amassed lust Blog of Raymond Angel; Startup Enthusiast, CEO

Even though changes are afoot at MOSH mobile I’ve still been slammed with a plethora of things that need done.

We’ve got a new podcast coming soon to Startup Hero that I’m pretty excited about and I hope to be sharing details about in the next several days with everyone.

I might have some news tomorrow in regard to the whole career aspect of my life. I’ll try to let you all know about that as much as I can as soon as I can.

I did get married recently so I’ve been busy entertaining Mrs. Angel and between everything I just haven’t had a lot of free time to myself.

More to come when I get the chance.

Over the past few weeks things have been looking incredibly up for MOSH mobile.

Our contract with our current provider was coming to an end later this month and we had begun looking at taking our service nation-wide with the help of a major carrier. We’d been negotiating with this carrier for the past several weeks and finally had come to what seemed to be a really great deal for both sides.

I’ve been asked to specifically not go in to the specifics of the companies involved nor the details of the agreement but I can tell you that this company was entering an agreement with another provider at the same time we were in talks with them.

Today we received the message that they would no longer be able to work with us as it would compete with a future product they are working on already.

Normally, we’d take this setback and keep going. This however has been another setback in a long line of them that like Nate Westheimer simply shows me and the team here at MOSH mobile that it is time to rethink what we are doing.

Instead of just closing up shop and throwing away all of the hard work that we’ve put in to this startup we’ve decided to rework the majority of software we have and roll them in to future projects and companies and move forward in a different direction with MOSH mobile. While I won’t go in to details on what specifically will be done I can say that the software will be put to good use and that the demand for what it does is already quite high.

As for our current beta testers service will continue for a short period of time but since the group that was allowed to use our service was small and the phones were simply being borrowed we will be sadly discountinuing that service in the near future.

In the near future MOSH mobile will announce the new direction it will be going in.

I’d like to thank the countless people who have offered support to myself and the team on this project. I know that many of us will be continuing to take the company in a new direction and that some of us will be heading off in new directions.

We’ve all learned a great deal of valuable lessons and they will be applied to anything new that we move forward with.

I hope that you’ll continue to follow me here on the blog, via Twitter or by friending me on Facebook as the journey is not yet over… it is merely just beginning.

The trackball on my Blackberry has been cutting out a lot lately. Apparently this is a normal issue and cleaning it seems to be the solution. What happens though when even taking it apart and cleaning it doesn’t fix it?

Anyone who knows me knows that I live and die by my phone. I use it constantly, nonstop, and it never leaves my side. I go through a lot of phones for the simple fact that I use them so much.

I’ve had my Pearl for about four months and love it. It does everything I want and I knew eventually the trackball would stop working.

The fact that it gave out now could not have come at a worse time. I’m in the middle of texting, calling and messaging people for Startup Weekend and a deal for MOSH mobile.

So what does the CEO of a cellphone company do? Grab a new phone out of our stash and trash the old one?

That would be simple… but just plain stupid.

Knowing that some of our customers may run in to the same issue I’m going to expect my people to be able to find a solution that works best for our customers.

Replacing the trackball for them for free is obviously the best solution.

That is exactly what we will be doing.

So I figured I should learn how to do it myself before I start having other people here at MOSH mobile doing the same thing.

The trackball parts from RIM are very costly so we also had to consider how we would best acquire these parts and then cover the labor to actually replace them.

Thankfully the labor involved is very minor and can be done the same day… if you have the parts.

A few phone calls later and we’ve worked out getting the actual parts for under 13 dollars a piece in bulk and as far as putting them together we’ve armed ourselves with a good technical manual.

So this week when our first shipment of replacement parts arrive I’ll be the first one to replace my trackball and then others will be trained so that we can best serve our customers.

So this bad situation has spun in to a more positive one.

Now if the part would get here faster I’d be set.

In the meantime if you need to get in touch with me I suggest email as answering my phone is a bit more difficult, answering texts is nearly impossible, and Twitter… well forget about it.

A month ago I stopped smoking.

I’ve gone a full month as of today without smoking. I have to admit I’m quite proud of myself for this GREAT accomplishment. As to what I am going to do as a reward for myself I’m not sure. I do know though that I can be proud that I am already living a more healthy life.

Any ideas as to what I should purchase myself? Under 39 dollars.

You might have noticed my lack of entries this month in comparison to the past two months.

I’ve been sorta AFK. I’ve been on the computer but I haven’t had the time to get over here to my own blog and post some of my thoughts and what not on all of the stuff that has been taking place because things at MOSH mobile have been os busy the past two weeks.

I have some blog posts coming up about Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3 beta 4, my experience with Linux thus far, a story about why I HATE my local Walmart, my attendance at a Hillary Clinton rally (who would have thought!!) and much more.

Just a quick update today to let you all know that I haven’t smoked in a week!

I am feeling very confident that this trend will continue

Recently I talked about how to make breaking up with someone easier… by having me break up with them for you.

Arwen then asked how many people have actually asked me to do this for them.

To be honest with you I’ve been shocked with the private emails from people asking me if I’m truly serious about this and if I can help them out.

So far all of them have been guys. Apparently girls don’t read my blog that much or they just don’t want some random stranger calling and dumping the guy for them.

As far as actual calls go to date I’ve done one. I’m about to do a second one as soon as tonight but the first call went really well. A bit strange… but still well. The girl thought it was sort of prank but ended up starting to believe me after I explained to her the reasons why the guy said she had to go.

These calls could get interesting. Keep the requests coming.

The five dollars is merely a way to show me that you are serious and compensate me for a bit of my time

So I haven’t smoked since Thursday and to be honest with you things are starting to get much easier.

I’m not really chewing that much of the anti-smoking gum and instead have been doing as Dawn suggested in a comment and been chewing just regular, plain, old, chewing gum.

The cravings come and go but I’ve noticed they are more out of habit then need.

Also I haven’t had a real major craving since last night. Today has been smooth sailing and I think this is the first real time that I haven’t had a relapse right away and done so well.

Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement and keep them coming because this ordeal isn’t over yet.

So I’ve decided to quit smoking as many of you know.

I’ve got my anti-smoking gum and I’ve busted it out.

ITS HORRIBLE. It tastes bad, it burns, it hurts and it sucks… yet I am still chewing it.

Why? Because I haven’t smoked today and I’m starting to feel depserate.

I remain confident that I will be able to pull this off.

More updates coming soon.

Here is a meme I’m starting here….

One feature of Windows is the ability to move your most used applications up higher on the Start Menu to make it easier to use them faster.

What is on your Start Menu?

I’m tagging, James, Patrick and Jared to show us next and tag three more people.