I'll start posting these to the community blog in the future, but since more people read this one right now, I'll put it here. Since to some extent our process is public, and I get a lot of questions, I feel like I should mention what I'll be focusing on in the coming week. I hope that those of you looking into the fishbowl find this interesting ;-).

This week I am endeavoring to get out of the process business. Over the last month or two, I've been drawing up schedules for the team, trying to get us (and myself) organized. While I seem to be able to imagine the process quite well, I'm not organized enough to pull it off, and my coding has been slipping behind while I'm doing this. So, I'm turning as much of it as I can over to Mark, our new "marketing" guy. While this is slightly out-of-scope for someone doing general marketing, it should give him the necessary insight into how the product works to describe it clearly to our audience.

So, that's what I won't be working on. What I will be working on is our scalability solution, so that we can start adding hardware when we get more customers. While simple in principle, I've been banging my head against it, with Allen's help, for several weeks now. I think I will be able to finish it up this week, if everything goes well.

Whether everything usually goes well or not is left as an exercise for the reader.

Well, I went to the mall to price some noise-cancelling headphones. WOW. Those are some absurdly expensive little toys. I still think I want some, but it's going to require a little more careful consideration.

The ideal headset for me would be around-the-ear, collapsable, USB, linux- and mac-compatible (e.g. a standard USB audio device, not some crazy third-party thing that requires drivers), with active noise cancelling earpieces, a noise cancelling microphone, and of course standard features like in-line volume control and a microphone mute switch that doesn't produce a deafening bang when used. (I did have a headset which did that.) It should also cost one dollar and be bullet-proof.

Obviously I'm willing to make some compromises, since I can't even find the union of "noise cancelling earpieces" and "microphone". Any suggestions?

Being sick over the last few days has given me some time for quiet reflection, some reading, and a little bit of catching up on personal correspondence. Ying was away in NY, and the fluid in my ears has also really muted my hearing, so everything seemed really peaceful and calm in the apartment. It's intriguing the effect that something as simple as noise-level has on my mood. I think I'm going to get some noise-cancelling headphones today.

That's right: it's July 4, and to celebrate I am going to sit in perfect silence.

I have rarely been so overcommitted in my life. I've made a truly embarrassing number of apologies for unfinished favors and missed meetings this week. It seems everything's coming due.

I've been on the road for days. I have a few days in one place now, while I'll be working, and then again on this weekend I head back to NY for a small family reunion.

I remember when I was younger it seemed like I have lots of spare time. There were rare occasions when I felt some pressing deadline looming over me, but they were predictable and relatively far between.

These days I feel like every day is a battle over hours. Any moments for doing "extra" activities - such as writing this blog post - are stolen from sleep. I understand that I have generally less time, but the way things are going right now seems pretty extreme. I don't know how to get organized when I have so much to do and not enough time. Anyone in a startup situation actually figured out how to have a life?