sxsw - day 02

day 2 here at south-by. much better. incredibly better. the panels are really working for me here. first one at 10am: writing, better. great tips, advice, general knowledge on what one can do to just write better. i really felt like i got something from this panel.

next up: after the brief. another really informative panel. there is a lot i need to do to improve getting inspiration. some great tips here.

then it was a good long lunch with the mouse and the bug. it was awesome. katz's had some really great food today (not that their food is horrible on other days, just was really good today - maybe it was the company). the poor bug might be coming down with something, but the mouse is the best woman for the task of taking care of her. i'm having a great time, but i sho'miss 'em.

after lunch it was back to panels: mark boulton and khoi vinh talking about grids. i struggle with grids. grids are hard for me to figure out. i think i got it figured out - at least enough to actually work with them to figure them out. just another great panel. no ill-will towards friday's panels, but there was clearly a reason they were on the registration day.

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uhad is spreading the peace with every passing hour. the buttons are really serving well in meeting new people. not to say i wouldn't have tried to shake the hands of these people without some bribery, but a little token of gratitude is a great ice breaker. so, here's a list of the lucky winners of a uhad button so far, today:
kevin cornell (aka: bearskinrug)
shaun inman
jeffrey zeldman
greg storey
derrick featherstone
ethan marcotte
jeff croft
jason santa maria
dan rubin
rob weychert
josh williams
mark boulton

don't worry, i gotz lotz. just try to find me. it is really great to put faces to a lot of these websites that i visit so frequently. makes me want to get off me arse and finish mine.

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just met sean maggard. walked right up to, quite randomly, and started a conversation. it was great. i'm a nobody, so having anyone just come up to me out of the blue to just talk was really cool. thanks, sean! a button to you!

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went to the frog design hosted opening party. incredibly boring. the music was ok, and despite the free booze, i opted for water (was actually thirsty). then it was over to the buzzfeed/ze frank shin-dig. after a ridiculously long time, ze finally took the mic and comedy gold poured out of his mouth. of course, airlines are always a good source of hilarity for ze. and all i had was a button to give in thanks. pics to come.

while in line for the ze thing, i met three guys from dc (the capitol, not the comic books) who do stuff for the army. chris clarke, eamonn bourke and daniel drinkard (kick-ass last name, drinkard). good conversation all around. my house would be like 500k in dc. buttons were, of course, served fresh. on the way back to the parking garage, i ran into marc katz (of katz's deli & bar - 6th and rio grande). gave him a button. kewl guy, katz.