Category: sxsw 2008

Just got back in (1:30-ish) after dinner at halcyon (omg salad!), a few hours at the fray cafe, where I got up and told the story of grandma & grandpa nelson, then just about collapsed shaking like a leaf. there was another story I wanted to tell but couldn’t get up the nerve. christina wodke was 2 after me IIRC and we commiserated over the internal sensations of getting up and talking about something personal. (vs professional.) I got a copy of the latest fray book, too, which was kinda cool. badge of honor & all that. tagged along with christina & her gang for a bit, when they got to the (bar? party?) they were headed to I decided I didn’t really want to do that, I wanted to cruise around on my bike (this was shortly before midnight, I think) and I headed over to some other party that I’d considered earlier. but it was too loud. I’ve never really done loud. actually, I find austin in general to be too loud. the one thing I really don’t like. (that, and the potholes! it’s like biking into a canyon.) so I headed back towards the hotel, and as I was cruising along on the sidewalk, caught dori smith’s profile out of the corner of my eye, said something goofy like “hey, you’re dori smith! I like your work.” (very suave, as per usual.) and she knew who I was, which totally surprised me. 🙂 and then we talked, just standing there, for like an hour. I think I actually may have gotten her in trouble with tom, because it was past 1 before we went our separate ways. I like her a lot. very high energy, fun to talk with.

so I got back here, and it’s now a quarter to 2, and I’m kinda jazzed, and my feet are kinda cold, and I have no friggin’ idea how I’m going to get to sleep. wishing the whirlpool at the hotel was open. or maybe I could do laundry? but I imagine I’ll take a bath and then drift off. (not in the tub. but you knew that.) I just wanted to brain-dump all of this here while it was still fresh.

and I’m going to have to think about how I would’ve told the story that I wanted to tell, so maybe I’ll be ready to tell (or write, because it’s never been written in all one piece) it sometime later.

::deep breath::

Today was the day when my head exploded. In a good way. Too caffeinated to be articulate right now (double tall mocha yay!) but I have ideas, got to meet several people I knew of or knew by internet, ate too much lunch. The trade show had good surprises, enough to make up for missing a panel session. Suffered through 2 kinda sucky panels, went to 2 pretty damn good ones. Got lots of buttons. I don’t remember the tiny buttons being so big in 06. (heh) Honestly? I almost wish I had some TwinStar buttons, ’cause I think our logo is cool. (There. I said it.) Scoped out some books.

Taking a bit of downtime right this minute to ditch some stuff so I’m not horribly overburdened when I go out again. Need to get a bite for dinner, then definitely going to Fray Cafe. Maybe more writing later?

kathy sierra, getting the love from the sxsw audience.

what did/do you want to be really, really good at? and never quite made it.  (me? playing the viola. I wanted to be good, but never put in the time.)

why are you here? (if building stuff that theoretically makes f2f unneccessary)

to make better apps, compensate for missing human-ness.

secret answer c: “I kick ass!” okay, having people talk to their neighbor is pretty damn cool. (“I love my house.” “I made enough money to retire.” “I got a stereo after saving for it.”)

The “high-res user experience” – if you know more about music, you get more out of it. (yeah.) tantek look at the windows visualizing them as a climber. (or as an architect, or as a lego person, or an urban planner)

neurogenesis. neuroplasticity. I’ve read (where?!) that the effect of the new anti-depression medications (SSRIs, et al) is that it increases neurogenesis. monkeys needed a richer environment to get neurogenesis when learning; I’m glad I have a big window right next to my desk.

not about natural talent; a talent for practicing. why I got good at writing, and not at playing the viola. it was (is?!) fun to “practice” writing, music not so much.

one of her cute little graphs. getting over the suck threshold, and then again over the kicking ass threshold.

what do you help your users kick ass at?

getting the brain interested.

“it takes 2 minutes for the lights to turn on?!” and there they go.

1. use telepathy. more monkeys with electrodes. mirror neurons: inferring expressions. have to see people when you do usability testing. yes. non-consious; a simulation running in yr own brain. (also, important to take expressions with you when explaining results! use their tone of voice, imitate (not facetiously) their faces.) the resolution of the simulation depends on what you already know. getting better by just thinking about it. (not a lot, but some.) and seeing the simulation from your POV, not outside of yourself.

