Not long ago I stopped pirating music as iTunes provided me with a great interface and a quick and easy way to get the music that I like. Additionally, I finally had some excess cash to spend on music! Since yesterday morning I’ve been trying to buy music from iTunes and I haven’t been able to. I’m not the only one. I have spoken with a number of people who are experiencing the same issue. iTunes sells millions of dollars of music through their store daily so they have to be losing some serious cash on this one.

Is it time to short Apple’s stock? Not yet. Apple’s primary revenue source is currently their hardware offerings (iPhone, iPod and their computers). This is annoying though and I might be forced to start pirating the music that I want. In this age of instant gratification, temporary service outages can mean the loss of purchases and the loss of customers. Outages for days and you have serious problems. I have no idea what the cause of this issue is but I’m sure Apple is working hard to resolve the issue.

I posted the issue in the Apple forums and the only response I’ve been receiving is confirmation from other users that are having the same issue. Are you experiencing the same thing?

Today I have really come close to hitting my breaking point. Over the past few months, I have been working harder then I ever have in my entire life. There have been no vacations. Just work with the occasional party with friends but honestly it has pretty much been just work. I frequently stay up until 2 am and then start again the next day at 8. I stupidly accepted a large development contract with a client (although not completely dumb since some extra money is always nice) and now have to do development in addition to maintaining my daily blogs.

While I know that I could probably take a couple vacation days from the blog, there has been this burning feeling inside of me that really make me feel like I’m getting close to my goals with this new company. The funny thing is that I just started. I am about to begin travelling around the country to host events and all this came out of a simple vision. I know it is feasible but I’ve begun to second guess a lot of my decisions. One of those being the decision to wait for investment.

My inbox is a streaming flow of data that is almost as challenging as my RSS feed reader. Ultimately, I should take a lesson from the 4-hour work week and turn off my blackberry and try to limit email to certain hours of the day. Regardless of all the problems, I have to tell you what just happened to me. As I’m feeling like I’m ready to break, I log in to this blog to write to the world what’s going on in my life. The first thing that pops-up to me is a link that says “Just Be Strong” It was like the message was talking to me. It was a backlink to my blog by an individual who’s trademark lawyer will now be attending my Social Times launch event. Here is one excerpt from the post that Mike Bonifer, author of the book “Game Changers” wrote:

Social networking creates endless opportunities for strong choices, for letting others in your network know where you stand. Whether you’re putting a new app on Facebook or launching a shop in Second Life, strong choices stand out. So take it upon yourself to be like Nick O’Neill, whose self-funded, soon-to-launch new venture, Social Times, I just happened to link to today — and now my trademark lawyer will be attending his launch party in D.C. and the network will extend, and new wealth will surely ensue. It happens just like that when you make strong choices. They have a magnetic effect on your audience, including those who will become your customers.

Included was a copy of my Facebook picture. I have never had something like this occur but let me tell you that Mike Bonifer just made my day. Just when I thought that I am the crazy one for working so hard, Mike helped me out. While I still may come to that breaking point and while I know that I will start needing to make quicker decisions, I at least know that I’m learning. I only wish the same for each of you because learning is the most important thing around. Also remember, never settle for good because you can do much more than that. Eventually, it will all work out as long as you believe it will happen.  Burnout may eventually happen but given that passion is the fuel for the fire, I’ve got a long way to go.  Thanks Mike!

Over the past few months I have been hyping up a new project. Each of those projects have slowly morphed into another eventually resulting in the current one: The Social Times. The Social Times is my attempt at covering the social web while hosting events that help active participants in the social web connect offline. The first event that I’m hosting is the Social Times launch event. We currently have the following sponsors and demos attending the event:

• Wine Library TV
• Freewebs
• Hungry Machine LLC
• Qloud
• Razoo
• Clearspring
• Why Go Solo

I will be announcing more demos and sponsors over the next few days. The event is going to be December 13th in downtown D.C. If you would like to attend, go register for the Social Times launch event. This is probably the most ambitious project I have ever taken on. I am looking to turn this into a national entity in the next 6 to 12 months. I will be sure to document the lessons learned on this blog so you can hear about the trials and tribulations.

I have chosen to go without seed funding from investors and am instead funding it myself. This will be an amazing experience and a massive challenge. I’m excited! I hope that each of you can be part of the journey. See you at the finish line