Doubtless, this will be misconstrued and meme'd to hell and back, but here goes:
Misconceptions:
1. I ran with everyone's money.
2. I used the money to buy a CNC.
3. ice cream machine
Realities:
1. The money you spent on Rukia ALL went towards making Rukia
-Case manu in China plus extra for QC
- PCB design paid to Gondo **edit: Upas was kind enough to point me to Gondo, who already had an open source Alice style PCB in mind
-knobs
-encoders
-packaging
-shipping
-taxes
*The manu screwed up the first shipment after delaying for 3 months past when they estimated they could finish. The shipping and customs issues were the last straw.
*I opted to get a lawyer involved = no further production or shipments from the Chinese manu
*I started making the boards myself
2. NO money from Rukia was used for my other manufacturing business. It's actually the opposite. I got two business loans to set up being able to manufacture products out of UHMWPE.
Money from that has been used to try to salvage this group buy and get Rukias made.
3. It's a kitchen appliance--same size as a toaster oven.
Things are stalled right now for several reasons, including-but-not-limited-to the following:
-2 separate CNC crashes
-shoulder injury
-working overtime on a contract job to fund continuing with Rukia
Being silent started as just a break from trying to be cordial to people calling me names several times a day and telling me to kill myself, but then my mother in law was hospitalized and became septic (we thought she was dying), so I was busying figuring out where we would live, then had to take care of her and our care home for the elderly, etc.
After, I didn't have any time to do anything but work, take care of both my kids, my mother in law, etc.
When I asked for advice from my lawyer and doctor, I was advised to stop all one to one and online communication, even with friends, and put out updates as things actually progress.
For anyone that has sent an encouraging message: thank you.
For anyone that has tried to stay hopeful for this group buy: thank you.
For anyone that could not wait: I'm sorry. Thank you for waiting as long as you did.
Rukia will be finished.
I don't have a reliable ETA as of now, but as soon as I do, I'll let everyone know.