Here is a link to check out my first run on the board for 2007. I had to don the dry suit cause the water was polar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q1oD3yiODo

Nothing special, I was just glad to be back….

I needed a weekend at the lake like nobody’s business. We headed down there Friday and met up with David and Morgan. Chad, Reese, Brandi and Amanda came up on Saturday and we headed out to board a little while. The boat was packed and it made the wake even better/bigger. I also finally started a Flickr account just for the occasion. It is about time…check the pics out here.

I have had this question enough from people, so it is time that I blog about it. I recently accepted an offer to work with Blake Killian of Voodoo Ventures on a project in their stables called Bliggy Bank. I have an escalating equity stake in a very concept that is very close to execution. We are spec’ing out the final stages right now and this widget is dynamic. So what is it already????

Bliggy Bank is an easy way to monetize your blog. We all visit blogs regularly and can appreciate the amount of work that go into the good ones. We wanted to create a way to donate/tip the blogger for creating good content. We are putting a little spin on it though where there are incentives on both sides. Just wait a little while longer for the rest….

I had a real good time at SXSW. It was finally a chance to meet some people that I had never met in person but had interacted with online. I kicked off the first day with an early panel and ran into my friend Blake Killian of Voodoo Ventures. We game planned a bit during the panel and decided on what we were going to hit that day. After the panel, we went and talked to Ryan Carson of Carsonified for a minute and then headed off for lunch. After lunch I ran into Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures and we found Blake again and headed over to Austin Barcamp.

At Barcamp, I met Blake Burris of Corazon Labs and he has an app up his sleeve. I don’t want to say too much about it right now because he is still working on some details but it is going to be pretty slick and useful. That’s kind of hard to say both of those adjectives about most web 2.0 wannabes. I also ran into Jeff Corkran of InnerEcho and it looks like we need to do some work together. I have a few ideas and Jeff’s company may be able to help me execute.

I also met Brian Oberkirch of BrianOberkirch.com and he always has solid information. His panel was cool because it was relevant. It was about running an internet company outside of the valley. Told you it was relevant…..

I have to cut it short at SXSW to come back to the real world and fulfill orders. I am getting a post of “Shout Outs” together of all the people I met while I was there. Hopefully that will be coming this evening.

The first panel I made it to this morning was about turning your projects into revenue generating businesses. This hasn’t really been a problem I have faced because my businesses weren’t hobbies. I only started my companies to spend a $1 and make $2. The panel was great and the information was inspiring.

We had Ted Rheingold of Dogster/Catster, Tara Hunt of CitizenAgency, Gabe Rivera of Techmeme, the PixelGirl, and Ryan Carson of Carson Systems. These panelist definitely brought a crowd and handled the discussion flow pretty good. I want to get the podcast to go over it all again.

I was sitting in the back with Blake and there was a group huddled around an electrical outlet as if it was 10 degrees and they were huddled around a fire. One of those guys was Robert Scoble of Scobleizer and another guy I met in the group was Dave Coustan of Earthlink.

We are working hard in the big chairs in downtown Austin as we are gearing up for the weekend. Right now we have some primetime real estate with the best seats in the house (pictured below). I am afraid, albeit in a good way, that we are going to have to cut our weekend short because our orders are piling up for You Design It and Defy Distribution. We went to dinner last nite with some friends, Lance and Jessica, and they let us stay at their house.

Lance recently received “Austin Runner of the Year” and you can check out his team at 3 Stories Racing. Nice site…