Sunshine Camps: Donate Today and Send Kids to Camp!

WDFloyd, Supervising a Game at The Sunshine Camps

One of my favorite things about the spring is getting to participate in fundraising for the Austin Sunshine Camps.  I've been in YMBL since 2007, thus this is my fourth year of individual fundraising.  My goal is to take the previous years and blow them out of the water. 


In addition to raising funds for the Camps, I've also volunteered at each location.  I can easily say that what goes on at the Camps is a great experience for the kids who attend.  Moreover, it's a great experience for the guys who volunteer.


Below are some of the stats about The Austin Sunshine Camps (taken from my individual fundraising page): 

• Nearly 1,000 ethnically diverse youth ages 7-18 are served per year.
• 63% are from households with annual incomes of less than $21,000.
• 31% of those annual household incomes fall below $12,000.
• 100% qualify for summer food service which is administered through the camps.
• 71% of campers are from single-parent or foster homes.
• Nearly 50% come from homes with two or more siblings.
• We serve a near equal number of boys and girls.
• Camps are offered free of charge to disadvantaged youth and children from low-income homes.
• Zilker Park Camps are for ages 7-11.
• Lake Travis Camps are for ages 12-15.
• Programs are volunteer-driven—by Young Men’s Business League members and others from the community at-large.
• $519,000+ annual budget is comprised of contributions from private sources—individuals, foundations, and businesses.
• More than 90% of the budget is applied directly to the programs.
• Since 2001, all Leadership participants have earned a high school diploma.
• Since 2001, 95 percent of Leadership participants have attended either a 2-year technical college or a 4-year professional college.
• Presently, there are 11 Sunrise Leadership program graduates in college.

Click here to send some great kids to a great camp:  WDFloyd's Fundraising Page

Food (in Dallas): Bob's Steak and Chop House

I went up to Dallas for a seminar entitled Risky Business: Financing and Distributing Independent Films.  It was a great way to spend Saturday, as I learned a lot about film financing, distribution, and the independent film ecosystem from the lecturer, entertainment lawyer Mark Litwak.  However, the night before the seminar was pretty awesome as well.  I took off from my office about 4p, and a few hours later found myself at the uptown Dallas location of Bob's Steak and Chop House. 

Damn, this place is good.  I met my friend, fellow lawyer, and fellow steak enthusiast David C. at the bar.  We were shortly led to a table in a traditional looking steakhouse room (e.g., lots of wood, and lots of cool photos like a huge portrait of the famous horse trainer Bob Baffert).   Unlike The Palm, wherein being a frequent guest can earn you a caricature on the wall, I immediately begin to wonder if only famous guys named Bob were eligibly for honor at Bob's Steak and Chop House.  Then the shrimp plate arrived and I quit caring.  On said plate were several huge shrimp, including one pair slathered in some especially tasty remoulade sauce  (Austin Land and Cattle, take note: up your game with the shrimp appetizers!).   But, the shrimp with a mere opening act to an extremely delicious 22oz, USDA Prime bone-in-ribeye (which the website claims to have been aged 28 days, although I didn't see any specific info about whether the beef  dry aged, grass fed, or free range).   The menu called said steak the "Cote de Boeuf," and the waitress said it was the best steak in the house*. 

Because I have no basis for comparison, I have no idea if the "Cote de Boeuf" is truly the best steak at Bob's.  But, if it's at the bottom of the list, then the rest of their lineup must be pretty awesome.  My steak was great: good thickness, good marbling, excellent flavor, and excellent preparation.   The skillet fried potatoes were a good side choice, although I had to pass on the giant carrot with which my steak was served.   The creamed corn side, however, wasn't particulaly good (and a real let down, if you love Rudy's creamed corn).  Also, Bob's doesn't have Bearnaise sauce, and I love some Bearnaise with beef. 

If you're going to Bob's here's what I can recall vis a vis pricing:

Steaks (including the "signature glazed carrot" and a potato dish variant)

-regular ribeye: about $33
-bone in 22oz ribeye: about $45

Sides

-creamed corn, mushrooms, spinach: all about $8

Appetizers

-shrimp variety plate: about $22


Salads

-all appeared to be about $7-$9

Cocktails

-about $12 with Maker's Mark (but very, very generous pours).

 If you are in Dallas, I recommend Bob's Steak and Chop House.  It is indeed awesome, and I've eaten enough steaks to feel qualified in bestowing such a designation. 



*Although, suspiciously, she said that about everything I ordered... down to the relatively ordinary Makers Mark cocktail.  The funniest thing our waitress said was in reference to the giant carrot.  I exclaimed, "damn, that is one giant carrot!" She gave me and my friend a naughty look and replied, "depends on how you look at it... I think it's just right."  Too focused on steak to process her suggestive food references, I plunged into the tasty ribeye.  Later, I was even more amused by her comments when I recalled another suggestive vegetable ad seen on I-35E.

Software: Bibble Pro 5 on Two Systems

After finding out how to put Final Draft on the office bound and portable systems (and that I wouldn't be able to do this with Adobe products), I emailed Bibble Labs to see if I could add my Bibble Pro 5 photo editor to my MacBook.  The answer: yes. 

