Tuesday, February 19, 2008

long overdue update

It's been slow bloggin' 'round these parts not for lack of activity or worthy news (which you know has never stopped me before) but because I've been overwhelmed. It's been a tough few weeks what with family stuff, and lots of work, and a busy schedule and whatnot. I wanted to write but nothing came to me. Nothing that I could write about that wouldn't affect someone else and that I wouldn't have to explain later. So you see, it was easier this way.

For those of you who've been curious, things in Seattle went well. I'm so proud of my mom. It was great to see my little brother, and Hav was a god-send. What the four of us accomplished in a few days is nothing short of miraculous.

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This may just be my last year at SXSW. It'll be my 9th. As Hav said yesterday, "it'd be nice to stop things at nice round number like 10, but this may be all I can take." (And because I see meaning in a sack of flour, I couldn't resist the metaphor extending to our relationship.) He's right though - the whole wristband thing is threatening to push me over the edge too. The gist is this:

A lottery is being held for 4,000 wristbands at $139 each. Basically, if you have a credit card w/ an Austin billing address you can enter the drawing, but you can only purchase for yourself and one other NAMED person. If your name is selected, your credit card is charged for the wristbands. You have to pick up yours in person and oh yeah, they're non-refundable, and NON-TRANSFERABLE.

The SXSW Overlords say that this is to prevent scalpers from profiting, which is bullocks. Shit I'm probably jinxing myself because I'm obviously not pissed enough NOT to enter, but seriously -- was the black market really that much of a problem? For whom? Anyway, I'll be curious to know if the amount of badge sales dramatically increase. I'm sure it'd just be an "unintended" byproduct of their oligarchical benevolence.

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Hav's parents just had their 60th!!! anniversary. I jokingly told them that there's no way I'll ever catch them since I'd have to like start tomorrow and live to a pretty ripe age to even be a threat.

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Picked up a book at the airport this morning - Yes Man by Danny Wallace. It's a kind of Eat, Pray, Love for dudes since it's written by one, except chicks will like it, except it's one of those things like Eat, Pray, Love which transcends genders/sexes/whatever. I'll stop trying to put it into a box it doesn't belong in and just say that I couldn't stop reading. It's one man's story of what happens when he, you guessed it -- says YES for almost a year. Hi jinx ensue, of course. More importantly it illustrates what happens when we open to possibility. I finished it tonight which is the only way I'm up typing now -- I can't stop thinking about its application in my own life.

And with that, good night.

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