Chris

iPad vs MacBook

by

Having been a computer power user for decades, I am giving serious consideration to selling my MacBook for an iPad Pro. Over this period of time, originally with Windows, then Linux and now Mac, I am growing tired of managing these operating systems and want to keep it simple.

Nowadays, I’d rather focus my knowledge and abilities into something productive instead of wasting time administering my computer. I don’t want or need to tinker anymore, and now I don’t have to.

With iPadOS, I can get my work done and play all on the same device. I can write up this article, post-process images from my last shoot, listen to music, stream shows, play games, etc all in an intuitive, fun and stress-free environment.

As a minimalist, I no longer have a need for desktop towers, huge monitors or peripheral devices taking up this space. The iPad goes with me wherever I want to work and it adapts to whatever workspace I set it in.

There is simplicity in the iPad which makes it powerful, unique and refreshing computing experience I’ve ever enjoyed. As Apple is fond of saying, “the future of computing isn’t with a computer.”

DAM It

by

The photo organization goals (Digital Asset Management) just took a setback as I rediscovered zipped files from Google Photos’ Takeout service. When I closed my Google accounts I had the option of retrieving all of my photos from the past 10 years that have been backed up there.

Well, thanks for nothing, Google because this treasure trove of photos is bundled in 2 GB files and there are over 150 to sort through and organize.

Siddartha

by

One of the best books that I have read recently is Siddartha by Hermann Hesse of how the title character pursues a spiritual quest and search for understanding.

Siddartha was young, wise and loved by everyone in his village, but he and his friend leave the village searching for answers by living a spiritual life. However, the time spent with a group of fellow truth seekers, he realizes that he will not find what he is looking for.

Not long after leaving both his village and these seekers, they come to meet the Buddha and has a brief conversation with him. But after a time, realizes that the Buddha himself offers a message of truth, but only the truth as he sees it. As long as others accept it, that is enough for Buddha, but not so for Siddartha. His companion decides to stay and learn from the Buddha, and so he travels alone.

After a time, he discovers a rich woman named Kamala who shows him the ways of love and pleasure for the first time because that was her role in her life. Siddartha learned more than he expected and wanted to offer her gifts but had no money. He then went into the city and found a shop owner who was kind enough to give him a job. He prospered at this job and made even more money than all the other shop owners.

Having tasted the benefits of spiritual wisdom, love and money he wondered what else was left? Soon, he began to gamble and drink for the first time. He would win at every game he tried and gambled even larger amounts and could soon buy the whole village. After betting, drinking and whoring he began to lose and lose big. He lost so much that he was tired of his wealth and possessions and gave them all away only to go back to Kamala and say goodbye.

The book ends when his long-lost friend returns and asks for wisdom. Siddartha replies that for every true statement there is an opposite one that is also true. That language and time lead people to stick with me belief that does not account for the full extent of truth.

To summarize the lessons learned in Siddartha;

Follow Your Path

Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment

Riches Will Not Make You Happy

Every true statement we accept, we must accept an opposite statement that can also be true.

This book offers more lessons that we can apply and I rate this as highly as I did the Alchemist or the retelling of King Solomon of Israel.

Apple One

by

Another new product was just released that combines all of Apple’s services in one, cost-saving bundle for me. I opted for the $30 a month, everything package which includes the soon-to-be released, Apple Fitness service. Paired with an Apple Watch it will automagically track your workouts and display stats on screen.

All six services work out to $5 each and includes Apple Music, TV, Arcade, News, Fitness and 2 TB of iCloud storage.

No-Shave November

by

“No-Shave November is a month-long journey during which male participants forgo shaving and grooming in order to evoke conversation and raise men’s cancer awareness.”

Now I am not one to publicly support causes or movements, preferring to support or donate privately, but I do enjoy the thought of bypassing shaving for thirty days to grow my beard out for the upcoming winter months.

Apple Watch Series 6

by

I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch for the past three years starting with the series three and recently upgraded to the series 6.

I’ve been holding off on purchasing a new Apple Watch and making the most of my Series 3 the last couple of years. As this things usually go, the 3 started to run out of storage space quickly and there are new features being released with each iteration. So a week after it was released, I upgraded to the Series 6 Space Grey Aluminum 44mm with cellular capabilities.

I’ve been wearing it for almost a month and there is a lot to like about it.

The first difference is the upgraded dual-core S6 chip on the A13 Bionic processor used in the iPhone 11. So it is absolutely faster than my series 3. With the always-on display, I’m averaging about 16 hours of battery life. Less than the previous watch, sure, but there is a lot more going on under the hood too.
Also new is the always-on altimeter to track elevation changes and compass- great for hiking.

