Still Alive

Not posting like I should be, but I am here. I should still consider a few more excerpts from the novel or something. And I promise to get some poems written over the next few weeks as well. In the meantime, go see pretty crafted things.

Steampowered

Weekend is currently deddicated to massive crafting, pricing and packing. Will return to your regularly scheduled writing once the madness gives me some breathing room again.

Welcome to Austin

I have arrived in a new city. An actual new city, at least to me. The plane was delayed due to AC problems, which was unpleasent as it involved sitting in a very warm plane for a long stretch before it was ready to go. Then there was the noise. I have never been in a plane that was THAT noisy. It was almost concerning. Which was then balanced with a pair of GROWN WOMEN who GIGGLED LIKE SCHOOL GIRLS THE ENTIRE FLIGHT. Which I could actually hear OVER the horrible noise of the plane. Though I struggled to hear the very nice young lady I sat next to flying back from California. Bah.

Anyway, survived the flight, easy cab ride into the city. OH. And the sunset. A line of burning red in the distance just before we landed. It was very pretty. Like the horizon was on fire.

Back to the city. I like Austin so far. Not that I’ve dealt with it much. Checked into the large silly hotel and walked a few blocks up the street to get food at Katz’s deli, which was recommended to us on the plane and at the front desk.

I will also be attempting to do photos and such as I go over on my Zannel page. At least try it a little more. For now though? Time to sleep. Writing to be inserted as well tomorrow.

Blogworld08, Part II

I probably should start off with finishing out yesterday.  First off, SO COLD. Spend a little too much time nearly freezing to death, especially durring lunch. I was also sad that lunch was very very established. No real options, but it was reasonably tasty and free, so I really shouldn’t complain that much. The lunchtime discussion, though, was actually fantastic to listen to. I appreciated Guy Kawasaki and Steve Rubel’s talk. Of course, as much as they may both have been interesting to listen to, I have to say Guy rather stole the stage. He has a great personality and is refreshingly straight forward. I loved hearing his perspective on the whole writing about things you may have been given or pitched or what-not. The gist was that of course he wrote about things he would invest in or like, thats what he WANTS to write about. It is a rather solid point on the matter of at what point you consider something to be a paid post.

There was also the very infomertial presentation. I really hate powerpoint, and I hate it more when people add goofyness to it. Bleck.

Actually hiked back to the hotel. It’s just long enough of a walk to kind of suck, but I still walked back this morning. Nothing too exciting over the evening. I seem to have argued the internet into submission. Stupid hotel. Stupid Windows Vista constantly working too har to do things it isn’t any good at doing.

Started out today with the booth crawl of the expo floor. I have to say, the booth crawling is often my favorite part of a convention. I like really getting down and talking with individuals rather then sitting through panels. Panels have some good ideas and all, but they never quite have the same sort of conversation that actually being on the floor has.

I need to interject a section on one of my favorite groups at the convention. The people at Cart-Away Supply win huge points from me today. These guys run a business offering francishe opportunities in concrete, rental and landscape stuff. They hauled a great, brightly painted concrete roller down from Oregan as a sort of PR push. I have to say, if I suddenly wanted to change course and shift into landscaping, I would have to work with these guys. I love the guts they have to show up at a blogging convention to generate buzz about a company that doesn’t have really anything to do with blogging. They’ve started a blog to keep people posted on the results of this little experiment. I recommend checking it out. And hell, if you have a minute, take a second to talk about the guys at Cart-Away. I chatted with them for a bit and they get my vote as good people. If nothing else, I hope they get something out of wandering around in bright green shirts. And you might see a picture of me with there cement mixer if you check out their blog.

I also met some lovely ladies from a mother travel blog. I can’t find the card just now, but I will drop up a link to their site as well once I manage to find it again. Very great people, fun to chat with.

