Everyone is talking about it, from musicians to geeks and social media fanboys and girls, it’s the uber popular SXSW (South by Southwest) festival and it’s happening next week.

The SXSW MUSIC AND MEDIA CONFERENCE showcases hundreds of musical acts from around the globe on over fifty stages in downtown Austin. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature. [SXSW]

The Flaming Lips @ SXSW 2007 – Photo Credit: Kris Krug on Flickr

Phillip beat me to the punch on listing all Vancouverites/Canucks who will be in attendance so here’s who he has listed so far:

My favourite Vancouver musician and yours, Matthew Good will also be performing on March 15th at Momo’s and be sure to watch out for Raincity’s party, representing Canadians and lovers of a good time everywhere (read more on Raincity’s SXSW 2008 preview).

But there’s more than just parties and concerts, there’s also the interactive portion. To give you an example of ONE day’s schedule here’s a link Tod passed along including such sessions as: How to Bluff Your Way in Web 2.0, New Dogs, New Tricks: New Media Goes to the Movies, Unleashing CSS: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love IE 7, Commercialization of Wikis, Ruining User Experience, From Tags to Riches: Life After Code and hundreds more! Did I mention this is all just from one day out of ten? Yeah.

Photo Credit: Robert Scales on Flickr

To keep all of us insanely jealous folks back home up to speed on the goings on in Austin I have recruited two bloggers who will be guest posting and cross posting their updates and entries from their own sites: John Biehler (iPhone master, tech and gadget guru) and Colleen Coplick (the queen of PR). Watch for their entries next week when SXSW gets underway. If you are attending and would like your name added to the “blog watch” simply leave a comment below or over on Phillip’s post.

A while back Duane and I were on iChat talking about how it was almost lunch time. We exchanged some html talk like *hunger* me */hunger* (replacing * with the brackets of course) and it soon evolved into some php code that I simply can’t share because it may further screw up the format of this blog post. Needless to say, it was really fun… and uber nerdy.

I was browsing around this evening on the lookout for some new nerd-friendly t-shirts after being inspired by this shirt last week and a conversation Meg had on Twitter this morning. Unfortunately all I found was a serious lack of geeky t-shirts for women.

I’m not talking about the pink (and don’t get my wrong, I like pink) and sparkley “Geek Girl” shirts. I don’t want a shirt that states the obvious, I want something that would instantly display my geek-cred not one of those “*tits* */tits*” tops. (again, replacing * with the brackets)

Shirts like “I (heart) my Geek” are also cute, but I don’t want something that says I’m with a geek. ThinkGeek almost had me with “#!/usr/bin/girl“, “#include love.h” or with their babydoll version of “There’s no place like 127.0.0.1” until they threw on the ruby slippers.

This isn’t about feeling the need to validate my geekdom with a message t-shirt, it’s just that you know, I happen to own a few select message tees. They’re fun to have in the closet to bust out every now and then.

I think I can almost dig this little number from Cafepress, “Roses are #FF0000“, and upon flipping through the pages there are a few more gems like: “Turn me On“, with a cute little Mac power button, “Mac Chick Pro“, and okay I even got a chuckle out of “There’s Nothing Funny About Tubgirl“. I also like the pinup concept, but not sure I like this design in particular.

From Jinx I found the following that were pretty decent: “I’m only here because my server is down“, and “Arrogant Linux Elitist“.

I also giggled quite often looking at Syswear, however it was more of a sympathetic giggle followed by a groan: “That’s funny, it worked on my machine“, and “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature“.

But seriously, where else can I find some fun geek shirts, made for women, that are not gamer talk, contain no references to MySpace but just plain old… geeky?

This past weekend I felt nothing but “Surrey Pride” when talking with my Crazy Canucks co-hosts, as it turns out 3 of us were raised in Surrey and are all pretty proud of that fact. It got me wondering, who are some other great Surreyites that I’m honored to associate with the city… and now a new blog post series is born: Surrey File.

This is about an electrical engineer and musician that forever changed the face of Canadian politics.

