Merry Christmas!

Too many people saying Happy Holidays. On Christmas. What’s with that?

It’s a national holiday here, and according to a recent poll, 9/10 American families celebrate it in some way, so why all the reluctance to just say Merry Christmas? Seems like tolerance and political correctness is a one-way street.

This time of year, and this day, I think is an important time to reflect on family and friends, the year as a whole, and dreams and ambitions for the coming new year. For people working retail, it’s doubly stressful, as the hectic shopping rush leading up to Christmas is overwhelming, chaotic and emotionally draining. A lot of people are running around sick, too… and got Stephanie sick with this horrible cough and aches.

And then she got me sick.

So here I am, trying to make the most of it, and I’m in front of my computer (that I somewhat reluctantly upgraded to OS X 10.9 Mavericks because of all the glowing reviews published on the major tech blogs), and I find out today that my Boot Camp Windows drive is entirely broken and unreadable. I read about it online, and it seems like the best course of action is to delete, repartition and reinstall… and everyone keeps saying backup, backup, backup like a mantra.

The thing is, with the cloud and online backups, there’s really not much to “save.” Everything is already, has already been saved, platform agnostic. The major problem? Reinstalling the apps. Mostly really large ones. I think I’m going to wait to tackle this problem. Too stressful.

Should clean out the OSX side of things, first. Lots of files to tag and rearrange. My big I’m sick Christmas Project that I probably can’t finish by 2014. I know it seems like minor annoyances, but when you’re dealing with years of chronic pain and physical problems, every little minor annoyance becomes extra stress that seems to compound and exacerbate the real issues.

But, I’m going to try to focus on the positives. I think that that’s a good practice, insofar as it’s within reality and reasonably objective. Hopefully I won’t be sick (this time) for long!

Again. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Stay warm and safe.

Christmas Colors and December News

Yesterday and the day before, I modified the color scheme here at Says Brad. Some simple updates, but sticking pretty closely to the same RWB Americana theme. (RWB just made me think of RWBY, a cool show by Rooster Teeth) Earlier today, while I was planning and writing my upcoming notes apps’ reviews, I thought about the theme change and decided to give it Christmas colors.

Why not? Squarespace makes it really simple.

At least if you’re using a desktop browser. Modifying the theme in SS5 is basically impossible on iOS.

Because of both of these two elements — simple, but difficult away from desktop browsers), I wanted to keep it really simple and be able to switch back after New Year’s. With a click, you can duplicate your current style and create a new name for it, make the appropriate changes, and save it alongside the old theme. Since the two sit side by side, I can simply enable the original when the Christmas theme is no longer relevant. (I suppose that at any other time of the year, it just looks Italian.)

I need to figure out how to do this at WordPress or Squarespace 6… or wherever I start my disability blog at. I know I said that I was going to get right back to writing about apps and stuff, but the recent ruling regarding NSA data-mining and the White House press release, I think it’s appropriate to discuss privacy, 4th Amendment protections (the word “privacy” is absent from it) and a bit about how that is applied (or not) to internet communications and virtually everything else in the surveillance cities and states of the world (London comes to mind). Is all of this information harvesting making us any safer, and if it is, is the price too high? Although political, I think that it’s a tech-related issue.

I also saw this Reason-Rupe poll today that says 58% of Americans think that police militarization has gone too far.

That includes a full 60 percent of both Democrats and Tea Partiers. Opposition is under 50 percent among non-Tea Party Republicans.

I think that this is particularly important as well, because although the primary tools are still primarily various firearms, high-tech weaponry is becoming increasingly affordable and available, and I don’t want to be hit by a microwave weapon gone awry.

So that’s what’s going on.

I just got a copy of Ulysses III from the wonderful, awesome people at The Soulmen, and as it interacts with Daedalus Touch, I’m going to review the two together. I can already recommend Daedalus Touch, especially if you like to work on multiple projects simultaneously or need to organize and reorganize text dynamically. It’s the smoothest, easiest to use document management tool on the iPad and iPhone.

