The Adnostic

The Zen Master can tell that I am starting to get very excited about SXSW, because I have officially gone into Hyper Organized Social Mode. These are the symptoms that I have displayed so far:

1) I have taken the liberty making sure that every SXSW Interactive event is properly tagged and grouped on Upcoming.org

2) I noticed that there was an uneven dispersion of events on certain days, so I went on the SXSW Evening Events page and transcribed every missing event onto Upcoming.org

3) I am now have either a watching or attending status on every SXSWi event. Even the one possibly sponsored by a pornographic media service (btw, not going).

4) I created a map of Downtown Austin with the location of every bar hosting a SXSWi event.

5) I signed up for Twitter so that I know where all the cool kids are at all times.

6) I entered the entire party schedule into my cell phone.

Some people turn into a blubbering mess when they're excited about something, I turn into a geeky Martha Stewart crossed with a Tasmanian Devil. That's how I roll.

I just got approval last week. I bought my ticket, made my travel reservation, and jumped up and down with happiness. It's official! I will making my second trip to SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas!

This also means that the Zen Master and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary in the city where we first met. Isn't that sweet?!

See y'all March 9th!

I'm not a big fan of BlogHer as a learning experience. I guess you can say I'm not a big fan of conferences as learning experiences period. They are great opportunities to meet and bond with people who share your profession and/or interests, or to discover subjects that you can look into further when you get home, or to find some inspiration, but true learning is not a fair expectation of conferences. That's what multi-day intensive seminars are for.

This is why I didn't expect much out of BlogHer. For me, it was more of chance to take a road trip with the girls and see Jen partake in her first panel. In this respect, it was very successful.

Day 1 - Thursday

The Gray Ghost is washed, its oil is changed, and it is ready for its first big road trip. Four girls (me, Jen, Erika, and Megan) load their luggage, their laptops, a cooler and a hat into the trunk with ease. The first test is passed.

We pile into the car and begin the drive North with little traffic and Jen choosing the soundtrack for our journey. Some Kasabian, The Clash, The White Stripes, and a few other bands play in the background and we chow on burritos and potato tacos from El Camino and chat about women in technology and the professional world in general (but mostly technology).

What it came down to is this - As a gender, we're not used to blowing our own horn and pushing our weight around. Jen cited a study that a colleague of hers did on women bloggers. It showed that a woman with the same tech skills as a man would almost always rate her expertise as lower in comparison to a man with the same skill set. This didn't surprise me considering that I often underestimate my own skills and am unconfident and overly modest in interviews which I don't believe helps me in the least.

I don't think we as women have a special "role" in the professional world. I believe every individual has a unique skill set and personal offering to any project and/or organization, but to say that women have a specific workplace role that is different from men is overly general and has no consideration towards true equity.

Okay, time to step off the soapbox - we arrive in Gilroy and stop at the same fresh fruit stand that we stopped at last year. Ah, the cherries. Yum.

We make our way to the hotel in San Jose, check in, see Jen off to her speakers' dinner, and get back into the car to find dinner for us non-speakers. Sometimes, nothing beats Indian food from a strip mall.

Wanda and Liz arrive later that night to partake in the next day's festivities.

Day 2 - Friday

Wake up to a semi-coherent, hypoglycemic Jen rattling on about needing my car to go to Whole Foods for some food that she can actually eat. I love Jen. I trust Jen, but there is no way in Hell that I am giving her the keys to my semi-new car so that she can take it Lord-Only-Knows-Where in a state of muddled brain function.

So we went off to Whole Foods together with Wanda for provisions. A basket filled with four bottles of wine, some cheese, crackers, and gluten-free bread products later we are ready for a weekend of estrogen.

Came back to the conference in time to the later part of the morning tech sessions and lunch keynote with Caterina Fake and Meg Hourihan. Interesting that their products, which are now known for being fantastically innovative and completely changing the game when it comes to content production, were started almost by accident.

More sessions and then its time to party by the pool. The food was horrible, but the wine was free and MommyBloggers was giving away free temporary tattoos. (I still have extras if anyone wants some.)

