Figments and Perceptions Unleashed by LogicX

I just completed a 7 day cruise on the Carnival Victory through the South Caribbean.  This was my first experience cruising since learning I had Celiac Disease 2 years ago.  I really didn't know what to expect, but I'm happy to report I made it through the vacation with minimal issues.  I felt it worth sharing my experience.  Overall I give Carnival a 7/10.

A little background: Having only recently been diagnosed, and living in a create area (Cambridge, MA) -- I haven't been quiet as stigmatized as many who are initially diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  I have a Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market across the street from where I live, and I Love Burton's Grill, BerryLine, Kick-Ass Cupcakes, Zing Pizza, Cafe Zing, Stonehearth Pizza, P.F. Changs, and UFoodGrill -- just to name a few of the establishments I frequent often!  This sets a very high bar for gluten free delicacies - to which I'm unsure any cruise line could compete.

My adventure started months before the cruise -- I filled out Carnival's allergy information form and faxed it in.  A few weeks before I cruised I proactively faxed it again, and worked with our carnival assigned travel agent to ensure it was received by the ship.  I brought along a number of my own snacks just in case - and for use on excursions.

As soon as I got on board I visited the dining room and spoke to the Maître d' about my issue.  Despite it being on my form that I was also lactose intolerant, I was often served food comprised of milk products or coated in butter: I was thankful I brought as my lactaid pills as I did! It was a little confusing for the first two days, to figure out exactly where I could eat, and how to go about getting food I could be sure was gluten free.  The evening dining room staff had my paperwork, knew of my issue, and did a great job of getting me gluten free food w/o much work.  The only issues I encountered there were occasionally being served my gluten free bread out of the normal bread basket, sitting next to gluten containing breads, and some of my desserts were rather bland (banana slices in honey, lime sherbet).  Only on the last meal did I discover they could handle gluten free deep frying and breading: when I insisted to speak to the Maître d' and be reassured that the fried shrimp and french fries I'd just been served were infact Gluten Free.  They were delicious and I had no symptoms - Success! Now I only wish I'd known earlier: The assistant Maître d' who took my order every night previously shot down any meal request which clearly had gluten in it.

Every other meal of the day, or between-meal snacks were a much more difficult challenge.  Breakfast in the dining room does not have assigned seating, and so I had a different waiter each day.  I had to be sure they had my information, and each morning it had down that I should be served gluten free bread and gluten free pancakes.  The bread got tiring after a week of 3-4 slices being forced on me at every meal: and at breakfast I often couldn't eat it as it had been served contaminated, next to the normal bread, and served with the same tong.   The pancakes were nothing to write home about: rubbery and bland.  I had to insist to be served some eggs; and only after the 4th day did I finally feel confident enough to try the bacon (after having been told a number of times by different staff that it was deep fried, then being told it was baked).

Meals outside the dining room were the most challenging: its served only as a lunch buffet on the top deck, and its impossible to determine which hot food items are gluten free or not.  Each time I wished to eat I ended up having to flag down a kitchen staff member, have them page the assistant Maître d' on duty, explain my issue: have them page the chef, and then have him prepare a special plate of food for me.

This became both a tiring process, and a long one: with disappointing results. I would always get my food right as the rest of my party was finishing eating their food, and I often received a piece of meat, steamed vegetables, and white rice.  Yes it was gluten free -- but it was also taste free.

I had one gluten free slipup on the trip when I came back on board in the late afternoon, and the only things open were the 24/7 burger stand, and the pizza stand.  I waited in line and ordered two burgers w/o buns - with lettuce tomato and onions.  I believe I got hit with gluten from the staff members wearing gloves who were handling buns, and then grabbing my lettuce with the same gloves: Put me out of commission for that evening and half the next day. (Later in the trip I ordered the same thing through the head chef.  It was prepared separately, and I had no issues.)

The biggest thing I missed on board was no gluten-free pastries -- I'm very use to gluten free brownies, cupcakes and other items I miss so much, and was disappointed that Carnival didn't experiment with offering me this, considering I couldn't choose my dinner, but had to be offered whatever the chef prepared for me for dinner dessert.