2. serendipity. pattern-finding machines (that would be us). the psychic shuffle. “just what I needed!” just the right level of randomness.

3. dog-ears principle. iphone scroll with bounce at the end! tests with animation, subtle additional real-world physics. “the ears follow the head” the pant leg moves separately from the leg.

4. create joy. learning through joy/play. amy jo kim; liz danzico.

5. inspire first-person language. “what can I do to make my users talk about themselves instead of the product?” (oh, reminder: get good documentation for user side of online banking.)

6. “t-shirt first development” “we’ve talked about this before” — I’m mildly annoying at the assumption that we were all at some prior talk. in some cases, only announce to other people, like the guy at work who occasional wears the red stapler shirt. “for god’s sake make a women’s fitted tshirt!”

7. april fool’s joke “the emo programmer” easter eggs smile in the mind.

8. tools for evangelizing. re: twitter “I’m coming around…all the bad things I said are still true, but there is something to it.” video: twitter in plain english. “I can explain it to people!” less an issue of turning users into advertising, but giving people a way to explain this “totally lame waste of time”

9. You are a… something about eyeballs. “I’m seeing now what a deer would see as it’s about to be eaten” mocking the audience! “you’re still naked predators…but now you’re all cute fluffy animals” (also, guy next to me is at weareteachers.com, sounds interesting) stage fright type fear is a chemical reaction, same with stress and nobody kicks ass when they’re under stress. “those who stopped & were thoughtful about it got eaten” stress eraser turns getting unstressed into a videogame. perky front row….

10. exercise the brain. but the best is physical exercise. (physicsdiet, daily plate, we endure, etc.) she shows the nike+. help improve their body. (or at least, don’t hurt them!)

11. give them superpowers quickly. “user must do something cool within 30 minutes” I would love to see the intranet be like that!!!!!

13. huh? I missed the title because I was boggled by the numbering. do experts know more? some weird example with chess: massive number of patterns that they know. learning patterns. bruce wilcox. got to be 5th level black belt in go while trying to write a software program to play go. “patterns that will help you kick ass”

14. skipping like crazy, because apparently we all saw this last year. grrrr. something about emotion? I need that slide to explain something. “oops” vs “bastards!” how did they feel about the confusion?

15. help with reinvestment of mental resources into new problems. the expert keeps adding boxes to get good at. (this is what I LOVE about web design.) siggy magnusson, silverstripe (did I look at that before?) also, everything I know about computers comes from 1 semester of “computers” in high school. focus: all of your attention” or die. attention offsets — partial attention. like carbon offsets? don’t assume that it doesn’t have any consequence. twitter-sponsored meditation retreat? monk laptop “we’re totally screwed”

16. again, jumped past the slide title. user as hero. make them a mentor earlier “getting a sidekick” no dumb questions. but also, no dumb answers. start answering questions earlier. yes! (okay, now I’m getting ideas for intranet.) help people ask and answer good questions.

17. do not insist on “inclusivity” jargon is awesome! a shortcut that unpacks a bunch at once.

18. practice seductive opacity. brains love mystery. (well, maybe not so much with their money.) “it’s not secrecy — it’s theatre” oy. diane ackerman “deep play” (book) (oooh, idea: the dull story-problem section, turn it into a story.) the ups guy as sex symbol. unboxing? like a strip-tease. something physical.

19. atoms are not old skool. etsy, make. handmade 2.0; not “boomer nostalgia”, a bit of indie cred. nice 3d image of that map of how nerves map to the brain. oh, those silly ambient things. nabataz. (didn’t ralph get & dis-assemble one?) petted rabbits lowered their cholesterol. (lots of research about old people & pets.)

19.5: be like this guy (the surprise visitor): (she says good writeup at brian soliz(sp?).com) Gary (I missed the last name) the “Sideways” slide: high-resolution wine experience. “Yes, it is that obnoxious.” winelibrary.com (?) first-person language in the forums “here’s how it feels to me” asking him how to have a higher-res wine experience. “most people in the wine industry are douchebags; wine is fundamentally broken in america” 1) try different stuff. 2) respect your own palate. (not someone else’s) if you love it, love it. okay, wow, that guy is quite energetic. making the viewers entertaining, bringing them into it.

was there a 20? okay, that was fun. she’s a good speaker.

coming in 15 mins late (obviously)

know your audience. crazy problem with court tv video thing, system being gamed.

