I’ve made it to Austin and the madness that is SxSWi. I arrived after 5pm yesterday, so no panels, just registration and checking into the hotel, the stately, rumored haunted, oil baron establishment named the Driskill.

I didn’t run into anyone, so I headed down South Congress for a bowl of queso and dinner. Sadly, Magnolia Café isn’t the finest cuisine, but the chips and melted cheese certainly made up for it!

I didn’t feel up to braving any lines to get into sponsored parties and stand around by myself, so I opted for a suburban night-at-the-mall with geeks at The Watchmen (where I sat around by myself). It’s a very long, very dark, very hyperreal (including cgi full-frontal smurfy muscleman nudity), wonderful movie with some killer action and fights. Never having read the graphic novel, I don’t have an opinion as to whether it’s a good adaptation or not. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed all two hours and 47 minutes if it and want to check out the original.

Today was chock-full of panels, seeing old friends, meeting new ones and getting my mind stimulated on topics of team dynamics, iPhone gaming and productive creativity. A hefty Mongolian bbq lunch hanging with knitters and putting faces to Twitter profiles was the highlight.

As always, going full-tilt all day certainly takes it out of me. I should have napped before dinner or gone for a run or taken a bath instead of fiddling with the hotel wireless and doing work.

For dinner, I’m sitting at the bar of a new wine place (Mulberry) with raw salmon drizzled with hot oil and fried capers and a side of sautéed spinach. At first, I felt out of place in this Sex in the City re-enactment of chatty girlfriends, but the food transcended this yuppie faux industrial + Danish modern wine box.

In 45 minutes, the #sxswhomo crowd is going to guerilla gay nerd take over a local gay bar, Oil Can Harry’s for the Austinites. Should be fun, but I really need to rest and want to try to squeeze in a run first thing in the AM.

Tomorrow night is the web awards and my work has a site up for an honor in the Activism category. The agency that built it is here so I’ll be there ready to cheer. Cross your fingers for us!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 6:35 pm and is filed under knitting, tripping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.