I’m also trying my best to pack and move, but doing that with a disability is very difficult. It’s inspired me to write a bit about the major changes that occurred slowly over the past five or six years that I only notice when I think about it (like a distinct change form extroverted to introverted). In my mind — much of the time — I’m the same… but the reality is often completely different.

23andMe, SaysBrad 2013, and screw the FDA

Dealing with medical problems and disability, I missed out on a lot of things this year. It's easy to just get upset about that — and everything else going on in the world — it's extremely easy to forget how amazing life is and how much technology has changed everything, for almost everyone.

Sometimes, it seems like the Internet is just full of complaints. And cats. Much of it is superfluous, and I've spent some time on this blog trying to point that out to people. But some complaints are valid, and the Internet has given a voice to many who would otherwise remain silent.

I mention this, because the FDA has blocked 23andMe, a DNA analysis company, from releasing medical information related to DNA as part of their $99 mail-order test kit.

Personally, this genetic information could be very valuable; it could tell me if I'm a carrier for the condition that killed my two brothers, why my nervous system responds the way it does and how best to treat my chronic pain, muscle spasms and disability.

I found out about 23andMe because of their Black Friday sale and ordered a kit, only to find out the day the kits arrived, that 23andMe would only be able to supply ancestry related information.

Basically, the FDA is stopping me from seeking affordable advice about my own DNA.

And I'm upset about that.

I've tried to distract myself with technology and blogging, and even managed to figure out how to stop the spam problem that I was having for quite awhile here at Says Brad. I was contacted by a few blog readers, which is super, as well as an app developer (so I'll be reviewing a new note taking app soon).

I found out that the new iPad Air might have some problems detecting and interacting with pressure-sensitive styluses, and read a bit more about the new iPad mini. I'm now reconsidering it as the superior (personal) choice for all-around use, despite the color accuracy/range issue.

I was going to write about testing blogging platforms such as Roon and Postagon, questions and thoughts that I have about pure blogging options Posthaven and Ghost, as well as testing — and my likely move to — Squarespace 6, but it's been hard to focus on with all of the issues I'm having and becoming aware of concerning the Federal government. I want to make Says Brad purely about design and technology (mostly apps and mobile products), but I haven't had the motivation to do anything about it yet.

Perhaps getting this rant out of the way will help. I know that lack of interest and general depression is a byproduct of chronic pain and the medicines used to treat it, and that awareness is usually accompanied by a resolve to push past it and try to do something — anything...

I really put a lot of hope and faith in my DNA results that now, at least anytime soon, won't be able to get... unless I can find some reliable, affordable expert to help me interpret the raw genetic data that I can still get from 23andMe.

Maybe if enough people out pressure on their Congressman (and women), something can be done about the ridiculously backward, prohibitive, abusive and dictatorial federal government and FDA. I don't think that that will happen, however, unless things get much, much worse. Congress is part of the problem — it's systemic, and it's affecting people. Small businesses, individuals, people with medical problems. I don't want government handouts and help. I want them to get the fuck out of the way.

Well.

Hopefully now I can get back to graphic design and the fun stuff. That is, after I stretch and take a few hour's nap. Word of warning: if your health is good and your body works (at least somewhat) as it should, take care of it and don't take it for granted. Chronic pain and disability is a neverending nightmare.

Before Christmas. Happy holidays. Oh, and don't be offended if you don't like or celebrate Christmas, but someone says Merry Christmas or whatever. Just say thanks. Don't be miserable.

Bradtastic supports Blogsy

Update Fail, Fall, Fun — trying

A brand new Toy Yoda. Too funny.

So I had a few days' rest and was going to write for the blog, but I ended up falling down some stone steps — long story, short: it was hot and sunny, got dizzy — and have been hurting and aching since. 2013 is so not my year. Well. It's almost over.

