily and I waited around to see Big Rig which was pretty good - thought provoking and some lovely editing and post production work. Tomorrow, more interactive panel goodness. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
Could that paragraph have any more parentheticals?
