Charlie's blog

Well, just got the news today that the owner of the building we're in is selling it, and wants everybody out by the end of the month. Whoo-hoo. So, everybody, keep your eyes out for cheap office space in the SLO area, and I might need to call upon your mighty backs to get my server rack moved again.

What a pain!

Prototype 2 for Sephil Saga is well under way right now, and most of my time has been devoted to the coding aspects, trying to get it out to you guys. I thought we only had a little more to do; I was sort of right, sort of wrong. I forgot that marking off "Spaceports" on the list meant having WORKING spaceports, so the mission BBS, trade center, shipyard, bar, etc, all that stuff had to be working. Most of it is now!

We've implemented a "Virtual Office" system that seems to be really working- combined with the amazing efforts of the new locals. Nothing like having somebody actually be able to kick your butt to keep you moving and motivated. And that motivation seems to be spreading to the CWS Software Remote Nodes (AKA people who aren't physically Here). We've had a lot of time schedule conflicts- life does go on, after all- but seems like we're getting people back into the fray. I'm contemplating activating our sound engineer, something I can't take lightly (talk about busy!

So the business is dead. Mac will be taking all the assets he can in an attempt to recoup our outlays, and maybe start it himself based in Fresno. Shortest serious business venture in recent memory as far as I know.

The last 30 days have been a hell of a roller-coaster ride. Scratch that, it's been downhill the entire way, so I think it's more like a skeleton ride (head-first Luge). First up, Mine gets her student Visa yanked, putting her in danger of deportation and makes her illegal for the first time ever. Great. $1800 (which I don't have) later we have that one pretty much fixed and the greencard is getting processed. We'll see over the next six months if it actually works out.

Aaaannnndddd.... we're back up and running! Got the servers moved, which was a major undertaking, and integrated into a new network I only partially control. But everything is up and going! I'll post some pictures of the new shop soon.

Also, we got some real webspace to host our new cwscomputing.com domain. I'm also launching nukejapan.org on it, which is my community site devoted to cataloging all the reasons we should have finished the job the first time- Ingrish, perverts, odd fashion trends, Gackt, you name it, I hope to trash it.

Things are coming together like clockwork for the new business. CWS Computing should be up and running by Monday! Sunday is the big move-in push. We'll be setting up the shop, building shelves and benches, moving desks, and, most pertinent to you guys, moving the server rack- now there's an undertaking. If any of you local guys can volunteer, I think we'll need at least one more good strong back to move that heavy chunk of steel.

I never would have thought it possible, but I drove up to Mariposa (on the gates of Yosemite Park) yesterday and drove back with 15 large in cash in my pocket, at 6% interest. For a business venture that might not work.

CWS Computing has startup capital.

I'm going to need to pour in a lot of time into this venture for a few weeks, so don't expect alot of output on Sephil Saga, even though that is one of the major goals of this venture. We have a lot of forms to fill out, numbers to request, deals to broker. We're hoping to hang our our shingle within two weeks, though.

I posted this in the forums first, but figured it would be better as a blog post.

Several weeks ago, a new developer that was working for me, Jude Moersdorf, seemingly dropped off the face of the planet. I was convinced he had changed jobs and moved, he had mentioned going to Santa Barbara.

Boy, was I wrong.

Turns out that Jude committed suicide on or around March 1- days, maybe even hours, after my last conversation with him.