A Long Overdue Fortune Cookie Post and SXSW
Mar 11 2009

Blogging will be light over the next several days (I think) because I’ll be at SXSW end of this week, part of this weekend, and early part of next week.   I hope to meet many of you there at my panel called Building A Web Business After Hours.  I’m not really into live blogging but I’ll probably be sending out a few tweets so if you are interested you can follow me on twitter @aruni.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of my random fortune cookie posts.   I’ve collected quite a few and I thought I’d share them, but before I do go check out some of the posts I did a while back with fortunes from those crazy cookies:

Business (Love) Is Like War; Easy To Begin But Hard To Stop – Nov 2, 2008

Those Who Seek Will Find – Sep 21, 2008

A Dream You Have Will Come True – July 30, 2008

Life Always Gets Harder Near The Summit – July 8, 2008

Look Forward to a Great Fortune and a New Lease on Life! – June 25, 2008

You can’t ride in all directions at one time – June 19, 2008

So here are the ones that have been sitting on my desk or in my purse for a while.  I won’t be writing full posts about these so here it goes:

A lifetime of happiness lies ahead of you. – Ah, that’s so nice to know.  I would be pretty bummed if a lifetime of misery lay ahead of me.

Your ability to trust fuels your ability to love. – Interestingly I have a hard time really trusting people for a variety of reasons, but oddly I love people.

The secret of vast riches begins with a single penny. – True but a bit simplistic, don’t you think?

You are compassionate and fun-loving.  – I do like being compassionate and fun! 🙂

People will find it difficult to resist your propositions. – This is exactly why I don’t make too many hard core propositions!  Understanding what it means if someone does accept your proposition is extremely important to know before you make the proposition…

Now, I’m off to watch Battlestar Galactica (recorded) with hubby who just completed the Landmark Forum and thought it was amazing!  I knew he would despite the fact he’s a rocket scientist and a know-it-all.   I’ll be doing the Advanced Forum in April where we are supposed to discover who we are…and I have a feeling I might be an elephant.

The Reader, Zilker Kite Festival, Random Stuff
Mar 1 2009

Since I blog about parenting as well as business here on this oddly unusual and sometimes entertaining blog, here’s what happened this weekend.

The Reader
Last night (Saturday) hubby and I went on a date night.  We decided, given the state of our financial situation, to do dinner & movie at The Alamo Drafthouse, where they serve dinner while you watch a movie and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.  Our original plan was to see the Academy Award winning picture, Slumdog Millionaire, but it was sold out.  So we ended up seeing The Reader (check out this link for the trailer) starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, one of my favorite actors.  Winslet won best actress for her performance in The Reader and we are both so busy that neither I nor my husband realized Fiennes was in that movie too!

I’ve actually had a long time fascination with Fiennes after his performance in Schindler’s List, despite the fact he played one of the really bad guys in that movie.  He was equally as interesting in The English Patient.  I was a bit annoyed at his performance in The Duchess, mostly because the character he played lacked depth and sensitivity, but after seeing The Reader I’m less annoyed.  I told my husband this and he said something like “All Fiennes has to do is smile that little half smile and you see his piercing blue/gray eyes and he’s back in your favor.”  Well maybe I added the blue/gray eyes part, but I had to smile and nod.  He then told me that Kate Winslet did all of her own nude scenes (of which there were many in this movie), and I asked him how he knew this.  He didn’t have a good answer other than he read it somewhere, but I could tell she did.  I think it’s cool that she’s so comfortable with her body that she even risked displaying a couple of her stretch marks (a.k.a. badges of honor).

The story was set in Germany and starts out with a young 15 year old Fiennes (I don’t know the actor who played him, but he was adorable!) having a summer affair with a much older Winslett.  She asked him to read her all the books he was reading in high school ranging from philosophy to mythology.  He later finds himself a law student observing a trial about the Holocaust where she is a defendant.  He is devastated because he had no idea she was involved in the Holocaust in any way and it deeply affected him and all of his future relationships with women.  It was a pretty good, thought provoking movie, but I wasn’t too happy with the ending because I was hoping for more resolution.  But I guess just like in real life there really never is a good resolution is there?

Zilker Kite Festival
This Sunday afternoon we tried to go to the Zilker Park Kite Festival.  We were supposed to meet up with some friends there but after more than 1/2 an hour of driving around the area, not finding parking, and not even being able to figure out in a timely manner where the shuttle parking was, we gave up.  Our friends were already there so after several calls and her telling me that it was chaos and she’d understand if we don’t come, we decided to bag it and take the kids to another park.  We stopped at The Domain on the way so I could return something.  Turns out the kids weren’t that interested in flying the kite so we hung out at the park for a little bit and then came home.  Hubby and son threw the football around and our daughter rode her little bike.  I threw the ball with our son for a little while, followed our daughter on her bike on the sidewalk for a little while, then washed some clothes, did some work on Babble Soft, and wrote this blog post.

