Before I go any further, I need to point out that the sxsw logo

Actually point southwest (SW) not south by southwest (SXSW)

What’s up with that. ?!?

We spent another day wandering around this huge event looking for things to see

I went to a great talk on creativity in the age of invention by nick law. Great speaker . Then hung out some more with our friend Colin

Diane and I met my high school friend.. Phil for lunch. We hadn’t seen each other for about 40 years.. he was still the same guy i remembered! It was so fun catching up !

Diane and i then stopped by the Driscoll hotel to see the Donald Trump tweet library. Funnyish but very scary

Near dinner, Diane and i walked west to meet our old friend Dave

we stopped in a bar called holy Roller to go to a reunion party for some friends from a conference I went to 2 years ago in Frankfort. Didn’t expect to see anyone I knew .. but turns out knew many folks there .. most of them from Germany

On the way home ,Diane andbi stopped for really good Thai food

We got back to the hotel around 10. Dave called again and Invited me to a nearby bar with electronic music.. Colin met up with us there . It was good to get to talk to Dave a little more

Now tome for sleep. More Tomorrow!

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Another busy day at SXSW. My brother Billy had stayed with us last night on a rollaway cot… So it was fun all waking up together. First order of business was to go to brunch at my cousins Mark and Kathy’s. Billy was a surprise to them. We walked over tomorrow and Kathy’s really beautiful apartment downtown and their work daughter Danielle, sister Gail and brother Steve. It was so great catching up with them. We had a wonderful brunch and just caught up. It’s been a long time since we were all together

There was work being done on the building and we got to watch the workers go by

We all got play with a Tesla coil… It had a momentary overheating problem but seems to have recovered

http://johncohn.org/base/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/img_7775-1.mov

It was so great seeing everyone!

Next up For me was a really fun and interesting interview With Simon, an industry analyst. It was really great talking to him.

Also Enjoyed hanging out with my IBM colleague Chris and Ieee colleague Jeff

Right after that my good friend Laurie came over and hung out with us for an hour. She retired from IBM sold much stiffer stuff and bought a huge sailboat. She’s living on that most of the time but was back in Austin for a wedding

Next stop was it Uber ride out to a brewery to see a movie about efforts to preserve Nichola Tesla’s Wardencliff laboratory on Long Island. One of the high points was riding with Greg… A great Uber driver with a huge interest in science. We talked Tesla coils and Rockets and all sorts of stuff. He was great

The Tesla gathering was really interesting. It was a good crowd there in the movie told the story of teslas life try amps and struggles as he tried to build a power transmitting station in Wardencliff Long Island. The small group of local people have tried to preserve what was left of the laboratory. They used an amazing amount of social media and crowdsourcing techniques to raise more than $7 million. It was quite a story

It was nice to have a tesla coil with me to show people what we were talking about. That was a big hit

Now back home and it’s not even 11 PM. Can’t wait to lie down

More tomorrow

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

It’s 2 AM and I’m sitting here with my brother. His car was just rear ended by another car. Not much damage but enough to report. It looks like the other car ran off. So we’re trying to figure that out.

Spent the day at SXSW walking around checking things out. My talk was from 11 o’clock to 12 o’clock today it went well. It was fun talking to people from the audience. Lots of good perspectives there.

Then the nice folks at Ieee took us all out to lunch

We walked around sxsw amazed at all the people

Later that evening We went to my friend. Leigh’s book signing

Then we headed out to meet my brother billy at a party. Billy had made a snap decision to drive to AUSTIN for the night ! It was so great to see him ! our mutual friend Colin was here too !

I got to drive in Billy’s MC lauren 720 . It’s really amazing !

We got back downtown and walked around looking for food . The steeets were packed !

We were heading back to the hotel parking when Billy’s car got rear ended . Not badly damaged.. but the other guy ran off !

Finally got to bed around 3 !

Wow what a day

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Greetings from AUSTIN . Diane and i are at sxsw and not yet sure what to make of it . Lots of people lots of traffic . Will try to get the hang of it after my talk tomorrow ( and as always I’m nervous)

We spent the day kind of avoiding the crowds .. we went for a run by the beautiful river

Then i went and saw the room I’m speaking in tomorrow. That always makes me feel more comfortable

.. then went and visited our friends CarlAnd Brynn. Really nice to see them . I managed not to get a picture of them together

Here’s Carl with about 0.0001 % of his train collection

Fiddling a bit with slides for tomorrow. Now time to sleep

Nite all , nite Sam

-me