Monday, March 15, 2010

Live Bloggin SXSW: Part II, Oh to be Kosher

My mind officially has been blown out of the water. I never expected as much as I got here. I've spent the bulk of my time at the Interactive Trade Show, scoping booths by Google, Bing, and a ton of little startups whose names I subsequently have forgotten. I've got the stickers, however, so don't worry, I'll list them all and issue them their due credit in no time. But I am exhausted, running on a free cup of beer from Paypal for my recent woes with their purchasing system and third-party accessors, as well as an overpriced Starbucks latte that, interestingly, was totally worth it because it tasted about 30 times better than the kind I get in the store. Could the reason be that, well, I'm running on about 1.5 hours of sleep?

I've drained my phone twice today, checking in on Foursquare, taking photos and Twittering them, and trying to figure out where @Mottel is. So now, I'm hanging out in the "Chevy" Recharge Station where there are boatloads of little docks on tiny tables and around coffee tables and couches for people to sit, chill, drink free Sobe (not kosher) and hang. There is a crapton of free food here, and the bummer is that I can't eat any of it. MY hopes got up when I walked in and BAM, instantly there were free health food bars of some kind that happened to be OU-D; more on those later. And then? Everywhere cake and chips and salsa and candy and cookies and ... everything. Lots of beer. The amount of beer these people are drinking is insane! Oh, and hot dogs. And I've been craving hot dogs. What a wretched situation to be in!

I think next year I should push for some KOSHER vendors. I mean, how many Jews are here? Observant Jews? Probably not so many. I wonder if SXSW Interactive does any kind of demographic study. If not, they should. Heck, I'll do it for them.

So far, one of the most interesting things I came across was AOL Seed. Now, I hate AOL with every fiber of my being, but the Seed thing seems pretty gnarly. They outsource articles to people and average Joes can write for them, they pick the stuff, and ship it off to whatever vendor has requested it (Engaged, among them). So of course, being an editor, I had to ask -- Who does your editing? Bangalore, he said. BANGALORE!? Outsourcing your editing to foreign countries? Really? That's what really gets a copy editor down. Maybe I put the fear of G-d in him and he'll look me up, who knows.

Okay, I'm off to another adventure. The parties begin soon, and it's a million degrees outside. I'm praying it cools down ... this is no climate for a frum girl! Check out my Twitter stream for lots of fun photos, including a giant floaty Google box, half-naked cheerleaders, and MORE!