Random Kid Stuff
Earlier today our 6 year old son asks our almost 4 year old daughter if she was in love with some boy named Steven (who is older than she is) at her school.  Steven likes to give her a hug when we pick her up.  She tells him “No, he’s mad.”  My son then asks her if she thought he was cute.  I’m not sure she responded to that one.  I laughed out loud because I thought how innocent that exchange was between them and how much meaning someone would apply to that exchange if they were teenagers or older.

Our son has made friends with an 8 year old girl at his school.  She’s into PokeMon and Bakugan (these toys that change from a ball to a creature and back again) and he sometimes comes home with several little Bakugan toys that he says she gave to him.  I asked him what he gives her and he says nothing, and I ask him how can that be?  He said, she likes giving the little toys to him.  I’ve told him that he must also give her some cards or toys back but he just says “But she likes giving things to me.”  So, I’m not sure what to say to that, but I feel as if I need to coach him to also give her something.  Well, at least he’s friends with a girl who seems to like sci-fi and typical boy stuff – just like his mama. 🙂

Calgon Take Me Away
Dec 28 2008

Yes, I need a getaway (click this link if you want to learn how to enter the contest yourself) and here’s my entry to win a dream vacation valued up to $5,000 from Home Away in exactly 350 words: 

Actually, Calgon can’t help me now.  The day job, after hours job, two kids, husband, a house, financial crisis, etc. have taken their toll.  And the 1970’s Enjoli perfume commercial (click on the YouTube link to see a beautiful, perfectly figured, exceptionally tall, blonde woman who wears 3 outfits in one day strutting her stuff!) that glorified women bringing home the bacon, frying it up in a pan, doing laundry, and never letting you forget you’re a man is a bunch of bull corn.  Yes, I said bologna bull corn.  Hitting her man on the head with the frying pan is much more realistic! 

So yes, I need a getaway to a warm, sunny, seaside location where I can sit under a palapa sipping margaritas, pina coladas, cosmopolitans, Mexican Martinis, oh heck why not some straight up tequila shots!  Somewhere (with a beach view) that I can wake up the next day not hung over (hey, this is a dream vacation, right?) with svelte cabana boys (ssshhh, don’t tell my husband) waiting on me hand and foot…especially foot.  I’m a sucker for a good foot massage… 

So you might be asking yourself where is this location that I can blow $5,000?  Is it in Mexico, in Asia, South America, in Europe, or even on this planet?  Well my first choice of Tahiti apparently does not yet exist in the Home Away network, or I’m not capable of using the search feature correctly…which is quite possible.  So I had to settle for Cuba.  Just kidding! 

But seriously, I’ll take Tobago because there were far too many options for Hawaii for my currently stuffy allergy and/or cold ridden head to process.  I’ve been to Tobago on a work related trip many years ago.  The water was the bluest I had ever seen and the steel pan drums were the steeliest I had ever heard.  So check out Jacaranda house (click to see the property). It has 4 bedrooms (for the cabana boys and my girlfriends), 3 bathrooms, and rents for $2,086 to $3,129 per week.  Ahhh, I can smell the coconut rum already…

How Often Can You Drop The Ball?
Oct 13 2008

Business is tough and it’s only going to get tougher the next several months and probably years with the economic meltdown happening as I type.  Things have been good (actually great) in the United States and it seems that many people (Democrats and Republicans alike – each in their own different ways) started to expect things to be taken care of for them and began to forget that although luck plays a part in finding financial success, that working hard, getting an education, paying attention, making good decisions, not buying what you want but don’t need, not eating unhealthy foods, etc. play a much bigger role. 

Members of both political parties took it for granted that the government would take care of them.  Not just those on welfare!  Some just thought the good times would roll on forever and signed up to risky home loans and bought things on their credit cards they couldn’t afford.  

Some decided because they were told (i.e., marketed to) they should own a home as part of living the “American dream,” they should buy a home not worrying about whether times would change and if they could afford it over the long term.  And it’s not just high school drop outs who made these decisions, it’s also college educated people, because the American culture of ‘borrow, borrow, borrow and don’t worry about tomorrow‘ has prevailed. 

So who dropped the ball?  The American consumer? The government? The banks? Parents? Educational Institutions?  In my opinion, everyone did.  The ball has been repeatedly dropped and instead of being ‘kicked off the team‘ like they would be on any professional sports team or any successful business, they were allowed to continue to drop the ball.  And now because the ball was dropped too often, here we are in the US facing one of the worst economic challenges in our history. 

My guess is that in the years to come those who repeatedly apologize for dropping the ball, for making mistakes, or not following through (e.g. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve who I couldn’t believe said something like ‘I don’t know, I haven’t had a good track record when it comes to make decisions about the country’s financial position‘ when asked about the $700 billion bailout package. — Yes, I saw him say that on live TV!) will hopefully be weeded out.  We can only hope they get weeded out without receiving big financial packages rewarding them for their incompetence. 

