t - -

I just bought a new scooter.  Well, technically I just bought another scooter.  Anyway, as I was cruising down the street at a roaring 37 mph, I started thinking about what it really was that I had paid for.

In this case, I had bought a time machine.  Now before you start giving me that “Jigga, what?” look, let me explain.

I use the scooter to commute to work.  It’s about a three mile journey each way.  I could certainly walk that distance in about an hour.  But with the scooter, it takes about ten minutes.  So I’ve bought myself 50 minutes each direction.

You could also argue that I’ve bought a jealousy machine based on the looks that all the cool people sitting in the outdoor cafes give me.  But that isn’t so much an argument as it is a tautology.

We got pretty excited here at t– to start posting the various thoughts and issues that came up for us as we blaze our path to entrepreneurial fame (or at least mild recognition).  However, reality set in as we had a close deadline to apply to a local incubator.  A lot of work went into writing, editing, rewriting, and again editing the application - along with building a team to support us.

We now emerge a couple weeks later with no word (yet - but not ready to give up) from the incubator, and a few other setbacks.  That said, nothing has happened to compromise our vision or intent to follow through.  We may potentially end up approaching things slightly different, but nothing fundamental changes.

I have decided to start digging into Ruby on Rails some.  I’ve spent a little time looking into the language and how it flows and I think my biggest concern is that it’s almost too clear/easy.  I’m far too used to more cryptic languages - and I find it ironic that a language from Japan is so easily translatable to English.  Still it looks very interesting, and hopefully it will facilitate standing up some prototypes faster than planned.

The purpose behind t-- is to share the successes and defeats (although hopefully few) of a group of people trying to balance their day jobs with creating businesses/projects on the side.

We’ll be talking about our approaches to certain problems, how to think about potential projects, and all the other aspects of going out on your own with little to no money (or seemingly time).  With any luck, over time we can learn something ourselves, help provide lessons for others, and likely add some entertainment.