I've been so busy with Fashion Genome that I haven't had time to write a real newsletter all summer. So, I am taking a break to write more.
Unfortunately since all I have done was work, I will have to reach into the category of planning and musings to fill up a big-boy-sized newsletter.
The weather here has been amazing. I don't mind the heat, but it is nice to have it just be pleasant outside. It's the sort of weather where you feel like napping in the sun while cuddling your wife. I haven't been outside much, but the since I commute a decent amount and my car has no air conditioning, I get a pretty good feel for the weather.
Orianna is talkative as ever. She is very social, and loves to tell people stories, and tell them "good job" if they do anything that she deems worthy of praise (usually things that are too hard for her to do, or too tall for her to reach). She also is very happy about being "so tall." So, if I end up with a 6'3" teenager, I will have to show her footage of her dancing about praising her height so she can't complain when she has to slouch to dance with a guy.
She has also discovered the inglorious "why?" While I don't mind explaining things to kids (because I loved that my parents would, instead of just saying "because")... but she abuses it by not having a granularity where stopping asking why is ok. But, I just use it as a chance to say lots of weird words like "paramecium", or "optic nerves", or "psychological imperative". In the words of Tamara, "Our poor children."
Her other big accomplishment is her iPhone Prowess. At first I just assumed she was a genius 2 year old leaps and bounds ahead of the rest in mental development... but after seeing many kids her age with the iPhone, I am convinced that 1) adults constantly underestimate kids 2) touch computing is a vast barely-tapped resource for early child education. Orianna can already read many words, and knows her ABC and can identify both uppercase and lowercase letters & numbers, and can count to 20. While I would love to claim credit (either for nature or nurture), I am afraid that television and the iPhone have been her most powerful instructors. So, at some point I will likely start programming educational tools for touch computing, as I am convinced that it is a great way to educate kiddos.
Tamara has been great (as always) helping me work. She has pulled far more than her share of parenting, housework, and even yard work. I would feel far worse about it, if I weren't on the clock right around 100 hours a week plus commute time.
Tamara has spent a lot of time during the day with her sisters who each have similarly aged children. It has been fun to parent in a social group. Often on Sunday's we will eat dinner at Tamara's mothers house, and everyone just kind of collectively parents everyone under the age of 5. It's amazing how relaxing it is to parent other people's kids than your own. I think Mark Twain said it best, "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."
FashionGenome has progressed well. We are on the cusp of launching the site live and having the ability to actually make money, and have several Venture Capitalists who have all promised to invest if we can show any level of traction (sales) (basically to prove that we are done-enough with the site for it to be viable).
Though that makes it sound like my workload will decrease, it is quite the opposite. We are launching a sister site that is a subset of FashionGenome and is "Powered by FashionGenome". So all the FashionGenome work is still left for me to do, plus maintaining a sister site, plus providing an API for other sites to tap into in case they just want to subscribe to our service so that fashion genome can "power their site" too.
Lastly, I am in the process of converting the 900 square foot workshop behind my house into a viable office for FashionGenome. It is a little tricky because 1) I know jack about construction, and 2) the laws are a little fuzzy when it gets to home businesses that you don't actually "own". But, I think I have all the legal stuff figured out, especially since the government sites all say "As long as you aren't polluting and no neighbors complain, we are willing to turn a blind eye regardless of whether or not you are bending the rules." Lucky for me, I don't even have neighbors. But, I think I am complying to all the rules anyway, so it should be fine.
Well, I hope everything is going well for you blokes and your families. I apologize for any incoherency in my email, as I often type at random now due to sleep deprivation ;)
But, we are happy, well, and hoping to finally dig ourselves out of our money-pit home. Hopefully FashionGenome will provide that means.
-Rob
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