The Weekend Vigilante March 8, 2014

Hello from a trailer park in Austin, Texas,

I only wish I was kidding.  Before I get to that, however, I’d like to point out that I’ve missed the last two Weekend Vigilante’s in a row.  During those few weeks I spoke at a bitcoin meetup in Mexico City, presented at “Passport to Freedom” in Las Vegas, flew back to Acapulco for a day then to Czech Republic via Paris for a few days on new passport programs we are working on in the eastern EU.  I then flew back to Acapulco for a few days and then was off to Austin for the Texas Bitcoin conference.

It was after the bitcoin conference this week in Austin that things went somewhat awry.  Many good friends had decided they were going to stay in rainy, cold Austin for the weekend for the South by Southwest event (SXSW).  I am still not sure what SXSW is except a place where there is no parking, no hotels, no taxis available and really run down, third world bars packed full of zombies, most of which are either puking or fighting.

I couldn’t even find a hotel in downtown Austin and so got roped in with Luke Rudkowski and a few other good friends into staying at a one bedroom AirBnB condo that said it was “downtown”.  If, out in the middle of nowhere by the airport was “downtown” then I suppose it was correct.

So many people had trouble finding places to stay that the one bedroom apartment was home to somewhere between 5-10 people.  I panicked and looked for flights out but there was none… so I left my bags there and decided to go downtown for a few drinks to forget about my horrible situation and perhaps find a better one.

I ran into past Anarchast guest, Joby Weeks there and told him of my situation.  He said, “Stay with us, we have three extra beds where we are staying!”

I was happy to hear that as I am getting way too old to be sleeping on the floor like a college kid.  Soon enough, it was 2am and all the bars had turned on their lights and began chasing their drunken customers out into the cold streets where cops sat ready with handcuffs picking many of them off.  I stuck with Joby and we took a taxi into what looked like the woods.

It turned out to be a trailer and RV park.  But it was 3am and I had no car and no way to leave so I stayed.  The company was good but I wasn’t sure that staying in a trailer park was much of an upgrade from my last situation.  Although I did have a bed and not the floor, for that I was happy.

By morning some of the people in the trailer had awoken and were discussing going for some food.

“Where?” I asked.

“Waffle House,” was their reply.

“Well, we are in a trailer park, so when in Rome I suppose…” I responded

It turns out there was a Waffle House inside the trailer park itself.  The kind of people who live in a trailer park and eat at the Waffle House are quite the interesting and bizarre type of human.  I had been wearing my dress shirt from the night before and many people in the restaurant all commented, “Woohaa, Mr. Swanky,” said one person while the toothless waitress caressed my back, “Hello sweetheart, why are you so dressed up?” she asked.

I looked down at my very unremarkable dress shirt and jeans and then looked around at the rest of the crowd, mostly all white, stained wife beaters and a few guys in track suits with headbands.

And so, I write to you from somewhat less classy and ideal surroundings than normal!  I have just found a flight direct from Austin to Mexico City and will be running, not walking, to get on that plane!

After having spent the prior weeks in glamorous and upscale Acapulco and then driven around in high end Porsches and black Mercedes in Prague it really was tough to adjust back to being in a third world country like the US.  And then to end up sleeping in a trailer park and eating at Waffle House almost seemed like the icing on the cake.

WHAT’S NEW

Lots has been happening over the last few weeks but I just haven’t had much time to talk about it.  However, on Tuesday, after two nights in Mexico City I will be back in Acapulco for possibly an entire month!  If so, I’ll definitely be getting back in the swing of things.

Not to mention we have been planning and are just about to announce our second TDV Wealth Management Crisis Conference, most likely to be held in Mexico in late April or early May.  Stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, here are a few comments and some of my favorite memes I have seen over the last few weeks.

Newspeak, aka Newsweek, said they have found elusive bitcoin founder, Satoshi Nakamoto and… hey, all they had to do was look up that name in the phone book.

Higgghhlllyy unlikely.  We’ll have more to say on that soon.

In the meantime:

In other news, Russia has occupied the Crimea.

This had hypocritical John Kerry stating how nations shouldn’t occupy other nations under “trumped up pretenses” in the 21st century… leading to these great two memes.

and…

(btw, you can see many of these memes first at TDV’s Facebook page here – like us to see them as they happen)

There is plenty to comment on and, of course, we have been commenting in our subscription based newsletter.  And, now that I am on my way back home for what seems the first time in a month I will get to relax a bit and focus on writing about all this ridiculousness.

Until then!