Challenge

I wrote a post as guest blogger today on my wife's blog: Exploring New Worlds. We've begun some parenting training (shock therapy, boot camp?). Seven years into being a parent, I still haven't figured it out.

And so it goes...

I've had little energy for blogging of late. Partly, I'm in a new phase in my life, and I'm not sure where blogging fits in. Partly, it's been a rough patch. But a "rough patch" today hardly qualifies as an irritant in my yesterday. I feel so blessed and lucky to be where I am, that it feels like whining to complain, to delve into concerns, and doubts, and fears. But it's been a few months since I received any income. After an initial shock and joy at receiving a research contract, I've revisited the old familiar territory of Wait-and-See.

Suffice it to say, the rough patch has ended. I am (or soon will be) truly in business. I've gotten an invitation to proceed to the next level with my R&D. Meaning, I will be getting a six-month extension to my initial contract as soon as the paperwork is filed (albeit a few months later) and will shortly enter contract negotiations for another TWO YEARS after that!

And I don't mean just two years of me hanging on, getting by. I mean, come the fall, I will most likely be HIRING two or three full-time employees, paying them not a fortune, but an amount I would have been delighted to receive when I finished my PhD (if I had gotten an Asst. Prof. gig) .

And, since my home office just won't serve for three or four, I'm looking into buying a small office space downtown by the water. It's an amazingly depressed market, but a really lovely downtown, in sight of sailboats in the harbor. One of the reasons we chose this particular city was because it was affordable, by the water, and beautiful. The thought of me being a part of revitalizing the city, my fondest but not quite believable hope when we moved here, is almost beyond words.

I can't express how good this feels, and how I still wonder whether it might not just vanish, a phantom, an image, a dream. But it feels quite real. I got through the first gate. I passed the test. And now, finally, they have decided to push the envelope and invite me to produce a prototype solution to their problem. They had given me six months to prove my concept feasible and, despite bureaucratic delays, they've become convinced that I have succeeded.

And so, I step lightly, but swiftly! There's a lot I have to learn about running a small business, on top of a good deal of work on the research. Wish me luck.

Senators with backbones

Looks like some underhanded efforts were made to stiff small businesses. Under the recently signed American Recovery Act, a coded clause was slipped in during the assigned task to reconcile House and Senate versions that effectively cut off more than $200 million of funding from being available to small businesses and researchers. See this blog post for details.

But fortunately for the US, there are still some legislators with spines. Senators Landrieu and Snowe from the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship sent a letter to the director of the Department of Health and Human Services imploring them to fulfill their statutory obligation to small businesses nonetheless.

I wonder, with all the tossing of money at the flames of this recession, whether there won't be some sense to it all, whether the needs of researchers, and the benefits of supporting the vast army of unemployed PhDs seeking a useful outlet for their energies won't somehow be realized. Let's hope.

Finally

Finally, someone in the mainstream media is even talking about this!

Doctoral Candidates Anticipate Hard Times

Continuing

Life continues.

Last month I received the first payment on my first gov research contract, which finally put us back on track for being financially viable. Another payment or two and we'll be off the rosters for public assistance, meaning we need to figure out what insurance to purchase. I'm honestly looking forward to that. These days there are many lining up for public assistance because of job losses or cutbacks. I'll be happy to step aside. This is the first and only time in my life that I have dipped into the public coffers where I normally put my tax dollars. I hope it shall also be the last.

Last week, I filed the second of three status reports. Word I got a few weeks ago is that this second one will be the basis for their decision whether to award me transitional funding (an additional 6 months), so I poured a great deal into the report. I ended up preparing some preliminary proofs-of-concept that I had promised for the end of the first six month period. I'm pretty confident moving forward. Hopefully they'll see the merit in my proofs as well. In any case, I should know by the end of January at the latest whether my firm will receive an additional 6 months of funding. That'd be great.

