i'm at startcon08 today

Today a whole bunch of us are at the start conference, hosted by Jeff Veen and Bryan Mason. Mandi and Mike are here from San Antonio, plus J, A, S, B, D, B, D, J, C. (I don't know who's here stealthily or publicly.)

So far: Mena Trott (Six Apart) was great, so was Merlin Mann (43folders & 5ives). Got to see the founders of Ritual Roasters and Rare Device. Matt Haughey (a whole lotta nothing) is on stage right now. I love him too. Glad to get the chance to see him in person. He's got something new out called FUELLY. Not running yet, but looks like it's pretty cool.

Lessons Learned:

1. Never EVER wear new, bright red, patent leather shoes to a conference. No matter how amazingly snazzy they are. Not only will they rub wicked blisters into your feet before you even get there, you also won't be sure if you're actually bleeding to death through your feet or just stained.
   
2. ALWAYS take flip-flops in your purse if you're dumb enough to ignore tip #1.

wow! i'm in the new york times!

That's what I get for sitting at the front table for Heather of dooce.com & Stephanie of greek tragedy.com's closing keynote :). I was an innocent bystander in this photo for this NY Times piece on BlogHer.

photo by Jessica Brandi Lifland for The New York Times

Thanks to Shannon for bringing it to my attention!

EDITED TO ADD: It occurred to me that if you don't know me, you might not know which one I am. I'm the one on the right; the unnamed one in the photo. :( You would think if they had to say "So-and-so, left, yada yada yada..." that they would also name who's on the right. Oh well. Such is life.

going to half of BlogHer, but still hoping

As I am friends with an amazing guy (who knows everyone and everything - especially about music!) who went way beyond the call of duty to get me into BlogHer, I have now secured a pass to Day 1 of BlogHer! w00t!!!

This means I do get to go to the Newbie Party tonight. I even went out on a limb, hoping against hope, and last night I got a great new haircut and style for the occasion, so I'm glad something panned out, last-minute or not. There will be pictures from the party tonight.

So tomorrow I'll be at BlogHer. And if you hear of any Saturday passes, send them my way. I mean, seriously folks, it's my chance to meet Maggie (mightygirl) AND Heather (dooce)!!! That's like two life-long dreams rolled into one!

I'll keep you posted!

BlogHer 08 - i'm too late!!!

One of the reasons I moved to SF, even to the Bay Area in general, was for events like BlogHer. (Specifically, Adaptive Path events and BlogHer.) When I found out BlogHer 08 was being held in downtown SF this year I was overjoyed!!! They didn't have their whole line-up of speakers together though, and our summer plans were a little up in the air, so I didn't register right away.

WRONG!!!

On Monday morning, I woke up with a start, early, thinking, "OMG! BlogHer is coming up! I never went back to register!!!" I jumped out of bed, pulled up the site, saw that it starts on the 18th (!!! I thought it was later!), frantically clicked the register button, my heart skipping along in relief, and got a page telling me it's sold out. I added my name to the waitlist, hopelessly, and then proceeded to mentally berate and kick myself until I ruined my own day.

You see, I had missed the tiny text at the top of the register page telling me "This event is closed for registration." I wanted to scream! Some of my very favorite bloggers will be there, as speakers or as attendees, and being the introvert that I am, I had made a solemn resolution that I would come out of my shell for this.

The long and the short of it is that if you know someone who knows someone whose uncle's plumber's accountant's daughter-in-law can get me in at this point, I will be indebted to you forever. I will paint the toenails of every single person in that chain. I will send a sincere thank you note to them and do a jig!!! I would sing karaoke for you. (*gasp!*) A hush just fell over the crowd because if you know me, you know I don't do karaoke for no one, no how. This is serious.

So I plead to my possibly 11 readers in the whole wide world: "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"

sxswi 2007

Well, we're back. Great panels, great schmoozing, got to see some of my own personal internet rockstars, and drank til the wee hours. Incredible parties. Check out some of the photos:

Flickr Set: SXSWi 07

So far, I've only uploaded the ones from my powershot. I still have to upload the ones from my Rebel.

