donturn.com

All for now.

While driving through Arlington on I-30, I got a look at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium under construction.



Doesn’t it look just a little bit like the Legion of Doom’s headquarters?

These are the Web sites that I’ll be obsessing about today:

• ABC News - Politics
• Comedy Central Indecision 2008 - Live Blog
• CBS News Election Coverage
• CNN Election Center
• Drudge Report
• FiveThirtyEight.com Electoral Projections Done Right
• Google Maps - 200 Elections Gallery
• Huffington Post - Politics
• New York Times - Politics
• PBS Vote 2008 Election Map

ReadWriteWeb also has a great list of sites:
Your Election Day Web Toolkit - ReadWriteWeb

Next Tuesday, October 21, 2008 @ 5:30 pm -7:30 pm at the University of Texas LBJ Library Brown Room, 10th Floor there looks to be an interesting talk:

Strauss Center :: Science 2.0: Globalized Innovation in Electronics by Dan Hutcheson, CEO, VLSI Research

Dan Hutcheson, of VLSI Research, Inc., is a recognized authority and well-known visionary for the semiconductor industry. He advises companies in strategic and tactical marketing, business management and manufacturing trends, productivity and strategy. Mr. Hutcheson developed the industry’s first cost-of-ownership model and the first factory cost-optimization model in the 1980s.

This presentation is part of the Strauss Center’s Technology, Innovation and Global Security Speaker Series, which brings world-renowned experts to campus to discuss how to sustain innovation and better utilize modern technology to benefit an increasingly global economic and social system.

Marshmallow Veeps!

Originally uploaded by donturn

This idea suddenly occurred to me the other day. Instead of building marshmallow “people” from scratch, these halloween marshmallow peeps seemed to be a perfect fit.

I used blue food coloring to make a “blue collar” on the very white (Delaware?) ghost for Joe Binden.

The jack-o-lanterns with a little dark food coloring for square eyeglasses seemed a natural fit for Palin with the rumors of her tanning bed, and perhaps a little empty-headed.

By now you’ve heard the saying “Keep Austin Weird”. What you might not have known is who coined the phrase and how it just might actually relate to Austin, Texas.

All those questions (and more) can now be (mostly) answered by the man himself, Red Wassenich, who did in fact come up with the saying as an offhand remark when he called in to a local radio station.

Now Red has a book chock full of Austin and Weirdness: Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town, by Schiffer Publishing.

Some friends had a signing party for Red’s book and I got to attend. Here’s a picture of Red in action:

This article in the Austin American Statesman about the University of Texas creating video game archive here in Austin.

As you may remember, I was at the kick-off reception for the video game archive a while back and think it holds great promise for insights into the history of video game development, design methods for future designers and possibly some fun too.

The Austinist has a short, but interesting interview with Don McKellar about his new movie Monkey Warfare.

Don is a favorite writer-director-actor from Toronto. You’re a fool if you don’t watch some his work including:

• The Red Violin: tracking a violin’s path through history with Samuel L. Jackson (but no snakes or planes), a child prodigy, a Chinese musician in the era of Cultural Revolution and a love-triangle including the violin itself.
• Last Night: an unusual “end of the world” movie with a small role by David Cronenberg as a dedicated power company employee dealing with the destruction of the planet in the only way he knows how - by thanking all of his customers (how Canadian)
• Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould : wonderful and insightful and you get to learn what Glenn Gould might eat for lunch.
• Twitch City: which recently came out on DVD and captures slacker Toronto, in the Kingston Market area perfectly. Watch this now.

OK Austin, South by SouthWest is here and you’re wondering just who all these people in town are. I offer this guide to attendees in homage to Scooby Doo:

• South by SouthWest Interactive (sxswi) = Velma
• South by SouthWest Film = Fred
• South by SouthWest Music = Shaggy

You’re welcome.

Coming to Austin for South by SouthWest? Already in Austin and looking for something to do this evening?

Well, it’s that time of year again, the annual Austin area Information Architects and UT ASIS&T chapter pre-pre-SXSWi Meetup and Happy Hour(s) tonight, Thursday March 8th. If you’re a Web geek, blogger, designer or just about anything else you’re welcome to join us.

We’ll be there tonight from 5-7 at the Cedar Door, which is at 201 Brazos Street. (Map to the Cedar Door ) Lots of Austinites will be there to happily advise out-of-towners on all things SXSWi, Austin, BBQ and so on. (Lots of Austinites will be arguing amongst themselves about SXSWi, Austin and BBQ too.)

Come on by!

http://upcoming.org/event/157945/