The next step is working on getting the 2 year contract from them. There are three firms in this first round. Only one or two of us will get the second round funding, to deliver the end product. Meantime, I'm looking to prepare new proposals in the first few months of 2009, for other projects. I've got a couple proposals outstanding. They're just abstract sort of proposals, so a thumbs-up merely means they'd like me to prepare a fuller proposal. In addition, I've got several other irons in the fire.

I'll be meeting with several deans and faculty at a local state university sometime in January, to discuss prospects for a major initiative that I hope to play a big role in. This meeting is the culmination of a meeting I had in the end of November with the head of research on campus. I've also got several more ideas for research proposals to a few more agencies and departments for grants and contracts.

If the supplemental six-month funding comes through, I'll be ready to start thinking about hiring. It still won't really be enough in itself to support another full-time employee. But I'll be needing to budget time and energy to preparing new proposals. I'm really almost off the ground. It's still a start-up, so it might all come crashing back down to earth. It's best not to expect success at every step. Rather, it's wise to anticipate next steps, with or without a crash landing.

Mostly, I just wanted to say, all is well.

Snowfall

It's that time. The first real snow of the season fell last night. The Painter and I built this beauty this morning.

One of my brothers arrives this evening. My mother and a second brother arrive on Wednesday. Thanksgiving we'll have 18 people over for dinner.

My oldest brother and his fiancée couldn't make it. (He chose to announce his engagement to me by noting in his regrets email that they're saving for a wedding. My reply: "someone's getting married?")

Ah, family!

Good news: I should get my first invoice paid today! That's the word at least. It'll be my very own small business injection of cash stimulus. I can't say it'll mean I've arrived. But it's a milestone that'll let me feel this is all real, and not simply some dream.

I still worry a bit about what's next. Will I get the second phase of the project funded? I emailed my technical contact last week, to ask about timing and criteria of the decision. The conferences have instilled in me the understanding that more communication is better. She's the person who'll make the final decision as to whether I get that two years' more funding (enough to hire a couple employees full-time). It's a big deal. She was travelling last week, then on vacation this week. So, I won't hear back from her until after Thanksgiving. That's alright. My job is simply to forge ahead, develop the technology.

It will get funded one way or another. Of that I'm pretty certain. They say most small businesses that fail do so simply because the founders give up. I'm not much for giving up (at least not when I haven't been convinced that continuing is unworthy of the effort). For now, I remain strongly convinced of the value and benefit of my current path. For now, I'm able to sustain it. When I see that direct deposit, I'll be elated!

Just start writing

Between yesterday and today, I made some good headway in getting back to my research. With a bit of hemming and hawing, I forced myself to just start writing. Then, finally, the ideas started flowing again. Much much work. But it is my work. I like the challenges. And I am so utterly convinced that I am on the right path, that I am doing what has not yet been done, that what I'm working on is significant and beneficial.

Next week, I meet with the Vice Chancellor for Research of a large state university nearby. The meeting was setup by one of my recent principal advocates, a regional director of the state's entrepreneurship agency. It'll be a preliminary discussion re: possibilities for collaboration with faculty on campus. Tentative it may be, but still significant to have a high university administrator pencil me into the schedule.

There are many options for me in moving ahead. I've got to keep my head on my shoulders, and stay focused on priorities. What do I need to accomplish, by when, and how? Always with an eye to what's next, and keeping a handle on what's now.

Sliding

I've been preoccupied with other things. Thus my silence here. I had a good start to my research project. A good couple months of action.

About three weeks ago I attended a conference. The week and a half I was home, I spent mostly organizing my office and computer, much of it spent on setting up a dual-boot with Linux on my workstation, and setting up Linux only on my new laptop. More effort than I would have liked, and somewhat unsatisfactory results. I had to send back the laptop for some tweaking from the manufacturer. And the Linux partition of my workstation still lacks the proper sound card drivers (not to mention I snapped the connector on my speakers, so I have only headphones).

