The Week Ahead

It's going to be a short morning, as I have a lunch meeting and gotta squeeze a barber visit in before that. Plus, it's raining, so the chance of a patio table for lunch is shot.

I've been making some good app progress. Just when I think I can get to a plateau by the end of the week, I realize it's going to be a poor week for productivity. A mid-week holiday (Canada Day) and this meeting, and probably another with potential contributor to the project.

Maybe I can delay that meeting until next week? No, I suppose Friday will be okay.

Thursday I have to work from home in the afternoon as an appliance delivery is happening.
So that's the balance of the week laid out for me. My calendar is just beeping at me - actually sneezing is my alarm sound - to tell me about my haircut.

Researchinator is feeling lethargic...

Leading into a Summery Weekend

Some days the Each Morning Blog threatens to become another twitter account. 140char seems to be enough to capture my thoughts. A little glimmer or contact on the investment front, returning a question. Glad to see they aren't actively ignoring me, but nothing concrete going down yet.

Friday, leading into the weekend, and next week a truncated, or maybe bi-sected week with the Canada Day festivities mid-week. I guess the Americans below will be doing a long weekend, as the 4th is conveniently located for them.

Well, head down and back to immersing myself in my software. Have a bit of momentum this week, so lets see if I can power through the day today and get somewhere.

Researchinator is a glorified typist...

Mid Week Momentum

Second day employing my bike to avoid the 10min walk in the heat. The bike gets me to HQ fast enough that I don't have time to work up a sweat, before I'm into the AC. A great compromise between walking and taking the car for such a short distance.

Today there are threats of rain in the afternoon, so I'll probably lunch at home and switch to automotive umbrella.

Did a presentation to a group of would be investors. Kind of a first exposure thing. It was a couple of days back now, so I'm not sure if there's something to be expected from that, or if they just slip into we're ignoring you mode if you were unsuccessful.

One would think all the conversation and reinforcing of my pitch slides meant it went well, but who can say. Likely the most I can expect is that they come back with a bunch of bureaucratic engagement crap. There's a little too much government in this bunch. There's a glimmer of Angel participation too, but not sure how cliquey they are with the others.

Meanwhile, the development is progressing again. I'd rather be spending time on my financial models, to be honest, but I have this burning desire to get my app to a plateau I can visualize. If only I were there, I could really move forward on the other stuff and get this boat moving.

Meanwhile, I have an old friend and colleague that I might just bring into the fray, but I really don't want to do it too early. Perhaps should drop him a note to say yes, but later, rather than have him wondering. I am enjoying the focus so far, and lack of distraction.

Researchinator trying to keep up some momentum

Corporate Beer

Trying to get back into the saddle. The travel work combo was reasonably good. I didn't do as many hours as I'd have liked, but then again, I was in Paris, so who can complain. While away I was called by an investor that I had connected with earlier, and invited to present the day after my return. The result was some scrambling to ensure my biz plan and slides were in good shape, but they were pretty good, and so I did that preso this morning.

My sense is that it went well. I had a 10minute slot, and it took me an hour and 10 to get through it. Not because I'm a lousy presenter, but because of the constant conversation that ensued going through the slides. I take it as good that there were pretty much only positive things to say, and the only minor criticism was easily addressable. My product offers A as alternative when people can't do B, and also offers C,D, and E. So the criticism that people would just do B, doesn't really fly. A is for when they can't do B, as is common in all these myriad common, all-day situations. Seems like a slam dunk, but who can tell.

The perception I have of this group is that they are big on bureaucracy, and a successful engagement means they slather you with coachy, touchy-feely, motherhood stuff, give you no cash, and use up tons of your time. However, I'm happy to be proven wrong, of course. I'll just continue to expect to be underwhelmed and enjoy being surprised should that prove to be the case.

Just now, it's after lunch, and I have the hiccups. It's hard to just jump back into your tasks when you've been through an event for which you were planning for several days. Perhaps going out for a beer with the colleagues would be best, but then again, I have none... so I'll just make some tea, and hope I can soon hire a whole bevvy of co-beer-drinkers.

Researchinator patiently waits for the first corporate beer day.

Labour Tourism

Worked several hours yesterday without a satisfactory conclusion. I'm a little disappointed with the support on some of the python discussion groups where a posted question gets no answers or even broad arm-waving suggestions. I might have to abandon my desired mini-goal and do a work-around. It's a minor UI thing I was trying to solve, and there are more than one ways to skin a snake.

Some wandering around Paris which was not so scheduled. I was intending to work diligently this morning, but found that the library experience here is not up to standard. No tables and work area, rather just shelves of books. Other libraries are huge museum like places requiring payment to enter and copious ID and actually photos for their administration. Wacky.

So hotel work is back. I will store some coulombs into my battery, then probably migrate to the wifi café I know down the street wherein I can get a good pot of tea.

There Are Worse Places to Have Wet Feet

Morning starts with wet toes today, Monday in Paris.
Accompanying my SO whoisworking today, I am just having breakfast on rue des écoles and thinking about how I'll get anything done today.
Yesterday the hassel was high heat and humidity that rendered me very very uncomfortable. Today the expected rain showed up and so my annoyance is wet toes. It's looking like my working spot will turn into the lobby of the hotel.
Researchinator nurses a nice strong, hot tea...

