Townlake Trails

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Say an email today from my local WebMoPac group. WebMoPac is an Austin mail list for folks in the Web Development and/or Design realm. Anyway this email was for help on the site redesign for the Townlake Trail websites. How cool would that be to help out some local institution? Sondra and I use the trail very frequently.

The sites include the main donation page, http://www.townlaketrail.org and a special project site http://www.moonlightmargaritarun.com/index.htm. The work on the main site is just to help setup PayPal link. The special project site will be to help runners register for a promotional run to raise money for a bathroom facility on the trail.

I’m doing the work for free since Sondra and I use the trail. Kind of a trade for labor. Thanks to Dan Garrison for the opportunity to work on this.

SXSW Interactive, Here I come~

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This is my year. I just won a ticket to attend SXSW Interactive from the team at WestCiv.

I just happened to be online checking my email when I received — “We have an extra ticket to SXSW Interactive. First one to reply to this email get it!”. Gee, just how fast can I respond? Thought for sure this was either an older email or SPAM. It was neither. A few minutes after my reponse I received an email configuration from Maxine Sherrin (Yes the one and only) that I had in fact won the ticket.

The only problem I had was getting time off for the 4 days. Since I had started a new job and had just taken a 7-day cruise with Sondra it was a delicate situation. Then again we are downtown just 3-4 blocks from the convention center building. I could walk over and back a few times a day even.

Survived ACL Festival ’04

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Well Sondra and I and her friend Paula made it through the 3-day ACL Festival. I took off Monday (Vacation day) to recover. We all have varied comments about the crowds, heat and schedule conflicts. But the one common thing that really annoys the three of us was that it seemed everyone was just standing around either talking on their cell phone or talking to each other in groups. Now these were mostly college age persons.

Now I don’t really want to sound like an old fart. But when did this become a social occasion instead of about the music? I mean, as the band played on the crowd just collectively got louder and louder.

So on the third day we decided just to not try and get close to the stage but hang out and people watch. Still we were able to hear the music. Just didn’t have to worry about trying to listen among crowd. Then when that set was over and it was time to move t a new stage for the next artist we didn’t have to fight the crowd.

Austin City Limits Festival and Doom 3

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Well today is Friday…No really. Oh, I know it really is Thursday. But it’s my Friday. Sondra and I will be spending the next 3 days at Zilker park here in Austin attending the 3rd annual Austin City Limit music festival. It keeps getting better and better every year. Though the heat will be upon us, predictions in the 95-99 degree range, we will have plenty of water, beer and music to keep us company.

ACL Festical

Besides looking forward to this weekend I bought Doom 3 a few weeks ago and have been playing it when I can. For me this is one of those ‘have to buy’ items. I was just finding my direction back in the early 1990’s when the original doom came out. Though I was a big fan of some other games and Wildenstein as well. Doom really defined the 1st-person shooter in my opinion. So much so that I also purchased Doom II and Final Doom over the years. The later was kind of the end of an era for me. I never really got into the Duke Nukkem and Quake games for some reason. Probably because they were the newer version of the original.

So after many years of waiting the guys at ID software finally released Doom 3. What a game. Though it takes quite the high-end system to play, it is so much like the original in the design and the monsters. The best mindless entertainment in my current opinion.

Not really trying to come off like a big time gamer here. I’m also waiting for Half-Life 2 next month (or is it this month?). I played the HL series last summer and enjoyed it. Though the graphics were somewhat crude. I know it’s an older game that I finally purchased (off a sale rack) and played. Knowing a little about the history of the game I look forward to the updates graphics story line…as well as the weapons and monster.