Off to Japan Town to get some real food. We found one of those sushi places on a conveyor belt that was pretty good and uber cheap, Sushi Maru. The six of us got away with sushi, edemame, sake, and tempura for $60. Hooray!

We came back to the room, grabbed the wine and cheese from the cooler, and called Jenny and Jen to come party with us. We mostly stuck to wine because the truffle cheese was so stinky it killed our appetite.

Day 3 - Saturday

More sessions. Dry burgers for lunch. Time for Jen's speaking gig - Is Your Blog a Gallery or a Canvas?. She did well. She even rolled with it when a caterpillar tried to commit suicide by jumping from the ceiling onto her table. In times such as that, what can you do but laugh and blog.

Key note with Grace and Arianna Huffington. I couldn't understand half of what Arianna said, but what I could make out was interesting and formidable. She knew blogging was powerful from the very beginning and fully accepted the criticism of her peers early in the process, which made her ability to accept the praise for the blog that much more credible. It must be scary to try and prove something on it's own merits when the outcome is so uncertain.

Party by the pool again. This time with weak martinis courtesy of Yahoo. Run into Mhyla and invite her to join us for cheap sushi at Maru again. (I remember that I was supposed to email her about something, but I completely forget what.)

After dinner, Mhyla drops us off at the hotel and our original group heads back to the room to polish off the last of the wine and the cheese from Cowgirl Creamery and head off to bed.

Day 4 - Sunday

The next morning we split up. Megan took a plane back to LA to finish packing for her move to St. Louis. Wanda and Liz got an early start on their ride back to LA. Erika went off to have brunch with a childhood friend. Jen and I drove up to San Francisco to visit with Mea and her new baby.

After we have had our fill of cuteness I drag Jen away from the house of Mea to meet Erika back in San Jose to begin our journey home. But not before we stop in Cupertino for dim sum.

The ride home is more about the music that the conversation. We're all spent and Jen is enjoying the Zen of a long drive. By the time we reach the Grapevine we're famished. We need food, but we made a pact to not settle for anything less than In-N-Out, which was another hour away in Valencia. We finally get there, we park and waste no time ordering food.

Mmmm.... burger bliss. We make it home in one piece and go our separate ways to bed. Satisfied that the trip was exactly what we expected, a fun time among friends.

For the last three years I have been dreaming about going to SXSW Interactive. When I was living with Ms Jen, she would come home from her Texas whirlwind and regale me with all kinds of stories and pictures of whom she met, what parties she went to, and the interesting panels she attended. I promised myself that when I finally found a job that paid enough money, I would go and see this magnificent spectacle for myself.

Well, last year I found a job in interactive media, booked my trip to SXSWi, found out there was no training budget to support my educational effort, lost said job, found a temp job, couldn't wait to get out of said temp job, found a permanent position with another interactive ad agency two weeks before I left for Austin, and almost fell over backwards when they agreed to cover my expenses for the trip. Did you get all that? Does it blow your mind to realize that this was all within a span of four months?

Here is my not so brief recap.....

Day One:
* Arrive in Austin and spend the day with Jorie.
* Try boba for the first time. Those tapioca balls are a bit shocking at first, but you miss them when they're gone.
* Participate in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sing-a-long at the Alamo Drafthouse, which is the absolute perfect way to kick off SXSW. Be surprised by how well I remember the songs from an episode I only recall seeing once. It's a little disturbing, but I roll with it.

Day Two:
* Meet up with Jen and a few SXSWi veterans and make a field trip to the Whole Foods Mothership for lunch and the week's provisions. Wine, water, fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese, and crackers. While waiting at the front of the store I give into the temptation of fresh gelato and get myself a small cup in pomegranate flavor. Mmmmmm.
* Head over to a local restaurant and wine bar for dinner before the first semi-official event for dinner and drinks. I meet a lot of people also attending SXSWi and am introduced to the geek practice of tagging. Not the virtual tagging that we all know and love, but "real" tagging. Someone passed around filing labels and a pen and we "tagged" each other. I get "likes younger men" and "I view source." Neither of which is true, but what the hell, right?

