The First Convention

In a little less than a week, Flat Earth Hobbies will be heading to Wichita for our first convention. The table is almost finished, but it's another last minute situation. I have been so busy this semester between classes, the GA position, the Enactus officer position, and dealing with Flat Earth Hobbies, that I have not posted about any of the amazing things that have been going on this semester.

Because I am an insane person, I am going to attempt to do the NaNoWriMo thing. Most of my writing will probably be done after the con is finished, but I still think I can manage the 50K with as much as I have been able to do with planning and everything else. A few good word sprints will do me some good to getting back in the writing habit. Even if I do wind up working in corporate IT after graduation next year, I would rather not lose my writing. 

Anyway, I hope everyone had a good Halloween and/or is having a blessed Samhain and that your next week goes swimmingly. I will "see" you all after the con. 

Exhaustion at Friday

Not to call myself lazy, but daily exhaustion, particularly mental exhaustion, is new to me. I guess I've never been really pushed before. (Although I am probably forgetting just how exhausted I was my last semester of undergraduate during all the joy of completing my undergraduate thesis for high honors.) Despite my friendly, outgoing, "extroverted" exterior, I am an introvert from scalp to toenails. The business meetings for information of all kinds have been so draining, even if they were productive. This isn't to say that they were not fun. We toured three possible building locations, with more meetings next week followed up by the actual presentation itself.

Our mock presentation allowed Dean Ogilvie to poke some holes in our presentation. Although we had some positive points, we still need a lot of work before Thursday afternoon at 3:30. It seems that there is a core group of about five to seven groups including ourselves from the twenty that are really strong, so our competitive natures have to be kicked up a notch. Some have already secured bank financing for their idea, all but guaranteeing themselves a spot in the top three. So, of course, now we are trying to pull our information together to do the same.

Today, I have to finish my homework, but I'm slow going because my brain is still reeling from yesterday's long day. To people who regularly pull fourteen hour days, I applaud you. Even if it is something that sparks all your creative passion, it still drains you to the point of mush. This also makes it difficult to return to focusing on homework for Supply Chain management, which I do need to finish today if I don't want to be burning the midnight oil all weekend.

Entrepreneurship is not for the timid, weak-hearted, or pampered. It requires work that no customer ever gets to see. While this is not my first time trying to start a business, this is my first experience with partnerships and the process for finding investment. It's a learning process. You want to know what else I learned this week? Alligator snapping turtles can climb. Digest that one for a moment and then look at the picture of our zoo's massive alligator turtle.

Leaves you with a warm, fuzzy, feeling inside doesn't it?

Strange week

The weather is reminiscent of mid-to-late spring when last week we were freezing in our boots with snow and negative wind chills! Gotta love Kansas weather: it requires you to be both hardy and flexible. In the end, though, we're not nearly as hardy with the cold as our neighbors to the north, and everyone's excited for nicer weather. All I could think yesterday was how much I wished the pool were open. Because it felt more like late April to early May than the middle of March. Although, supposedly, we may get some snow tonight. If we do, I wouldn't expect it to stick.

It's only Tuesday and the week before Spring Break. I have a take home exam to work through this week. It's only eight essay questions, but some of them require a lot of work, so, I will be doing a few questions each day until I'm done. Probably straight through to Saturday when it's due. No sense turning something like that in early and/or killing myself to get it done in a day.

Tomorrow is the meeting for my team for further instructions regarding my team's presentation for pitching our business idea. We made the first cut, so I have no reason to expect that we won't place, but I'm sure our competition is stiff. A top prize of $4K has everyone's mouths watering. There were 31 teams apply, but only 20 made it into the semi-finals. I'm not sure, but I think all the teams may have been from ESU even though the local tech college was also involved.

I've also applied for a paid summer marketing internship at one of the offices I worked in as an undergraduate student. No guarantee there, but it is strange how much of this has gone full circle yet again. Maybe I'll learn something vital to my own entrepreneurial pursuits. The extra money, again, would not be bad for our current situation.

The hours at the funeral home and the pub have not been kind to John lately. There's no guarantee with on-call work, so that's nothing new.  But we've both decided it would probably be best for John to find something else with steady hours even if it's only part-time and leave the bouncer job. I think as long as he leaves on good terms, there should be no real issue there. The pay for the funeral home is too good to give up, though, even if it's irregular work.

I suspect this summer will be a slow start to the business, but my goal is that we will have a storefront shortly after I graduate with the MBA. This summer will be about putting some stuff on etsy, getting the website going, and possibly having a booth table at the Dirty Kanza with some merchandise.

One of my goals today is to go walk around the zoo besides the necessary learning and business-building goals. It's supposed to get up to 70 again and I definitely want to take advantage of the good weather. I will probably grab some photos and maybe put a vote in for the new lion cub's name.

Now for a bit of humor to end this post since I've been getting into Magic: The Gathering lately:

Grand Prix Richmond Crackstyle

All I can say is: wear belts, gentlemen, and clothes that fit you or your exposed ass crack might be featured on the Internet. I'm all for encouraging a bit more class in the gamer community especially for widely publicized events.

This semester's looking good.

My supply chain management class finally has some grades up. So far, all A's. I think I might have a 4.0 semester as it looks now. I still have my midterm exam next week and one more project for my global marketing before going into the semester. I'll have a third class starting after break. I'm not too worried about that since it's IT oriented. I do well in those classes.