Combining Productivity with Preparation

Starting off with a headache isn't fun. At least it's a subtle one, not a skull cracker migraine today. Made good progress in spite of having some errands, yesterday. Need to do something similar today.

I've been, for a few weeks, generalizing an application from a single case, to include a second case, in preparation for ultimately adding a dozen other cases. So the adding of the second function, analogous to, yet different from, the first is the first real test of how generalizable my concept is.

Does what I've done in one area preclude such a generalization?

In little ways I've needed to tweak things, but still there's nothing that challenges my concept, so I'm happily plodding forth. I like to think that perhaps a week of work will get me through the hump, but next week I'm in France, working from hotels and wifi cafés and parks, so we'll see how much I accomplish.

My backup strategy will evolve too, 'cause I haven't hacked my NAS to allow remote unix-like ssl sessions. I think I'll bundle up an image and email it to myself after large accomplishments.

But getting the day underway, and don't want to do a half-assed job of it, but I realize that there's enough to do that I should take a few hours this afternoon to get ready for the trip.

Researchinator is using a whole ass today...

First Tendrils of Contact and Feedback

Making application progress while simultaneously pinging a few people in the investment community. Most conversations result in learning something about other people's take on what I have so far. These are super useful. Sometimes a point I make is missed, so I can beef it up. Sometimes they assume something - they always assume something - and I can set them straight.

Funny, I describe a market and a problem and a solution and mention a patent-pending product I have to address it, and their assumption is that I don't have anything done yet. I guess I have to repeat myself a few times, and say things in a few different ways so it really hits home.

Anyway, such communications challenges are useful feedback. I think of my first 50 investment contacts as prep work for 51 which will buy into the business.

I'm probably up to about 4 so far. If I can move off the development track at some point with a reasonably stable prototype 2, then I can start adding 10 of those a week or something.

Researchinator turns back to that pesky grindstone, nose first...

Morning From a Different Perspective

Well it's certainly not morning now as I turn in for the day and tap out a note on my iTouch. Today was tough, cause well, it's Monday and also due to a lethal combo of both fatigue and low motivation. There are ways to deal with that, and I did a pretty good job, I think. I did communications things this morning, and changed work venues in the afternoon, after putting lunch off for a couple of hours. The fatigue really kicked on, so I took a 10min nap in my comfy chair, and then found myself quite productive after that. I finished up the day with a good 3 hour block of coding that moved me nicely ahead.
Meanwhile I think of all the crap I've got to do, and how much more productive I can be with a fully engaged staff. Then the challenge of getting from here to funding weighs on me. I think too about the big cliquey deadwood machine that I may be about to engage with andworry that they will chew up all my spare time jumping through bureaucratic hoops and pissing contests to finally tell me with excitement that they can invest $35k or something similarly stupid in the venture.
These are the things that keep me up at night. Strangely, the technology continues to reassure me that it will work out. There is still a lot to accomplish there, bug at least that path forward seems pretty clear.
Well tomorrows another day and I'll be back at 'em hoping for a few good blocks of 2 or 3 hrs where things click and the yardstick Getz moved forward.
Researchinator is about to get some sleep...

Don't Let the Kitties Lure You Away

Good progress yesterday aft, though I quit a bit early to go home as my SO was returning from a week long business trip. Gotta pick up there, while the iron's hot, to mix a metaphor.

Got briefly distracted by a website showing pictures of cats sleeping in funny positions. I'll save you some productive hours by not posting the link.

Researchinator has a good dose of cute to start the morning...

Minimizing Distractions, but Not Doing Too Well

Not very productive with lots of communications things going on this morning, so I'll keep it brief. Some travel coming up in a couple of weeks, so trying to see if there are any events to check-out while in Europe.

Otherwise, really want to put this feature addition in my app to bed, but it's a long meticulous thing. The next one will be easier, I'm sure.

Researchinator tries to get down to it...

Patch the Bag, or My Punctured Fingers?

Lots of work yesterday on adding a feature to my app. Building a type of app that doesn't exist is a bit of a challenge. More than a bit. Sure you plan it out, but short on staff, at some point you have to jump in and start working on it.

Then layering extra functionality on top you get to see if your attempt to generalize for broad cases of use will really hold up or not. So far it's not too bad. I'm debating with myself over approaches. It's kind of like a plastic shopping bag full of scrap metal. You get a piece poking thru every once in a while, but you tape it up and hope it holds. Biggest worry is that the whole thing just shreds and you're done. I've added the new jagged piece into it, and am hoping it all holds together.

Okay, bad analogy at the end of the day, 'cause I don't think the app looks like a patched up bag with pokey bits in it. But the process feels like that, even if the analogy is less apt for the overall project.

I had planned this to be a cold call week, but there's a balance between managing the desire for funding and managing the show-off-ability of the product.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Got a collaborator meeting tonight - will see how that's sticking at least.

Researchinator tries to decide between bandages and tape...