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Oakland, CA
USA

My main blog is a Squarespace 5 blog located at saysbrad.com — I'm looking at migrating my technology/design site to Squarespace 6 (or perhaps another platform). It's quite a time consuming endeavor to do right and it's given me a lot to think about.

Life, Technology, Design

Filtering by Tag: change

Occupy Superfluous?

Brad Chin

It's been three-or-so months now, and all that's obvious about Occupy is that it's a disorganized, largely leaderless, self-proclaimed "movement" that likes to set up tents and camp in urban jungles, and they occasionally build things and throw things (I was going to include links for those... find them yourself — I'm blogging from Squarespace's buggy iOS app on iPad). Maybe it's the pot. Denis Leary says marijuana leads fuckin' to carpentry.


I've tried to ask neighbors and passersby for information about Occupy. No one seems to know much. The 100% I've spoken to goes home after work, turns on the TV or reads a web post about how Occupy (insert city name) was raided by (insert city name) Police Department, with reports of violence on both sides. Then the mayor is interviewed, and states that the camp was closed over health and safety concerns, but that the city will continue to support the Occupy movement. Great.


Lastly, two personal notes.



Mr. Alec Baldwin, aka now deactivated Twitter-junkie @alecbaldwin: a game of Words with Friends? I play. When I remember to. Also, I don't fly on American Airlines, either. At least you've "played a pilot before," and have acted as yourself, having played a pilot, while playing a pilot next to another actor playing a supposed real pilot concerned about your potential piloting in a Capital One commercial. That must count for something. Somewhere.


Occupy, can you try to convince the Oakland PD to fly their helicopters farther away from Lake Merritt when they're going to raid you? It's really loud. Thanks.


Until next,
__
(I love the future post feature.)

Cleaning house, setting up

Brad Chin

Yes, I design stuff and write. I've also been taking a lot of photos, iPhonotography or iPhonography, I guess. I've done so housekeeping, literally and figuratively.

With only so many hours awake each day and many of those dedicated to dealing with my disability, I found it necessary to eliminate certain distractions and time sinks. I still actively read and play video games, collect marketing material and good packaging design, but I'm much more selective when it comes to friends, projects, and people in general.

I don't go out as much. I don't like dealing with the drama, the late night phone calls, fair-weather friends and advice-seekers. It's not all bad, and there's value to almost everything, but I can't take chances and dump hours into those pursuits. I'm older now.

Quitting smoking and coming back from southern California clarified things for me. I love that sensation, as you leave LA and drop into the valley, when the smog lifts and your vision becomes razor sharp. Spend enough time down there, you forget what it's like to really see. Spend enough time up here, it's easy to forget that there's more.

I'm going to put together a portfolio I think. A small one, along with a simple site. Maybe even a business card. I'll make it easier for some people to reach me.

Not everyone will appreciate this change, I'm sure. Well, I've had to deal with years of Obama and excruciating physical pain. People think and say: tough.

And that's the way it is.

But I will post pretty pictures and possibly some sketch work — I've been doing more illustrations recently. The iPad 2 is so wonderful.

Soon, I'll be able to share 8MP photos with the iPhone 4S. I'll finally be back to Sprint, where the phone will actually work as a phone. Yes, EVDO is slower than HSDPA, but WiFi is everywhere, and I'll take that trade to eliminate constant dropped calls. AT&T just hasn't been working out.

If you have an interesting project that needs a designer or branding expert, feel free to let me know abou it. If you'd like to hang out, maybe try me again in a few years.

Apart

Brad Chin

Friends leave, people change, life goes on… until it stops. Some of us search for meaning, others ignore it.

With everything going on Earth, the complexities of society and social networking, politics, economy, war, religion, technology… I look to the vastness of the universe and our blue planet seems so insignificant. “interesting” and “worthwhile” are subjective — are they irrelevant? I suppose that’s also a matter of perspective. A friend of mine left on a red-eye flight across the country; she’ll be away for months, we’ll physically be apart, but I’m not sure how much will change for me. Our technology connects us and separates us; we can communicate effectively across continents, and just as effectively, we can use our computers to ignore our neighbors and stay in — instead of going out to meet friends. When deep space travel becomes a reality, what then? Will we have solved any of the problems that society considers important — will it matter? When I look at the frailty of life, it pleases me that greater things exist.