Your printer wasn't working because there was a pair of scissors inside of it. It works OK now. |
At this point, I don't know what's stranger: the fact that I actually left the above note for someone yesterday, or the fact that finding a pair of scissors inside of a printer was about the least strange aspect of my life in the past ten days. Where do I even begin?
Well, maybe I should back up about ten days and lay it out from the beginning. You see, it all started when the Miami Herald published an article about my start-up company, LoadPod. I'd known the article was coming; I'm the one who'd contacted the reporter in the first place; I was quoted in the article extensively. None of this was a surprise. But it just happened that in a mathematically impressive coincidence, the Herald just happened to be running an article about the whole iPod phenomenon on that same day. So when they decided to place the main iPod article on the front page of the Business section, they figured they'd stick with the theme by putting the LoadPod article right below. Right there on the front page.
And so it began. What had been a fledgling start-up gambit suddenly became a household name...down in South Florida, anyway. Business exploded down there to the point that I simply needed to be down there for the start of it all. Thus my first business trip led me back, ironically, to the same area in which I grew up. Of all the newspapers in the world that could have chosen to be the first one to bite on the article idea, it figures it would be the same one whose sports section I still read daily. Another mathematically impressive coincidence, I suppose.
I also knew that as word spread nationwide, LoadPod would be a smash hit all over the place. But how exactly to make the word would spread was still a bit up in the air until a major nationwide magazine actually approached me about doing an article on LoadPod. Hey, maybe they just happen to read the Herald. Who really knows? But anyway, let's just say they weren't the only nationwide publication to come to me about LoadPod, and while I'm not going to mention the names of any publications until they actually go to print, let's just say that I've never spent so much time talking to reporters in my life, as I have in the past ten days.
Because we're going to see a major influx of potential customers nationwide when these magazines go to print, I've been working like an animal to get local reps to come on board in as many areas as possible, in advance of the big influx. So far, we've got all or part of 37 States covered, and just for kicks, four Canadian provinces. Every day, we add new territory. It's just that crazy.
And because at least one of the major magazines will be mentioning the iPod Garage, I figured I really needed to hurry up and complete redesign and expanded focus for iPod Garage that I'd long been planning. So I managed to get that done, and then tweak it about four or five more times in order to finally get what I was looking for, and then it was finally there. I'd finally to add continually-updated external news content to the site, while still remaining the only iPod site out there to provide consistent original content of its own, and to strike a balance between the two.
This was all, of course, while I was on the business trip, getting knee-deep into the LoadPod process so that I could have an iron-clad grasp on just what I'm getting into. I even went along for the ride on a few local service calls, coyly acting as the "assistant" to the local rep, by filling out the paperwork and such. And I've got to tell you, if the size of the smiles that I saw on the faces of the two customers I met is any indication, then dang if we're ever onto something here. But as with everything, we shall see.
So after I got home from my little business trip, it was perhaps only then that I realized that it had been more than a week since I'd written anything for billpalmer.net! Now, we certainly can't have that kind of thing going on. If anything, the whole goal of LoadPod is to create the kind of financial independence that will allow me to continue publishing billpalmer.net for the rest of my life, whether billpalmer.net makes any money or not. After all, the idea of this site is to give people something interesting, helpful, and worthwhile to read about the Macintosh, not to make money.
It's been nearly nine months since I'd gone as long as a whole week without writing anything for this site, and it's something that I'm determined not to let happen again...no matter how much crazier things get. Which, of course, they did. No sooner did I get home from the trip than I came down with a case of the flu just mild enough not to take me totally out of commission, but just strong enough to keep me from making a whole lot of sense if I tried to write an article. I'm still not quite over it (as you can probably surmise simply by reading this so-called article). But I did have to pull myself together Thursday evening for yet another LoadPod-related interview, this time with a magazine that I actually read every month myself, and I think I held it together just well enough to have come off as mildly coherent. Maybe.
But shortly after concluding the interview Thursday evening, I was faced with one last task before crashing into bed and trying not to wake up until healthy. It turns out that my sister, who is getting married next month and was trying to print out invitations, ran into trouble with her inkjet printer. Now the only thing more fun than trying to troubleshoot a printer problem, is trying to do it when your head isn't altogether there. So after wresting with the printer long enough to determine that the paper-pickup mechanism was either broken or being blocked, I carefully reached deep inside the printer...and managed to pull out a pair of scissors.
I don't even want to know. In any other ten-day span of my life, it would almost certainly have ranked as one of the most bizarre things to happen to me. But at this particular time, It didn't even rank in the top twenty. But before heading off to dreamland, I figured I should leave a note taped to the computer, stating that the printer was once again working, sans scissors. So I very matter-of-factly scrawled out a note that read "Your printer wasn't working because there was a pair of scissors inside of it. It works OK now."
And there it was. Those eighteen words were easily the best writing I'd done in the past ten days. Which is a shame, because I'm told that I have something of a knack for it. Don't worry, kids -- billpalmer.net is back in full swing, come Monday. So what will my first "real" article be about? Heck if I know. But then, that's the beauty of it. I have little doubt that sometime within the next seventy-two hours, the Macintosh universe will give me something new to ponder. That's the beauty of it, I suppose.
Oh, and one more thing -- things apparently have no intention of settling down around here any time soon. My mother is getting married this month, my sister is getting married next month, the Miami Dolphins pre-season begins in two weeks (my dad and I have season tickets once again). And that's just all the non-business stuff. Something tells me that this past week's LoadPod-related business trip will be far from the last one I end up taking (so many major metropolitan areas, so little time). So if I miss a day or two of billpalmer.net articles here or there over the next few months, you'll have to forgive me. But with all the new experiences that are likely headed my way, I don't think there will be any shortage of Mac-related stuff to write about.
See you on Monday...
