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I finally saw the Facebook movie (The Social Network (which I only type so that way when I try to find this post 5 years from now, a search for "The Social Network" will show up in Google)) tonight. It didn't quite live up to my, admittedly very high, expectations, but I'd still recommend it. I love Aaron Sorkin, and the West Wing, which he wrote, is still probably my favorite TV show (and by far the best drama, most drama's are terrible!). I also really like it when a writer goes to the basic trouble of doing a little research to get the technical aspects correct. In the beginning of the movie they show Mark using wget, emacs, and perl to grab photos off websites, which is exactly how you would do that. The only other movie that I can think off the top of my head that actually goes to the trouble of getting the tech right is Antitrust, which was a pretty terrible movie that was vaguely about Microsoft.
It is amazing to think that the #1 movie in America this weekend was about a website, and how ingrained it is in our national culture now. I'm still not 100% convinced it'll last (I remember when EVERYONE was on AIM all the time. Now I have 2 people online on my buddy list). Myspace was always doomed from the start with that horrible horrible design that NO ONE liked, and who live journal's anymore? Actually who even really blogs anymore? I mean random "My dog ate his poo today" blogging?? I don't even do that anymore. I never did do a live journal, but that, THAT, is blogging. The blogs that pass for today are just topic specific news sites written by one person (or heck, even teams of people in some cases) where you're allowed to state some opinion on the matter instead of being cut and dry. Blogging today is Facebook status updates and 140 character tweets (which for all practical purposes, and in actually is, the exact same thing).
Completely unrelated, I often wonder how many trees die to send me junk mail.
This year has been challenging on many levels, but also very rewarding on so many more. I felt like life has been on pause, not in the sense that days seem to take forever. Quite the opposite actually, I can't believe it's October already. But maybe that it does seem to have gone by so fast that it's almost completely passed me by, so that I don't really remember doing the things I remember I did. That's why I'm going to try to update this more, just on my own personal level. Though we'll see how long that continues to happen, as the track record isn't very good.
Obstacle #1 will be that ACL Fest starts up tomorrow. And yes, once again I"ll be heading out there for 3 music-filled days in Zilker park. This year might actually be the best weather wise, since the highs are the mid-80's and it's supposed to be sunny. This compared to last year where it rained all day Saturday, which turned the entire park into a giant pit of mud. It's still got some fun memories, but it is pretty nice to be able to sit down at some point in an 8 hour music day.
The line-up though is a little weak, I mean the Eagles are the headliners. The Eagles! Who the heck listens to the Eagles anymore?? I'm convinced that all music (and really most culture) from the 70's is terrible, so I am a bit biased against them. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Muse, Spoon, Broken Bells, The xx, Cage the Elephant, and quite a few more.
The unfortunate thing is though that Kara had to take a last minute trip to LA to help her sister's business, so she won't be going this year after all. Which is sad, since I've been telling her about it the last 2 years. We live literally about a 10 minute walk from Zilker, so it's crazy not to go if you're in Austin.
Obstacle #2 is going to be work, as we're preparing for the launch of a brand new chip family called Kinetis. It's not even launched yet, but it's already gotten a LOT of attention from the field. But work is really fun right now, and I actually just got a new boss. Not new new actually, since he used to be a co-worker who got promoted. I have no interest in managing though, I can't imagine a day where I don't get to debug something or write some code, or figure out some technical issue.
Also I found out National Coming Out day is October 11th, so that's exciting. I still know some people who are in the closet, which I wish didn't still have to happen.
Also Thrill The World is October 23rd! I'll be doing this for the 3rd year in a row as well. Everyone participating across the world does Michael Jackon's Thriller dance at the same time, with most of the people in costume as zombies, or MJ, or MJ Zombies. Good times are had by all!
Today is National Coming Out Day, which was created to encourage those still in the closet to come out and live a free life. It's still depressing that it's 2010 and we've got candidates for Governor saying that he doesn't want people "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option". And this only days after 9 men were arrested for assaulting 3 men they suspected as being gay and the recent string of gay suicides.
I'm still confident that eventually LBGT's will achieve equality, and the opinion polls continue to slide further and further towards love and respect. It's just a matter of time.
As I expected, ACL Fest took up pretty much my entire weekend which is why there weren't any updates. I ended up seeing a lot of great bands and having a lot of fun with friends, so it was quite the successful weekend. The highlight of the festival was a tie between Gogol Bordello and Matt and Kim. Both brought a ton of energy to the stage, and have a lot of really fun songs.
I really liked Matt and Kim's set because they interacted with the audience between the songs. If I just wanted to hear a band crank out songs one after another, I'd listen to the CD. I like knowing what some song is about, or what they think about Austin Tex-Mex.
The grass also held up really well this year. They re-sodded it 2 years ago, but last year it rained so much that it turned into one giant muddy pit. This year was gorgeous all 3 days, and there was hardly any dust in the air at all. Normally by the 3rd day everyone is coughing up black snot because of all the dust.
I didn't get up as close to the stages this year though as I did in years past. Partly because I wanted to see so many bands that I didn't get there early enough to get up front, but also partly because I just didn't feel like squeezing my way up there. I guess another mark of getting older. But not too old... I still was almost always close enough where I had to stand, so I wasn't one of the chair people in the back!
I also got to see Miike Snow (yes, two i's) up close and personal at an after party show Friday night downtown, which was cool. That was ridiculously packed though, I haven't been that squished at a concert in years. But of course That Guy (tm) (you know that guy, there's always a "that guy") just had to try shove his way through, until eventually he realizes that no, there actually is no more room.
I also tried Kirby Lane's sausage pancake on a stick. It was pretty good, but about 3 bites in I realized there was no way I could finish it. It was just too rich tasting. I do love though that all the food vendors at ACL are local businesses, and the Tiffwhich was amazing! It's two warm chocolate chip cookies with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream in the middle. I have no idea how bad it is for me, but I don't really care.
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