My birthday is in one week. I feel old already. How did this happen? I hope I'm not sick on my birthday again. Maybe I'll get some stuff from Amazon. That would be nice.

It's been really hot in Oakland these past four days. I want some cold weather and rain! Unable to do much, I've been reading and playing some games. Like Terraria and Dragon's Crown. I like Terraria more than Minecraft, but I'm not a fan of the typography. I wish Skyrim Hearthfire's house-building/customization was more like Animal Crossing. I also got Diablo III (PS3) for free. So if you're on PSN: message me — rainfault. I won't be playing videogames for too long, however, because I'm still in pain and tired from the fall and the infection preceding it. sigh

Brad's Personal Update No. 2

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I think I’m starting to feel a bit better. But I don’t want to jinx it. I do, however, want to share a few things. I downloaded the update for Paper by FiftyThree and I’m so happy about the new zoom tool. Although I think it still needs some tweaking, it’s a very clever way to achieve a blend of style and functionality that fits the theme and mission of the Paper sketching app. If you have an iPad, you need Paper, even if you don’t consider yourself an artist or creative. It’s just that cool.

I’m writing this blog entry from the official (semi-janky) Squarespace app because for some reason, my favorite, go-to app Blogsy isn’t able to load my categories. I don’t yet know if that’s a Squarespace problem or a fomola (Blogsy devs) issue, but I emailed Lance (fomola Big Boss aka CEO aka awesome friend) to find out. [I’m still very interested in migrating from Squarespace to WordPress, but I don’t have the knowledge or energy yet to start making that happen — I’d want a nice WP theme and don’t know how to go about putting that together.]

Paper by FiftyThree art

Inspired in-part by the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer profession (which reminds me of Accel World’s Kuroyukihime character), this purple abstract butterfly was created on the iPad mini using Paper specific tools (primarily the pencil and watercolor) in order to familiarize myself with the color wheel and zoom. Although it’s still work-in-progress in both forms, one is a screenshot showing off the new zoom/magnifying tool. It took a few minutes to get used to, but in general, I like it; although I might’ve preferred a more traditional zoom functionality, this style does have advantages because you can see exactly where you are drawing relative to the whole page/screen, without zooming in and out, back and forth. It’s also very fast with a decent margin for error, and doesn’t interfere with the undo/redo feature.

I’m excited, because Paper is finally an app I can use start to finish for my style of design. Until now, it’s been a rough ideas and sketching tool; first it was limited by a restricted color palette — they fixed that — and now they’ve added zoom. I’d still like to see a smaller eraser tool (or a variable one with opacity adjustment) and portrait mode, but as is, it’ll work well. I’ve come to prefer the two-finger circular undo/redo and now wish that other apps had it.

Next

I have to take things slow and pace myself, but I’ll see about adding new sketches and designs to dribbble along with more blog entries here such as app and stylus reviews & tips. Until then, take care, enjoy life, and wish me luck. Thank you all!

Awesome iPad Stylus

There are 46.1 million capacitive touch styluses (styli maybe) on the market. Approximately. Most are the same with a different name. Many of them suck.

The Cosmonaut by Studio Neat is a wonderful iPad stylus for just about anyone. Don't let the odd looks dissuade you. Check out Studio Neat's product video.

Below is something that I wrote using the Cosmonaut stylus and Noteshelf on my iPad.

Brad likes Blogsy

Free 6

I feel like I'm caught in a loop; my thoughts, feelings, energy, ideas, all recycled — while time slips by. It's Thursday already?

I created this several days ago, but it still seems relevant. Dealing with disability and constant pain, I find myself absently pondering the struggles of all life against inevitable death. Perhaps it's because Stephanie has been watching a lot of Ancient Aliens juxtaposed with Nanny 911. I haven't given that a lot of thought.

I've also been thinking about what I'll leave behind, insofar as humanly possible. I know that nothing we leave on Earth is truly permanent, but what will remain into the near future?

