“Feels good minglin’ with these laid back country folk, don’t it Har?”

I spent the day in Bandera, TX today – population: 957. I was the “sound guy” for my old roommate Jon who played some country music with his cousin.

As a “sound guy,” you really need to be a strong individual. It takes brute emotional, intellectual and physical strength to be exact. I can’t articulate just how much strength you need, but let’s just put it this way: it takes about the strength one would put forth if one were putting one-fourth of the world’s stockpile of pudding in the fourth-largest pudding container on the 4th of July. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but…

I saw many new and interesting things, including more cowboy hats in one place in my life, more bras in one place in my life, and I watched in delight as a man poured oatmeal out all over the dance floor. It was honky-tonk-elation. Now I leave you with some other pics of the day.

First sightings of Ike

Yeah, it’s pretty far from San Marcos, but clouds are rolling in from the southeast…and from the looks of the cloud radars, they’re from Ike.

We’ll get a lot of its leftovers this weekend! It’s crazy to see all the tweets from reporters on the scene and the videos so far. Dave Lahae evacuated Houston this morning and is spending the weekend here while his apartment gets flooded…crazy…

I feel like being a minimalist for the rest of my life

I’ve been going to a lot of amazing houses lately…and as cool as they are, I just can’t stop thinking about how lavishly I live here in the U.S., how much I waste, how much I don’t need, and how much I don’t even notice it. I am so used to having a roof over my head and driving my car and keeping the temperature at 75 degrees and being able to eat anytime and not knowing any other way.

Just living in the richest nation in the world makes me beyond rich compared to most people. I live in luxury, and sometimes I really can’t stand it. God doesn’t want us to be rich in money or things (He doesn’t necessarily want us to be poor either), but He does want us to be rich in Him. It’s just so hard to live detached from material possessions in this life because we use them all the time…maybe I’ll just go live in the woods…

Sad News

     : (

Jumping on the InternShip

Jonathan,

Thanks so much for coming in for the interview, and for the additional info. We want to welcome you as our Interactive blogger intern, if you are agreeable.

Talk to you soon,
–
Tammy Lynn Gilmore
Publicity + Press
SXSW Interactive
Austin, TX

I am totally agreeable. Sweet

The Land of 1000+ Activities

The past few days I’ve done so many interesting things.

1. A few of us went to a small town called Gruene that feels like it’s stuck in the 1920s…in a good way. Their actual slogan is “Gently resisting change since 1872.” haha. We danced in what felt like a big barn and everyone felt like family. It was a Tuesday night, and it was PACKED and so fun
2. Dave Lahae came in from Houston and we went grape stomping (picture) and wine tasting in the hill country…we mainly hit up the Fredericksburg area
3. Tubed the Comal River…apparently the shortest river in the world – It was very similar to the San Marcos River, but they had a bunch of “tube shoots” and mini waterfalls

Seriously, I feel like I could be here 10 years and still do new stuff all the time.

Pics from the fam’s trip to TX