Otherwise Optimistically Occupied

Oh. Hello. Who are you? Have we met? I’m Kevin. Once upon a time, I tried to write here regularly. I failed. Now I’m curious why you’re still here?

To be fair, long gaps in my journaling/blogging/writing history are frequent. In some cases, the gaps have been without excuse. In other cases, the only legitimate excuse was laziness.

This most recent gap, however, possesses what I believe to be an unflimsical explanation:

I’ve been busy. But not normal busy.  For real busy. Productive busy. Gettin’ shit done busy.

As I mentioned previously, I spent a significant portion of last year reacquainting myself with web development.  I taught myself the basics of Angular and Node.JS. I built a prototype for a writing application I’d like to explore further. Then I built a prototype for what would become a brand new company named ApartmentJet. I’ll write a different post about ApartmentJet in the near future. For now, know that all my efforts toward learning new skills proved worthwhile.

My two co-founders and I partnered with an investor who helped us fund development. We hired a few additional engineers. And this month we went live.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs in work. Actually, it could be argued I’m drowning in work, but I’m a decent swimmer and can usually keep my eyeballs afloat.

While my co-founders deal with sales and operations and fundraising, I’ve been focused on product. ApartmentJet is a web application helping property owners manage short term rentals from sites like AirBnB across an entire portfolio of properties. I designed its UI, workflows, and architecture. Did a bit of front-end coding and styling. Hired and managed a team of engineers. Met with investors. Created brand, investment, and marketing materials. Built the website. Wrote blog posts. Did some ghost writing. Starting a new business is never an easy task. It doesn’t happen without a lot of effort on everyone’s part, and it’s far from over, but it’s a an exciting challenge.

Posting to my own blog seemed a needless distraction amid all that other stuff. Nevertheless, the time to post has arrived.

Of course, I’ve also done a bit of planning on other novels. And I may or may not be making attempts to rebuild a social life that derailed last year. And I’m raging again with the infamous BrianDean on an island in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which is crazy fun.

The point: I’m busy being productive. Building something new. Meeting people. Exploring life. Playing games (Have you tried Tak?!?). And I’m feeling optimistic about all the potential, which is an unexpected and pleasant surprise in a year that began so poorly.

Now I need to add exercise and healthy eating to the mix, because I cast those aside easier than posting to this blog. Small steps.

Going forward without making promises, I plan to keep the blog updated with all sorts of stuff, from random thoughts to business and technology posts to a few of the darker and sadder snippets I’ve written the past year or two. Could get interesting.

Thanks for staying tuned!