Bradtastic’s blog

Digital Paper

2009-02-13T08:06:54Z

Amazon's Kindle 2 seems awesome. I don't have one in front of me, but I'd like to. The Kindle helps me read much more than I ever have before; so many books taking up so little space, many page-turns without papercuts.

Recently, I've been reading a lot about blogging. The "Valentines topic" emailed the other day struck me as funny; in prepping for my new site (plus blog) and what to do about my current stuff, I've held-off on blogging. Well, that, and I've been sick and injured.

New site up soon I think, because I heart blogging. Not as much as "writing," but... yeah.

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Reluctant, but "Team Edward" anyway. And more about me.

2009-01-06T11:30:12Z

Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)

Stephenie Meyer

I read the book. It's my favorite of the series... and apparently, that makes me apart of Team Edward. I guess there area lot of Twilight fans on Jacob's side, and "New Moon" is the preferred book of the opposition.

Well... I'll usually declare allegiance to the vampires—I understand them best. I relate to them... I've been called (and compared to) them. And I'm fine with that.

I'VE BEEN CAREFULLY PLOTTING AND PLANNING MY NEXT "BIG MOVES," and though the details have been (sorta) made public, I've kept only my tightly-knit personal group informed.

I plan on ditching TypePad (at least for now), sticking with Vox in the mean-time, and I have no plans to change my Livejournal account (as I don't trust the fate of the company).

The biggest addition to my "Bradtastic Lifestyle" is Squarespace. I've been thoroughly impressed by their lightning-fast customer service and support, and their wonderful interface called "V5." The easy-to-edit WYSIWYG stylings will allow me to focus on the writing instead of code, but the feature that really sold me is Daring Fireball's Smartypants — built-in.

As a writer/illustrator/designer with a love for typography and a penchant for perfection, normal blogs' lack of “smart quotes” (alongside lousy blog editors) has been quite bothersome. Just when I was about to give up on my smart quote fantasy, I found an option to enable my saviour-software.

And I was sold.

I was going to leave TypePad without much fanfare or a farewell, but marinesetwas convinced me to send Six Apart my feedback. He likes their service, as does Warner Crocker, so I thought, why not? And I thought I'd share my review with y'all as well—it'll likely appear at Bradtastic.com or my new secret site.

I'm also sharing with you lucky, lucky people, the (partial) list of my Kindle contents! (Exciting!) Until then... stay sexy.

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Game over.

2009-01-04T18:14:30Z

Squarespace wins. It's just too good. There's just too much good... it looks fantastic, it's super-easy to customize... it does everything that I would do on TypePad, but better. My newest project will soon appear. Until then, enjoy inspiration.

Black Holes and Revelations

Muse

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Not Convinced

2009-01-04T09:37:41Z

I'm not happy about TypePad.

There are clearly advantages and nice features... but I don't think that it's nicer than Squarespace, and thus, I'm likely going to cancel the service. It's just not good enough. Maybe if they offered more storage or if it was less money... if there were more useful features—mostly, I don't like the templates.

I'm currently using the same template that I have here. Why pay extra when I already have (mt) and WordPress setup? It just seems like a waste; I haven't found anything at TypePad that I like more than the Squarespace equivalent, with the exception of being able to easily add-in external RSS feeds... but the SS staff informed me that that feature is arriving soon.

So... it looks like Squarespace will be the home of my new writing project... and probably some ink, too! (More on this soon.)

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Red wowza.

2008-12-26T13:36:55Z

Bradtastic's new theme

Just updated my theme. It's really red... matches my "normal" off-hand nails' color. Not right now, however. I'm doing a sparkly-silver thing... for the impending New Year's celebrations. I was happy to share the thoughts of My Christmas Morning (a post at bradtastic.com), but that fateful, magical day—after arriving too soon—passed in similar fashion.

The point of that entry, however... was to continue the "spirit" of Christmas and its messages throughout the year. I can't do it alone. aNDy has decided to echo my message... though his isn't quite in the same spirit...

I've got a lot more thoughts on Squarespace and TypePad, by the way. I'll share that... sometime soon. (Looks like this blog has replaced my Antipresto... perhaps I should scrap/reset it, huh?) Anyone want a list of the blogs I subscribe to on my Kindle (thought about posting this)? PLMK.

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Mobiletechphoria

2008-12-24T02:05:42Z

There's a lot of good new stuff available in the iTunes App Store... if you don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you're really missing out.

Fieldrunners alone is hours of fun... and Subatomic doesn't slack; they've released numerous updates, they listen to their community and respond at the forums, and they've added sound and new maps. What's next? I have no idea, but the game is already fantastic. Bradtastic Approved.

There's a lot of great free stuff, too. I love Katamari, yes I do, and I'm going to test it out in a bit. It's exciting! I'm also considering Hero of Sparta because there's nothing like it on the iPhone... well, check it out for yourself!

Mobile stuff rocks. How can one possibly be bored, surrounded by all of this awesomeness?!

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Livescribe—Pulse, Backpack, Eee, Oh my!

