Well folks another work week has ended. Man what a busy one! As much as I love what I do (I am a software developer) I am starting to really dislike corporate America. Not that I was ever in love with it but I am the type of person who wants to get shit done, not play games and partake in office politics. I am sure many of you reading this would agree.
On that note besides blogging about my trip to Africa the other thing I will be discussing on this blog is my business plans. I am working on a software product. I am attempting to build an application that will do for grocery shopping and meal planning what Mint did for personal finance. The idea sprung out of the frustration I have had trying to organize my grocery shopping and also coming home and deciding what meal to prepare. First I will say I hate sitting down trying to organize a grocery list, even though I am one of those anal list creators. I mean I create lists about lists I need to create. But creating grocery lists has always been something I hate doing. It isn't really interesting to me and I hate having to drudge around the house checking the pantry, fridge and cabinets trying to figure out what items I need to buy. And of course I inevitably get home after a shopping trip and realize I forgot to buy something. Similarly I also hate trying to figure out what to cook. Don't get me wrong I rather enjoy cooking and ladies I love preparing a romantic meal for some hot sexy women I am hoping to ...... well you get the drift! But I have trouble deciding what to make. I want to be able to "say" what can I make given these ingredients or being able to ask what should I make if I only have this in the house. So to sum it up I am creating a software application the can automate grocery list creation and also use the list of groceries I have in the house to suggest what I can prepare, i.e. suggest recipes. So you may say there are programs that do this. Yes but like I said I want something that requires the smallest input from me. After all computers are suppose to make life easier not create more work for us. I don't use these other applications simply because they are not smart. What I love about Mint is that it looks at your bank statements and automatically enters all your transactions into the application and then automatically shows you how you are doing against your monthly budget in real time. Admit it, most people don't use budgeting applications because they don't want to take time out of their life sitting at a computer entering in their daily purchases and categorizing them into budgeted expenditures. So I am not going into too much detail, hey I did say I would like to make a business if not from this then from what I learn creating this. One last note it will be a Web service application with mobile application clients. So as you can see this is a extremely bold effort on my part, but even if this is a dumb app no one wants to use I will use it and more importantly I am looking to gain tons of technical experience which will only make me more competitive in the job market.
Also I have had a few people comment on how am I going to afford this adventurous trip I am planning. Well on of the advantages of working for an airline is a great perk called non-revenue travel. Essentially airline employees, their spouses children and parents can fly space available (stand by) on other airlines for essentially peanuts, I mean insanely cheap. In fact I suspect I will spend way more on lodging and food than I will on my airfare. However one of the perils of non-revenue traveling is that you don't have an assigned seat in fact you don't even know if you will be getting on the flight until the gate agents have boarded all the paying passengers. But as long as you have flexible travel plans and a adventurous attitude it's not too bad. I am an adventure traveler. I say all this to say, don't be surprised if you are following along in my blog and I report that my plans changed and I am on my way to Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa. Hell I might switch it up and go to Asia instead. I have been thinking of Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand for next year maybe even India!
Stay Tuned Folks!
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