The US system is broken in many ways but in many ways works better than anywhere in the world!  It rewards incompetence but it also rewards talent.  It rewards people who work hard but it also rewards people who happen to be at the right place at the right time without the right skills and then doesn’t get rid of them when they don’t perform. 

So pay attention. Don’t let that ball drop.  If it happens to drop, pick it up quickly and pass it to the next person on your team (and hope he or she doesn’t drop it too often) because our country and our world needs everyone’s help!

Making Things Convenient
Oct 11 2008

How important is it to make things convenient for your customer, your friend, your boss, your co-worker, your employees, your spouse, your family?  Do people even think about that?  Do people wake up every day and think to themselves, “How can I make life easier for someone else?” I know that I don’t wake up every day thinking that, but I have seen the positive results when I accidentally or on purpose try to make others lives just a bit easier and fight some of their battles for them so that they don’t have to. 

Sometimes people notice and other times people do not.  Sometimes they say ‘thank you‘ and sometimes they say nothing leaving you wondering if they noticed or not.  I’m probably guilty of not noticing what people might be doing for me because sometimes I get too caught up in moving from one thing to the next to appreciate the little things.  The busier we get sometimes the harder it is to notice except for when your expectations are exceeded. 

I recently had my expectations exceeded (nay blown away) and by a government entity no less.  It almost made up for my traffic court tribulations!  I recently received the annual mailing about renewing my car registration.  I’m already grateful that I can pay $1.00 extra to do this by mail.  This time I saw that there was a notice on the renewal form that said something like “You need to order new plates.”  It was in all capital letters but no where on the notice could I find instructions on how and when I needed to get them. 

First, I wondered why the heck I needed new plates even though my current ones were 7 years old.  I guess I haven’t owned a car for 7 years before and it didn’t (and still doesn’t) make sense why I needed to replace perfectly good plates.  I groaned inside thinking that now I’ll have to figure out how to get new plates.  I decided not to think about it and mailed in my check.  I figured I’d deal with the bureaucratic mess of calling and/or going to multiple government/city offices to get these new plates sometime in the not so distant future. 

To my absolute amazement and utter surprise, I received in the mail from the County Tax Collector – Travis County, Nelda Wells Spears, two new plates!  I almost fell over with excitement because I was now relieved of having to figure out how to get them.  I could literally feel a small weight being lifted off my mind.  I can only hope that whoever wins the next US presidential election, they wake up every day thinking about out how they can make all of our lives just a little bit easier!

As a busy, working-mom, when someone makes my life easier I am ever so grateful.  I don’t know how to personally thank the Tax Collector’s office so I’ll thank them with this blog post.  Maybe Nelda has a Google Alert set-up for her name, and she’ll see this post. 🙂

So if you have nothing better to do or even if you do, go try to make someone else’s life just a little more convenient…even if they don’t say anything, I bet they smile a little inside.

When Does Your Day Job Become Your Job?
Sep 16 2008

A friend of mine, Robb Lanum, recently sent me a link to an article on The Onion called Day Job Officially Becomes Job.  For those of you who haven’t heard of The Onion, it’s a hilarious publication that makes fun of everything and everyone.  Most of the articles I’ve read from them make me laugh or say repeatedly “eww, that’s gross!”  Take for instance a recent, funny article called Woman Always Really Excited To Be In Whatever Relationship Status She’s Currently In. 

Robb did an impromptu guest post on my blog a while back about the writer’s strike.   He blogs at The Robblog and has been trying for years (probably over a decade) to make it big in the California screen writing scene.  He’s made progress and slowly but surely moves his writing career forward or at least makes it more visible by blogging about his experiences.  

Robb sent me the link to the article on The Onion because he himself took a day job over four years ago, and he knows the plusses and minuses of having a day job and trying to build your business, your brand, your writing career, etc.  He knew I could relate.  I’ve been at my day job for not yet 3 ½ months (seems longer) and so far overall it has been a good decision for a variety of reasons, one of which being my husband struck it out on his own to consult and someone had to have the stable job with benefits in the family. 🙂  

But this day job article by the Onion is not funny.  It was written back in February 2004 and begins with “Another human dream was crushed by the uncompromising forces of reality Monday, when the restaurant day job of 29-year-old former aspiring cartoonist Mark Seversen officially became his actual job.”  

It then goes on to say “When I was younger, my attitude was ‘Never give in,'” Seversen said. “Nowadays, my attitude is ‘Get real, dumbass.’ If I have any advice for all the young aspiring painters, novelists, and rock musicians out there, it’s probably that they should quit following their dreams before they rack up a lot of credit-card debt. The sooner you accept your real job, the sooner you can start to build up seniority and get on board with the pension plan.” 