In 1998 I was in Ottawa as a Canadian Youth Ambassador with Encounters Canada. Yes, it’s true, I’ve always been a nerd. As a part of the week-long program we got to get out and explore our nation’s capital including a tour of the Parliament Building and sitting in on a session in the House of Commons. There he was, my MP standing proud with his white pony tail cascading down the back of his tweed coat (with leather arm patches). This was Chuck Cadman and he was on a mission.

When I was in Grade 7 a boy only a few years old than me was stabbed in Guildford on the street by random youths. This boy was Jesse Cadman, and every Sunday when my grandmother would visit my grandfather’s place in the cemetery, she would spot Chuck Cadman just across the grass paying respects to his son whom he laid to rest.

Chuck and his wife Dona stepped up their community involvement, working with troubled youths, starting organizations and campaigning for tougher laws. As a result, Chuck entered politics in 1997 as a member of the Reform Party of Canada. He played a pivotal role in incorporating new measures into the Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act and was appointed Justice Critic. In 2004 after losing re-election, Chuck was also diagnosed with cancer, but that didn’t slow him down.

More determined than ever, Chuck re-entered politics with vigor as an Independent. I remember when he was campaigning he had a party for his constituents in Whalley, handing out hot dogs and welcoming families to come on by. The elected MP who bumped him out of his Party spot didn’t even live in Surrey at the time although he had influence, money and powerful people backing him.

Cadman was re-elected after that (by a landslide 43%) and became the only Independent in a minority government, giving him the swing vote and significant power in the House. He did everything in his power to listen to his constituents, stick to his instincts and support families. In 2005 Chuck Cadman passed away due to the skin cancer that he had been battling for two years. When I heard the news I cried.

Chuck Cadman was one person searching for justice who stood his ground and truly represented his riding. He gave Surrey a voice on the national stage and for that I’m truly proud of my hometown, and its people.

“Never underestimate the power of a small but committed group of people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

More biographies of Chuck can be found on the wiki and Canada Online.

Ever since my post this morning I’ve had his music stuck in my head and for those of you who didn’t Google the lyrics, they were from a song by Ray LaMontagne. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩

They had been walking around the city all day and their feet were tired. Their arms were sore from carrying boutique-purchased items, groceries and a bottle of wine, yet their spirits were electric, sparked by the excitement of finally being together.

Their love was new, still silent and unspoken but it was enough to make each of their eyes sparkle with anticipation and emotion. They had gone about that afternoon acting as though the only way they could survive trekking to the next city block was to supply each other with air through a long passionate kiss. They were giddy.

Now back at the apartment, bags unpacked and wine poured, he went over to his laptop. The lights were off but the glow of the city rushing through the windows in the living room was ambiance enough. Opening his computer he was blushed with the soft glow from the screen as he said, “let’s have a dance.”

They had a conversation earlier where she mentioned it used to be rare for a boy to talk to her at a school dance. She’d usually be too busy on the organizing committee punching tickets or sitting alone on a folding chair in the corner.

It was cheesy, but it worked. She took her fingertips off the window sill, turned her back on the skyline, and barely whispered out, “okay”.

He pressed play on a song he’d been saving for just this moment – for just this girl. As they slowly came together, touched, and held onto each other for dear life, the song played.

Place your hands on my face
Close my eyes and say
That love is a poor man’s food

The lyrics and music echoed from floor to ceiling throughout the empty room, and it passionately consumed them both as they moved ever so slightly in what was more of a swaying hug.

I could hold you in my arms
I could hold on forever

She closed her eyes and wished at some point they would end up like this again. It didn’t have to be in that apartment, in that city or even that country, she just knew she had to be in his arms. Her now irrepressible feelings were going to grow and they both knew even thousands of miles couldn’t keep them apart.

The next time they came together in such a melodic embrace (to that same tune reserved just for that girl) it wasn’t in an empty room, but one filled with the most important people in their lives. They were all there to witness a love that was sparked long before the first dance in front of them and hopefully far outliving the last.

Happy 2nd Anniversary John, I’m one lucky woman.