Another fun moment was the people from Zannel who decided they needed to put up a quick video about the goggles that I sell. I probably should have given a shout out to the etsy steamteam, but hey they ARE mentioned in the header on my page. So if people do check out the video, they should get some good words in. :)

Another great bit was stopping for lunch. Not so much the food, the food was sort of meh. Though they at least had the tea I’ve been drinking lately. The really great part was the cranky older marketing professor that sat down at the table. I think the best way to find a good person to talk to at one of these events is to find someone who looks like they’ve been around much longer then anyone else. They always have the best stories and some of the most sharp and accurate perceptions of the things people are talking about.

Ok. Think I’m good for the moment. More to come.

Vegas and Blogworld, Part I

Meant to write this last night, but that didn’t quite work out so well. I spent a large portion of the night arguing with the internet in the hotel. The flight in was quick and pleasent (points for Southwest), though the shuttle to the hotel torchered me with Blue Collar comedy. I’m still a little bitter about that.

The hotel? Not so bad. Not fantastic, by any stretch, but it has all the amenities I really need. Well, except for WORKING INTERNET. I finally gave in and called down to the front desk. They sent up some guy who more or less poked at the little box connected to the tv with a stick, told me I was screwed because Windows Vista is stupid and left again.

So, bah. Fought with things a little more, then tracked down the help desk number they had. They sent someone over to fix things. Which took, oh, probably an hour. Then they were around for another long stretch. Along with the stick prodding guy from earlier. There was a lot of “Vista, huh? Well, there’s your problem.” Which, though entirely probable, SO not helpful. They eventually reset the wireless access point and swapped out the wired cord, told me I was screwed, and left. Wow, impressive. So helpful.

They left, I ignored them, plugged things in, restarted and jumped on-line. Grr. If they had paid any attention to the fact that I had already tried a bunch of things, maybe they would have swapped in the new cable and left me be to do things.

Oh, and also? Seriously? Sucky service in the mexican restaurant downstairs. More grr.

I think that covers my annoyance. Sitting in on the first session of the day. Sort of mostly what I expected so far, which is kind of sad. But did pick up a great idea from an earlier session. Back into the trenches, more to come.

Vacation~

Gone for a week, will likely have to save up writing and post it in chunks when I manage to sneak access or all when I return, but will still get the writing done.

- The Management

Breaking Form

Session talking about tagging in Flickr ended a bit early and after a nigh-unto epic struggle with the WiFi, I figured I should take a chance to blog about the conference at least a little. I was originally going to head back into the Blogtropol lounge, but it was rather packed to the gills. Quite please to see that they have Pandora set up and playing for the background music. They also have Wii bowling going, which is amusing.

The expo floor is rather amazing. The sheer variety of strange services is likely going to have me in phone calls for the next month chasing down things that might be worth following up on. Assuming I can fit all of the paperwork back into my luggage.

Major points of interest: how to use social data, visuals are awesome, and give them a reason to come back. There are certainly some new pieces of the puzzle to start considering when I get back to the office. Since it wasn’t complicated enough already. Also? You need a LOT of WiFi to go around at something like this, because when you get enough people in here all trying to use it, things do not work so well.

San Francisco has been much friendlier today. Weather has cleared up nicely and I managed to sneak in a little wandering this morning on my here. Of course, the store I stopped in at with the ten dollar dvd’s was not helpful. I really didn’t need more things to fit into my bag for the trip home.

Oops, looks like it is time for another session, will perhaps add more later.

Continued:

Currently hearing about WeeMee avatars. Was hoping to hear more about Avatars in general instead of a lot about a specific type of avatar.

Check out the Instructables site if you have a little free time. I think it may become a new place that absorbs some of my time. The crafter in me is drooling. Not only that, but these people are awesome and have been laster etching electronics for free!

Tribal Style Angel Wings on the back of my Laptop.

Also have my DS etched with the Cult of Ecstasy symbol (Mage: The Ascension stuff)

I wish I had more electronics to etch.