Archive for February, 2010

Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my clients, but this is my 12th year living here in Austin (yes, I realize I never get to be “from” here, always a transplant) and I’ve come to absolutely love this town, the people, the businesses… just everything.

Oh, I never would have believed I’d become one of those people until I actually lived here. There’s something about walking into a local business in Austin. It’s like nothing you can explain. San Francisco has it’s own vibe (I’ve been there and I think I’d totally live there if not here) – BUT – Austin definitely has it’s own drummer, folks This was driven home for me lately when I went to find a used clarinet for my son to start to learn to play on. We were referred to a little local shop, Play It Again Music, and the lady in there spent over an hour with us, showing my son what he needed to know. All for a little $200 used clarinet. If you’ve never been to a funky little Austin shop before, you must find one immediately *laughing*

So, when I see things like this video over at CNN, it makes me smile and it makes me pretty darn proud to be from this crazy little big city.  Many thanks to my long-time local client, Robert Grunnah over at Castle Hill Investments, for sending this link to me – check out their blog too.

For those of that live here, the fact that Austin is leading in this economic recovery is no big surprise. Oh, we felt it here, don’t get me wrong, but I think we didn’t feel it quite as bad as some other parts of the country.

Go, Austin, Go! And keep being weird… that’s why I stick around (even if I do tend to stick to my far far Northwest suburban area)

PS – I just saw an article from The Austin-American Statesman that Facebook is opening an Austin office. WooHoo!

This morning, I was supposed to attend the Social Media Breakfast with a friend and colleague. We left the house at 7am and managed to go 5 miles in 45 minutes. Yeah, we turned around. You see, Austin was getting sleet at that time. So traffic… yeah, it sucked and there was no way we’d get downtown.

So, we took our own little 2-person meeting and went to Kerby Lane, where we sat by a window and watched the flakes float down.

It was a memory I’ll never lose because the conversation was really good and let’s face it, how often does it snow here? Yeah… never.

I’m sure we missed a great presentation, but also made a connection and memory that will last… that seems more important (plus we didn’t have to try to get downtown in that snarled traffic mess!)

I live and own a business in Austin, TX. The fact that I’ve never attended SXSWi or even SXSW is pretty sad, eh? Well, this year I decided to remedy that and I’m going to SXSWi. All registered and confirmed and all that stuff.

It looks like a lot of fun too! Geek stuff galore. I’m a little nervous as I don’t know too many people there, but I know that Janica will be hanging around and, of course, the Linux Journal crew. I can always follow them around like a lost puppy until someone feels sorry for me One of my clients are presenting there as well, I look forward to seeing them in their element!

So, if you are going, let me know and we can hook up. I am sure this will change and I’m sure some of these things I have in here are lame, but these are the ones that caught my eye – my schedule is at http://my.sxsw.com/user/schedule/CandyTX

*squeal*

Yeah… I need to get over it. It’s even made me kick my designer guy in the butt to get my new business cards done. I’ve been lax in sending him what I need (sorry, Justin!)

If you’ve been there and have any tips or “not to be missed” sessions, please leave me a quick comment, would love to hear from those that have been before me