“the biggest trainwrecks haven’t even happened yet.”

what is AIG? “wide enough breadth so people can get enough out of it”

understand what you mean when you say “hardcore” vs “casual”

at penguin see how writers can tell stories in different ways, see if there’s an audience for that. examine the future of the story (while selling books). comes from an “innovation budget” (whereas most of these projects come from marketing budgets)

weird metric for a campaign: number of people who got married to someone they met thru a game (?)

oh, ARG, not AIG. still don’t know what that means. (alternate reality game)

still relevant to the core of the brand, how does this connect?

with playful behavior, you can see the learning in action, map activity to a URL, measure from there.

some thing in britain treasure hunting in the 70s, took 2 months (2 years?), nowadays would take more like maybe 2 weeks, maybe less.

office max elves. a long-term thing: 1st year did 20 different things, then brought back just the elves in year 2. (altho the marketing had nothing to do with office max)

so many of these campaigns (ARG) just run and then get shut down, even after a community got created.

badly branded, nothing to do with the brand “adver-games”

power of stories & games.

okay, so does any of this connect with anything for me?

ugh. post-lunch wipeout.

“what’s our Second Life strategy?” and that’s not necessary a useful way to think.

brand not just about the thing it makes, play well by using those associations.

ah, the mention of middle-aged women playing “casual” games.

“what happens when they figure it all out?”

okay, bailing again. getting caffeine b4 next panel.

missed the very beginning.

costs of creating a logo: printing/money, time, momentum (excitement?)

the logo brought in by the industrial revolution, distinguishing non-local products

(lots of people straggling in late. go lunch!)

blah blah blah long ramble.

logos can be bought for a hundred bucks, whereas some URLs go for thousands. impact switch?

gucci bags made in china; spam with ebay name. (hasn’t there always been copyright issues)
not looking at the logo for trust, but the from address.

logo exercise is about consistency; easier when you start small.

why are they making the panel rooms SO VERY DARK?!

switching panels….now.

again, I’m not entirely sure that this is the best fit for me; if it’s not rocking by 10 minutes in, I’ll probably bail to the “how (not) to piss off bloggers” panel. (man, this one is packed!) also, I don’t think I can meebo & blog at the same time. will probably pick blogging, because I need these notes for myself for later.

attachment to the products that you use. “aichaku” products that make you happy. (very pretty slides!) when it’s done right, we’re not consiously aware.

first impressions. (what does the branch look like? what does the home page look like? what does the entry page for online banking look like? what do you get with the account opening letter/email?) do that (good impression) through communication. no opportunity to go to counseling with products. 🙂 most important in unexpected situations.

he (who he?) is doing analogy between product relationships & intimate relationships: trust, commitment. (some weird semi-sexist relationship stuff.) hey, I think the prius looks cool! forgiveness. “how many times has your best friend pissed you off?” (hmmm, that feels particularly apropos after spending time with H.A.) “you’re not going to get everything right all the time” and they forgive you. difference between forgiveness & allowing stupidity. respect. “the sum of all of these parts” “a product that can correct our mistakes as they happen gains our trust” – maeda. (was that in the simplicty book that I read? I can’t remember.) in human relations: watching out for the other person “got my back” (aha!)

on the flip side: not being appreciated, being used, ignored. sad broken icon. (wow the star wars music from the next room is super-loud.) wow, with examples: real, riaa, atm (!), phone, photoshop, “press 1 for sales”, windows.

(hungry.)

conflict. “with most of my technology.” we don’t try to make bad products, but we are fallible. escalation. (C’s electrical field, among other things.) tumble into the insolvable. who’s in control? where does the blame go? tone of voice of error messages. (yes!) stubborn – learning from mistakes, not being flexible. deception. ugh.

goal is to make us think about the similarity between relationship of our product (etc) & user and relationships we know among people. (whoa. dimly lit bar analogy re: deception. ew.)

jealousy. in terms of software? closed document formats.

the HAL eyeball. the ultimate negative relationship with a computer. (or something)

hope, redemption. until the robot uprising (!) we are in control of the products we create.

examples: prius redefining how cars communicate; netflix returning control of movie-watching & redeeming the postal industry; flexcar & car ownership (oh, sigh. I wish we had that in Oly); method cleaning w/out harsh chemicals AND being mainstream, well-designed; tivo, more with the control.

