I'm sorry that took so long. Checking into the hotel, getting lunch, and paying for Internet access took longer than expected. Oh, how I long for a Courtyard, where you can get the stuff for free, just floating around in the air. Not that I mind paying for it, per se; it's just always so complicated with the juggling of the credit card number, the creating of usernames, and the remembering (and prompt forgetting) of passwords.
But here I am after having sated myself on a sampler platter at The Ironworks barbecue place down the street and after having sated the Hilton's little formy thing on all my pertinent information. The barbecue was good. Where I come from nothing can properly be called barbecue that didn't come off a pig, but I'm informed that in other parts of the country, folks often barbecue other animals. I'm still not sure you can actually call beef barbecue, but I do know it tastes good.
I'm in Austin for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference, held in conjunction with the SXSW Film and Music festivals. There are all kinds of web geeks from both sides of the political aisle and other areas of web expertise entirely to get together, share strategies, and unintentionally spill trade secrets after a few too many Shiners at Happy Hour. Good times.
I wasn't sure how to dress since it's a conference, but it's also connected to the music and film festivals, which makes it a bit of a hip affair. Luckily, we had an early flight and I was in jeans and a t-shirt. I am learning that whenever a D.C. person attends an event in another part of the country, the D.C. kid should loosen his tie/take off his suit jacket before being immediately pegged and mercilessly scorned as that overdressed D.C. kid.
If you're a Republican D.C. kid, you should step down the dress code two notches to overcome the presumption of stuffed-shirtedness, which is the byproduct of your politics (note to self: not using words like byproduct would probably help, too.)
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I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt and I've already gotten my first not-entirely-in-jest sign of the cross made in my general direction upon the detection of my political leanings. You know, because I'm a Republican. Which is just as bad as a vampire. So bad, in fact, that liberals will actually have something to do with the cross to make a joke about it. I wish I could tell them I'm more scared of them than they are of me. But I'm not.
Oh, I jest. It looks like it will be fun times. I've got a couple of bloggy friends here from both sides of the aisle and look forward to learning a few things.
Next, some catch-up links on all the things I missed while in the air today.
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