If you’re still coming back to this dusty site, hoping that I will return, I apologize. This site has been merged with my current blog. All of the content that you love here is now available at:

http://alanbradford.posterous.com

You can find me on Twitter as well.

Thanks.

These past couple of semesters have been a wild ride. It has been over five months since I’ve posted anything here. I don’t even know if anyone subscribes or reads this blog anymore. I haven’t taken the time to look at my stats.

There was a short period of time where I even thought about taking down the site and starting over fresh after I graduated and was no longer blogging for ASU. I don’t think I will do that. That would be like abandoning your three-year-old child on the side of the road and telling him/her: “Sorry. I’m just too busy for you right now. We’ve had some good times, but it’s time to say goodbye.”

My main reason for not posting here so much anymore is because I’m posting it all on my ASU blog. (where I actually get paid!) It seemed weird to me to try and run two blogs that covered similar topics.

I plan to re-think the content and format of this site. Maybe it will be focused more on healthcare/nutrition/technology. Maybe it will focus on my lifelong dream of becoming a professional tap dancer. Who knows. All I know is I’ve got three finals in the next four days. Sweet.

I just got the news today that I’ve been upgraded to first class. Along with the rest of all y’all that host your blogs with WordPress, my available space for picture/video/file uploads got a face lift yesterday. Instead of 50 Mb, the bigUGLYcouch now boasts 3 Gb. That’s like having the storage space of 60 blogs all wrapped into one nifty package.

Quoted from the announcement post, Mr. Mullenweg tells us of his intentions with this major step away from the competition:

To get the same amount of space at our nearest competitor, Typepad, you’d pay at least $300 a year. Blogger only gives you 1GB. We’re doing the same thing for free.

Our hope is that much in the same way Gmail transformed the way people think about email, we’ll give people the freedom to blog rich media without having to worry about how many kilobytes are left in their upload space.

Incredible. It’s been a while now since I’ve made the jump to WordPress. If the boys and girls in charge keep showing off sweet dance moves like this one, I don’t see any reason to ever go anywhere else.

Thanks Matt.

I tried something new this year for Christmas. I got this crazy hair-brained idea a few days before the big day for a gift that I wanted to give my wife. I fancy myself a bit of a harmonica player. And I used to write poetry all the time. And all of my brothers play at least one instrument. Two of them play in bands and are really quite good. Check them out on Myspace here and here.

So I wrote up some lyrics and emailed them to my brothers. We didn’t make it in time for Christmas, but a couple days ago I presented my best friend with a song I made for her with the help of my talented siblings. (Watch out, Jackson 5. We’re comin’ atcha like a hot knife through butter.)

Here’s the linup of who-plays-what:

• Alan Bradford – Lead Vocals, harmonica, tambourine
• William Bradford – Drums, guitar, shaker, backup vocals
• Michael Bradford – Guitar
• Robert Bradford – Bass Guitar

Muchos Gracias to my brothers for helping make it happen. If you’re curious how it turned out, go here to either download it or play it in your browser.

I’m scared of goals. Especially New Years’ Resolutions. It’s all peachy-keen at the beginning of the year when hopes are high and aspirations of greatness know no boundary. But it’s the months of February-through-December that haunt me and have likely been preventing me from taking this January 1 ritual very seriously. I’m hoping this year will be different.

Living with ADD, I have grown accustom to tired of going through the pattern of starting something new only to forget about it or stop after a couple of weeks. Because my mind is constantly “on,” I can’t seem to stop coming up with new ideas or looking for new ways to do things. Sure, it’s great to find the next great thing, but sometimes I wish I could just stick to something for longer than a month.

