A Splintered Mind

Last month my demo unit of the Pentel AirPen Pocket++ arrived. I had seen the blog world all abuzz about the AirPen at the end of May, but as usual, everybody was just regurgitating the same review. Nobody had actually used a unit. Reviews seemed to go along like this: Oooh! It's Mac-ish! Wow! Check out the white and black colors! Neato! Hey, it works with iPhones, too! Write stuff and it's, like, put in your iPad automagically and stuff. Heck if we know anything else to tell you, but YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! So I decided to contact Pentel Japan and see if I could try one out. It arrived a few weeks ago and I've been testing it since. If you missed the buzz, the AirPen Pocket is a Bluetooth device that transcribes what you write on paper into your smartphone or tablet. More specifically, the device digitizes your pen movements into a bitmap that can be retrieved later through Pentel's software. The Android version has been out for some time, but the buzz in...

As I prepare for a new job today, I've been razor focused on not getting distracted. I've been pretty good about it, too. There was that moment where I headed off to d-addicts.com and started hunting around for the 10th episode of Urakara, a Japanese program featuring Korean girl band, KARA. That wasn't too obscure of a distraction, was it? I mean, I'd hate to fit a stereotype. At any rate, I stopped myself before too much time was lost. And now here I am, back on track! Blogging! Soon to be writing! Actually dressing! Maybe being on time to work! My potential for productivity is boundless! There are days, though, where I am less than organized. Yesterday was a good example of that. It was my last day as a free man and one would have thought I'd make the best of it, but I couldn't tune out the kids' TV and the pandemonium and the unending interruptions and the nifty news links everyone kept sharing on Twitter. I eventually pulled things together and a...

Happy Fourth of July, Fellow Americans! (For my non-American readers, I hope you have a happy fourth as well. You may not be celebrating it for the same reasons we may be, but why shouldn't your day be happy?) As I sat there pondering what I would quickly write about today, then got distracted responding to a reply on Facebook, and as my sausages burned on the stove and filled my apartment with smoke, I thought, "Hey! I wonder if I ever wrote down any notes for future blog posts in my iBrain?" What do ya know? I did! A reader named Dave wrote me one Spring to ask me about goal setting. And such a timely letter, too. I just wrote about goal setting the other day, and it's been only two years since I promised to share Dave's email. That's pretty good, all things considered. I am 42 and was diagnosed with ADHD last year. I just stumbled on your blog while searching out ADHD advice. I appreciate your honesty about your life. Your way of thinking is...

One of the greatest blessings of Life2.0 is joint custody of my children. Every two weeks I get my girls for two weeks. Every two weeks my life is tossed upside down by their joyful demands on my schedule. They are so cute; I love every minute of it. Well, there are some dramatic minutes that I'd rather live without. Aside from that it is all joy. Then they switch over to their mother's and my life is filled with a vast emptiness. With two entire weeks to myself you'd think I'd live it up during all that free time. Time to write. Time to draw. Time to do freelance work. Time to be busy. Time to socialize… Instead, I spend the first few days out of sync with life. After seven months of this I've discovered that I experience Empty Nest Syndrome each time my daughters leave. Then I adjust. Then I get productive. Then I get the girls again and start all over. By Wensday of this week I began my adjustment. Landed a job interview. Updated my résumé. Finally sch...

If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or smart phone, you have a very effective reminding tool at hand. Here's a quick tip for iOS users. My favorite place to put reminders is on the Lock Screen. I use an app called Sticky Notes by TapFactory Apps. It's analogous to affixing a sticky note on your computer monitor, but this one won't peel away in the wind when somebody walks by. I fire up the app, pick a nice background, then type up my note. In this example I'm reminding myself to go to bed instead of being a night owl. (My insomnia has been killer lately.) Then I save it to the camera roll, find the picture in the Photos app, tap on the share icon at the bottom left, and then tap on "Use as Wallpaper". Position it as you wish, tap "Set", then "Set Lock Screen". Voilá! Every time you turn on your iDevice you will be greeted with that reminder. Over time, you will become desensitized to the note and will need to create a new ...

Here is a quick iPad sketch before my daughters' show began. I ran out of time before I could add the pond in the background. What I like most about this sketch is simply that I did it. I sat on a hillside surrounded by noisy people and drew without fear. I even continued when several folks stood in front of me as I tried to draw, something that I couldn't have done years ago. Compared to my skill of the past, this is such a pitiful sketch, but that doesn't bother me. I am confident I can reawaken my old skill with practice. Much like the hacky sack , I can't let my low tolerance for frustration deny me the joy of developing a skill. ~Dˢ

I mentioned to somebody yesterday that I was writing an eBook and they said, "What's that?" Their friend explained to them that it was an electronic book, but they were still a bit confused. I don't blame them. I'm confused almost every day. Take today. My girls are back with me for another two weeks of fun and splendor. We start off the morning with me in my bathrobe. And we finish the morning with me in my bathrobe. I'm still in it, actually. Somewhere in my morning I was supposed to get ready, but between trying to wake up the Leprechaun and answering the Goblin's incessant calls for attention with her Mii creations , I was lucky I managed to eat. "Daddy! Look at this! Hahahahaha! I made you fat!" "Daddy! Look! You look like a girl!" "Daddy? What do your eyebrows look like? Can you come here so I can see? Thanks!" Oh, I did manage to follow the Apple Keynote. Good thing that was on my ToDo list. I would hate to...