last night, after a bleary flight of infant hysteria and a creepy airplane neighbor ("hi, would you like a sandwich?"), boston and i reconnected. i'm safe and sound, still hating the mbta (aside: i thought it was hilarious that the renovated mbta website was nominated for css excellence at the sxsw web awards), and able to sleep again in my own bed.

today, grey and drizzle lull me to quiet moments while i kick around my suitcase with way too much austin swag.

i also got a haircut, which was very much overdue. you can see how long my wild tresses had ravaged in the previous post illustrating my taco experience. now i'm lean, mean, and ready to sweep my bangs a'gin.



some random notes from the crevices of my mind:

- there are too many sketchy ATMs in downtown austin. everywhere you look, there they are, those standalone machines with no-name banks and that do the bare minimum of dispensing crisp cash. as someone rightly put it, 'looking for an ATM? swing a dead cat, and you'll most likely hit one.'

- everytime i get tempted to buy a playstation2 (for the sole purpose of riffing to guitar hero) or the nintendo wii (for the sole purpose of battling millions of cutie-manic-pie rabbids) i think of all that money and time that could be better spent on live concerts, films, and books. therefore, i just need to make friends who'll let me hijack their consoles once in a while. (where are you people?)

- even though i was psyched to see a relatively diverse mix in attendance of sxsw interactive and film, some things still tended to bother me. first, many of the panels that dealt with design, engineering, or entrepreneurial motifs were predominantly (if not wholly) male. maybe it was just the combination of panels i attended, but from blog to book, design aesthetic of the indie developer, five tips to make your podcast listenable, and tv comedy of today were all male.

whereas females popped up on more social-oriented issues: all panelists of under 18: blogs, wikis, and online social networks for youth and do you blog on the first date? were women.

not to mention, aside from designer paula scher and journalist leslie savan), all the designers or experts interviewed in the helvetica film documentary were white males. i'm not out to go on some gendered rampage, but it's interesting to note the disparity.

- on that note, conference-goers were probably 80% caucasian. not like there's anything wrong with it... wait, what am i talking about? there's something seriously wrong with it. but i wont merely rant, as i know i can actually do something about it.

- crap! i missed meeting the ceo of zappos! probably lucky for him, since i dont know what i would have done. cried for joy and hugged his knees?

- i learned that texans live and breathe chili con queso. also, tasty migas. i think i need to go back to catch up on my huevos rancheros.

- not like this is breaking news, but the y-chromosome set is a peculiar one. however, i am deeply enjoying the illogics. it's reminds me that relinquishing control is a rightful, ongoing lesson. björk says it best in it's not up to you. vespertine is my soul soother, curling up into lush snowsound.

as always, i'm behind on the blogacious nature of photos and text published in a timely manner, but for now i can offer the tantalizing link to my full set of sxsw 2007 up on my flickr.

here's but a taste.