Carnival definitely made an effort to accommodate me, but I look forward to seeing if other cruise lines offer a better selection of gluten free offerings!

I randomly was listening to Live - I Alone as it came up on Pandora, and I remembered a parody song I heard once.  I couldn't find any record of it on the Internet (after intense searching), but I eventually found it in my mp3 collection.

So I decided to contribute this knowledge to the Internet.  I thought for a while it was a Weird Al song, but turns out its not.  No attribution, and as I said, I couldn't find anyone talking about it through googling.

Please do comment if you know more about it than I.

Download Live Sucks - (I Alone).mp3

This week I bought a Genuine RoughHouse R50 scooter here in Boston from Great guys!).

While deciding how to deal with protecting my scooter from theft, I decided that I didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of dragging around a huge, expensive lock, and always tying up my Rough House -- so I did some research and came across the Zoombak GPS.

I've since gotten it in, set it up, and hidden it in my scooter, and it works great!

Here's the basic setup:

1. ~$100 for the physical hardware
2. It captures your GPS location information for free from the sky, but then needs to relay that information over the cellphone network (uses T-Mobile) back to their servers.
3. Because it uses the cell network, you need to pay a ~$10/mo fee which covers that, and usage of their website.
4. The device can be charged and last 5 days at a time, or you could buy the Auto Installation Kit and get it hooked up to your battery. (I'm working on this with the guys at Scooters Go Green later this week - I'll keep everyone updated!)
5. It only updates every 15 minutes unless you visit the website and enable 'continuous tracking' mode - 60 minutes of 5-minute updates.
   Whether on normal 15-minute updates or continuous mode, you can see a map over time of points where it has registered your scooter as being located.
6. You can setup 'alert zones' - To get notified via SMS or email if your scooter enters or leaves a zone. Ex: 'If my scooter leaves work between 9:30-4:30, page me' (aka gets stolen).

I purchased the GPS Universal, and the Auto Installation Kit is on its way.

Some helpful links:

• Zoombak (their website)
• Zoombak ZMBK300 (Amazon Review of what I bought)
• Zoombak $15 Off - My referral link that gets you $15 off!
• Additional Coupons from RetailMeNot ex: 50% off accessories.

If you're in Boston Help contribute to the Free Scooter Parking Google Map effort thats on-going

I've been a little disappointed with the lack of consistently accurate information regarding Tufts Business Plan competition, from before we entered, through the completion of it.

We initially read on the website '$50K in cash and services', and emailed to find out more information.  We then learned that its $20K in cash and $30K in services.  I feel this is very important information for a startup to know, as they need to allocate their limited resources appropriately to try to attain the resources they need to get started.

Through casual conversation with an advisor at the arranged lunch meeting (who later turned out to be a panel judge), I learned that the judges can (and have in the past) decide to allocate the cash and service resources among the teams, not allocating them just to a single winner.

Definitely a fine idea - give the right resources to the right people -- Help as many teams as you can.   I just wish this had been more formally relayed.

I was there at the awards ceremony, and I barely caught what my own winnings were, much less the divisions of cash and services among the other teams.  I would've loved to see the breakdown of exactly who got what -- I hope they're able to put them to good use!

Its been two weeks since the completion of the competition, with no press releases from Tufts, no updates on the competition website, but googling just now, I did come across this article from the day after the competition.

Unfortunately this article continues the trend of misinformation.  I take issue with the following points from the article:

"A design for paint that can peel from surfaces took top honors yesterday in one of two competitions run by the Entrepreneurial Leadership program, and the three Tufts students who designed the product won a $50,000 grant from the School of Engineering’s Gordon Institute." - Two Tufts Alumni (one present), One Tufts Grad student, and one Cornell student.  They won $10,000 in cash, and I didn't catch their other prizes.

"The two winning groups each received grants, legal services, storage space and capital network mentoring." - I don't believe thats the case due to the way they distributed the winnings.  For instance, we (Stateless Creations) received office space and legal services.

