Struggling Due to Uncooperative Health.

Well isn't this great. The cold seemed reasonably past yesterday, and I even worked most of the day. But now another wasted day. A weird fever kicked in yesterday evening and laid me out flat by 9pm. Churning belly and feverishness continues today. I'm getting nowhere.

Sure can't take health for granted. I don't know when all this will end and I can get back onto my stuff.

Feeling pretty discouraged today. Don't know where this all leads really. Another month starts tomorrow, and my patent still isn't back in from the lawyer either. Another final-ish draft this afternoon. Man, can we file this think or what! And what's this all going to cost me. I feel like we're about 4months behind on that front.

Business is tough sometimes, and the value of a full team is not to be understated.


Researchinator is down in the dumps...

Shell Shocked Yet Struggling Forward.

I feel like I've just come back from a week at the front. Feeling a bit shell-shocked and out of sorts. The last 24hrs gave me the pleasure of the worst migraine I've ever had, or at least as bad a one as I've had. The whole previous week was wiped with the cold. This is not conducive to productivity. Meanwhile, Chelsea is playing Barcelona. Actually, that's just google bait. :)

I suppose I could mention swine flu -the big issue is that nobody knows how to tell the diff between the dreaded swine and a conventional cold. Could I have picked it up in the Newark airport, or walking the streets of NYC? Anything is possible I guess.

Today I had a call with a colleague in NYC. Not sure it added any value to my day, but it's good to talk to a friendly yet critical person about the venture and see if it moves things forwar.

A trip next week to Montreal, I guess. I'm still bummed over this lack of Patent progress. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if I can't get that to move along. I'll have to start looking for another guy to work on stuff for me. I guess I have a few names that I can pull out of the history bag.

Tomorrow I think I'll start the day with some chair shopping. For now, Lets call it quits. I wonder if I could get in 30min of sleep to make up for the lack of it last night.

Limping Along

Well into the office while the cold persists, but it seems last night we got a leg up on it finally. Bit of a cough and sniffle still, but I can at least think through the fuzzies now. I thought I was going to get into yet another day with the cold pounding on me. My expectations were low, so I'm pleasantly surprised to be reasonably functional. Not Susan Boyle surprised, just moderately positive.

Had to delay my new collaborator's arrival by a day, as I wasn't sure last night if I could hack it today. Just as well, I'm sure I'm not up to par today still.

But trying to get the day started reasonably well. While the 'swine flu' grips newspeople in a feeding frenzy, and the stock markets will likely take a beating today, it could be worse. So I'd best get onto task and see if I can succeed in spite of the low energy start to the day. I think I'll take a Mexico-style siesta this afternoon, and enjoy the hot weather that's come in out of nowhere. Not going to help my start-up productivity, but maybe will make me functional for my call tomorrow.

Researchinator thinks things could be better...

Where am I Who am I?

What a week this has been. Still suffering through this cold. I can feel how the virus has slowly worked its way deeper into my repiratory system. Initially a purely nasal thing, with a sore throat, it seems to colonize the nasal cavities, and gradually work its way into your chest as well. I guess it means that the primary entry point is probably the mouth.

Just goes to show the whole touch things and touching your mouth or food is the path to infection, and thus the hand-washing like crazy while travelling would be good. Almost makes you want to wear a surgical mask and gloves. Maybe a face sheild, separate oxygen supply and a carry a cattle prod to keep people at a distance.

Oh well, surely it won't last much longer. I will be happy to get back to productivity.

A good meeting in spite of my issues yesterday with a new collaborator on my project. Lets hope it goes forward the way it's looking now. We'll see over the space of the next week.

Researchinator looks forward to seeing the team actually grow in a real physical way...

Cost of Connections

One has to wonder if it was worth it. My 4th day with the cold, and I wonder if going to NY was a good bargain given the resulting impact. But then again, I could just as easily have picked up the cold here and been in the same boat without the perspective and contacts I gleaned from that trip.

So I'll take it.

Wandered into Global HQ early in the afternoon to get a bit done in prep for a meeting tomorrow morning with a prospective collaborator. A young new grad, but if he's got enthusiasm that might count for what experience he doesn't bring to the table.

I need to find the energy to continue the pushing forward. Colds really suck.

Researchinator is tired of sniffling and sneezing...

Playing Catchup

Returned from a couple of days in NYC, doing some networking, and attending a seminar event in my field of interest. Some good potential contacts - and I'll be following up on that this week. But of course, just to make things challenging, it's a repeat of roughly a year, or 14 months ago. No actually, it isn't. I got a cold upon returning home this time, luckily it wasn't en route.

I even had a reasonably nice few hours after returning, before the thing kicked in.

Damn viruses. Scourge of the earth - or of the airport. The risk is so high, I always try to take precautions, like lots of hand washing, eating tons of salads and fresh fruit, and taking vitamins and echinachea. Of course, to no avail this time. I probably could have done more of the salads though.

Anyway, I have to live with it, and try to get things done still in spite of it all

I did manage to further update some pro forma statements, and finished a first happy draft of my presentation in Apple 'Keynote' software. Thinking a bit about how to share a presentation remotely. I don't have that ugly pig Netmeeting, which could (awkwardly) get the job done. There are some other options I've heard about. Will look into WebHuddle perhaps - an open source app that's supposed to do that through javascript etc. I'm skeptical it will be able to do anything with animated presentations though.

