I cheated a bit on that last blog, didn’t I? I haven’t really been updating lately because, frankly, I’ve been exhausted.

The good news is that last month was the best month ever in terms of revenue for Simpli. The bad news is that this month has a lot to live up to. While October 2004 was better than September 2004 by a large margin, the fact that we got a single large ($7400) order last month means we’re going to be hard-pressed to beat our September ’05 numbers this month. We’ve beaten the previous month in revenue every month except April this year, and that was because we had a $12,000 order in March. Our revenue graphs show a beautiful up-sloping curve for 2005, and I want that to continue.

To that end, I put up a sale for some dedicated servers on WebHostingTalk (a popular website for those looking for hosting) last week. It was our first WHT post for several months, and it generated massive publicity for Simpli. It garnered over 900 views and has given us 7 new customers so far. That’s 7 new dedicated server customers in 10 days, which means building servers, installing OSes, and dealing with a lot of questions (there are always configuration details that need to be settled when a customer orders a new server.) That’s in addition to our current customers, who (as always) are wanting to expand with more servers, more colo space, and more bandwidth! And it’s also in addition to Brandon leaving and Russ having to take on an entirely new role as lead system administrator.

All of this adds up to a hell of a massive workload, especially when you factor in Russ having to learn all of our system setup procedures and build new servers for customers who want them online now. I’ve actually started taking 2-4 hours a day to do support requests and make runs to our distributor. I could have posted another WHT ad this week, but wanted to give our staff a chance to catch their breath and actually be able to work on issues other than those requiring urgent attention.

I am a stress ball. I had nightmares last night and today I woke up in a horrible, overstressed mood where I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. Not healthy. The stress ball factor originates from me having to pull 12 or 14-hour days as well as driving Russ to work since he doesn’t have a car currently. To that end, today I told Russ to get a bike and take it to the light rail to work until he could get a car. That made me feel a lot better.

I knew I’d be a stress ball for a couple weeks, but I’m quickly realizing that all of these new customers add up to only one thing, and that is the fact that we have to hire someone else. Let’s look at this from a rational perspective. Brandon was pulling 12-hour days probably 2 days out of the week even when Ben was able to work full-time during the summer. Now that Ben’s back down to 20 hours a week, we simply aren’t able to get everything done. In fact, Russ has been pulling 12-to-14-hour days this week and Ben was here for about 25 hours total this week, and we’re still behind on tickets. Since the summer, when Ben cut back his hours, we’ve also added more than 20 new customers, who take up additional support time.

I’ve been reluctant to add staff since Simpli is in debt and I’d like to pay that off before hiring again, but if I don’t hire in the next 2-3 weeks, we’re going to be at a point where we won’t be able to take on any new customers because of the support requirements. In fact, in some way, I feel like we’re already at that point, since I didn’t feel comfortable putting our latest promotions on WHT this week due to staff overload. I don’t feel like I should shortchange my business and deny it growth because I don’t want to hire anyone else. After all, the more revenue we have, the more quickly we’re going to be able to clear the debt load and start doing really fun things with our profit (instead of just paying it back to our creditors.)

So the hiring-and-interview show will probably commence in the next 14 days, and we’ll be running down the growth path again. Perhaps I’ll actually be able to sleep well again by that point. 😉

So there’s a “63 questions, 63 answers” meme going around right now. Most of the questions are really ho-hum, but I think I’ll respond to a few that are interesting for me.

1. Name someone with the same birthday as you.
There are a few, but I’ve actually never met anyone who is the same day, month, and year as me. Notable people also born on July 21: Robin Williams; Janet Reno (hehehe.)

2. Where was your first kiss?
Summer camp when I was in junior high. Note: Kissing me when you have just drunk a lot of Pepsi is nasty. :-/

6. What’s the first thing you notice about the preferred sex?
Eyes and smile.

11. Say something totally random about yourself.
I wish more people would understand who I really am.

12. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity?
People have told me I act like, or somewhat look like, Kate Botello, who was most famous for co-hosting The Screen Savers with Leo Laporte on TechTV. I didn’t watch much of the show, so I’m not really sure if this has any merit.

14. Did you have braces?
Yes. For 5 years…and my teeth still aren’t perfect. 🙁

15. Are you comfortable with your height?
When I was younger, my dad gave me an article about a study that showed that taller women were more likely to succeed than shorter women, and said “I hope you grow up to be at least 5’7″.” (This should give you a lot of clues about my childhood. That, and stuff like the fact that I had a subscription to The Wall Street Journal before most kids even knew what a newspaper was.) I turned out to be 5’5″. I am OK with this; I wouldn’t mind being taller, but I’d probably be even more intimidating to guys if I was… they already don’t know how to react to an outgoing, aggressive, tech-literate and geeky female. 😉

16. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you?
Moved to California to be with me. (FG claims the prize!)