Digital things are destined to disappear first. Many people seem to think that technology is a safer means of preservation, that the old ways are obsolete, but how many hard drives have crashed, how many dead hyperlinks exist? We've discovered several thousand year-old cave paintings and monuments scattered across our planet — where will my iPad be in 1000 years. Will it sit like a da Vinci or Stradivarius in a private collection or museum? Doubtful. Most likely, it'll end up recycled and repurposed, or sitting in a despicable landfill (I intend to avoid the latter).

Is life like a firework?

Like a good story; first launched, blazing a trail through darkness to reach climax, a brilliant explosion of color and energy, followed by a slow descent, existing as fragments and remnants to be discarded? Is it sparkle and fade?

What will remain? Facebook, Gmail, and free blogs, at least for awhile. Not this Squarespace blog. Who would pay for it, maintain it, after I'm gone?

I was thinking about this because Squarespace is offering a free Squarespace 6 blog to all Squarespace 5 users. I want to create something worth preserving… how often does that happen? Will the Wayback Machine care?

In the interim, I exist. Life: a culmination of grand achievements and seemingly irrelevant small moments. I wonder which comes next.

Brad uses Blogsy

Some changes to "Bradtastic Defined."

Things change, life changes… I’m old now. Damn it. What I wouldn’t give or do to repeat childhood… 

That’s impossible, but it’ll be okay, because I have other things in mind. I’m old now, but I’m not terribly, horribly, “face-all-wrinkly” or “falling-off-entirely” old. I stated before (more than once… oops) that I wanted to write more — that I was going to — and now, I kind of, actually, can! Exciting! 

Surprisingly, I’ve settled on fiction. Serendipity or insanity, time will tell, but inspiration struck violently and unexpectedly, and I can’t ignore it. Since, I’ve worked on my narrative prose, grammar (I’m close to knighthood in the Order of the TweeterGrammarton) and style. Style, because today, it’s about style over substance. Word. 

Been thinkin’ and thankin’

I’m considering writing serialized short stories. I’d post a new “chapter” each week on a (my) blog… dunno which one. Maybe this one. Maybe not. I have some unused cool domain names. 

Mostly, I’ve been sharing stories about dealing with pain and disability, and I’ve been educating others, raising awareness, and communicating with other people with problems. Specifically, I get that everyone has problems. Generally, I know that most people are doing okay. Life is a lot easier when your body works (somewhat) properly. 

Sometimes, I’ll try to pick something up and I’ll end up knocking it over, or I’ll want to make a fist, and instead, my arm starts shaking. My damned shoulder is hurting so bad at the moment. (Accidental “bang” — or bump or poke or whatever you want to call it — yesterday) 

Because it’s separate, and well, because I want to, I post my other stuff over there. Or here. But mostly at Bradtastic Defined, or www.bradchin.com (note: the ‘www’ is necessary, because TypePad says so. I know, it’s lame. Tell that to SAY). Because things are different now, I’ve changed the description and intent of the bradchin, a domain that used to host my inkblog. *(I used to love ink blogging… sigh) 

So here it is, from “Bradtastic” Defined, personal blog (with disability stuff):

The mostly accurate drama of the life of Brad Chin, presented in dramatic fashion in full-HD, 1080p, 3D on an LED TV without LSD, PCP or PVC… no MSG, not for sale on QVC or available on DVD, and I can guarantee — that that’s N.O.T. what she S.A.I.D.

If you want to know more… go there and read some. If you like it, you can help fund my first novel by sending a gift via Amazon (my wish list)! Also, my birthday is in 34 days… also known as “twenty five weekdays from today,” or “four weeks, six days,” or “one month and three days from today,” or expressed more ‘l33t,’ 1m3dr1zzleF1zzizzl. *(minus the 1zzles) 

Okay, that was odd. I get weird when I’m tired and hurting more than I do normally. I’m going to stop. I set this entry to post at 1:11 (afternoon), so make a wish… at 11:11 — because it’s likely past 1:11 now.

