Derek Shanahan's Personal Blog

Real Conversations Before Geek Bonnaroo

by DShan on March 11, 2010

We laughed about our kooky parents and contemplated the question marks in our futures. She has friends going to SXSW so I had to explain that I was going to the Geek Bonnaroo, not the music part that normal people attend. She gave me a video tour of her crash pad down there, and introduced two of her roommates who were hanging around.

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A Calendar Of Question Marks

by DShan on March 9, 2010

Living in the domain of other people is something you get familiar with in college. It’s a unique experience for most; those of you who went to boarding schools or those fancy East Coast prep schools were rocking the roommates even earlier. Maybe boarding schools and prep schools are the same thing, actually…honestly I’m just a Midwest guy who played soccer and passed Calculus.

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Geek Bonnaroo

March 8, 2010

Anyway, at the end of this week in Austin, South By Southwest kicks off with their Interactive session, which what they call the geeky stuff. South By Southwest actually transitions from the geek scene into the music and film sessions with lots of overlapping, but all in all the first few days are what I’d call Geek Bonnaroo.

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Olympic Things

March 5, 2010

Really, though…Vancouver was a tourist destination for two weeks and as such was filled with such nice people and such raging fun that I started to forget that it wasn’t like this all the time. There were a few snafu’s; demonstrators tangling with police, long lines at bars and stores, and my commute definitely became more of a pain, but all in all I feel privileged to have been in town for the whole thing.

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We’re All Idiots

February 17, 2010

I’m fairly confident means that that I’m crazy, and I’ll look back on the whole experience and wonder what lead to my being the kind of guy who would move to a foreign country without a work permit, a place to live, or enough time to really say goodbye to friends and family.

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You Women Are My Valentines

February 15, 2010

She’s a woman who’s conquered every inch of her heart and shows everyone around her what it means to really be human. She loves harder than anyone I know, and she raised me to do the same.

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The Edge Of Yesterday

February 11, 2010

Yet here I was, hopping in a cab because my ride couldn’t outwait an overly inquisitive border patrol, skimming through a city I knew almost nothing about aside from the facts purged from a visitor’s guide I’d received from my adorable mother when plans began to formalize around my move.

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On An Island

February 10, 2010

As a blogger, though, I’ve spent a lot of my written words pushing for a few common endeavors within the community. One of them is transparency; I think blogging is at it’s best when we try to be concise and honest. The other is confidence; I think personal bloggers write themselves towards a voice that represents them, and the more they write the closer we all get to the good stuff.

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Oh, Canada

February 8, 2010

My two week provisional visitor’s visa was almost up. I’d spent all week locking down my very digital and very public life, and reassuring most of my friends and family at home that I was not, in fact, totally insane. I felt as if the whole bureaucratic ineptitude of a nation had decided to throw a tea party at my expense. I was in Canada, but I wasn’t allowed to work…much less build a company from scratch.

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I Finished My Commute

February 5, 2010

Thing is, I didn’t know how to play the fact that I was hoping to work (and stay) here. It all felt disingenuous, since I felt as if I needed to keep the work thing on the down low, along with the part where I might not leave. Throw in the heightened security surrounding Olympic Games and I already had myself psyched out.

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