it's my island

Monday Morning Coffee

// March 13th, 2006 // Comments Off // On the Radar

Good morning fellow readers. It is again Monday. After going through some of my routine I’ve taken a break. Enjoying another fantastic cup of Bolivia [Juan de Dios Blanco](http://www.victrolacoffee.com/store_product_1097.html) and listening Cado Bejo from Bebel Gillberto. If only I could get paid to drink coffee and listen to music right?

The weeks are chopping by right now. I’m keeping myself fairly occupied with lots of tasks. [CCC](http://www.counterculturecoffee.com) hooked me up with the local [Habitat](http://www.habitatcharlotte.org/) group that has just completed a [Restore](http://www.charlotterestore.org/). Within their new space they are building a small coffee shop and I am assisting Joe Zimmerman with some planning and hopefully more as time permits. As I understand it Joe wants to bring some good coffee to the area and all the proceeds (minus daily operations) will benefit Habitat. Sounds awesome.

Elsewhere [Jeff Hoffman](http://www.wheeledone.com) threw a [Ruby Meetup](http://ruby.meetup.com/70) last Thursday which went real well. A few very keen individuals in the area stepped out to show support. With a little bit of work I think Charlotte is prime for this type of group/programming/lang. If anything the group is going to be run fairly loose and should provide an excellent resource for idea incubation.

Caffe Nuance hasn’t dissapeared but is about 20% of our thoughts at this time. We’re reworking the menu and in a holding pattern for Bellissimo to get back with us on assumption advice. I think we’re on the right track, but it helps when the professionals give the nod. After doing a lot of [SCAA](http://www.scaa.org) 2005 conference reading I think we have a good idea on how assumptions are built. It would just take a few good weeks in the area of consideration’s competition doing detailed number counts. Being true entrepreneurs with no wealthy backing makes all of this so much more difficult than any counterpart that has large collateral pieces to bank on. The only silver lining we look to is the amount of work that goes into the analysis will cause us less pain in the long run. If you are given things then you are apt to not plan nearly as well. We’re forced into planning so those with money will take a risk on us. Such a horse and cart run around a lot of the time.

We’re still working on our little Web tewOh project as well. Let’s call it, Project: Crunch’n’Munch. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to make it a more selfish service. Jeff’s been detailing a lot of how to orient oneself in app design and it’s a balance between being selfish and being social. We’ve given a ton of thought to the social networking side but we can’t forget the app needs to be driven and completly usable by an individual. Should be easy enough. (heh)

One foot after another …

-a

The Year Ahead

// January 23rd, 2006 // Comments Off // Life Happens, On the Radar

I want this year to be productive. Everyone should. Is moping a good way to spend your time? Where are you going to be at the end of it? What will it have gained you? Nothing is not an option.

Let’s work on something better than nothing; something productive, proactive, growth related. You can only be passionate about a few things at the same time or you’ll be too fractioned to make any traction on all of them. This year I’m coming to terms with three such passions.

Rededication to coffee and the hunt for greater understanding and participation. To that extent I have made new goals to take apart my espresso machine, hang out with the [CCC](http://www.counterculturecoffee.com) espresso techs, and culminate my learning by _if possible_ [pid](http://www.espressoparts.com/product/V_PXR3_PID) my Nuova Simonelli Oscar. As well it goes without saying that opening the [cafe](http://www.caffenuance.com) this year would be fantastic. Not having control of so many variables we can only continue our efforts which begin with a fresh meeting with our property broker, Michelle Buckley of [New South Properties](http://www.newsouthprop.com/) to begin the churn of properties over again. This time we’re scaling back a little working to be more agile for a more expidient, but secure launch.

I’ve also let the artist in me languish over the past few years. I used to do a lot of digital art before digital art was even a real concept. Back in the early 90’s I could be seen with a large 12x12 [wacom](http://www.wacom.com) tablet in my lap just doodling away or working in Painter on some slow to create realistic oil piece. Over the years I got out of graphic design because I felt people I was working with or for asthetically didn’t get it. As well the web back then was table crazy, and tables just never grooved with me at all. It took the art and made it much more science than I wanted. I’d like to get a tablet back in my world and go back to basics. I love design, I love expression.

The last thing I can really say I’ll work on this year is local networks. Last year was a boon to me online. I’ve met many great people through the internet but the internet is something not yet realized locally as much as it should (much greater for bridging large divides). I need to return to my region and start building relationships at home. At this point in my life I need help (hehe take that as many ways as you need), and you gain help through relationships. Unfortunatly I really don’t have as many as I’d like in Charlotte so the effort must be put into this. With strong ties come strong abilities to leverage. Through this I hope to become a little more civic minded and motivated. The wonderful crew over at [Urban Planet](http://www.urbanplanet.org) has been a nice starting point.

As I come to a close the old UGA slogan runs through my head…
>It’s time to let the [big dawg](http://www.alumni.uga.edu/alumni/images/fun/wallpaper/640x480/Uga.jpg) eat.

-a

Few more steps back, property loss for the caffe

// December 12th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // Life Happens, On the Radar

Wish we had known sooner is all I can really desire.

After months of delivery slides the Levine property group has decided to halt construction of their galleria location due to steel costs. At least that is what we are being told. The cost of steel has risen to such a degree that it would blow the economics of the deal. We’ve put over a years work into this location; it just sang to us and we had studies to prove it. Now it’s off the table for at least a year. Bah.

How utterly disappointing.

Jeff and I are parallelizing thoughts at the moment both working on a [Web 2.0](http://web20workgroup.com/) concept and renewed look for a property that has both the numbers and a more rapid deployment schedule. Every time we get close, we get pushed back.

I will not be put down though, this is a fight we will win.

-a

Caffe Nuance Bumpersticker

// July 31st, 2005 // Comments Off // On the Radar

Cafe Press had a deal going on for store owners so I made up a bumpersticker for the shop. You know you want one. We’re going to have so much fun with our shop here in Charlotte. Charlotte has a lot of unmet needs and we hope we can provide an outlet for some growth.