the golden rule. create a product that you would want to use. yes!!!!! (this is my issue with a couple of tools I’m supposed to be promoting, supporting & evangelizing. and I don’t like them.)

experience of flow. mmmmm. storytelling, imagine the journey. memory recall. the photo that reminds you of something. tastes, smells. perfumes that remind of people you know. (there’s this conditioner, I think, that…yeah.) primal. (not their word, but that’s what it seems like to me)

oh, hey, that’s luke 2 rows up and in the middle.

should there be a connection between the website & the branch? a visual one, and not just a photo of the exterior of a building.

symbolic meaning. enhancing your sense of self. why do people join the credit union?

gddm iphones. but yeah.

tactile experience. usually products & industrial design. like the stuff billie jean does going out into the branches, picking materials.

I think I’ve gotten enough for my brain to be full, and I’m cold, and I need to get lunch/go to the bathroom. So, off to find the MeFi meetup.

(more about yesterday later)

hmmm, 5 after and nothing is happening yet. little conversations both in front of me and behind me. (I think a big chunk of the brighton crew is sitting right behind me.)

“we’ve got a bit of a problem with the site” (at 5:30 pm) no page refresh, not a bug but a feature. “oh, yeah, ajax, I remember.” but…”it’s not in the functional specification” can’t get finance to sign off.

wireframe as a replacement for functional spec.

I wish it wasn’t so dark on them, because they’re actually standing, moving, etc.

“nothing is easier than believing we understand experiences we’ve never had” box quoting matt webb.

“trying stuff is cheaper than deciding whether to try” (a fundamental rule of the internet)

something more complex & nuanced than prior technique, traditional wireframing.

limiting the possibility space vs expanding it. (really?) maybe it’s a question of stuff vs action. what about the problem of too many choices?

see the patterns, create a framework for discussion.

switching from why to how. yay!

“ElfCartel” OMG that’s actually a cool name. 🙂 As an example….

“may be a little overdesigned for a wireframe, but it was just off the shelf.” I worry about something like that being too “designed” — when I did grey-scale work at Pierce, I always made it “deliberately ugly.” Times New Roman, grey background, default link colors.

I like the way their notes look, and the show/hide thing. I tend to use just a paragraph with “yellow” as the background color, not that faint yellow, but the one you get with “background: yellow.”

“Not calling the server” just the visual bit with jQuery to make it mimic the interaction.

shared library of patterns & widgets. (shared with myself? yay!)

so much mockery of Jeremy Keith, one assumes in a friendly way.

I’ve been chatting on meebo: interesting discussion of timing, how interaction & design are scheduled.

missed a switch to a real wireframe; site to track carbon footprint. (it reminds me of wesabe, in terms of the goal bit.) showing multiple interactions, and discovering that an inline form wasn’t the best way to do something. okay, this is where it gets useful.

(damn, just realized I left my water at the ikea lounge. sigh.)

“don’t want the tool to get in the way of the hard part, which is the thinking”  which makes sense particularly if this (HTML/CSS/JS) is the tool you know best. (vs visio et al)

q: js should enhance, not be required. but it doesn’t look like that’s here. they design for js on, but they are still thinking about what happens if JS isn’t there. if time the wireframe includes that status, but usually “just have that conversation”

do clients get attached to the “off-the-shelf” look? “managing expectations” I still think that there’s too much “pretty” in what they’ve got. For most people, that looks like a finished (or mostly finished) design concept. I wonder if that really works; they say so, but….

how long have they been doing this? they are being cagey, IMHO. what year did they start using this particular technique? what did they do beforehand? why didn’t that work?

good to pick up: the use of JS to mimic behavior. I don’t have anything specific to use that for, but it’s a cool technique to know.

Nick Finck (gotta see him talk somewhere, since I’m probably not going to webvisions) — “not going to talk about myself” right on! but his damn slides are too small a font. (tho this is a CAVERNOUS room)

the User

the Task

the Environment (his home office. hey, the Jerker!)

the Technology (he’s talking too fast)

long discussion about using the iphone, then fitts law. (fitts is mostly used for military stuff?!)

developing for the mobile context: everything stripped down. (here’s a question: is it possible to just run online banking as is on any sort of mobile? iphone, win mobile, etc. so could we do some sort of templating thing for mobile? hmmmm….)

what you don’t get in a survey? where are they? is there other electronic equipment nearby? the context. (sitting on the sofa vs sitting in the cubicle, even)

talking about readability of NYT, but only talking about use on iPhone. (grr. quick googling turns up that MS projects 20 million Win Mob units in 2008, where maybe half that many iPhones. but, how more frequently do iPhone peeps go online? because it’s part of the contract. I missed a bunch of what he was talking abt in that research/complaint.)

buttons are too small.