17. When do you know it’s love?
When it curls up in your lap, purrs like crazy, and then falls asleep while sighing contentedly. That’s love.

24. What’s something that really annoys you?
Oh boy! Lots of things. Here are my top 2. #1: Blogs with no “About” page. I get to read about what you ate for lunch, but I don’t even know your real name… that’s just weird. #2: People who don’t use turn signals to change lanes… DAD, I KNOW YOU ARE READING THIS, SO USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL!!!

25. What’s something you really like?
The fact that I’ve shaped my entire life to be the way that I want it, without feeling constrained by those who said “You’ll never succeed.”

30. Do you actually read these when other people fill them out?
Yes.

33. When you’re completely burned out, what’s a good way to recharge (other than sleep)?
Several ways, depending on whether I’m alone or with someone else. Alone: Meditate or astral travel. With someone else: Sex, or help them meditate, or dive into their soul and help them fix things. The happiest time I’ve had recently was last weekend, when I got to really bond with a close friend and help him figure out his life. I was just filled with the pure joy of being immersed in helping someone else and seeing his whole viewpoint of life change. I saw his whole wall system and defensive shield against the bad things in his life crumble, and I saw who he truly was for a few minutes. It was amazing how much depth was there in his soul. I was truly moved.

34. What’s your favourite place that you’ve travelled to?
Santa Barbara. One reason is because it was beautiful. The other reason is because I did it myself, with no one else, and, in fact, skipped work to do it. I needed a vacation and I made it happen. It was great. I called my boss that morning and said “I won’t be in to work today. I’m in Santa Barbara!” Him: “… Oh. Um, okay.” 😀

35. What do you want to try that you haven’t yet?
So many things, so little time… but if I had to pick one thing, it would be travelling around the world and meeting amazing and unique people. I really thrive on that.

42. What was your undergraduate major, and was it always that or did you switch?
I started an MIS major and dropped out of school after a year and a half. I could go back someday. Right now it’s not a high priority. I can tell you for sure that if I did go back, I wouldn’t major in MIS. I’d probably do anthropology, psychology, or something else in the science dept. Science was always my favorite subject in school.

50. What’s something other people like that you just can’t get into?
Wine. Really, alcohol in general. I’m not a big fan of how alcohol makes me feel… it makes me kind of crazy at first, then depressed. Yuck. Honestly, I’ve pretty much sworn off alcohol at this point. I think the last time I drank was in August.

52. When your heart breaks, how do you put it back together?
Time, and figuring out who I really am.

53. Should the following be exterminated:
white briefs:
Well, you can wear them, but why? Ew. They’re just not attractive.

flip flops in the office:
Heck no! My employees and I walk around barefoot sometimes. Comfort is key. What’s wrong with that?

61. Are you thrifty?
Well, yes and no. I buy really, really nice stuff. But I’m a hardcore negotiator. I get a lot of stuff used, since I figure I’m going to be using it anyway, and who cares, really? My house looks like it has a lot of expensive stuff in it, but really, most of it is just canvassing craigslist, eBay, and various “closeout” stores like TJ Maxx. I do not (generally) shop at thrift stores; clothes are the one exception to my rule… I don’t like buying them used and I love really nice stuff, but I do generally get it on sale. I always buy “normal” khaki pants, etc. at TJ Maxx, but my really cool shirts/pants might cost $150+ each, and I don’t mind paying that because I know I’m going to be wearing something totally unique.

zee end! Enjoy.

FG has two Color Laserjet 4500s for sale. This is the same printer I have at home (I just snagged another one from him for work!) and it’s GREAT. True color output; ridiculously low cost per page; great for printing business cards, brochures, and the like. Each has toner and supplies so you can start printing right away. These things are heavy (~60lbs or more) so I would only recommend buying one if you are in or near the Bay Area. Email me at slashchick AT gmail dot com if you want one, and FG will deliver it with a big grin on his face!! $150 firm per printer, and it’s a freakin’ steal, at that.

Over at Simpli, things are starting to return to “normal” (by whatever metric you would like to define “normal”.) Brandon is leaving on Friday, so we hired Russ, a customer of ours, to replace him. In fact, when Brandon told me he was leaving, I was on the phone not 10 minutes later with Russ, letting him know that the position was available. He decided to move out here from Michigan and take the position, and right now he and Brandon are in some intense training to get him up to speed in 5 business days. It’s definitely going to be an interesting transition. I think it will be successful — otherwise, I wouldn’t have hired Russ — but there will be a couple weeks there where there will be some confusion because of something that only Brandon knew. Fortunately, I will still be able to call Brandon in sometimes if necessary. I’ll send out an email with details about Russ’s hiring to our customers today.