Then I headed off to another conference, from which I returned last Friday. Busy since I got back, and expecting relatives next week.

I feel like I've lost the last three weeks (though the conferences were good). I'm just having a hard time sliding back into the research. I spent a lot of time this week following up on contacts made during the conferences, and researching ideas for future funding proposals. I've mostly decided to forego proposals before the end of the year, even though it means letting several deadlines pass, with no guarantees that next year's topics, subjects, and priorities will still support my work, and the possibility that it might result in several months or a year without funding.

It's just that I've got to get back to making progress on the current project, in hopes that it will move beyond the six months of funding I'm promised. I'm obsessively checking whether my first invoice has been paid. It's been nearly three months since I started the project, and almost a month since the invoice was processed. My last income was a year ago (not to mention our savings have diminished by more than a third since then). That's how it goes I guess. But between that, and waiting on evaluations of two proposals I have outstanding, and anticipating replies to several emails of importance, and a myriad of other distractions... I'm finding it hard to focus on priorities.

I guess the first thing is to follow up on my wife's suggestion that I detail the remaining tasks for the current project. Good management skills. And it should help me not only to budget my time, but to see where I might get outside help on some points, which would lighten the load.

I'm mostly just thinking out loud here, since this blog has been good therapy for me in the past. I worry a bit about our shrinking assets, which leads to my obsession over getting paid. But this too shall pass. And overall, things are well.

Patriotic Taxes

Click on image for full size.
I was curious, since the Pit Bull has been spouting off about how Obama & Biden "think it's patriotic to pay more taxes," just how she and those supporting her line up on the issue of spending other's tax dollars. I recall over and over hearing the phrase "tax and spend liberal". George W. has proven that those from the historically fiscally conservative side of the fence can spend like drunken sailors. So, if paying taxes isn't patriotic, how about spending the taxes that other people have paid. Let's see what that looks like. I superimposed NPR's election predictions with the amount of federal dollars returned to states per tax dollar paid. Unfortunately, the most recent data seems to be for 2005. I can only imagine it's gotten worse, since spending has gotten even more out of hand since then.

Sources:
Original spread sheet from: The Tax Foundation website.
NPR Election data from National Public Radio.

Mccain has a good idea/Obama's is outstanding

Just a link to an NYTimes article.

Eat, sleep, breath

Often I head off to sleep contemplating possible solutions to the problems I face in my research. Mornings, I frequently awake with these same thoughts on my mind. I mentioned this to RocketMom this morning. She replied "it sure beats waking up and thinking 'I really don't want to go to work today.'"

I think of the line from Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues about calling in well to work: I won't be coming in again, ever. Not me. I'm doing my work. This is my choice. It's a challenge. It's fun. It feels so abundantly, wonderfully good to finally finally be getting paid for my mind, for my thoughts, for my ideas; to be trusted and respected. I can't say enough how good that feels. (Of course, it will feel a bit more real when I finally get that first income (around the middle or end of November. Meantime, it's scrimping, and biting my lip when I have to sell some investment that's 40% off for the year, because we simply need the cash to pay the bills). And it will feel so absolutely spectacular when I have in my hands those proofs of concept that show the success of my methods and techniques.

Would I have felt this way, had I gotten a professorship? Perhaps. I really can't say. Do any of you feel this way?

But it's not all clams and oysters. I worry about this nation and the world. I worry about the economy. Thankfully this six-month contract, even if I don't get the next stage funding, should keep us in the black for another year or two. I had made the explicit promise to myself and my wife that I'd have income before we ate through half of our non-retirement savings. With the precipitous fall of the markets this past month (even with a large chunk of our holdings in bonds and cash) we're perhaps 3 or 4 months away from that magical midpoint. With the contract, income should start flowing a couple months before we get there.