I really think this blog has become one of my longest running accomplishments. I’ve been writing here for over two years, and don’t plan to stop. I’ve found some good medication that is helping, and I finally feel like I have the ability to reach my full potential. Here are the biggest three obstacles that I’ve had to deal with over the years:

1. Inability to focus – My mind rapidly moves from one train of thought to another, often with no predictable pattern. The smallest thing can trigger a distraction, and then it’s 1 hour later by the time I’ve realized I’ve gotten distracted. This makes it difficult to pay attention in class sometimes, and especially when I have to sit and read a text book.
2. Hyperactive – random bursts of energy. Can’t sit still. Wanna move around. Wanna run.
3. Forgetful – If I don’t write something down immedietely, I will forget it. Guaranteed. If I don’t put stuff back in the exact same place every day, I will lose it. Can’t remember names, pieces of conversation, dates, events. You name it, I’ve forgotten it.

In addition to medication, there are several lifestyle changes that I’ve tried to adopt to help cope with the symptoms of ADD. Using my cell phone and its unlimited text messages, here are two of the top changes that have helped me this past year:

1. Use lists. I keep an electronic to-do list of tasks that I need to do throughout the day/week/month. Using Remember the Milk, I manage to keep on top of things fairly well. Since I always have my cell phone with me, I have established a habit of sending myself a text message to my Remember the Milk account. The message is converted to a task which can later be checked off when complete. Now that Gmail and RTM are playing nicely together, I can see my to-do list every time I check my email.
2. Use a Calendar. Together with my to-do list, I regularly manage an electronic calendar for any event or date I need to remember. Using Google Calendar, I can create events and receive reminders via text message. I can create a separate, color-coded calendar for each class I’m taking. (Last semester, I used this to help me remember assignments and exam dates.)

I’m far from perfect, but these two changes above have helped immensely. I didn’t miss an assignment last semester and managed to walk away with straight A’s. Not too shabby. With the medication I’m taking, I can actually sit and read my text books for longer than 15 minutes. I’m excited for the new year and for what it has in store for me.

Now…to set some goals…

Dear Scott,

I’ve been reading the Dilbert Blog for a while now and recently noticed that you’ve recently switched to a partial feed. I use Google Reader to manage all my feeds. If you care, I wanted to let you know that I don’t like that I have to go to your actual site to read an entire post. I’m actually reading less of your stuff now because it’s not as convenient.

An interesting post by Darren Rowse of Problogger.net discusses the pros and cons of Full vs. Partial feeds. He features opinions from both sides of the fence. One from Gina Trapani – editor of the famous Lifehacker blog – in support of partial feeds, and Rick Klau – former VP, Publisher Services at FeedBurner and currently in Strategic Partner Development at Google – in support of full feeds.

Darren also conducted a poll with his readers to find out what they prefer. I think the results speak for themselves.

So please, Scott, I beg of you: Bring back the full feed brother. I promise I’ll read more. That’s all I ask of you for Chrismahannaqwanzikah this year.

Sincerely,

–
Alan Bradford
480.251.6215 (cell)
480.452.0328 (fax)
http://biguglycouch.wordpress.com

Update 1/22/2008: It looks as though my letter has made a difference. (How’s that for humility?) I was in Google Reader today and it looks like the feed is back to its normal Full self. Thanks Scott!

Like a slice of bacon on a hot griddle, the web never sits still. There’s been some buzz around The Internets for the past couple days regarding a recent announcement from Google. Rather than get all up in arms about it, I am very excited for what this will do for the future of rich user-generated online content. Google has announced the pending release of a new website they are calling Knol. The name represents “a unit of knowlege.” Some people are afraid that this will kill other similar sites such as Wikipedia, but I guess only time will tell. Let’s explore:

In a nutshell (or should I say knutshell?), Knol will be a space for users to create articles about stuff. Knol will become a database of information on a vast array of topics. Articles can be rated, peer reviewed, and edited. Users and visitors to Knol will also be able to leave comments on any article, similar to commenting on a blog or a YouTube video. Authors will also have the option to place relevant text ads on their pages and share in the revenues. Here’s a quote from the announcement post that gives you an idea of the vision Google has for Knol:

A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions.

Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.

Personally, I can’t wait for the site to go live. The service is by invitation only prior to launch, but Google plans to allow anyone and everyone to contribute content to Knol. A few months back, I wrote about the launch of Microsoft’s HealthVault service. I can see Knol playing an integral role in Google’s presence in the health care field.

