I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Usually mine tend to go by really slow, but this particular weekend seemed very long - probably because I was so busy. I managed to:
* Packaged and mailed 3 origami jar orders
* Went grocery shopping
* Made my dad a cake and made/froze my breakfast burritos for the week
* Designed and ordered my Moo cards
* Burned movies (watched a few, too)
* Bought Easter cards, wrote letters to family
* Moved all my stuff into storage
* Bought domain/hosting plan for Ephesus
* Completed finishing touches on portfolio, blogged
Yes, you read that right... my portfolio is finally finished (or as close as it will get at this point). From here on out, it will be a continuous process of updating and blogging. While I was at SXSW, a large emphasis was placed on having updated and fresh content, so I've been trying to update once every few days, although eventually I would like it to become daily. I'm not sure what what will become of this Vox blog... it seems I have fallen away from personal blogging in the last year or so. That makes me sad, but I don't want blogging to become a chore, something I feel like I need to do. I'll still be hanging around, but I'm going to quit making promises of updating more often. Perhaps I'll resume more regularly when the time is right. :)
Everyone I know told me I would have an amazing time at SXSW, and they were 100% right. I'm completely exhausted, but it was all worth it - I learned a lot, was inspired, and best of all, met a lot of great people.
I won't do my usually play-by-play of each day, but instead touch on a few highlights of the trip.
Austin
I
loved this city. The first couple of days were rainy and cold (which
was unfortunate, as I packed for what I thought would be Texan
weather), but it warmed up after a few days and the sun finally showed
itself. I loved walking around downtown and checking out 6th street. I couldn't believe how populated that street got at night (most likely due to SXSW)
- all the side streets were closed down and the streets were filled
with people. The whole downtown area was beautiful and very clean... It
reminded me ofLoDo in downtown Denver. I would definitely go back to visit even if it weren't for SXSW.
I also got to check out a nice little area outside of downtown on South Congress street. I think this is what is considered "Old Austin" as there were lots of dated buildings from the 1920's and cute little coffee shops and restaurants. I met my friend Henriette for a delicious breakfast of ginger pancakes and a bit of shopping on my last day here. Very cool area.
Panels
Most of the panels I went to were very enjoyable. My favorite one was Paul Annett's "Oooh, That's Clever: Unnatural Experiments in Web Design,"
which was essentially about going the extra mile on your website and
doing things that most users probably won't notice. However, the ones
who do notice will hopefully think more highly of your brand or tell
their friends, thus increasing brand awareness. All of the examples he
presented were fun to see and his entire panel was very inspiring to me.
I also really enjoyed Gary Vaynerchuk's "Turning Wine Into Gold" panel. For those who aren't familiar with Gary, he's a very successful video blogger who videoblogs daily about wine on his website, Wine Library TV . His panel was more Q&A, but I thought the advice he gave on entrepreneurship and life in general was great and extremely motivating.
There were many more great panels that I attended, but these were the two that stood out in my mind. Most panels have a podcast version for those interested.
Diggnation
Aside from standing in the cold for 6 hours, I had a fantastic time at the live Diggnation.
I arrived in line about 2 1/2 hours early, and I'm glad I did because
the line ended up wrapping around 2 or so blocks, and once I was
inside, I got a pretty good spot to stand and watch the fun. Thepre-show was done by Brian Bushwood
from Scam School and was very entertaining (if not slightly
disturbing). The live show itself was great - I was laughing almost the
entire time. Although after watching the live episode again on
Revision3, I think it was definitely more funny if you were there. The
crowd was huuuuuge, which only added to the energy of the show.
Afterward,
Kevin and Alex hung around for autographs and photos, which I of course
took full advantage of. I also got to meet Hippie Glenn (he was so
nice!), Jeff and Danny from Totally Rad Show, Andrew Bancroft from The Digg Reel, Brian Brushwood from Scam School, and Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg. It was a really amazing night, which ended perfectly by me running into BJ Novak from The Office in line for one of the clubs. Awesome!
Parties
I have to admit, I did not take full advantage of the party scene while I was at SXSW. Having gone down there alone and being as socially awkward as I am, I found it hard to show up at parties by myself and hope that someone would talk to me. I did try as much as I could to be sociable, which to others may have looked lame, but it was a big step for me. Whether it was striking up a conversation with the taxi driver or talking to the couple behind me atDiggnation , I think I did very well for my first time. However, while I was there I saw how important it was making contacts and getting to know others in your industry, so I will be making more attempts in the future to become less socially awkward and meet new people. Any tips from my more sociable readers would be appreciated!
Despite my shyness, I did manage to make a few great friends towards the end and ended up spending my lunches with them, as well as my last night there at the interactive closing party. It was a great time and I really hope I get the chance to see them again next year.