For the most part, I'm hoping to simply sit this wave out, and leave most of our investments untouched, hoping that in a year or two things will have stabilized. I have few illusions that they will come back to their lofty heights (even if those heights were already down six months ago. But they may recover some of this decline. I'll sell off only what we need for cash. No need to contribute further to the decline. But I anticipate keeping a large proportion of the income in conservative holdings, at least until I know about the second phase (likely around February or March).

I only hope that the U.S. electorate chooses a change in leadershp. For sure, Obama doesn't have all the answers. I fully expect some mis-steps. But I trust that he is smart enough to pick good advisors and to listen to their advice. Something George W. has proven incapable of doing, and which I fear the Maverick is constitutionally averse to, as his ridiculous choice in running mate reflects. Assuming Obama wins the election, that is but the beginning of the work ahead. It will be our task to help lead this nation back to sanity in all its affairs. I hope.

Wrong Task

I read a bit of an article in the grocery store yesterday about the bailout plan and it's impact on the local economy. The article read (and I paraphrase):

... so, now that the $700 billion bailout package has passed Congress, the money will start flowing to local banks, and be made available to consumers, right? Wrong, the first thing that has to happen is housing prices need to stop falling.

Um... no! First off... it is not the job of the government to set prices. It is the job of appropriate government agencies to oversee fairness in business and social exchanges. It is the job of these agencies to ensure reasonably honest dealings, to set reasonable (though not excessive) regulations and disclosure requirements toward that goal, and most importantly to staff these agencies sufficiently to enforce the regulations. These are things that Ronald Reagan started dismantling, and which has accelerated in the ensuing two decades, and which must be reversed.

Housing prices are falling because they have become out of line with their inherent value! No amount of government intervention (short of providing every citizen with a housing allowance!) can change that. Let the values drop until they are in line with that value. To some extent this is where "free market" principles must be respected. Values should and will be set by the public's ability and willingness to pay. Gasoline prices have dropped ~20% over the last month for exactly this same reason.

The task that the government should have been and should be focused on is not stabilizing housing or stock prices, but rather mitigating the negative effects of their fall. They will continue to fall! We should brace ourselves. And we should turn to our elected officials, to step up to the plate and swing. And if they won't, or they foul, or they strike out (as has clearly been the case these past few years), we should expect them to get out the way, and let someone else step up who can handle the job!

In other news...

Just thought I'd update you on the business front. At the beginning of this week, I issued a press release on my firm's recent contract. I had a telephone interview yesterday with a writer for the state entrepreneurs' network. I got a couple calls from the business reporter from the main newspaper in a large city nearby. She wants to do a couple interviews with me, and try out a new mini-business plan feature with my firm as guinea pig. Also, got word this morning to expect a call from the business reporter from my own city's main paper.

There's a lot of excitement about my (albeit moderate) success. It's amazing to me how vested local parties are in the growth of my company. How different this feels from the complete and utter neglect I got from my doctoral institution, from my old department. How different this feels from the shame of the four years post-doc that I spent applying for one faculty post after another, and receiving mostly silence.

Talk about the economy! Why is it that this great nation has such little regard for teachers and professors and educational institutions? Why is it that the administrators of supposed institutions of higher learning haven't the courage to stand up and set priorities where they ought to be (to be clear, I mean that the priorities of colleges and universities ought to be focused on teaching and research, not on buildings, courtyards, and athletic events.) The number of faculty across the country should be doubled, and salaries should at least keep up with reasonable expectations for someone with the level of educational attainment and apprenticing that PhDs have.

I'm doing the research. I'm finally receiving income commensurate with my training, and in line with what I'm working towards. I'm getting support for that. But it's been a long and painful road. And I'm not out of the woods yet. My current contract is short. There may yet be lean times ahead. Who knows: someday, perhaps I'll be able to teach again as well.

Loosen credit?

