SXSWi - the Texas Rodeo, Ester's follies, and beer... and geeking
Saturday, 8. March 2008, 18:37:25
Hello from SXSWi!
It has been awesome so far. I've indulged in a very large number of cool things already, met some good friends, drunk some great beer, and had a lot of interesting conversations. And this is only the first real day of the conference!
Upon getting to the airport on wednesday night, I was met by my good friend Carl Camera, who drove me to his house and gave me a bed to sleep in for the night. I got a whole bunch of work done on Thursday, and still got time to talk to his lovely wife Theresa, play NERF and Star Wars lego with his boys, and head over to San Antonio to check out the Alamo and eat good mexican food, along with Stuart and Cyrill from Yahoo, and Tristan (ex-Yahoo, now Opera!)
Upon getting to Austin on Thursday night, we went to see a hilarious variety act/satirical comedy show/magic show/chaotic stage masterpiece called Esters' Follies. It was delightfully raunchy, offensive and hilarious, so I'd recommend anyone who spends any time in Austin to go and see it.
After that we found a Margarita happy hour, then ended up heading over to Buffalo Billiards where I drank several glasses of a Belgian beer called Lucifer, talked to a lot of interesting people about Opera and standards education, and ended up doing a karaoke rendition of both "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam, and "Girls Girls Girls" by Motley Crue ;-)
Most of Friday was spent editing articles, getting my conference badge, seeing lots of wonderful people (such as Lena, Ms Jen, Andy and the other Britpackers, Dustin Diaz, Anton Peck, Steph Troeth, Steph Sullivan, and so many more.)
I also got the chance to head on over and experience the Texas Rodeo - wow! ;-) I've not experienced anything that surreal for a long time. A cowboy monkey riding a dog, 6 year old kids riding sheep, lots of lovely BarBQ and Margaritas, the start of a tornado in the sky near to us, and lots of cowboys. Whoa.
So far Saturday has been work, work, work. I'd better sign off now, as I'm speaking at the Austin Bar Camp in about 4 hours time, and have a bunch of editing to do before then!
Oh, before I go, check out the new Dev.opera.com article I've published, written by Gareth Rushgrove, which covers using JSONP and Microformats to import data across domains. Fantastic stuff!
It has been awesome so far. I've indulged in a very large number of cool things already, met some good friends, drunk some great beer, and had a lot of interesting conversations. And this is only the first real day of the conference!
Upon getting to the airport on wednesday night, I was met by my good friend Carl Camera, who drove me to his house and gave me a bed to sleep in for the night. I got a whole bunch of work done on Thursday, and still got time to talk to his lovely wife Theresa, play NERF and Star Wars lego with his boys, and head over to San Antonio to check out the Alamo and eat good mexican food, along with Stuart and Cyrill from Yahoo, and Tristan (ex-Yahoo, now Opera!)
Upon getting to Austin on Thursday night, we went to see a hilarious variety act/satirical comedy show/magic show/chaotic stage masterpiece called Esters' Follies. It was delightfully raunchy, offensive and hilarious, so I'd recommend anyone who spends any time in Austin to go and see it.
After that we found a Margarita happy hour, then ended up heading over to Buffalo Billiards where I drank several glasses of a Belgian beer called Lucifer, talked to a lot of interesting people about Opera and standards education, and ended up doing a karaoke rendition of both "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam, and "Girls Girls Girls" by Motley Crue ;-)
Most of Friday was spent editing articles, getting my conference badge, seeing lots of wonderful people (such as Lena, Ms Jen, Andy and the other Britpackers, Dustin Diaz, Anton Peck, Steph Troeth, Steph Sullivan, and so many more.)
I also got the chance to head on over and experience the Texas Rodeo - wow! ;-) I've not experienced anything that surreal for a long time. A cowboy monkey riding a dog, 6 year old kids riding sheep, lots of lovely BarBQ and Margaritas, the start of a tornado in the sky near to us, and lots of cowboys. Whoa.
So far Saturday has been work, work, work. I'd better sign off now, as I'm speaking at the Austin Bar Camp in about 4 hours time, and have a bunch of editing to do before then!
Oh, before I go, check out the new Dev.opera.com article I've published, written by Gareth Rushgrove, which covers using JSONP and Microformats to import data across domains. Fantastic stuff!