People
As I mentioned, I was able to
meet some awesome people while I was there. On the plane to Austin I
ended up sitting next to two people who were also attendingSXSWi (SXSW
Interactive). My first instinct was to not say anything or interrupt
their conversation, but as I was attempting to be more social, I
interrupted them both to confirm they were both going for Interactive,
and we all three ended up chatting the entire plane ride. It turns out
one of them,Vijay, works for CSU's rival university, CU. Nicole was a
social media marketer from Silicon Valley who was also very nice, and I
ended up running into her on random occasions - she even invited me for
lunch with her and her brother on our first day there.
I also met a really nice guy at a panel named Dave, who I ended up following on Twitter. From him I met Henriette (because we both had a soda alias) whom I spent a lot of time with towards the end of mySXSW experience. And from her, I met a few more people from Denmark who were all extremely fun to be around. Now I'll have an excuse to visit Copenhagen one day.
Things I would do different
First of all, the
money I thought I would save by staying in a hotel farther away from
downtown was probably all spent on the taxi rides to/from the downtown
area. It would most likely have been better to have just sucked it up
and got a slightly more expensive hotel within walking distance to the
convention center - at least that way I could have gone back during my
downtime. This would also alleviate the need to carry everything I need
for the entire day.
Secondly, I need to get some non-business business cards that include my name (with accompanying photo), email, twitter account, website, blog, phone, etc. I saw a lot of them being handed out and I thought it was really clever, as pen and paper are from the dark ages. In addition, you may not want to be affiliated with your company - I don't mean this in a bad way, as I love Burns Marketing, but I believe my personal "brand" is defined differently than it is with Burns, and anything I say or do (Twitter or blog-wise) shouldn't necessarily be reflected as that of Burns. All this aside, I believe you can get a really cheap (and cute) set done at Moo. I will definitely be doing this next year, or maybe even before then.
Third, bring snacks. There weren't many places to buy snack foods near the convention center, and everything that was sold in the convention center was really expensive, so I often went hungry until late when I finally got around to meeting people for dinner.
Fourth, if you're social awkward like me, bring a friend. If that is not an option, practice your conversational skills beforehand, and have your business cards ready!
I stole this from Mallory... :)
Apparently the BBC reckons that most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
Copy and paste - put an X next to the ones you have read.
I've read 23, which is roughly 25%. Not too bad considering I read about 12 of them in the last year alone. Hopefully I'll get some more read this year. :)
1. (x) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. (x) The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. ( ) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. (x) Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. (x) To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. ( ) The Bible
7. ( ) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. ( ) Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. (x) His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. ( ) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. ( ) Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. ( ) Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. ( ) Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. ( ) Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. ( ) Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. (x) The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. ( ) Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. (x) Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. (x) The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. ( ) Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. ( ) Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. ( ) The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. ( ) Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. ( ) War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. ( ) The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. ( ) Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. ( ) Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. ( ) Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. ( ) Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. ( ) The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. ( ) Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. ( ) David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. (x) Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. ( ) Emma - Jane Austen
35. ( ) Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. (x) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. (x) The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. ( ) Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. (x) Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. ( ) Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. (x) Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. (x) The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. ( ) One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. ( ) A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. ( ) The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. ( ) Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. ( ) Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. (x) The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. ( ) Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. (x) Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. (x) Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. ( ) Dune - Frank Herbert
53. ( ) Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. ( ) Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. ( ) A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. ( ) The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. ( ) A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. ( ) Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. (x) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. (x) Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. (x) Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. ( ) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. ( ) The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. (x) The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. ( ) Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. ( ) On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. ( ) Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. (x) Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. ( ) Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. ( ) Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. ( ) Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. ( ) Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. ( ) The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. ( ) Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. ( ) Ulysses - James Joyce
76. ( ) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. ( ) Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. ( ) Germinal - Emile Zola
79. ( ) Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. ( ) Possession - AS Byatt
81. ( ) A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. ( ) Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. ( ) The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. ( ) The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. ( ) Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. ( ) A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. ( ) Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. ( ) The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. ( ) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. ( ) The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. ( ) Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. ( ) The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint
93. ( ) The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. ( ) Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. ( ) A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. ( ) A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. ( ) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. (x) Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. ( ) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100.( ) Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
As part of my New Years resolutions to become greener, I vowed to start using reusable shopping bags. When I was in Vegas visiting my sister last month I mentioned that I was still looking for some cute bags, so we set off on a mission to find some. We did end up finding some decent ones at Whole Foods, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.
The same day I had also mentioned to my sister that "What up, bitches" had sort of become my catchphrase of the week (Anyone who has watched "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" will understand this), and so it was a wonderful surprise when we came across this bag that same day:
It was really pricey for a bag, but I had to have it. It's part of the "Angry Little Girls" line, which has some other hilariously funny bags. When I took it to the natural grocers last week (for my Greek yogurt, I cannot find it anywhere else, hmph), the woman checking me out went nuts over it and starting showing the other employees. I had initially been carrying it with the outside facing me so as not to offend anyone, but apparently everyone there got the joke. I still haven't shown my bag to my mom though... not sure she would approve, heh.