I expected to be laughing at the end of the article, but found myself frowning instead.  Then I thought, “Phew, I’m sure glad being an entrepreneur trying to build a web business after hours is not like trying to be a writer, painter, rock musician, or actor on the side! And working for The University of Texas at Austin isn’t like working in a restaurant.”  

Or is it?

Traffic Court Tribulations
Aug 23 2008

The other day I went to traffic court for the first time in my life.  I got a ticket back in May for ‘disregarding a right turn only’ sign on 4^th and Lavaca in the downtown area of Austin.  [I couldn’t find a right turn only image, but it looks similar to the ‘left lane must turn left’ image I put at the beginning of this post except for the fact it said ‘right’ instead of ‘left.’]

At the time, there were three cops pulling over people for doing the exact same thing I had done.   While they were giving us tickets, at least 5 more cars drove by who did the exact the same thing the three of us had done.  I had not seen the sign just like the others and it was obvious to me this was a ‘right turn only trap!’

I’ve never contested a ticket in my life, but this time I felt it was obviously a set-up and I DID NOT ‘disregard’ the sign because I didn’t see it.  How can you disregard something you don’t even see?  So thinking I might have a chance to make my point and get it dismissed, I pled ‘not guilty.’

Now I’ve had a few speeding tickets in the past…not many.  I’ve never (knock on wood) had a ticket hit my record because here in Texas you can take a Defensive Driving course and a) the offense won’t show up on your record and b) you can get a discount on your insurance premiums.  I believe you can take the course no more than one time per year. 

I’ll admit on a couple of occasions, I deserved a speeding ticket so I took the course.  On only one occasion did I consider a ticket I got to be unfair and again it had to do with a traffic signal issue.  They changed the timing of the signal and several people who normally drive that way accidentally ran a light.  The cops even said that was the case, but I was in college and too afraid to contest anything back then.  But I digress…back to the ticket at hand.

I was assigned a date to show up at the court to hear my options.  The prosecutor, who had an attitude of “I’m smart. You’re dumb. Don’t waste my time.” did not tell me anything more than what was on the paperwork I had.  He asked me if I wanted to waive my right to a trial by jury.  I told him I wasn’t sure and asked his opinion.  He had no real opinion other than to say if I wanted a trial jury I would most likely be in court several days because the jury trials run over time often and are rescheduled for other days.  He told me if I picked a trial by judge I would most likely get it all over with during the set time.  So being the busy person that I am, I picked the trial by judge.

I don’t have any traffic lawyer friends so I kind of hoped the cop wouldn’t show up.  I did try calling the University of Texas Law School to so if they had any students who could help me only to find out they only help other students or possibly indigent citizens and they were backed up for months.  If the cop doesn’t show up, the ticket is usually dismissed.  Well in my case, the cop did show up. 

So the day of the trial, I called the traffic engineering department of the city because a co-worker of mine said he thought the sign had been changed.  I figured if I could get proof that the sign had been changed, I would have a chance to prove it was poorly designed and the charges should be dismissed.  They faxed me over two documents showing the intersection and one a work order that was called in by a police officer in June to make the street painting/marking clearer to indicate that lane was in fact a ‘right turn only’ lane and to add a sign to the traffic light (where MOST people look) that indicated the right most lane was a ‘right turn only’ lane.

The cop was fair in his description and admitted they were performing a ‘traffic initiative’ (nice way to say ‘traffic trap’ if you ask me) and indicated the painting on the street was faded.  I didn’t know what rights I had in an ‘entrapment’ situation so I had no idea what questions to ask!

I attempted to submit the work orders and other paperwork I had received from the traffic engineering department of the city and the prosecutor immediately started saying things like ‘that’s hearsay, she can’t tell another person’s story‘ before I was even able to say anything.  I said ‘how can written documents be hearsay?‘  The judge then said he wouldn’t allow the documents and he wouldn’t even read them!

He instructed the court reporter to make note of them and for me to show them to the prosecutor.  I tried to show them to the judge but he refused to look at them.  He kept asking me if I had further evidence to submit.  Now, my degrees are in business and my only experience with lawyers is with corporate attorneys or TV shows like Boston Legal so I wasn’t sure what else I could present as evidence.  I wasn’t even told I could bring witnesses.  Even if I knew I could bring witnesses, I don’t know who I could have brought that would have been credible to the judge.

I was TOTALLY unprepared to represent myself in this matter and yet I was probably more prepared than 90% of the people who enter that courtroom!  I could tell I threw them for a loop by actually bringing in paperwork that demonstrated the KNOWN safety hazard that intersection presented.  They seemed at least momentarily perplexed.

So, I was found guilty and sentenced a fine of $101 ($1 above court costs) plus $25 in filing fees of some sort.  Of course I was annoyed but was slightly distracted by the splitting headache I had started to get a couple of hours before arriving at the courthouse.

