So, I struggled to get stuff done in June.  I spent a lot of time shuttling the kids around to summer programs, and the heat and the rushing wore on me.  The only thing i have been consistent on all summer is swimming, I've been in the pool everyday.  I'm not dropping the weight that I was hoping for, but I'm feeling a lot more muscle tone

July has been great so far.  The kids and I have been making a book for our summer project.  It's a joke book called 'Robot Riddles', and we're 80% done. We should be able to wrap it up this weekend.

Get the ball rolling and chain yourself to it...

I've been wanting to do a kickstarter project for a long time.  there was always an excuse why not to launch.  Coming off a frustrating June, I decided that I would launch a project right before my birthday and guilt my facebook friends into starting the ball rolling.  great plan... but I missed the deadline fussing with the video... Annoyed about the lost opportunity, I decided that this needed to be the summer of "good enough"... and launched without a video.  The clock was ticking, I was losing time to raise money.... just the motivation i needed, the video was completed in 24 hours.  The sound could be better (I might re-do it) but I was on my way.  A week later I have $450 in pledges and 4 weeks to go.  I'm not on track to make the funding goal ($6000) but I only need to be picked up on a few blogs to get back on track.  Check it out!

The last side project is my Access script. I have not been working on it, but I needed a deadline.  I contacted a couple friends who produce plays and invited them over for a reading. About a week ago we set a date for tomorrow night and I have a lot of writing to get ready for it... it's going well, and I think I actually have an ending... just not written yet.

Book, kickstarter, movie script... and on top of that more contract work... it's a mad rush this week.

Mom's coming to town tomorrow, Inca's birthday (7) is on Friday, her party is on Sunday, Mom leaves on Monday... try to sneak a movie sometime there... lots of cleaning, kids, pinata, park, water balloons, cake.. whew...

Had a new idea this week... shows a lot of promise... have about 80% of the tech demo done, got a specific domain name in mind... not going to buy it until I have a fully working tech demo... runs itself like refundplease and mypollingsite, ad revenue, viral marketing built in to the idea, sort of like bit.ly... we'll see...

Finally started the second draft of the Access project last night... going to start working on it every night when Elsa goes to bed.  Should go pretty quick... 2/3rds of it is solid, just need to find an ending and add stage direction.  I set up the laptop upstairs in the loft to cut out the distractions...

DoubleE has stalled, need to brush up on my PHP/DB...  going to tackle some of the tweaks to cutestdamnbaby, that should help me get back into the swing.

'Little City', an iconic coffee shop in downtown Austin is closing it's doors... I hate coffee, and over-priced scones, but I spent a lot of time in that joint in the 90's... as I get older and the people and places of my youth begin to fall away, I think.. "losers... they just couldn't go the distance.."

Finished Illustrator, starting on Fireworks again on Wed.

Working on the fireworks version of the baby site.  It's not a step I would normally do when building a site for myself, but it will be a good example for the class to see.

I can't really give homework in the class, but I brought up the idea that if they needed a project to work on, they could do some design work for my domain portfolio.  A couple of them expressed interest, so I'm working today to list and outline the domains I currently have.  Lot of domains, lot of work.

My home project this week is cleaning up the garage.  We been here 18 months, and have yet to park a vehicle in there.  My goal is to get one car in there by Sun.  Dropped some stuff off at the salvation army yesterday... getting a pile of stuff ready to go to the dump on Thurs. or Fri.

Found an outline I made 5 or 6 years ago for a custom book product for kids... might be a 2nd. product for the baby site if I can automate the building process a little more.

Had a crazy rush with a contract job, then a busy spring break... now...

An overwhelming number of side projects are occupying my thoughts, but little work is being done.

The class is going fine.  Two new students starting this week with Illustrator.  Illustrator, is the last application in the series that I have not taught yet, and it's the app that I'm least familiar with... so there will be a lot of prep time for the next two weeks, then on to Fireworks.

Been working on a couple mobile apps, and they stalled with all the recent activity... going to try to get alpha versions out this weekend.

Doing some low poly models for a friend's independent game.  Turning into an interesting little project, might do some level design and writing for it too... he's a programming whiz and probably a little more interested in the code than the story.

I'm prepping to pitch a 3D class.  I have not taught 3D officially, and I think it's time that I did.  Lot of 3D in this town, and I have a varied portfolio.  Doing this game stuff to fill in some missing holes.

Supposed to be writing a 2nd. draft of my Access script, but have not started.  Should take about a week.  I need the next draft finished so that I can start showing it to my theater producer friends for feedback and recommendations.   I want to stage it in the fall, and I need to book a space.   April 1st. is the 20th anniversary of Konk!

All for now.

We are officially landlords!

Woohoo!  

The job search continues.  I've been filling out this resume site.  I have to add the programmer, entrepreneur, and creative pages.

Dick has been called back to work, and so I've got to figure out my options for a sitter on interviews and job search events.

I went to a tech ranch event and met some interesting folks who are in the start up world.  I need to continue getting out of the house and in front of folks if I'm going to find the interesting opportunities.

Halloween is right around the cornet and It's going to be harder to land work as the holiday approach

Max got sick first.   Now me.  Hopefully it ends here.

Two more days till we hand over the keys to the new tenants.  Got six or seven things to finish before then.  Change locks, get keys made, test appliances, finish gluing the carpet down, a little paint touch up, replace boards under the bathroom sink, sweep and mop, and clear the last of the stuff in the back yard.  Piece of cake... if I felt like leaving the house :)

Going to a startup/VC pitch event on Thursday.  Should be a good place to network.  I'm starting to venture out more in the job search.  All my best work came from personal meetings.  People respond to me better than they do to my resume.

My weight loss has been stalled.  I'm hanging at 203.  Down 15 from where I started, but still 15 from my goal.  Just need to be more active in general.   Trying to find the right time to fit it into my schedule.

Still pushing forward on several creative fronts, writing, product ideas, and web stuff...  I have several things close to completion and I'm ready for the dominoes to start falling.

The rent house is rented!  Woohoo!  It's taken a lot longer than I would have liked, but it looks like we've got a solid group of tenants lined up (college students) and we're off.

They move in this Friday(the 15th) and I have a few little things to finish before then.


The job search continues in earnest.  Resumes going out, networking opportunities lining up.