4 dozen tube socks.

3000 POP3 Mailboxes.

The hosting consumer has been trained to shop on “Checkmarked Columns” as I call them. Below is an example of one. This is what the customer is buying, but this is not what page.ly is selling.  If you want checkmarks, page.ly is not for you. If you want super fast setup, hassle free updates, and a dedicated wordpress host.. page.ly may be right for you. Just an observation.

One thing that I believe is truth, is that the universe repays in kind. You get back 10x what you put in.

I have a mishmash of skills that I enjoy putting to use to help other people. I helped a friend get a job a couple months ago. I helped a beginning php programmer understand why extra whitespace after a closing ?> throws header errors this afternoon. I helped my father-in law pour a concrete foundation for a new shop in the spring. I helped raise 3699 lbs of food to feed hungry family’s over the summer. I talked a half dozen flower shops into giving me many dozens of flowers and vases so I could deliver them to a hospice home for old people 3 years ago. I helped a disabled person purchase a lite rail ticket because she could not read the screen from her wheel chair a few months back. I am now helping raise $ for breast cancer research.

I would like to think I am investing in my Karma 401k.

Sometimes people tell me I am wasting my time and should be doing other things “more productive”. Other times people are happy to take, and come back for more with their hand out and never think to return the favor.

Most of the time I have to remind myself it is not about what I get back in return.

It just makes me feel good to give of my time and energy when I can. That’s all.

While #phx DOES have a passionate group of individuals that are working towards their ideal of a better connected, better funded, more tech {web} driven Phoenix. The only thing secret about it is that they really wish more people were involved in pursing the lofty goal of making the greater Phoenix area a haven for smart folks with passion and ideas to succeed.

Scary shit huh.

Nevertheless, there’s a growing conventional wisdom in the press alleging that both sides of the political spectrum are equally guilty of wackaloon attacks and conspiracy theories.

Granted there might be one or two very fringe exceptions but this is otherwise a false equivalency written by the establishment media as part of their self-conscious effort to seem balanced. The distinction is that any “fringe” attacks from the left during the Bush years weren’t mainstreamed and legitimized the way the wingnut attacks are today, even though the fringe attacks from the left turned out to be mostly accurate.
On the right, we’re hearing about communist takeovers, birth certificates, Oval Office dress codes, teleprompters, death panels, czars and a return to segregated buses.

During the previous administration, on the other hand, the left insisted that Iraq didn’t have WMD. This turned out to be true. The left insisted that there wasn’t a connection between Saddam and 9/11. Also true. The left alleged that George W. Bush was incompetent. The rest of the nation caught up with the left when Katrina slammed into New Orleans, shattering the levees while Bush was eating cake with John McCain.

Some, but not all, of the left thought Bush had prior knowledge of the September 11th attacks. It’s a matter of record that he knew an attack might be imminent based upon the famous PDB titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.” So that one was partially true.

The left also accused the administration of using illegal wiretaps, torture and other human rights violations. All true. Did Bush have business connections with the Bin Laden family? Yes. Did 100 Democratic members of Congress co-sponsor a bill calling him out for it? Of course not.

And throughout the Bush years — no matter how accurate the left’s “fringe” attacks might’ve been — liberals were marginalized and laughed off by the establishment press, ignored by certain leaders in our own party and attacked as unpatriotic by the Republicans. Sean Hannity, Tom DeLay and Bill O’Reilly, who are all busily ripping the current president an array of new holes, actively accused the left of undermining the troops because we were criticizing the commander-in-chief during wartime. Ah yes. They abandoned that one faster than Newt Gingrich abandons sick wives, didn’t they?

From all 100+ Sonnets, to King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, A Midsummer Nights Dream… yeah all of them.

Every 10 minutes a new line, 24/7/365. Should take about 2 years, 13days..  and finish around August 24th 2011

Why? Well Why not?

These cool cats at http://www.fanchatter.com/ have now done it, With funding from Y Comb.

Another Classic coulda, woulda, shoulda but didn’t and now someone else has. Great for FanChatter, their investors, and sports fans.. and a missed opportunity for me.

Lesson to me: STFU and DO IT.

Lesson to you: STFU and DO IT.

I am not going to pine on about the state of startup funding in Phoenix… I’ll leave that to Derek.

I am coding, debugging the shopping cart code for purchase of upgrades to page.ly.

Thinking about how much time

and money

and diversion of resources

and missed opportunity

and stress

and sleepless nights

and…

Startups are hell and joy, defeat and glory all at once.

Nearly seven years and 4 legitimate (all money making.. even if some are not profitable) startup’s, and dozens of late night ideas turned into websites later and I still don’t know why I do it.

Thinking about my close friends and business colleagues.. estimating how much time and $ they put into their own projects.. $1 million dollars totalled before I get to the 4th name on list of 8.

Thinking of the bitch ass punks that talk trash with their hand out. Cashing their paycheck while at the same time thinking they can to it better than me.

Are we a service business, or a product business? How many client projects do we need to float us, to buy us the time to work on the internal projects?  How fast can we get product to market, how quickly will it scale, when will client work no longer be needed? Gotta make payroll next week. Will I go broke before then?

Everyday it is looking for the next client gig or spending those earnings developing a product.

If none of this makes sense to you, STFU and punch your time card.

EPILOGUE (30 minutes later):

So yeah.. that sounded a bit harsh. I am not busting on the honest working man.  I put my self thru college on various construction crews. Nothing wrong with working for someone else.

Just reflecting more so on the sacrifices entrepreneurs in general make to realize their dreams.. huge sums of money and effort that go into starting, running, and building a business… employing others, taking the smallest paycheck, working 18 hours a day – forever.

Risking it all..

Kinda makes your brain mush after a while.

Not to be a drag but already this summer I saw a boating accident in Havasu that killed a guy, ripped the front spoiler off my car (again), and lost the worlds best dog to liver disease and old age (12).

Pete "The Dog" Strebel

But on the plus side a business legal matter was decided 100% in my favor, and work has been steady amidst this recession. I got a call from a local investor type that had an idea for a site to make and sell twitter stickers, so I built it. It’s kinda cool and was fairly painless to code in Code Igniter.

Twitter stickers

July-Sept is the inferno you must live with as trade for the awesome winters here. Maybe one of my startups with take off and I can buy a summer house in a cooler location.

Phoenix as a whole does slow down in the summer but there are still tons of stuff happening in the web/tech industry.

AZIMA held their first event which was a success (I am a board member)

Gangplank has schedule another Jr. Event. (I am an advisor..and office at gangplank)

GoDaddy is bringing Diggnation to town.. (Godaddy is a Gangplank supporter)

The 1 ton fooddrive is nearly complete, trying to make a 2000lbs donation to St. Mary’s. Need your cans.

and.. it’s still hot.

St. Rebel.. the best of both worlds.

Know it..  I live it.