In my summary, I asked the judge to consider the fact that I did not have a ticket on my record (due to taking defensive driving and it being years since I received my last one anyway) and have never appeared in court.  Apparently, that didn’t matter.

I asked the judge, unfortunately after his verdict, about deferred adjudication, and he said I should have been offered that earlier and I said I had not been offered that.  With an attitude of ‘oh well,’ he then said that since he had already ruled that was it and he was done with the case.

As I was leaving, the cop told me I had done a really good job in presenting and he agreed with me that the intersection was badly marked and should be fixed.  He was nice enough, and I know he was doing his job or doing what he was told.  But it does beg the question why these cops didn’t just call in this problem years ago since it’s obviously a ‘violation’ that happens often.

I was, as I mentioned, annoyed and angry, but those feelings were tempered because I got to see the case right before me that had to do with a taxi driver.  [I found it odd that everyone can come in and watch the cases to know what you were accused of because not only because that could be uncomfortable for the defendant but also might make the judge feel like he has to be a stickler to show he’s not weak.] 

This poor woman was a single mom who drove a taxi in the evenings to make ends meet.  She mentioned she had even put her daughter through college and had another kid at home.  After listening to the case, it was unclear to me what she was accused of and I think she did a good job of telling her side of the story.  However, it didn’t seem to matter because they believed the cop, who had his partner with him who said she could see everything (highly doubtful) and found her guilty and fined her $164.

There were a few more guys waiting to do their trial when I left.  There was another woman waiting outside who said she’d been there since that morning because she was accused of outstanding tickets that she claims she never did.  She said she was living in another state during the days they accused her of certain tickets.  She said she had $7K in fines and no way to pay them and would have to sit in jail for 30 days to serve her time and take a leave of absence from her job.  Crazy!

They gave me a hard to understand document about appealing but given the time I’ve already spent on this and I’d have to pay about $110 just to get the transcript made by the court reporter if I wanted to use it in an appeal, I’ve decided not to appeal and reduce my chances to get more headaches.

I know this post is long, but I had to get it out in case it helps someone else.  My key takeaways:

1. Request a trial by jury and make every attempt to have a flexible schedule around the time of your jury trial date.

2. Take pictures (i.e., evidence) of the site

3. Find a witness. I had thought about asking the two other drivers who were pulled over to contest with me, but I was afraid to get out of my car for fear the cops would think I was doing something crazy and they would shoot me or something.

4. Find a lawyer friend who knows something about traffic law to help you or show up with you at a jury or judge trial

5. Bring headache medicine with you!  My headache medicine of choice is usually something laced with ibuprofen like Advil.

6. Bring someone with you for moral support if you don’t have a lawyer or a witness.

7. If you have the opportunity, take a Defensive Driving course even if you feel wronged and avoid the whole experience all together

I don’t regret contesting the ticket because it was a learning experience for me and interesting insight into our legal traffic court system.  Live and learn as they say. 

If you think this post could be helpful to others, please Stumble, Digg, share, etc.  If any of you have experiences with the traffic court system, please share in the comments below.

A Dream You Have Will Come True
Jul 30 2008

Photo by Sandy Blanchard
Yes, the title of this post is yet another fortune cookie fortune that I got at lunch at P. F. Chang’s yesterday.   And yes that means my brain is too tired from working two jobs, taking care of kids, and pretending to be a being a good wife to come up with my own titles. 

I will eventually get around to my next post on the painful great lessons learned about Search Engine Optimization, but  in the meantime you can go back and read my What They Don’t Tell You About SEO posts Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 to get you primed and ready for Part 4!

So back to the fortune cookie title ‘A dream you have will come true.’  I’m wondering what dream it might be referring to?  Does it mean night dreams or day dreams?  Does it mean it will come true if I play the Lucky Numbers 3, 56, 32, 38, 25, and 42 that appear under the fortune?  Or does it imply that if I learn how to properly say the word “Peach” (i.e., tao-zi) noted on the back of the cookie in Chinese that it will come true? 

Then I started wondering if I even have dreams that I want to come true?  Being an avid dreamer at night, I often wish for dreamless, deep sleeps since I dream about work, life, kids, etc. while I sleep.  I don’t have scary dreams, just boring, mundane, every day life dreams where sometimes I happen to come up with some solutions to problems but that mostly leave me wishing for more sleep when I wake up! 

So if a dream is a wish and a wish is a dream, I wish for some nights of dreamless, uninterrupted-by-kids sleep.  Oh and I also dream that I will be able to change the world by helping others discover their potential to change the world!

How about you? What is your dream?

Life Always Gets Harder Near The Summit (a.k.a. Brandon and the Homeless Dude)
Jul 8 2008

OK, so I’m still trying to figure out how blogging fits in with my full time day job so I’ll continue on the fortune cookie fortune blogging escapade (they make for good post titles) until I figure it out. 

