[It was a different kind of week, so this is a different kind of blog entry: a conversation between Jon and Amy.]
Jon: Wow, week 30. Can you believe that?
Amy: No, I can’t. Are you sure you’re counting right?
Jon: I have a blog to prove it. Ok so, if we do this conversation thing, I think it would be easier to read if we have different colors. What color do you want?
Amy: Blue.
Jon: I wanted blue, but ok. I’ll be green. So last week was a short week at Lakehills TX. Quiet place. I liked it.
Amy: Yeah after being in several cities, it was great to get back out in the open. Our campground was a nice spread of 260 acres right next to this lake:
Jon: Nice lake.
Amy: For the last two years Texas has been experiencing a drought. This “lake” is also controlled by farmers for irrigation purposes. It made for an interesting walk.
Jon: Oh right, the point of the walk that morning was to see some deer. Good thing we saw some on the way back. That was a real crowd-pleaser.
Amy: Yeah my reputation was on the line having promised that we’d see lots of deer if you all came on a morning walk with me.
Jon: By the way, it totally cracks me up when you refer to us as “you all” and especially “you people”…that’s how I know when you’re frustrated. 🙂
Amy: You’ve got the signals down.
Jon: So yeah, fun quiet place, but I was eager to get to Austin for SXSW. When did we leave? Wednesday?
Amy: Thursday.
Jon: Right, because Thursday was registration, and sessions started on Friday.
Amy: For me it was fun to see the place that you talked about so much after last year.
Jon: I like this photo you took of the girls with me, but you really need to clean your iPhone lens.
Amy: Sorry.
Jon: Ugh…the rain. It rained and rained and rained and rained. We had not seen rain for MONTHS and the one week I actually need to leave the RV, it rains.
Amy: Remember that “lake”?…the Texans were glad to see that stuff.
Jon: It was really nice to see Josh and have him over for dinner. Everyone, that’s Josh…we work together, and he too was in town for SXSW.
Amy: Yeah it was really fun to have a dinner guest from “back home.”
Jon: This was one of the many sessions I was in. I just wanted to capture some random experiences throughout the week so I could show you a little bit what SXSW is like.
Amy: All I got to see was the traffic on the outside when I dropped you off!
Jon: This was the tumbleweed house guy I was telling you about:
Jon: He designs and sells plans for houses that are between 100 and 800 square feet. Thought you’d like that.
Amy: I’d love that. I’ve enjoyed our smaller, simpler space and am having hard time imagining going back to a normal house.
Jon: This is just some of the hustle and bustle of SXSW.
Jon: So when did you go to the LBJ library??
Amy: That was Saturday afternoon. It was a small museum that we could catch before picking up my mom and dad from the airport.
Jon: So was this all his stuff from his oval office?
Amy: I believe so. We watched a Troy McClure video about LBJ and all the events of his presidency. It was really good and very interesting because it tied in to all that Cold War stuff that we’ve been seeing. And we really liked Lady Bird Johnson…she reminded us of my grandmother.
Jon: I wish I could have seen that, mostly due to the Cold War tie that you mentioned.
Amy: So we made it to the airport early because Emily wanted to watch the planes. But with low cloud cover and security, she didn’t get to see a single plane. But we were all very happy to see my mom and dad!
Jon: I’ll second that.
Jon: This is from that Lytro session I was telling you about.
Amy: Oh yeah, I heard about that on NPR, about that new type of camera that uses light waves to capture the image?
Jon: Light fields. Basically, instead of focusing and taking a photo like you do with a normal camera, this captures a whole mess of “light data” that lets you focus on whatever you want after you’ve taken the photo. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was funny to see all the other photographer enthusiasts completely geeking out over it.
Jon: This was from another session about business, and figuring out what you’re supposed to be doing, and I found this Venn diagram particularly meaningful. I think I’ve been in just about every part of that diagram, wouldn’t you say? 😉
Amy: I’m afraid so.
Jon: Glad the sun finally came out on Sunday.
Jon: I stopped in where all the new games were being featured early in the week. Think we could fit something like this in the RV? It was quite cool.
Amy: uh…no. Another reason I like my small space.
Jon: I wanted to make sure I got a shot of our camping spot.
Amy: I loved that we were only a mile and a half from downtown and a quarter of a mile from a very cool running trail.
Jon: I LOVED riding my bike around Austin once the weather cleared.
Amy: First time I’ve heard you say you liked your bike.
Jon: Well, I still regret bringing those darned bikes, but it was the ideal vehicle for this past week, that’s for sure.
Jon: One of my favorite sessions: Adobe demoing their new Edge app (for animation) and unveiling a not-yet-released app, Shadow (for mobile web developers). I love feeling like I’m at the center of the tech universe for a week and being the first to see this stuff.
Jon: Ray Kurzweil: amazing scientist, inventor and futurist. Pretty much all of his tech predictions have come true over the last 30 years. He predicts sentient computers by 2029.
Jon: Al Gore and Sean Parker were great.
Amy: How so?
Jon: Sean Parker was the co-founder of Napster, so he’s sort of internet-famous for bringing down the music industry (he was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network), and I guess I just had low expectations of Al Gore. I’ve only known him as the rather wooden politician. But he was engaging and just…real. Changed my opinion of him.
Here’s lunch with Josh at Iron Works BBQ:
Jon: So where was this?
Amy: It was near the RV park. Austin has great green spaces. The whole city feels great.
Jon: And then we ended our time in Austin with the bats, which apparently are quite the tourist attraction.
Amy: It’s amazing: an urban colony of millions of Mexican bats living under a bridge.
Jon: And around 7:30 pm, they leave the bridge en masse. They eat 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of bugs per night. Yum.
Amy: They were really fun to watch.
Jon: Agreed. It was a great time in Austin. Looking forward to next year.
Amy: Should we bring the RV again?
Jon: Definitely. I LOVED having my family here with me this year. It was exotic tech stuff by day, comforts of home by night. Loved it.