After the conference was over, JR and I headed for San Antone to see family and friends. I got to see my dad's new house (amazing!). My sister Karolyn came down from Houston one night. And we had such a great time with our friends! Hi friends! :)

That's all for now. I'll tell you how I torqued my back while crashing to my knees (busting my right knee for the THIRD time now), but it'll have to wait.

i am at SXSWinteractive!!

I arrived in Austin this afternoon, checked into the hotel, and headed over to registration at SXSW. It's only 3 blocks away. Registration took so long that I missed my first panel. :( I made "How to Rawk SXSW" and I'm glad I did. It was funny, and had a bunch of great tips.

Now I'm waiting for JR to arrive from his flight. I made the mistake of saying hi to a kid that sat down next to me, and now he won't shut up; he's full of punk teen attitude and boastful stories. Argh. I think I'll wait for JR back at the hotel. And then it is time to get our drink on! (Oh, and neither of us have eaten all day, so food would be good first.)

PS - I brought my camera and my brand new flash, so I should have plenty of photos to post.

SXSWinteractive calendar by google UX

The UX Team at Google has put together a public Google calendar with all of the daytime panels and nighttime events (the map link even goes directly to that nightspot): SXSWi 07

You can copy the events you want to see to your calendar (Gcal or otherwise), subscribe to the feed, etc. I've already found it handy to keep track of everything going on at once and see what I've chosen to attend.

It's kind of wonky being in a different time zone, as the events currently appear in my calendar as 2 hours earlier than listed, but it will be right when I change my time zone to CT on arrival in Austin.

If you get a chance, check it out - it's a useful tool I'm pretty geeked about having helped create. :)

austin's on google transit in time for sxsw

From the Official Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

Music, Movies, Mayhem, and the Metro
3/08/2007 08:52:00 AM
Posted by Tom Sly, New Business Development

I'm thrilled to report that, as of today, the Capital Metro Transportation Authority of Austin, Texas is the 10^th agency to become part of Google Transit Trip Planner.

Some of you may notice that we're announcing this new partnership just in time for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festival, which is taking place in Austin from March 9 to 18. And there is a reason for that...

This year, SXSW has gone carbon neutral. And thanks to the efforts of the Capital Metro team, the thousands of visitors that come to Austin for the 10-day music, film, and interactive festival can do their part to reduce carbon emissions by planning their SXSW experience using public transportation. As an added incentive for SXSW attendees, $1 day passes are available for purchase on board Capital Metro buses and provide unlimited use of Capital Metro services for an entire day.

Using Google Transit, I now know that when I arrive in Austin, I'll be taking Capital Metro from the Airport to the Convention Center, and, from there, I'll do my best to take in as much of the action as possible. So, if you're part of an agency that offers regular bus, light-rail, train, or ferry service, come find me amidst the movies, music, and interactive panels at SXSW, or drop the Google Transit team a line.

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/music-movies-mayhem-and-metro.html

wow - interim post

A lot has happened - I have photos from the ski trip to Ruidoso (FUN!), the Flickr 333 Birthday Party (TOO COOL!!!), and an account of the weirdest, most bizarro Sunday night of my life.

But I don't have time right now - I have to pick out which sessions I'm attending at SXSWinteractive, and I just sent out an evite to a Happy Hour on March 14th at the Saucer.

If you didn't get an invite, shoot me a line, and I'll add you to the invite list. I did it in a real hurry, so I might've missed ya.

sxsw interactive 2007

I'm gonna be there, are you? If you are, let me know in the comments or if I don't spot you there, swing by the Google booth and say hi!

JR (of McAfee) will be there too. As will Lee, of frogdesign.

Funny... first time I get to go to SXSW Interactive (in Austin - an hour from San Antonio, where I lived and worked for 6 years) is when I move to San Francisco. All I'm sayin', you know, is ... makes you think.