I’m not sure what’s kosher to blog about since I’m still trying to get my mind around the irony of working for a huge university which is gigantically overburdened with process (e.g., 5 copies of agreements need to be routed after being signed in blue ink but need pre-approval before they get routed, 3 documents to get approval to make often routine purchases, etc.) that at the same time helps start-ups.  A slow moving giant pays the staff (including myself) that supports the nimble, fast moving technology start-ups.  It’s mind boggling to think about so I try not to think about it too much. 

So on to the fortune cookie that produced “Life always gets harder near the summit.”  Along with the Lucky Numbers 2, 10, 7, 31, 54, and 12…too bad I’m no longer playing the lottery. 

I wouldn’t say that life is harder but I would say it’s insanely more a bit more mentally taxing given that after a full day at my day job of running Operations for the Austin Technology Incubator I need to think about and act on activities to promote Babble Soft.  Thankfully, I have an intellectually smart husband who helps out and is currently giving the kids a bath while I type up this blog post, drink red wine, and respond to press queries.  He has to be smart because his current career choice is one of the reasons I now have a day job!

So on to life being hard for Brandon and the Homeless Dude which made the title of this blog post way too long!  Over at IttyBiz, they are running a ‘who can come up with the craziest story about Brandon and the Homeless Dude’ competition as a break from their regularly scheduled home business tips.  So the challenge is to come up with the ‘next step of the journey’ for Brandon and the Homeless Dude.  If selected, my name, company, blog, and dirty laundry will be featured on the ever so popular IttyBiz blog that is normally written by Naomi with an occasional guest appearance by her husband, Jamie.  It’s highly unlikely that I’ll get picked because I’m not following their directions of discreetly emailing Jamie my story but instead I’m writing it on my blog.  I’m not one to regularly follow directions, which makes my day job extra mentally taxing.  So here it goes: 

Brandon and the Homeless Dude woke up under a bridge one day.  They wondered to themselves firstly why the bridge had not fallen on them while they slept given their notorious luck.  Soon after they wondered what they should do for the day.   

The Homeless Dude then asked Brandon why he was sleeping under the bridge with him given that he was not homeless and Brandon mumbled a reply about being a prick (Naomi’s word not mine) to his wife.  As an aside to those who don’t know Brandon, his wife pays the bills for his extravagant lifestyle which includes trying to build an online business. 

After that meaningful brief discussion, they headed toward the closest lemonade stand and asked the kids if they planned to attend SEO school.  The kids stared blankly at them and asked them what SEO meant and oh by the way if they wanted lemonade they would have to give them $2.00 for a tall, refreshing glass of fresh squeezed lemonade with a spoonful of organic brown sugar.  A twist of vodka would cost them $1.00 extra. 

Brandon told the kids that SEO stood for Seeking Extra Opportunities and their eyes opened wide.  Of course they were ‘seeking extra opportunities’ to sell their lemonade because the more money they made the more they could spend on impressing their teenage friends with highly perishable, bad-for-the-environment, alcoholic, dumbass crap. 

The Homeless Dude then told them they were in luck because if they wanted to turn their lemonade stand into an online successful business all they had to do was do what he did which was spend time and money on SEO only to discover that most people did not want to buy lemonade online but oddly preferred to get it from their local grocery store, kid-friendly restaurant, or nearby pre-teen managed stand. 

They immediately realized The Homeless Dude was wise in his homelessness and decided that after they made some cash from their lemonade stand from joggers, bicyclists, parents who thought they were cute, other teenage friends, and old people who felt nostalgic and proud that teenagers actually attempted to do an honest day’s work, they would then open an online business telling other kids how to set up a successful lemonade stand. 

The End.

On the chance you want to read about my attempts to build an online business, while at the same time working at a place that helps other technology start-ups, you can painlessly get free email updates about the continuing saga of a blogging entrepreneur (moi!).

We Lost a Tree to the Ravages of Time
Jul 2 2008

This past Sunday, my husband, Erin, happened to look outside one of our front windows and noticed that one of the limbs of our big tree was leaning on our roof.   It had not been doing that just the day before.  This tree was unique in that instead of a big trunk with several limbs it had 5 separate big trunks growing from the same base.  I’m guessing it had to have been at least 30 years old.  We have oak trees in our back yard that must be 50 to 75 years old. 

Fortunately, the limb was resting rather comfortably with no sign of roof damage.   The next day while I was at my day job Erin met with the tree inspector guys who said we had to cut it down. 

We were so sad to see it go for many reasons including shade, beauty, the birds/lizards who would visit, and the fact that we used it to hang our US Flag on during holidays like the upcoming 4^th of July!  However, it was apparent while they were cutting it down that it was rotting at the core for quite some time (see pictures below) and the limb that had fallen on our roof had been hanging on for dear life for a while now. 

