Day 69

Anna's father Randy came into town on his way home from Uganda. He did dental work there for a mission organization. Randy has read all our plans and documents and I think could be a key player for us in the next few months, so its exciting to have him on board.

Anna and I had a picnic down at the river and went swimming. It was nice to relax for a bit. We drove through my old neighborhoods where I lived when I was young. Good memories...mostly.

Have a new meeting with yet another potential investor coming this week....although Im excited for it, Im a bit apprehensive.

Day 68

Basically the whole day was spent on the database and resource gathering for the prototype.

Met a good friend for lunch at Ghengis Grill, Tony Guhr. Tony is helping us try to get some investors on the table...and he is just the man for it. He knows so many people. I'm really glad for help.

I went to see Sasha Baron Cohen's new movie "Bruno". I dont recommend this movie to anyone who cant stomach strange perverse humor.

Day 67

In the morning I went over to the Recording Studio and worked on one of my songs called "Overgrown" It is a great song and I think everyone will like it.

After that I came back home and worked on a website for a friend called Marc Baker. My buddy Josh actually did all the work on this site, Im just kinda putting the last touches on it and getting the right info in before it goes live. Kinda boring stuff.

As far as Time Trails - it is hard to work full time on something that brings in no money yet. Its really frustrating have to spend so much energy on my artwork and am sometimes fried in the afternoon when I do time trails...but I have to pay the bills somehow. I think every entrepreneur goes through this.

The good news is I like the progress I'm seeing.

Day 66

Today I worked on artwork to make some money. Then in the evening I worked I adding more Historical Fiction to the Movie Database. I think in the next few days Dad's Editor will be working - so that will help out a ton.

Once this editor is in place, and the site is live (which it is, by the way) we could technically start to have cash flow. haha.

Day 65

Tuesday. Dad came into town and we went to lunch at an Asian Place. It was good. Then we went to Meads Corner Cafe and has some coffee while we discussed the prototype.

Then we went on a walk down by the river and talked some more.

It was really hot...but we got a lot of good talking in.

Its gonna be great when someone sees the value in our project. Because we need the money.

Day 64

Monday...

Working on the master resource database.

Basically, this resource Database is a giant spreadsheet that contains valuable information that will soon be siphoned directly into the new prototype.

Here is an example of this database:

Its not as fun as it looks creating these things.....

But progress is being made!!!!

Day 63

Not much today. Dad told me that his internal resource editor will be available for me to work on sometime this week.

Worked on Adam Case's picture.

In the evening Anna's mom and sister came down - they just returned from Switzerland. So, they went to a movie while Paul and I headed down into oldtown for our show at Oeno's VIP corporate party. It went very well.

Day 62

Today is the 4th of July.

Anna and I had a really relaxing day, and then in the evening we went to my cousin Danelle's wedding.

Without shooting off any fireworks, we were content to spend the late evening relaxing with friends and ended up staying up very very late with Paul talking about philosophy, religion, and economics. It was quite fun.

Had a chance to briefly catch up with Uncle Craig regarding the meetings on Tuesday: he reported there was a chance we would meet with another person soon.

In the mean time, Dad and I are continuing on marking July as the official Month 1 of operation, regardless of whether or not we are fully funded.

So: Prototype, Prototype, Prototype, Prototype.

Day 61

Finished work on the Map Grid program.

Also worked on my billable work = a new CD cover and illustration for a friend of mine named Adam Case. His new CD is entitled "Keys and Strings". (I'll be sure to post the final illustration...I like it so far.)

Tonight, we had a show again at Oeno's Wine bar in Old Town. The owner came to me and Paul after the show and requested us to come back and play again on Sunday night for a VIP corporate party. Sweet! He also said we were the best band to ever come through his restaurant. I thought that was quite a compliment.

Today is July 3rd, and tomorrow is a holiday. It doesnt really feel like one.

Day 60

Worked on KML files today.

I added the start of the Carthaginian, Roman, Macedonian, Persian, and Greek empires in our prototype. I haven't yet programmed any animations into them - but that come soon.

The Persian animation is neat because Ive got Alexander's march cutting through a previously established empire rather than just taking control of blank ground.

the hope is that every part of the globe, at every point in time, will have some sort of historical overlay via Time Trails technology.

It is really cool!

Although he doesn;t much blog about it - Dad has been extremely hard at work programming the functionality of the website. Everyday basically, thats all he is doing.

He has been working specifically on making an "Author Space". That is, anyone who has a unique time trails account will be able to add or edit existing time trail animations, add content and resources, and partake in an internal forum. This is the stuff we should be updating about more often - and we will - as soon as we get funding!

Day 59

Today I had to go to the museum and give a tour. Very uneventful. I hope everyone reading this had a more exciting day than I had today.

Day 58

Woke at 1:30 AM.

Left Wisconsin at 2:00 AM.

Drove till 3:30 PM.

Showered.

Gathered Documents.

Dad came over at 4:00.

Met Craig at 4:30.

Met Investors at 5:30.

