Stuff About Brad

Free time? Maybe someday.

I had thought that, with the Starcraft II event postponed, I'd have some time to really relax, but that's just not life at the moment. Recently, I've been dealing with project after project — every-so-often I remind myself to eat and rest my eyes. Throughout last week, any time not spent working on a project was devoted to task management or sleep.

What's wild is I'm not actively marketing at the moment. I'm working on stuff brought to me by friends and associates — and I've been selective — I still have my own stuff to design!

Despite the pressure, it's important to me to rest properly. I think I'd overworked myself across the past few days — yesterday I had a horrid migraine. Cause and effect? Perhaps. Too often people pride themselves on multitasking and sleep-deprivation — such astounding ignorance; it's equivalent to having pride in being ineffective and sluggardly.

There's a lot wrong with "get rich, quick," and "live each day as if it were your last," yet many people treat these clichés as aphorisms. With those ideals and flexible morals, addiction, crime and all forms of abuse seem like justifiable means to an end. After all, if today is my last day on Earth...

The Japanese have a philosophy called kaizen — a focus on continuous self-improvement. This "foreign" idea feels right to me... unfortunately, it's hard to find in others, especially here in California. Across all mediums and media, people are encouraged to abandon hard work for the fantasy life, bought and paid-for by instant fortunes and fantastic wealth. How many people do awful things in pursuit of these pipe dreams?

Energy and essence.

True creativity requires time and isolation; at best, the quick-fixes and hot patches result in underwhelming substitutes for originality. The "rush job" is often composed of plagiarism and humdrum. Ingenuity and innovation demand sedulous cultivation, foresight and patience.

Planning is an important element of the creative process. Some of my best ideas come to me in my sleep —when I'm already well-rested. If I'm fatigued, my pain increases and my composure diminishes — kaizen can end up out-the-window.

Maintaining energy is demanding, requiring persistence and preparation. However, in my line of work, it's the critical element separating good and great.

I'm planning to become a little more great each day.

[Posted from my iPad using BlogPress.]

Life Changes Fast

First off, I hope you like the looks of this site.

Obviously, it's still WIP — and I'm trying out features new to me (such as Typekit) so the ride is likely to be a bit bumpy in the beginning. If you're willing to bear with it, I believe the payout in the end will be beyond adequate.

Revelations with friends.

Recently, I've been helping out friends of mine with projects... and the rewards have been surprising — and numerous. People don't often say "much obliged" anymore, but I believe that the rule of reciprocation is alive, well, and still very-much at work.

It's not that I only do things for other people for something in return, but my time is limited (as is everyone's) and very-valuable — to me and others (not true of many people). It's nice to know that my efforts and work has been, and continues to be appreciated.

Thursday evening, I went to the Marrakech Magic Theater with some friends. As the theater's Grand Opening the date was already something of a celebration, and for me, existed as the culmination of my design and marketing efforts for Peter Morrison and his new venture with the already-famous Marrakech Moroccan Restaurant. Everyone in attendance seemed to have a great time, and since then, there have been two more successful shows. I'll save some of the details, because I'll be sharing more information at my other sites.

Work, work.

Balancing work and rest with my disability has been a challenge since the start — prior to my injuries, I've never had to worry about being unable to accomplish something that I wanted to do. At present, failure to carefully plan out my schedule — in particular, my outings — results in exhaustion, tremendous pain, nausea and migraines. I'm lucky when I can recover within a few days... sometimes, I'm down for weeks.

Fortunately, I can do a lot of my work from home. I try to write and read for at least a few hours each day, and I work on designs to keep myself sharp. I've set a new goal for myself: to re-arrange my living-space to better-suit me.

My new websites seem to be a natural (or logical) extension of this process; as much as my "physical space" dictates my work (and limitations), so to does digital space. Perhaps that's why the iPad so completely transformed my workflow (and thus, the rest of my life), opening up the potentiality to accomplish things that I never could have attempted in the past.

In the near-future, I'll post more about my work process and things-upcoming, ventures and adventures. Presently, I'm re-reading some books on web code and organizing my desk. I'm sure that a few of my close friends will have some good topic ideas for this blog (and my others); and please keep in mind, if there's something that you'd like to know about, please ask.