You guys and gals did it again, I blame you.
My health thread kinda changed my life. I have always liked to write, and this site is 99% words. Cool. I had discussed some of that thread and others with my very tech-unfriendly family. Despite the fact that I can converse here with totally captivating, intelligent, empathetic people my physical family sees my phone, the Internet, tech in general as socially isolating - and they know I had a tech career. I know it can be isolating, and it all is so much more.
I also enjoy photography and musical composition. I realized the words I used in this forum were sufficient if I wanted to ever share my life with the world.
I had done some web development for an old personal site around 1995 done in Word, then in 2010 as I became friends with a sweet man who was an advertising copywriter, I saw his website that was created by another friend of his. The site had one major problem; the samples of his advertising work were unreadable. His other friend put them in a pretty Flash window that was way too small to read.
I schooled myself on a better way to do it (it’s cool that where you go to learn about Internet stuff is the Internet, kind of like how the brain is its own savior). I designed and built him a site on his domain - he had a unique name which was perfect. I envied that since my last name is Smith and knew that I could never get a name-based domain, or so I thought).
Unfortunately his new site went live around the same time that his ongoing challenges with his old TBI (discussed elsewhere - search here for “Eljon” or see the link below) got so bad that he well, had troubles. Everything about him was so lovable to me. Not only did he not make alcohol manufacturers any more rich, he was the humblest soul I’d ever known. We fell in love, and…
His domain died with him (heart attack, medication-related), but his site still existed on my hard drive. I had been copying and pasting some of my and others’ words from AT into shared Google Docs. None of you are identified in any way, and if there is any identification, you are known as “Friend.”
With some Facebook posts my Google Docs grew. I needed to unify it all, and I wanted Eljon’s site back up.
I looked for cheap hosting and found one for $2.45/mo. lifetime. For the domain I wanted my name, and my first name is spelled differently (in a Scottish way) than usual, and it was available and free with the hosting.
I based my part of the site on what I had created for him. Google reminded me that most viewers of my site would be on phones, and I had designed it for the desktop. So I schooled myself on making it mobile friendly. That was cool, and since my site only has three pages of my creation, it was easy to implement. I used the redirect tag, “if viewed screen width is lower than 1445px, go to mobile pages,” and that works for most phones, but if anyone has a 4K(!) phone they’ll get the desktop site. Also my tablet with a higher screen width brings up the phone version - I have to investigate why.
-----------------------------------------
My AIDS thread was a kind of a goodbye that turned into a bit of a re-birth (sorry about that term, but it describes what happened). My failing health was scaring me again, but by dropping the shame I had about getting screwed in the ass by an infected man in 1984 my fear went away (when I see the common term here and elsewhere, “butt-hurt,” I giggle a bit - thanks). I started feeling physically better too. I had a doctor’s appointment two days ago and not only did all my blood numbers get better, my medication-overworked kidneys’ test was back in the normal range. I’ve had the experience before of my thoughts affecting my health, and after a pretty deep dive into neurology lately, I understand this process more. Thoughts and emotions are intensely physical. Electrons, neurons, hormones,..., butterflies in my tummy when I’m nervous, tears when I’m sad or happy; it’s all physical.
So I guess in part I am thanking you for kind of saving my life. I no longer feel like I’m close to death. Something got renewed and I’ll take it.
-------------------------------------------------
My Shared Docs can be overwhelming even though they are in folders. I wanted a compelling way to direct people there, and you provided a path. In my health thread so many of you had incredibly wonderful words, and I chose one comment to include on my home page. He (you) is not identified because the nature of the words makes me think they come from a humble person. He knows who he is.
Thank you, and in case no one has told you lately that you are incredible and loved, allow me please.
http://bradlygsmith.org
My health thread kinda changed my life. I have always liked to write, and this site is 99% words. Cool. I had discussed some of that thread and others with my very tech-unfriendly family. Despite the fact that I can converse here with totally captivating, intelligent, empathetic people my physical family sees my phone, the Internet, tech in general as socially isolating - and they know I had a tech career. I know it can be isolating, and it all is so much more.
I also enjoy photography and musical composition. I realized the words I used in this forum were sufficient if I wanted to ever share my life with the world.
I had done some web development for an old personal site around 1995 done in Word, then in 2010 as I became friends with a sweet man who was an advertising copywriter, I saw his website that was created by another friend of his. The site had one major problem; the samples of his advertising work were unreadable. His other friend put them in a pretty Flash window that was way too small to read.
I schooled myself on a better way to do it (it’s cool that where you go to learn about Internet stuff is the Internet, kind of like how the brain is its own savior). I designed and built him a site on his domain - he had a unique name which was perfect. I envied that since my last name is Smith and knew that I could never get a name-based domain, or so I thought).
Unfortunately his new site went live around the same time that his ongoing challenges with his old TBI (discussed elsewhere - search here for “Eljon” or see the link below) got so bad that he well, had troubles. Everything about him was so lovable to me. Not only did he not make alcohol manufacturers any more rich, he was the humblest soul I’d ever known. We fell in love, and…
His domain died with him (heart attack, medication-related), but his site still existed on my hard drive. I had been copying and pasting some of my and others’ words from AT into shared Google Docs. None of you are identified in any way, and if there is any identification, you are known as “Friend.”
With some Facebook posts my Google Docs grew. I needed to unify it all, and I wanted Eljon’s site back up.
I looked for cheap hosting and found one for $2.45/mo. lifetime. For the domain I wanted my name, and my first name is spelled differently (in a Scottish way) than usual, and it was available and free with the hosting.
I based my part of the site on what I had created for him. Google reminded me that most viewers of my site would be on phones, and I had designed it for the desktop. So I schooled myself on making it mobile friendly. That was cool, and since my site only has three pages of my creation, it was easy to implement. I used the redirect tag, “if viewed screen width is lower than 1445px, go to mobile pages,” and that works for most phones, but if anyone has a 4K(!) phone they’ll get the desktop site. Also my tablet with a higher screen width brings up the phone version - I have to investigate why.
-----------------------------------------
My AIDS thread was a kind of a goodbye that turned into a bit of a re-birth (sorry about that term, but it describes what happened). My failing health was scaring me again, but by dropping the shame I had about getting screwed in the ass by an infected man in 1984 my fear went away (when I see the common term here and elsewhere, “butt-hurt,” I giggle a bit - thanks). I started feeling physically better too. I had a doctor’s appointment two days ago and not only did all my blood numbers get better, my medication-overworked kidneys’ test was back in the normal range. I’ve had the experience before of my thoughts affecting my health, and after a pretty deep dive into neurology lately, I understand this process more. Thoughts and emotions are intensely physical. Electrons, neurons, hormones,..., butterflies in my tummy when I’m nervous, tears when I’m sad or happy; it’s all physical.
So I guess in part I am thanking you for kind of saving my life. I no longer feel like I’m close to death. Something got renewed and I’ll take it.
-------------------------------------------------
My Shared Docs can be overwhelming even though they are in folders. I wanted a compelling way to direct people there, and you provided a path. In my health thread so many of you had incredibly wonderful words, and I chose one comment to include on my home page. He (you) is not identified because the nature of the words makes me think they come from a humble person. He knows who he is.
Thank you, and in case no one has told you lately that you are incredible and loved, allow me please.
http://bradlygsmith.org
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