Something brewing.

# for the moment, it isn’t coffee.

However, it is morning. Another morning, another day, soon-to-be another weekend and another week — time does feel like it’s moving faster now. Some science channel show I’d seen mentioned that time seems to speed up as we get older, and for me, that’s certainly the case. In grade school, weeks seemed long, the school year lasted forever, and although summer seemed a bit short, I was involved in plenty of activities and got a lot of playing done, too.

It’s easier to lose sight of things now. I’ve always made an effort to plan things out — though the best laid plans often go astray — but now, my days just don’t last long enough. In addition, I used to have this Mercedes-Benz-*esque* attitude: the best, or nothing… though that was not their slogan at that time. Now it’s often about just GTD… getting things done. Good. Complete. But not necessarily perfect, rather, nearest as one can get.

## moving forward

### I’ve been giving less thought to this blog and blogs of mine in general; the concepts, the effort, the actual work involved, the purpose… thusly, I haven’t concluded anything. But I have thoughts.

1. I want to write more about living with a disability and getting by. Life in America is changing, and for the disabled, everything is harder — more complex. Work, relationships, fun, you name it. Don’t say “parking,” thinking that you’re clever, either. ([handicappedfraud](http://handicappedfraud.org) <— more thoughts on that, soon.)

1. I’d like to share more artwork, even if it’s just doodles. For posterity, even.

1. I’d like to fix my websites; I’d like to make them look prettier. Obviously, I can’t make it appeal to everyone, but right now, it’s a little messy.

1. I want to get Bradtastic back up and running something. It’s been down for too long. I have things that I could share there, and it could be valuable for people… including me.

1. I want to read and write more fiction. I’m not exposed to enough of it anymore. Sure, I’ve read some sappy teen vampire books and some Orson Scott Card, but I want to expand out. No Harry Potter, though — not then, not now. Please don’t try to tell me it’s great stuff; she’s a billionaire now, okay, I get it.

## レヂセタゴ ready, settago!

Yes, I will still play video games and mess around with iOS software. It’s fun, and practical; video games are indeed art, and it’s an industry bigger than music and movies — the iOS platform is only getting better, the apps are inexpensive and sometimes free, and can help organize, get things done, and importantly, reduce stress and increase happiness. Being disabled, fun is often rare, in only slightly greater supply than that elusive contentment and mythical “true happiness.”

However, I am now more selective about the games I play. I’m interested in story-based games, and will choose them over graphics and sometimes even gameplay. I rarely watch movies anymore — most of them, pure crap — so it’s a sort of trade-off… passive for interactive.

I have a fantastic set of stories stirring ‘round my mind, invading my dreams and bursting out every orifice. Sorry, gross visual. It’s just… I’ve never been this eager to share a piece of myself, and it’s fictional.

I do think that isolation is the mother of inspiration. Pure creativity — perhaps that’s more genetic. Combine it all, what do you get? Stuff like Teletubbies. Joyous day!

Update on 2011-08-13 16:20 by Bradtastic

Going to make an attempt at fixing the markdown dilemma. I don’t understand what the @SquarespaceHelp account is for — all they ever do is write back, “submit a ticket.” 

Anyway… submit a ticket I have. We shall see. 

Oops!

I messed up. It appears like I just posted something entitled, “Negativity,” but that was in fact written over one week ago. I meant to post it last Tuesday, as a sort of ‘status update.’ I guess I really was delirious — I couldn’t even manage to change ‘draft’ to ‘published.’ Well, it’s up now… just a week late. Sort of like Playstation Network! [Though, it’s not completely restored, and I’m still hoping that DLC codes still work. Which reminds me, I haven’t received a code for my Doom Pack for BRINK — not that that matters, however, because Brink isn’t good at all.]

