like order…

I like schedules…

I like to do lists…

I had the afternoon off from work so I got started on my SXSW 2010 Game plan.

Where do we start?

1)Bands -  M has pasted the list of SXSW Showcasing Artists to a Google docs spreadsheet.  From there we download the torrent and begin rating the bands (somewhere along the lines of “sucks balls” to “I would give an organ to see that band”).  If there are too many in the “I want to see this so bad”  we make an attempt to check out more songs by the band to determine the new ranking.

From there I have been using the wretched my.SXSW feature to save the list of bands I am interested in checking out.  The only perk is that it exports to Google Calendar.  I can make sure that all this gets added to sched when the time comes.

2) Schedules- Now there are a few scheduling tools out there. The best one available so far is Sched.org.  Unfortunately they don’t have the 2010 schedule up right now.  In the interim there are a few tools/sites M and I are using to get a head start on RSVP’s and such.

(edited 2/27)I built a Google calendar to share which has all of the day parties that have been listed on Donewaiting.com/sxsw, Do512.com’s SXSW Edition,  and Austinist’s SXSW guide (M has also been cruising the Twitter).  If it is on the calendar, it means that M and I are RSVP’d and ready to go.  Right now the plan is to RSVP for everything and sort it all out later when sched is back.

So, I have started a letter writing campaign (on-line dating again).   This time, it is in the name of science.  A friend sent me a link to this blog entry by the super nerds that run the dating site (yes, they run stats on everything).  They were looking at how race effects reply rate (they have looked at a whole host of reasons why people may or may not respond to your message). The numbers generated this nicely colored chart.

The chart shows that:

Men don’t write black women back. Or rather, they write them back far less often than they should. Black women reply the most, yet get by far the fewest replies. Essentially every race—including other blacks—singles them out for the cold shoulder.

My first instinct was to delete my profile and end my Don Quixote type search.  But then I figured that I should keep on in the name of science.  It’s a lot like casting bottled messages out to sea.

I sent the dudes and email not to long ago asking if they have looked at the numbers by location.

Stay tuned.

SXSW dropped a big bag o’ Xmas cheer.  The 2010 Showcasing Band List.  Which means I get to start my research early this year (last year I barely scratched the surface).

Stay tuned little readers.  This weekend I will start the google docs spreadsheet.

Bands I look forward to so far…

Apostle of Hustle (Toronto ON)
Bomani Armah & Project Mayhem (Washington DC) - Read a Book!!
*Breakestra (Los Angeles CA)
*The Dollyrots (Los Angeles CA)
*The Ettes (Nashville TN)
*Fool’s Gold (Los Angeles CA)
Frightened Rabbit (Selkirk UK-SCOTLAND)
*HEARTSREVOLUTION (New York NY)
*The Hood Internet (Chicago IL)
We Are Scientists (New York NY)

DISCLAIMER: I would like to apologize for the use of “e-mon” on many of the the adjectives used in this post.  I am blaming M and 10hdg.  One word. Viral.  I am also skipping the spell and grammar checking.  Not enough time right now.  Maybe after SXSWi

So today we managed to have a nice sunshiney day to ride to the convention center on the bikes.  After the usual welcome to tech crew meeting, I headed back to the third floor.  For the most part things went ok.  Room 10 is still possessed by demons.    Room 8 has some mild visual problems but we were able to get by.

The afternoon sounded promising.  There was supposed to be a fake riot staged by the ARG panel in room 6.  We were also promised that the AVW guys would replace all of the sound equipment in 10.  Bad news: RIot was LAME!  Good news: NEW SOUND BOARD.  M and I took a break from the insanity to play with “rockets” in the hall (They were promotional darts by capstrat.  I may have to order some.)

At the end of the day, we cleared out the panel rooms.  I had a little trouble getting rid of the Brits in room 6.  I had to resort to an old stand by to get them out.  I told them that there was FREE BEER in the park accross the street and at several other venues.  They were a little confused so I had to spell it out.  There are companies that throw parties and they want people to have fun so they make the alcohol free.  If no one comes to drink the free beer it will go to waste.

After the Brits leave I meet up with M and the crew in the hall.  I explain the Brit thing and end up starting a new dance craze at the same time.  We head off to the Rails party to learn more about otherinbox (BTW. beer facilitates learning).   We hung out there and have not acquired enough food credits to offset the beer credits. You might say that we were dunk-e-mon. <social networking experiment> (more…)

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Originally uploaded by Limorama

M and I dorked out in the SXSW Trade Show today. We met the guys behind lostzombies.com. They had their very own, rented, not stolen, road sign in their booth.