Whew!!


So, heres how it went. We met at Mike's house. He only lives a few blocks down from me, actually. Mike is the former boss of Craig's wife Jan. He invited 3 other gentlemen over to his house. These 3 guys are former oil men and extremely successful businessmen. We met in the parlor and spent a good hour talking about the project. They had interesting questions, and in fact were more concerned about the business end of things rather than the ideas behind the actual project.

Overall it went really well, and I think the most promising thing about the meeting was that we potentially have even more contacts now - these men said they would try to put us in touch with some other, younger, people who are at work in silicon valley right now!

After we were finished, my car would shift gears out of their driveway.

How embarrasing.

Oh well.

So, we'll see what turns up with the meeting. Like everything in this business, its SLOW. UGH!

Day 57

Ok today was a surprise for Clay.

Our original plan was to leave early in the morning. But after a phone call with Dad, I realized I could work straight from Wisconsin.

Clay left for his job, Kristen and Anna went to the zoo, and stayed at the apartment and worked all day on creating an Alexander the Great time trail specifically for the new prototype.

Its easy to work remotely, and the day was very successful for me. The following picture is a screenshot of the extent of alexanders empire. Of course, on the website you can actually see the progression of his conquering!!

When Clay got off work he was super surprised Anna and I were still there. So we had a great evening - Of course Clay and I went to a FREE par 3 golf course (why dont they have those in Kansas?).

We had to be sure to leave at around 2:00 AM because Dad and I have an important meeting with 3 potential investors/investor contacts at 5 oclock on tuesday. Thats exciting!!

Uncle Craig was gracious enough to pull some strings to get us those meetings, so we are thankful for that.

Day 56

Sunday in Wisconsin...

Today we went to the Wisconsin Dells. It is a city much like Branson, MO except instead of saloons and shows, there are waterparks.

I'm not kidding - indoor waterparks, outdoor waterparks, big, small, high, low, fast, slow....you name it, they've got it.

Clay was taking us to a popular waterpark called Noah's Ark. This happens to be the largest waterpark in the world, boasting the single longest waterslide in the world called "The Black Anaconda."

Anna and I went down that one, it was fun, and then several others. Clay, Kristen, Anna, Lily, and me would take turns standing in the long lines and going down the crazy slides. There was one particular slide called the "Point of No Return"

This slide is one that just drops just straight down. You lay on your back, way way way up in the sky, and just drop. No one else wanted to attempt it, so I went alone. There was no line - no one else in the park wanted to attempt it either.

Holy smokes, it was so fast, straight down, my stomach just shot up into my throat. It was worth it though!!

We had lunch under the trees outside the park, and then took Lily to the baby pool. Of course she loved it!

After most of the day had passed, clay took us down to the river and went fishing for about an hour. He caught a small Bass, but the beauty of the woods enough to keep me happy.

We then went to a small Pizza place where I tried Anchovies for the first time....they were salty.

My favorite snack in the world, Wisonsin Cheese Curds, were our dinner munchies as I cleaned house in a game of Scrabble late that night.

Another great day! However, the weekend is ending and Anna and I have a long drive back home and a long week of work on Time Trails ahead of us...

Day 55

Clay and I got up early and went golfing again. It was awesome! As usual, Clay did really well on the front nine and I did really well on the back nine.

While we were out doing that, Kristen (Clay's wife) and Anna went to the market in Madison.

In the evening We all watched a great movie called "In Bruges".

Awesome time in Wisconsin!!

Day 54

Friday after work I had quite the company waiting for me! Ben, Anna, and Lily in my living room! Needless to say I was very excited to see them. Lily is such a sweetheart, and so well behaved–mostly. But ben and I had pressing business, and no sooner had I showered, endulged my gut with Kristen's delicious chicken enchiladas, we were out the door.

With the early summer evening we shared a round of nine at a local par 3 course. It's a nice little course, and not too busy at seven. I had been looking forward to golfing with Ben since he told me he was coming up. It was fine, and the competition was friendly. Ben came out on top by 3 strokes if my memory serves me correctly. We wondered if we should play another round, but quickly thought better of it as Anna and Kristen were waiting at home with the baby. We bid a reluctant farewell to the course and were off again, the sun setting over the Yahara river as we drove past, wishing we were on one of the many fishing boats lining the shore.

At home again, we watched a movie, "In Bruges", a funny and melodramatic comedy about two hit-men relocated to Bruges by their psychotic boss after a job gone horribly wrong. I crashed not too long afterward. As I fell asleep my mind was already fixed on the golf we would play the next day.

Day 53

Today, Thursday, was supposed to be a pretty major day in the World of Time Trails.

Unfortunately, things got postponed.

My uncle Craig had arranged a meeting with some potential investors! So, Dad drove in and met me in Wichita around noon and we worked on getting things printed out and refined for the meeting.

While we were at the print shop, Dad got a phone call saying the meeting was postponed to next Tuesday...so although we were bummed, we did feel good that we got a lot of small detail things out of the way.

