I'm on day two in Austin and I've spent most of last night and all of today in my hotel room. I have items to do tomorrow and Friday that require my presence at the Austin Games Conference, but until then I'm trying to get some other items finished. I missed the Pardo keynote, but I'm okay with that as I'm making progress on tasks that have been lingering for far too long. For instance, I'm trying to determine if a new business can be self-funded with projected earnings or if it's going to be a money pit - good times.
On a side note, the hotel isn't bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. I've learned it is the oldest hotel in Austin and one of the oldest buildings in town. I'm not surprised by that. They have obviously kept the place up and it looks nice, but it also has the cramped feeling of older structures. The elevator was smaller than my TV, no really it is. The room service is about what you expect, not horrible but not great. However, I do have to admit that they make a damn fine jalapeno corn muffin that I wouldn't mind eating eight...uh...again.
Another nice aspect of being in the hotel room, I I've had the chance to catch up on some free movies while working courtesy of HBO. So far I've seen:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - I love Tim Burton, so I've been looking forward to this for a while. It was very damn cool. Depp came off as a creepy guy, the kids and their parents were suitably obnoxious and the story was fun (although I missed about 15 minutes of the end when my girlfriend called). Yeah, it's a remake, but at least it had quirky style. "You shouldn't mumble, I swear I can't understand a word you're saying!"
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - I don't think I've been a huge fan of this series, but I'm now a convert. This was damn funny and it was compelling enough that it made a difficult time of concentrating on my work (which ended up being abandoned for the duration of the movie). I need to check out some of the other shows as well.
Matchstick Men - This was a pretty good diversion. I was interested in seeing what happened, but didn't pull me into it. At least not until the end, which I found to be both entertaining and sad. I don't want to give it away, but dang that was a bit harsh.
I found out last night that my friend, who is also in town for the conference, was nice enough to rent a car. The plan is to hit County Line BBQ before we leave, hopefully that will happen since he is busier than I am nowadays.
Comments