What I found really interesting is that although on the outside we noticed one dead limb the other trunks/limbs (even the one leaning on our roof) was full of leaves and looked healthy.  I guess it goes to show you that something can look healthy on the outside but be sick, diseased, and dying on the inside.  That’s really kind of a sad, yet eye-opening thing to think about. 

Now we are wondering what we should do next.  Should we plant another tree?  If so what kind? Or should we just let the grass grow over it? 

Blog Transition Time Period And Fortune Cookies
Jun 19 2008

Now that I took a day job, I’ve been wondering what I should post about.  Should I post about my new job or other stuff?  It also takes time to write meaningful posts and time is harder to come by now.  My new job has a lot to do with helping entrepreneurs or I should say it will once I get past the administrative day-to-day stuff of getting up to speed.

So in the meantime until I figure it all out, I’ve thought about posting about the fortune cookies I get when I go to Chinese restaurants or other restaurants who for some reason hand out fortune cookies. 

Hey, the last time I blogged about fortune cookies, I almost got mentioned in the New York Times!  It started with Comments and Fortune Cookies, went on to Those Darn Fortune Cookies, and ended up with Portuguese Fortune Cookies.

So, a couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with one of my business advisors at a Chinese restaurant in this place in Austin called Davenport village, and I got the following fortune:

“You can’t ride in all directions at one time.”

We both thought it was appropriate considering what was going on in my life.  Of course, I then thought to myself ‘well all directions isn’t the same as two three directions’ and ‘there’s no point in going no direction.’ 🙂

So here I go (the multi-tasker that I am) attempting to go one direction with a few detours here and there along the way…

Alltop Keeps Growing!
May 28 2008

I mentioned before that my blog is listed on Alltop Moms.  Well now thanks to Guy Kawasaki, I’m listed in Alltop Startups and for a brief time I was listed in Alltop Twitterati.  I guess I took too long to write this blog post, because I’m no longer listed in Twitterati.  Maybe I can earn my way back into Guy’s good graces (unless they changed the criteria for being listed there) and find another spot on Alltop in exchange for another blog post about the amazing and ever so ubiquitous Alltop concept! 😉

He also added an Alltop Adoption page so for those of you interested in people who write about adoption, adopting kids, their adopted kids, and other people’s adopted kids, check it out!

The Tooth Fairy Came To Visit
May 22 2008

Our 5 ½ year old son just lost his first tooth yesterday and the tooth fairy paid a visit to our house last night for the very first time.  He lost it at school and had it haphazardly carefully wrapped up in a paper napkin when I picked him up.

He was so excited to tell me about it!  He held the mangled paper napkin and kept fussing with it in the car.  We came inside and I opened the napkin and it wasn’t there!  I was probably more upset than him and asked him if he thought he dropped it at school and he assured me he hadn’t.  I kept asking him a million questions and he said it was probably in the car.  I was nervous that it wouldn’t be there and I would have to deal with a very upset 5 year old (and huge feelings of mom-guilt), but he climbed into the door and he looked around his booster seat and he found it.  Talk about breathing a million sighs of relief!

He didn’t want to tell his dad (who was out of town) about it until we picked him up at the airport last night.  And even then he wanted to keep the tooth at the house until we got back from the airport.

It was a very exciting milestone in our house! Not being sure what the going rate for the tooth fairy was, I put the question out on twitter and got some great replies:

We ended up giving him 4 quarters which he seemed very happy with.  He put them in his piggy bank right away.  I asked him if he wanted to buy something with it or save it and he said ‘save it’ which made me happy.  I’m not sure what he’s saving it for though.

His other bottom tooth is loose, so I’m guessing it will fall out soon.  I’m not sure how long it takes for all the baby teeth to fall out, but he could make quite a bit from the tooth fairy by then. 😀

Why Aren’t There More Rich Women Entrepreneurs?
Apr 24 2008

That’s the headline of a Wall Street Journal blog post that came out yesterday: Why Aren’t There More Rich Women Entrepreneurs?  It starts with:

Recent studies show that there are more wealthy women than ever before. While a growing number are making it by climbing the corporate ladder, most of today’s wealthy women are still making their money through inheritance or divorce. A scarce few are making their fortunes by launching big companies – the most common source of big riches for today’s men.

and concludes with:

There are two explanations for the female shortfall, according to the USA Today story. First, starting a business usually requires capital, and men have easier access to the clubby world of bankers, venture capitalists and private-equity. Second, the article says, women are more devoted to their family and have less time than men to start businesses.

The blog post is interesting but the comments just blow me away because it’s like I was reading comments from people back from the dark ages.  Most of the comments were well thought out but several posted by people not choosing to put their name down were really shallow.  I mean do people really think like this:

There is this little thing called a brain. Most women are severely lacking in this department, and as such have been relegated to house duties for most of history. Now that women are clamoring for equality, we see that they really aren’t equal at all.

