I haven't been to Austin in more than a decade and the last time was to see a friend (who as an aside that I also haven't seen in a very long time). I thought Austin was similar to Seattle in the bars and music scene, however I wasn't that crazy about the heat or the Congress Avenue Bridge bats. Yes, yes the bats are nice to the environment by munching on insects and whatever, but damn, seeing that black mass of bats was creepy (hopefully I'll have a chance to see it again considering I'm a glutton for punishment).
I'm heading to Austin for the Austin Games Conference next week on another work trip. I'm not exactly excited about the heat, projected to be in the mid-to-high 80s but at least everything down there has air conditioning. All of these game conferences are usually the same thing, repackaged again and again, with a few exceptions. I've never been to this particular one, but I'm not expecting much. There are some guest speakers that may be interesting, such as Rob Pardo. I've had some friends try and push Vernor Vinge (who is also speaking at Austin) on me before, especially "A Fire Upon the Deep". I tried, I really tried reading it and I couldn't even force myself to finish half of it. Let me put it this way - I'm bitter, because I can't get that time back.
One nice part about the trip is the hotel - The Driskill. While I've learned that hotel's don't usually live up to their hype (the Hyatt Century Plaza in L.A., for example), but I'm hoping this one is decent. I also don't have to share a room on this trip, which by itself is lovely. I've also been told that while I'm in Austin, I must visit "The County Line BBQ", which looks great.
The plane ride is going to suck a bit since it's wheels up at 7:30am and I will have to plan for extra security time fun, but at least I already have my bag packed and all my back-up extra devices are powered up, software loaded and good to go if needed.
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