DAY ONE Journal has been a huge help during this time. Some of you might know a little bit about the perfect storm of pain and problems that have hit me over the past few weeks; long story short, it was very hard to keep my thoughts straight and remember to do simple things (like post blog entries, not that that struck me as particularly important, given my condition, one week ago). 

Beyond that, the iPad 2 has been amazingly helpful as well. The iPad really is a super device; despite its flaws, including the iPad 2’s lack of back-surface protection, non-retina display screen, lack of 4G, and, um… I guess that’s it, really… the thing is just one of the best things ever. Everything I like about the iPhone is amplified and made simpler on the iPad, and it really can do just about everything I need. I can browse the net — including (proper) videos — email, chat, game, create art, take notes, write, compose, and take funny photos with it. I don’t know what I’d do without the iPad — and it’s amazing that I got anything done prior to it. 

Today would’ve been my grandmother’s birthday — she would’ve been 94. I still think about her often. My grandmother, Elsie, was absolutely amazing. I’ll end with that, for now.

Negativity

Some not good luck and negativity.

I’m going to keep this short, because there are still a few other things that are pressing. I’ve been meaning to post for one week now, but haven’t been able to, due to a combination of being busy, tired, hurt and sick. I’m not sure what caused it, but I genuinely felt close to death several days ago. Blogging was on my mind, but I wasn’t about to endure more agony for it. 

Zen Brush art created on iPhone 4. (Bradtastic)

I wrote what I could, when I could—and I must say, Day One Journal (at App Store. currently for iPhone and Mac desktop) has been an amazing thing. Simple and straightforward, uncluttered and synced with Dropbox, Day One is a perfect tool for getting a little something jotted down from wherever. On the iPhone, tidbits, observations, random thoughts and “captain’s logs” can be quickly tapped out and saved. At the desktop, longer posts can be thoughtfully composed and edits can be made to shorthand, quick iPhone-made entries. (FMI: I need to remember to give TextExpander a look)

I should add that, although I really like the desktop app (and I really like the people behind Day One), I still think that the price is a little steep for what is currently offered. I’ve been told several times that features are being added for upcoming versions and that the price isn’t likely to change. Also, good news for iPad owners, the iOS app is going to be made universal. The combined benefits of these additions justifies the $9.99 price to me, but because I’m fairly sure the price of the Mac app won’t go up, it’s not unreasonable to wait if you think you’d have buyer’s remorse—or that the current lack of features would cause the app to somehow fall into disuse. Really, it’s too good for that.

I should also add: supporting the Day One app devs is worthy. The apps are worth using, as is. There’s not a lot wrong with either… I just wish there was a little more (like a separate title field, completely plain text export, password protection on the desktop app).

So—much of my writing has been private, and much of it isn’t bloggable for one reason or another. Some of it just isn’t likely to be interesting to anyone else, some of it isn’t likely to make sense to anyone else, and some of it… just isn’t appropriate.

Hopefully I’m over the worst of the physical problems and side effects caused by poison my medicine. Next week, I hope things are back to the new normal. This much I know—I’ll have plenty to share at Bradtastic Defined. I suppose that with Playstation Network still down, I’ll have stuff to share at Bradtastica as well. 

Maybe sometime soon I’ll share my new desk setup as well. It’s fairly kick-ass; enough-so that I’m going to take one of those artsy social-network-site-style camera-phone shots of it instead of using my SLR. If you have Netflix (watch instantly), get an overdose of Top Gear!

And you’ll have more from me soon.

Update before Christmas (text)

My text for this post got deleted by my Squarespace's iPhone app! Damn.

Well, here's the nutshell version:

I'm writing about my disability and chronic pain, and disabilities in general at BradChin.com — I hope some semi-dark grit will shed light on a subject often avoided (more than politics and religion) and clear up some misconceptions.

I'm scrapping Bradtastica because my Wordpress install isn't working right.

"Superfluous" will be lighthearted and semi-casual; my design, art and creative work and projects will be at Bradtastic.com after I fix it.