Thoughts on the night before

Well, here we go. It's down to hours now until news of our little project goes public, and we've combed through as much as we can to get prepared. Here's where we stand:

- the website is up and running and seems to be doing well. Here's hoping for no major coding glitches tonight or foul-ups in our opening weeks.

- the 3D renderings, a feature of the website, are presentable and not looking too shabby if I say so myself. They aren't complete, mind you, and my three weeks of experience in working with the programs - and 3D rendering in general - can only do so much. All in all, I think they came out well. Sometime soon, though, I'd like to get in and animate a few of Hornet's sea battles - and because they were so short in duration (she took Peacock in 14 minutes and Penguin in 22), they'll very likely be animated in real time! But I digress.

- Mini-Hornet is looking fantastic. All of her spars are completed and assembled, all of the standing rigging is in place and necessary running rigging on to boot. She is so much more impressive than the pictures show - you really have to see her in person. We hope to provide plenty of opportunities as she makes the rounds of various public venues.

- Hornet T-shirts and postage stamps are in - albeit in small quantity - as we progress with our merchandising plan. That's right, postage stamps (!). Maybe I'm a geek because that excites me. Or maybe it's far more than that. On topic - special thanks to Joe Sturiale for stepping out of his element a bit to help with those. Great work!

There is a great deal more getting set up right now, and so much more to unveil after the unveiling, but I think everyone will be sufficiently amazed to see what we have so far. After many weeks of working tirelessly - working a real job then coming home to put in ungodly long hours working on this, I am so relieved to see it all coming together. Granted, the really hard work is still to come, but I think we'll start seeing more help, more contributions and some really great movement soon.

Well, back to work. I'm on my eighth pot of coffee today, but who's counting?

Haven't worked like this since I was at sea - and it sure feels great!

NNNN