"The paint design group beat out four other finalists who presented their business plans yesterday to a panel of judges. In the other contest, four finalists vied for the top prize." - Due to the fact they named 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams, some of which received more value in prizes than others; I would've stated this much differently.

"Michael Mintz, Kunal Gupta, and Matthew Hnatio, three students at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, presented their plans for Peelable Paint." - Michael and Kunal are alumni.

Hopefully others in the competition will help post their own, most accurate information, and set things straight for future teams and years when trying to learn more about the competition.

1. Kerwood Oak's Peelable Paints - They had a great product demonstration, and explained good market use, and reasonable pricing.
2. JobVid.com - Very enthusiastic presenter, who has put a lot of time and effort into his site.
3. Stateless Creations - We Won $25K in Office Space, and $5K in Legal Services.

The biggest limiting factor for us was that we did not have a physical product to present yet.  This is understandable -- thats exactly why we entered: to get some startup funds to do that step.

We'll have to figure out some other way to get the funds we need to move forward; but we learned a lot entering this competition, met some really excited teams, made some good contacts; and hopefully will find another source of funding to keep moving forward.

Congrats to all the teams.

Special Shout out to Julia with Cadenza on the Social side, which received some funds -- I hope to see them going somewhere soon with their idea!

We're doing final preparations for the Business Plan competition on Wednesday.  The Business Plan was submitted this past Wednesday, the powerpoint presentation was submitted today.  We have a lot of practice ahead of us!

Tufts published a press release today, regarding the competition.

We're quoted as:
Stateless Creations, presented by Gordon Institute graduate students Michael Schroll along with Nicholas Zervoglos, Peter Burke and alum Brian Gillis - Stateless Creations proposes to develop the technology that would allow users to make designs using toy building blocks and then upload the design online.

We now have a logo:

Going to work on a placeholder website at www.StatelessCreations.com and Business Cards for Wednesday.

Wish us Luck!

On Wednesday we had a lunch meeting at Tufts for all those who are finalists, plus a number of advisors.

My team didn't really know what to expect going into it.

It was a rather informative session where each team had to go around, give their elevator pitch, then field questions and feedback from the advisors (and some other teams too). We weren't prepared with our elevator pitch -- having it on our weekly meeting schedule for about a month now; so I had to come up with it on the fly while the two teams before me went.  I was pleased with the result, and have written up what I said for future use.

It helped give us good insight to our competition (though not all teams attended), and we received some valuable advice from the advisors.  We also learned more about the next steps of the competition, and that the winner will be determined the same day - right after the completion of the presentations.

I won't go into more detail about the competitor's ideas -- as I consider it a private session (As opposed to my last post which consisted of information each team posted publicly on YouNoodle about their companies).

We're eager to work toward our 15 minute presentation for 3/25, which will be here in no time!

The following announcement was sent on YouNoodle at 2PM this afternoon:

For the Social Entrepreneurship Competition, the finalists are:
Alera,
Cadenza,
EcoTexts, and
Strivers.

For the Classic Competition, the finalists are
eClinic,
JobVid.com,
Peelable Paints,
RouteChooser, and
Stateless Creations.

My team, Stateless Creations, was fortunate enough to be chosen as a finalist for the competition.  Finalist presentations will be held March 25h.  We have a lot of work ahead of us, but are very excited about the opportunity to continue on in this competition.

I just entered the Tufts $100K Business Plan Competition with my new company

Stateless Creations
"The mission of Stateless Creations is to revolutionize the building block toy industry by taking building blocks, embedding technology and offering a bridge between the physical and virtual worlds."

Due to the plans being submitted through YouNoodle, it is possible to see the name and public description of the company that you submit.

I've been looking through my competition, and decided to post my thoughts about them.

Below is the list as of the submission deadline, 01/16/2009.

CBC Consulting Group Environmental Advocacy
Our mission is to reduce America’s dependency on fossil fuel by educating home and small business owners about the harmful effects of green house gases on our environment and how they can benefit from using renewable energy sources.

