SX

its that time of year again. SXSW is here.

I am not going to be present for the music part with my trip to Panama but I did get to attend one of the SXSW Interactive parties last night which is basically the week before the music starts.

This week is for the tech industry so basically every tech guru descends on Austin for parties, networking etc. I was at a party yesterday with my friend who is in a start up company creating a smartphone app, and a balding, nerdy older man comes into their room to see about their product. Everyone perked up and started pitching him on their idea. Suddenly a dude comes in with a big pro camera and starts snapping photos of the conversation.

Of course I have no clue whats going on but I deduced that the goofy mathematician was someone of importance.

Turns out he is the guy responsible for the new iphone's artificial intelligence called Siri. His company basically created Siri and Apple snatched it up. When Steve Jobs was alive, he was one of the guys Jobs would pick up the phone to talk to. Big deal in the tech world. Apparently he creates and or buys awesome companies and sells them.

My friend's business partners were describing the product and my ballsy friend spoke up and said "you know this is going to sound crass but we are taking peoples emails to let them know when we roll this out... can we get yours"

He said sure and I wanted to start clapping for him. I'm sure everyone in that room was pretty stoked my buddy sacked up like that.

At one point of the night I gave my card to a guy and my buddy let me know that it was another big tech guy and that I made a good impression on him. I was glad he told me after the fact or I would have probably screwed that up.

That was my only experience with SXSW Interactive. But this city is alive with very very successful tech people this week. It keeps reminding me Im sitting on a great skillset and not doing enough to capitalize on it.

In other news... the cat has a new home. For now. Lets hope its going well. The funny part is the dude lives right across the street from me and I didnt know it. I walked over to his place and hung out with the cat while he went to the store to buy it litter and food. The trip to the new place took 30 seconds so not as traumatic as a long car ride in a tiny crate.

Last I heard he was tormenting her with a feather boa and she was loving it. Fingers crossed she doesn't get annoying to him.

But I feel free. No more worrying about getting home to feed the cat. No more ripped blinds, puke puddles, shit covered kitty litter and the rest.