“contextual design” – “observing the user experience” – kewl. we’ve talked a lot at work about how “online banking” (which they used to refer to as “online home banking”) should really be called “work banking” because the traffic is SO much higher on work days, work hours. what would contextual research look like there? also, how much was my usability research skewed by running it only during normal work hours.

this one was thin on content, IMHO, and he talks too damn fast. but it gave me food for thought, which I guess is good for something.

oh, hey, question: why didn’t you talk about mobile banking? security? “you can’t make transactions through your mobile device” BULLSHIT. are there any industries leading? (who is this blond lady? is she an FI person?) he thinks airlines will lead.

As expected, this morning I am definitely more chipper, despite waking up randomly out of a sound sleep at 4 am. Habit from the cats? Who can say? But I got back to sleep, and woke up with the glorious! spring sun. Altho, OMG the cold. I thought my fingertips were going to freeze off riding over here.

Now powering up with coffee (free thanks to a gift from a co-worker) in prep for the first session of the day. It’s a panel of teens talking about what they want/do online, including with the phones.

Ugh. why so many paper handouts? First an eval form, then someone from the panel organizer with fliers for a conference they’re running.  Whyyyyyyyy? (I had this same issue at the last neighborhood assoc. meeting, btw. Instead of letting people pass stuff out through the audience, I had them all put their fliers & sign-up sheets at the back of the room with the coffee & cookies. Just seemed more appropriate.)

These teens are from Akins New Tech High and some college prep school. So are they representative?

Favorite sites from all the teens: goodreads.com (get good info about books to read); myspace & facebook (create your own layout, communicate with friends & family after school, how she communicates with sis — not mom!); again myspace & facebook, digg (stay updated), news for gamers (big on counterstrike); myspace (mic not on!) (she’s 12 IRL, 16 on myspace); myspace, mixmatters (?) and another mixtape website; “I do not have a myspace” seventeen.com (not quite happy, doesn’t quite tell how to do hairstyles), hipster.com (?) (make your own playlist); myspace (talk to people), moonscape (RPG, chat all over the world, make new friends).

annoyances: distracted by popups. general nodding that ads are annoying. “every time I play (ESPN?) video, miller ad. got really annoying.”

I can’t hear what she just said.

“when you have to see an ad before you get to the next page” or with sound. “obviously it’s bogus”

“when it takes 6000 years to load because there’s so much crap to load” (video ads in particular) also, she’s taken a web design class.

2 on facebook, all but one on myspace.

“when I first got a myspace, I was checking it every minute; once I added all my friends there’s nothing else to do.”

“they keep on updating things to try & make it better, and they don’t need to” (!) (mmm, teenage sarcasm!)

“myspace is kinda like email” (sez the moderator)

got email so he could get “a myspace” and now uses it for registering for anything. otherwise, would be using parents email.

email to talk to sis out of state, to teachers asking for homework.

smackdown on her generations writing skills “teacher must love you”

“I used IM when I was younger.” nice.

“don’t have internet on my phone, too expensive” plays a lot of Tetris. 🙂

has blackberry, gets SAT question of the day in email on phone. plays Pac-Man, has lots of ringtones, but gets them from other phones.

has an emergency-only phone.

older sprint phone “in 4 pieces in my pocket right now” only really cares about phones & texting, plus “emergency games, in case I’m bored out of my mind”

again with the pac-man!

paid for her phone herself, and pays for her own plan, limits her texting. sounds like she’s really cost-consious, knows exactly how much every feature costs. but uses the camera a lot.

nobody watches video, except one person who makes her own.

those who’ve had phones a while couldn’t live w/out. guy with super-fancy phone has only had for a week, could probably live w/out.

avatars? virtual? runescape. xbox live.

interesting point about “pay-to-play” vs. something like counterstrike. used to play gaia (?) — but I’m in high school now. (even tho apparently that site positions itself as for teens)

yahoo avatar — play with hairstyles. 🙂

“degrassi”?! omg, watching that online. heh.

opening for questions at the mic.

