I don’t think Paul would approve.

I’m also excited about a dozen other talks next week, as you can see from my Web2/iCalico schedule.

ETech

I’m super excited by ETech this year for the first time in recent memory, all the things I want to talk about are on the schedule: large datasets, cheap customizable hardware, social networks, and the environmental, political, and social implications there of.

SxSW

I haven’t even looked at the schedule for Austin yet, but I’m pumped to see both Heather and Simon talk about lessons learned from trying to internationalize a site like Flickr, (Mon 10am, and Tue 5pm respectively) and Paul and George (along with MattB, and SimonW) talk about working on interdisciplinary teams (Tue 3pm). And Andy’s ensemble “Worst Website Ever” stand up routine looks not to be missed.

You

What are you going to see?

Me

I’m also looking forward to:

• having some quiet time this week to work with Rabble and finally release the iCalico source, though it looks like I’m going to first learn git to do it
• making a little progress catching up on a serious backlog of writing.
• seeing friends, especially those who’ve recently been opting out of the grind of Silicon Valley jobs/San Francisco geek party scene.
• continue conversations I’ve been having with folks about privacy and social expectation, large datasets and inference, , open data, and of course OAuth.

Which is how I find myself caught a bit by surprise by the fact that I’m getting on a plane this weekend with Jazz to go meet some friends in Sayulita, MX having done nothing remotely resembling research or planning.

This will be my first real visit to Mexico, so any tips you have for me on Mexico, or Sayulita would be great!

update: everybody is telling me to take lots of books to Sayulita, and my brain is going blank this week. Suggestions on books to take to the beach?

Jasmine and I headed to Los Angeles for the new year. And we had an amazing time. This is hard for me. As a native of Northern California I was raised to despise Los Angeles. (and really I’m more a Central/Southern California, but culturally we identified as NorCal.) Studies on environmentalism and conservation just reinforced the point.

Part of the deal for us going to LA was that I’d do a chunk of the driving as Jasmine’s wrist is sprained. This was problematic as I don’t drive, and didn’t have a license. So on Dec. 24th we spent some time driving, and on Dec. 26th I proved that CA will give a driver’s license to just about anyone. And Dec. 28th we drove the 350 miles to LA. And so ends a 15 year boycott of car culture.

The weather was great, we saw amazing art, we ate great food, we caught a good show, and saw good friends. We took a bunch of photos, I’ve got a small sampling of them, and Jasmine has a more complete set.

We drove down to Watts Tower.

The Smart House, Venice, CA

Shepard Fairey might be over saturated, but he is also at the top of his game. The execution on his new work, Imperfect Union, is flawless, and gorgeous. Also sold out. Literally. Every piece was sold. We tried to beg/borrow/steal anything with War by the Numbers on it. Without success.

The Murakami show was overwhelming. On paper doesn’t it look that large, but the live experience is different. Interesting to see his work all together, you realize how weak the painting is, and how amazing his sculpture is. The security presence was so intense, I almost felt like I was in a performance piece, the © in the show’s name being acted out as authoritarian dystopic future. Which is to say, we were only able to sneak a handful of photos. Or a plot to make you buy the catalog. (which we did)

We met up with Jasmine’s people from NYC at the Varla NYE party. The Dickies were the headliners, but the Airliner is a great funky dive bar, with 3 stages, which they kept busy that night, including our favorite act of the night, Vegas based “Objex”, the only one we got photos of.

More then any other year I can remember “Happy New Year!” congratulations seemed to roll in every hour on the hour all day long. This diversified geography thing is starting to look unscalable.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=22nd+St+%26+S+Van+Ness+Ave,+San+Francisco,+CA+94110&daddr=Sansome+St.+and+Clay,+San+Francisco,+CA&dirflg=r&sll=37.77522,-122.41132&sspn=0.058887,0.117245&ie=UTF8&ll=37.7737,-122.409325&spn=0.058888,0.117245&z=13&om=1&start=

• Receipt for that “cute place we stayed with the view of Duomo”, Albergo, S. GIOVANNI, di Umberto Zanobetti, via Cerretani, 2 – 50123 FIRENZE, 18/07/01, numero 451

• Receipt for medical care rendered for one Yasmina Trabelsi, Centro Medico Pardo, E.I.R.Ltda. Av. De La Cultura 710, CUSCO. 26 de 07 del 2005. 1,104.09 PEN.

• Receipt for consulta medic en Hotel, Fernando Minauro Zecenarro, Medico Cirujano, Av. Huayruropata, CUSCO. 22 de 07 del 2005.

p.s. If I haven’t gotten your Paris suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments!

See y’all in a couple of weeks.

Then in Portland all next week at OSCON.

See you there?

p.s. haven’t had a chance to look closely at the OSCON schedule yet, anyone got a list of not to be missed sessions?

Interestingly, Rabble, Case, and I all are the same percent complete, 9%.

Well I thought it was interesting.

So does anyone have advice on where to say, where to go, who to meet up with? Anyone looking for a roomie?

http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/wish-list.html

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/12/30000_people_mi.html

http://wickedwiki.pbwiki.com/

http://www.googlesightseeing.com/2005/06/22/guggenheim-museum-bilbao/

http://www.ambiguous.org/archive.php3/2005/02/24#quinn2005224.1