Look, I can't second guess the folks in Congress. I'm not sitting there at the negotiations. I haven't read the full version of the bill that passed the Senate, and I don't know what may likely pass the House. What I do know is this: half the chatter I hear on the radio and read online indicate the concern over the tightening of credit standards. A bit of the chatter regards these absurdly convoluted structured securities that bundled loans together in a fashion that even those doing the bundling weren't sure what real value if any the securities represented. And finally, most of the remaining chatter speaks of how much of this mess began with defaulted mortgages and other loans (which were due in part to lax lending standards). So... wouldn't shoring up capital to encourage banks to relax their now tightened lending standards be counterproductive?

I think what needs most to be accomplished by any pending action (though from where I sit I can't say I'm yet convinced of the wisdom of what may or may not be done) is to change the present culture of living beyond our means. The problems did not begin with defaulted mortgages. The defaults were symptomatic of the underlying problems. When I moved with my wife to Paradise from Colorado to enter a doctoral program in 2000 we were shocked by the cost of housing. Granted, it was Paradise. But we had been paying about $800/month on our mortgage in Denver for a 1700 sq.ft. bungalow (with a 1500 sq.ft. finished basement). Our rent that first year, for a 1000 sq.ft. condo (in a marginal neighborhood) was $1600/month. Didn't make sense. But the apartments we had looked at for under $1600 were not livable by our standards (and we're not talking high standards here!).

But, we could afford that only because my wife got a 40% bump in salary (doing essentially the same work as she had in Colorado). Why did they pay so much more? In large part to attract and retain employees (since they all expected to afford a house). Problem was, the more firms paid, the more housing prices rose. We bought a condo the next year, because after the mortgage interest deduction, the cost of buying was equivalent to rents (and the location was better and closer to work and campus). We sold the property two years later at nearly a 60% profit! But rentals had barely budged. Meaning that the buyers were paying a hefty premium to buy, which made no sense. Of course, the value of that property grew another 60-75% over the next 2-3 years. According to zillow it's now worth about 20-25% less than at it's peak, about 15% higher than we sold it for in 2003.

The point I made then was that housing prices like that were unsustainable. They were even more unsustainable when we sold it, certainly even more so two years later... but I find it hard to believe that they are sustainable even at today's reduced level. A few years ago we were all led to believe by the "experts" that the "new economy" sloughed off the old standards of productivity and profit. We were told to ignore the price-to-earnings ratio of new firms. The old standard P/E of 15 or less was passé.

The Bush administration has relied on a simplistic view of wealth creation: spend, spend, spend. The objective has been to keep money flowing throughout the economy. Think of the tax cuts. Think of the "stimulus package". Go out and buy things, my friends. That was the mandate. We need to return to some sanity. We need to return our valuations to real values.

That will take a lot more than simply keeping money flowing. In some cases, it may take the opposite. If lending standards are tight, it will force us to rethink our priorities. Would that be such a bad thing? The best role of any government intervention at this point would be to ease our way back out of a credit card culture of easy spending, and overspending, and speculation. The stock market should not be a gambling haven. We should renew expectations of reasonable P/E values. Dividends should once again be standard practice of established companies. Housing values should return to a reasonable multiple of income (say the old standard of 2-3 times annual household salary). Any intervention by the government should aim toward these effects. Anything short of that is failure!

Bailout

Okay, let me get this straight: Large and established financial institutions have been suffering, some going bankrupt because:

• They have been lending money, too cheaply
• to risky borrowers
• for overpriced purchases
  
• that they couldn't afford
• (like houses priced at 10-20 times their annual earnings).

Got that. And... many of these borrowers are now defaulting on those loans. Of course. This really isn't a surprise.

So, the financial institutions are now losing money on those bad loans. Okay, got that.

So, they'll have less money to freely lend, to risky borrowers, for overpriced purchases, that they can't afford. Individuals and businesses will have to pay a higher rate in the future to borrow money, forcing them to be more cautious in considering the necessity of borrowing money for a purchase, and forcing lenders to be more cautious in determining the ability of the borrower to repay the loan. Okay, got that.

