Austin

Only twice have I begged my girlfriend for something. I begged her to get a cat. She refused, saying maybe someday. I'm still begging her—been at it for months. She won't give in. She's a tough cookie.

The only other time I begged was last year, when we were driving I-10 out of Louisiana. We passed a Waffle House. I had to stop. I pleaded with her, refusing to take "no" for an answer. Eventually her hard shell cracked and she had to relent. Thus began my love affair with the Waffle House.

In the wee hours of this morning, I happened to be playing channel clickey with the television remote. I switched onto KNVA channel 54 and saw one of the most repulsive things I've seen on television in some time. They apparently sell that time slot to a TV preacher. He was carrying on with a terrible message of homophobic hate.

He wasn't just guiding his flock, but was preaching a message to judge and vilify others. He wasn't just condemning people, but entire branches of religions that disagreed with him.

KNVA, in theory, has been granted a license to broadcast in the public interest. Unfortunately, public interest seems to be redefined as anything you can get paid for. I wish the FCC would do something about this, but they probably are too busy making sure Bono doesn't say fuck and Janet Jackson doesn't flash another titty.

I contacted the KNVA program director to express my displeasure. I hope that if this continues, they hear from other people too.

Apr 21 followup: The name of the bigoted preacher I saw is Arnold Murray.

Link: Cool Tools for Change Community Forum.

Last month, the LBJ School sponsored a Cool Tools for Change workshop. This workshop brought together people from the technology and non-profit sectors, to explore ways organizations can use some of the exciting new low-to-no cost online tools.

The workshop gave me an awareness of the gap between those who understand these technologies and those who could benefit from them. I fear that showcasing those tools, in some ways, may have been more frustrating than helpful. There already is some awareness of these tools in non-profits. What's often lacking is the resources and skills to evaluate and implement them.

That's why I'm glad to see a forum has just been set up. This could offer an opportunity to continue the discussions that were only started at the workshop. Maybe it will become the needed resource to connect up those with knowledge of these tools and those who could benefit from them.

Rosenthal's Corollary to Godwin's Law as applied to weblogs: the chance of a blogger posting a "what I had for lunch" entry approaches unity with time. In fact, this blog reached that pinnacle last year, when I provided an anti-recommendation for lunch. I did much better at this year's SXSW. As a service to other Convention Center-goers, here is a roundup of the places I ate.

Tomorrow evening (March 18, 7:00pm), CACTUS is presenting a talk on copyright and intellectual property. The presentation will be by noted author Siva Vaidhyanathan, so it could be pretty cool. The talk is open to the public. See the CACTUS Newsletter for more information and directions to the event.

The sickly batteries in my aged Dell Inspiron laptop won't hold much more than fourty-five minutes charge these days. I brought it with me to SXSW, thinking maybe I could do a little blogging during the breaks. I'm currently sitting in the hallway pulling a good W-Fi singal, in a location near a power outlet.

Unfortunately, one of the conference volunteers just stopped by and suggested that I may want to unplug from the wall. He said if somebody from the Austin Convention Center staff sees me, they will bill me $85 for power.

If that happens then I'm bringing a TV and microwave oven with me tomorow. If I'm going to have to pay for power I want my money's worth.

What's worse than a Florida-style election that degrades into a recount quagmire? How about an election that can't be recounted at all?

When it comes to election integrity, "just trust us" is not a viable strategy. Yet, that's the direction we are headed. Throughout Texas, including Travis County, we are deploying electronic voting machines (that's good!) that lack a verifiable audit trail (that's scary!).

The Austin Bloggers web site has been unavailable since last Friday. The problem is that the domain has lapsed and gone on hold. It's moved into a redemption period where it's a lot more difficult and expensive to renew. The web site will be back shortly, once the problem is resolved. Hopefully at the same location, maybe somewhere else.

Nonetheless, in the meantime, you still can reach the site at the legacy address austinbloggers.soaustin.net.

I'm gonna have a pastrami on white bread with, uh, mayonnaise and tomatoes and lettuce. -Annie Hall

I recently had one of my worst dining experiences in Austin at the Manny Hattan's...ummm...restaurant. The sign says "New York delicatessen," but I sure as heck don't. Unless maybe they mean New York, Hell and not New York City.

I recently had one of my best dining experiences in Austin at the Hyde Park Bar & Grill. Sad to say, I've lived in Austin for over a decade, but somehow never managed to visit. The food was delicious, the price was reasonable, and the visit was enjoyable. I won't wait another decade for my next visit.