Fine idea, but I'd like to know how you're making money, why home and small business owners care.  If they cared, they would've already read things like the PickensPlan. He plans to spend $58 Million to spread the word of his plan.  How do you compete with that, and get funding with the prospect of paying back investors?

Igig. Inc
Igig Inc. is an internet-based social networking and collaboration tool for local communities of musicians.

Update 1/24/2009: I met a member of this team in class today - learned a bit more about what they're trying to do and what their profit model is.  I have no doubt that there's demand for the service, but perhaps they could be stronger with a different profit model from advertising supported.  Perhaps Match.com-style model.  Convince musicians you're providing a value-add, and offer a subscriber service.  Or don't call it advertising supported but call it sponsor-partnered; and partner with a label to have contests for meeting, practicing, then winning a chance to play for a label and advance further.
Get the label to pay
Get the users to pay
Offer public-content (samples of paying users) for free

D&Co: HeadCase
D&Co. is a device prototyping firm specializing in bringing innovative, health-oriented consumer technologies to market

Too small of a market - How many health-oriented consumer technologies are brought to market each year?  Why would someone choose you over any other proto-typer? How will they learn about you?  How will you compete with other prototypers?

Concept Yachts
Concept Yachts will revolutionize the sailing industry by making it what it inherently should be: green.

I don't know enough about sailing to even understand why sailing isn't green.  Pass.

Greener Boston
"Ushering in a world of Green"

Company description fail.

Alera LLC
Alera LLC produces specialized seaweed for regular manufacturing and research and development used in biofuel companies. Additionally it aims to be a carbon-offsetting entity in order to fulfill its environmentally responsible mission.

So you make seaweed? Why is your seaweed better than real seaweed? I guess I don't know enough about biofuel to understand that there's really a demand for this? Why wouldn't anyone who wants to use seaweed in their biofuel just get real seaweed?

RouteChooser
RouteChooser is a one stop travel comparison website through which travelers can assess the costs and benefits of various means of travel such as bus, car, train and plane.

Fine idea - But I think they will quickly discover that this is extremely difficult - the company I work for, ITA Software, did this for the Airline industry -- worked with all major carriers to consolidate their data and make it searchable.  Car is easy: plenty of people have figured out the car travel mile calculation; you throw in gas pricing along the way and you have that one solved.  Bus: There are a ton of bus carriers across the country.  Train: Same here.  This could work in a specific metro area with limited separate transportation systems.  For example, you could do Boston<->NYC<->Philly without much difficulty, as there are only so many trains and buses which serve between these areas.

This equation also starts to get more complicated if you're actually attempting to compare all these on cost:

Car goes direct from location to location -- but How do you factor in transportation costs to the airport the bus terminal or the train station?  Parking your car at the airport? Tolls for car-travel, and transportation at your destination for train,bus,plane vs. your own car?  I think as these equations all start to get factored in the problem either becomes too sprawling (again for more than a limited metro to metro area) -- or end users become overwhelmed with entering all the details to answer a question they already know the answer to.

JobVid.com
JobVid.com is a network of part time and contract workers available for hire.

Its called eLance.com, see also Craigslist, Angie's List and any number of other similar sites.

Yunlin Huang
Global Outsourcing is the online connection between outsource service buyers and providers worldwide.

You'd have to work real hard to convince me there's anything new or unique to this.

TabRides, Inc.
TabRides alleviates the problems with Boston's night-life transportation by providing a less expensive, more convenient, and safer alternative to taxis for college students and young professionals.

I can understand how someone feels there is a need here -- they had a bad experience with a taxi.  What I don't understand is how they expect that there will be a less expensive (You have to pay the driver, the gas, the car), more convenient (convenience costs more money), and safer (costs more money again) alternative?  The answer already exists: a friend.  Until they tell you that they're not a taxi service

DriveGen Corporation
DriveGen Corporation’s goal is to provide an alternative energy solution to the transportation industry, by using collecting wasted energy and converting it into useful energy through the use the DriveGen Panel System.