Talk about issues! Other thoughts from the commenters:

Seems to me that women are better at following rules than men, hence they do better in structured institutions (schools, large companies, institutions) whereas men are more intrinsically rule breakers and therefore on average do less well, but sometimes succeed spectacularly.  – Bill

While I agree that risk aversion plays a part, one also has to look at Analysis Paralysis. As ‘not trying to offend’ points out, men often “execute and follow through based purely on logic”. Women (and I am one, early 30s, well-employed, trying to start my own company at the same time) tend to need full answers before they act. – More than just risk aversion

Despite advances for working women, I think it is certainly the case that they are not supported by husbands. I am about to be married and my fiancee is asking me to quit my job to raise a family – despite making twice as much as him.  – so true

To be an entrepeneur one has to be completely comfortable with business risk. In my experience, women as a group
are far less willing to risk everything they have for a business idea. This may be a gender specific biological trait related to the female’s reproductive functions. – Orrin Schwab

Many of the paths to entrepreneurial success are only open to people who have college degrees in science or engineering. Most women don’t have them and it certainly limits their opportunities. – Kevin

I think women also tend to have their eye on the “big picture,” and define success much more broadly than in dollars and cents. This can lead to decisions like cutting back on work hours or taking less challenging jobs in order to have more time to spend on family or other personal pursuits. At the end of the day, this may lead to less money – but greater happiness.  – e c

Sometimes I can’t believe we are still having discussions and comments like this.  Why can’t we just get along and let women choose to do what they want to do without analyzing every thing about it? If a woman wants to stay at home with the kids full time and be CEO of the house, great! If she wants to work from home, great! If she wants to work outside of the home, great! If she wants to work part time, great! If she wants to work full time, great!  If she doesn’t want kids, great! If she wants to try to be Bill Gates, fine. If she wants to be the CEO of PepsiCo, awesome! If she wants to be head of the PTA, cool!

We are all (hopefully) doing the best we can. Us women were given the gift of being able to incubate and give birth to the future generation of humans, honestly that in and of itself is success! Sadly that ability is often sort of brushed aside as not being as valuable as being a billionaire entrepreneur/CEO.  Honestly, I can think of several former billionaire CEOs who would have traded their fate to be a woman/mom. 🙂

5 White Men, Rebranding, and Dads
Mar 22 2008

What do 5 White Men, Rebranding, and Dads have in common?  Well other than the fact that Dads are usually men, probably not a whole lot.  These are just some of the interesting things happening around the blogosphere.

5 White Men Talk About Social Media was written by Connie Reece at Every Dot Connects.  Connie is a huge presence in the world of social media especially here in Austin, yet was overlooked for a panel on Social Media the Chamber of Commerce was putting on.  She voices her frustration at women still being “invisible” even when they are playing a major role in the world of social media.   Connie got me started in blogging almost a year ago!  She is also one of the main reasons the Frozen Pea Fund initiative got started as a result of Susan Reynolds struggle with breast cancer.  Here’s a quote from her post:

This afternoon I got an email from fellow Dot-Connector Brenda Thompson with the subject line: “Five White Men Talk About Social Media.” That got my attention and I opened the email right away. …

It irked me too. It’s not like the organizers would have had to look very far to find some outstanding women to speak, and I’m not just referring to myself. In less than 30 seconds, Brenda and I came up with a list of five or six local women who would have made great panelists.

See, lists are easy to make. But women on lists are still invisible if conference organizers aren’t looking for the list.

Looking Minnesota. Feeling California and The Gaping Void Between Our Brand And Our Audience were two recent posts written by Wendy Piersall of eMoms at Home.  After her recent trip to SXSW Interactive, she realized she needed to rebrand because many of her readers are not eMoms or even parents!  I love Wendy’s blog for a variety of reasons but mostly because she is open and honest about her experience as an entrepreneur and she readily shares her blogging and business tips.  We met through our blogs, had a couple of phone conversations and when we finally met in person at SXSW, it was like we just “got each other” as entrepreneurs and as moms!  I’m not sure if she has come to a decision on the new name, so go check out her posts and give her your 2 cents!

AllTop Dads launches.  Thanks to Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World my entrepreMusings blog is near the top of AllTop Moms blogger list.  It’s a great place to go to check out all the top mommy and daddy bloggers.   If you don’t know Guy, he was once asked to interview for the CEO position at Yahoo! take on the CEO position of Google and he turned the opportunity to interview down thinking there’s no way Google Yahoo! would amount to much.  He often refers to it as his $4 billion dollar mistake, but he reflects back and realizes that instead he was able to be involved in his children’s lives, which is priceless!  

So as I said when I began this post, there isn’t much in common between these links, but all are great reads!