This upcoming week is the last week before Spring Break. I have exam and a paper and I suspect I'll be spending a significant chunk of my break working on headway towards final projects. Granted, my professors do seem to appreciate the sanctity of the break as an actual break (nothing's due right when we come back). However, I want a little more wriggle room what the presentation pitch for the 3D competition at ESU.

We keep coming up with so many awesome ideas. The goal is to make them real this summer. In other news, Kansas has decided that it will be spring. 60's today and lower 70's tomorrow. It's a good day to be outside and enjoy the weather especially after the nasty snows we've had the past few weeks.

Last night

It's a little after 7 in the morning as I start writing this. John didn't get to sleep until about 5. To be honest, he has every right to be downright pissed with his employers at the pub. They've lied to him since he started at this job. They never gave him the hours promised nor the three months to really get the job down as a bartender when he was coming from no previous bartending experience. So they cut him down to just doorman (bouncer) on the weekends all the while saying how "great" a worker he was and how much he'd improved but with no real legitimate reason other than they found someone else they wanted more to work the bar after they hired him. (Downside of a right to work state, employees get screwed and employers get away with just shy of murder.) Still, the doorman position is supposed to pay $9 an hour if I remember correctly because there are no tips, but evidently they've still been paying him minimum wage.It wouldn't be much, but he'd get more than the cost of a tank of gas per month. It's ridiculous.

To be honest, I'm feeling very evil and potentially vindictive right now. If I wanted to, I could write a scathing review of the pub and probably convince more people than anyone could shake a stick at post nasty grams on the business's Facebook wall. But the truth is, I don't completely despise the owners despite their bullshit / lack of professionalism because the pub was something Emporia needed and they've done a lot of good for the community. Still, I'm having a hard time washing the bad taste out of my mouth.This is the ambivalence of adulthood, I suppose.

Realistically, I know I can set these feelings aside should the need arise. With starting a new venture, I should play nice with all the local entrepreneurs. This is mostly just me venting, but I don't suspect I'll be wanting to step foot in the pub for a long while until my temper cools off.  I hear Kingdoms of Amalur calling my name as I believe digitally killing some creatures is in order.

The Next Step

I mentioned in last week's blog post about the 3D competition for the entrepreneurial business idea. My team (#20) was one of the top 20 selected for the semi-finals. Amusingly, I found out about it from a professor yesterday morning. It was several hours after the announcement hit the radio stations and the local paper before teams were notified by the college. After all, the university needs the good publicity. I'm feeling a bit better about our business venture which do intend to start this summer, whether or not we win prize money from the competition. We have a couple of dice trays in process at the moment, although I don't anticipate that we'll get into table or larger furniture construction until summer. Anyway, I think we stand a really good shot of getting first place then going on to compete against winning Kansas State University teams from the K-State Learn competition. (3D and K-State Learn are essentially the same competition.) 

In other related news, I've got another 2, possibly 3, semesters before I am done with my MBA. I'm not looking forward to repayment, but I'm definitely excited about the prospect of getting back to work at a more full-time basis. I like the funeral home, but I suspect my time there is going to be limited to another year at most.

 Here's what my entrepreneurial team watched last night while we celebrated with spicy fish tacos, grilled pineapple, chips and salsa, with some Apothic White. Enjoy your weekend! May it be full of happiness, laughter, and enough sarcasm to mess with the weak minded as you go about your day. 

Dreaming Leads to Creation

My team's executive summary for ESU's 3D Event - Dream It, Design It, Develop It - made it in well before the deadline. I am curious to see if we make the cut for the top 20 to be able to further pitch our idea. The goal is the prize money more than anything. We intend to use it towards starting capital. We have two dice trays in process at the moment. Photos to come later. We used pine and birch on these to keep expenses fairly low since they're just going to be showcase models. They're taking the stain fairly nicely though, so it will be interesting to show as part of our display. Or they might be going up on etsy sometime soon. I'm a little hush-hush on too many details as to our plans yet for this business, but I think it will be fantastic. My actual class assignments were wrapped up this morning so I have some time to work on research for both business and end-of-the-semester projects.

John's job searching has been frustrating lately. We are still both employed part-time at the funeral home and he is still working the door at Mulready's every other weekend, but some more steady income is definitely needed. It shouldn't be this difficult to get out of a one bedroom apartment, but the job market in this town is becoming exceedingly more questionable despite expansion and new business. I guess that's just another sign that we need to run our own ventures.

I would much prefer that March came in like a lion with thunderstorms, not a possibility of 3-6 inches of snow. My work shoes that I just bought (to replace the ones that broke) are not exactly snow friendly. They're intended for spring and summer. If there's still snow on the ground come Monday morning, I might be in an uncomfortable situation. Somewhat related to cold days, Jim Butcher is evidently going to be in Kansas City to promote his new book Skin Game in June. It remains to be seen as to whether I will be there or not, but it is a possibility. Right now, I'm still working my way through the Dresden Files series. I might be done or close to it by June 1st.

So far, I've only managed to add another paragraph to The Lazarus Hand but I hope to get a bit more done today. Having enough spare time to write fiction at all is a good thing. Granted, I have been gaming a good bit lately as well, but I am trying to get into different types of game in the event that the business venture comes to fruition. As far as video games, though, I'm impatiently waiting the third episode of A Wolf Among Us. I was a big fan of Vertigo comics back in the '90's, so seeing Fables redesigned as an interactive story game is just fantastic for my nostalgic tendencies.