Well, I  finally did it. I had my Austin debut, playing with the Blues Specialists (warning: sound) at the Continental Club. It was one song that went by in a blur. I think it went ok. I didn't pass out or throw up or anything like that. So I'll have to try it again, and when I do, I'll give you all some advance notice.

ArmadilloCon is coming up next month, August 15 - 17. John Scalzi, who I'm a fan of, is going to be the guest of honor. Anyone got any interest in going with me?

I've successfully made it through another SXSW Interactive.

I've been to a couple of these now, and they've both been pretty interesting, even if I'm not the target for the conference. The main target seems to be designers and small web companies doing web programming. There's not a lot of panels geared towards programmers who work in large companies or on big, complicated business applications. But, that doesn't mean I can't learn anything.

I saw several good talks over the last few days. A few of the subjects: AJAX and Flash mistakes, scalability issues, Sci-Fi's influence on UI design, wireframing, and client side code and internationalization. That last one (client side code and I18N) was really informative. Google has thought a <b>lot</b> about I18N, and it showed in this presentation. I learned a few new things there and got even more daunted by how hard it is to get I18N really right.

And it wasn't all talks. We wandered through the Screenburn arcade to look at some of the games and saw some interesting sights.

Sadly, though, it's come to a close, and now I have to go back to work tomorrow.

The Blanton Museum's grand opening is this weekend, and Pong and DJ Jennifer of KOOP's Ear Candy are playing at it. How cool is that?

At work lately my days don't really count as productive unless I touch every jsp file and every action class in the project.

Solo classical recordings where you can hear the artist breathing are a little creepy and disconcerting.

Google calendar has arrived. I think this may be a good way for me to keep track of shows I want to go see. If you think I should let you in on what I'm thinking of seeing and want to see my calendar, let me know.

Saturday we went to see Glass Eye at Room 710. Brian Beattie was first on the bill with his two man thing, the Brian Beattie Show. Also playing was Cat Scientist.

I was incredibly excited about this show, and Glass Eye didn't disappoint. These guys are my favorite local band. I can't even remember which of my friends introduced me to them back in 86, but it was probably Steve O. Over the next couple of years, I tried to catch them as often as possible. Man, those shows of theirs at Liberty Lunch are some of my favorite college memories. So you can maybe get some idea why I keep blathering about being excited about their new album here all the time.

When we got to the 710, we found out that they'd had some recent issues with the TABC, so they weren't serving alcohol that night. So, we headed off to the Sidebar for a beer. We got back in time to catch the last half of the Brian Beattie Show's short set. Up next was Cat Scientist. I'd heard good things about these guys. These things were justified. They're in that same power pop vein as Pong. They've got a really funky bass player and nice harmony vocals. There was lots of bouncing for their set.

And then, Glass Eye. They came on around 12:30-12:45ish. We left around 2:15 as they were coming on for their encore. It was a great set. I got to hear some of my favorite Glass Eye songs such as Christine, Parking Space, and Dempsey Nash as well as a bunch of stuff off the new album. Everyone was bouncing and having a good time. At one point, Lyman from Pong and some friends of his had a good natured mosh pit going in front of me. It was a great show. For me, some of the enjoyment was the nostalgia of seeing a band that I haven't seen play in something like 18 years. But on top of that, they still rock. And it was obvious that they were having a good time up on stage playing. If you've never seen them, you really should go out and catch them. Really.

So work has paid for me to go to SXSW interactive. I was downtown walking to the convention center to pick up my badge on this gorgeous spring day, and it really hit me that I love this town.