I'm a bit tired today...probably because of the incredibly delayed flight that arrived this morning. Or, it could be because I had one of the best SXSW that I ever had. For the fourth straight year, I attended the SXSW interactive conference and each year I try and do things differently. Four years ago, I tried to build a network while slowly starting to take photos. The second year had me become an official photographer for SXSW with the third transitioning to me being a hired gun and photographing some of the biggest parties at SXSW. This year, I decided to change it up again and went as the Editor in Chief of Bub.blicio.us...and my goal was to tout and promote it...I think it worked.

Part of my exhaustion stems from me always being on my feet running from party to party meeting friends, both old and new, and evolving who I am. Many new people were introduced to me and I managed to help out others too. Plenty of photographs were taken...so many in fact that I'm struggling to get them all done quickly! Those 8000 photos will be one of the best moments of my SXSW experience.

Plus I got to meet celebrities too! This year I got to see Forrest Whittaker, Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby Maguire, Kevin Connelly, and D Pannabaker. Definitely it was a star-studded event and the parties didn't disappoint.

Had a chance to even see the Jay-Z performance but turned it down...probably a bad move but I made up for it by going to hear Thievery Corp perform with several friends. That mistake still wound up being one of the greatest parties ever...

Of course SXSW wouldn't be anything without the ever-favorite douchebags...those who would steal stuff, be rude, and walk around with an over-imaginated sense of self-entitlement. We'll leave it at that, but I experienced a few of those this trip.

Thanks to all my friends for an amazing SXSW. Hope we'll get to recreate that magic again soon!

Taken with picplz at LAUNCH 2012 in San Francisco, CA.

Taken with picplz at LAUNCH 2012 in San Francisco, CA.

Taken with picplz in San Francisco, CA.

I've admired Warren Buffett for what he's saying to Congress about the tax code. I do think that those with wealth should pay their fair share to help the country, if not for the national debt, then for the services that we all use. No, I'm not talking about socialism...I give those who earned their wealth credit - I want to be wealthy like them...

But in this latest battle between Senator Mitch McConnell and Buffett, the senator chided Buffett and said that if he wanted to do more, then "send in a check". Buffett's response? Classic and said he'll even match the amount returned by each member of Congress one-to-one! Oh and here's something to leave you with...

"I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions."

You can read more about Buffett's response and the tryst between the McConnell and Buffett here.

Go get 'em Buffett!

Taken with picplz in San Francisco, CA.

Taken with picplz in San Francisco, CA.

Taken with picplz in San Francisco, CA.

While vacationing in Seattle this holiday, I happened to walk across the world-famous Microsoft store in Bellevue Center. It's a pretty large store that really overshadows the nearby Apple store. It was almost magical standing in front of the store because it seemed almost surreal standing in front of a retail store of a company I've been a consumer of for my entire life...

And that was before I walked into the store.

Stepping foot in the store, I was a bit overwhelmed by what I saw...it seemed a bit of a mixture of outdated technology and cool software. Along the walls, people could play XBox games on the wall screens and even could interact with nearby Microsoft Surfaces. But what was weird was when I walked around, I stumbled upon their laptops and Windows Phone displays...I have some issues with Windows Phone, but I'll jot those down later. But looking at their laptops and even their tablets, it almost looked like Microsoft wasn't even trying to reach ME with their tech, more like businesses. The software was more suited to the individual, but probably not the tech. After all, why would anyone want a tablet with a stylus on it? After using Android and iOS devices, I can see that Microsoft's Windows tablet OS is misplaced and needs to be reworked so that it caters to touch, not to stylus.

In any event, my first experience to the Microsoft store was surreal and a nice reality-check. I think it's pretty cool to be in there, but the experience I got was a bit misleading. If I wanted to buy XBox games or even software, I'd check them out, but not for hardware.

While vacationing in Seattle this holiday, I happened to walk across the world-famous Microsoft store in Bellevue Center. It's a pretty large store that really overshadows the nearby Apple store. It was almost magical standing in front of the store because it seemed almost surreal standing in front of a retail store of a company I've been a consumer of for my entire life...

And that was before I walked into the store.

Stepping foot in the store, I was a bit overwhelmed by what I saw...it seemed a bit of a mixture of outdated technology and cool software. Along the walls, people could play XBox games on the wall screens and even could interact with nearby Microsoft Surfaces. But what was weird was when I walked around, I stumbled upon their laptops and Windows Phone displays...I have some issues with Windows Phone, but I'll jot those down later. But looking at their laptops and even their tablets, it almost looked like Microsoft wasn't even trying to reach ME with their tech, more like businesses. The software was more suited to the individual, but probably not the tech. After all, why would anyone want a tablet with a stylus on it? After using Android and iOS devices, I can see that Microsoft's Windows tablet OS is misplaced and needs to be reworked so that it caters to touch, not to stylus.

In any event, my first experience to the Microsoft store was surreal and a nice reality-check. I think it's pretty cool to be in there, but the experience I got was a bit misleading. If I wanted to buy XBox games or even software, I'd check them out, but not for hardware.