It's always somewhat of an reflective time for me whenever I come back to the States, I guess because I don't come back often. I always wonder what my life would be like if I never left, but ultimately I have no regrets. I've done a lot and had a lot of fun. The picture above is my good 'ole upright. I do believe it's over 20 years old. Wow.

I have to say, news in the U.S. is overwhelmingly marked with the tragedies of this past year, families of victims of the 911 and how they're coping with the holidays, updates of the war, escalating unemployment rates, limited spending by consumers, etc. It's HARD not to be affected by it all.

My parents seem to watch nothing else BUT the news. I think the only time I can really "escape" is in the car, listening to NPR. At least with NPR, the show hosts (and guests) are usually both articulate AND calm. Unemotional I guess is the word for it. That guy Chris whatever on HardBall is just a little too much for me.

Easy killer.

So anyway, on Friday, I discovered --> study rooms at the local library.

I just cannot concentrate at home, so I finally ventured out to see what the local library had to offer. It's been what, over ten years since I've lived in this town? The library is just one of many buildings that have been built since I left. That it had study rooms thrilled me to pieces, so that's where I've been yesterday and today, making edits to the ORIENTED business plan.

I almost lost my mind when I got back home today and ended up forcing my poor mom to sit down and listen to my pitch. I had to review it verbally with someone -- ANYONE -- just to make sure I haven't totally LOST it.

The great thing was... she got it.

My MOM fully understands what I'm doing. =)

I was practically DONE with the darn thing and had casually showed it to Ginny the day before I left Taipei, proud that I was finally finished with it. She listened patiently to the whole speel and said, "Christine, it's a good idea, but... can you simplify?" and gave me some very good ideas. It was a mini-epiphany of sorts!

My only question to Ginny is, COULDN'T SHE HAVE TOLD ME EARLIER?!

Sheesh.

So basically, what I'm doing is, I'm stripping the whole idea down to ONE core competence. ONE product category only, and am rewriting the implementation strategy to hone in on that, adding new products AFTER and assuming that I can break even.

Better to stay focused on doing one thing well, and branding a very clear image of ORIENTED's core offerings, than to try and be everything to everyone and end up being nothing at all (or something very confusing...), which I think is the biggest challenge for every Internet property that calls itself an "online community".

I realize that b-plans continuously change. But one thing that stays the same is that investors need to see the whole picture, and that means putting it together so that they get it (all of it) right away, knowing it might change. I wished I had all the money in the world so that I needn't have to go through the process of having to convince someone to give it to me, but alas... I do not.

So...

One. More. Time.

Edits to the text doc, edits to the financials, and edits to the screen shots.

Please God... let this be the last time.

I stayed at the library for a long today, excited about what's about to unfold, but I'm equally tired of this whole, painful process, and am wishing that I had thought about what Ginny told me a lot earlier.

I'm feeling rather incompetent at the moment, but...

Everything happens for a reason, right?

Let's hope so.

Played around with the webcam just now trying to figure out how to get it to work on my laptop, but to no avail... sigh... oh well. No es importante.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. To all of my awesome girlfriends out there who have been complaining for years and years and YEARS about the color of my lipstick ("it's too RED Christine!"), I've finally gotten a different color... a kinder, gentler, color.

See?

Miracles do happen.


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