We dropped a few nuggets of wisdom while we hung out. Places to rock climb. Good restaurants to check out in town (DO NOT go to the bbq joint closest to the Convention Center. Drive towards campus instead.)

In exchange for text twittering a pic of the sign they gave us t-shirts. We offered something better. M took out the BAC and got a few shots. I took the media card and made use of the card reader on the mini note (I know, we are dorks). Since then we have uploaded the photos to flickr, tweet pic’d, tweeted and re-tweeted in addition to this blog entry.

Go viral media.

So today the internet gave us this lovely present…

The song originally started as a joke but now the creator has offered up an iphone to the person that creates the best music video.  The contest deadline is well after the conference so you have time to capture and assemble your footage.

So I have listened to the song a few times now and read the lyrics.  Here is my advice to you nerd boys who are fortunate enough to stumble on my blog in time…

You gonna need it if ya wanna get some hot ass
Fuck the panels, there ain’t one girl ta talk to…

…So hold up, wait, let me tell ya dudes
For every one girl here, they be a hundred yous…

There are a few girls to chat with in the panels (depending on the panels) .  Most of the girls in the convention center are actually volunteers.  The perk to making friends with them is because they are locals and they know their way around town (and they have cars). The best way to find a large assemblage of women is to hang out near the restrooms at one of the parties.  Even though SXSWi is as sausage fest, there is ALWAYS a line for the ladies room.  If you really want to meet chicks, you should upgrade that badge that work paid for and stay for the music festival.  The weather is usually perfect for tank tops and showin’ some leg.

…back to that video.  I would like to see what The Lonely Island would do with this song.  My guess is there would be cross dressing involved.  Why you ask?  Do to the lack of girls involved with the conference it would be much easier to have a boy dress up as a girl.

I think there should be extra bonus points if the video involves a montage.

… makin’ lists and checkin’ them twice as much as we can in the next month

SXSW list making has begun.   M and I are trying to figure out which bands we want to see.  The spreadsheet plan worked well for F^3 Fest so we decided to do it again.  There are google documents with rating systems and an assortment of resource links (you knew that we were geeky).  Since the list is pretty big, we have enlisted the help of 10HDG and Super Kleen (send me an email if you would like to join in).

The plan right now is to give the bands a first rating. I’ve decided to treat this like online dating.  First impression means that they don’t seem like a complete douche and you would email or im them.  After that we will check where they fall in the  master schedule and figure out what we will actually see.  There are other things that factor into what shows we go to.  Venue and sound (can M see the stage and does the sound guy hate us?), crowds (usually at the headliner shows), genre and time (no nappy time music after 10pm, sorry Beach House).

Stay tuned kids.  I will post the highlights as I sift through the 1000+ plus bands.

So I have been thinking about buying a new laptop.  Something that I would carry around with me in the hopes of getting some real-time blogging in.  A friend of mine jgot the hp-mini for xmas.  It looks like a netbook I can handle.  Unlike the wafer thin mac.  I need electronics designed by playskool.

I read the Engaget article and I think I am sold on the HP Mini MI.  It runs on PENGUINS!

Engaget - HP Mini MI

Tonight I figured out how to check the back end stuff on the blog.  I still don’t understand a lot of it, but it does show some stuff that I could get.  It shows the referring websites to the blog, like where the viewer got the link from.  It not only lists search engines, but also other places where we are linked to.

I guess I knew all that was out there, but tonight I felt a little computer illiterate.  I think I’ll just have one of my friends whos good with the internets explain it to me some other time.

The one site that referred most people to the blog in the past few weeks was my twitter.  Weird.  And not just twitter in general, but my specific twitter.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I know who’s reading from there.  And I guess in writing this, I’m making a general announcement, a PSA if you will: I WIN!  Please do read from where ever and every where, this blog is good.  We have fun writing it, and we hope that you have fun reading it.  And please, if you ever feel like it shoot us a comment.  (Of course it’ll hafta be approved before posting, but please do.)

I love you guys! Thanks for reading!

As your webmaster, I feel that I have let you down. This site should get with the times and move into Web 2.0. You should know what music we are listening to, what we are reading on the internet, and maybe even things that we are twittering. My other sites have gone through many redesigns while this one sits stagnant. So, my promise to you readers is to overhaul the site before the next SXSW.

Stay tuned.
-Jen