AWOL at Home

Mike gives an update on some recent milestones achieved in his nonprofit Crimson Rouge Studios - particularly the formation of Archangel Labs as a STEAM-oriented business development incubator within the nonprofit organization Crimson Rouge Studios, Inc.

Bonjour/hi!

This is Mike George coming at you live from the lovely AWOL in Columbus, Ohio. It is 5 May 2024 — Cinco de Mayo — and I hope you all made the most of "May the Fourth" yesterday, even if today is the day to repent for whatever forces were in play.

I’ve been taking some time lately to look back at my previous work, trying to craft something coherent from the various threads of my Facebook Live videos over the years. I’m calling this "greatest hits" collection “Open Mike,” and you can find it on the Crimson Rouge website. My journey with these updates actually started back in 2017 when I was on the road as a truck driver, traveling 25,000 miles across 13 western states. Since then, my life has meandered through various professional endeavors and side projects.

I’ve been back home in Ohio since about August or September, and honestly, it’s been a marvelous few months. Columbus is booming and prospering; it’s a real bright spot in the Midwest. As a native Ohioan who has traveled to see what it looks like "outside of the fishbowl," I can confidently say we have some good things here that we often take for granted. While it's fashionable to talk smack about Ohio, Columbus has been very good to me, and I’m incredibly grateful to the "archangels" in my life who have helped me survive and find my footing again.

Right now, I’m on a bit of a "sabbatical" to jumpstart my organization, Crimson Rouge Studios. In the past, I struggled with the engineering dilemma: when I’m gainfully employed, I have money but no time; during this sabbatical, I have time but no money. My goal is to build a solid foundation for the organization and find a way to handle both. I’m looking for people to get involved in our **"admin collective"**—our board of directors—to help us invest time, put events together, and build something with collective ownership.

One of my newest hobbies is learning to program and building apps through **Archangel Labs**, which is the incubator for Crimson Rouge. We have a few projects in the beta phase right now:

Street-SMART App

This is a mobile-friendly, crowdsourced map of free services and amenities—like bathrooms, free Wi-Fi, and EBT-friendly grocery stores—available to anyone on the streets, whether they are just heading home late from a bar or are experiencing long-term homelessness. It’s a bit like a big scavenger hunt, and I need your help to "put meat on the bones" so it doesn’t just stay a fancy pile of data.

Places Transcending Time

I’m fascinated by augmented reality (AR) — the Pokemon Go style of technology. I want to create an app that connects the present with the past, similar to the time-traveling mechanics in *The Legend of Zelda*. For example, you could point your phone at the Columbus Convention Center and see a virtual recreation of the **Union Station** that used to stand there. I want to use this to pay homage to our history, including the "good, the bad, and the ugly," like the neighborhoods destroyed to build highways.

If you want to help out, learn to code, or if you can donate some much-needed funds to the initiative, please check out Archangel Labs at our website. I’ve even got a smoke tracker tool in there that I use to keep myself accountable for my own lungs!

I’ve managed to rant for nearly half an hour now, so I’m going to sign off and get back to the real world. Happy Cinco de Mayo, take care of yourselves, and take care of somebody else!