Ahh, intentions. I’ve had plenty of good intentions in the past. Last weekend I had the good intention to keep up a daily blog of my trip to SXSWi 2008. Check my last post to see how that went. Oh, you’re back so soon? Yeah, that’s because I only did one day. One day! That’s pathetic. Clearly I was foolish to pit my blogging stamina against the awesome attention magnet that is SXSW. What with the daily panels and nightly parties it’s hard enough to stop for food. Forget sleep. Forget the home life you leave with the baby and all. I’ve swallowed the red pill (or was it blue?) and there’s no stopping now. I’ll have to reconstruct my experience from this pile at the bottom of my suitcase. Party invites, tattered receipts, piles of business cards, strange swag (Opera beer cozies?), twitter tweets, and this awkward tattoo will have to do.

Day Two

So to pick up where I left off, Day Two started off with an excellent panel from Jason and Rob on design critiques with clients. Good stuff, and some great tips on how to keep the meeting focused and not compromise on a weaker design for the sake of immediate gratification. Like, don’t let the client mix and match from different comps because that will usually make the end design weaker. And it’s funny when they make fun of each other.

Then I stayed in exactly the same spot for Magic in User Experiences with Jared Spool: Another highly satisfying presentation. But how could it not be when you’ve got mind reading and card tricks peppering your user experience philosophy? Spool illustrated how the most satisfying user experiences completely hide all the stuff that makes a site work that they don’t need to know about. Give your users something fun and they won’t notice that they’re doing anything particularly sophisticated or hard.

After that my memory gets a little fuzzy. Kathy Sierra made some excellent arguments about seducing your users by doing a good job of getting out of the way and letting them do what they want with your site or product. I’ll have to catch the podcast to remember what exactly those arguments were, tho.

Then it’s off to Data as Art. Pretty.

That night we enjoyed the open bar and a slightly rainy courtyard at the Lifehacker/Gawker party. I’m always happy to rub elbows with Gina, even if I have to also rub elbows with some weird furry. (Sorry, no pics of that guy. Let’s just say that when a dude walks in wearing a plush cowl, commotion follows. )

Day Three

After a late night we couldn’t get to any panels on time. So we joined some other designers for lunch. When we got back we hung out in the halls to talk shop with a bunch other site builders. While deep in a “Microsoft IE is ruining our lives” discussion I got to meet John Resig, who invitedus to a rad little party that Mozilla was throwing. They were having a contest where everyone proposed ridiculous Firefox plugins, and our own John Refano took one of the first prizes. Score! He walked away with a very sweet laptop bag and a mention in Resig’s blog. I was psyched to score one of the Screaming Monkeys floating flying around.

Then we headed over to the British Booze-Up at Shakespeare’s Pub. Total f-ing mad house. This would not have been a good night for the fire inspectors to show up, as the place was packed so full that you literally couldn’t walk across the room, and the cumulative body heat made the upstairs balcony stifling. It was so packed that it almost teetered over into being no fun, but then we ran into someone new to chat up and it was all good again. John and I were jazzed to meet the creative director of one of our favorite sites, last.fm, and talked to her about her company, work, and London (where Megan and I took our pre-baby vacation last April).

Then we were off to the Iron Cactus for a party thrown by a Drupal design company, Raincity Studios, along with some other Vancouver companies. This was where the geeks lost all control. Spring Break was almost over, most of us were heading out the next day, and it was the last chance to do some damage to your body and reputation. Folks were booty and break dancing in the pool of spilled alcohol. John got in there a bit, but typical sober me hung off to the side and took it in with the rest of the not-quite-sloshed. Christian Metts, in particular, and I were deep into a conversation on fatherhood in the midst of this nerd-debauchery. I’m pretty sure everyone was having the greatest time of the weekend.

Day Four

I’d love to say that it just got crazier from there, but I don’t think anyone was up for it. John and I had one panel we wanted to catch, and then the plan was to hang out with folks in the halls until it was time to head to the airport.

CMS Roundup was nice, if only to see all the Drupal love in the room. We still have a ways to go in converting SXSW into DrupalCon, but I talked to many people who either used or were evaluating Drupal, or needed folks who do use Drupal. And that’s good for us.

Then after we hooked up with Christian again for lunch, we came across a construction of Bloxes about to be torn down. I immediately lost 15 years of accumulated maturity and went into Godzilla mode. We all took the spare Bloxes and built up our cardboard Tokyo. I built out the tallest tower, and Christian made three connected towers. Then we all lined up, and it was time to bring it all crashing down. That was a pretty satisfying way to end SXSW.

