Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Barr Mansion for Lee Leffingwell fundraiser

Well the highlight of my day yesterday was that I was invited to go to a fundraising event for Lee Leffingwell, running mayor candidate for Austin, Texas.

The event was at Barr Mansion, that place is absolutely amazing. It was such a beautiful property and everyone was so friendly. I met a few interesting people, one of them being Lee Leffingwell himself :)

I met an interesting green entrepreneur who makes compost tea. Unfortunately I did not get the name of his company nor contact info but it made for a great conversation. Click on tea compost to learn more from wikipedia. Pretty interesting concept. He also is working towards building a sustainable development that is completely green; he makes the houses out of natural products, like adobe houses.

In addition to that, I met an individual that is an animator/film maker/ and carpenter. Modern day renaissance man, much like myself.

It was an interesting experience to have attending this fundraising event, considering that I have never been to something like this. Its a bit intimidating to show up to an event with a bunch of people that I dont know but I managed.

I was also fortunate enough to meet a grant write from America Youth Works that was really interested in the Social Innovatin Hub that I am working on with a group of entreprneurs. Youth Works is opening up a green collars education program in south austin and it falls in line with what we are doing with the Austin Social Innovation Hub.

I was able to meet and greet Lee, shortly after his speech at the event. I mentioned to him briefly about the Social Innovation Hub and Social Innovation Incubator and he said "lets meet once I win office" so lets keep our fingers crossed. That would be great to get the mayors support on this developement from the get go.

After that event I left and hung out with my friend Justin a.k.a. Tiny.

Monday, April 27, 2009

World Massage Festival

Well I went to go help my good friend Ariana out with her vendors booth at the World Massage Festival this year down in beautiful New Braunfels at the T bar M resort. I was quite impressed with the comfort of the T Bar M (photo gallery). Definitely a place that I would like to go spend a few days and unwind at.

Saturday was my first morning to commute to the festival. I started out the day by miscalculating the time it would take to get there. For some reason I confused New Braunfels with San Marcos. To make it better, it was actually farther south in Canyon Lake. The festival was at 2456 Hwy 46 a few miles from New Braunfels High school.

It was an interesting festival set up. Its weird how they did it, it was more a student centric festival than a vendor centric festival. I say this because both days on Saturday and Sunday they had two class sessions per day, first class was from 8am to noon and then 2 to 6pm. So it was pretty slow with foot traffic, I think all in all there were like 300'ish people attending the event.

There were some interesting massage practices I came across. Massage cupping was interesting and looked pretty painful. Also there was a concept called Bamboo Fusion that used both hot and cold polished bamboo sticks. We are hoping to work out a strategic partnership with them but its still very early in the talks so we will see how that goes, there were quite a few businesses we met that we are hoping to synergistically work with. My friends business, Ariana Institute, got quite a bit of attention. Ariana was a judge for the techniques contest that took place. Ariana was also recognized for being a pioneer in massage therapy and instruction. Congratulations Ariana.

Right next to us was a booth called, Liddle Kidz, that focuses on pediatric massage techniques. Great meeting Tina and Shad, I look forward to having lunch with you when you are in Austin.

Another great connection I made with a business owner was with that of Mother Earth Pillows, those pillows sure can be handy. I am counting down the days till I purchase one. Hopefully soon. Really interesting entrepreneurial story Karen, the owner and founder, has. She told me of one story she met where Bill Clinton stopped by her booth and talked to her for a few minutes. Had to have been there to get the whole gist of it, lol.

I do want to say that at T Bar M, they have the best freacking ribs I have ever had. So good and their brisekt is exceptional as well. The comedian they had on hand for Saturday night wasn't that bad either, Lanny Moody. He was sort of like Jeff Foxworthy comedy, I liked it. I ended up getting home that evening around 10 and decided to return the next day to help out for the last day of the festival.

In addition to that, the only other food that I ate was that of Herberts Taco Hut, First go around I had two beef fajita tacos with gucamole, exceptional, then Sunday morning I had two egg, cheese, bean and bacon tacos, way delicious and then on the way out Sunday I had two cheese enchiladas and another beef fajita. Everything was great, definitely check it out if you are in the area which may never happen.

Unfortunately that Saturday night I decided to start blogging and stayed up way late till about 4 setting up this blog. That inevitably led me to run an hour late Sunday. Sunday was pretty slow but it did help add the mailing list we were compiling, we almost got up to 60 people. Thats pretty good. Now we have to start planning for next years festival in Kentucky.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Unexpected hang out with Elliott

Hi elliot.

Thanks for stopping by unexpectedly. Luckily, it was right when I got home from New Braunfels.

ToO bad we missed the art festival down on Cesar Chavez street. Oh well, it was on a whim anyways.

I had a good time beating ya at chess at Hideout. That was a pretty a good Gorilla Mocha, if you dont know what it is, you should check it out . It was delicious. Chess is such a great game, I still cant believe you beat me that one night after downtown with everyone watching.

Check this out;

we went to Hickory St. Had a great burger, the hula burger. It had pineapple, and bbq sauce. The fries are probably the best in Austin, if not the planet. The michelada was alright too, if you have never had one before, check out how to make a michelada at the link. I had mine with Negro Modelo a dark mexican beer. But my only qualm with my dinner experience last night is this; is it ok if you sit out on the deck in the front of the restaurant right next to Congress, for ROACHES to be scurrying below your table and all over the deck? Ugh I had roaches, so gross. So we had to move in to the covered patio area where didn't see any roaches.

After a short walk, we decided to go check out some jazz at the Elephant Room, never a let down. We got there just in time to see La Frontera Jazz band. Real good tunes. The best beer to get there is Schneider Weisse Weizenhell (Hefeweizen).

Finally back at the Railyard, I passed out while watching a lame movie, Funny Games, with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth. Movie review coming up soon. I was not impressed and I can't believe how submissive Tim Roth and Naomi Watts' roles were in the movie. For crying out loud if someone is in your house and you don't want them in there don't just slap them and turn your back on them. Geez, some people just dont think. Especially when your wife tells you escort these people out. Forget it, no movie review, franly way bad. Don't bother.

That was pretty much my unplanned outing with Elliott.
Ah breakfast my fav meal of the day. Just had my fav kind of breakfast taco; eggs w/ beans, bacon & of course cheese :) herberts taco hut delivered deliciously
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About Me

This is me in a nutshell.

I am originally from San Antonio, Texas. Came to Austin in 2002 to attend St. Edwards University. Graduated in 2006 with a double major in Business Administration and Management with honors. During college, my highlights were joining Delta Chi, being on the SEU lacrosse team that won a league championship, and overcame follicular thyroid cancer while working just about full time and having quite a few internships.

Shortly after graduating, I went on a mission trip to Lima, Peru. A few months after that I went on a backpacking trip around Europe for a month by myself with less than $1000 dollars.

Starting in 2007 I started working for the great Wells Fargo Bank as a credit manager and a personal banker. Now I am looking for something new.

Now you gotta read the blog to only begin to understand and be amazed by JC Otero the Idea Catalyst.

Together we can change the world.

Blog creation

Finally gave in and decided to create a blog.

Wish I would have started earlier so that way I could have added apps as they came out rather than having to sort thru thousands of really cool stuff.

Boy I have a lot of work to do.

God speed