youd have a tough time finding two nicer people than big tanky and anti. intelligent, fun, with the heart of punk rockers, from the first time i saw these two kids together i knew they were perfect for each other. they just sorta fit.

today tanky IM’ed me with a simple message “we’re getting married!”

i was all, whoa! nice! congrats!

she later said “we got engaged via messenger in true blogger fashion – you’ll be happy to know! :)”

and recently anti wrote up the whole story on his buzznet blog – because he no longer blogs on blogspot. an excerpt:

So while she was at work, and on gchat we worked it out, i asked her, she said yes, and the ring was bought! We didn’t want them to sell out of this great ring, that had suddenly gone on 25% dicount!!

When she got home from work we talked it out more. I think she was tempted to have us allope to avoid all potential family stuff. But knowing that it means the world to our families and friends, i insisted we go to vegas only to celebrate. And the ceremony has to occur closer to our families so that all interested parties can attend easily.

We then were thinking when she should plan for, and i said summer time-ish, and she said octoberish. Tanky thought summer could work, so because she doesn’t feel like planning for this summer, we thought summer 2009 looked mighty fine.

and so that is it. i asked her on messenger. the ring comes in the mail this friday.

read the whole deal here. and congrats again, friends!

as usual im way louder than my subject. remind me to mellow out when i interview people, and demand a real mic.

we actually have a pretty nice video department at the Times which i hope to take advantage of as we continue to progress in regards to multimedia.

but the good news is Frank was a cool dude and got cornered by a german blogger who also asked for an interview. it was pretty obvious that bro’s little blog wasnt anything like the Times’ but Frank was very generous with the dude and said yes to a quick interview even though he was very busy. made me smile.

if you click here you will see my interview with him.

also, heres the interview i did with the guy who invented a device that Hacks Yr Brain

just got picked up by Budget Travel

“US Airways is trying to cash in on the boredom of its passengers by inviting companies to slap advertisements on its airplane tray tables, says the illustrious Tony Pierce of the L.A. Times.”

so many things bizarre and killer about that sentence.

right now im putting up my video interview of Frank Warren. damn sound didnt work as nice as i wanted. win some, lose some i guess.

everyones sick here. its sorta scary cuz you gotta shake hands with everyone. Blogger was giving away some fingerless gloves. perfect idea. sadly they were all out before i got there. maybe hand sanitizers should be the next cool shwag bag thingie.

google did not throw one of them

someone you know has the scoop. An excerpt:

The music was awful, a barrage of all the most repulsive sounds and beats from Techno’s Most Annoying Hits. Except these were never hits. It was music that defenders of waterboarding deem inhumane. Numbers that make “Sister Ray” sound like Mozart. The Boredoms would have shielded their ears from the noise. No amount of free liquor could have made up for the shoulder-to-shoulder masses of people having to withstand the industrial “musics” that would have even made robots queasy.

funny thing was, since so many people wanted to go and get in, most people didnt have to experience the cruddiness. they were the lucky ones.

blames the fact that this is a “developer’s conference” (it is?), says that she and the Facebook founder went over the questions beforehand is that professional?), says her Amazon ranking went up because of it (silver lining), and mumbles something about how the backlash has something to do with sexism because she’s one of the few women reporters covering Tech. yikes.

can someone say clueless?

austin 360 also has this, some of the most valuable video of the week, footage from the deal

for a roundup of how many in the blogosphere are talking about it, check out Techmeme

my cohort at the Times, David Sarno has a bit of audio from the interview on Web Scout

Janina San Miguel, 17, in the Pilipinas beauty pageant gets laughed at during the q and a portion.

dont you wanna give her a hug?

can you believe it?

strangely it’s basically an environmental piece about the shwag bags and how sorta ungreen they all are. but its also about how green certain things have evolved lately at sxsw.

earlier i wrote a piece about advertisements on US Air’s tray tables.

but the big story of the day was the audience revolt at the sxsw keynote aka the Facebook panel because there was a kissass moderator tossing softballs to Zuckerberg and the kids in the audience wanted to know Answers damnit!

apparently it was fascinating.

“Of all the interviews I have ever had the opportunity to sit in on, this one takes the cake for being the worst.” – All Facebook dot com

valleywags liveblogging of the “disaster”.

i am in austin and i have heard that the kareem electronic billboards are up.

this is all very exciting. almost as exciting as being in this beautiful city for the 4th straight year for sxsw, my favorite week of the year.

last night i flew in and was greeted at the airport by my bros dan and ken, and the lovely sk smith. we ate and drank at casino de blahblah out in the back in the cold. it was lovely and delicious.

our waitress was beautiful and had super long hair. she was funny and subtle and kept asking us if we smelled any weed being smoked.

i asked her if she wanted a hit if we could find the alleged culprit but she said it would distract her if she puffed anything. so i couldnt figure out her curiosity. isnt this austin? werent the kids just trying to keep it real weird?

got to the hotel which is right in the heat of things and our first order of business was to try to extend my reservation from ending on Tues to ending next Saturday.
(sadly in a tragic round of miscommunication the LAT travel agent only was able to book me into the Hilton here for a few days and then i was booked out in the outskirts of austin for the remainder of the fest).

the front desk girl’s name was Carisa. i told her that some of my best friends were named that. at first i thought she hated all my jokes, but as i pressed her it was revealed she was secretly loving them. even the teen next to her in the braces was laughing. as was the blonde manager on duty.

“youre a writer”? Carisa asked, apparently judgmentally.

sorta? i hedged.

“thats my dream job.” she said, and granted me the stay here that i wanted, right in the middle of everything, in the best hotel for sxswing, on the coolest floor, with the best view.

i did a little jig, asked the ladies if they ever got guests doing jigs for them, they said no, so i did another one.

your boy’s back, austin!