If you haven't heard of Bibble Pro: it's a photo editor.  I use it for many of the same tasks as I once used Photoshop Elements.  Bibble Pro is quite robust (I just don't know how to use all of its features), it's Noise Ninja plug in is good for cleaning up digital noise from high ISO photos, and it was developed here in Austin.  Also, Bibble Pro costs $200, so while it's about double the cost Photoshop Elements, it is much cheaper than the full version of Photoshop.

Software: Same Program, Different Computers

MacBook Pro and Dell Latitude

Photo: by WDFloyd's iPhone


I've been working on a new screenplay idea, and I like to work on screenplays using Final Draft.  While checking the Final Draft site to find out about options for transferring my user license over to my new MacBook Pro, I discovered that Final Draft's publisher will allow users to operate Final Draft on two computers at any given time.  So, instead of deleting Final Draft from my Dell Latitude after installing said program on my Mac, I now have it set up on both systems.

Inspired by the prospect of cheaply loading up my Mac with copies of software I've already bought, I made a quick visit to the Adobe site to see about Acrobat X Pro and Photoshop Elements 8.  Turns out if you are the primary user of an Adobe product, under your license you can add a copy to a home or portable computer so long as you don't operate them simultaneously; however, said provision only applies to using the same platformed version of the software from work on your home or portable system.  Or, put another way: you can only extend the license from a work Windows OS to another Windows OS or a Mac OS to another Mac OS.   If you are like me, with a PC of some sort for your office (which although is a laptop, is docked and basically functions like a desktop) and then a portable Mac, you cannot use your already purchased Adobe product on the Mac platform (and, vice versa).  If I want to run my Acrobat X Pro or Photoshop Elements 8 on my MacBook, then I'll have to set up the parallel Windows platform and run it through that.   [note: if you have a Mac and you want to run an Adobe product on the Mac side and on the PC, you will need a separate program with separate license for each platform on your one computer] 

Anyway, these are things to keep in mind if you're a dual PC and Mac user.

Art City Austin "Green Team"..... Plus Some Info on Crawfish

WDFloyd Driving a Recyling Cart

Photos and Video: by WDFloyd's iPhone.  



For the second year in a row, the gf and I enjoyed the opportunity to volunteer at the annual Art City Austin festival.   And, we volunteered in my favorite way offered by said festival: we drove a recycling cart as part of the "Green Team."  If you know me, then you know that I'm quite interested in city infrastructure and the logistics which go into managing and operating a livable urban environment (my dad can be blamed for this), thus I'm actually quite interested in solid waste disposal issues.  Helping to transport waste headed for recycling or composting seemed like logical extension of this interest as it intersected with helping to facilitate an arts event in downtown Austin (something else I'm quite interested in).  Also, I like to drive golf carts.  The one we were assigned functioned like a tiny pick-up.

"Butcher Bear" in his bear suit.

Art City Austin was a lot of fun.  I ran into many friends (many of whom, from the former Catalyst 8 group, were working as event volunteers).   I also picked up some cool prints which I'll display once framed.   Moreover, I saw a lot of great photography on display (which made me want to get back into action with my camera).  If you didn't make it to Art City Austin this year, I recommend putting it on the calender for 2012.

The only part of the festival which was truly bizarre was the performance by Butcher Bear & Charlie.  I like techno as much as the next guy, and I'm down with strange costumes like those sported by Deadmau5; however, Butcher Bear & Charlie came off as a little freaky considering that we thought they were supposed to be a children's act.  I'm as in favor of scaring kids into good behavior as the next guy, but there was something about the pulsing beats and the dude in the fanged bear suit which screamed: "not good for kids."  I began to think they weren't on stage for the kids, but then the female singer shouted "where my 4 year olds at?" and made some comment about some upcoming children's songs.   I'm a lot older than 4, and I was a little weirded out. 

Maybe Butcher Bear & Charlie are supposed to be for adults only, and maybe the kids' comments were supposed to be ironic.  I don't know.  Furthermore, nobody with me knew either.  Thus the confusion about the intended audience for said act leads me to believe somebody wasn't communicating something very effectively.

But, I'm not too concerned about men in bear suits who want to dance around in front of crowds of freaked out kids.  Why not?  Because it's April and that means it's time for crawfish.  The gf, some friends, and I met up at Shoal Creek Saloon after today's run through Art City Austin.  If you haven't had their crawfish before, I'm offer the experience my endorsement.  Last year, we followed Art City Austin with a trip to Mulberry.  That was good; however, Shoal Creek Saloon boils up some of the best crawfish I've had in town.  Here's the boil schedule I found on the Shoal Creek Saloon website:

Monday-Friday: 5-9p
Weekends: noon-9:30p

The crawfish were not only delicious, but the prices were reasonable.   The cost was about $20 for 3lbs.

If you're not into cracking open the carapaces of boiled crustaceans, Shoal Creek has many other delicious items on the menu.   Today I also enjoyed their shrimp gumbo, jalapeno sausage, and fried catfish.  All were exceptionally tasty and worth ordering with or without a mound of steaming crawfish as a complement.