Loyal readers of Nerd’s Eye View have probably noticed that things have been a little slow around here lately. There’s a reason for that — I’ve had a “job” for just under two months. With the brief exception of my trip to Texas for SxSW, I’ve been reporting for duty almost every morning at 9am and spending the better part of my day in an office where I could not see the sky.
This wasn’t working out so well.… continued…
A long time ago, a very, very long time ago, clams had feet. They could walk everywhere — just like everybody else. And they were kind of nosy and extremely curious. They were especially interested in humans. You’d be getting home from work and the clams, they’d be watching while you told your family about your day. You’d be brushing your teeth and if you looked down, a clam or two would be standing there, waiting to see what you’d do next.… continued…
After just a few days in Austin, I think I know what Texas is like. I’m probably wrong, but what the hell. Here’s my list of Texas generalizations:
- Texans are a boot wearing people, even when it’s warm there are guys wandering around with their jeans tucked into their boots. The gals seem more practical, going for the boots and miniskirt or boots and shorts look. Even that 60ish cross dresser I saw downtown, you know, the guy with the full facial hair, the cowboy hat, the tights, and the miniskirt, was wearing boots.
Morning: Up early, I caught the bus and went to join the crew of World Hum for breakast at Jo’s. The coffee at Jo’s was the best I’ve had in Austin so far — though admittedly, that’s not saying much, the bar is pretty low. Fortified on “migas” — tortilla scram, really — and other Texas style breakfast wonders, we walked back to the convention center for the conference. I spent the rest of the morning walking out of sessions until running into Matthew Cashmore from Lonely Planet — we chatted for a bit until I decided to try again to catch another session.… continued…
My Austin neighborhood is really lovely, the houses are a nice selection of brick and stucco, Spanish style with wrought iron features, arcaded entryways, complicated split windows and twisted pillars holding up balconies. Sprawling trees line the street and the trees are full of birds singing songs I do not recognize. Something sounds like a parrot, something else very owlish for the middle of the day, some third winged critter sounds exactly like the alarm clock birds of the Big Island who wake you up as soon as the sun pops over the horizon and stop singing promptly when they’ve been at it just long enough to be sure you are good and awake.… continued…