So... um, I'm a bit lost as to why this is a crisis. When did we as a nation move away from the principle that we should buy things that we can afford? Housing prices have risen steeply in large part because borrowing was so cheap, leading borrowers to believe that they could afford to pay such high prices, because everyone else was doing it.

Now, how does this affect the proverbial "Main Street" so bantied about? First off, there is the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) which insures individual deposits up to $100,000 per account for standard checking, savings, money market and CD accounts.*

Then, there is the SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation), which protects individual investor's securities holdings against the failure of financial institutions, with certain limitations.**

So, a bank or brokerage failing will not likely cause you to lose any money directly. Of course, if you own shares in a company that goes bankrupt, well then, you've just lost some money. But then, the issue is diversification of risk. Or, if you were a borrower with an adjustable rate mortgage for an overpriced house, you may still be at risk of losing that asset. Fortunately, politicians have moved in to redress this issue, and are seeking the facility for borrowers and lenders to renegotiate such loans to keep the borrowers in their homes, and maintain the viability of the mortgage to be repaid.

So, the government is stepping in, to prop up the financial institutions (that have been reckless in lending too cheaply to risky investors for overpriced purchases which in many cases they could ill afford and didn't need), so that consumer confidence in these institutions will be preserved (despite the fact that our confidence is shaken because of their own recklessness), and so that they can go on lending money "affordably" so that business (like Boston Market and Starbucks) can borrow for growth and expansion, and keep the economy rolling along.

Somehow, I'm just not convinced that a slowdown is not what is needed (or, in fact, that such an artificial propping up of a failed sector in the economy will actually prevent it). In Wall St. terminology, we'd call it a "correction." And, if we're all in it together, we'll all pull through it just fine. We always do. That's one great thing about America that has not yet been destroyed by eight years of failed policies. We're industrious folk. Let the big, old institutions fall of their own making. Smaller, lither companies will grow from the rubble. New ideas will emerge that will pick up the slack.

It's amazing to me that those most vociferous in their supposed support for "free market" economics seem so quickly to run away from it when their most cherished institutions begin to falter. I say, let them falter. We'll be okay.

*What Is Insured? You are probably familiar with the traditional types of bank accounts - checking, savings, trust, certificates of deposit (CDs), and IRA retirement accounts - that are insured by the FDIC. Banks also may offer what is called a money market deposit account, which earns interest at a rate set by the bank and usually limits the customer to a certain number of transactions within a stated time period. All of these types of accounts generally are insured by the FDIC up to the legal limit of $100,000 and sometimes even more for special kinds of accounts or ownership categories. For more information on deposit insurance see FDIC brochure "Your Insured Deposits."

**Investments protected by SIPC. The cash and securities – such as stocks and bonds – held by a customer at a financially troubled brokerage firm are protected by SIPC. Among the investments that are ineligible for SIPC protection are commodity futures contracts and currency, as well investment contracts (such as limited partnerships) that are not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Act of 1933.

Flying High

I'm heading out of town on Monday for my initial meeting with the funding agency that has issued me a contract. I've been working full days of late, keeping track of everything. I won't get paid for another couple months, but I'm definitely on the clock. It feels good. But it leaves me little time for blogging.

I had a conversation this morning for over an hour with a fellow I met a while back at a conference. I wrote a little about him in my old blog. I had contacted him recently to formally ask if he'd serve on the Advisory Board to my firm. It was a great, free flowing and supporting conversation. I'd say there are a lot of similarities between us, though he's a few years ahead of me. He received his PhD in 1991, and founded his own firm in 2002. So, he makes a perfect mentor to me. Even better, our work is complementary, so there should be many fruitful collaborations down the pike.

I just thought I'd poke me head in here to say, I'm still around, and still cranking ahead. I think back to a post I wrote nearly two years ago, about striking out on my own, and the commentary there that pressed me on what that might mean. It's been a good couple years.

Sour Garlic Pickles

These are not only the best pickles I've made yet, but they rival my memories of "Lower East Side Kosher Garlic Dill Pickles".

