Concrete Outcomes and a New Batch of E-mails - 03/01/2007 - 8:03 AM:

Australia, it turns out, is a very vocal country. I woke up this morning to a new flood of e-mails wishing me luck after CanGoogleHearMe.com was covered by the Sydney Morning Herald; I'm not sure I've been called "mate" so many times before in my life in such a short period of time. :) At the same time, things seem to be spreading - I've got a live BBC radio interview later on today. I figured that interest would drop off the instant the countdown reached zero, but apparently the interest is more heartfelt and genuine than that; you seem to be willing to keep tabs on things until there's a reason to cheer or a reason to be disappointed, either way.

And speaking of which, I think it's only fair that you have some sort of a concrete answer, and I feel bad that I don't have one for you yet. The problem is that the Internet is a fast medium, and it's covering what can sometimes be a slow medium, which is life. Life sometimes takes time. That said, I'm setting a self-imposed deadline for myself - I'm going to try to have a concrete answer for everyone, in one form or another, in one week. This quest has been successful in more ways than I could have predicted, and I'm standing at a multitude of forks in the road. The delay at this point is me, because I don't want to make important decisions too quickly. I hope you understand.

Do you choose a secure path that will be interesting, rewarding, and safe, or do you take the one with a lot less guarantees? I think I already know the answer to that...

Oh, and keep sending your covers in. I've gotten a fair number, and they're all great, but I'm interested in seeing more. And as for the e-mails I'm replying to? Well, I'm going to have to space that out, maybe spend a portion of each day replying instead of all at once. I realized that between 11:58 and 11:59 on Feb. 15th, before the real flood of e-mails started, I received 6 good luck e-mails. Even if I spent less than 30 seconds replying to each, I could be here for weeks before I completed just the e-mails I received while in California, and they're still arriving. So, I'm still replying to e-mails, every one in the order they arrived, but it'll take some time, too. :) Like I said last time, who would have thought that two weeks ago I'd have more people wishing me good luck than I had time to respond to. And no, the irony of that is not lost on me. :)