Biking around a city is a great way to get to see what the city is all about, and this tour was no exception. We met some amazing people, and saw some very weird things, which I guess is fitting to "Keep Austin Weird". As we were looking at the city, Jon made a new friend that decided to share his bicycle with him. We also saw our share of cows that speckle the city, each one with a different artist's interpretation on them.
And how could I regret posting this fabulous photo of a new emerging sport we stumbled upon! Jon and I deemed it Kayak Paddle Battle - a mix of water polo and extreme kayaking, guaranteed to debut in the Olympics, 2040. We also had the chance to visit one of my favorite restaurant's: Walton's Fancy & Staple. Sandra Bullock, can you please open one in San Diego??! With $2.00 mimosas, how can one go wrong?
On a side note, I am sure Steve Jobs deserves an entire post all his own. However, I really don't think I would be able to accurately articulate just how much of an impact the man has made on my life, and especially my career. So instead, I will choose to feature an excerpt from a dear friend, and one of the most talented writers I know - Alexandra Kogan. Kogs, thank you for this; I would never have been able to say it better:
"Steve Jobs died today.
It's kind of hard to wrap your
brain around the death of a cultural icon, particularly someone as
larger-than-life-yet-achingly-human as Steve Jobs. I understand now how
people felt about John Lennon's death; as a child, the magnitude of his
passing didn't hit me as hard as it seemed to adults.
For
the generation before me, John Lennon symbolized rebellion, peace,
counter culture, youthful idealism, creativity and willingness to stick
one's neck out for one's beliefs, no matter how many people hated you
for them. People could identify important moments of their lives with
his music...and his death caught everyone completely off guard.
With
Steve Jobs, it's a little different in that we all pretty much knew he
wasn't going to be around for much longer, particularly in the past few
months. But his passage is equally huge, at least in terms of how very
much his influence, his vision (and probably his marketing skills) have
influenced our lives.
Jobs was nothing short of a Gen X icon; from his ad campaigns which
cultivated our inherent quirky difference to his living proof that you
could be a college dropout and still amount to something. My generation
never really had much love 20 years ago; we were branded as losers,
slackers, ne'er do wells and generally targeted as being destined to
wear name tags and hairnets for the rest of our miserable existences.
Apple (albeit without Steve Jobs some of the most pivotal years for Gen
Xers) gave us a platform to claim as our own...and use to make something
with.
And so, I bid a bittersweet farewell to Steve Jobs. For all the
good...the not so good...and sometimes, the downright ugly...I can't
imagine what my life would have been without him. Or the world we live
in, for that matter.
And I don't expect anyone to fill his
shoes...but there's someone out there who didn't finish college, who
resolutely refuses to follow the herd, who makes mistakes and learns
from them and who follows his heart before anything else who is going to
change the world.
The world needs its visionaries. And we lost one today. But there will be another one. And another one. Innovation...and the idominable human spirit...is not owned or necessarily embodied by one person, as much as they can be exemplified by one."
A.
-Alexandra Kogan
an excerpt from: Steve Jobs, Gen X and me
To view the article in its entirety, click here.