1. Design is in the details: Naz Hamid showed off some great pieces, but I could’ve used more details about his design process. Not to be snarky. I think the audience was ready for a little more depth, even if it was the first presentation of the day.
2. Core Conversation - When your web company is getting BIG: This was a nice surprise. What was meant to be a small open conversation became a very large open conversation, but it remained helpful and orderly. About 30 of us had an organic open-ended discussion with a wide range of entrepreneurs about the challenges in running a web business. I gained a lot of insight on what might lay ahead for Canary, and so I should have no excuse to not hit 100 employees in 6 months. Wow. Even to joke about that number gives me a brain freeze.
3. Opening Remarks - Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson: This was a really nuanced discussion on tech and pop culture. Nerd that I am tho, I perked up when it turned to Harry Potter.
4. Ten things we learned at 37signals: Some great insights from the ever pithy and quotable Jason Fried.
5. Worst Website Ever: Hilarious. 7 pitches for terrible ideas for web sites. Ways to enable spammers, sell your self body and soul to shareholders, a social network for the casually ill. The clear winner was the opaque presentation Merlin Mann made for Flocked Up! If anyone can tell even partially what that site would do then they weren’t listening close enough.

After the day events we went out for food, and then walked (pretty far I might add) to the 16bit party. We get there at 10, precisely on time, and they’re already over capacity and we’re put in line with a few hundred others. If you didn’t see that SXSW was getting bigger and bigger then here’s the proof. We bail and hit our second party option, which was far more bichen I’m sure. It was a laptop battle thrown by Amoda, so John and I were in our element. We stayed for the first round, but to us there was already a clear winner. This underage kid destroyed the others. Check him out: http://www.myspace.com/themadisoneffect

We decided to leave in time to get some sleep, but just as we were pushing the door to exit we decide to try this interactive public cell phone game. It was part of the digital arts exhibition. You call in to a number and then guide your phone icon across the screen, and then wait for the light streams to accumulate and your power to grow before you hit 5 to explode… yeah, it’s impossible to describe, but ridiculously addictive. We had a blast getting into a high score battle with a few other players. gophoneplay.com

So then we came back for a little sleep. I got about 4.5 hours, but that’s about what I get at home with the baby so I’m good to go.

Off to day 2.

The nerd bacchanal is upon us yet again, and we’re throwing our pocket protectors to the wind and heading down to TX! What am I looking forward to? Well, the food’s alright, and there are some pretty good parties, I’ll get to see some very fine folks again, catch some great presentations, and maybe even get my mind cracked open again. And since we’re all about making sites with Drupal now we’ll be looking for like minded folks to discuss hook_menu and the finer points of block usability. Excelsior!

We’re bringing some crap to give away!

Last year I went to south by alone and had a great time, but I’m really psyched this year to bring along our designer John Refano, and some stickers. You heard right! Now your laptop won’t have to go naked anymore. These circular bits of colored and gluey awesomeness will stick to anything, be it your lappy, bumper, jean jacket, next to a unicorn in your ‘memories’ book, or even on your cat. It’s up to you! and all you have to do is say “Howdy” to one of us. It’s that easy!

Here are some likely spots to find us:

1. Design is in the Details
2. Filching Design: When the Shoe Fits
3. Rome, Sweet Rome: Ancient Lessons in Design
4. Sponsored Panel: Knowing the Audience: Improving Communication Between Artists and Fans
5. The Contextual Web
6. The Weird Turn Pro: Crowdsourcing For Creatives
7. Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Great Design Hurts
8. 10 Things We’ve Learned at 37signals
9. A General Theory of Creative Relativity
10. Social Marketing Strategies Metrics, Where Are They?
11. Social Network Coups: The Users are Revolting!
12. Worst Website Ever: That’s So Crazy, It Just Might Work
13. Everyone’s A Design Critic
14. Scope Creep and Other Villains
15. Social Design Strategies
16. Friend Me! Vote for Me! Donate Now!
17. Magic and Mental Models: Using Illusion to Simplify Designs
18. Logos: Why They’re Irrelevant and Can Actually Hurt Your Business
19. SXSW Clicks: Web Designers
20. Data as Art: Musical, Visual Web APIs
21. SEO 3.0: Optimizing Search & Social for 2008 and Beyond
22. Core Conversation: Design Metrics: Better Than ‘Because I Said So’
23. Core Conversation: Designing for “Oh No!”
24. Core Conversation: Five Things Elite Designers Should Stop Saying
25. Bootstrapping through Entrepreneur Collaboration Networks
26. Pimp My Non Profit - Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology
27. Core Conversation: Examining the Different Ways We Can Work
28. Core Conversation: Specialization vs. Doing it All
29. Secrets of JavaScript Libraries
30. 10 Tips for Managing a Creative Environment

Megaphones!

But really I’m just going down there in hopes of seeing this guy again.

GIRLS ROCK! OPENS NATIONWIDE MARCH 7: At Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it’s OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that “it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are.” They are taught by indie rock chicks such as Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney various lessons of empowerment from self-defense to anger management. At the end of just one week, all the bands perform songs they’ve written with their new bandmates for over 700 people. “Girls Rock!” follows several campers: Laura, a Korean adoptee obsessed by death metal; Misty, who is emerging from a life of meth addiction and gang activity; Palace, whose heavy metal sneer belies her seven years, and Amelia, an eight-year-old who writes experimental rock songs about her dog Pipi. What happens to the girls as they are given a temporary reprieve from being sexualized, analyzed and pressured to conform is truly revolutionary.

