SXSW: Day 1

Hey guys, so I'm volunteering with film venue at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz for SXSW again this year and wanted to do some recaps on my experience this year. This is mainly for my benefit, since I forget everything that I don't write down.

I went downtown during mid-afternoon, and it wasn't too crowded luckily. Got my volunteer check-in done and got my T-shirts and badge, as well as a few excruciatingly awkward encounters with the staff. I sat for about a half hour, planning what I would do this week and all the movies and panels I could go to around my shifts. As soon as I got up, I saw freaking @chescaleigh, who is this absolutely amazing YouTuber/vlogger/all around awesome lady. She's a black girl in technology and that's something I want to be, so she's basically my idol. When I saw her, she was walking the other direction and I did a damn 180 to follow her. Creepy, I know. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted say hi to her, but I'm such a socially inept person that that was just out of the question completely. So I followed her until she stopped and then I was like "Oh shit, I can't really stop and stand here to" so I just passed by her, staring intently. And then I tweeted at her that I saw her, but didn't want to creep her out. AND SHE TWEETED BACK AT ME TO STOP, BUT IT WAS TOO LATE YOU GUYS, IT WAS TOO LATE.

 
GUYS OMFG I WAS SO CLOSE AND I CHEATED MYSELF OUT OF MEETING HER. Anyway. It was super exciting. After being a bit frazzled (heh) from this, I went to the SXSW Premiere of "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone". It was a particularly entertaining movie, although I'm sure I will see some a lot better than this. The reason I say this is because this movie has a lot of problematic elements, including a weird comfortability with rape culture. It was very hard to get into after getting so irritated at the problematic humor that was supposed to draw laughs. I did get to stay for the Q&A with the cast, although I didn't ask any questions about the movie's comfortability with rape culture because it seemed inappropriate at the time and also I had a hard time approaching one of my idols earlier in the day, so what makes you think I'd be able to call something problematic out in front of a group of a thousand people. Anyway. Today was great. I'm going to meet @chescaleigh tomorrow and I'm really excited. I hope she can give me some good advice on being a black woman in technology. It'll definitely be fun!