A new sensor in the 6 that can measure blood oxygen levels is pretty neat. It works by shining infrared LEDs onto the blood vessels in your wrist and measuring the amount of light reflected back. The Apple Watch then calculates the color of the blood, which indicates how much oxygen is present (bright red blood is well oxygenated). It does this in the background, and can also be trigged using the new Blood Oxygen app.

New watch faces allows me to customize and personalize. I prefer a classic chronometer as a standard and for special occasions I can switch to something more whimsical.

The Watch is designed specifically for your health and has even saved lives with the built in EKG meter. It will prompt you to breathe, stand up after periods of sitting, and remind you that yes you can walk a specific amount of steps per day. Two new exercises include a sleep tracking app and hand washing apps (timely feature during the pandemic.)

Is the Apple Watch Series 6 Worth the Upgrade?

If you have the Series 3 and lower, then yes, absolutely. If you have the 4 and up, not so much.

As with my recent iPhone 12 Pro upgrade, this new series 6 Watch is future-proof. There is not too much more that Apple can do to upgrade more than the current device so I will enjoy this one for quite a long time. And did I mention the design is gorgeous?

iPhone 12 Pro

by

This is the first year I purchased the newest iPhone on launch day since I converted to iPhone over Android six years ago. It was a thrill to open that box and see the premium stainless steel, glass back, the ceramic shield screen and that third camera lens I have been drilling over for the past year ( I skipped the previous first release.) As first impressions go, this was love at first sight.

No, I have not raced out to test the latest HDR video, nor the Dolby Vision but it is clear to anyone that has one in their hand that this is the most premium iPhone ever and it is built to be used. My only cause for frowning is that the edges pick up and enhance my fingerprints. Well that is easily solved with the slim Otterbox shell I encased it with. I don’t want a case on it because it hides the design but concurrently, I want this device to last for more than a few years. It is going to get protected. And yes, for the first time in forever, I am content.. This is what I have waited years for, a device that is gorgeous, and future-proof.

I won’t go into all the technical details and design specifications, I’ll leave that for others to write about, but they are impressive. The processing chip and memory are faster, more than most laptops, including the Mac I am using to type this.

The three camera system in the iPhone 12 Pro deserve their own article here, and I am positive that will happen once I make the time to do a proper photo shoot with them. The 12 Pro has the ultra-wide lens, wide and telephotos lenses for various uses and sometimes, you can shoot with all three. Add on the Lidar scanner to offer true depth for my photographic subjects and compares with your basic DSLR camera and lenses. Truth be told, these cameras make up the number one reason why I have upgraded.

The second reason is the high speed 5G capability and those data speeds. My carrier lit up their network here a few weeks ago in anticipation for this release and I couldn’t be more pleased. Downloads are fast, streaming is uninterrupted and thanks to unlimited tethering to the hotspot, I am second-guessing the need for home internet service. The home service speed is maxed out at 50MBs whereas the iPhone 12’s 5G capabilities here are double, sometimes triple. If I lived in a larger city, make that 10 times the speed.

I can’t wait to discover more of this iPhone as the weeks go by, especially that camera system. More later on that, of course.

It’s Time To Write

by

Every November for the past few years there comes inspiration from an organization called NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words that month in hopes of cranking out a novel. I’m good for about two days out of the month. Last year I switched gears and penned an article a day for this website instead.

A few of the reasons why I haven’t progressed past a second day is because there was a lack of a plan or focus to build this writing habit that I want to see changed this year.

Place- This year I have a dedicated writing space. Since adapting to a quarantined work from home environment I now have two desks, one for work and one dedicated to personal production. For work, my environment is organized, streamlined and ready to do the work for maximum productivity. For personal use, I tend to be more relaxed and dis-organized. But not this year. This year is set up for the potential of maximum creativity. This dedicated desk is both my photo studio and writing space.

Time- In the past, I would decide to get around to doing whenever I had the time or energy. This year I plan on getting back to a consistent schedule, which has been lacking, again, due to quarantine. The 30-step commute makes it easier to roll out of bed later than I would if I had to travel to the office.

Dedicating a minimum of 15 minutes to writing in the morning before I start my 7am work day will be beneficial I think. Also, a minimum of one hour a night to crank out some words will help too. I don’t use the dedicated calendar journal or apps to block out these times, but I will.