Day Three:
* Panels, panels, and more panels. Particularly enjoyed Digital Convergence with David Pescovitz of BoingBoing.
* Have lunch with Jen, Leslie, and a random smattering of testosterone (one of whom was particularly handsome, but stayed as far away from me as possible). Leslie and I scarf down our lunch so fast it would make an Ethiopian cry and run back to the convention center for the keynote.
* Have a wine and cheese party with the Brit Pack and a few honorary members in our spacious suite.
* Go to the Frog Design party, dance a little dance, drink a little free beer, and make a quick social round before heading off to the South by Northwest party.
* Arrive at Iron Cactus and see fellow BlogHer, Grace. I yell at her and she hands me a beer. I yell at and scare the bejesus out of Jason, who only vaguely knows who I am. Inebriatedly flirt with inappropriate men and top the evening off with a shot of tequila. Unwise, but I survived.

Day Four:
* Wake up with a surprising lack of hangover.
* More panels. My highlight - Everyware. How can the ubiquitous web be so exciting and scary at the same time?
* Attend the interview with Henry Rollins and can't get over the giant vein that intermittently bulges from his neck. Hypothesize that this magical massive vein is where he stores his impressive rage.
* Go straight to the Yahoo! party for free food and drink. Apparently I arrived just in time for Dot Com Bubble 2.0. I introduce a couple Brits to the wonders of good tequila and am praised for my knowledge and good taste. It helps to be in one's element.
* Time for the Fray storytelling party, but not before seeing MJ "tag" that handsome gent from lunch the other day. Suddenly all the girls are reapplying their lipstick and going in for the kill. Somehow his recent divorce is mentioned and while everyone else keeps a respectful silence I have the poor manners to audibly cheer. He doesn't leave my side for the rest of the night and I am smitten.

Day Five:
* And more panels. I make a last minute decision to start my day with Cluetrain and it just goes downhill from there.
* I make a solo run to the Whole Foods Mothership for more supplies so that Jen and I can host another wine and cheese party the next day.
* I have dinner with a very large party and fret to Jen about the possibility of not seeing the Zen Master again and not knowing if he actually wanted to see me again. She suggests I text him and it isn't until that time that I realize I even have his number at all. We text each other and I meet him later on with a small entourage in tow.
* We leave as soon as I arrive to go to the Consumating/AdaptivePath/Odeo We Sold Out party. It was a crowded drunken mess and it was wonderful.

Day Six:
* The last day of panels. ZM convinces me to see the Microsoft vs. Apple OS Smackdown and I goad him into seeing the Convergence in Advertising Sales Event. Who knew that his choice would be more interesting? We end the conference with a dark yet hopeful state of the union by Bruce Sterling, and I am left both stirred and touched.
* We have our last wine and cheese party with a much larger crowd and toast Ms Jen for her gracious hosting skills and laugh and talk until the vino runs dry and so we take our party across the street for dinner and more sparkling conversation. Camera phones abound as people record the last of our time in Austin.

It was the perfect ending to the perfect week, and now I can hardly wait for next year.

Thank you Faceless Corporate Entity!!!

For the past two years (or is it three) I have been vicariously enjoying the festivities of the SXSW Interactive Conference through Ms. Jen. Who did you meet? What parties did you go to? What panels were the most exciting? What panel did you like best? What neat applications can I expect to see? Can I see the pictures? What about the boys?! Tell me about the boys!

I always wanted to go, but I never had the funds or the occupation to write off the expense. This year I finally have both. I tried to get the company to pay for it, but there is no training budget. I'm not saying that my boss refused to fund me, or thought the endeavor was somehow frivolous. I'm saying there is no training budget. Period.

I work for a web marketing company that is expected to stay on the cutting edge of technology and usability, and we have no training budget. Interesting.

Well, at least I have an abundance of PTO days so I won't be losing any of my salary for going and I can certainly qualify the expense as a tax write off, so not too bad. It could certainly be worse.

Anyways, I'm very excited to be heading out to Austin for 2006. I hope Ms. Jen will be able to make it this year; it would be an awfully lonely week otherwise. I promise not to assault the blogebrities. Really. I can be the picture of cool composure.... sometimes. Why are you laughing?