Opening weekend will be crucial in the process of getting the word out about the camp’s important work with girls. Spread the news. Tell all your friends in our March 7 cities—Seattle, San Francisco, Berkeley, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland and New York—to go see “Girls Rock!” March 7-9. Visit www.girlsrockmovie.com for more information.

Thanks to Philadelphia’s Girls Rock Philly for the tip!

Dig this, uh, “translation” of this super sweet Indian video. I’m speechless.

found at: Bill Barbot’s Tumblog

Instead of spending real time together, Megan and I IM about TV. That should tell you something about how we’re consuming media, and maybe even more about our schedule.

11:08 PM Megan: wow, jon stewart is back on the air without a script.

he’s taking an interesting stance on the strike

me: yeah?

11:11 PM Megan: his analogy was basically…

if you go to a restaurant and eat a big meal, you expect to pay for the meal, but if you take the cheese samples at Hickory Farms, you don’t expect to pay for that.

11:12 PM So watching something on an ipod is clearly promotional cheese.

11:16 PM me: eh, I don’t buy it. that’s too stuck in the current state of things. These other platforms (ipods, streaming, etc) are likely to soon be a major avenue for programming, if not the only place to see certain things. The networks will be collecting large amounts of money when you watch them, in the form of ads and service fees, and they’re trying to cut the writers out of any stake in that. Instead of cheese, I think that the crack analogy is more apt. Your first taste is free…

Megan: nice

I realize Stewart is sarcastic, but I can’t help wondering if it’s good for the strikers that he’s back on the air.  I hope this means that the content providers are feeling the pressure and are about ready to deal.

Read on for our holiday gift picks!

Mason’s Picks
- Irregular IQ cube from Think Geek: It’s an impossible rubik’s cube.
- The Elements of Typographic Style: A practical guide to typography. Finally.
- And of course, the His Dark Materials Trilogy

Emaleigh’s Picks
- City Slickers Bookends from Wrapables: Look! There’s a man walking through your books!
- Loretta Lux: German artist Lux combines painting, photography and digital imagery to create disturbing, fairy tale-like portraits of children. Very cool and strange. Perfect for any hip snob’s eclectic coffee table book collection.
- Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights: Hmm, good stuff. Download the title track here: www.myspace.com/sharonjonesandthedapkings

John’s Picks
- Mixtape USB Stick by SUCK UK: Seriously, how cool is that? (Also available at fredflare.com, which sorta deserves a mention in itself.)
- Threadless.com: Threadless is a t-shirt community. Plus, they have a big sale going on right now! $10 for a limited run, community approved t-shirt, on well fitting, high quality shirts? How can you say no?
- The Post Punk Kitchen: I haven’t checked out VEGANOMICON yet, but Vegan With a Vengeance is a fun, snarky cookbook with some of the best recipes ever for vegetarians and vegans (and I’d argue for omni’s too)!

Megan’s Picks
- Girls Rock Philly: Looking for a worthy cause for that holiday donation? Look no further than GRP, teaching girls to rock out, build self esteem, write their own songs, and hold their own with the boys any day of the week.
- 30 Rock – Season 1 : While the networks sink lower into their pit of reality TV rejects, catch up on one of the best current sitcoms. The combination of Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin is comedy gold.
- Sweeney Todd: Great adaptation or train wreck? As a huge fan of Sondheim’s musical, I’m skeptical – especially after reading that they cut “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” – but I just have to see it.

Lyra’s Picks
- BeBePod Plus: For the baby who just can’t wait for balance to sit up, this little chair gives you a great view of what the adults are up to.
- Baby Faces: Who doesn’t like to look at faces of adorable babies?
- Animal Lamps: The perfect addition to a hip nursery, and only $20!

We recently received a call from a woman looking to hire Canary to create not a website or a press campaign, but a bust of a pregnant friend.

Wait. Back up here. A bust? As in one of these?

“President George W. Bush gazes at a bronze bust of himself”

And not just a bust, but a bust of a pregnant friend?

Needless to say, we um, don’t do busts… unfortunately.

The Canary office has transformed over the last couple of weeks into an office/nursery as we’ve welcomed the youngest member of our team, our lovely Lyra Gray Wendell. Mason and I are proud parents of a beautiful baby girl, just turning 8 weeks old this week! So why not make room for the bouncy chair next to my computer and the pack & play next to my desk? Lyra seems to enjoy the work week quite a lot, and we get to beam at our cute little baby all day.

Room for any more baby gear? Not really.

Lyra and her dad in front of the “baby wall” (more on that soon)

Lyra at her dad’s desk, holding the tablet pen and ready to design websites.

In brainstorming for a new site for **** we thought we’d try some origami. We’re still playing with it, but I’m pretty sure this won’t be in the final design.