Get yourself a good pickling crock. I use a 7.5l Harsch. You may also want to invest in a little kitchen scale, since weight measures are more accurate than by volume. Here, then is the recipe.

• ~7 lbs. of fresh pickling cucumbers (or kirbies)
• 10 large cloves of garlic
• 5 grape leaves
• 1 bunch of fresh dill.
• 5 l of water (boiled, then cooled)
• 175 g salt (35 g/liter) This is the summer recipe. You can reduce the salt to say 30 g/l during cooler months). Be sure to use "pickling salt" which is salt pure and simple, containing no iodine and no anti-caking agent. In the past I had used "coarse kosher salt" but this contains anti-caking. Table salt also normally contains iodine. Apparently both have a deleterious effect on fermentation.
  
• 15 g mustard seed
• 10 g black peppercorns
• 10 g coriander seeds
• 5 g red pepper seeds
  
• 4 bay leaves

Wash the pickles in cold water, setting aside any that are bruised. Snip or cut the flower end off the pickles. Pack them tightly in the crock (but don't crush), standing on end. Add the spices (don't worry about mixing, they'll be under water for a long time). Pour cooled salt water over pickles, to a depth about 1-2" (3-5 cm) above the pickles. Be sure it's well cooled-you don't want to cook your pickles! Set a weight on top of the pickles to keep them under water. Leave the crock at room temperature (in your kitchen if possible) for about a week, then move to a cooler location for an additional 3-4 weeks. If you use an airlock type crock (like the Harsch) you shouldn't need to skim the scum that might otherwise grow. If you use an open crock, you may need to take such precautions.

After about a month they're ready! You can harvest a jar's worth to keep in the fridge as needed, and leave the rest to continue fermenting. Note, these are fermented brine pickles-no vinegar. The grape leaves apparently help preserve the firmness of the pickle skin. So also does snipping the flower end off. Another suggestion I've heard, also to preserve the skin's firmness, though haven't tried it, is to not add the garlic until a week or two before the first harvesting. I've heard that 3 months is needed for a full sour, but mine were great at about 5 weeks (perhaps they'll need longer in cooler months).

Finally

Got the contract by email this morning. It's long, and complicated. And... they mistyped my address (better get that fixed). But... it's real. It's in hand. I just have a few items to discuss with them (like whether I might not be able to get paid sooner than December!), then to sign it. Looks like I'll be flying out to meet with the topic lead next month.

I met with an attorney and patent engineer this morning. Good meeting. The engineer has a PhD in the field of study I'm encroaching. He was pretty excited by my efforts. I think I might work with these guys. We'll see. We left it that we'd touch base again in a couple months after I'd gotten cracking on this current project.

In the meantime, I need to dive into this project. Finally FINALLY I'll be getting paid for my research. Now, simply to make something of it!

________UPDATED ________
Well, no, I can't get paid sooner. Yikes! Well, at least state-sponsored health insurance will continue in force, until I have income coming in. I've got a couple months then to research that, as well as retirement benefits and life insurance, etc. There are many, many little details about running a business that we don't always anticipate. I guess that's why most firms have an HR department, eh?

[Hang on, I need to switch hats, okay, "HR here, how may I help you?"]

I suspect I'll be spending a lot of money on accounting and legal consultations. Good thing it's in the budget. Fortunately, I've got some really good small business resources and advisors from state and local agencies.

I spent half of today pouring over parts of the contract, and mostly filling out various forms and documents and questionnaires, and... There's a lot of paperwork involved in government contracting! And half the questions require a significant amount of uncovering before the answer is clear. Hopefully I can finish up and return the signed contract tomorrow, knowing I won't see a dime for about three or four months. At least it's coming. That's good to know.

Intensity

... at seven months
(and yes he does have grey-blue eyes...
like my wife, and grandmother)

Concentration

The boy can focus when he wants to.