Dad ended up driving back home to do billable work, and I ended up finishing a logo I had on contract for a band called OneTruth.

Good news - Leaving in the morning to go visit my older brother Clay in Wisconsin tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Day 52

Spent the previous night in Whitewater. Woke up early and went back downstairs to work as much as I could on my prototype work from the previous day.

I was only able to stay there until about 1 PM because I had an eye appointment in Wichita.

As for the eye appointment - my eye doctor was not to happy. She said my eyes are getting significantly worse at a quick rate, as well as my astigmatism getting worse. Also, she said I have severe allergic reaction exploding under my eyes, she described them as "nasty little lumps" growing under my eyelid. So she gave me some medicine to try and overcome that.

But I went and got a new pair of glasses, then went back home to work for the rest of the day.

Day 51

Today Anna and I drove out to Whitewater and worked ALL day on the new prototype.

Basically, downstairs in the office here is this:

Debby on her computer working on creating a content based database for historical dates and information.

Abby on her computer working on a resource category for antique dolls.

Anna on her computer working on assembling a huge appendices document.

Dad on his computer working on prototype animation.

Me on my computer working on historical content to integrate into the prototype.

It was like that all day. But we were very productive!

Day 50

Holy Smokes. Its day 50.

Wow.

Monday - had an early morning meeting with our small business financial advisor Ken Elliot. We reviewed our plan of attack and solidified our decision to finish all incorporation papers in the coming week.

The weather is ridiculous. Heat Index at around 109.

In the afternoon, after working on Time Trail paperwork all day, I got a phone call from my sister Tina inviting me and Anna out to the Lake to go jet skiing and camping. Sounds like a good plan to me.

We went out there and I took Anna on a spin round the lake on the jet ski, and Justin and I taught Anna how to wakeboard!!

Unfortunately, I had a harder time of it. I actually feel I am a decent wakeboarder - but earlier in the day I had done over 100 pull-ups, and I had 2 callouses tear off. (I have a lot of callouses, which makes pull-ups easier - until they break off and the callouses turn into brand new baby skin...then it hurts!)

So - when I was trying to wakeboard the pull of the rope literally ripped my hand into a bloody pulp - to the point where I had to stop, and bandage my hand fairly heavily.

Oh well.....

I left the lake for a bit to go visit dad at the farm and discuss the new prototype.

Day 49

Today was Fathers Day. Here's what I did.

Anna woke up early and made a good breakfast and we hung out in the morning relaxing.

Then in the afternoon we drove out to West Wichita and had lunch at Uncle Craig's house. There, we had some good hamburgers and went swimming. Also present was Uncle Randy (Debby's brother) and his family, as well as Grammy and Grampy and Dad, Debby, and Abby.

Craig has been interested in the Time Trail project for awhile, so Dad and I had some free time to discuss details with Craig so he could understand exactly what we are doing. We are very thankful for Craig because he has been such a HUGE asset to us as we are trying to break through so many barriers.

I bought Dad a new book called "The Fatal Shore". Its a novel detailing the founding of Australia.

In the evening, Anna, Lily, and I went to one of my all time favorite restaurants, Mongolian Grill. We met Leah Williams there, one of Anna's best friends. I love the grill because its all you can eat Mongolian!!!!!

Overall it was a great Fathers Day.

Day 48

Today actually Dad and Debby and little sis Abby came over in the morning so we could have a Time Trails brainstorming session.

We have so many avenues open in front of us - banks, different loans, investors, brokers, middlemen, bootstrapping, paperwork, incorporation, prototype design, navigator building....the list goes on. We spent about 3 hours restructuring and prioritizing things. Very productive meeting in my opinion.

Also today my sister Leslie came over and hung out at my house, as well as my brother Trevor and Leslie's boyfriend Andrew. It was fun.

Day 47

Today, Friday, was a pretty fun day.

Since I work occasionally at the Museum of World Treasures, I was called in to do a Geology presentation for hundreds of Kansas boyscouts.

It was great, I really enjoy rocks and geology. So, I showed the kids many different types of rocks and fossils. I think the scouts had an awesome time and maybe even learned something!

Next - I headed off to an appointment with a new contact. His name is Gary. He runs a business that helps start-ups secure the funds they need, especially if they are businesses that arent exactly conventional.

We met for over 2 hours. Basically what it came down to was that Gary thought he new some people who might be able to help us out - so he is going to go down that avenue and get back with me.

After I left the meeting with Gary I headed over to Guitar Center to pick up a new Pedal for my piano (a Korg M3).

I had a show at Oeno's wine bar in Old Town. Its a really great location in downtown wichita. My band, which includes Myself, James Paul, Scott Fowler, Ryan Knut, and Nathan Williams (Ryan and Nathan were just filling in though for the regulars) had a fantastic show.

Some old friends from high school showed up that I hadn't seen in years. Overall it was a good night of music.

Day 46

Thursday. ?? I seriously can't even remember what happened on this glorious thursday. I don't think it was exciting or noteworthy in any way.