“we’re trying to sell things to you.” entered a contest with your own photo/video? air jordan commercial on youtube. “when you interact with something somebody’s trying to sell you, makes you feel like you have a little bit of a say.” respect more? “I know that it’s hard to get people to buy stuff” 🙂

substantive content? (news, causes) one guy is really into digg, keep up to date about the war. interested in the presidential contest, keeps up via Google, YouTube. wikipedia? some nods, some no head-shaking. the onion! gets into the articles via the headline. a different angle, more than “this is happening.” also visits human rights campaign website. no CNN, etc.

can you affect changes online? (someone from PETA?) doesn’t remember the site, but something with donating rice to Africa. “hid the cause inside a game” school class doing heifer, growing veggies to sell & then donating the money. bhopal  incident (! jeebus, was she even alive when that happened?) donating money. a lot of people “don’t want to do something physical.” oy.

from disney online: watching shows on tv or computer? foreign dramas (on some long URL that I didn’t catch). abc family, learning channel, watch them online. used to watch disney channel on her phone, now just tv & online. if he misses an episode of the boondocks, can go online & find the season, click on episode.

more about favorite shows: wrestling, anime, telenovelas. (true story: my sis used

“anti-marketing” — “projects designed to stop marketing on the internet” what do you think? “it’s always going to be there, right? to help fund the website?” if it didn’t work, would back down. “ads should go with what you’re going to.” anybody seen the futurama where they broadcast ads to fry’s sleep? “I don’t want it to be like that.” “in some places, and not in some places” would join a project to eliminate pop-ups. (specifically. huh.)

missed the question. something from an ad agency. addicted to “shoot the money” type games. totally disinterested in “fun” stuff, unless there’s a reward that matters to them. (xbox points.)

little online games? finishing work early @school (same addicted guy); also, a parent’s computer too old, too slow. if at school if “flash isn’t blocked.” and they all know how to unblock

“do any of y’all (incl audience) go outside?” basketball team, job, junior counselor at summer camp.

make plans? texting. in person at school. in person or on phone. phone, except those who need to be texted, myspace doesn’t work because you don’t know when people will get on.

what don’t marketers get about the web? if you could have a greater say, would you welcome it more?  (oh man, the questions are super-incoherent. I wonder if people are using this as an alternative to doing their own damn focus groups, etc.)

my thoughts? many teens have financial restrictions, and that means that they are restricted on what they can do with phones in particular, because (as I have kvetched about before) everything costs too damn much! popup ads are teh devil! (no sh!t sherlock.) and kids are kids. they all reminded me in one way or another of people I knew in high school, even tho that was 15+ years ago. and teens are more explicit about WIIFM (what’s in it for me?), I suppose because they can be?

I’m not sure (yet) what this means for my recent work project. (and it just occurred to me that maybe I should also consider if this has any implication for the ENA, but that’s a thought for another day.)

as far as mobile banking goes, it’s a reasonable reminder, amidst all the early adopter nerd hype, that web for phones is still crazy expensive. otoh, should we be thinking about doing it now so we shake out the bugs before it gets to be popular? ::sigh:: that all depends on the carriers, as far as I can tell.

Kinda brain-dead tonight. Today was long and involved standing in line, smacking my camera into an escalator railing, riding my bike 4 miles and back to get to a camera store and then get back to the panel in time. I think it’s fixed, but it’s powering a little weird now. (Something it’s done before, tho.)

My shoulder hurts. This laptop bag is not really meant for bike riding. I wish there was a locker or something downtown so I didn’t have to lug that thing around to lunch and after panels.

On the plus side, I met up with Andrea & Glenda, ate some tasty food, and went to the Higher Ed meetup. Yeah, I know, kinda weird. But fun, and surprisingly inspiring. Pat Ramsey had some good info about running Windows on the Mac, and using Window Mobile. Plus he gave me the name of someone who’s been doing interesting things with WordPress, which should give me some comparisons for a project I’m considering.

Oh, plus I picked up the Townie (obviously) and the women’s 7-speed is hella fun to ride.

And I just got an email from my old friend H.A., who might be able to come down from the town where she lives now tomorrow. That would be super-cool.

For now, I’m definitely getting ready to get some sleep, so I can really get into tomorrow panel’s. Here’s to better blogging tomorrow.