(i kid you not -- I did NOT retype that and forget key words)  I hope the idea is much stronger.

Peelable Paints and Primer
We make a a peelable, rubber based, biodegradable, non toxic, temporary paint and primer that can be applied on to painted walls for a period of at least one year and then be removed by hand in one giant sheet without leaving any residue behind.

This sounds really different.  I want to know more about who would use this product, how much it costs compared to alternatives, and if that price difference makes this attractive compared to the cleanup costs of a cheaper version.

Strivers Foundation
Strivers Foundation pairs a business workshop with start up loans for poor intelligent young adults in developing nations.

There are already a million of these - sounds like Kiva to me.

The Green Energy Project
You need electricity. We will give it to you.

My Electric company already does this (and by state law has to offer me renewable options also).  Why are you different?

Dr. Cotes
Dr. Cotes designs and manufactures high-end white coats for physicians and dentists paying especial attention to form and function.

Cute name - Where is the demand here?  Clothing? This does not scale - fails the back of the envelope test for being worth getting into; even if there is some need. Works better as a product-line extension for an existing corporation.

eClinic
eClinic delivers on the promise of health 2.0 by providing media-rich answers to users’ questions on health and wellness from a network of expert health providers
Google Health? PatientsLikeMe? Sermo?

Innovasource
Innovasource: An innovative outsourcing company employing college students to minimize costs and maximize efficiency in delivery of services

Every company already implements this.  Interns, Co-Ops, Residencies.  Why go to you instead of hiring directly? Or outsourcing overseas? With the current economic situation even College students can't find work, because everyone else is accepting the cheap jobs which use to only go to college students.

Overall, I'm a little disappointed -- I see only a small handful that I feel are a viable winners.  Then again, Tufts Gordon Institute has been doing business plans as part of the class cirriculum for a few years; with over 50 presented to professors.  Ours is the first that our professor knew of which seemed viable and is moving forward in an attempt to succeed.  Wish us Luck!

Its been a long time since I've made a post here -- but this book I'm reading: The 4 Hour Work Week is just too great to not talk about.  I'm going to post my thoughts as I read through it.

Apples and Oranges: A Comparison - This really opened my eyes to the fact that everyone says pretty much the same goals for themselves in life; and that its truely not what they say.  This holds true for myself -- Maybe I say something like 'oh, I want to make a lot of money' Why? What am I actually looking to do with that money?

Or even more damming -To be the boss instead of the employee, to be in charge -- is really a dream to own the trains and have someone else ensure they run on time.  I have two recent examples of this in my life:

I recently decided to apply for a management position at my company.  This would be in a position of a totally different department, entirely different responsibilities, and would entail being the manager of approximately 12 people.  Did I think I was appropriately qualified? Hell No! Did I think it would be a Challenge? Absolutely! Did I think I could get it? Quite possibly!

From the day I applied for the position I became engrossed in the phenomeon that happens when you buy a new car, and then you start noticing everyone around you having the same car -- something you didn't take notice of before.  I began noticing that everyone in this group was constantly on-call, responding to emergencies at all hours of the day and night.  I then began to realize what a nightmare it would be to take on this position.  I spoke to a few managers at my company, both about the position, and management in general -- and came to the conclusion that I would spend 50-100% more time per week at work.  After much time delay, I let the hiring manager know I was no longer interested in the position.  First time in my life I've been in that situation.  I don't consider it giving up -- I consider that I more properly prioritized my life.  I want to focus on my Masters Program right now.

Finally I'm currently exploring a new business venture (more details to come later) which would involve an ultimate pay-off in my mind through IPO or acquisition.  As mentioned in this section - "To think big but ensure payday comes every day: cash flow first, big payday second." Okay! You've got my attention - I'm listening.

