Starting back on Tuesday night.. I got into Austin around 6:30. and went straight to Carl W’s house. Hes a friend of my friend Rick M. They bought a tesla coil a it like my old one.. and had offered to lend it to me for my talk. They knew that theirs wasn’t working.. but had thought it just needed minor repair. Carl and I checked it out..

Unfortunately, the whole output stage.. IGBJT’s and clamp diodes were a charred mess. I’d brought some replacement parts.. we went out to Fry’s to get some others.. We worked about 3 hours.. but in the end realized it wasn’t going to be easy. We gave up around 12 because I knew I needed to get sleep before my talks.. in the end.. it worked out just fine not having the coil..

The next morning I took a great run on town lake.. then worked all day in my room at the hotel.

Lots of signs about the famous bats down by the lake. (Caution, never pick up a bat on the ground)

I spent some time in my hotel room meetings assembling props for my talks.. that helped me from getting too nervous..

My first talk was Wednesday night about 6 PM.. I was doing this for my friend Shawn.   My talks were all about promoting engineering, math and science interest in the next generation.. this time I folded in some stuff about my time on the Colony. it’s a fun talk to give..

I dedicated my talk to our good friend Jim Monzel who passed away 2 weeks ago. Jim was very active in the ITC community. .. There were about 600 folks in the hall for the talk.  .. I think

Judging by the reaction. I think the talk went OK.. I had lots of folks coming up total to me afterwords. Many of them had good ideas and good experiences to share about getting kids interested in science and engineering.

Afterwords I went to meet my friends tom and candy for a quick drink.. then met up with a bunch of friends from the conference for a great Mexican dinner.

After dinner we all walked back to our.. …   hey.. !?! where’s my car !.. Oooops..

I though the sign said 9AM – 3PM.. it was 9PM to 3AM.. My car had been towed..

Here’s my freind Bill getting directions to the towing place from the nice cop who’s car was now parked in my spot..

Peillin, Mary. ill and I piled into Peillin’s car and drove the 8 miles out to the impound place.. It was after midnight by that point.

Hey.. therrrrrrrres my car !

I drove to my new hotel and got to sleep just before 2.. .. 7 AM came awfully early..
I went downstairs and met my hosts and freinds  Mike and Bernice.. lovely Hannah’s lovely parents.   Mike had asked me to do the talk many months ago.

Once again. I think the talk went OK.. good crowd reaction.. and again a nice group of folks came up to talk/share. after my talk .

Then it was off to IBM Austin for a series of meetings and rountables.. First thing first.. I met with my friend Kevin.. and his admin, my good old friend Kaye !

I did two sets of roundtables with Austin employees.. and I REALLY loved those.. I love hearing what folks are doing and thinking. We did a bunch of brainstorming on how we can improve our lives at work.

Then it was time for the entrepreneurs event.. there are supposedly about 300 folks there.. though I think it was a smaller crowd than that.. I do know the room was packed. The folks there were all entrepreneurs of one sort or another. The event was cosponsored by IBM ad the city of austin chamber of commerce.

Again.. I thin the tlak went OK.. Afterwords I was pleasantly mobbed.

I didn’t get out of there until about 9:30.. then I went out to dinner with my good freind Dave at a cool package store/ organic grocery// jazz bar / Indian restaurant.   It was awesome food and music.

Huh.. why no picture of Dave.. can’t find one.. bummer.. it was great seeing him !

At that point is was about 11.. I got a text message that Alison for Colony I was finally in town. Her BF Scott just transferred to Dell in Austin.. Alison is commuting. it was SOOOOOOO good seeing her ..

Scott has the collest pub, lela.. awwwww.. look at that face…. !

I walked tot he end of the bar to get a sandwich from the trailer cart there (Austin has this cool gourmet trailer culture now) .. Ths one was run by Lucky from Italy. He ID”ed me and Alison as being from the Colony. He made the most awesome sandwhiches.. He cooked the bread from scratch as you watched in his wood fired oven.. it was really delicious ..

Around 12L30.. I was beat.. back to the h hotel for a few hours of sleep before coming back to VT>

I met Gabe and Diane at Burton for a bit.. then Gabe went off to the Gymnasium.. I went to my hacker meeting for the VT2600 group. It’s such an awesome group of guys. We’re talking about setting up a space to promote ethical/fun  hacking.. We spent a long time trying to figure out what to call our group. (any ideas ?!?!)

OK.. getting sleepy.. time to go to ed.. More tomorrow.. 

nite everyone.. nite sam
-me