We have more challenges coming up with Simpli, which I will detail in future blogs, but right now things are moving relatively smoothly. Of course, I know I can’t get complacent, but I do more than my fair share of worrying about everything on a regular basis, so I think it’s okay to say “Hey, we’re doing well right now.” And we are. September, 2005 was our best month ever, far surpassing even my best revenue estimates, and we managed to pay down some of our debt and still have a surplus. I’m really grateful that everything went so well in September. This month, we’re actually doing some new promotions and advertising a bit (just so I can try to beat September’s revenue!) That should be fun, too.

On to my personal life. Over the past week, a lot of my thoughts have focused on “What do I really want out of life?” I’m a firm believer in the theory that we shape our own destinies; that anything we can imagine, focus on, and create a path to is within our collective grasp. This belief has changed my perception of myself, first and foremost, and now that I’m doing better with regards to my emotional health, I can start to focus on what I want to do next. That’s not to say that I’m going to run away from Simpli–not at all! I love Simpli and what it’s grown into, and I want to continue running it for the foreseeable future. But I’m starting to have more free time, and I’m interested in exploring and studying things other than computers and web hosting during that free time. Forex is cool and I expect I will continue to do Forex (though I haven’t had much time lately), but I want to understand more about how the world works and (my favorite subject) the fascinating interconnections between religion, spirituality, and scientific pursuits.

I know that writing a book about my spiritual beliefs will be a staggering undertaking. For one thing, my spiritual beliefs are not as well-defined as some people’s are. (But then again, if they were that well-defined, would they truly be mine?) So, if I can imagine anything to be possible, create a detailed path to it, and then achieve it, what is it that I want to achieve with this book of mine?

I wrote a bit about the book in this blog entry from November 2004. Today, almost a year later, I went back and revisited that blog entry. A couple more pieces have come together in the past 11 months. First, although I want to reference Christianity, I don’t want to focus on it. Why? 2 reasons: 1) I want this book to have a wider appeal than Christians. There are already plenty of books out there for Christians. Despite Christianity being the dominant religion in our society, I don’t think it’s necessarily “better” or “worse” than any other religion. 2) I haven’t been a practicing Christian for several years, and I’m concerned that some Christians would discredit any theories about religion that didn’t come directly from a Christian. I still believe that my book should recognize the good things in Christianity, but I also believe I need to write about where other religions got it right.

2004 was all about the study of religions for me. I tried out different churches. I read books about different religions. (I tried to stay in the realm of the analytical books that talked about the religions, but also read several holy books themselves.) I went to different churches, which I think was the most enjoyable part of the whole experience, because I found something at every church to like.

2005 is the study of science and how that interacts with religion and spiritual beliefs. I’m slowly wrapping my head around quantum physics and reading books about it. I’m trying to figure out whether quantum physics and other far-out-there scientific studies can be used to give us a more complete picture of what God looks like. In my studying, I’ve gone all the way from “There is no God” to “I’m not sure” to “There is definitely a God”. I stayed on the “There is definitely a God” track and am now working on expanding that into what God is. Is God simply the collective consciousness of all of us, and we just work together in some mysterious harmonic pattern? Or is there actually a being/presence out there who coordinates it all? Assuming a being/presence, who is this being, and how did it come into existence? Why does it not show itself? Or does it show itself, and we just can’t see it? The questions are endless and have been pondered ever since we realized consciousness. What’s most interesting to me is that quantum physics, which would definitely be on the leading edge of science, is trying to use science to determine the answers to these same questions. This seems to indicate a convergence of science (led by technology) and religion/spirituality. I’d like my book to run squarely in the middle of those two ideas, perhaps fusing them together in a way that could show commonalities between the extreme of “I believe in science, not God” and “I believe in God, not science.”

The other key is that I want to write the book in a way that will appeal to spiritual seekers who are not necessarily well-versed in either spiritual studies or science. In other words, I’d like to explain what other spiritual seekers throughout the ages have thought and how, perhaps, there is something underlying their teachings — a common theme of love and banding together instead of hate and separation.

I know that was a lot for one blog entry, but I have lofty goals. 😉 As I figure out more of what I want to write, I’ll put it here. Perhaps eventually I can stitch my book together by expanding on my blog posts!