Current Obsession: "Bruises" by Chairlift. You know, the song in those iPod "nanochromatic" commercials. "Pink and black and blue..."

Financial Meltdown: Had to sell my childhood flute on craigslist for $150 so I could keep buying gifts for a friend of mine who's about to get married. It's not like I was playing it anymore, but the sentimental value was high.

AustinFit: It's my new running group. We're training for back-to-back half marathons in January and February. I don't like to talk to the other runners on Saturday morning so I queue up the Slate political gabfest and get through it that way.

Quotable: So I'm listening to Cowboys radio yesterday after they lost. An onside kick attempt in the final minute failed, so all Washington had to do was run out the clock to win. The commentator said of the Cowboys, "When you have to resort to a gimmick play to win, you're probably not going to win the game."

It seemed to apply in other worlds beyond football.

A new high-rise condo building is going up in Austin, and it's called The Austonian (pronounced aw-STONE-ee-an). This is an outrage.

Austin ends with an "tin" and not an "ton", like Houston. Speaking of Houston, there's a high-rise residential building called The Houstonian there. Now that's appropriate. People from Houston are called Houstonians. Houston ends with an "ton".

People from Austin are Austinites, not Austinians. And definitely not Austonianans. OUTRAGE.

Next weekend is the annual Austin City Limits Festival, featuring thousands of artists and about 80,000 people who pretty much take over the heart of my fair city. Thanks to my friends with The Belleville Outfit (a lil band out of Spartanburg that made it pretty big here in Austin), I got a free three-day pass (which I won't hawk even though I could make $200.)

Here is the lineup. Help me pick the artists I should see. A lot of them I haven't heard of so if you have (hint, hint, Otis) - lend me a hand.

Here's a look at our old haunts for all the MU grads out there. Erica also has great photos and insight on her page, check it out.

These new classrooms in the RJI (Reynolds Journalism Institute) are too fly. Those of us who went to class in Neff Hall's windowless basement classrooms are feeling pretty jealous of the kids today, who get skylights, advanced soundsystems, and rooms designed for your many Mac products. Class of 2012, I hate you! (JK.)


We spent the morning in a typical classroom in RJI, learning about digital newsbooks.

It is cool to be in a classroom again, even though it's a little too perfectly climate-controlled and I sort of feel like I'm on a movie set. I am stuck in the front row, which anyone who has ever attended class or a press conference with me knows is my least favorite place in the room. I can't make as many snarky comments in this position.

So it's nice to be back here! Columbia looks so different than just three years ago, the last time I returned. I think I'm even happier that I'm not paying much attention to the political riff raff out there right now. Here are some shots for those of you who aren't here:


This is the downstairs of the new Reynolds Journalism Institute, formerly known as the Sociology building and Walter Williams Hall. The "futures lab" downstairs allows students to come up with new ideas in convergence journalism/new media. It's totally high tech and badass, I'm jealous of the current students.


Dan and Erica after they ordered the Shake(y)'s. The staff couldn't figure out why were were so happy just ordering our custard. Heaven when it hits your lips.


First meal in Columbia, Toasted Ravioli baby. I missed this the most. We ate this meal at the "new" Heidelberg, which had to be rebuilt after fire gutted the old dingy one that all the J school students hung out at for decades.


KOMU 8 News at 10! I'm not sure who is the anchor filling in for Jim Riek. Too bad he's not hear, but it was awesome to see the one-man-band packages on the air, where some of the interview subjects had part of their faces cut off.

We've arrived at the J-School and both sessions we've attended have been about fifty people too full. (I guess that bodes well for this conference.) We're literally trapped in our seats right now and it feels like they cut off the air. Here's a look at the session on radio, TV and the ivory tower.



Now Stiles, Dan and my friend Jenny are checking out a session called "Watchdog Reporting, New Trends in Investigative Journalism". This will be excellent for Stiles, because they are already talking about data a lot.

Toasted Ravioli: A Missouri favorite. I don't really care where we get it. The Heidelberg (a J-school area standby) may be a good location to get the T-Rav and enjoy the ambiance.

Shakey's: My pledge sister Jessie's parents opened up two Shakey's frozen custard franchises in CoMo the year before I started college. This place has the softest, silkiest, yummiest custard around. I love the tiramasu flavor. A few years later, a pizza restaurant of the same name sued. Now the frozen custard place is called "Shake's", but I don't care, I still call it Shakey's. One time, I went on a date with a dude (not naming names) who refused Shakey's because he was on a "blood-type diet" that didn't allow dairy. Yeah, first and last date. And after Shakey's comes...

The Katy Traill: Gorgeous! I slayed many a mile on that trail, to the tunes of Jason Mraz's first album. On one run, I saw six or seven bunny couples humping along the trail. The first time I fully realized what "doing it like jackrabbits" meant.

Shakespeare's: The pizza I miss the most. The pie, the myth and the legend. Enough said. I need a slice on wheat crust right now. I also need more collectible plastic cups.

Bambino's: I really loved their mayo-laden pasta salad for some reason.

If there's time...
Jimmy's Steakhouse, home of the $3.99 cheesburger and fries meal, plus you can add a 99 cent side salad bar and yes, they serve Cherry Coke.

Trops: This is a genius idea. Fruity alcoholic drinks (think strawberry daiquiri's and the like) in a drive-thru. Your drinks are served in 32 oz Styrofoam cups. How this place is allowed to do this is beyond me, but I think it might still be around.

Places I loved but we won't go:
Teller's: A quaint little restaurant on Broadway with delicious sweet potato chips. I took Stiles there in early 2006 when he was in CoMo for IRE bootcamp. He then became violently ill.

Osama's: Okay, it was an unfortunate name for a coffee shop, but it didn't seem to hurt business. It was conveniently located right by the J-School and is now replaced by a Starbucks. The Beam and I studied for our final finals in that coffee shop, and I remembered making myself log that memory in my brain, because it was our last test in our college careers.

Am I forgetting anything? Chime in!

Bloggin' Bo-Co-Mo
Housemate Jenny, (BJ '07) and I are both heading back to Ol' Missouri this week for the Missouri Journalism Centennial. It looks like they are going to aggregate a bunch of blogs that are covering the event, so 67 Degrees will be taking part. Check back often, starting on Wednesday.

Gustav from Austin
Besides the fact it's really muggy and we have hundreds of evacuees in town, you can't feel much of Gustav's impact from here. I had to squint to see some special needs evacuees yesterday because they were kept that far away from us. That was as close as we got.

W visited "the bunker" today and slapped some people on the back, then left. During his stop, he called my friend Virginia a "pretty girl helping get people fuel". She seemed unfazed.

As usual, Governor Perry seemed to take on Bush's cadence when he spoke next to him. They sound a lot alike sometimes.