As I said in my earlier post, “a company needs to create a super-secure, web-based system that can be accessed by a patient and all of his or her health care providers. Information is shared at the discretion of the patient. Patients can allow doctors and hospitals to add information to their profile and determine who should have access to it. (example: lab reports, x-rays, medications are added by doctors to a patient’s profile).”

I see Knol becoming a database that patients and health care professionals will be able to refer to for accurate, up-to-date information. Imagine if Knol could be linked to medical journals, prescription information, medical records. The interface of Knol is clean, robust, and easy on the eyes. Here is a sample entry that was featured in the official announcement. (click the thumbnail to view actual size)

These are exciting times if you Knol what I mean.

I’m about to take my second-to-last final for one of my nutrition classes at ASU. One of the lectures that we will be tested on is about government food regulations and organizations. One of these is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This organization is in charge of regulating food labels, inspections, and food standards. One of the slides from my professor’s presentation was disturbing. I thought I would share it. You’ll thank me later when you’re eating your tomato paste.

The FDA has something they call an “Acceptable Level of Contaminants.” Basically it’s a list of contaminants, the foods they are typically found in, and how much of the contaminant is allowable during processing/packing. I’ll just share a screenshot of the abbreviated list my professor shared. If you want the full list, go to the website she got it from. (You have to scroll down a bit to see the foods.)

Without further ado…here’s the slide my professor shared: (Click the picture to see a larger view.)

Pretty gross huh? I know I’ll be a little more observant next time I make a PB&J. This reminded me of my very first post here at bigUGLYcouch. It made me laugh.

Out of curiosity, have any of you ever found something in your food? Let me know in the comments…

I recently posted an ad in the Facebook Marketplace. (Never heard of it? It’s basically the classified section of your newspaper on steroids. Here’s a couple screenshots. And if you already use Facebook, go sell something.) You can sell books, homes, cars, old couches. You can even give away free stuff. Which is what I wanted to talk about today.

With all the recent advances that Gmail is making, (see this, this, and this) (Oh and don’t forget this) I’ve decided to give away my old Hotmail account for anyone who wants it.

I guess I shouldn’t call it Hotmail anymore. What is it now? Windows Live Mail? As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing alive about it. Google is far too ahead of the game. In fact, they’re done with the game and have moved on to an entirely different game. You know, like at the family reunion when Uncle Charlie looses all his money playing Monopoly with the cousins and moves on to play a fierce round of backgammon with Grandpa? Except Google hasn’t lost. Okay, so it’s a bad analogy. Sorry.

Don’t get me wrong, Hotmail and me shared some good times. It was my first experience with a web-based email address. If I had a photo album, I would link to it right now. Except I don’t have a photo album. But that’s okay because the pictures would probably be boring. Nobody wants to look at a photo album filled with pictures of unnecessary flashy advertisements, unfiltered spam, or an annoying GUI. That’s almost as bad as watching your neighbor’s home videos.

So if you’re interested, check out my listing and get in touch. (You don’t have to have a Facebook account to view the listing.)

Update: I have also started a Facebook support group. It is aptly named the Former Hotmail-User Support Group. If you know anyone out there that would benefit from some group therapy, please encourage them to join.

[Insert witty picture here]

These past couple months have been interesting for me. I can finally say that I’m happy with my blog for ASU. (check it.) But now that it’s up and going and I’m posting there regularly, I have to wonder if I can effectively keep both blogs running.

Let’s look at some posting stats:

12/07 – 2 posts
11/07 – 2 posts
10/07 – 7 posts
09/07 – 9 posts
08/07 – 11 posts

I’m no statistician, but that looks like a steady decline in posting. And not just quantity either; I seem to be getting lazy. Posting videos with no additional witty commentary. Posting lists of why I’m not posting. Hmmm…what the heck is going on?

I think I need to do some thinking once the semester is done and figure out a plan. Stay tuned for my findings. And thank you to the 9 subscribers that are hanging on for some bigUGLY gems.