Author: Michael

SxSW starts this weekend in Austin. This is my fifth year and these are my helpful tips for the novice.
Introduce Yourself – People are at SXSW because they want to meet people and see new things. Strangely, many of the blogger types that go are introverted types that are a bit shy. Do yourself a favor and say “Hello, I’m So-and-so” to that person you are sitting next to. (Don’t say So-and-so, use your name…) I guarantee that they will be happy to talk to you.
ABC – Always Be Charging – If you bring a laptop, you need to be charging it every single chance you get. No battery lasts long enough. Try to sit near an oulet in the session rooms. Share power outlets with others.
Personal cards – Make up business cards with your name, email, and website info on them to hand out. Bring your regular business cards if you want, but what people really want is a card that ties you to your online persona so they can find you after SxSW.
Session Info – When you arrive on Friday go to the Convention Center and pick up your badge. They will give you a large canvas bag of swag. You don’t want to haul this around, so you need to figure a way to drop this off at your hotel before a long night of partying. In the bag are two crucial items. First is the program which has detailed session descriptions. Second is a small pocket card with the session schedule on it. You want these to be in your daily walk around bag, not in your hotel room.
Shiner Bock – Shiner Bock is a local Texas beer that you find everywhere. Often referred to as simply ‘Shiner’.
Fray Cafe – Go to the Fray Cafe on Sunday night. It’s one of the best things about SxSW.
Stay Warm – It can get cold and rain in Austin this time of year. Bring a good jacket or coat.
Sharpeners – There are no pencil sharpeners at SXSW. People think writing on a pad of paper with a wooden pencil is a bit strange.
The Backchannel – Be aware that there is a backchannel of real-time IRC discussion going on. Probably on irc.freenode.net, probably on #sxsw. The trick is to not make the backchannel into the front channel for you. It can distract you from listening to the speaker/session that you paid to see…
Secure connections – Wifi traffic is in the clear and people are sniffing packets all the time. Arrange for secure email, FTP, and if possible, secure browsing while at SXSW. It’s unlikely that a malicious hacker is gunna do bad things, but it’s best to be prepared.
Street Signs – For some reason, downtown Austin has few street signs. Get a map and study it before venturing out.
Food – Eat food. Austin has a great bar scene. You will be drinking. Don‘t drink on an empty stomach.
Texas BBQ – IMHO, Texas BBQ pales in comparison to BBQ in other areas like Kansas City and Carolina. That chopped beef sandwich stuff just doesn’t cut it, but people will want to eat it for lunch.
Say Hello to Me – I would love to meet Loyal Cruft Readers. On Friday night I will be at Break Bread with Brad drinking beer and smoking cigars. Email me or IM at pusateri AT gmail.com and I promise to respond.
Any questions?

My eldest daughter Zoe, loves herself some anime. As Loyal Cruft Readers may recall, we dressed as Naruto characters for Halloween. This weekend was the Anime Los Angeles convention. After gathering the approval of our family cosplay/anime expert Rachel, I decided to take Zoe to her first anime con.
Now, I’m been to sci-fi cons, gaming cons, all kinds of cons, but I had never been to a anime convention in costume to be part of the cosplay. Cosplay takes things to a whole new level of geek. I mean, I’m a corporate exec type, not a crazy cosplayer right?
Before I knew it, it was Saturday morning around 9AM and I was standing my kitchen dressed as Kakashi, drinking my coffee wondering if I was really up for this. Zoe was nervous in her Hinata costume and beyond excited to go. There was no backing out now.
Once we got there, I knew it would a different kind of convention as we walked in the door and someone yelled out “Yay! Hintata!” runs up and give Zoe a big hug. Zoe had to explain that the other girl was dressed as an older Hinata.
Within about 30 minutes, we were in the groove and I had been asked to pose with other people a few times. I was a bit perplexed by a girl wearing what appeared to be a bikini made of cotton puffs, wearing a mask like mine, and nothing else. She and her girlfriends were laughing up a storm. Zoe informed me that she was dressed as Sexy Jutsu Kakashi. It took me until the next day to actually find out what Sexy No Jutsu was.
Soon enough Zoe made friends with another group of Naruto cosplay kids and the rest of the day was spent following them around like some sort of ninja bodyguard.

Many weblogs dwell on the inner thoughts and feelings of individuals, allowing readers a glimpse into the psyche of the writer as they move through life. Cruft has never really been a place to talk about my life in such personal terms, mainly a place for Cruft Labs research and other whimsical thoughts. Prepare yourself for something just a little different here.

Today I write about a significant personal transformation for myself. I’ve had this issue for years but few knew about it. Only those deep into the subculture could relate to my dilemma. Even my wife was unaware of what was going on. Recently, I’ve taken the tough steps to rectify the situation and approach normalcy.

Please don’t be shocked by what I reveal here, though it may make some of you queasy.

Enough of the preamble, onto the story. It’s been a tough three weeks for me, but I’m past the worst of it now.

I’m sure surprising to many, I broke my habit of using ‘ASDX’ for movement in games and finally switched to ‘WASD’.

Yes, I can admit it freely now that I used ‘ASDX’ for movement in video games for well over five years.

Imagine my shame at going to E3 and not being about to pwn newbs since the ‘WASD’ default setting was in place on every game. Sneakily, I would reassign the controls and hope no one would notice my ‘problem’.

I mentioned it casually to a few co-workers, hoping someone would help and see my pain, but all I got was rolled eyes and few ‘Dude, that’s just wrong.’ comments. At home, my daughters would ask about the keys and I would lie and say, “That’s simply the way it is…”

Recovery

A little over three weeks ago, a corrupted Windows registry led to me deciding to do a clean install of Windows on my desktop. As a result, I had to reinstall my games. I loaded Battlefield 2 and World of Warcraft and was ready to play. It was at this point I mustered all my courage and refused to change the key bindings.

Oh, the horror of getting pwned over and over and my fingers tried to learn how to move again. Time and time again, I’d futilely hit the Q and E while getting mowed down. I really wanted to give up and give into the call of ‘ASDX’. Instead, I drank a nice glass of scotch to steel my nerves and continued to endure the pain of ‘WASD’.

Steadily I kept at it until my very muscles relearned their tasks and I began to pwn again.

Today I feel much more comfortable with my new habits and no longer want to give up and go back to ‘ASDX’. To anyone that is trapped in the world of ‘ASDX’, I can offer hope that you too can get through your issues and find some peace in ‘WASD’.

Thanks to you Loyal Cruft Readers for your support as I continue through this significant personal transformation.

I have been watching several podcasts, including Ctrl-Alt-Chicken. Recently they did a short segment on making Cheese Pie. Go ahead and watch it. This entry won’t make a ton of sense if you don’t watch it first.
The girls love cheese, so I thought it might be fun to make the Cheese Pie per the Ctrl-Alt-Chicken recipe.
Enjoy the first episode of Control-Alt-Children:

Bacon is favorite in Cruft Manor. Typically, bacon is cooked in the microwave here. It is quite a production with separating the strips on a plate and careful placement.
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Infected, and Martin, Joey, and the Gator were discussing how to cook bacon. Gator suggested that you cook bacon “like a man” and toss the slab in without separating anything.
Now Gator ain’t a man to steer me wrong, so I gave it a try.

Thanks to a tip from Art at the office, Cruft Manor is now a viewer of Funimation Channel, a free 24 hour a day anime channel.