Last night I went to the Holiday party of a neighbor - who works for FableVision. Not knowing many people there, Julie and I spent time wandering around, and eventually came across a table full of the same books - The North Star. Not being one for Children's books, but being one for curiosity -- I read the book description on the jacket and was intrigued.  Julie began reading it.  I immediately thought about Julie's mother as I read "The North Star celebrates the individual.  It invites us to rethink curriculum, career choices and other critical life decisions in a way that respects who we really are and our own unique gifts."  As Julie read more and said it was good, I gave her the money to buy it for Julie's mother, Susan Summer as a gift.  Susan has worked on a number of children's books and dreams of having one of them published.

As we explained to our neighbor Sharon why we were purchasing the book she got excited and insisted we meet the author - Peter Reynolds and have him sign the copy.  We met Peter and explained our story, to which he explained his method of getting started - very small, and recommended Susan get published with a service such as LuLu.  I was exstatic, as I've suggested the very same service to Susan before.  He wrote an amazing page to Susan in the book and encouraged us to share his story - both The North Star, and of its creation with her for inspiration.

Challenging the Status Quo vs. Being Stupid - Retirement being a Worst-Case Scenario - The bit that really hit me was "One week into retirement you'll be so damn bored that you'll want to stick bicycle spokes in your eyes."  I love my Grandpa to death, hes a great guy, he worked for AT&T, and he was able to retire relatively early and had sufficient money to live nicely for almost 30 years now.  Unfortunately I've also watched him not do much, be bored, and have his mind slowly deteriorate.  As they put it in the book, if you're going to be bored and opt for a new job or start a new company -- why wait; do it now!

Seduction tactics show themselves in general life again -- First thing I thought at "Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission".  This was a big theme and common tagline when I was seducing women, that its much easier to ask for forgiveness if one of your advances was too bold, than to ask for permission before trying. "Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw up." - Thats me!

Emphasize Strengths, Don't Fix Weaknesses. I don't entirely agree with this one.  I do think that I need to focus on using my strengths instead of weaknesses, but I find great value in improving on my weaknesses, even if as they say 'the best you can often achieve is to become mediocre in these areas'.  I'd rather be well rounded, and maintain my strengths than allow my weaknesses to become my achilles heel.

I will combine the previous section with "Things in Excess Become Their Opposite." Which is similar to a common theme from a professor in my Learning to Lead class at Tufts Gordon Institute (Masters in Engineering Management) - who says "The strengths which got you where you are now may not be the same things which continue to take you forward, and infact may be holding you back."  His common example is that if you were a great engineer, that doesn't do anything for you when you want to become a manager -- you're looking to be a great manager, and if what made you a great engineer is that you were anti-social and focused on your work; then you may have issues trying to become a manager with that skillset.  You need to spend time to improve upon your weaknesses to take you forward.  This further emphasizes my point above.

Money Alone is Not the Solution - Couldn't say it better myself.  I already learned this lesson back in 2001 when I thought I was making an amazing amount of money, but I had no life and no friends - Which segue's into their next point - Relative Income Is More Important Than Absolute Income - I currently make 25% More than in 2001, at 40% of the hours.  I'm the poster-child for this book!

Distress is Bad, Eustress is Good -- Didn't speak to me until I read "People who avoid all criticism fail.  It's destructive criticism we need to avoid, not criticism in all forms."  I feed on constructive criticism. I need to understand how to improve, better myself, do it smoother next time.  I HATE criticism which just says that it wasn't good, but provides no positive feedback.  The feedback I recevied from Justin on my final class presentation was PRICELESS.  The detail, differing perspectives, and presentation advice really helped shape our product into one which it could not have been even after 20 presentations to audiences.

Fear Setting and Escaping Paralysis - Don't get me wrong -- its good, its a necessary section, but I've explored this nearly identically and in more depth in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. I encourage anyone to read it if this is a particular sticking point. I've already overcome, conquered and answered everything in this chapter.  Anyone who needs proof, please see me quitting my last job before having a new one -- and the pure-energy I received when I had a new job in 6 weeks which paid twice as much, 30% less hours, cheaper commute, and has helped me grow to where I am now.

... More Posts to come as I continue reading.