Plan- At work, I am a planner. For creativity, I seem to rely on being a pantser, meaning, “fly by the seat of my pants.” Not this time around. Plot developments, character development, story arcs etc are all scheduled for dedicated focus, research and yes, eventually writing.

In addition, a dedicated morning routine such as clean up, exercise, good food and some hot green tea with the same ambient music playing in the background will tell my unfocused brain that hey, this is your current focus, do the work.

I don’t like the concept of accountability but it may help, I don’t know. My personality has a difficult time with this concept. If I can’t hold myself accountable, why should I report or check-in with someone else? How many people would I disappoint including myself? I struggle with this but do plan on updating this site with progress notes.

All of this is to say that by doing one or more of these things is going to help me progress in ways I have not been able to do in the past- to help achieve my writing goals and deliver a better writing habit.

Crazy Weekend

by

Halloween, full moon, Daylight savings time, Dia de los muertos, Nanawrimo, No-shave November and the last installment of my monthly journeys.

What a crazy weekend and looking forward to a great November.

You Are Invisible To Me

by
This webpage did not contact any trackers

Did you know that almost every website you view has anywhere from 2-30 tracking codes that report all sorts of data known about you? I’ve been taking steps to shield my privacy and in turn, have always tried to reduce it here on my website as well.

I don’t use Google Analytics. Facebook and Amazon affiliations have no hold here. It’s none of my business and I don’t care anyway. What am I going to do with it? How does it help me or you? Those Big Three don’t need my help. And as always, ZERO advertisements.

As a result, this website is clean, streamlined and fast. Try reading this site in Safari or Firefox instead of Google Chrome where it’ll track everything. Thank me later.

Back to the point- I don’t know anything about you. For all I know this is being read by only two people. The most valuable feedback comes to me from comments on these posts, emails, tweets and other forms of contact where people say hello, asks questions, or take issue with something I’ve said. You know, the whole point of the social web. Yes, there is a difference between the social web and social media but that is a different post.

So please leave a comment on the post, or say hello.

I wouldn’t know you were here if you didn’t.

10/10 Check-In!

by

On 2/2 I began my year-long journey to create life long habits for myself and throw in some fun intentions as well. The plan is to check in every month to monitor my progress. How did I do since my last check-in on 9/9?

Nutrition & Training

Due to family medical issues (all better now, thank you), the Keto diet came to a halt. I tacked on seven pounds previously lost. However, I have lost four pounds since starting this back four days ago. Progress? Still wondering if it is safe to go back to the gym or not. The membership is currently in suspension.

Yoga & Meditation

Again, there is a reason why people call this yoga practice. I’ll just keep practicing, thank you very much. I’ve been using the workout app called Sworkit since January and it has been beneficial. Apple recently announced a new service simply called Fitness (coming soon) with a 30-day trial. Yoga is included so stay tuned.

Photography & Writing

Photography- Doing around with instant gratification and instant cameras. Hipstamatic has released some new films and lenses I am playing with too. Fun.

Writing- “Tools Get In The Way” – a memoir by Chris Denbow

11/11

As always, I see some progress, see some room to do better, and hope that next month’s check-in will be better than the last!

Polaroid vs Instax

by

With the desire to embrace analog photography, I have also explored instant film too. I grabbed my old Polaroid 600 and expired film for some less than pleasing results such as low contrast and faded colors. This is understood and acceptable even the film expired 13 years ago. Thanks to the Impossible Project a few years back they have recreated the film. After purchasing a new 600 film pack I received similar results.

Since then, the Impossible Project had purchased the rights to the then defunct Polaroid brand and made it their own. Recently they introduced the I-type series cameras and film. With anticipation I purchased the One Step Plus w/ Bluetooth for some added features including double exposure, timer and more all connected to my phone. Neat, yeah?

Well no. I received similar results with the contrast and color to my disappointment. After a week of back and forth emails and examples of my photos from both the 600 and I-type films to Polaroid support they were kind enough to explain indirectly that I may be to blame or even that the film I purchased (from Target, Amazon) is the issue. Not exactly supportive here.

Today, I exchanged the camera, inserted the new film I purchased through Polaroid directly and… same results. Low contrast, dull colors.

Compare all of this to the Fuji Instax instant cameras and film. To the point, much better results. The colors are vivid, the contrast is perfect. I still need to work on the lighting and flash use but these issues are trial by error and correction.

I’ve sent off a refund request through Polaroid and will wait for a response. If past support is an indicator then I will use up the film with throwaway shots and shelve the camera or sell it in favor of a sexier Instax camera upgrade instead.

Creative edit of the Polaroid film protector