Austin Friends and places

There is too much fun stuff to do in Austin. This weekend is my last one that I will spend in Texas for a while. I enjoyed spending some time this weekend with a three friends that I have had the pleasure to meet in the short time that I have lived here. I also wanted to visit a few of my favorite spots before I left.

The Friends



Tim Rogers has to be my ambassador to Austin. I met Tim through the Austin Wireless City Project. We worked as volunteers installing WiFi hotspots for the group. I enjoy working with Tim and hanging out with him. Tim showed me so many cool restaurants and WiFi hotspots that several times during our travels around Austin I had to say “Stop it; I can not handle another cool place!” Tim is very energetic, honest, and hard working and he always showed Austin in a proud manner. I am grateful and thankful that Tim took the time to show me the ‘Real’ Austin from the inside. I do not think that I would have fallen in love with this city the way that I have if it were not for Tim.

Jim Fahrnkopf is an unusual discovery for me. I also met Jim through the Austin Wireless City Project. In another time line or a parallel universe we could have been twins. There are so many similarities to our personalities and personal histories that we seem to communicate on a whole different level sometimes. Trying to summarize this phenomenon in a few words is impossible but I will take a stab at it here because after all this is a blog. Jim and I are former hippy surfers that went to high school in San Diego, California and then moved to Oregon and then to Texas and we like blues and computers. Jim and I are the WiFi Cowboys shown in the photos on the web site. When I get some time I plan on doing a comic strip about them. Jim introduced me to several computer user groups in Austin.

Phyllis Thomas is a descendant of the Texas Dobbins clan. I first met her at the Center Union Memorial Service in May of 2003 when I came to Texas with my dad. Like a hurricane that gradually sneaks up on you so has Phyllis. When the weatherman warns that a big storm is approaching when it is far off you do not pay it any mind but then when it is all around you cannot ignore it and the winds sweep you away. Phyllis has this affect on not only me but I have seen this with other people as well. Phyllis has introduced me to so many of her cousins that I believe that the whole state of Texas is somehow related to her. In fact I think that we would all get along better as a society if we adapted the idea that we are all cousins. The fact that we are all cousins I believe is easier to swallow than the idealistic religious notion that we are all brothers and sisters.


The Places



On my last evening in Austin I discovered some new places and visited one of my first favorite WiFi hotspot. I am going to go on record here and say that picking a favorite place to hang out in Austin is very difficult because there are so many. The best way to describe and solve the problem of selecting where to go it to first decide your mood, location, time of day and traffic. One thing that Austin has a problem with is traffic, but when looking for good food or WiFi this does not play a factor because these facilities are all over.

This entry in my blog is just covering the places that I visited on March 21, 2004 which is during the SxSW music and movie festival in Austin. Since this is my ramblings I am going to list the places here and then if I have time I will fill in details later.

  • The Thai Garden

  • The Flight Path

  • Threadgill’s downtown

  • The Continental Club

  • Ruta Maya's



Each of these great people has shown a different aspect to the city of Austin and the state of Texas that I would have never discovered without knowing them. Austin and Central Texas are full of good music, good food, high tech and social diversity and I want to return here as soon as I can with my family.

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