2008-12-23T01:37:42Z

What I try to get from my Eee PC alone is quite silly. I try to use it like any non-netbook, opening too many windows and tabs, running too many applications simultaneously. The netbook is too good and I can't understand how they're not selling too many copies.

I'm trying to change this behavior—opening too many Firefox windows and tabs—and that's really very-funny, if you know how I feel about "try." [The world doesn't give a fuck about "try"—but that's a topic for another time, and another blog.]

I've been using my Backpack to store information and files... I really dig it. Lifehacker has show me some alternatives, but none better (for me) so far. I'm trying to plan out my (what looks like, now) 2009 Bradtastic re-release... and it's thrilling and intimidating. My hope is that, by listing as much as I can in Backpack, I'll get what I want from this change.

I've been looking at this Livescribe Pulse Pen... interested-enough to add the 2GB version to my Amazon Wishlist. It's not quite a slate tablet alternative, but it has its advantages, too. I've used OneNote on my Tablet with some success, but I've always felt limited by the tablet's battery-life or power-cord tether. It was never really a paper notebook replacement. I think that the Pulse pen (and paper... duh) could really add something... and I'd like to have the ability to sync drawings, writings, sketches, designs, doodles and notes with voice recordings, simultaneously—and from a single device (system).

I've asked about it around the microblogs and have received some feedback and I've read some of the reviews. It's not quite a Montblanc, but... maybe it'd help?

Now, back to what I've been doing: organizing and bookmarking (sometimes sharing) sites currently taking up way too many Firefox browsers and tabs... and reading! [Most of my recent "free" time has been spent reading blogs, news and books on my Kindle. I love the Kindle.]

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TypePad v Squarespace, Part One

2008-12-20T15:42:31Z

PART OF THIS BIG AWESOME CHANGE, I'm going to use a professional blogging platform. "Free" isn't really free, and WordPress and one-clicks are time-consuming with security updates, new releases and lack of tech-support. I like Media Temple hosting because they have someone I can call if there's a problem. I'd like a managed blog for some of the same reasons.

I'd like to spend more of my time writing instead of installing new platform versions, UI upgrades and dealing with backend issues. I want to write about love, life, work, stressers, society, crime, safety, dating and socialization (including education and travel)... occasionally sharing the other things that make me who I am.

I was thinking that this would be simple... I'd use TypePad. The professionals use TypePad. But I keep finding myself sitting in front of the screen with a funny taste in my mouth... though I like what I "hear" from people about the service... I think the sites look ugly. Some of them, REALLY UGLY.

Somehow, I got to subscribing the TypePad newsletter (I used to use Livejournal religiously; writing all of the time to collect comments from complete strangers, generally receiving the most comments from entries with camho-ish self-portraits), one day they announce several (I forgot the exact number) "new templates for TypePad users!"

Cool. New templates. So I took a look at them, and each one of them has multiple color choices. It's clear from the tone of the email, TypePad is proud of the new designs. They look horrible...

There are good things about TypePad... and what about Squarespace?

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"Mobile"/email Update, a tester

2008-12-14T14:52:44Z

Livejournal and WordPress have cool iPhone apps for moblogging... Nothing for Vox. Boo. As much as I'd want something like that, I think it'd be cooler to have a compatible desktop software (IF there is one, please let me know! Thanks!) for updating. That's one thing that I've ALWAYS liked about Livejournal, b2, MovableType and WordPress... and now MS Live Spaces, even (I REALLY want to win that getsearchperks 360 controller)!

I got a Cranberry Bliss bar at Starbucks yesterday. That thing is fantastic! Very sweet, though.

The sun is rising. Last night the moon was huge and low, orange and beautiful. I think I'll write some more, watch some Netflix and play some Gears of War 2.

Until next time...

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Something About Art Magazines

2008-12-13T09:48:22Z

Barnes & Noble is such a trap for an artist... any type of creative, really. There's some welcome changes there, too... for instance, more magazines and periodicals on politics and social agendas... more art and photography mags, more "alternative lifestyle" stuff. I'm also really happy to see the Moleskine section grow into its own station.

WHEN I FIRST STARTED PUTTING Montblanc pens to Moleskine paper, I would go there to find a mixed-n-mashed section of Moleskines with the plastic packaging half-torn... note three-sets missing one and an all-around, miserably-pathetic selection. Generally, there were no more than a couple large Notebooks and a "reporter" pocket-sized...

...now B&N is well-stocked. I guess my purchases have single-handedly changed the trends (at least in Walnut Creek). Bradtastic thinks it's cool, therefore it... nah.

However, I did also pick up a copy of the new Computer Arts magazine... it's different now. The 'Projects mag looked pretty slick—cool new shape—but its topic is "motion graphics," and that's not something I'm working with right now. Being nothing more than a distraction (a damned good one at that), I couldn't risk it and didn't want to waste... it'd end up as more paper mess, even if it turned out to be a good visual resource and guide for later-use (I'm sure it would).

Gilmore Girls inspires my writing, vector art and graffiti inspires my art. The 'Girls are overall more-important to my creative process, however, and if I had to live with just one or the other, it's an easy choice.

I have a lot of stuff to write about... but I'm not sure how much of it I want to share... and if people really want me to share such things...!

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