Bradtastic Premier

2008 AIS Christmas Party, Father & Son: Edward W. Chin and "Bradtastic" Brad Chin

Merry Christmas. Seriously.

I frequently joke about many things… but this, especially this year, with what’s going on all around the world and here at home, the state of the economy and state of the Union… enjoy this time with friends and family. Enjoy the time off. Do something new. Explore.

Whatever it is about this time of year that makes us set-aside differences, come together and be happy, let’s try and hang onto that. Let’s strive for better relationships all of the time—year’round—life is too short to need a holiday for an excuse to be happy.

Much love and special thanks to my family, friends and supporters. The following are some little messages to important people. It’s my Christmas version of Thanksgiving, sans Turkey and pilgrim stuff.

Continue reading ‘Christmas Morning’

With hesitation, I made the switch… from 2.6 to 2.7—unlike previous updates, this one is dramatic. The UI is completely overhauled… and clean. And complicated.

Continue reading ‘Press Stuff: WordPress version 2.7′

Change starts with a belief, followed by action.

“Change” is a vast, deep and important topic for me and within my circles, so it’s something that I’ll come back to at some point. Probably after my re-release (anyone seen Gilmore Girls? If so, think Rory’s “Coming Out” ball, fan dance and black tie, minus the grandparent drama). It’s something that I’ve stated again and again, it’s been quoted by friends and exists on at least one wall, ink on index card, taped to remain at the forefront of conscious thought. I’m proud and flattered to make such an impact on others…

I’d also really like them to know that they help to shape me and make me who I am. I wouldn’t be Bradtastic without the people around me; my family, my friends and the loves of my life. Women are wonderful… beautiful, intelligent women are worth everything. [Women>Men—simple math]

It’s that time of year; lights a’plenty, the night comes early, family comes together to stress out over simple things. All of TV’s primetime dramas are on-hold until next year… Netflix is golden. The Internet has been a true gift, although I must say, I’ve been really, really getting grand amounts of pleasure from my Amazon Kindle. (I guess much of that credit could be given to the reading material itself, but somehow, the Kindle makes the reading experience that much better.)

I’ve been thinking about change… for myself, my life, my work… everything. I want to share more of myself and my thoughts, my life and my theories on interactions. I want to share the new, great things in my life—what I love—what keeps me going. I’ve been looking at new blogging/journaling/writing/publishing platforms for some time now—including forums, wikis and CMS’ like Drupal and Joomla—finally settling on two platforms, TypePad and Squarespace. (I’ve shared some of this at my Vox and microblogs.) I’m testing both right now… and I’m impressed so far.

Many thanks to @mzampino and @marinesetwas (Twitter/Social Network people, though the links go to their blogs) for their input, as well as that cool-dude Warner Crocker—who’d bestowed upon me that Ink Blot Award for Bradtastic Ink aka bradchin.com—for his thoughts on the TypePad platform. (Perhaps it’s something that’ll work for my inkblog… I’m really not that happy with my current WP setup there. Thoughts?)

So I’m posting this as a precursor to change—impending, inevitable change—insofar as any of this can apply to your life and those around you, I hope it inspires something… further, if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions for me, by all means (literally) please, do share. ‘Tis the season… and I say, forget about “New Years’ Resolutions,” anytime—any day—is grand-enough to declare a resolution. We should be take advantage of the time that we have and improve and change throughout the year.

Lastly, I hope that the best and strongest of us can cure boredom. Youtube doesn’t count—I really wish that that site was never created… what a step-back for mankind. (Just had a great conversation about chaos magic, life and productivity with CKD—YouTube’s negative effect on workplace productivity certainly came up.) If you spend any part of your day “being bored,” you should join me at Vox. I’ll introduce you to some people… if you’re cool enough. *smile*

Until next time… enjoy the ‘eve!

It’s been an amazing two weeks.

A lot has happened… too much to cover, really. If you were there to witness and share in it, grats. It’s been something pretty-damned-great! Who knows… perhaps there’s just gunna be more of this?! That’d be grand.

I’ve talked a little bit about Pownce going “buh bye…” (at least one of these links—if not both—will be down after December 15) and I’ve had a lot of different feelings about it, “not caring” not amongst ‘em. I’m not even sure why I care so much about a relatively-unpopular microblogging and sharing service… it’s not like I was ever a Leah-fanboy. In fact, I didn’t even follow her stuff until just last week.

However, over the past year, I’d been using Pownce for three very-important things: large file sharing, badass music sharing (oh yeah!) and social-links-organization. One of the lesser-known (awesome) features of Pownce is the “Other Profiles” tab; although Pownce didn’t have all of the social networks, it has all of the majors, and I’d found many cool services and sites from searching the list. My Pownce is was a great single URL I could share with family, friends and contacts to share (almost) all of my profiles.

I’m sad to see the service go, but all isn’t lost—I’ve imported my content to my VOX blog—and I’ve started to re-list my profiles there, too. Thanks to Maddy, I’ve added Retaggr as well… and it’s posted at my Tumblr for everyone’s convenience (especially mine)!

This weekend should be pretty-damned cool, too.

I’m excited. I’m going to write. I’m going to design. I’m going to illustrate and paint. I’m going to take some photos, blog and post some web content. I’m redesigning the Bradtastic brand… and several others as well. I’m going to email friends, catch-up with important people, and help the “holiday spirit” flourish as it should. I’m going to get better. I’m going to be better.

And just so y’all know… Stephanie is great. She’s absolutely great. She makes me really happy.