Bradtastic Premier

I thought that it might be fun to setup a blog for “mobile musings” — something iPhone-optimized and composed/edited (almost) entirely from the iPhone/iPod touch.

Apple’s mobile-Safari displays emojis, Japanese Keyboard emoticons.

(- tiger)
(- French Fries)

They’re nifty… and cute — but limited to two device types, one OS type. And then there’s content, layout and theme. Because the touch keyboard is awkward and sometimes-sluggish, long entries aren’t easy to compose. A template designed for handhelds won’t display properly on a large screen. My mobile ramblings are tangential, and are likely interesting to my close friends and followers only.

I’m fond of my low-res photography, too. I’ve also got some iPhone art to share, made with the “Brushes” app.

I really wish I could get Canteo Classeur notebooks. If you find them for me, you’ll be my top-tier hero. Second-tier available for anyone capable of sending me some medium size, lined and unlined Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks.

I have interesting stuff to share later. Until then…

Hope you’ve had a splendid Easter! (That is, unless I don’t like you… in that case, I hope you get hit by a bus and no longer waste my oxygen.)

It’s been a bright but decent day but tonight will be even better; vchhnfilled with some work, reading, iTouching, Xbox 360, journal writing, blog writing and maybe — just maybe — some food consumption. “I’m on a special diet…” it’s just the Way of the Vampire, it’s nothing personal.

I’m consolidating my online presence, rewriting my bio, about pages, and changing the purpose of Bradtastic Premier.

I think most of you will like my new projects.

If you: use Microsoft Word or Notepad for writing or notetaking, can’t seem to get a decent pen for under $5, get stage-fright or just “don’t know what to say” to those beautiful strangers you’d like to take out and take home, think American culture is in the gutters, know our education and penal systems are massive failures, and/or if you don’t know how to defend yourself against a knife attack — you will enjoy and benefit from my new stuff.

I’m also posting a password protected entry soon. It’s on social theory; if you’d like the password, leave a comment with a valid email address.

Until then… <3B

I wrote this post using iBlogger, made by illumineX. It’s the best blogging app for the iPhone or iTouch (iPod touch). More on that soon! Photo edited with CameraBag.

I find myself staring at my wall, above my sizable DVD & videogame collection, at my original (signed!) Peanuts strip from 1973.

Linus van Pelt: Do you realize that we have the losingest team in the history of baseball?
Charlie Brown: I refuse to accept that!
Linus: Unfortunately, your refusal does not alter the fact—
Charlie: I refuse to accept that also!
Linus: Unfortunately, your refusal also to accept the fact that your refusal does not alter the fact also does not alter the fact of our being the losingest—
Charlie: I’ll accept that.

Wordwizardry… nostalgia setting in. My childhood was filled with word-games, language, writing — even before I knew how to write properly! I made up my own unique style of cursive — in my own unique language. I’m not sure that I even knew what all of it meant… but it was surely important to me!

I was most-certainly resolute in my decision to blog frequently and “informally,” but it’s not always easy for me. After drafting, I go back and add markup — bolds, italics, headers — during this process I think, “This isn’t good enough!”

“That’s not… right!” shrieks my inner voice. I start editing, rewriting, and for a moment, I think about scrapping the entry entirely.

I’ve done that more than a few times.

I think Andrew Keen’s Cult of the Amateur is poorly-written, but that many of his arguments and concerns are incredibly valid… significant enough to reinforce, dangerous enough to cause action. We live in the ‘net age, and we’re inundated by information; blogs, news, radio, SMS, email, instant messages… even the “good stuff” is too much. I don’t want to add to the crap-pile.

But I do want to share with my family, friends, anyone who cares… my interests and thoughts. My WordPress at (mt) hosting makes that incredibly easy. Certainly easier than writing things down on my beloved paper and either: photocopying it hundreds of times to ticker-tape my community, or, going ’round to each of my friends, family members, and significant people and forcing them to read it at gunpoint. The “gunpoint” part might be a bit… much. (But how else can I really be sure?!)

Finding balance between this blog, my other projects, my book..ss, my workstuff and my social life isn’t simple. It certainly won’t be easy; keep in mind, during this and all that I do, I have to deal with a tremendous amount of pain.

Today, I have a lot of work to get done. Hopefully it’s cloudy, so I can avoid the sun. And if all goes well, I’ll get to have some fun. By the way, I was kidding about the gun. But if you piss me off, you should really turn and run.

It’s what I’ve been up to — I’ve been thinking about, discussing, and writing… about writing!

More specifically, the “art of writing” and writing’s arts — composition, “The Elements of Style,” — most-certainly the fun stuff, the different types of writing. Everthing — social and dream journals, blogging, novels and storytelling, prose, poetry and song.

As I see it, “writing” has expanded to include categories beyond technical and creative; email, instant messaging (including SMS) and blogging are forms of social communication on an unprecendented scale (would’ve blown people away 50 years ago — still boggles many people today)… thus, those and more make-up “social writing.”

The “arts” as a whole, expand even further. Handwriting and its analysis, graphology, writing tools (typewriters, keyboards, pen and ink) and software (word processors, dedicated novel and manuscript software, stencils) are all part of the game.

In particular, handwriting has always been important to me. Unfortunately, it’s a dying artform. In the net-age of social networking and smart phones, the pen and paper take a backseat. I’ll often hear people talk about improving their handwriting; sadly, it’s almost always placed on the back-burner — “so much else to work on and improve!” More like, “inane TV shows to watch, junk food to eat… I’m lazy!”

And yet, people get embarrassed when forced to exhibit their poor penmanship… odd. Some people can be so weak. Chances are, however, you’re above-average. Most people are disinclined to read articulated social perspectives and philisophical ponderings… they’d rather see “I has rlly hated W, go Obama!!!” on my blog, they’d rather find out which reality shows I watch and who I think is hot.

What’s next

I’ve collected a lot of things; yo-yos and Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering cards, Nintendo 64 games… even frisbees and Q-ZAR laser tag packs! Of all of the obsessions and fads, none has stuck more-truly, nor with more value, than pens and paper.

I love fine and fancy pens: Japanese gel pens, Montblanc fineliners and fountain pens. I love the smell of fine French paper, the color of ecru, and the satisfaction of completing a journal cover-to-cover. I like all nib, tip and point sizes from bold to ultra-fine, 6mm to 0.03mm. I love writing with my hybrid-longhanded style… by hand, imperfect and wonderful.

I was drawn into inkblogging for the same reason. It was less about my interest in technology and penchant for trendsetting; I struggled to setup an inkblog and find appropriate software, struggled with Windows Tablet Edition, so I could “write” my writing… and share my passion.

Finding Moleskine notebooks changed my life. This change, so important to me, wasn’t something I could keep to myself. I’ve actively encouraged people to try journal-writing by hand everyday with Moleskine notebooks — students and friends of mine alike. It’s a beautiful thing.

I’ve since realized that there’s more that I can do to share my passion for American English, writing, blogging, and don’t forget — pens! I’ve been reinvigorated and energized to start something specific to my interests, a dedicated blog and website as a resource for “everything writing” — “hardware” and software (there’s a lot of nifty “distraction free” writing tools… many obscure, great things people aren’t really aware of).

I might move Bradtastic.com to a different blog engine (and hosting), I might just update the theme and ditch K2. I will start inkblogging again… I need to “clean” my tablet first, however (stupid viruses!). I will stay true to my word; I will share the tools and tricks to making a better life, offer advice and theory on social dynamics, “game” and its defenses (anti-PUA material), I will write about GTD strategy and tools… together, we will be the world’s elite and have an unlimited supply of cotton candy.