Anyway, sorry for the hiatus while away, and sick, but I'm glad I was able to quickly do an update here, while working at the home office. A few hours left in the day, but perhaps I'll try and squeeze a nap in. This cold is wearing me down, man.

Researchinator says, hey, gimme a break already!

Preps Well Under Way

Into the thick of it now, with limited time. Blew off the afternoon yesterday with some woodworking for a friend, but hopefully it doesn't set me back much. Did print up more biz cards, and get my onepage summary updated. I have a networking thing tonight with programmer types, for which I did a bit of the organization... not that I really want to do much of that. Tomorrow interviewing a young new grad, like really new, finishing exams today.

Travel on Thursday...

Researchinator needs to go passport hunting at home...

Short Days Are Good

A nice short day today I expect. Well, short in the Global HQ. I have various things that will be easier at the home office - like printing new biz cards.

So I enjoyed a cool but sunny walk in this am. Going to work on logistics planning and a some collateral clean up and shift home for late lunch and more work there. So, short and sweet on the blogging today...

Researchinator sees a busy week ahead!

Making Some Early Moves

Still kicking. It's a busy time. Some networking yesterday eve that I still need to follow up on, and a contact who might be collaborative from other channels, need to meet next week or so.

Booked some travel to a seminar in NYC next week as well.

Researchinator is on the move...

The Road Ahead - Looks Bumpy

Spent sometime scanning for conferences and hob-nob events that I can attend to network. The balance between stealth and networking should be interesting. I'll do more of that today, both the scanning and the networking.

The need to get some cash in is rapidly becoming the important part of this venture. My small cadre of collaborators is a nice base, but loosely coupled at this point, and they have chains of limited length, due to their other commitments, so I can't get them really close yet. So I'll start to beat the bushes to scare up others.

Meanwhile I think I have a pretty workable demo. I need to do some run-throughs to ensure it speaks to my goals well and then start to take it on the road, and get beaten up a bit. I need to plan a way to manage the depression that comes with the constant skepticism of the audience a start-up needs to court. My sense from previous involvement in this area is that the audience is about 60% charlatans who cultivate the power of the critic without actually holding any potential value or useful ability, 35% gatekeeper types who are negative to any thing that comes their way, and 5% genuinely capable, open minded and in a position to be engaged in an opportunity.

The most deflating people to deal with are those without any experience, who are also unable to hold down a real job, but who position themselves as 'start-up gurus' They just repeat obvious platitudes that are perhaps fresh insights for a 20yr old, but for anyone else sound like they've just opened a business 101 textbook and are reading verbatim.

So while the initial crafting of a business is challenging, dealing with the pursuit of funding is the toughest of all.

I guess that's one of the reasons that immersing myself in some technical content has been fun on this project. Not only renewing that distant part of my skill set, but also because you can make progress without having to deal with difficult yet empowered people.

Still, I have had the pleasure of engaging with the odd visionary person who can ask the tough questions yet still embrace a good idea and run with it. That's a very rewarding experience, and one that I hope happens in the next couple of months before I make a decision about the future at the end of June.

Researchinator anticipates becoming more of a sellinator...

Week Kicks Off with Wintery Day

Snow in the air, rather aggressively this morning, so drove to avoid getting wet. I thought we put that away for the season. It's a bit invigourating though, a dramatic touch. We haven't had any really for well over a month I think.

Getting down to it. Need to start my mornings more aggressively. I clean up correspondence and contact stuff for the first hour, sometimes two each day. Would like to make that a bit more efficient.

Contact from the sickly Lawyer struggling with efficiency during major recovery. I will have a day of drawing updates at somepoint. Anyway, best jump into the main project work.

Researchinator tries to keep focussed...

Friday Challenge

What a Friday - this isn't a featureless day, but for the wrong reasons. First it appears our nice big chunky Koi is ill, so I'll have to get home a bit early and do some remedial work with him. He' seems to have some raised scales and is looking a bit bloated. If it's dropsy it probably means Koi-on-toast for breakfast this weekend.

Then one of the cats starts dispersing her pre-consumed food around the house. Probably just a hairball thing, but still. I really don't need the cleanup effort. With my mother in the hospital this morning too, where she'll be for a good week starting treatment, it doesn't help the atmosphere at all. My significant other is on plane returning from her biz trip to Germany, so at least there will be moral support around the house this weekend.

But on the biz front, I acheived some goals yesterday. Still a billion things to do, but at least I can share some of the stuff with the investors from afar. I should put together a video or something too - yeah like that's going to happen.

Today I'll work on some demo scripts and such before bailing to play fish doctor and generally clean up before the return of my SO, and await news on how my mom is doing.

Researchinator remembers simpler times... Like yesterday.

Deployment Process is a Necessary Evil

Just cleaned up some linked-in connections. Wasting my morning away I'm afraid. Oh well, the networking part of the biz is important too. Some connections there can enable connections elsewhere too.

Trying to keep all my server-side architecture in my head, and document it before it leaks out is tough. I think the process is coming along. Glad I've put the effort in keeping it as simple as I can, though there's probably still more that can be done in that direction.

Sunny change of weather makes it a nice walk today. Will I do the walk for lunch too, or will I find something around here. Love the economics of being able to walk home for lunch though.

Researchinator looks at getting somewhere before lunch time...