Emotion Vs. Ration

This week has been one hell of a ride, as I feel both loved and lonely at the same time. I'm struggling to "settle down" and find peace within myself, which is making it hard to concentrate on my objectives. I miss the ease of hanging out with you boys, and regret that I took it for granted. =(

My ability to think rationally, I've found, relies on my emotional stability. I'm frustrated with myself, but as my (new) great friend Homer (as in Iliad, not Simpson) said - I've only been here 3 months. I need to give it time. So, for the next week I'm going to try to book appointments with my new friends. Friendships are easy to strike for me, but getting them deeper has always been hard.

On a business front, the first batch of photos for the website are done. They are in post production and I'll get them on Monday. I'm working on the website, and it'll be ready by the time Monday rolls around (at least that's what I'm telling myself). I'm meeting with the folks at FedEx next week too. Wish me luck.

Lonely but at least not homeless. =D
Riani

Period 4 -- A Diplodocus

A Parable for Accountability


Once upon a time there was a big dinosaur. It ate lots of food in the form of leaves and bugs and grew big and strong. There were plenty of trees to eat from, and life was good.


Then he ate all the trees, so all that was left to eat was insects. The bugs didn't taste nearly as good as the sweet tasty nectar from the feature tree.

Now he's trying to eat all the bugs quickly before the tyrannosaurus arrives and swallows him whole.

And that's this month in a nutshell!

Kuala and Bali Count?

Hi boys,
in these last two weeks I've:

• Gone to Kuala Lumpur to hang out with some girlfriends. This has been good for my soul because it let me recharge and be around strong women entrepreneurs. It's given me the energy to push me again to start my online boutique.
  
• Gone to Bali for the weekend. This was good because I met a lot of locals in the area, and some that own villas there but live in Jakarta. I'm sure that if worse comes to worse, I can go work for one of these guys. In Bali. Not too bad me thinks.

So really, I've just been playing tourist. But having a great time doing it. I have however:

• Scrapped my old provider for my boutique. I found a better one which is easier to use, and on which I can build my own visions without too much fuss. I should have it up and running by the end of the week.
  

• Secured the US wholesale rights for a local jewelry company coming out with brilliant designs. I'll be able to sell them at retail and/or wholesale within the US market and anywhere else I want. I'll add that to my collection, which allows me to save money by not buying inventory.

• Contacted a guy who makes these awesome rattan bags, hopefully I'll be able to photograph them and add them to the site, and sell them at retail price. (I'll negotiate for wholesale pricing).
  

• Contacted a business development manager at Pasar Raya, which is a huge department store. They have beautiful stuff, and I want to see if I can start selling some of their stuff online.
  

My goal is to get product on the website, sell it online and ship it from Indonesia. In a couple of months when I have a better idea of the sales velocity, I'll ship to the states and have a fulfillment center take care of all that crap.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll update you guys when I've started. =D

Watch Out! Unicorns abound!...

"The unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. He could be captured only by unfair means, and his single horn was said to neutralize poison."


What does this have to do with accountability, you say? I'm not sure yet...Give me until the end of the post and I'll come up with something. I surely couldn't pass up using this sparkleiscious graphic.



As for productivity over the last 2 weeks...
I recovered from two months of painting for the first week
I was sick for the second week
I got a bunch of small things done, but not much progress on the macro-goals
Grade: C+

Things for next time (2 weeks this time, dammit!)

Post my to do list...I'm doing that now
Develop specific curriculum and materials for spanish test
research spanish test requirements

Contact deck painting client
Research and act on photography income/display
Create new '100 things I like...'list
Try to fill out days with specific events
back to the gym
plan trips

begin planning/implementation on evil present blog and car painting blog
help parents plan/schedule home restoration project
fix car...again
finish mustang!!!
photo/document/internetize/sell mustang
review other online pursuit ideas

The unicorn is there to inspire and symbolize our not-so-selfless, but valiant efforts to 'neutralize the poison' in our lives...or maybe we're just horny.

Stephen - Period 3

And a month later...

I met my work goals for the 2 week period from last meeting.. however, thats not that impressive since we took a month between meets this time.

Beta-9 is out and 1/3 of the Big-Three done. The remaining Big 2 are really umbrella issues that contain a dozen or more things each. Ouch.

Things that I still suck at: Good customer conversations.

My goal notes:

1) For the next two weeks, focus exclusively on bug fixing and re-enabling things that had to be disabled for B -9. Two weeks of solid effort should resolve the vast majority of bugs that need fixing before release.

a) Make a priority list of bugs, and solve them in-order.

b) ONE thing at a time only. Do NOT have the dozen-in-flight modifications that were plaguing B-9.

2) Reply to a couple of the backlogged emails every time I check work email.

3) Try putting my coffee maker in/next to my room, with auto-brew for the morning. Knowing there's coffee brewed and ready will greatly help me get up at the same regular time each morning. Funny how excited this idea makes me. I still like the idea of the caffeine watch though, guys.

Accountability, What's That?

Before I post my goal list, a few thoughts.

So as I mentioned at the meeting last night, we all suck since we missed an entire 2 weeks for no real reason. I guess it sort of brings up an important point: that alot of the time, our 2 week progress indicators will just be "Same ol, Same ol". It's hard to be dedicated when you don't have anything happening.

Three solutions are possible then. 1) Actually make Interesting Shit happen every period (perhaps impossible), or 2) Broaden our meeting scope to accommodate more (identifiable, actionable) goals, or 3) Move to a monthly format to allow for more things to happen. (reasonable for some times, but at other times is too few).

Anyways. Just wanted to throw out some ideas to help keep us regular. Because, you know, that's important. Otherwise, we just become metaphorically full of crap.

Andrew - Period 2

Okay, I am not coming in last for a second time on my own damn blog... Unfortunately, my bulleted lists aren't nearly so pretty as everyone else's... Seems I've got more internal house-cleaning to do before I can embark on Big Projects (tm). That said, I'm trying to take a different approach with stress from work: do only what I can, be more selective about the projects I choose to involve myself with, and play Mr. Teflon to the high-pitched nonsense coming out of my superiors. (Wait - isn't this supposed to be a bulleted list?) Fine, here are the rest:

• Continue with the Importing class - start thinking about implementation steps, as there are only 2 more class periods left...
• Gym/Running - 3 times/week for each, though I'm not going to feel bad if a weekend run turns into a day of downhill skiing...
• Start the day early - This is going okay, though it could use a bit of improvement. If I want to get off work early, I've gotta arrive early and not dawdle at home.
• Schedule time for reflection - This is the one I didn't get to, insofar as I didn't schedule any specific time free of distractions. I'm thinking a self-imposed lunch break at work might do the trick...

Given the pace of some of the other projects being floated around here, I might have to start adding some side projects with some of you... All told, the future is bright!