And I thought the Music Industry couldn't get any dumber

Well folks, I was wrong apparently they want to have "variable" pricing meaning charge more for popular songs and only 99 cents for other songs. I still can't understand how the music industry wants to kill of their last remaining business model. Maybe Bronfman's kids aren't getting that island in the French Polynesia that they always wanted, oh what is the world coming too.

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Gelato's

It's amazing what the good times you can have just sitting around a table eating gelato with dudes from work. We decided to get out of the office and work from here today, and I for one am having a good time. I can't believe my summer here in Texas is almost over, actually it is almost impossible to believe, but I guess it is time to get back to the reality of school and then married life. So as my last summer as a bachelor comes to close I really can't say I'm not scared of married life, but then again I think I always fear change until it happens. Anyhow, I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with the most wonderful girl in the world! :)

Well anyhow, we're heading out of here soon, and sorry for the lack of posts EB has kept me really busy.

AMD Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Intel

I normally wouldn't post about this, but since AMD is based here in Austin and I very much dislike Intel (overpriced, non-innovative processors). Here is the article on Groklaw and I will leave it at that. I hope all goes well AMD, there is nothing like some good old competition to keep hardware prices down.

A Big Texas Birthday

Austin city Skyline

Last weekend was simply put: AWESOME!!!

Emily arrived here in Austin, TX on Thursday and she stayed through Monday. We had a blast so let me give you all a day by day breakdown.

Thursday:

Picked Emily up from the airport and dropped her off at the hotel. We had an awesome time catching up that evening and watched TV and just hung around.

Friday:

I headed off to work early in the morning and Emily decided to go out shopping. Rather uneventful day until the car broke down about 10 minutes from work when Emily was drving it around 2PM. My fellow EB'r Marzeyeh was kind enough to help Emily and I out and we got it towed to a local auto mechanic where they determined it was the alternator and they had it prepared by 6PM. Not too shabby for time, so anyhow they had everything ready to roll, so Emily and I headed over to the Alamo Draft House and we say Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith. My third time seeing the movie, but Emily's first. After that we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Saturday:

Emily and I decided to eat breakfast at the local Cafe named "Cafe Java", which btw was excellent. And then we headed off to the San Antonio River Walk for my birthday. The Riverwalk is a lot of fun and we walked around from about 1 - 4 PM and then we went to the hard rock where I got a hurricane with the souvenir glass. Not bad a mix of two types of rum, mango juice, and pinapple juice. You all should definitely try it. Anyhow, we then found out that the Spur's were having there "little" parade down the Riverwalk and it made it almost impossible to move around; however, we got to see a little bit of it before heading out early to get home and avoid the traffic.

Sunday:

Emily and I headed off to church with Phil and then we went to ZTejas for brunch. Afterwards, Emily and I went to the Arboretum and shopped around at the Pottery Barn and a few other stores before going to Cheesecake Factory for dinner (mmm... Cheescake). Anyhow, after a slice Orea Mudslide Cheescake we both headed back to the hotel and we went over all of her 500+ Europe pictures. It was a lot of fun to finally get to talk about her awesome experience in Europe and it made me really wish I could have gone with her. Oh well, maybe someday.

Monday:

Went out to breakfast at Cafe Java and I bought Emily a mug there. The owner was there and he gave us a free coffee for buying the mug. And then I took Emily back to the hotel to pack and I headed off to work until around 11:30AM when I left and drove her to the airport.

So overall, a whirlwind weekend, but yet a ton of fun. And it was definitely the best weekend I've had in Austin so far. I shall leave you all with some pictures we took while we were at the Route 360 overlook of Austin in the Texas Hill country.

Emily looking over the Austin skyline

Me not paying attention to the road

The True Texas Spirit (Sorry Nick I stole it again)

Austin a City of Chains

So we went to see Batman Begins at the Alamo draft house Tuesday night, and simply put it rocked. One of the best superhero flicks I have seen in my life. Anyhow, while I was waiting in the huge line to get in I realized what is truly awesome about Austin, all the local chains. The food and other small commercial enterprises are what really define a city and its respective culture. Anyone, that hasn't been to Austin should definitely come here sometime in their life, it is truly a blast.

The coolest movie theater out there: The Alamo Draft House

Me and My Foreman

Just wanted to post about my Foreman, the most innovative American product that has ever come onto the market since sliced bready. Seriously, if there were not such things as toaster ovens and Foreman grills us apartment owners would be stuck with pasta, easy mac, and frozen TV dinners. So here's to your George, thanks for giving us non-home owners a chance at making good burgers, steak, bacon and anything else our minds can come up with.

NOTE: If you think this post was pointless and stupid, than I hope you enjoy your frozen dinners

My Foreman

IBM Extreme Blue Lab Week 2

So I've been here in Austin with the IBM Extreme Blue program for about two weeks now and it is a blast. We've done a lot of exciting work so far and I'm averaging about 10 to 12 hour days in the office, and the funny thing is the days still go by very quickly and normally I have to pull myself away from my work to go home. I'd love to talk more about the specifics of the project, but it is kind of IBM confidential (as you'll see in the poorly edited photo below). On another note, my group is totally awesome; I have Juan Carlos (MBA UNC Chapel Hill), Adi (UNC Chapel Hill), and Marzyeh (New Mexico State University). We work quite well together, and each of us bring a very unique and different skill set to the table. Anyhow, Adi just told me I am too "Blogtastic", so I need to get back to work, anyhow later ya'll.

My new desk at the Extreme Blue Austin lab