Thanks Hugh for the BlogHer discount! Every penny counts and I look forward to meeting you in March.

Ever since BlogHer, I've been suffering from masthead envy. Not that I wanted to get rid of my Devil Girls (I love them. They are the visual representation of my id), but I couldn't help feeling it needed more "oomph." I mean, just looking at Dooce's gallery of retired mastheads made me want to consider the possibility of intellectual property theft. I promise it was a fleeting notion that only coincided with the occasional lapse in morality.

So I e-mailed my parents' friend, Scott, who recently started his own graphic design firm and asked how much a snazzy new masthead would cost. He called me back and told me that not only would he do it for free, but he would also give me a redesign every so often.

This kind of generosity called for drastic measures. I e-mailed Momiji Man and asked if he would pick me up a bottle of my favorite reposado, which is unavailable in the US, on his next trip to Mexico, which will be given to Scott as a kind gesture in repayment for a kind gesture.

Now the question is how do I repay Momiji Man? Tickets to the Wasted Festival? Dance lessons?

The other night I was having dinner with the parental units and telling them that I wouldn't be around at the end of the month because I would be going to BlogHer for the weekend. Suddenly Mom became very concerned about my blog.

"Is it like a Chat Room?"

"No Mom, it's not like a chat room. It's more like a personal broadcast. People can leave e-mails or comments, but it's not in real time. I'm not having a conversation with my readers. It's mostly one way."

"Well, I don't know how I feel about this."

"Mom. Everything is virtual. They can get my e-mail address, but that's about it. I'm very vague about where I live, where I work, and where I go. There is nothing tangible about me on the site."

"Well, there are these Sexual Predators out there and they can be very dangerous. I hope you're aware of this."

I stared at her wide-eyed for a moment, stunned by the level of ignorance and ill directed concern. "Mom, I'm not TWELVE!"

Dad giggled and that ended that. At least until it was time to clear the table.

"I guess I should tell everyone at BlogHer to be extra careful. All those female bloggers in one place, it's like a Sexual Predators wet dream!!!"

Mom glared at me. "Don't be cute."

Dad and I chuckled and continued clearing the table.

Last Saturday my roommate and I had our first official Geek Out party.

"Wha?" You may ask with all the eloquence your public education can afford, I will gladly explain:
A Geek Out party is where we invite all the people who contribute to the Barflies.net group blog (and anyone else who is super passionate about the Internet or computing in general), enjoy some tasty barbeque, hook into the WiFi, and start surfing.

A majority of the population may find that pathetic and strange, but to us it was incredibly exciting. Surfing the net and blogging, can be such a solitary act. Just you, and your computer, and that "18 year old” telling you she needs a good spanking. Kidding. Really. But it truly is an experience you normally don't share with anyone else.

The Geek Out party was extraordinarily social. We all broke out our laptops, logged onto the WiFi, and started talking about, showing, and sharing our favorite web sites and tech tricks.
I showed Sandra my favorite shopping blog, Kevin and Julie discovered BoingBoing just by going through some of my bookmarks, and Justin was introduced to the magic of random generator Web Zen. And that was just the stuff I get giddy about.
Jen gave a quick lesson on moblogging to Sandra and Justin. Sandra introduced little Logan to a site that lets you build your own virtual rollercoaster and rates it by the average amount of fear it generates. Justin gave a short dissertation on how Captain Kirk was an intergalactic mack daddy that no other leader, of any ship known as Enterprise, can ever compete with.

All in all, a great party. Jen wants to have Geek Out parties about once every month while the weather stays warm. Here's hoping.

Justin is the OCG. [Photo lifted off of Jen]

It was all Ms. Jen's idea, but I'm really looking forward to meeting fellow female bloggers. We'll share ideas about creating better sites and generating traffic, socialize, geek out, braid each other’s hair, exchange dating and make-up tips, and (one last lie, just for the boys) have lots of pillow fights in our underwear.
The best part is a road trip to the Bay Area and roadside fresh cherry stands. Mmmm... fresh cherries.